I stir awake, surprised to find a hand curled on my hip.

I roll over sleepily, cuddling into the warm body in my bed. I haven’t opened my eyes yet, and I’m still half-submerged in my dreams, but something in the depths of myself has already recognized Aiden’s presence. His body, his breathing.

But I didn’t fall asleep with him in my bed. That I’m sure of.

Aiden worked at the exhibition space all day, late into the evening. I stayed with him there even after my part was complete, but we parted ways afterwards. We both had stuff to do.

We’ve each been given some free tickets to the exhibition. I went to my parents’ house to drop theirs off, then swung by Roger’s place to give him and Luca the two I had left. Their decision to keep Aiden's secret still has me reeling with gratitude.

I left the tickets in Roger’s mailbox with a note. After that, I had just enough energy left to come home and shower before I passed out.

Aiden had his own to-do list for tonight. Neither he nor Ripley had an outfit appropriate to wear to the opening, so they went out together to get something. Aiden had his sobriety phone call to Berlin after that, so - we definitely didn’t have plans for him to come over. We were both too busy.

Yet here he is.

“What’re you doing here?” I ask, sleep-slurred words.

“Couldn’t fall asleep without you,” Aiden murmurs.

I draw back, drowsily knuckling my eyes, and look at him. His chestnut hair is windblown. When I push my fingers through it, cool night air kisses my skin.

“Did you walk here, Aiden? Like - just now?”

“Mhm. Hope that's okay, I just...”

He trails off, biting his lip.

I sit up and look out through the window. The sky is still filled with stars, the entire town still asleep. I can't imagine what time it is.

I turn back and look at Aiden. There’s only starlight in my room, so I don’t expect his eyes to be that staggering shade of turquoise they are when the sunshine hits them. But even in the low light, I can see that his gaze is unusually dark, anxious and fretful. There’s a tiredness to them that tells me he hasn’t gotten even the lightest sleep tonight.

I don’t need to ask him what’s going on. I know what this is about.

The exhibition opens tomorrow.

The pressure is really on, for Aiden. Even more so, now, because Alix actually managed to persuade an art critic to come all the way out to Ketterbridge for this. She’s going to drive across two towns to go pick him up tomorrow, so he can see the exhibition on opening night. If he likes the show, he might write a review of it.

He also might write a review if he really doesn’t like the show.

The anxiety in Aiden’s eyes makes perfect sense. But I really, really think that everything is going to be beautiful.

I’ve already said that to Aiden, and I don’t think that anything else I say is going to make a difference. He’ll be stressed out no matter what. So instead I lay down again, open my arms for him.

He lets out a breath, then climbs into them. I fold him into the coziest embrace I know how to give.

I scratch him and hold him, gently massage him until he’s melted against my body. I open the connection for fleeting moments, let some of my love seep through, then close it again, giving him little doses. I tuck my thigh between both of his, let our bodies share their heat.

Aiden’s breathing gradually grows deep and slow. But doing this is making me sleepy, too, and the movements of my fingers begin to slow down, to get clumsier.

“Are you feeling better, babe?” I mumble, unable to keep my eyes open.

No answer. I wait for a minute, but still, nothing comes.

I smile to myself, tighten my arms around Aiden, and let myself drift off to sleep.

~~~~

I stand outside of the Bright Future building, Raj and Noah by my side.

Noah managed to find a sweater with no holes in it to wear beneath his leather jacket. I wore a flannel, but one that’s not patterned, just simple and charcoal grey. I pluck at my sleeve while Raj fidgets with his engagement ring, and Noah with his lip piercing.

We’re all nervously staring at the first attendees to show up to the exhibition.

People will be entering the building through the side door, going into the small room first. This arrangement means that there's quite literally a line of people wrapped around the building, waiting to get in.

It’s a clear, beautiful night, the stars out overhead. The lights that Noah put around the sides of the building cast the walls into a soft, golden glow. A bright layer of chatter and laughter rises up from the people waiting in line.

Ripley steps out onto the porch through the front door. This will actually be the exit, where people leave the show, so we’re the only ones currently gathered here.

Ripley is in a nice dress shirt, like Raj. I haven't seen him wear one before. It combines surprisingly well with his bright green hair and the colorful paint stains on his fingers, even if he’s clearly already gotten impatient with it. He’s down two buttons at the collar, and the sleeves are folded up to his elbows.

Aiden steps out after him, looking good enough to eat in his new outfit. I thought he’d probably buy something dark, but he actually got a light blue dress shirt, the color like the shallows of an ocean. It matches his eyes, sits both bright and soft against his bronze skin.

Like Ripley, Aiden has already rolled up his sleeves, but that's because he was rushing around to make sure that everything is ready for the opening. His chestnut hair is already starting to get disorganized in that sexy way I love so much. And he's wearing the glasses, so I won’t be the only one at the event who can see the ghosts.

He looks perfect.

I can’t keep myself from twining my arms around him. He bends down to kiss the top of my head, then immediately turns his gaze back out to the crowd.

“So many people,” he murmurs, running his thumb over his lip. “Show doesn’t even open for twenty more minutes.”

“Yeah, I was wondering if I needed to remind you of that, man.” Noah arches a pierced eyebrow at Aiden. “Why were you rushing to get all that last-minute shit done? We’ve still got a little time.”

“Because, Noosh, we’ve got a VIP doing a private walkthrough before we open the doors.”

I blink up at Aiden, caught by surprise. “What - a VIP?”

“The art critic?” Raj asks. “He’s not gonna be here early, man. Alix actually said that she’s gonna be late, since she’s picking him up. Remember?”

“Not the critic.” Aiden’s eyes are scanning the people approaching from the sidewalk. “Different VIP, it's - oh - there she is!”

He strides down from the porch to meet her, waving across the crowd.

Aunt Sarah waves back at him, smiling brightly. She looks excited, and she enthusiastically says something to Aiden when he stops before her. He laughs, then puts an arm around her shoulders, guides her up to the building. He beckons to me, and I give myself a shake, drop my fingers from my mouth and the too-big smile from my face.

“Hi, honey,” Aunt Sarah says warmly, when I come up to join her and Aiden.

“Hi, Aunt Sarah.” I cast a smile at Aiden over her head. “Private showing from the exhibition director himself, hm?”

“I guess so,” she laughs, as Aiden leads her right up to the front of the line. “I can’t wait to see how it all turned out!”

“Don’t have to wait any longer,” Aiden says, and opens the door.

~~~~

The door closes behind us, muffling the outside noise. Leaving us in the dark.

Aunt Sarah blinks in surprise, gazing around. We’re not in an open room, but a quiet, enclosed space. There’s a pathway before us, illuminated softly on either side by the floor lights that Noah put down.

The light-lined path is the only visible thing when you first walk in. The rest is darkness.

But those gentle lights reveal hints of plant life surrounding the path. Bark, fern, flower, bush. Audio is played quietly into the space: the soft sounds of crickets and windblown leaves, the faintest hint of a distant creek.

It really does feel like a forest at night, but one with a glowing pathway to take.

Aunt Sarah looks in silence for a moment, then steps out onto the path. She follows it until she goes around a curve, where she stops.

The first archival photo is hung on the wall there, bathed in a warm, gentle glow. The archival bulbs only cast enough brightness to reveal the picture, and around it, the plant life. As if old-growth is coming up all around it, framing it. It’s the portrait of the Kalispel woman, which we got our approval to exhibit.

It’s a beautiful, powerful shot, and Aunt Sarah stops still before it, staring. She looks at it for a long time, reads the wall label. Then she moves further along the path, takes another turn. The next archival piece is there, displayed just like the first.

By making this curving pathway with the temporary walls, we doubled the amount of space Aiden had to hang each archival piece. Each one has its own room to breathe, its own presence, its own power.

Plant life reaches out from either side of the path, gently brushing against us as we go by. Many of the photographs that Aiden chose have old-growth in the background. Standing in the midst of all this makes it feel like we’re standing in the same setting. Like we're there. Not just looking at the pictures, but experiencing them.

Aunt Sarah doesn’t say a word as she walks along. Aiden and I stay behind her, watching her take everything in.

She blinks as the next turn in the path brings her into half-light. We've reached the hallway between the two rooms, but the walls on either side of the door have been covered by plant life, so it simply looks like another portion of the path.

The dim light gradually grows brighter as we move into the hallway.

The walls in here were white when we left last night, but the vandal struck sometime after everyone went home, as planned. His work is the first to be seen from the young artists’ section.

It’s done in spray paint. A sunrise, in the very beginning of its swell. The sky is painted in soft blue and pale pink, with a layer of white clouds flowing through the middle.

As we walk down the hallway, the colors grow brighter and richer, more vivid. The lighting grows, too, gradually brightening the subtle, dim glow of the first room into something radiant.

At the end of the hallway is the title of the show, done in huge, graffiti-style lettering across the clouds.

Bright Future.

Aunt Sarah walks through the open door and into the big room. From the quiet darkness of the first room, we step out into a riot of color. Out of the past, and into the future.

There are paintings, sculptures, photographs, screenprints, and more. A long, sweeping piece of colorfully dyed fabric floats overhead, hung from the ceiling, rippling in the breeze. Moving in graceful swirls across the space. One of the works of art, and we had a hell of a time deciding where the label for that one should go.

Instead of going with the white-wall style, Aiden let each artist pick the paint for their part of the wall. No one chose white, so there's color everywhere. From the corner of my eye, I catch the bright green shade that Ripley chose for his section.

The two bartenders wave at us when we step in. They showed up in standard catering uniforms, but Melanie had them put on paint-spattered coveralls. The same ones that Raj and Noah wore when they did all the colorful sections of the walls.

Mel asked us to leave the wall behind the bar blank, and now I see why. She let the student artists go crazy on it, do whatever they wanted. It’s chaotic and colorful, and it makes the two paint-spangled bartenders look like they got caught in some kind of art-bomb. One of the sculptors even hit the wall with a fistful of clay, and one of the photographers pasted on a collage of ripped-up prints.

I did the flower arrangements at either end of the bar, and Mel told me to go absurdly colorful with those, too. There are more of them outside, in the grassy area behind the building, placed on high-top tables where people can relax during the opening. We left that door open, and the colorful lights that Noah put out there cast a glow over the threshold.

It’s all so vibrant that the whole room seems to shine, to hum with energy.

Aunt Sarah stares at it all, then turns slowly to Aiden. He looks down at her nervously, waiting for a verdict.

“Aiden,” she breathes. “This - this is…”

She fades off. Aiden steals an anxious glance at me, then looks back down at her. “Is it not, um-?”

“You did all this, sweetheart?”

“No," Aiden answers. "I mean - the team did it.”

He picks up one of the exhibition booklets, flips it over, and hands it to her. On the back is the list of all the team members.

Aunt Sarah stares down at it, then trails her fingertips over the words Aiden Callahan: Exhibition Director.

She still hasn’t really said anything, and I can tell that Aiden is increasingly troubled by it.

“So, um - that’s why we have the tickets,” he explains, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “We’re gonna let people inside in waves, so they get the full experience of the first part. Then they can hang out in this room for as long as they want. Ticket’s good all night, so if anyone wants to go through the first part again, they can. Assuming anyone will want to, I don’t kn-”

He stops abruptly as Aunt Sarah finally looks up at him, a radiant smile on her face, her eyes overflowing with pride.

Aiden breaks into a slow, relieved smile. He puts an arm around his aunt, and she drops her face into her hand.

“Aw! She loves it, guys!”

Aiden and I turn around, startled, searching for whoever spoke. Our eyes land on the front door, through which Noah, Raj, and Ripley are peeking in. All of them are grinning happily, but they immediately stumble backwards when they realize they’ve been caught. The door swings shut after them, and we hear the thump of them all tripping over each other.

“You can come in, you idiots,” I call, trying not to laugh.

There’s a silence, and then the door opens again. Noah, Raj, and Ripley come inside, matching sheepish expressions on their faces.

“Sorry.” Ripley winces at us. “We weren’t spying, we’re just - nervous. Wanted to see what our first guest thought.”

“Oh, shit, boys!” Raj says, looking down at his phone. “Mel says it’s time! Wants to know if we’re ready for her to open the doors.”

“What say you, Ms. Aiden's Aunt?” Noah asks.

She looks around again, her smile shining out through her eyes, then nods. Raj breaks into a grin as he texts Mel back.

Ripley casts a nervous look at his part of the wall, where two framed pieces are hanging. I haven’t gotten to look at them yet, he put them up so last minute. I lean around Aiden, trying to see, but something distracts me.

As one, we all turn to look at the hallway. We can hear the faint noise of people making their way into the first room.

“Holy shit,” Aiden mumbles, running a hand over his face.

I lace my fingers through his and give them a tug, so he'll look at me, see how I'm smiling up at him.

Aiden gazes into my eyes for a moment. Then he looks up at everyone gathered around him.

“Alright,” he says, and takes a deep breath. “Show’s open.”