Page 201 of Unlucky Like Us
“The girl coming towards us.” A short girl with chopped blonde bangs is aimed for our lane, an edginess to her stride. She’s wearing red plaid pants and a beaded choker necklace. As bodyguards stare her down, she pays them zero attention, only focused onus.I heard Xander is attending Dalton, so maybe he made a new friend there. “Is she from school?”
“No,no,” Xander whispers quickly to me. “I don’t recognize her at all, Luna. She must beyourfriend.”
My friend? From where?
College,I remember.I’m attending college. Who the hell did I invite to my birthday party?
“She looks too young to be in college, doesn’t she?” I whisper back to Xander.
He shrugs, at a loss. “Maybe you met her on Fanaticon or Reddit.”
“Reddit? Do I do that?”
“No, I don’t know.” He scrunches his face, slouching in the swivel chair. “Shit, she is coming over here.”
She is, and I wonder if I met her on Fictitious. What if she’s a fellow writer? Meeting up with any anonymous online persona sounds…dangerous and risky and maybe something I would consider under the right circumstances.
As she bypasses a rack of glow-in-the-dark balls and crosses into Lane 8, I’m slack-jawed as Xander stands up first and lifts a casual hand in greeting.
Is this my shy brother?
What dimension am I in?
“Xander, or Paul Atreides,” he greets. “You are?”
She’s holding a manila envelope, a little caught off guard by his introduction. “Harriet. Just Harriet.”
Harriet?
Harriet! New memories I’ve recently made are surfacing. The phone call in Superheroes & Scones. Tom’s disgruntlement towards her.
“Harriet?” Xander’s brows pinch, turning to me but with his back to her. “Do you know a Harriet, Luna?” He’s also mouthing to me,bathroom, go pee.Having to pee is a good escape tactic, but I might be able to wiggle my way through this interaction.
“I do know a Harriet. Lab partner Harriet.”
Harriet hasn’t confirmed whether that is her yet. Because a towering six-foot-five Cobalt suddenly enters our lane.
Ben Cobalt is noweighteen.I’ve always known him as the sort of boy who spends hours running barefoot through the woods and jumping into rivers. He’s always been a jock, a guy’s guy, yet he barely gets along with his four brothers.
I wonder if that’s changed.
“Hey,” Ben Cobalt smiles, a little out of breath like he jogged here from Lane 2. He’s wearing a ringer tee that sayslove the earth. “We go to Penn together.” He’s talking to Harriet, but as Ben glances to me, I sense he’s doing his best to aid me in my memory-less quest for answers. He’s coming in with the save.
“Thousands of people go to Penn,” Harriet says flatly. “How would you know I go there? We’re not even in any classes together.”
“I remember people and faces fairly easily, and I’m positive I’ve seen you on campus before.” Ben is smiling and trying to catch her downcast gaze. “Am I wrong?”
Her squared shoulders haven’t loosened. “Dude, I know who you are, and your brother hates my guts, so maybe you should stop fraternizing with the enemy.”
“My brothers’ enemies aren’t mine.”
Her brows furrow. “Aren’t Cobalts all like,we all kill and die together, hoorah?” Herhoorahis dry, and she pumps an unenthused fist in the air.
Ben laughs, which takes Harriet aback even more.
Xander assesses their interaction stiffly. By the frost my brother is giving off, I assume his broken friendship with Ben hasn’t been mended. Three years does not heal all.
I slip into the conversation. “You want some cake?” I ask Lab Partner Harriet.