White Shadows

Chapter 15 - Seviyorum Sevmiyorum

"But you wouldn't do it in front of me, that's what I mean."

Even though she can't see me, I shake my head. "Nope."

"Even when I'm naked and wet?"

"You gotta stop trying to rope me in," I laugh.

Juliet laughs with me, then emerges from the hut, fully dressed. She leans down and shakes her hair out. I pass her by and enter the hut. Seconds later, after I've dropped my shorts around my ankles, I hear her chuckling outside the window. "So that's what made me scream? But...why? Your butt looks friendly enough."

As much as I don't mind her checking out my naked body - and, no, I really don't - I still feel a sudden burst of self-consciousness. Enough to make me wrap a towel around my waist as I approach the window. It looks like she took the stepladder with her so she could look through the window from the outside.

"Yeah," I say. "Look at us, getting all the awkward-turtle moments. It's the law, actually."

She scoffs. "Law of Murphy, I bet."

There aren't any more towels in the hut, so I'm forced to unwrap the one I'm wearing and dry off my wings. "Might wanna back away," I say. "I'm about to shake these things off."

"That better be the only Taylor Swift reference you ever make," Juliet grumbles.

"You don't like her either?" I ask. "You know, Gabe's always told me she's ridiculously popular in Hell." I laugh sheepishly as I stretch my wings and shake them dry to the best of my ability.

"Well, I do like one..." She twirls a strand of hair around her finger. "'Bad Blood.' And I guess 'Shake It Off,' too. But only 'cause it's maybe her only song that isn't about a breakup."

"Isn't 'Bad Blood' a breakup song too?"

She frowns through the window. "No, it's more like a 'best frenemy' kind of song, I think. I hear she wrote it about Katy Perry?"

I shake my head. "That's why I only listen to zone music. It's more of a community, not like pop music. Too cutthroat."

"But they make sweet music in the pop world too." Juliet smiles. "You like DNCE, right?"

"Even though they've got a Jonas Brother? Yeah." I put on all my threads at last.

"Total pop. And yet..."

"Yeah," I say, leaving the hut and walking with Juliet back to the condo. "Can't stop listening whenever it comes on the radio."

Inside, Harlan continues to stand guard over Elijah, who's being unusually passive about his current condition of captivity. The only resistance he offers is verbal. For instance, as Juliet and I come in, he's saying, "...go swimming when there's a wildfire burning nearby. The helicopter water tankers might just come by and suck up your body, Speedo and all. Unless you prefer to skinny-dip? You look like you would."

The look on Harlan's face says it all. "It all" being "I have no idea how to respond to this."

We let him have some time contemplating his comebacks, and instead, we join Fionna, who's sitting by herself on the same kitchen seat where she had breakfast this morning. "Hey, guys," she says with a wave. "Got anything to distract me with?"

"Shit, I dunno," Juliet says. It looks to me like she's trying a little extra-hard to keep eye contact with Fionna. Any awkwardness between them wouldn't surprise me.

"I...well, we were talking about music," I say.

"If you can count Taylor Swift as music," Juliet says. Jabbing me in the chest, she adds, "This guy can't."