Page 37 of Find My Way Down to You

“Come with me,” London says before I can process anything. Before the impact fully settles.

He’s crouched in front of me. His thumb traces the bracelet around my wrist. Our faces are inches away.

“What?” I say, breathless.

“Let’s go together.”

I stare into his eyes. See the want, the excitement. It’s overwhelming and still so inviting.

“How—”

He cuts me off. “I have a plan.”

Of course he does.

London tells me everything. The things I need to do. The steps to take. What I’ll have to talk to my parents about. Then he makes me write it all down.

I do with a trembling hand.

After, with the sun steadily falling behind him, London says, “What do you think?”

It’s a heavy question. One that I don’t have an instant answer for. London wants me to come with him to college. He sees us being together past high school. A future.

That’s what I want too.

“Well?”

I kiss him. It’s the only answer that matters.

6

Warm light beatsagainst my closed eyelids.

I’m halfway between a dream and waking. Drowsiness melts the margins of my thoughts. Heat trails up my skin like slow fingers. I groan, my muscles begging to stretch. Something presses repeatedly against my chest.

I blink one eye open.

Diana’s big gold eyes stare back. She paws guiltlessly at my blanket.

“You’re a menace,” I tell her.

She meows, then hops off me, sauntering out of the room.

My room.In the apartment.

I lurch upright, instantly regretting the motion. My head spins. Pieces of last night rattle around like marbles going downhill. Santa Barbara State and pulsing blue lights and a fountain at the heart of campus. Falling…No,pulledinto water.

Into another world.

I wait for the dizziness to stop before finding my phone. The battery’s almost dead. The screen is dim as I read the time:

10:02 a.m.

I haven’t slept this late in forever. As it is, I barely sleep at all. But, outside the fuzziness in my head, my body feels good, rested.

Noises from outside my cracked door steal my attention. Before I roll out of bed, something appears in my periphery.

White petals.