suddenly tossed her head as if something funny or pleasing had just occurred to her, but she didn’t share.
I wished I were in her mood, wherever it had come from. “What’s the relic room?” I asked.
“It’s this big bedroom downstairs that Tristan converted into a storage closet,” Bea said, idly flipping a page. “It’s where we put all the visitors’ stuff once they move on.”
“And we kind of go shopping in there whenever we need anything,” Lauren added.
I gulped, feeling suddenly hot around the collar of my T-shirt. I knew the room they were talking about. I’d stumbled in there accidentally the previous week and seen the guitar strap that had belonged to the musician from the park, hanging from a shelf. I wondered if all of Olive’s and Aaron’s stuff was down there now—her guitar and his windsurfing gear, her flowy sweaters and his preppy jeans—just waiting to be picked over and claimed.
“You’re kidding,” Joaquin said. “When did we have Barbie’s circus come through here?”
Bea snorted. Joaquin glanced at my blank face. “At least someone around here thinks I’m funny.”
“Pink-pink-white-pink-pink-yellow,” Lauren muttered under her breath as she strung each bead.
Joaquin reached for a bag of feathers and tore it open. It exploded all over everything.
“Joaquin! I’m trying to concentrate!” Lauren chided him, dusting a pink feather off her leg. A white one fell directly on top of my head, the end hanging down to touch my nose. I blew it off, annoyed. I couldn’t believe I was there doing this while Aaron was trapped in the Shadowlands.
“Sorry,” Joaquin shot back. He looked Krista up and down as she pushed a needle and thread through the center of one of the flowers. “What’re
“Making flower leis!” she replied happily.
“And you?” he asked Bea.
“Resting my arms after carrying all that crap up here,” she said, not looking up from her magazine. “And I just learned how to do the perfect cat-eye with gray shadow and black eyeliner,” she added in a wry tone. I doubted she’d ever worn eye makeup in her life.
“So then I guess I should—”
“Have you guys ever sent a soul over the bridge and then found out they ended up in the wrong place?” I blurted.
Bea stopped page-flicking. Lauren stopped muttering. Joaquin stared.
“Are you kidding? Never,” Krista said, her knee bouncing as she tied off the end of the thread on the lei she’d just finished. I wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved at that answer or more confused. When no one else chimed in, she looked around at the group. “But then, I haven’t been here that long. Why?”
Everyone else was still gazing at me, and I started to feel exactly how I didn’t want to feel—stupid. Joaquin’s attention was somehow more intense than the others’, his brown eyes sharp, like my question hadn’t just startled him, but scared him.
“Yeah, why?” Lauren asked.
“No reason,” I said, lifting a shoulder. My fingers trembled as I reached for the next bead. “Just trying to learn the trade.”
“It happens,” Bea said finally, sitting up. “It sucks, but it happens.”
“Usually it’s someone you think is supposed to go to the Light who ends up in the Shadowlands,” Lauren said. The tiny pink end of her tongue stuck out as she started to concentrate again. My stomach clenched.
“Really?” I said.
“Some people are just very good at hiding their true natures,” Joaquin confirmed, gathering up the fallen feathers around him and shoving them back into what was left of the plastic bag. He did it more vehemently than necessary, and his fist suddenly tore another hole in the back of the bag, rendering it useless. He tossed the whole thing aside, making an even bigger mess. Lauren sighed, but Joaquin didn’t seem to notice. “But the really bad ones are pretty obvious. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone I was convinced was bad end up in the Light. Only the other way around.”
“Oh,” I said. “That’s…interesting.”
So maybe Tristan was right. Maybe Aaron had me totally fooled. But I just couldn’t wrap my brain around that.
Suddenly, Lauren’s posture slumped. “Rory! It’s pink-pink-yellow-pink-pink-white! Not white-white-yellow- pink-pink-white!”
I looked down at my garland and saw that I had, in fact, strung the last few beads incorrectly.
“That’s okay. They don’t all have to be perfect,” Krista said, patting my knee.
“Yes, they do!” Lauren protested.
“No, they don’t. It’ll be eclectic!” Krista replied.
“Eclectic is for amateurs,” Lauren muttered. She grabbed the garland out of my lap and yanked. “I’ll start it over.”
Krista and I exchanged a look, and I almost laughed. Almost.
“Ooooh-kay,” Joaquin said, standing. “This whole decorating-committee thing is a little too intense for me, so I’m just gonna—”
“No! You just got here,” Krista whined, getting up.
But Joaquin was already halfway out the door. The second his foot hit the hallway, he stopped, startled. “Oh. Hey, man.”
“Hey,” Tristan said.
Tristan stepped around the corner, his ears red. At the sight of him, all the intense feelings surrounding our kiss came rushing back, prickling my skin, and making me blush, but they were quickly crowded out by the memory of him shouting at me. He’d obviously been hovering outside the door, and I wondered if he’d heard our conversation about the bridge.
“Are you gonna help?” Krista asked him hopefully. “Because if you want, you and Joaquin could go check on the tent and make sure all the pieces are there. I know it’s a little girlie in here, so—”
“Actually I stopped by to remind you,” Tristan said, pressing his palms together, “there’s someplace you’re supposed to be.”
Krista’s eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with one hand. “Crap! I’m supposed to be clearing out Aaron’s stuff.”
My skin tingled. Tristan glanced at me apologetically. It was clear he hadn’t wanted that said out loud.
“Sorry.” Krista dropped her lei on the pile of finished versions next to her bed. “I’ll go now. Guess the party’s over, people.”
“I’ll do it,” I volunteered.
“What?” Tristan said.
“Really?” Krista asked.
“Yeah, I want to.” I wanted to find out if there was some clue as to why Aaron had ended up where he did. Maybe if I had proof that the coin had made the right decision, I would somehow start feeling better about all this. “I’m supposed to be learning how to do these things, right?”
“That’d be awesome, Rory,” Krista said, looking down at her project. “I have so much to do. Including baking cupcakes. Actually, can you come help with those tomorrow? At two,” she asked brightly, gazing at me with wide blue eyes.
“Sure, no problem,” I answered distractedly as I stepped over the box of beads I’d been working on and navigated my way around the piles of flowers and feather bags. As I was heading out the door, Krista grabbed Bea.
“You can take her place at the beading station,” she suggested happily.
Bea groaned. “You’ll pay for this, Miller!”
“Sorry!” I called over my shoulder.
“I’ll go with you,” Tristan offered.
“You don’t have to,” I said tersely.
His face fell. “Do you even know where he was staying?”
