Page 9 of Bonds of Starfall

"Oops." Rin smiled impishly, growing distracted by the clatter of dishes and sounds of chatter.

Her skintight black dress rode up on her thighs as she shifted on the booth, swirling a glass of red wine in her hand as she stared at Kit. The dress had tiny black straps, crisscrossing over her back and leaving her arms free. She wore a silver necklace, the many earrings in her ears chosen to match perfectly.

She took a delicate sip of her wine, loving the mellow buzz it gave her, but this evening called for something a bit stronger.

She raised a hand, flagging a nearby waiter. "Four shots of Caltan Fizzers, please."

The waiter nodded and left for the large bar in the middle of the steakhouse, lined with sleek black countertops and glass shelves filled with colorful alcohol.

A slice of meat was placed on the plate before her. She looked up, watching as Kit added a few spoonfuls of rice to her plate and drizzled it with her favorite smoke-flavored hot sauce.

He shook his head, the elegant lighting turning his light brown eyes deep with shadows. "Caltan Fizzers… Really, Rin? Do you want to end this night with your head in a toilet?"

She huffed playfully, holding a hand over her chest in feigned indignation. "That was one time." But she still had never forgotten it—when she was sixteen and had no worries; whenshe used to sneak out and ride her quiet electric scooter to Kit’s house and throw rocks at his window so he would wake up and sneak out with her. "We were trouble," she commented, melancholic.

Kit scoffed. "Youwere trouble. I was just trying to keep you out of it."

The waiter returned with a tray filled with the four shots she had ordered. She thanked him quietly before he left.

Her eyes grew wide as she lifted the small shot glass to her face and grimaced as she inhaled. "Damn, that’s stronger than I remember."

The neon orange liquor burned her nose. Like citrus, laced with battery acid. It was a delicacy of the planet it hailed from, Caltan, where the skies were clouded with smog and many blood orange moons hung in the sky, turning everything amber and yellow. Made from the Caltan orange, a small fruit that bore a striking resemblance to Earth oranges, except that when the peel was laid out to dry, it had hallucinogenic effects when consumed. She may have tried it a time or two when she was younger.

She slid one of the glasses across the tabletop to Kit. "Bottoms up." She tipped her own glass back, downing it all in a swallow.

It burned her throat and warmed her stomach. She shook her head to dispel the fizzing sensation, quickly grabbing the peel that was wedged in the rim of the glass—modified to be muted compared to a straight Caltan orange peel. She ran the salt-encrusted, dried peel across her tongue. Immediately, her limbs buzzed with a soft weightlessness. The colors in the steakhouse were turning prettier, as if the chandeliers above were enchanted.

Rin set the empty shot glass down with a clink, Kit copying the motion.

She stared at him, ignoring the untouched food on her plate. "Your freckles are so…pretty."

Kit’s mouth popped open, hands pausing as he reached for a glass of water near his elbow. "Don’t tell me you’re that much of a lightweight."

"Not really," she commented, already reaching for a second shot. "You’re just so fun to tease."

The second went down more easily. Rin barely noted the burn in her throat.

She licked the salt off the peel, running her tongue over the tangy dryness. Her nose scrunched up. "It takes more than a few shots to get me so loose-lipped."

She eyed the final, untouched glass near Kit with longing. He moved it out of her reach, gesturing to her plate of food.

"You should eat. That stuff needs to be soaked up. You’ve not eaten all day, right? Don’t lie." Kit started to cut into his meat while more sizzled on the grill between them, long shoots of asparagus charring beside it.

She hummed around a bite of rice.

"That’s not an answer. Do I need to talk with Lucien?" The corners of Kit’s lips turned down at the man’s name.

Rin snorted at his obvious disdain for her childhood friend, companion, acquaintance, neighbor. Rin didn’t know what to call him—her and Lucien’s relationship had always been complicated. His family had lived in the house next to hers, and he had always watched her from his bedroom window, right across from hers.

Lucien wore glasses that made his green eyes even more prominent, and his nose was always stuck in a book. Every time she knocked on the door to his house and asked if he wanted to play, his answer was alwaysno—she wasn’t sure why she’d ever tried. He had been too old to play childlike games. But shehad caught him watching as she ran in the yard with a toy gun, pretending to kill Rogues.

The only reason he hadn’t died five years ago was that he was away at med school. Seven years older than her and a scientific prodigy.

And now… he was her doctor.

"No," Rin grumbled. She ate a few more bites of rice and meat to appease him. The dull ache in her temples and shakiness in her hands abated as she filled her stomach. She hated it when Kit proved himself right.

As the alcohol buzzed through Rin as they ate, she forgot all about her worries of why she was accepted into the Alpha Team and if Sabine and Talor would be safe on their research trip off-planet.