Page 102 of With Stars in Her Eyes

“Now I remember. The one that was on a soundtrack, right?”

I inhaled sharply through my nose. “Yes.Pleasedon’t start about the soundtracks again. I really try to pretend that every conversation I have with you about music never existed.”

“You’re very mean and judgmental for a woman currently pulling thorns out of her butt while allegedlynoton a walk-of-shame.” He adjusted his baseball cap. “And all I said was that I felt like Nickelback gets a raw—”

“Please don’t repeat it. It’ll just make it worse.” I put my fingers in my ears and sang to myself until he stopped defending trash bands.

“You have to love me anyway.”

“You don’t have to make it harder. I can’t lose you. I’ve lost enough in the last twelve hours.”

Marshall squinted. “Looks like you’ve got moss growing in your hair. A new trend in the witchy folk circles? And what’ve you lost in the last twelve hours? Other than your shoes apparently.”

I looked down and, yep, my feet were bare. Lovely. “Shit, moss? Probably bugs too.Shit.”

Marshall took pity on me and began to pick out the worst of it. “Can we get back to what you lost?”

“Oh, just all my hope for the future.”

“You’re a millennial who still had hope for the future?”

“I hadglimmersof it,damnit.”

Marshall plucked a literal twig from my head and held it up like Mary Poppins pulling the hatstand out of her bag.

“Exactly.”

“Exactly what?” He tossed the twig into the hedge. “Is this one of those situations where I should just let you keep spinning and eventually, you’ll calm down enough to actually tell me what’s actually going on?”

“Probably.”

“I’m refereeing a charity flag football tournament today. Can we walk and talk?”

“I don’t look too much like a swamp witch for you to be seen with me?”

“No more than usual.”

“Comforting.”

“What are best friends for.” We turned the corner that would take us toward the park. “You said you’d fill me in when you came home and then you didn’t come home last night. Guessing you were with Courtney. Andohhh…”

“Caught up?”

“Courtney’s arock star? Barely ever says two complete sentences in my presence Courtney?ThatCourtney? I thought you said she just does a classical thing.”

“Apparently your dad knows all about it. Also, your dad and Ms. Jeannie are apparently secret drug dealers too, but we cantalk about that later. It’s like an open secret. You swear you hadno idea? Everyone here knows.”

“It’s an open secret my dad’s adrug dealer? He’s a retired pharmacist, not a—”

“No. Not that. Everyone knows Courtney’s some secret rock star who performs in disguise.” I grabbed his arm and made him look me in the eye, accentuating each of my next words independently of each other. “Did… you… know?”

“I swear I didn’t know she was a rock star.” He shrugged. “I told you everything I knew before. Well, good for her, I guess? Can we get back to my dad dealing drugs because…” He glanced at me. “Wait… Why does this make you mad?”

“BecauseKestrel.” The sound I made was definitely not a scream.

He stopped walking for a moment and then pulled out his phone and typed.

I rubbed my temples. “Courtney Starling is Kestrel. Kestrel is fucking Courtney goddamn Starling.”