Maybe it was the way he was with me—observing, nonjudgmental. That was rare. So often you could feel people sizing you up, trying to figure you out. Who are you and what do you have that I want? Not Kael. He just noticed. I liked that. But it didn’t seem fair, somehow. He knew a lot about me, and I hardly knew anything about him. The things I did know I could count on one hand. Almost reflexively, that’s what I did.

One: he was charming in that strong, silent way.

Two: he had this almost magnetic draw that attracted people to him.

Three: he made you want to know what he thought of you. (Or was that just me?)

Four: he was insanely attractive.

Five: his family lived in Riverdale, and he knew what Twilight was.

Maybe I could get to ten, but I liked the drama of one hand.

Everything about Kael seemed so complex, yet uncomplicated at the same time. He hadn’t said much to me while we were inside, other than to ask if I wanted a slice of pizza, but he had clearly followed me out. So why was he standing there with that force field around him, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and looking at me as if words were a burden too heavy to carry? I started to say something to break the tension, but stopped myself just in time. No way was I going to make this easy on him. I’d give him a taste of his own medicine and see how he liked it.

The sky was darkening now, filling with the most gorgeous stars. I knew everyone thought they were magical, diamonds hung aloft in the sky and all that, but even though I found them beautiful, I mostly found them sad. Stars seemed so fierce and bright, but by the time they got to us, they were dying, almost gone. And the biggest stars? They burned the fastest, as if their intense radiance was too much for them to hold on to. Damn. There I was getting sappy. I always thought of how fragile things were when I drank. I could move from beauty to despair in the blink of an eye. Or the twinkle of a star. As I said, damn.

“Can I sit with you?” Kael finally asked. Had he seen the shadow cross my face?

I nodded yes and moved over to make some room.

“This is the swing?” he asked.

I nodded again. I still had a dose or two of his own medicine to give him. Not really. I was just trying to stay cool. If I was going to second-guess myself, I might as well be cool about it.

“She didn’t take it with her?” he asked into the night air.

I jerked my head, looking at his face. “What?”