Finn lowered the settings on her ear guard as low as they could go, letting the music pour in loud enough to give her a slight headache. She didn't care. If she didn't need them to be able to talk to other people in here, she'd probably just rave without them. That was the kind of mood she was in tonight. The mood to get lost in ungodly high decibels of noise that drowned every other thought in her mind. She did like her new set of ear guards though. They looked stylish, wrapping around her earlobes like expensive jewellery. Ina had designed them for her as practice for the band's merch drop later in the year. They were going to sell heaps of these, no question. It was then that Finn realised that her little sister might just be a Rockstar. Weird.
Finn turned to look at Zhen and the pain inside her chest, which had been hanging around all day, increased tenfold. Zhen was in a black Henley tee, opened at the collar, and simple, fitting blue jeans folded at the bottom to show off a 4D anklet, and a pair of old-school sneakers. It was her hair that made how Finn felt even worse. When they'd met again, months ago at the apartment, Zhen's hair had been short, almost buzzed down to her scalp. She'd been growing it out through the months and tonight she had that quintessential one-inch rainbow streak running down the left side and falling over her shoulder. Just like the first time they'd met. So unfair.
Jani found them a table for the night. A few of the others split to go join the crowd in front of the stage. It was a Karaoke Concert night. The volunteers would go on stage and participate in a concert-like experience that would be recorded and posted on their social media pages. The production value impeccable. Even if the singers weren't that good, their voices were digitally modified to sound relatively okay. Most of the videos that came out of it looked like music videos from the 2020s. It was that good. Made this club extremely popular. Which was why Finn had chosen it.
She took one last look at the deliciousness that was Zhen talking to a pretty brunette who'd come up to her from the crowd and then headed to the bar. She raised the settings to her ear guards to silence the club music and synced with the bartender's guards. All the staff had their ear guards always open to syncing.
"Can I have a water please?" Finn asked the bartender.
"Are you sure you don't want anything stronger?" he asked.
"Just a water is fine," said Finn, a little annoyed at his presumption. She turned to look at Zhen. She was still talking with the brunette from earlier. However, the girl waved goodbye and headed back into the crowd. Zhen turned and locked eyes with Finn. She turned back to the bar.
"Sorry if I offended you," said the bartender, handing her a small, sealed glass bottle of water. "You just seem a little tense."
Finn looked up at him and smiled. "I'm fine."
"Girlfriend?" he asked, motioning to Zhen. Finn looked back at her, locking eyes again, then turning back to the bar.
"What? No. Just a friend."
"Does she know that?" he asked.
Before Finn could answer, someone sat next to her and tapped her shoulder. She turned to face the person who was the reason she was here. Suddenly, all thoughts of Zhen evaporated as she focused on the owner of the voice. Last time they'd met, there was a mask between them.
"FD45," were the first words said after they'd synced their ear guards.
"FlowersAreBland22?" said Finn with a smug smile.
"I'm impressed you found me," they said. "You've got skill."
"Do you have what you promised, or not?" Finn asked.
"Wow, straight down to business, huh?" they said, turning to the bartender. "A corkscrew and a dash of yellow sunshine, please."
"Dosage?" asked the bartender.
"Micro."
"Coming right up."
They turned back to face Finn. "I'm Jesse, by the way."
"You didn't answer my question," said Finn, forcing herself not to turn back and look at Zhen. Jesse was incredibly gorgeous, even more so than the first time they'd met. And the way those striking eyes held her gaze sent chills down Finn's spine.
Jesse sculled her LSD laced drink then held out a hand to Finn. "Dance with me."
"What? That's not why we're here."
"Dance with me and I'll give you all the information on my girls," Jesse said with a shrug. "That's the deal. Take it or leave it."
Finn took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes at Jesse. "Fine. One song."
Jesse smiled. "That's all I ask."
Jesse was really good at dancing and had incredibly contagious energy. Finn couldn't help getting drawn into it. She was soon dancing in tune with Jesse, enjoying the song that was on. This new singer was good. Sometimes, real artists would come in and do a show for everyone without anyone noticing because everyone who went on stage was treated like a celebrity. Finn wondered if this was one of those times. The song was finally over, and the crowd erupted into cheers and applause. Jesse smiled and gave Finn a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you for indulging me," said Jesse.
"I'll admit it. That was fun," said Finn. She hadn't felt this good in a while.
They were about to walk away when a crowd-pleasing riff came on. The singer's first words were met with an enthusiastic uproar. It was an old song. Early 2000s at the very least. Finn stopped dead in her tracks. She knew that voice. Zhen. She turned to the stage and saw that she was right. Zhen was belting out the lyrics from The Killers' classic, "Mr. Brightside" and the crowd was going bananas, singing along at the top of their lungs. Finn's jaw dropped. Oh. No. She. Did. Not.
"Your girlfriend?" Jesse asked.
"No," said Finn, for the second time that night. "Just a friend."
"Does she know that?"
The crowd went wild at the last cymbal clash. Zhen was definitely looking at Finn as she replaced the mic. Finn turned away and led Jesse back to the bar.
"One song, that was the deal," said Finn, a serious look on her face while her heart was breaking land speed records. She tried to think past the emotions swirling through her. It had been Zhen's idea to ignore what they had. Her idea that they became just friends. Friends. So why was she making it such a big deal that she danced with Jesse? Because that was the only reason...
"You're right," said Jesse, interrupting Finn's train of thought. "I'll give you what you want. But it's not here. I came here to see how serious you were about this. If you'd take it to the end."
"And?"
"And I think you will," said Jesse. "Write down this address. Let me know when you're coming."
Finn allowed Jesse to enter the address onto her wrist wrap. Soon, she'd have the proof she needed. She was going to free the innocent engineer, and no one was going to stop her. Not MechSoft. Not Zhen. She held on to this thought, because all the other thoughts trying to take over her mind were hell bent on crushing her from the inside out and she wasn't going to let them.
The sleepover farewell party came faster than Finn thought possible. She wasn't sure how she felt about the fact that Zhen would be leaving in two days for the Space Station. They couldn't be together the way she wanted but being together in the same space was what kept her relatively sane through the heartache. The situation was more tolerable knowing that she could run into Zhen every so often, or that they'd eventually end up engaging in some mundane discussion about the apartment or the weather, or that she could, hypothetically because she wouldn't dare, knock on Zhen's door and get a response to come in.
She'd gone far past the curse's damning proclamation, through love, betrayal, loss, ending up at unexpected recovery and love again. Zhen leaving just seemed like too much of an end to their journey together. The inevitable realisation of the Darrow curse. It reinforced how stupid she'd been to imagine that she was the one who would break the curse. That she would get to keep the one she loved. And she didn't really want to give up the tiniest of chances that this might be true.
Finn walked out of her room with her jacket backpack in one hand and a small duffel bag in the other. Zhen was on the couch, feet up and lounging as she played a game on her tablet.
"Ready?" Zhen asked without looking up. She was so calm and collected. And beautiful.
"Ready," said Finn.
The ride to Finn's home was filled with heavy silence. Zhen played her game while Finn read a book. At least she tried to. She couldn't stop her thoughts from slipping to Zhen. From slipping back to their final encounter. How close they'd become. It filled her with hurt and, which was worse, longing. Even though she knew that she shouldn't, she was thinking about Zhen and being with her in every way that was possible. And it was slowly driving her insane, especially with just the two of them in the cabin of an autonomous cab.
"You have to stop looking at me like that," said Zhen without looking up from her tablet.
Finn quickly turned back to her book. "I don't know what you're talking about."
The party was a hit. The girls ganged up on Zhen's dad and put him through a night of pampering and good food. Once everyone's toenails and fingernails were painted and hair was in curlers, including Zhen's dad's shoulder length brown hair streaked with silver at the temples, they sat down and watched a bunch of his favourite movies. Turns out his favourite movies were wonderfully received by the lot of them. Ina and Sorcha were especially besotted by the musical scores. Akemi loved being in the company of other girls, especially Sorcha, who was only a year older than Akemi.
"Hey, Finn," said her mum, rising from the couch and heading to the kitchen. "Do you mind helping me with something in the kitchen?"
"Sure," Finn said, standing up to follow her.
Once in the kitchen, her mum whispered, "I asked Aldo to marry me. He said 'yes'."
Finn's brain blanked out.
"Finn?" her mum asked after a while. Apparently, she'd been calling out her name for a while, but Finn only just heard her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yes, sorry. I'm fine," said Finn, tamping down all the feelings inside her. "That's great news."
To feel the pain that they have wrought/ Every Darrow girl will find her one true love/ But, whether they want to, or not/ They will always betray what they have
Finn understood why her mum was rushing this. That curse had hung over their heads for so long and having the chance to love and be loved again must have been a wonderfully unexpected thing. She probably wanted to cherish and celebrate it while she could. Before she would have to suffer for it again. Getting engaged so soon wasn't surprising. No other Darrow woman had experienced a second chance.
"Oh, good," said her mum, genuinely relieved. "I'm glad you think so. I know it's a bit rushed, it's just..."
"You don't have to explain mum," said Finn, hugging her tight. "I totally get it. And I'm happy for you."
That night, when Zhen got under the covers beside Finn in her childhood bed, Finn could feel the world crashing around her. Even though she shouldn't have, she'd hoped this thing with her mum and Aldo would be a short affair that would quickly burn out and end in an amicable separation. Now that they were engaged, everything was different. Every chance that had existed for her and Zhen to be together would soon be totally and completely gone. With her eyes closed, she felt the bed underneath her give way in her mind's eye and she was falling. Falling into an abyss. A bottomless pit, no way out.
She felt Zhen slip a hand into hers, interlocking their fingers. In her mind's eye it was an arm that had reached out and caught Finn, just before she'd been lost to the endless abyss. She gratefully squeezed Zhen's hand. Even though it felt like it, she wasn't alone in this. And that made all the difference.