Erika’s Reviews > Leave the Window Open > Status Update

(okay, I know I'm not supposed to say this but reading this feels like reading a fan-fic....hahaha)

I can tell I’m smiling like an idiot. I don’t care. “I don’t suppose you have any hidden and mortifying names? Habits? Secrets?”
“Only one.”
“And what’s that?”
“I’m in love with a boy named Templeton.”

“I’m glad you told me,” she says, breathlessly.
“I didn’t tell you,” I point out.
“Well I’m glad I found out.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because now I won’t laugh when we become Crew.”
I go still. Not because I don’t want to hear those words. But because I do. I want them to be true.
“Do you mean it?” I ask, rolling gingerly to face her.
She mirrors me, rolling onto her side so I’m looking straight into her eyes. “Yes,”

“Don’t say it,” I hiss, as her lips form the word. “Don’t mouth it. Don’t even think about it.”

“Okay,” she whispers. “…Templeton.”

I groan, but she cuts off the sound with a kiss. We’re gentler now, moving carefully over each other’s bruised and broken bodies, the crackle of pain swallowed up by the fact that Mackenzie Bishop is letting me kiss her. Mackenzie Bishop is kissing me.

“Mac,” I start, but it’s too late. She doesn’t just smile, she starts laughing, and I want to be angry but god, it’s the most beautiful sound in the world, even better than that storm going inside her head. I would slay monsters and run through fire and jump off cliffs just to hear that sound. Which is why it takes all my strength to stifle it, and press my hand over her mouth.

She squints at the writing on the bracelet, at my legal name printed on the label, and I cover it with my fingers but it’s too late. I can tell she’s read the name. My first name.

Templeton.

Templeton Wesley Ayers the II, also known as reason #45 why I hate my father. Because what kind of sadistic asshole passes on a name like that?

I’ve never been so glad to see the Coronado’s creepy face, the gargoyles perched like ravens on the roof. I never told Mac but I have names for them all. Governor. Socrates. Headless. Malcolm…

Fake/future/alternate world Mackenzie bends down and kisses my forehead. My head spins.

^ wait, so he remembers what happened?

“Hey look,” I’ll say. “There are rational and irrational fears in this world, and last time I checked, it’s not irrational to be afraid of sharp, pointy things.” Especially not after being stabbed, I’ll think, but I won’t say that, because I’m not supposed to remember that day. It would be easier not to remember that day.