This Close to Okay(62)

“I told your brother we met at the coffee shop,” Emmett whispered into her ear.

“Good boy,” she said into his. “You feeling okay?”

“I am,” he said, with his arms around her waist.

“By the way, the unicorn said you looked familiar, too. I told her lots of people say that to you. We’ll have to scour the internet for your celebrity doppelg?nger later.”

Tallie reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, took out her lip gloss, put it on, and returned it where she’d found it. They looked at each other, their faces so close with the night-blue music lifting, spilling out across the stars. If only the sky would open and zoom them up.

“You look handsome,” she said.

“You’re striking. You’re lightning.”

“Sweet Emmett,” she said. Emmett. He needed to tell her the truth.

“Tallie—”

The air popped above them; a rocket shot across the sky. Tallie gasped and looked up. Emmett, startled by the sound at first, relaxed upon seeing a chandelier of glitter against the black. Fireworks. And maybe it happened all at once. Maybe he leaned down to her. Or had she gotten on her tiptoes? At first, the kiss was chaste, kindergarten-sweet. Was this pretending? But when Emmett pulled her closer, the music got louder. The kiss swelled. Their kiss: surprising, dark crush like a jewel wrapped in velvet. Their kiss: a real but different, better version of Klimt’s. Emmett opened his mouth a little to let her in, keeping his hand on the small of her back, pressing her body against his. He pulled away, turned his head, put his mouth on hers until she stopped and looked at him, bit her bottom lip.

They kissed again; her mouth was liquor, starry and sweet. How long had it been since he’d kissed a woman? He felt lust-crazy with his mouth on hers. His charged Halloween heart: Fuseli’s The Nightmare. Caravaggio’s The Incredulity of Saint Thomas. What if he never stopped feeling this way? Could they freeze time, kiss forever? What if they stopped only when someone tapped them on the shoulder because the sun had come up? How had he managed to think God had forgotten about him when he was kissing and holding Tallie like this as proof of hope?

Tallie put her hand on the back of his head, lightly brushed her fingers through the hair that fell against his neck. He was burning like the fireworks above them. Like a star, afraid he’d poof to smoke and disappear if she ever stopped.

Please don’t stop. Goodbye! I’m going to the moon!

The crowd outside erupted into applause when the fireworks were over. Emmett heard Zora holler for everyone to step inside for the costume contest, and he felt the scrum of revelers shift. Tallie kissed him and kissed him and kissed him with her greedy champagne mouth. Emmett returned her kisses with equal fervor—like a man on his last day—and stopped only when his eyes-closed darkness sparked with a peculiar flurry of light.

Only Emmett, Tallie, and Lionel in syzygy, aligned like an eclipse, on the nearly empty patio. Lionel, at least twenty feet away, standing alone in his masked Bigfoot costume. Lionel, nowhere near the pool, far too close to the blazing fire pit. Lionel, the right side of his body, violently torched. Lionel, consumed with fulgent orange flame. Lionel, Lionel, burning bright.





PART FOUR





Sunday





TALLIE




Emmett pressed his palm to Tallie’s shoulder, moving her aside. The concerned look on his face caused her to turn around, just in time to see him run across the patio and take off his suit jacket. Slow motion. Volcanic flames blooming. Fast-forwarded. Emmett—quick—pushed and swept Lionel’s leg with his foot to make him fall away from the fire pit before throwing himself on top of him and wrapping the jacket around Lionel’s costumed body. Lionel. Lionel was on fire.

Emmett was all over him, patting hard. They rolled together. Ha! They’d planned this while she was dancing with her girlfriends. This was a prank, part of Lionel’s costume. Last year, it was Houdini and the water tank. This year, Bigfoot on fire. Bravo, boys.

They were no longer alone on the patio. Costumed bodies clumped around the fire pit where she was standing, not knowing how she got there. A man dressed like a hippie did the peace sign and said the party was totally rad. He laughed and the hippie woman next to him whooped and laughed, too.

“Is this part of his costume?” someone slurred.

Zora’s glass fell against the stone, and she flashed by in a blurry white zip, dropping to her knees next to Emmett and Lionel. Emmett had taken off Lionel’s unburned mask and had his knife out, carefully cutting parts of the furry fabric away from Lionel’s body. The sounds coming from Lionel’s mouth were feral. Whole-bodied. Horrific.

Not a prank.

Tallie’s mouth locked in a voiceless scream as she watched Emmett carefully raise Lionel’s legs and place them lengthwise along a concrete planter he’d knocked over. He put his face close to Lionel’s and talked to him.

“I called 911!” someone shouted.

“Hey, Lionel. Lionel, look at me. You’re all right. You’re going to be okay. EMS is on the way,” Emmett said.

Zora was crying, screeching. “Oh, my God! Lionel! Shouldn’t we get it completely off him?”

“No. It could make it worse where he’s burned. I’m cutting away the unburned parts to cool him down. Let them do the rest. What’s important now is to keep him calm. They’ll be here. They’re on the way. It’s okay now. The scary part is over,” Emmett said, unshaken.