He flopped onto his back, laughing from his gut, and based on Julie’s tears, I was guessing she’d been waiting a long time for that to come back.” I stared at this boy, at how he was overjoyed at one of the most basic things a person could do. “Can you get her a pen? Please?” He lifted an arm weakly. “Where did you go? Where have you been? I thought you were dead.” His chest worked overtime, trying to keep up with his mouth, spilling over with words. These three people all called me by the same name, which sounded sort of like Katlyn and Ellen and made me believe that maybe they actually knew me. The only part of this boy that held any life at all were his eyes, which brimmed with tears when he saw me. His hair might have been blond, but it was fading into a gray, making it hard to tell. His cheeks were sunken, and his skin was ghostly pale. He lay on his side, a tube in his nose and another in his vein. “I finally made eye contact with the boy in the bed. All those years dancing in the kitchen thinking I was special, and then I run across a master.” “Unbelievable,” he said, almost as if he was complaining.

We stepped on each other’s toes more than once, and after he accidentally knocked his head into my shoulder, he threw his hands up. People walked by, pointing and laughing, but it was one of those moments when I knew we weren’t being mocked we were being envied. After a minute, he got brave and swung me around, lining me up for those peppy kicks I loved so much. In unison, we rock stepped and triple stepped, falling into the rhythm in our head. I took it and positioned myself in front of him as he shook his head, grinning.

I pursed my lips and dusted off my shoulder, a thing I’d seen Elizabeth do when she was bragging.Īs if he was accepting a challenge, he shrugged off his backpack and stood, holding out a hand for me. “I swear, if you tell me you can jitterbug, I’m going to. I sat bolt upright, and Akinli rolled his eyes. “And, thanks to my mom being a competitive dancer as a teen, I know how to do the Lindy hop and the jitterbug.” Oh, yeah, it’s a skill.” He smiled, proud of his accomplishments.

Akinli the siren