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Back A Fractured Infinity Save as PDF
Chapters (41)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. 8
  11. 9
  12. 10
  13. 11
  14. 12
  15. 13
  16. 14
  17. 15
  18. 16
  19. 17
  20. 18
  21. 19
  22. 20
  23. 21
  24. 22
  25. 23
  26. 24
  27. 25
  28. 26
  29. 27
  30. 28
  31. 29
  32. 30
  33. 31
  34. 32
  35. 33
  36. 34
  37. 35
  38. 36
  39. 37
  40. Acknowledgements
  41. About the Author

I don’t really remember how he started, just that I was trying hard to breathe and not snap at him with a I really need you to not be talking about physics right now. He was speaking in these slow sentences and tracing my palm with his thumb. Looking down at our hands and back up at me, over and over. Yanking my hand away and leaving would make me an asshole. Besides, I was starting to get what he was saying, almost, while he talked about some experiment where scientists shot light beams at a metal plate. Which proved that light was a particle and a wave at the same time, or something. And, yeah, it’s strange but also just how the universe works, he said, even if it seems like it shouldn’t make sense.

“What I mean is,” he said slowly, his eyes on mine, “you can be mad at her and love her at the same time. Even if it seems like it doesn’t make sense. That’s just how things work.”

My whole body felt like it had just finally let out a sneeze it had been holding in for months. My nervous laugh shook off the weight from my shoulders. My kiss told him I wasn’t laughing at him, and when I leaned back, a corner of his mouth tugged into a smile.

“I think I get it,” I said. I wiped the back of one hand across my nose. “But I might need you to remind me once in a while.”

“I can do that.” He bobbed his chin over to my laptop. “Can you play that part again?”

I hit play on the scene of my doc. I knew he wasn’t big on clubs and drag shows, mostly because the noise overwhelmed him. I didn’t need some head-patting from him that I was doing good work or whatever, but watching him watch Genesis’s act, a tiny gap appearing between his lips, closed up the rest of the space that I’d convinced myself had widened between us lately.

When the footage on the wall flashed to Genesis’s hands, Yusuf reached over and hit pause, freezing the scene at her red nails bunching the shimmery red fabric at her waist.

“It’s perfect,” he said.

Genesis’s voice floated between us. Tomorrow we strike. Tonight we fucking dance!

*   *   *

In today’s episode of Home Movies from Hell, let’s watch Figueiredo skip stones across the ocean of the multiverse.