You Know Me Well(47)

Shock flashes across Lehna’s face, but she transforms it into a smile.

“Oh!” she says. “Wow! Good for you guys!”

And now I realize what’s happening. Violet doesn’t know that anything is wrong between us. Lehna, for some reason, has been pretending that she and I are fine when really we aren’t fine at all. Really we’re bad enough that the awfulness of us is creeping in even in this moment, even when Violet is stepping closer to me.

A beep comes from another wing of the museum.

“It’s starting soon!” June says. “We have to find some open buttons.”

Lehna nods.

“Right,” she says. “The button game. Well, have fun, you guys. Text me later.”

And then they’re heading away from us, back into the crowd.

“Is it just me or was Lehna acting kind of strange?” Violet asks.

“Things between us have been a little … tense,” I say.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Various reasons. It’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” she says, but she sounds unsure.

“Really,” I say. “I’m going to work it out with her, but not right now. Let’s go find Mark.”

She nods and we hold hands as we make our way back to the shadow room. On our way we pass a group of people at one of the button stands. They’re frantically hitting their buttons—some red, some blue—while others around them watch the score on a screen and cheer.

“What is the button game?” Violet asks.

“There are people at these stands all over the museum. You try to get your color to win.”

“Win at what?”

“Nothing, really. Just the number of pushes.”

“What’s the point of that?”

“Exactly,” I say. “It’s like a social phenomenon or something.”

I spot Mark outside the shadow room.

“You got sick of it?” I ask him.

“No,” he says. “Just letting some other people’s shadows have turns in the spotlight.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you,” Violet says, and her smile would be heartbreakingly pretty except that I have little reason to be heartbroken. So instead it’s gloriously pretty. Spectacularly pretty. I can’t stop looking at her—that’s how pretty it is.

“So apparently things went well,” Mark says to me.

“I’m working on it,” I say, looking at Violet. “I’m trying to make things up to her.”

“And is she doing a good job?”

“So far so good,” she says.

“I’m glad, because you are clearly the girl for my friend.”

“But what about you?” Violet says. “First it was ‘I’d fight for you,’ ‘I need you,’ and now, as of last night, there’s someone new on the horizon.”

“She was pretty persuasive, wasn’t she?” Mark says. “I mean, I was skeptical, but now I can’t get it out of my head. It just feels…”

“True,” Violet says.

Mark nods.

I say, “We’ve been on the lookout for all the scenic guys at school.”

Violet laughs.

“Scenic. I love that.”

“And tonight’s this poetry slam. Has Katie invited you yet?”

“Yes, and I have accepted.”

“Ryan will be there.”

“Uh-oh.”

“But other guys, too.”

“Scenic guys,” Violet says.

“Yes. The vast majority of the guys there will be scenic.”

“Excellent.”

“But before we go,” Mark says, “we need to get a shadow shot of all three of us.”

We head into the room and strike poses, waiting for the rest of the people in there to lose interest. One by one, they do, until it’s just the three of us. It’s dark and the clock is counting down from thirty seconds.

“Let’s make a chain,” Violet says. “Stretch out our arms and touch fingers.”

She walks to one side of me and Mark walks to the other. We hold our arms straight out like wings, our fingers touching at the tips.

“Thirty seconds,” Mark says.

This doesn’t feel like the card with the burning tower. I’ve taken a risk, asked Violet to trust me. But I haven’t jumped from a burning building or crashed on the rocks. I haven’t upended my life.

“Twenty-five!”

What could I do that would be so dramatic? That would change my trajectory, that would set me free?

“Ten!” Mark says.

“Hold steady, everyone!” says Violet.

My heart is so full.

This is what’s right. These two beautiful people. Our fingers touching, counting down together.

“Five seconds!” Mark says.

“My arms hurt!” says Violet.

My arms hurt, too, but I would keep them extended like this for so much longer if it meant we could stay here. If I could have them by my side, and graduation wasn’t in a few days, and the summer wasn’t fleeting.

“Three!” Mark says.

“Two!” Violet yelps.

“One!” we all shout.