CHAPTER
35
THE FIRST MADRAS post-apocalypse festival ended not long after Ford danced Mercury intimately around the firepit. Slightly tipsy, the four of them walked slowly back to the school. Ford fell into step easily beside Mercury, and every so often his hand brushed hers in the dark, which made her feel as if they shared a delicious secret.
At the door to Ford’s classroom, they paused. Other festival attendees were filing into their rooms down the hall, so Stella kept her voice low. “Y’all, pack your things tonight. You can go to bed, but be sure you’re dressed. My spidey sense says when it’s time for us to go—we need to go.”
“It’s still tonight?” Ford asked in an equally quiet voice.
Stella nodded. “Yepper. Pretty sure before dawn.”
“Then why don’t we just leave in a few hours when everything gets quiet?” Mercury whispered.
“It’s not time yet, Acorn, but you’ll know it when it is.” Stella grinned and swayed a little, then she reached out with her pointer finger and bopped Mercury on the nose. “Boop! As Alexis Rose would say.”
“Oh my Goddess. You’re drunk,” Mercury said.
“Nope, just toasty. Someone over-served me tonight.”
“That would be you who was the over-server,” Karen said and then snorted a laugh.
Ford looked from Stella to Karen. “Are you going to come with us?”
Karen’s tipsy humor slid away. She picked at the hem of her new cardigan. “I’m not sure yet. I wish I knew why Stella is so set on leaving.”
“I wish I knew for sure why too,” Stella said. “All I know is that we are leaving, and whatever you decide we’ll be cool with. Until that time we should sleep.”
“Good night, ladies,” Ford said. He caught Mercury’s gaze. “Rest well, Bellota. I hope your dreams are filled with dragons.” He smiled, winked at Stella, and disappeared into his room.
“Dragons?” Karen asked.
“Yep, dragons. He’s a fan,” said Mercury.
“Come on, Acorn. I’ll help you wipe that drool off your chin.” Stella hooked her arm through Mercury’s as Karen laughed softly and they walked the few yards to their room.
“You like him,” Stella said while they changed back into their jeans.
“I think Ford is a lovely man.” Karen said. “So polite and so handsome.”
“I’m not going to talk about it. Seriously. Nothing happened.”
“Something was happening over there by the firepit. I could practically see the sparks between you two.” Stella lay back on her cot and wagged her brows at Mercury.
“We just invoked a little Ostara blessing and danced,” said Mercury with a nonchalant shrug. She noticed that Karen watched her sharply, which made her cheeks flush with heat. “But for the record, I think he’s a lovely man too.”
“I knew it!” Stella said with a fist pump.
Mercury giggled a little woozily and then told her best friend, “Go to bed. All three of us need to sleep off this wine if we’re going to leave without staggering and laughing.”
“I am not dru—” Karen began, but hiccupped loudly instead of completing her sentence.
“Karen, whether you stay or go, you’re going to have to work on your wine tolerance level,” said Mercury.
“Fuckin’ A right!” said Stella.
Karen said nothing, but Mercury noticed she’d changed into travel clothes with the rest of them. Maybe Karen will leave with us, was her last thought before red wine and the memory of a perfect dance waltzed Mercury to sleep.
Mercury’s eyes opened and she ran her tongue across her teeth and shuddered, suppressing the ick she wanted to say, so she wouldn’t wake her roommates. Her hand searched blindly along the floor beside her cot, where she usually kept a full bottle of water—and then she had to suppress a groan of frustration. Because of her state of semi-drunkenness when she’d fallen asleep, Mercury hadn’t thought to fill up her water bottle in anticipation of her current cottonmouth and headache.