“Is today the day?” Kasey is sprawled out on my bed, her red pants pooling around her legs.

“No. I haven’t figured out what to say yet.” I put on my flannel, change my mind, and take it off. It’s way too hot out. “I’m waiting for the right moment.”

“What’s wrong with this moment?” Kasey watches as I uncap my cologne. “You look cute, and you’re about to smell delicious. I love that cologne on you.”

“That’s because you bought it for me.”

“Yes, and you’re welcome, but don’t change the subject. You’re on your way to the Ghost Office right now. Just tell him.”

“I don’t hear you coming up with any good suggestions of what the hell I should say!”

“Why even say anything? Here’s what you do. Get to the Ghost Office before him. Wait in a very sexy pose, frame yourself good for when he walks in. Like this.”

She demonstrates.

“Jesus,” I answer, watching her over my shoulder. “How the hell does your body bend that way? I think if I even attempt that I’m going to bust a kneecap.”

“What did you say when you asked out Roger?”

“Roger asked me out.”

“Okay, well, what about with Cole?”

“Cole… also made the first move.” That’s usually how it goes, now that I think about it.

“Oh, my god. Just go over there and tell him you like the shape of his butt.”

“Yep, I think that’s all the advice I need from you for one day. And get off my ass! I only decided to tell him last night. I have time.”

“You’re stalling,” Kasey says, her lips pursed.

“Honestly, I’m not, I just- I really want to get this right. He’s too important.”

Kasey seemed like she was all geared up to make a joke, but she lapses into silence, watching me. I swallow and turn back to the mirror, reaching for my bag.

“Listen, I will tell him, and soon. Now that I’ve made up my mind, I’m pretty sure there’s no going back, and also I’m just gonna go fucking crazy if I don’t. There are just a lot of things I want him to know. I don’t know what the fuck to say that covers it all. Not to mention that I need to make it clear that he still has to be my friend even if he’s not into me, because-”

“Okay, calm down.” Kasey bounces up off my bed and joins me by the mirror. “All I’m saying is - I see the way he looks at you, and I really think he likes you back. You’re a monkey when it comes to picking up on romantic signals, so will you just trust me on that? Wait for the right moment if you want to, but don’t wait around because you’re scared.”

“I’m scared as fuck, and I’m gonna do it anyway, alright? And I’ll think of something decent to say before I do it. We can’t all have the wild confidence of a Kasey Lavoe. I still vividly remember that time you straight up sat down on Jace Webber’s desk and told him he was going to the prom with you.”

“And that worked out, did it not?”

“What are you even gonna do when we find William?”

“You don’t even know,” she says, with a smirk. I twist around to make a scandalized face at her, and she winks.

“Guy has no idea what’s about to hit him.”

“You know it.” Kasey pats my shoulder. “Now, go get your man, so the two of you can focus and find mine.”

~~~~

It’s boiling hot outside, but the Ghost Office is nice and cool. Given what happened last night, I can’t help but wonder if that’s something Aiden is doing. We haven’t bothered to fix the two busted windows - they’re probably just going to break again, honestly - and a lazy breeze winds its way in through the yawning spaces where they should be. We’re coming upon the part of summer where the temperatures peak before they’ll start dropping. Looks like the Fling Thing will be right on schedule.

I don’t go in much for parties, but I do love the Fling Thing. I’ve gone every year since it started. The view from the mountaintop is spectacular, the fireworks beautiful, the bonfires good to drowse around when things start dying down. This will be my first time going with Aiden.

I’m weird around him the whole drive to the Ghost Office. I can’t help it. He clearly chalks up my absent-mindedness to a lack of caffeine, because he orders us both an extra-large when we make our daily stop at Mugshot. But after we’ve been at the Ghost Office for an hour, coffees fully consumed, it must be apparent that this isn’t the problem.

“Are you alright?” He examines my face. “You seem a little distracted.”

“No thanks. I mean, what? What did you say?”

He joins me at the door, touches a gentle finger to my chin. He guides my face up until I meet his blue gaze.

“Hi. Is anyone home?”

“Yeah. Yes. I’m sorry.” I shake my head, trying to clear the thoughts crowding for my attention. “I just have stuff on my mind.”

Aiden nods sympathetically.

“I know what this is about,” he says, and my heart stops.

“You do?”

“Yes.” He points to my shoulder, where my bruise from Ralph is hidden by my shirt. “It’s something to do with this, isn’t it? You promised you were going to tell me what happened.”

Oh. I forgot about it completely, truth be told.

“Right. Yeah. This.” I chew my lip for a moment, thinking over my phrasing. “So I had, kind of like - a little, um. Run in with Ralph.”

Aiden goes completely still. I expect him to say something, but he doesn’t. He only looks at me, so I keep going.

“He’s mad that we’re friends now, I guess, and he did this stupid drive-by at my apartment trying to scare me into - ditching you? I don’t know. It was all very absurd. But nothing really happened! The bruise is just from when he pushed me back inside my building. I hit the wall a little hard. I don’t even think they were going to do anything, really.”

Aiden still hasn’t moved, reacted, or said anything. He stares into my face with a chillingly blank expression.

“Aiden?” Without thinking, I reach for his hand, and stop myself halfway to it.

He shuts his eyes. The muscles in his jaw flex sharply. A moment passes this way, and then another.

“Hey, what-?”

He shakes his head very slightly, his eyes still closed.

“Trying. To. Calm. Down,” he says, through gritted teeth.

I gasp at a sudden burst of noise from behind us. We spent our first hour today setting up an experiment designed to test how well the stone circle was containing energy, so we had a row of jars lined up on the workbenches. The one closest to us has just cracked. As I watch, it shatters completely, falling to the ground in a glittering shower. I turn back to Aiden, but he hasn’t moved. His jaw is working, his eyes still pressed tightly shut.

Another jar shatters, and then another.

“Aiden!” I grab his hands. “Stop!”

“Trying,” he manages, through his clenched teeth. Another jar explodes into a spray of glass.

“Okay, listen to me! Aiden! I’m fine. Everything is fine.” He lets out a long breath. Another jar explodes. “Hey!” I slide my hands further up his arms and take him by the elbows. “I’m fine. I promise.”

He opens his eyes and looks straight into mine. The white-blue flash through them seems angry itself, moving like lightning. His gaze slides down my arms and stops at the place where my hands rest on him.

The static storm of energy gathering in the room falters and slows. I let Aiden go, and he blinks. When he looks at me again, his eyes are back to their usual blue. He looks over at the destroyed jars.

“I’m sorry.” His voice is strained. He steps away from me, running a hand through his hair.

“Well, you did warn me that stuff just happens when you’re feeling a lot.” I hesitate, and then blurt out: “Please don’t go looking for Ralph, or do anything to him, okay? I don’t want you to do that.”

Aiden turns to face me again, folds his arms over his chest, and lets out an exasperated sigh.

“I won’t, don’t worry. I can’t see anything that would accomplish. Even though I'd really like to show him how I feel about all this." His hands fist, the muscles in his arms flexing under his shirt. "If I go see him, he’s going to think he can get to me through you. Like he can use you to get my attention. In fact, I’d bet money that getting my attention was the goal of the whole thing.”

“So that’s why he gave up so easily.” I understand all at once. “Jesus. I should have known there was some underhanded motivation, given that it’s Ralph.”

“Well, I know him better than you do,” Aiden says darkly. “In this case, no response is the best response. Sadly enough.”

“Wow.” I pause, fidgeting.

“What?” Aiden catches the look on my face. “I’m sorry, did you change your mind? You want me to go kick his ass?”

“No, I’m just - still getting used to new Aiden, I guess.” I smile at him, feeling inexplicably proud. “High school you would handle something like this very differently.”

“I just made a bunch of things explode, Jamie.”

“Yeah, but that’s actually still better. I’ve never seen you stop being angry so quickly.”

“Do not think that I’m not angry,” he says, and I hear it in his voice, dark and low. “I’ve just gotten better at dealing with it.”

“And that’s not an accomplishment?” I smack his arm with the back of my hand. “Give yourself some credit. Plus, now you don’t have to go talk to Ralph again.”

Aiden snorts.

“Yeah. That is a benefit.”

“I kind of hate thinking of you talking to him,” I admit, all in a rush. Aiden’s eyebrows arch, surprise on his face. I feel my cheeks turning pink, but forge ahead. “I’m sorry, I just - he’s got this way of getting inside people’s heads, it’s so damn insidious. The idea of him getting his hands on you and trying to ruin the really cool person you are now is awful.”

Aiden stares at me for a moment. His mouth slowly curls into a smile, and he steps closer to me, like he’s about to share a secret.

“Here’s the thing,” he says, his low voice quiet and soft. “I worked way too hard to come back to myself, to let Ralph ruin it now. Especially because I know that would mean throwing away my friendship with you.”

My heart is about to burst.

“Oh,” I say, my head empty of everything else.

“I know about the games he likes to play. I’m not concerned that he’s going to manipulate me into doing something stupid. The reason I don’t like being around him is that he reminds me of what I used to be like.” A sad look flickers across Aiden’s face. “Honestly, it makes it seem even more ridiculous that you would want to be my friend, after knowing me when I was like that. Even after all these years.”

“You’re nothing like that now,” I tell him. “You couldn’t be less like that.”

“A high compliment,” Aiden says, and I laugh.

“Just to clarify, I don’t doubt you at all. I know you can handle yourself. It’s just that Ralph-”

Aiden holds up a hand to stop me.

“I understand, seriously. And regardless, I appreciate you looking out for me.” He smiles, ruffles my hair. “Companion plant.”

His warm blue gaze, his hair falling into his forehead, his closeness to me. Is this it? The afternoon sunlight spills over his shoulders. Is this the moment? Should I say something?

My heart is pounding too hard, and I can't find a single word. He steps away, none the wiser.

“Ready?” he asks, scooping the stones off of the workbench.

“Yep.” I take them from him, hiding the red glow of my cheeks. “Let’s get to work.”

~~~~

“You know,” Aiden says later, stretched out on his back, “I’m starting to get mad that we still can’t figure this out.”

We’re on the floor, taking a break. We swept up the glass and put it in the bins out back, along with some freshly mangled pairs of eyeglasses. It’s late in the afternoon, and the heat outside is building, even as the Ghost Office remains pleasantly chill.

“I know.” I tip my head to look at him. “Maybe we just suck. You’d think we’d at least be a little closer by now.”

“I wish-” He pauses. “I wish that my mom had taught me more before she left.”

I hold my breath, waiting for him to go on. He never talks about his mom, and I’m afraid to say something that would make him close up again. I love these moments, when he briefly opens the door to the underground city of his past life and lets me peek inside. Even when he’s talking about something sad, it feels like he’s offering me something precious.

“The stuff she showed me how to do - light, heat - they’re so easy for me now.” Aiden stares up at the ceiling. “Everything else, though... I feel like I don’t even know where to start. What if we’re doing this all wrong, Jamie?” He closes his eyes for a moment. “She would be so disappointed in me.”

My heart twists. I want to roll over and land squarely on top of him and kiss the frown off of his face.

“That’s not fair,” I say instead. “She’s the one who stopped teaching you. It’s not your fault you don’t know how to do this.”

“It wouldn’t matter. She would call that an excuse.”

I hesitate.

“You know, your mom, she sounds… um…”

“She was a complicated person,” Aiden says, not looking at me.

My thoughts snag on one word.

“Was?” I ask quietly. He doesn’t answer for a moment.

“She’s not dead. She lives in Florida, she’s remarried, she’s fine. She’s just… not a complicated person, anymore.”

“So-” I struggle for a moment, but I can’t not ask. “If that’s the case, could you maybe just… call her, or something, and ask her how to do this?”

“No,” Aiden says flatly.

“I’m sorry.” Oh, god. My big mouth. “I didn’t mean-”

“You’re fine, it’s-” He pauses again. “Let’s just say she can’t help us. We’re on our own.”

I think about that for a minute, then sit up. Aiden hears the movement and opens his eyes.

“I have an idea.”

He props himself up on his elbows as I move over to the table.

“New stone configuration?” he calls. I start gathering up the little rocks.

“No.”

Aiden gets to his feet. He watches as I put all of the stones back in the pouch and toss them onto the workbench. I gather up the row of plants lining the circle and set them down more gently next to the stones, leaving only the reading glasses on the table.

“I’m not following,” Aiden says, his eyes on the almost-bare table.

“This stuff, the rocks, the plants, the whole configuration - this is your mom’s system, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…?”

“And this magic you have, whatever you are, you were born into it, right?” I join him at the coffee table. “You’ve been able to do it your whole life, even when you were little?”

“Yes?”

“So, fuck this stuff. They’re your mom’s things. Her system, not yours. You were born with your gift, you have it inside of you. What helped her shape and control her magic, that’s just what worked for her, but you're you. I bet you can do it without this. Your mom has way too much influence over this whole thing, and she’s not even here.”

“Are you suggesting…” Aiden turns to stare at the glasses, alone on the table. “That I try and do this with nothing to control the energy?”

“That’s how you do it with heat and light, and those are easy for you. You can control it, Aiden, just feel it out for yourself. Don’t think about your mom or how she would do it or what she would say. Just do it how it feels right.”

Aiden chews his lip, considering.

“You think?” he finally says. His blue eyes are already starting to gain a white shimmer, brewing magic rising up.

“Just try it,” I answer. “Honestly, what’s the worst that can happen?”