Page 97 of With Stars in Her Eyes

“No.” I counted the freckles on her shoulders as I had been counting the specks of light in the sky. “You’re incandescent like a star.”

The line should have felt corny or silly, but it didn’t. The soft declaration hovered in the air between us. It felt chemical and electric, something that could be measured in a lab if only we had the right tools.

Companionable silence fell between us again.

Time passed in a sea of colors and memories. Tiny realizations skittered through my consciousness, the kind that were more impressions than thoughts.

“Courtney Starling?”

“Yes, Thea Quinn.”

“If I tell you something crazy, will you promise not to laugh?”

“Promise.”

The memories of everything after what Thea said were even hazier. But I didn’t laugh.

CHAPTER 34Thea

I was naked in the kitchen when the banging started—and notthatkind of banging. Someone outside rapped so hard on the front door I almost spilled the water glasses I had just filled all over the counter. When I looked out the front window, I nearly dropped the glasses again.

I blinked and put the glasses on the entry table.

I rubbed my eyes and looked out again.

“Holy shit.”

Demetrius Adeyemi, front man of the Violet Trikes, was standing on the doorstep.

“What the actual fucking fuck?”

I grabbed my phone off the coffee table where it was half-buried by the mess of dishes from our late-night snacks. On my way back into the bedroom, I banged my shoulder into the doorframe… also not the right kind of banging.

Courtney could apparently sleep through anything because she was still sprawled out on the bed. She was naked, mostly. She was wearing underwear and a periwinkle bralette I must have been too high to remove last night. I pulled the comforter up to her chin and brushed her bangs away from her eyes.

I, however, was completely naked. Which is why fleeing the person at the door was even more essential.

The only thing covering my skin was dirt and my hair, which was tangled with leaves… and twigs?

But holy supernatural fungal fever dream… last night had been…

I couldn’t even find the words yet. I stepped closer to thewindow again. Maybe it had been a hallucination. Maybe it was the mushrooms. Maybe I was just seeing things. I peered out through the sheer bedroom curtains.

Oh god. He was still there. Why was he still there?

I must still be hallucinating.

I backed away from the window so fast that I tripped over the mess surrounding the bed and fell on my bare buck-naked ass.

Where the hell were my shirt and pants? I’d settle for just underwear at least.

The banging at the door was loud enough to carry upstairs now.

“No. No. No. No.”

I caught my reflection in the mirror. I was still a complete disaster and one of my musical idols was outside. This was the type of nightmare you have about school as a kid when somehow you’re in social studies taking a pop quiz in your most embarrassing underwear.

I pulled blankets off the floor in a fury until my fingers snagged on the filthy jeans I had been wearing on our Flint Hills stargazing excursion. Still no sign of anything else. I pulled them on. Luckily Courtney had a large stock of oversized sweatshirts. I grabbed one and yanked it on over my bare boobs, causing a scattering of detritus to land on the floor.