Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
After I got off work and came home, she immediately asked me about the Rochesters.
Her neuro-doctors have been guiding her through the delicate nature of recovering memories. She has an appointment tomorrow. So I made it clear that option existed, if she’d rather talk it out with them.
She said, “I just want to hear it from you, if that’s okay.”
I told her everything I know.
Now she’s letting it sink in.
“They sound like Sith,” Luna whispers, even though it’s only us in her room. Plus, Orion. He’s taking up half the bed, but I wouldn’t push him off. I love the big furry lug. Love him even more close by us. “The Rochesters use the Dark Side of the Force, and the Dark Side uses them too.”
Star Wars. I’ve read a bunch of the comics by now. Seen all the movies and watched Andor and The Clone Wars with Luna this week. Some of the lore feels open to interpretation. So I ask, “You believe all Sith are evil?”
“I didn’t used to,” Luna admits. “I liked to think Sith were just an alien species, and their traditions were passed on to others over time. To be Sith didn’t mean you were born evil, but if you’re taught the Dark Side, if you follow the Dark Side, then…” She shrugs, “that’s what you are.” Her eyes travel over mine, like she’s feeling for the past she wants to see. “I didn’t think Rochester was the same family that went to Dalton. I’d never heard of a Wyatt Rochester when I chose my schedule.”
“He’s the oldest. I don’t think any of his siblings were in your grade either.”
“I can’t believe they moved into my parents’ neighborhood in the past three years.” She winces. “And then The Royal Leaks.”
The Rochesters were the insidious hands behind those leaks. Where salacious, private pieces of information were posted online without the famous ones’ consent. They denied the allegations. A lawsuit ensued, and they recently settled out of court.
Whatever undisclosed sum the Rochesters coughed up—it wasn’t enough to me. Not when that asshole is singling out my girlfriend.
“Yeah,” I breathe. I have my arms around her slender back. Her body is bowed towards mine.
“I wondered what The Royal Leaks were. People on Fanaticon mention it a ton. I thought, maybe, it was a promo or tagline for We Are Calloway.”
“No, just somethin’ those fucking roaches did.”
“The Roaches,” she smiles.
“Without the cock. ‘Cause I am a cockroach, and we’re not the same.”
She crinkles her nose. “You’re not a cockroach.”
“Don’t think I could survive a nuclear war? Three months without food? Forty-five minutes without air?”
Her smile brightens. “You are a cockroach-apedia.”
“I know my species.”
She shakes her head, then rests her chin on her kneecap. “I don’t think you belong to that particular species. Cockroaches run when they’re scared.”
It crashes me into my childhood. “Yeah?” I open my mouth, but instead of saying shit, I look away from her for the first time.
Her body tenses against my palms, and I rub her back. Then I breathe, “I run.”
My family.
I ran away from them when I was seventeen, but it’s not what I’ve been doing lately. And anyway, I don’t wanna bring them up.
Her fingers trail the ink along my collar, small typeface that reads: Made in Philly. But her eyes—her eyes are glued to mine. “I lost all my memories of you, and you never ran away from me.”
“You’re not what scares me, Luna.”
Her body melts against my hands, easing. “What are you afraid of?”
“A world without cheesesteaks and tomato pie.”
Her smile reemerges. It sends me to the moon. She asks, “What else?”
“You tell me yours.”
“I’m afraid of…” She thinks. “Vultures.”
“Figurative or literal?”
“Literal, but I guess both. I once saw a vulture picking at a deer carcass. It just seemed like a sad thing to happen after death.” She stares into me. “Now you.”
“Uh, great white sharks. Never seen one, but I’m swimming my hardest if I do.”
Her turn. “Being a worse Luna than OG Luna.” She says fast, “And I know it’s all me. I am her. But I just want to do her proud. Myself proud. It’s why…it’s why I don’t think I’m going to drop the class with the Roach.”
My muscles flex in hot bands, and I lift my hand off her back, just to scrape my fingers through my hair.
“It’s not what you would do,” she realizes.
“I run,” I emphasize.
I know who I am, but she sees me in a different light that I can’t always make sense of. That scares me. I love how overwhelming it feels when she looks at me. But what if she only views me as this “human hero” because she doesn’t have all the pieces of me? As soon as I give more of my past, as soon as she realizes I am a cockroach, will she even love me the same?