Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore

Author:Anna-Marie McLemore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

ROJA

I pulled the car back to where the Lindleys kept it, slowing over the gravel.

When I set it in park, Yearling still wouldn’t look at me. But he turned his head just enough to leave the sheen on his eyes visible. A film of water caught what little light there was.

He was coming down. But seeing Liam tonight had left him rattled in a way it hadn’t in daylight.

“Thanks,” he said.

“For listening to the strangest fairy tale I’ve ever heard?” I asked.

“I told you,” he said. “Sorry for getting like that.”

“Can we call tonight even?”

“I’d like that.”

I looked at him, finding where the two colors met. Blue like Abuelito’s jeans. Brown like the star anise my mother added to her mole rojo.

This was my chance. I knew it with the same certainty I knew the swans were somewhere in the dark.

I put my hand to his shirt where I thought the moon was. I traced its outline.

Even through his shirt, I could feel it, smooth like scar tissue, warmer at the edges and cooler in the center. The one mark the woods had left on him.

I brushed my thumb over his lower lip and felt a tiny patch of smoother skin, a scar. Then I stayed still. He had to be the one to come closer.

He did. It was slow, but he did.

My eyelashes grazed his cheek, and his brushed my temple.

I waited for one of us to move so I could put my mouth on his. I thought of my tongue finding that scar on his lip.

A rough sound startled us both away from each other, the hard break of a throat being cleared.

We looked up.

Olive Lindley stood in front of the car, arms crossed. The moon bleached the edges of her hair. She set her stance, the heels of her boots stirring the gravel.

For a minute I wished it was Blanca and me in the car. When one of us was covering for the other, we could almost get our stories straight without talking.

Yearling got out of the car, slowly. He hung his head, pieces of his hair shielding his eyes.

I followed.

I held out a pint carton. “Ice cream?”

“No,” Olive said. “How about you introduce your friend?”

Yearling tossed his head to get his hair out of his face, taking a slow breath to keep himself from looking down again.

Olive studied him. I could hear from how her tongue clicked that she was holding it against her cheek.

“Huh,” she said, the sound like a conclusion. No further questions needed. I wondered if she’d felt him this whole time, a nahual stalking the woods and the cranberry bogs.

She held up her hand.

Yearling threw the keys. He was three feet off, but Olive stepped to the side and grabbed them out of the air.

“You need these again, you come to me, you understand?” Olive said.

Yearling nodded.

She gave back one curt nod. I’d seen that nod on him. And I’d seen it before on Olive. I just hadn’t registered how similar they were, how Yearling must have picked it up from her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.