When Stars Collide (Light in the Dark 2)

We stay at the gym for a few hours before showering and heading to a burger joint for lunch. Jace tells us about his music, and some gig he has coming up, so we make a plan to go and support our friend, and, of course, drag the girls along. My chest swells with happiness, because by then Thea and I should be out in the open, and I’ll be able to touch and kiss her without worrying about Cade or anyone else.

I take a swig of my beer while Jace and Cade talk. Eventually, their conversation fades and Cade turns to me.

“What’s up with you? You’re too quiet.”

I shrug. “Tired.” It’s not really a lie. Practice is kicking my ass.

He narrows his eyes. “You’ve been acting so fucking weird lately—leaving the house way early …” He pauses. “Are you dating someone?”

I choke on my beer and Jace laughs. “No,” I say vehemently. “Not dating anyone.”

You know, since technically being married to your sister doesn’t count as dating.

“Then what are you doing?”

“Just going to the gym.” I shrug, picking at the label on my beer bottle. “If you get there early enough there’s no one around. It’s nice.”

He grunts. “You need to wake my lazy ass up to go with you then. This morning was the first time I’ve been all week.”

“Mhm,” I hum. “Sure.” Not happening.

“What’s up with you?” I ask Jace—hoping to turn the conversation away from myself.

He leans back in his chair and crosses his hands behind his head. “Just working at the bar, same old-same old. Glad to be done with school, though. What a waste of fucking time.” He takes a swig of his beer and slams the bottle down on the table. The waitress quickly brings another one over and Jace gives her an appreciative once over. “Hey,” he says, giving her a brooding look that I’m sure is meant to be sexy but it looks like he’s constipated to me. It must work, though, because she smiles shyly back at him and says hey too. Going places with Jace usually results in him going home with at least three new phone numbers.

The waitress gets called over to another table and the eye-fucking stops. “Have you and Nova been hanging out?” I ask him—referring to Rae and Thea’s friend. She and Jace hang out a lot, or at least they did before graduation, but who knows now.

Jace nods and reaches into his pocket for his pack of cigarettes, tapping one out. “Yeah, she’s a cool chick.”

“Have you ever hooked up?” Cade asks.

Jace shakes his head. “Fuck, no. She’s my friend.”

Cade snorts. “I didn’t know you were capable having a friend that’s a girl.”

Jace shrugs. “Nova’s different. Drop it.”

Cade and I exchange surprised glances. Jace isn’t normally so testy.

Our food is brought out and I dig into my cheeseburger.

“I wonder what the girls are up to?” Cade muses.

“I don’t know,” I respond.

But I really fucking hope everything’s okay.

I pick out a shimmery orange color for my toes and hand it to the nail technician.

Morticia One and Two—aka Rae and Nova—each pick out dark colors. Rae opts for a maroon red color and Nova chooses a purple so dark it’s nearly black. She must really love purple because for the longest time her hair was a violet color. Now it’s more of a magenta. It looks cool on her and I give her props for being brave enough to do something different. I’d be too scared to dye my hair a crazy color.

We take our seats side by side and I end up in the middle. This already feels more like an interrogation than a nice day with my friends. Lovely.

“You know,” I say, dipping my toes in the hot water, “those aren’t very summery colors.”

Nova snorts. “Well, I’m not a very summery person,” she counters. “I have to choose a polish that’s as dark as my soul to please the beast.”

I laugh. “Should’ve gone with black then.” She sticks her tongue out at me. “And what about you?” I swing my gaze to Rae.