All These Things I've Done (Birthright #1)(51)

‘Hmmph,’ Win said. ‘I think you might be the least romantic girl I’ve ever met.’

‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’ I laughed. ‘I’m just being practical.’

‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Practical it is.’

The elevator came, and he was gone, and, truthfully, I felt the least practical I’d ever felt in my life.

Inside the apartment, Natty was waiting for me. ‘What was that?’ she asked.

‘Nothing,’ I said.

‘It sure looked like something,’ said my little sister.

‘You’re imagining things,’ I told her. ‘Now what do you want for breakfast?’

‘Eggs,’ she said. ‘And a love story if you’ve got one, Annie. A really sappy, romantic one with tons of kissing and stuff.’

I ignored her. ‘Eggs it is.’

‘Have you told Scarlet?’ Natty asked.

‘No, because there’s nothing to tell,’ I said.

‘It sure looked like something,’ Natty repeated.

‘You already said.’ I cracked two eggs and began to scramble them. Natty was still looking at me expectantly. Her eyes were moist and shiny as a dog’s, and something about the sweet anticipation of her expression made me want to laugh and confess. Life hadn’t been easy for Natty either – everything that had happened to me had happened to her, too. It was a beautiful thing how innocent and generous she still was, how much she cared if her older sister was having a romance. ‘I like him, all right?’

‘You looove him!’

I poured the eggs into the pan. ‘And you have to promise that you won’t tell anyone. Not Nana or Leo or Scarlet or anyone!’

‘I liked him from the first time I met him,’ Natty said happily. ‘What was kissing him like?’

‘How do you know I even kissed him?’

‘I just do,’ Natty said. ‘You look all pink and . . . and kissed. You’ve got to tell me. He’s got those soft-looking lips.’

I laughed. ‘It was good, OK?’

‘That is not very descriptive,’ Natty said.

‘Well, that’s all you’re going to get.’ As I put her eggs on the table, I noticed a bruise on her right forearm. ‘What’s that?’

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘I don’t know. I probably banged it in the night.’

‘Does it hurt?’

Natty shrugged. ‘I had a nightmare, only a little one. I didn’t even have to wake you up. Maybe I hit it against the wall? When are you going to see Win again?’

‘Maybe never. Maybe he won’t ever call. Boys sometimes act like they like you and then never call, Natty.’

At that moment, our phone rang. It was Win.

‘You got home fast,’ I said.

‘I ran,’ he said. ‘I wanted to talk to you before you changed your mind about things. Can I see you tonight?’

Part of me thought it might not be such a great idea to see Win again so soon, but that part of me was curiously mute. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Come over tonight.’

‘I want to take you somewhere,’ he said.

‘Where?’ I asked.

‘It’ll be a surprise.’

I told him that I still thought it would be a good idea if we kept our relationship a secret.

‘I know and I agree,’ he said. ‘But you don’t have to worry. Where I’m taking you, no one will know us.’

We rode the subway out to the furthest stop in Brooklyn, which was Coney Island. When we got off the train, there was a weathered boardwalk and an ominous cluster of nonoperational amusement park rides that looked like colourful spiders.

‘Oh, I know this place!’ I said. My parents had taken me and Leo here the summer before it had been closed by the city. (Something to do with an infectious outbreak. Or maybe it had been power-grid issues. I had been too young to remember.) ‘Nothing runs any more.’

‘Not quite nothing,’ he said, taking my hand. He led me down the boardwalk. I could hear voices in the distance, and I could see that a small kiddie Ferris wheel was lit up.

‘Someone reported this to the DA last week,’ Win said. ‘These people built an illegal generator and have enough power to run a different ride every Saturday. My dad doesn’t care about them. The city has bigger problems. You’ve heard his stump speech.’

‘I have. Unfortunately. But I will say that he did seem like he wanted to make a difference.’

‘The only thing he wants is self-advancement.’

The ride operator greeted us. ‘I just need to warn you that this ride has not been inspected and you may get, for lack of a better word, killed.’

Win looked at me. I shrugged.

‘So long as you know,’ the operator reiterated.

‘Not a bad way to die,’ Win said. I agreed.

Win gave the operator money, and we got on the Ferris wheel. I’d never been on one before. We sat side by side, though it was actually a sort of tight squeeze as this particular ride had been built for children and, though I’m reasonably petite, my behind is generously sized. I was self-conscious about the way my rear was pushing into his, but then he put his arm around my shoulders to make more room, and I stopped thinking about my butt.