CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

❝How brave the moon shines in her skin; outnumbered by the stars.❞

Angie Weiland-Crosby

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Everything was shit. Legitimately shit. And it's all that damn tablet's fault. 

Luna and Larry watched as all of their friends went batshit crazy and terrorized the gala, and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Of course they all felt bad, but they couldn't control it. So, incredibly disheartened and exhausted, Larry and Luna went home. Larry said, mid-yawn, that Luna could stay with them if she wanted, and Luna very much agreed.

As Larry and Luna are heading toward the elevators, Larry's phone rings and he picks up. "Hello?"

Luna vaguely hears McPhee say, "Larry," and winces. This isn't going to be good.

"Hey, Dr. McPhee," Larry says, sounding uncomfortable, and presses the button for the elevator. A pause, then: "Uh, okay." They step into the elevator and Luna pushes the 4 button. "No, I don't know that sound."

Then there's a loud banging noise and screaming from the other end. Larry winces and holds the phone away from his ear. Luna's eyes widen. So it's really bad then.

"I'm sorry," Larry sighs. "Look, really, I'm sorry. I swear to you, I had no idea this was gonna happen."

The elevator stops on their floor, and Luna leads the way out into the hallway, Larry trailing a little behind her as he apologizes again. But as they get closer to the apartment, there's a low, booming noise, almost like a bass. Luna frowns. What the...?

"Look, I promise you I'm gonna find out what happened," Larry says, also frowning. They're right in front of the apartment door and Luna can now hear screaming and laughing coming from the apartment. Oh, Nicky, what have you done?

"You know what? I'm sorry, Dr. McPhee. I gotta go." Larry hangs up the phone and looks at Luna nervously, before turning the door handle and shoving his way inside.

It's like a club magically appeared inside the apartment. There are dozens of teenagers dancing, jumping up and down, drinking out of red solo cups, and there's trash everywhere. Luna's jaw drops. Oh, God, Nicky... 

Larry's jaw works as he processes the situation and then his eyes land on the far corner, where Nicky is playing DJ, jumping up and down and laughing as everyone dances.

"Nicky!" Larry yells over the music. "Nicky! Stop hopping!"

Nicky sees the two of them approaching his corner and his eyes widen in shock.

Larry looks around for a cord, a plug, something, and yanks it out of the wall. The music slams to a halt and Larry shuts his laptop, fuming.

"Dad, what are you doing?" asks Nicky, horrified. 

"What are you doing?" Larry counters. "It's three a.m.!" He turns to the milling teenagers, who are all suddenly quiet. "All right, party's over!"

A petite, dark-haired girl Luna recognizes as Andrea from their biology class walks over to Nicky. "Hey," she says, grinning.

"Hey," Nicky breathes nervously.

Andrea pulls out a Sharpie, grabs his wrist, and scribbles her number on his arm. Luna stands awkwardly next to Larry, who's in turn making extremely awkward conversation with Andrea's friend, Sophie, who was also in their biology class.

"See you tomorrow night?" Andrea asks, smiling at him.

"Probably not," Larry replies before Nicky can say anything.

"Probably." Nicky nods, ignoring Larry.

"Definitely not."

Andrea, disheartened, waves. "Bye." And she and Sophie head toward the front door. Luna doesn't really like her; she dated the quarterback of the football team all through high school and word was, she cheated on him at least four times. Luna knew Bryce pretty well; he was super sweet about it, but Luna always thought Andrea took him for granted.

As all of the teenagers file through the front door, Larry turns to Nicky and sighs. "You're in so much trouble."

"I know." Nicky nods, grimacing.

✦✧✦

Luna, out of her nice dress and into a pair of Nicky's sweats and her favorite of his hoodies, gathers up chip bags and overturned solo cups and tosses them into the trash. Larry went to bed, but Luna chose to stay up and help Nicky clean, despite how exhausted she is. 

"Nicky, you're an idiot," Luna says after a while, looking up at him with four Doritos bags in hand. 

"I know." He sighs, runs a hand through his hair. "I know. I just... I don't want to do this, you know? Go to college, get a job, work a nine-to-five my whole life. It feels like there's more out there, you know?"

"I get it, I do. It just feels like there's maybe a better way to go about telling people than having 3 a.m. raves in your dad's apartment." Luna grins tiredly. 

Nicky can't help but smile, too. "Yeah, maybe," he says, shaking his head. "So the whole museum thing was a shitshow too?"

Luna nods, closing her eyes. She doesn't even want to think about it. "It really sucked. I mean, everything that could've gone wrong did, and it's all because of that weird tablet thing."

"It's so weird because it's worked fine for as long as Dad's worked there." Nicky hops onto a barstool, leaning his elbows on the counter and looking thoughtful. "And it's never done this before."

"Ahkmenrah said this is the first time." Luna nods, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from saying everything she's thinking.

"Do you have any idea what it could be?" Nicky asks, leaning forward across the island.

And the problem here is that Luna hasn't been able to lie to Nicky since the fifth grade, when a sixth-grade boy tried to reach up her skirt in the lunch line and when Nicky asked about it, she tried to lie and it didn't work. Neither Nicky nor Luna said a word when he turned up on the bus with a bloody nose and a black eye, and that boy never bothered her again.

So now, almost nine years later, Luna attempts to lie again, and once again, Nicky catches on. "Lu, stop trying to lie to me. What do you know that I don't?"

"Nothing?"

"Bullshit. You can't lie to me."

Luna sighs, shakes her head. "God, Nicky." And she tells him everything Ahkmenrah told her that night after the Smithsonian. The prophecy, what it means. Everything.

When she's finished, Nicky's mouth is wide open and he stares at her blankly. "You mean...your magic powers are because of an ancient prophecy that says that unless you pick someone else to die the minute the tablet loses all power, your undead boyfriend's gonna die?"

"That's about the extent of it." Luna rests her forehead in her hands, all at once feeling the enormous pressure on her shoulders. "And the problem is, we don't know when this thing's gonna happen. It could be tonight, it could be in two months, it could be ten years from now. There's no way to tell how fast the tablet's going to corrode."

"You shouldn't have to make that call." Nicky shakes his head fervently. "It's not fair."

"I don't really get a choice, Nicky."

Nicky swears, hops off his barstool, and joins her on the other side of the island. He takes her hand, squeezes it. "You know I'm always on your side, right?"

"'Til the end, dude," Luna says, forcing a grin. It's something they've said as long as she can remember: 'til the end in the third-grade production of Jack and the Beanstalk, 'til the end during math finals freshman year, 'til the end when Larry and Erica decided to divorce. It's Luna and Nicky forever.

Nicky smiles. "'Til the end, dude." And he pulls her into a tight hug, kissing her forehead. "I love you. And I've got your back, okay?"

"I know." Luna rests her head on his chest, letting her shoulders relax as she forces herself to stop thinking about everything that's going on. For tonight, she's just gonna sleep. Everything else is tomorrow's problem.

Right?

✦✧✦

q: who's dying?

a: i'm not telling hehe.