My heart is trying to break free from my rib cage.
"Oh my good God, Arlo…" The wind snatches away the words from my slightly quivering lips and carries them to him. I feel like this is all just a dream that I'm gonna wake up from soon.
"Zera," Arlo's palm cradles my shoulder, his eyes searching mine, "It is real. We can do it. Everyone with magic can do it."
My mind is racing higher than the waves here, I curl my fingers on Arlo's sleeve, "No one will know?"
He squints his eyes at me.
"No one will know that I'm a Gray?" I whisper, uncertainty seeping out from each of the words as they escape me.
The corner of Arlo's soft lips curves into a smile, "No one will. I promise you."
As his words resolve in me, I feel the world become brighter. Brighter with new hope and possibilities. Brighter because he is in it.
"So? we are going, right?"
I smash down the urge to dance on my toes knowing that I'm gonna have something I never thought I would ever have and offer Arlo a smile so big that my cheeks hurt. "We are!"
A melodious laugh spills through his lips and wraps me up in its warm embrace.
"We need a plan, don't we?" Arlo says. His fingers pick on the silk of his pants as his gaze trained on me.
"I cannot let my parents know," I whisper. My Mom would freak out if she sees me with a pair of blue eyes that she hasn't given birth to me in. They are not as familiar with magic as Arlo is. I highly doubt anyone who lives here, in Alvera, uses magic.
"They would freak out and ask me where I learned to do that." My fingers rise to Arlo's eyes. "Magic isn't really welcomed here. And also they would not appreciate the fact that the only friend I had ever made in the span of fifteen years is a boy with magic." I chuckle softly, And when my eyes find Arlo's, he's smiling too but with his eyes.
"How do we go then? Sneaking out at midnight? I don't really mind." Arlo says, and it gives out all hints that he's joking but it's exactly what we're gonna do. Sneak out at midnight.
"Yes. The fair will continue all day and night. So why not?" Arlo laughs at that but then throws me a confused look when I don't laugh along.
His eyes search for a sign in my own ones and then a smile born on his beautiful soft lips, "I'm in. Against the world with you, My Zera."
***
Dinner with my people was always a pleasant experience for me. It would have been the same this time too if it wasn't for the anxiety weighing me down with its invisible heavy hands.
Now having Lilly sitting next to me with a mouth full of food and babbling about her silly classmates is the last thing I want.
"You are not even listening!" Lilly jabbed her free hand on my thigh, her blazing glare did not burn me like she wished it would.
"Lilly, you can save up all of your stories after dinner, sweetheart. Let Zera eat in peace." I want to kiss dad this instant for saving me from Lilly's never-ending rambling and giving me some head space to sew a plan of how to fly out of here at midnight without getting caught. According to our plan, I'm supposed to sneak out on Tuesday at midnight. This midnight.
A tiny bitten-down huff was the only thing I had to bear from Lilly after that.
The dinner moves ahead at the pace of a sloth, Mom putting in some more pieces of bread to our plates and nudging Lilly to eat more when she tries to be all dramatic about her belly being fuller like a balloon, Dad planting a kiss on Mom's nose when she flirted with him about something that failed to reach my ears. Everything is like a slow melody that won't end.
My head feels heavy with thoughts that I could not seize up. My eyes keep galloping to the window of our living room where I can catch a glimpse of the garden, where I'm gonna jump down from my room upstairs. I can feel all the hair on my body rising from the mere thought of it.
"Something is bothering you." Mom's voice brings me back to our little space. She has her eyebrows creased together, and lips pressed.
"Nothing is," I say, shrugging my shoulders. I feel Lilly on my side drizzling all of her attention on me. And I just wish she won't say something stupid—
"She must be sad that she wasn't able to come with us today. Even I was sad because she wasn't with me there" Lilly gazes at me through her thick lashes, her green orbs glistening with the despair she has for me. I hate that. I wish I could erase it all.
"My Zera, it's okay! I was denied to tell you anything about the fair. Mom said you will be sad. Oh, she didn't know you were already sad." Lilly says, her little hands pressing softly on my thigh as if to console me.
"Oh, my Moon, Why is my six-year-old so stupid?" Mom lets out a lanky sigh. "You are only adding up on her sadness while rubbing it on her face, girl."
"I'm sorry, My Zera." The remorse in my Dad's voice made my bones break. His glistening green orbs won't even find my gray ones. He stares down at his plate in utter silence with his shoulder hugged down. And then he rises on his foot even though he has an almost full dinner on his plate.
"When you were only three, me and your mother took you to the fair, wrapped up in a fuzzy pink blanket. Up the hills. You were all giggly. I still remember that day like yesterday. You had shined brighter than all the stars could ever have. You, my girl, are everything. The light and the power. They just don't see it. Their loss." He looks over his shoulder at me as he rinses his hands in the towel. His eyes hold so many emotions that I didn't even know the name of.
His words warm me up so greatly that I can feel some of it my body couldn't contain pouring down from my eyes in the form of tears. My vision blurs as he takes long strides toward me. His strong arms cradle me to his chest.
I break, and he takes up all the pieces.
"How I wish I could take you there now…Like all those years ago. I would kill to see you smile like that again, baby girl." He whispers to my hair as I tremble in his arms.
"I love you," I whisper to his chest, tears streaming down without caution. "And I'm happy as long as you are with me. I am happy as long as I have you guys with me."
My eyes fall shut as his slowing-down heartbeats cloud my senses and blackout the outside world.