Chess’s gaze lingered on him a moment longer, her vorpal glowing bright in the dark room. Like the Girl Queen in the forest, standing in a shaft of sunlight that lent her an otherworldly glow.
Dylan tried to concentrate on the movie, but Chess glimmered in the corner of his vision the whole time. He brushed his shoulder against hers and she leaned closer. Solid, warm. He slid his hand into hers, thinking, I’m Hunter, I’m just Hunter.
She smiled and leaned farther into him. “My mom knows I’m going to hang out at your shop tomorrow—she wants to come by and pretend to look at the jewelry so she can spy,” Chess said, squeezing his hand.
Dylan stiffened. It had worked. He pulled his hand away, disgust curling his stomach.
Chess glanced at him. “What?”
“Nothing.”
A flush crept over her face that he could see even in the dim light. She must have realized he wasn’t Hunter. She leaned away, probably telling herself that the movie had made her forget who was sitting next to her.
Dylan shoved his shaking hands under his legs. Why did I do that? He hadn’t thought it would really work. He’d only wanted to hold her hand.
He glanced at her again, but her gaze was glued to the screen.
After the movie was over and Chess had lifted the pull-down screen, Dylan carried the crate of leftover root beers to Chess’s Subaru. They were pretending nothing had happened. Chess argued with herself about sentient robots as if Dylan were only an audience.
He interrupted her. “Do you think another world could exist right next to ours?”
Chess unlocked the car. “Are we talking The Matrix—our world is just a dream, there’s another world beyond it?”
“More like different realities, but each one is real.” He set the crate in the backseat. “Or maybe there’s another world and it’s not real but you can still go there. Does that even make sense?”
She nodded. “Inception.”
“But in Inception, they weren’t physically going anywhere. Everything that happened was just in someone’s head.” He watched his breath come out in streams of vapor. He was freezing cold.
She reached for the door handle. “Get in.”
He hesitated. They both shuffled awkwardly.
“Go ahead—it’s like an alternate world in there when you blast the heat,” Chess said with a smirk.
He slid into the passenger seat. “Did you ever read the Narnia books? Or Harry Potter?”
“Sure.” She turned on the engine but didn’t put the car into gear.
“Well, that’s what I mean about other worlds.”
“I hadn’t thought of Narnia as an alternate universe. More like . . . a fairy-tale land.”
Dylan tried to look at the world as someone from the past would, as if he were in some futuristic movie. The half-frosted windshield. The dashboard display, all lit-up dials and slide-down switches. They could be wonders if you considered them with the right frame of mind. This could be a fairy-tale land, to someone.
“Do you think we’re too old for Narnia?” he asked. “Or anyplace like that? Fairy-tale lands?”
“Reading about magic’s not much different from watching movies about robots and replicants, I guess.”
“No, I mean do you think we’re too old to be allowed to go there? In stories like that—in fairy tales—you have be pure of heart.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, smiling. “Are you trying to tell me something about your intentions with me?”
Dylan felt a flush creeping up his neck. “I just meant . . .”
She brushed a hand over his arm. “I heard why you had to leave Hevlen.”
He tensed. “About how I stole the answer key for the final exam.” He turned toward the window, saw only his dark reflection. “That was dumb. I’ve been doing a lot of dumb stuff ever since . . .”
“Like what?”
“Like . . . taking my brother’s stuff.” And hanging out with my brother’s girlfriend. His arm still tingled where she had touched him. “Not exactly pure of heart.” He turned back to find her staring at him.
She pulled up her sleeve to show the gold bracelet. “Is this why you came tonight? You wanted the bracelet?”
Dylan still couldn’t make up his mind—was it only someone’s lost bracelet or was it a relic from another land? A land no one else could see. A land that couldn’t possibly exist.
He ran his fingers over the gold, almost touched her skin. His whole hand was tingling. Was it really so bad, to be here in the real world? With a girl he knew wasn’t imaginary? “No, I didn’t come for this,” he said to Chess.
“Something else of Hunter’s, then.” Her gaze was piercing.
Dylan briefly considered the possibility that she could see straight through his skull to his thoughts.
She moved her hand closer to his on the seat. Inviting him to hold it? That seemed like a crazy idea.
How do you know if a girl likes you? The most Impossible Question of all.
“Why did you come?” she went on. “Are you here from the future to warn me of impending doom?”