The Surah Stormsong Trilogy
Page 71
After we ate, the day went by surprisingly quickly. I continued to marvel at all the advancements in human technology, and actually felt pride toward the half of my blood that wasn’t Fae. Being a Halfling had always left me conflicted over my lineage, and it would be a lie to say that there hadn’t been days when I’d cursed my mother for having made me.
Of course, thinking of that just now was putting a damper on my mood, so I pushed the thought out of my head. I asked Sam if she wanted to go outside and grab some air. As much as I loved the exposition, it would be good to get some open space, take a break from the crowd.
She agreed, and we went out to do just that. Despite the city air being rank in comparison to the fresh sea air I’d grown accustomed to in Blue Hook, it was still refreshing.
Sam and I stood beside the enormous Convention Center. When she pulled out a cigarette and stuck it in her mouth, I raised an eyebrow.
Before lighting it, she looked at me over her glasses. “What?” she said. “Don’t judge, okay?”
I gave a shrug. “I wasn’t.”
“Pfft,” she said, lighting the cigarette. “You were too.”
“Well, what’re you, like, fifteen?” I asked. I didn’t mean to sound rude, I was just realizing I’d spent all day with her and didn’t even know how old she was.
She took a drag and blew out the smoke, courteously away from me. “Let me get this straight, Aria Fae,” she said, her voice neutral, for which I liked her more. “You’re totally cool with me hijacking the school computer system, playing hooky, going to an exposition with stolen badges, but the cigarette… the cigarette is where you draw the line?” She paused. “And, yes, I’m fifteen, by the way.”
I felt a slow smile come to my lips. “You may have a point,” I said, and we both laughed.
When we sobered, I said, “But, still, that shit’ll kill you.”
Sam took one last drag and put out the cigarette, replacing the butt in her pocket, for which I nodded approvingly. “I know,” she said. “Which is why I’ll quit before I get old. I just have… a lot going on right now, and I’m dealing.”
I held the door for her as we made our way back inside. “I hear that, homie,” I said.
This made her smile. She checked her watch. “It’s almost four,” she said, smile growing. “We gotta go watch Caleb’s dad’s showcase.” She waggled her eyebrows.
I chuckled. “You’re kind of a dork, you know that?”
“Why? Because I don’t have nun-chuck skills like you?” She smirked. “And I prefer nerd.”
“Me and you are gonna get along just fine,” I said.
She blinked at me. “It’s ‘you and I’,” she said. “And we already are.”
“I know. I know that. I was saying that we’re going to keep on getting along just fine.”
She laughed. I laughed. It was great.
And then things got interesting.
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