“This is incredible,” Dare decides, walking around and examining everything. “No wonder it’s your favorite place.” He moves lithely, casually. Easily.
In fact, being with him is easy. As each moment passes, I feel less panicked and terrified about Finn, and more comfortable with Dare.
Even though he’s clearly sophisticated, he’s still as comfortable as my favorite pair of jeans. It’s like…he doesn’t judge me. He doesn’t ridicule me. He simply accepts things as I offer them and doesn’t push me for more.
While he kneels to examine a pool, I examine him. He’s wearing dark clothes tonight, dark jeans and a black hoodie. The graceful way he moves makes even a hoodie seem elegant. He’s graceful and refined, nothing like the boys were in school.
It’s refreshing. And knee-weakening.
He turns to me, his gaze dark and curious.
“How did your brother upset you?”
The panic comes back to me in a rush, and for a minute, I stare past Dare, out to sea.
“We’re twins. He wants to go to a different college, but I don’t agree. He needs me.”
Dare stares at me, trying to figure me out. I see the wheels turning. He opens his mouth, but I interrupt before he can say anything.
“You don’t understand,” I tell him preemptively. “My brother has an issue. A mental issue. He’s medicated, but he needs me.”
If I meant to scare him, and I don’t know if I did or didn’t, it doesn’t work. Because Dare just nods, unfazed. “That’s commendable,” he tells me. “That you care so much.”
My head snaps back. “Of course I do,” I snap. “Why wouldn’t I? He’s my brother.”
Dare smiles and holds up his hands. “Calm down,” he says soothingly. “I was just making an observation. Not everyone cares that much, family or not.”
I stare at him. “That’s a sad thought. Why are you out here anyway? In the dark? Alone?” I throw his words from earlier back at him in an effort to change the subject. He smiles in appreciation of my effort.
“Because I was bored. And I thought I could see the stars better from here.”
He’s right. We definitely can. Up on the mountain, the trees block them.
And he likes the stars? Is it possible for him to get more perfect?
He points upward.
“That’s Orion’s belt. And that over there…. That’s Andromeda. I don’t think we can see Perseus tonight.” He pauses and stares down at me. “Do you know their myth?”
His voice is calm and soothing and as I listen to him, I let myself drift away from my current problems and toward him, toward his dark eyes and full lips and long hands.
I nod, remembering what I’d learned about Andromeda last year in Astrology. “Yes. Andromeda’s mother insulted Poseidon, and she was condemned to die by a sea monster, but Perseus saved her and then married her.”
He nods, pleased by my answer. “Yes. And now they linger in the skies to remind young lovers everywhere of the merits of undying love.”
I snort. “Yeah. And then they had a corny movie made for them that managed to butcher several different Greek myths at once.”
Dare’s lip twitches. “Perhaps. But maybe we can overlook that due to the underlying message of eternal love.” His expression is droll and I can’t decide if he’s being serious or just trying to be ironic or something, because the irony is lost on you.
“That’s bullshit, you know,” I tell him, rolling the metaphorical dice. “Undying love, I mean. Nothing is undying. People fall out of love or their chemistry dies or maybe they even die themselves. Any way you look at it, love always dies eventually.”
I should know. I’m Funeral Home Girl. I see it all the time.
Dare looks down at me incredulously. “If you truly believe that, then you believe that death controls us, or maybe even circumstance. That’s depressing, Calla. We control ourselves.”
He seems truly bothered and I stare at him, at once nervous that I’ve disappointed him and certain that I’m right.
I am the one surrounded by it all the time, after all…by death and bad circumstances. I am the one whose mother just died and I know that the world continues to turn like nothing ever happened.