More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
suspected it wasn’t a woman after all. If she had to guess, she thought it might be Mr. Hoover, the vice principal, his voice scraped by nerves. “We’re very busy here dealing
Dempsey. I’m—” “I know who you are.” “I’d like to pick up Trevor and Delilah early today, if that’s okay with the school.
piss in the fountain, I could care less.” “Who is this?” “We’re just trying to keep things together and fight our natural desire to run out of here
Earth from space. “… wrong?” “I have to go,” said the voice, impatient. There was noise on the line — either Hoover preparing to slam down the school’s old-fashioned hardline
push the thought away, frightened. “So I can just come and pick them up whenever? Do I come to the office?”
some of these crazy bitches out there are going to run them over.” “And Lila?” “She’s a senior?”
the school’s computer system. She found herself admiring the vice principal, maintaining his post. Like a captain going down
not here. The computer says she never showed up this morning.”
Late Morning Central Park, New York Lila looked down at her phone, saw a fresh text from Piper, and slipped it
said Raj. He had mocha skin and dark-brown eyes. Lila found him beautiful. Even today, even given what had happened, she couldn’t help herself being deeply in love. “Nothing.”
she knows you ditched?” Lila laughed. “I think that’s a safe assumption. She doesn’t normally text me at school.” “You gonna answer her?” Lila shrugged. She was
“Because she wouldn’t know if I had a doctor’s appointment.” “Well, what’s the text say?” “Which one?”
what do they say, Li?” “You have a little crush on Piper there, Raj?” “My dad texts me, I answer him.” “See, that’s why you’re going to be a good doctor some day,” said Lila. “You’re so responsible.” “I’m not going to
their families. Keeping their wives in fancy things.” “You don’t care about fancy things.” Lila shrugged. “Your dad is loaded.” “And I want to take charity
this all day, and Lila kept having to return him to center. He was whistling in the dark, trying not to feel the pressure. But they were both seventeen now, practically adults. She’d been kidding about marrying him as a doctor, but she wasn’t kidding about marrying Raj, if he asked. They’d been together for three years, had been having sex for two, and
saw themselves as ending up together in the long term. They could get married soon; really. Her grandmother had married at eighteen, and that had lasted over fifty years. “Bajillions,” said Lila. Her phone buzzed inside her purse. “At least see what it says,”
it was a gay hookup spot. Lila could have replied that they were here because it was the only place she knew where they could talk in relative isolation, but it was more fun to chide him for being homophobic. Raj was Indian, but his family had been in this country long enough and become affluent enough that he had acquired quite a bit of liberal white
than Lila. He looked at his forearm immediately. “You’re such a dork with that thing.”
message from my mom.” “Is it about being responsible and getting good grades?” Raj looked up from the device and met her eyes with irritation. He was usually
Now he had a problem to solve, and would remain annoyed until he’d managed to do it — as if it were his problem alone. “She just says to come home.” “You should call her back.
take your hover car back home, Dick?” “I love you, Li, but I’m not really in the mood for joking.” “What, just because I …” Now her phone wasn’t just vibrating. It was vibrating again
calling. She sighed and dug the phone from her purse, looked at the screen, then gave Raj a look. “Hang on.” She put the phone to her ear. “Hey, Piper.” Lila waited for a torrent of guilt. Piper was strange as a stepmother, being just twelve
dated memories with sage, vaguely parental advice. It was like an older sister trying to help more than a mother interfering. But still, her father stood behind Piper, so Lila usually listened
about Lila ditching school, Piper demanded to know where she was, her voice hurried. “I’m …” Lila hesitated, but Piper’s concerned tone was disarming. She found herself blurting the truth, “ … in the park.”
his eyes wide. Then the feet were gone, and they were back to being mostly alone. “The West 77th Street entrance. Meet me there.” “When?” But that was far too compliant. “Why?” Lila listened for several minutes
me to get there because the streets are losing their shit”), Lila looked at Raj. She was ready to say that her stepmother had finally lost her airy-fairy, hippie mind, but Raj’s expression stopped her. He’d been poking around on that stupid
were as wide as she’d imagined Piper’s through their conversation. “Aliens,” said Raj. “You can’t possibly believe
clutched Lila protectively, but they were gone before the potential threat could more than register. “Everyone else seems to believe
We can go to my place.” “It’s way the hell uptown.” “We’ll take a cab.” A crashing, crunching sound
has bigger things to worry about,” Lila said. “Just don’t tell her you got me pregnant, and I think we’ll be fine.”
Constellation Academy, New York Trevor stood dutifully in the car line at school for five minutes, then decided that another frozen moment would make him fucking
seams were now showing. Mr. Banks, the principal, seemed to be totally MIA. Mr. Hoover seemed to be acting as a reluctant shepherd. He’d made that “proceed to the front lobby in
popping onto everyone’s screens in a small window in the middle of a lecture about the Protestant Reformation. When Trevor’s group (more or less intact and keeping its wits) arrived in the lobby, Hoover had been there too, shouting loudly enough that everyone decided to gift him with responsible authority. Hoover had brokered the bus lines, seeming to mostly get the
from the curb as if afraid their manic parents might run them down in their haste. Nothing in line was orderly. A car at the rear would make a pickup then try to
its rear now would spend angry minutes fighting the loop before rejoining what was an increasingly snarled line of traffic beyond. Trevor hoofed it out toward
— especially once they turned back toward home. A few minutes later, Piper’s distinctive blue Bug pulled up, and Trevor felt his gut sink. Yes, he’d be leaving school and going home. But he’d be riding in the car, alone, with Piper. In the Bug’s infuriatingly
stepmom. He reached for the door, but Piper was already leaning over to push it open for him. He looked in, and she was still across the seat where he needed to be, her huge, beautiful blue eyes looking up at him
her ample boobs were on shapely display, courteously separated and shaped by the bisection of her seat belt. “Trevor, thank God.”
was ending and aliens were on their way (he’d even seen photos on the app; he had it same as anyone), and still he was getting an inappropriate boner. Perfect. “Are you okay?” she
Right here.” Trevor reluctantly looked over. Jesus, she was beautiful. Those big, blue eyes, that innocent, usually carefree bearing, that dark and wavy hair
Trevor didn’t know what was so good. The aliens? The panic? “But Hoover — that was Mr. Hoover, right? — he’s taking
Trevor, looking away. “Oh my God. Oh my God. Do you think it’s okay? Do you think they’ll be safe, or—” “What are you going to do,
Trevor snapped, his newly deep voice booming more than intended. He pushed at his glasses, feeling her gaze and knowing they looked stupid and childish. He was fifteen, and
Piper, but could see her shock in his peripheral vision while staring at his backpack. He played with one of the zippers, turning it over and over, back and forth. “Okay. Okay, you’re right,”
to snap at Piper before she’d pull into traffic, but she blessedly looked over her left shoulder, tapped the console, and confirmed that she wanted to merge. Even her technophobia was
possibility for operator error into what was otherwise a near perfect system. Then again, judging by what he’d seen in the car line and what he was already seeing on
rarely honked: the staple shout of rage for any driver in a rush. “Did they tell you about the aliens?” Trevor looked over, watching her profile. She hadn’t even tried to soften it. “Ships, Piper. Or maybe just
moving, isn’t it? Do you think that could happen, that they could just fly by?” “Dunno.” “I was listening on the radio, kiddo.” Trevor hated when she called him “kiddo.” It implied
father’s wife. “They don’t think so.” “Think what?” said Trevor. “That they’re asteroids. Or meteors. Or … what else? Like a comet or something. Or Spacelab.” She looked over, and he could see a small, exhausted smile on her wide pink lips.
idea what she was talking about. He kind of wished she’d stop talking. Or that he’d invited a friend to be in the car with them, as a buffer. “Where’s Lila?” “She’s in the park.”
