“I told you.” Audra grinned. “I sent you an Elite. I just didn’t mention I was in it.” She let out her best evil-villain laugh. “Come on, silly; get in.”
Brooklyn to the city and back? This would be at least a two-hundred-dollar ride. I tried not to think about what a waste of coin that was. After all, I was in an Elite for only the second time in my life and the last time I’d equaled too upset to notice how prime the experience was. Adjustable tint on the windows, audio controls for temp, music, and speed. A bus passed us and splashed our front windshield. The Elite’s wipers immediately flicked on. It even still had that new-car smell. Unthinkable in a normal cab.
As Audra slid next to me on the unmarred leather seat and tucked her arm beneath mine, I txted my mom.
moi On duty for dinner at Audra’s.
mama Heard!
“What coordinates did you give it?” I asked as we turned out into traffic. “Brooklyn’s that way.”
“Kyle, are you seriously trying to backseat-drive a computer? Or are you just that anxious to see the Parents? Chill, please. I’m taking you somewhere special first. Someplace I’ve never taken anyone else.”
“How come I’m so lucky?”
“Must be that charmed existence.”
After our light banter, we fell into the inexplicable silence that had been creeping between us for months now whenever the other girls weren’t present. Still our arms stayed entwined. Based on our recent history, maybe it was better that we didn’t talk.
After a few minutes of quiet, unable to take it anymore, Audra streamed our favorite nightcore song and cranked it through the Elite’s speakers. One verse in, we were singing along, trying to keep up with the lyrics. When the Elite cut through the music to tell us we’d reached our destination, we were both breathless with laughter and nightcore and using each other’s fists as microphones. We were also parked outside the Met.
“You’re taking me to look at art?”
She tweaked my nose. “Better.”
We hurried up the steps to the museum. Dinner started in fifty minutes. Even if we encountered only green lights and all the other cars on Fifth Avenue miraculously disappeared by the time we came back outside, we were going to be late. The Parents hated lateness.
Once inside the Met, we walked straight to the members’ line. Audra’s Doc blinked green. Welcome, Ms. Rhodes flashed on the turnstile screen. She selected a with guest option. And then we were through.
“Are the Parents members?”
“The Parents wouldn’t know good art if it OD’d in front of them. I’m a member because the Met is home to my favorite place in the entire wide world.”
Audra glanced at her Doc and quickened her pace. I thought for sure we were headed to the sold-out special exhibit by the famous artist who tattooed on lemons, but instead of going up to the second floor, we stayed on the first and made our way through the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts wing. I kept expecting Audra to stop in front of a particular painting or sculpture, but instead she wound through the museum until we were in a deserted section that held ancient African urns and an easy-to-miss door in the farthest corner of the room.
Although there was an exit sign above the door, it for sure seemed like one of those doors that emitted high-pitched alarms if opened.
“Almost there.”
I could hear the giddy in her voice.
“Audra…” I warned as she pushed through the door and stepped into the space beyond.
I glanced around, expecting a guard to come and yell at us, then realized that the only other person who would think that happened anymore was my mom. Most museums now implemented static barriers around the artwork. Since this room stayed emptily ancient, I figured we were entering allowed space. Besides, if whatever was on the other side of this door led to my girl’s favorite place in the world, minor electrocution would be worth it.
Or so I thought.
As Audra turned to me with wide, happy eyes, I couldn’t help asking, “Did we take a wrong turn?”
For on the other side of the door was a plain, gray, institutional stairwell. And we weren’t climbing it to get someplace cool. Audra planted herself on the steps, halfway up.
“We are exactly where we’re supposed to be.”
We were risking the Parents’ ire for this? I didn’t get it. I checked my Doc, but there was no signal.
“That won’t work in here,” Audra said, then patted the space next to her. “The first time I came in here was because my Doc told me it was the quickest way to the bathrooms. It only goes up and down. It hits all the most boring exhibits. I’ve never encountered another soul in here, no matter how long I’ve sat. I thought you could use a little shh.”
Leaning back on her elbows, she closed her eyes.
“Isn’t it wonderful?”
“You have a membership to the Met so you can skip the line to sit in an empty stairwell?”
“Mm-hmm,” she said without opening her eyes. “Try it.”
I dropped my bag and sat next to her.
“Audy, I didn’t sleep with Mr. E.”
“Shh,” she said. “Listen. Isn’t it amazing? Nothing. No sound, no ambient noise, no buzzing or dinging. And look around. No cameras or holoscreens. No motion sensors or triggered ads. No one can see us right now, Kyle. No one can hear us. Or find us. These walls are so thick even the best PHD can’t access Wi-Fi. This stairwell might be the last place of untraceable freedom in all of New York.”
“Audy, is everything okay with you?”
I thought about her excessive mood swings. How her Doc was always on private. How she hadn’t slept over at my house in weeks. She leaned her head on my shoulder.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, Kyle, but you wouldn’t understand. Just know whatever happens, everything I’ve done—”
“What have you done?”
“Everything I’ve done,” she pushed on, “has been because I’m trying to make life better for us. Now close your eyes and just feel it.”
Thoroughly freaked-out, I shut my eyes. And, weird as it was, Audra was right. Even two days ago, when I was invisible, I wasn’t. I’d been seen daily in a hundred different ways even when I was alone. I’d just never minded because all the images of me were good and praiseworthy.
Except I wasn’t invisible in here, either. When I opened my eyes Audra was studying me.
“Nice, isn’t it?”
I nodded, and she clapped her hands, pleased.
“I can get you your own membership. Skipping the line equals the best.”
“I’ll be okay,” I said.
She patted my knee. “I know you will, sweetie. Now, let’s hurry the FCK up. The Parents will kill us if we’re any later.”