We're on the roof of a Chick-Fil-A, and though the only thing I can smell is chicken grease at the moment, God, I can see everything.
It's not the highest building in the city; in fact, I'm sure there's an infinite amount of skyscrapers higher than this, but Midge said this was good enough. She's kneeling near the roof's edge, preparing some incense or some other witchy thing, and I'm standing beside her, one foot perched upon the ledge. The sun's still low, just touching the tops of the city like a gentle palm. I watch everything: the Georgia Tech students dragging themselves to morning classes, the cars easing slowly through the interstate like through molasses, the birds arcing and dipping and singing in the sky.
Wind tosses Midge's hair into her face; she grunts and pushes it behind her ear, then stands. She looks at me, half squinting with the sun in her eyes. In this light, everything about her's softer, rounder-edged. She looks like a freaking angel. And she's mine.
"Are you ready?" I ask.
She hesitates, but then nods, looking out over the city again. Another breeze blows by, and the trees rustle so fiercely that Midge's small voice is almost swallowed up. "Yeah," she mutters, practically under her breath. "I guess so."
I adjust my jacket with a chuckle. "Aw, are you scared? Do you need me to hold your hand?"
She blows a raspberry at me, but then takes my hand anyway. I look down at her in question, and she just huffs and lifts her wand to the sky. "I'm not holding it because I'm scared," she says. "I'm holding it because I love you."
And it doesn't register to me until she's already focused on the spell that she's never said that before.
Midge finishes the spell, and everything doesn't immediately feel that different. Not that it's supposed to. Not until the subject of an attack comes up in a conversation with someone who's not Safiya, Midge, Jamie, River or me and they ask, "What attack?"
We'll always remember, but everyone else won't. That's okay with me. I don't want to forget. I want to go to Rocco's grave and be reminded that I put him there and that this summer was the one summer that changed everything. Forgetting would make it too easy.
Besides, I'd have to re-meet Midge, and it was perfect the first time.
Minus the stabbing.
After the spell, Midge is a bit tired, so I let her lean against me as we stagger out from the alleyway. I'm pretty sure my arm's the only thing holding her up, and I'll be damned if I'll ever let her go.
But then we reach the sidewalk and I'm so positively startled that I almost do drop her. She perks up as much as me though, balancing herself.
Leaned against an all-black sedan, even the windows tinted darkly, is Safiya, clothed in what's basically the definition of a little black dress and a pair of red bottoms. I have no idea where the hell she got red bottoms. I knew the chick was rich, but I didn't know she was that rich.
She straightens when she sees us, lowering her shades just minimally. "Took you long enough," she says, pursing her blood-red lips.
I have a bursting urge to slide my arm out from around Midge, but I fight it. Like Safiya said, everyone already knows, and I don't want to hide it anymore. Yes, Midge and I are together. And for God's sake, she's amazing, so maybe I just want the whole world to know. I want to rub it everyone's faces that she chose me and not any of their sorry selves.
I blink at Safiya. "How did you..."
She just gestures at the car's rear window, which slowly rolls down to reveal a beaming Jamie. "Grey!" he exclaims, like I didn't just see him an hour ago.
"This guy tracked your scent," Safiya tells me. "He says you smell like ink."
I glance at Midge, then back at Safiya. "Is that a good thing?"
"Don't know, don't care," she replies, then steps forward and yanks the passenger side door open. I've never seen this car before, so I don't know if it's hers. Even if it wasn't, I wouldn't be surprised. She's cunning enough; she can get whatever she needs if she says the right words.
"Get in," Safiya orders, leaning her elbow upon the door, "both of you."
Midge shrugs and takes a few steps forward, but I catch her by the back of her lampshade shirt, pulling her back. "Hold on," I say, raising an eyebrow at Safiya, which she just returns to me. "How do I know you're not taking us somewhere sketchy? A location you set up to get us mugged? Or gang-raped?"
"Jesus Christ, Meesang," Safi hisses. "You'd think after all the crap we've been through you'd trust me a bit more than that. Just get in the goddamn car. I promise you'll regret it if you don't."
I hesitate.
Safi rolls her eyes. "If you don't get in the car, I'll eat you."
"Oh!" I say, striding towards the passenger seat. "Well, why didn't you say so? Haha. Hmm."
I strap my seatbelt, but I'm not spared a vicious death glare from Safiya over the rim of her sunglasses. She rakes a hand back through the curtain of her black hair, then points at me. "You're gonna thank me later, cross-breed. You're gonna thank me and then you're gonna feel like a jackass."
Can't imagine it'd be worse than all the other things I've been feeling recently.
Midge gets in beside Jamie, and Safiya's driving, which terrifies me. I've never ridden in a car with Safiya driving, but just the fact that she's wearing very, very dark shades and glancing at her phone every two seconds is enough to raise my pulse to unhealthy heights. Basically, I'm uncomfortable the whole time. We're riding through Atlanta in a car that's mostly silent save for the weird opera music Safi's playing on the radio, and I don't know where we're going, and I'd rather be back at Midge's curled up with her on the couch.
Safiya takes a lot of weird detours and backstreets, until she pulls up in a gravel parking lot in front of a two-story red brick building. Well, it was probably once red, but it's so ancient that it's more of a faded pink now.
I get out, and several other car doors click open and slam shut after mine does. The four of us stand here, looking up at this place with its dirty, shutterless windows and bright, emerald green door. There's a weird, smoky smell in the air, like a wildfire that just burnt out, and the more time I spend here, the more confused I get.
Until finally I just turn to Safi and go, "So?"
"So?" she repeats.
"Why'd you bring us here?" I ask, then glance around. "Oh my God, we're actually going to get gang-raped, aren't we? Be warned, I'll shank all of them—"
I'm cut off when something metal and jingly hits me in the face. I catch it just barely, lifting my palm up.
It's a set of house keys.
When I meet Safiya's eyes again, she's grinning. I've never seen her grin, and she's pretty when she does. She should smile more often instead of that annoyed scowl she always does.
"Safiya?" I say. "Is this—you didn't—"
"You can't stay at Midge's forever, no matter how much you want to, pervert," she says, placing her hands on her hips. Her eyes slide back to the brick loft ahead of us. "So I figured I'd buy you and the wolf a place. Since yours is currently ash."
Jamie lets out an elated yip, then sprints for the door. Laughing myself, I follow after him, putting my key in the lock. It fits perfectly, and the door clicks open with ease.
My first thought is that there's so much space.
It's a broad expanse of dark hardwood floors and brick walls, the ceilings high and held up by wooden beams. My footsteps echo off each surface, sending every sound right back at me. The windows may be dirty, but they're large, and they just enough sun in to illuminate the settling dust in the air. Maybe it's not even the space that makes me fall in love right away. It's the smell—cedar, oak, like I've just walked into a forest. It's the sound of Midge's socks upon the floor. It's the smile on Jamie's face like he's finally found the place where he belongs.
God, I'm drowning.
And it's the best thing.
"It's not furnished, but I'll help with that too," Safiya says from beside me. "The windows obviously need work, too, but I just—I really think you guys can make a home for yourselves here."
I loop an arm around her shoulders, which she seems averse to, and then I ruffle her hair, which she seems even more averse to. "This is what you were doing when you disappeared on us, weren't you? Getting this ready. I'm proud; I thought you'd lost your moral code."
She snorts. "You could just say thanks, you know."
"I know," I say, "but that wouldn't be nearly enough."
I let her go, and when she looks at me, there's this weird look on her face that almost seems like fondness. But I'm probably seeing things. "I'll miss you back at the apartments, demonboy."
"It's not like I'm dead."
"Oh, right," she replies. "Shoot."
This earns her a playful shove from me, and she playfully shoves me back, but to Safiya, "playful" means "WWE." In other words, it hurts. A lot.
My eyes lift. While Jamie's running around like a kid in a candy store, Midge is just wandering listlessly, her head drooped a bit. A pang of concern hits me. It could be that she's just tired from the spell, but something tells me that's not the case.
I tell Safiya thanks again and then walk over towards Midge, grabbing her wrist and spinning her. Surprise lights up her face, but then it settles into something more dismal.
"Midge?"
She just looks at me.
"Aw, don't look at me like that," I say, tugging gently at her cheek, which at least makes her smile a little bit. "I'm gonna miss you too. But I'm still here, and you can come over whenever you want for however long you want. I'll probably be at your house just as much, okay?"
"I know," she replies softly, and while Safiya chases Jamie around (a weird sight, really), I take the opportunity to pull Midge out onto the back porch. I mean, Jesus. There's a back porch. Safi knows her away around real estate. "That's what I'm telling myself. It's just—I'd just gotten used to it."
"To what?"
"You. The thought of you. Us. Together," she says, then frowns, moving her hair from her face again. "I'm sorry. That doesn't make any sense."
"It makes all the sense in the world."
Midge's eyes search the horizon. There's a bridge right behind us, loose and broken, over a brook that tumbles and tumbles over stones. The King and Queen buildings rise out of the clouds.
She heaves a long breath.
"Just hug me," she murmurs. "I really need you to hug me. Tell me it's all okay now."
"Okay," I say, and bring her close. She nuzzles her head into my chest and squeezes me in a way that's almost too tight but not quite, that perfect intensity where it's not too hesitant but she's also not killing me. That perfect intensity that just whispers, I really care about you.
I stroke her hair. Her pink hair. Her freaking adorable, bright pink hair. "It's all okay now."
She sighs, relaxing against me.
"Oh," I say, "and one more thing."
"What?" she replies, lifting her head, and I take her chin in my hands and kiss her.
It's not the most fervent thing in the world, but it's not the gentlest. Somewhere between a subtle brush of lips and a full-on make out session. The perfect intensity. The Goldilocks spot.
Regardless, when I pull away, Midge is breathless. She just says, "Oh." Then she touches her mouth and lowers her hand again and says, slightly louder, "Oh?"
"In case you don't see it," I tell her after a beat, itching at the back of my neck. My face is burning. Like, really. This can't be healthy. "In case I don't show it enough. I love you, Midge. It's a little catastrophic and a lot awkward, but I love you."
"Jesus," she mutters, but her face is just as red as mine is, a russet compared to a former walnut color. "You're such a cheese, Grey."
"But you like cheese. Don't you?"
"Actually, I'm lactose intolerant."
That draws me up short. I take a step back, throwing my arms up. "Well, that's a little important to know. What if I'd bought you a cheese platter, or something? Or a milk platter? Is that a thing? Milk platters?"
"I—I don't think so. But it's fine, you know. You're the one cheese that's okay. My cheese."
I glance back inside. Now Jamie's lying on the floor and Safiya's just staring at him. I get the feeling if we leave those two alone another second, it's just going to get even stranger.
I say, "Maybe we should stop with the cheese thing."
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea."
And we go back inside and we draft designs. What the living room's gonna look like, what the kitchen's gonna look like, what type of bed we should get Jamie. Because he's family now. And family deserves more than a pull-out couch.
And every once and while, my eyes slide over to Midge's, and she's already looking at me.
It's the weirdest thing.
Prophecies, huh?
I guess they're good for something.