Chapter 81: Aurora Be Damned

POV: Niko

He had been at the same spot for forty minutes.

Same position. Same unlit cigarette. Same scowl that Enzo had mentioned twice and Mauricio had mentioned once and he had not addressed either time.

He had been watching the door.

He knew he was watching the door and he knew why he was watching the door and he was going to allow himself this one thing and then get it together.

She had texted almost ready forty minutes ago.

He put the cigarette in his mouth without lighting it and looked at the ceiling and told himself to stop.

"You've been in that spot all night."

Aurora appeared beside him with a red cup and that specific quality of presence she had always had. Like she occupied space differently than other people. Like she knew exactly the effect she had and had made a decision about it a long time ago.

"I'm fine where I am." He said.

"You've been staring at the door." She said.

He said nothing.

She leaned against the counter beside him. "I can see the cigarette isn't lit. That's new."

He looked at it. Put it back in his pocket.

"Spare one." She said.

He looked at her for a moment.

Then he pulled the pack out and handed her one.

She put it between her lips and waited.

He found the lighter. Held the flame out. She leaned in to catch it and he pulled the lighter back the moment the cigarette caught.

She took a pull. Exhaled slowly. "You're nervous."

"I'm not nervous." He said.

"You've been at this exact spot for forty minutes without a drink and with an unlit cigarette." She said. "You're nervous."

He looked at the door.

She watched him look at the door.

"Inviting her here was a mistake." She said. Not cruelly. Just directly.

He looked at her.

"She's going to walk in and see what this is." Aurora said. "What we actually are. The blood and the noise and all of it. And she's going to realize she is not built for this world no matter how much she wants to be."

"You don't know what she's built for." He said.

"I know what witches are like." She said. "I have been around them. They tolerate us when they have to and despise us the rest of the time. You have been the exception for her because you are in a bubble at school and the bubble feels safe. But bring her into the actual world." She gestured at the room. "And the bubble becomes very small very fast."

He looked at the room.

He looked back at her.

"Aurora." He said.

"I'm your friend." She said. "Which is why I'm telling you this now instead of after."

"My friend." He said. "Who walked out of a cafeteria saying I think I am done."

She was quiet for a moment.

"I was upset." She said.

"You had every right to be." He said. "I should have talked to you before any of it happened and I didn't and that was wrong." He held her gaze. "But I am asking you to hear me when I say this is not going to be undone by you telling me it was a mistake."

She looked at him.

He looked back.

"I know what you're going to say." She said. "That it's different with her. That you feel something you haven't felt before."

He said nothing.

Which was its own kind of answer.

She looked at her cup.

"Is it." She said. Quietly. Not performing the question. Actually asking it.

He thought about the cafeteria. The date. The morning in her room. Every argument and every moment after the argument and the specific feeling of waking up and having her still be there.

"Yes." He said.

Aurora was quiet.

He waited.

"Okay." She said finally.

He looked at her.

She looked at the room. "I'm not going to pretend I'm not still figuring out how I feel about all of it." She said. "But I'm also not going to be the person who makes this harder than it needs to be." She paused. "Just don't shut me out entirely. That's all I'm asking."

He looked at her for a moment.

"Okay." He said.

She nodded.

She reached over briefly and her hand touched his forearm. Just for a second. Then she pulled it back and looked across the room.

"She's here." Aurora said.

He turned.

Carly was at the entrance.

Black dress. Red lips. Katy beside her looking like she was ready for combat which was accurate. Carly's eyes moving through the room and landing on him and the smile that broke across her face when she found him was something he was going to draw later.

He was already moving toward her.

POV: Aurora

She watched him go.

She stood at the counter with her red cup and her cigarette and watched Niko cross the room with that specific urgency he never used for anything and wrap his arms around the blonde from behind and felt the full weight of it settle somewhere in her chest.

She had known.

She had known since the locker room at the pep rally when she had seen his face as Carly walked away. She had known before that if she was being honest. She had been choosing not to be honest because honesty had a specific cost in this case and she had not been ready to pay it.

She was paying it now.

She drank from her cup and watched them.

His whole posture was different. The specific tension he carried everywhere, the constant low-level readiness that she had known for five years, was gone. He was just standing there with her and she was talking to him about something and he was laughing and he looked like someone who had put something down that he had been carrying for a very long time.

She had never been able to make him put it down.

She had tried. Not deliberately. Just by being there and being consistent and being the person who showed up. She had thought that was enough.

It had not been enough.

She was not angry about it anymore.

She was still working out what she was instead but it was not anger.

She finished her drink.

She thought about what she had said to him. About the bubble. About witches and tolerance and the world outside school.

She had meant it as a warning.

She looked at Carly across the room taking a bottle from Enzo's hand and drinking from it without flinching and handing it back with her chin up.

She thought about the cafeteria. About the witch's call that had brought the whole room down.

She thought about Carly walking across a full cafeteria with a tray.

Maybe she had underestimated the bubble.

Maybe she had underestimated Carly McPherson.

She put the cup down and turned toward the other end of the room and decided she was going to spend the rest of the evening being someone who was fine.

She was going to get there eventually.

Tonight she was going to practice.