Something in the Way (Something in the Way #1)(65)

I inched my hand along the warm concrete, toward him.

“She had black hair, like me,” he said. “Dark eyes. We looked a lot alike, except you could tell there was a whole universe behind her eyes.”

Manning could be that way. As if he were living in two different worlds, sometimes only half-present in this one. “How old would she be now?”

“Seventeen. I can’t even picture it.”

I did the math. “You were fifteen?”

“Yes.”

Silence stretched between us. It didn’t seem right to ask how it happened. I wanted him to want me to know, to just tell me. To give me something he hadn’t given anyone else, especially not Tiffany. The longer we stared up at the sky, the more I realized he wouldn’t. And what did that mean? Did he not trust me?

Eventually, he pointed at the sky again. “There it is. I was trying to find the three stars that make up the Summer Triangle.”

I looked for the ones he was talking about. “Where?”

“It’s not a constellation, but three stars from other constellations. That brightest one, it’s the bottom. Altair. About a foot apart is Vega. Through the middle is the Milky Way. You see?”

I still couldn’t find them, but he sounded so hopeful, I didn’t want to ruin it. “I think so.”

“I can’t tell it the way Madison did, but it was her favorite story. There are different versions, but Altair and Vega represent lovers from different sides of a river—or the Milky Way. They married behind their parents’ backs and her father punished them by keeping them apart.”

“With the river?”

“Yes. They were only allowed to be together once a year, the seventh night of the seventh month. The Japanese have a whole festival in July. There was no bridge, so, as long as the night was clear and it wasn’t raining, birds would carry Vega across the river to Altair for that one night.”

Of all the stories Manning could’ve chosen, there must’ve been a reason he picked that one to tell me. I’d learned about star-crossed lovers in English class. Maybe that’s where the term came from. People would try to keep me and Manning apart because of our age difference, but we had this—the stars, the lovers, the night.

“What about the third star?”

“What?”

“You said it was a triangle.”

“Oh.” His eyes roamed the sky. “I don’t know.”

“So the story is about Altair and Vega. It isn’t really a triangle at all.”

He reached up to make three points. “They’re all there, Lake. Can’t move the stars.”

“But the other one, it has nothing to do with this, right?” He must’ve heard the panic in my voice. It was hard to miss. “It’s about Altair and Vega. Just them.”

He looked over at me. “Yes. It’s about them.”

My heart began to pound. Hope lived strongly in me, and I knew with just those words, the same was true for him. It was a promise. No matter what, the story would only ever be about us.

I brushed my knuckle against his to acknowledge what I couldn’t say. Was holding hands physical? What would Manning do if I put my skin on his and asked for what I wanted? If, like Tiffany, I used touch to get it? I got up on my elbow and looked down at him. My hair fell forward, a curtain around us.

“Lake,” he said—a plea? A warning? I couldn’t tell.

I looked at his mouth. I had dreamed of it, the things it couldn’t tell me, of his lips, which couldn’t kiss me. We were alone, finally. He had told me in so many words, one day, we would cross the river to each other.

I leaned down.

He put a hand on my shoulder, stopping me. “We can’t.”

He was telling me no. Again. Like everyone else, he thought he knew better than me. Couldn’t he see that wasn’t true? That some things were bigger than right and wrong, bigger than us? Hot tears pierced the backs of my eyes. “Why not?”

“That’s just the way it is.” He touched his hand to my cheek, and I leaned into his palm. “This will have to be enough.”

I shook my head. “I’m not a child, Manning.”

“I know you aren’t. But at your age, it can be hard to think past the moment. To consider consequences. The future.”

“All I do is consider my future.”

“And you’re going to do and be great things. You’ll fly far, Birdy. See places most of us never will.” He moved my hair behind my ear. “I’m counting on it.”

But I didn’t want to fly without Manning. I was content to stay here on the ground with him, learning of the stars, but he sat up, forcing me to do the same. We got to our feet.

All at once, the dreaminess of the night wore off, leaving the shameful truth—I’d tried to kiss him, and he’d told me no. Yet he’d gotten “physical” with Tiffany. What did that mean? Could there possibly be anything bigger than my love for him, something big enough to swallow it?

My vision blurred with tears. I still hadn’t figured out the Summer Triangle. There wasn’t even a cloud in the sky—I just couldn’t find the stars.

Manning turned away from me and walked back to the fence.

It wasn’t fair. I’d seen him first. I’d had him first. But was I losing him?