Iced
Page 17
Of one. I know how you eat.
And hes fascinated by it. Sometimes he just sits and watches me. Used to freak me out but not so much anymore.
I decimate the feast, then we sack out on the couch and watch movies. Dancers got everything wired for power, with the quietest generators Ive ever seen. Hes smart. He survived the fall without a single superpower, no family, and no friends. Hes seventeen and all alone in the world. Well, technically he has family but theyre somewhere in Australia. With splinters of Faery reality slicing everything up, no planes flying and nobody about to take a boat out, they may as well be dead.
If they arent.
Nearly half the world is. I know he thinks theyre dead. We dont talk about it. I know it from the things he doesnt say.
Dancer was in Dublin checking out Trinity Colleges Physics Department, trying to decide where he wanted to go to grad school when the walls fell, leaving him cut off and alone. Home-schooled by multiple tutors and smarter than anybody I ever met, he finished college six months ago, speaks four languages fluently and can read three or four more. His folks are humanitarians, ber-rich from old money. His dad is or was some kind of ambassador, his mom a doctor who spent her time organizing free medical care for third world countries. Dancer grew up all over the world. I have a hard time wrapping my brain around his kind of family. I cant believe how well he adapted. He impresses me.
I watch him sometimes when hes not watching me. He catches me now.
Thinking how hot I am, Mega? he teases.
I roll my eyes. That kind of stuff isnt between us. We just hang together.
Speaking of hot
I roll my eyes bigger, because if hes finally about to say something about how much prettier I am since the Gray Woman took my looks then gave me back a little extra, Im out of here. Hes been cool so far about not commenting. I like it that way. Dancers well, Dancer. Hes my safety zone. Theres no pressure here. Its just two kids in a fecked-up world.
try some hot water. Mega, youre a mess. I got the shower working again. Go take one.
Its just a little blood
Its a bucket. Maybe two.
and a few bruises.
You look like you got hit by a truck. And you smell.
I do not, I say indignantly. I would know. I have supersmell.
He looks at me hard. Mega, I think you have guts in your hair.
I reach up, dismayed. I thought I got them all out on the way over. I root around in my curls and pull out a long slimy piece.
I stare at it, revolted, thinking how maybe I should cut my hair really short or start wearing a ball cap all the time, then Ilook at him and hes looking at me like hes going to toss his cookies, then all the sudden we both start cracking up.
We laugh so hard we cant breathe. Were on the floor, holding our sides.
Guts in my hair. What kind of world am I living in? Even though I was always different, and saw things other people didnt see, I never thought Id be sitting on a sofa, in a virtual bomb shelter underground, with security cams and trapdoors and booby traps all around us, hanging with a seventeen-year-old (hot!) genius who makes sure I eat more than protein and candy bars (he says Im not getting the right vitamins and minerals for proper bone health) and knows how to get a shower running in post-wall Dublin.
He plays a mean game of chess, too.
He pauses the movie when I head for the shower. I grab a change of clothes on the way in.
This is Dancers place, not mine. But he keeps things stocked for me in case I come by. Like me, hes got lots of other digs, too. You have to keep moving in this city to increase your odds of survival, and set things real careful when you leave, so you know if somebodys invaded your turf while you were gone. Its a dog-eat-dog world. People kill each other over milk.
The hot water lasts four glorious minutes. I scrub my hair, wrap it in a towel and study my face in the steamed-up mirror. Bruises are me. I know the progression: black turns purple, purple goes green, then you get all jaundiced-looking for a while. I look past the bruises. I lock eyes with my reflection and dont look away. The day you look away you start to lose yourself. Im never going to lose myself. You are what you are. Deal with it or change.
I toss the towel, finger-comb my hair, tug on jeans, a tee, and consider a pair of combat boots. Dancer picked them out for me. Said I wont burn through the soles as fast. I decide to give them a try.
I grab another bowl of puny orange slices on the way back to the sofa, pop open a jar of marshmallow cream and slather it on, then coat it all with hard-shell chocolate.
Dancer and me get down to business. He starts the movie again while I get out the game board. He kicked my butt at Go Bang for hours the last time I dropped in, but Im feeling lucky tonight. I even magnanimously accept a restricted second move when I win the flip for opening play.
I do something I havent done in a long time. I let my guard down. Im drunk on fruit and marshmallow cream and the thrill of winning at Go Bang. I was up all night last night, and my day was long and eventful.
Besides, Dancers got killer booby traps around his place, almost as good as mine.
I push my backpack out of the way and fall asleep on his couch, fist under my cheek, sword in my hand.
I dont know what wakes me but something does and I lift my head a few inches, slit my eyes and peer around.
And hes fascinated by it. Sometimes he just sits and watches me. Used to freak me out but not so much anymore.
I decimate the feast, then we sack out on the couch and watch movies. Dancers got everything wired for power, with the quietest generators Ive ever seen. Hes smart. He survived the fall without a single superpower, no family, and no friends. Hes seventeen and all alone in the world. Well, technically he has family but theyre somewhere in Australia. With splinters of Faery reality slicing everything up, no planes flying and nobody about to take a boat out, they may as well be dead.
If they arent.
Nearly half the world is. I know he thinks theyre dead. We dont talk about it. I know it from the things he doesnt say.
Dancer was in Dublin checking out Trinity Colleges Physics Department, trying to decide where he wanted to go to grad school when the walls fell, leaving him cut off and alone. Home-schooled by multiple tutors and smarter than anybody I ever met, he finished college six months ago, speaks four languages fluently and can read three or four more. His folks are humanitarians, ber-rich from old money. His dad is or was some kind of ambassador, his mom a doctor who spent her time organizing free medical care for third world countries. Dancer grew up all over the world. I have a hard time wrapping my brain around his kind of family. I cant believe how well he adapted. He impresses me.
I watch him sometimes when hes not watching me. He catches me now.
Thinking how hot I am, Mega? he teases.
I roll my eyes. That kind of stuff isnt between us. We just hang together.
Speaking of hot
I roll my eyes bigger, because if hes finally about to say something about how much prettier I am since the Gray Woman took my looks then gave me back a little extra, Im out of here. Hes been cool so far about not commenting. I like it that way. Dancers well, Dancer. Hes my safety zone. Theres no pressure here. Its just two kids in a fecked-up world.
try some hot water. Mega, youre a mess. I got the shower working again. Go take one.
Its just a little blood
Its a bucket. Maybe two.
and a few bruises.
You look like you got hit by a truck. And you smell.
I do not, I say indignantly. I would know. I have supersmell.
He looks at me hard. Mega, I think you have guts in your hair.
I reach up, dismayed. I thought I got them all out on the way over. I root around in my curls and pull out a long slimy piece.
I stare at it, revolted, thinking how maybe I should cut my hair really short or start wearing a ball cap all the time, then Ilook at him and hes looking at me like hes going to toss his cookies, then all the sudden we both start cracking up.
We laugh so hard we cant breathe. Were on the floor, holding our sides.
Guts in my hair. What kind of world am I living in? Even though I was always different, and saw things other people didnt see, I never thought Id be sitting on a sofa, in a virtual bomb shelter underground, with security cams and trapdoors and booby traps all around us, hanging with a seventeen-year-old (hot!) genius who makes sure I eat more than protein and candy bars (he says Im not getting the right vitamins and minerals for proper bone health) and knows how to get a shower running in post-wall Dublin.
He plays a mean game of chess, too.
He pauses the movie when I head for the shower. I grab a change of clothes on the way in.
This is Dancers place, not mine. But he keeps things stocked for me in case I come by. Like me, hes got lots of other digs, too. You have to keep moving in this city to increase your odds of survival, and set things real careful when you leave, so you know if somebodys invaded your turf while you were gone. Its a dog-eat-dog world. People kill each other over milk.
The hot water lasts four glorious minutes. I scrub my hair, wrap it in a towel and study my face in the steamed-up mirror. Bruises are me. I know the progression: black turns purple, purple goes green, then you get all jaundiced-looking for a while. I look past the bruises. I lock eyes with my reflection and dont look away. The day you look away you start to lose yourself. Im never going to lose myself. You are what you are. Deal with it or change.
I toss the towel, finger-comb my hair, tug on jeans, a tee, and consider a pair of combat boots. Dancer picked them out for me. Said I wont burn through the soles as fast. I decide to give them a try.
I grab another bowl of puny orange slices on the way back to the sofa, pop open a jar of marshmallow cream and slather it on, then coat it all with hard-shell chocolate.
Dancer and me get down to business. He starts the movie again while I get out the game board. He kicked my butt at Go Bang for hours the last time I dropped in, but Im feeling lucky tonight. I even magnanimously accept a restricted second move when I win the flip for opening play.
I do something I havent done in a long time. I let my guard down. Im drunk on fruit and marshmallow cream and the thrill of winning at Go Bang. I was up all night last night, and my day was long and eventful.
Besides, Dancers got killer booby traps around his place, almost as good as mine.
I push my backpack out of the way and fall asleep on his couch, fist under my cheek, sword in my hand.
I dont know what wakes me but something does and I lift my head a few inches, slit my eyes and peer around.
