Page 46 of Never Bound

For the last minute, she’d been sitting silently, staring at the vine-covered wall, blinking the tears away. But now, she whipped her face around with the kind of ferocity I knew always caught people off guard.

“What do you think I need?Diamonds? A white horse? A castle? After all we’ve been through, do you think I’m just going to pack up and call it a day because you can’t give me a fucking fairy tale? Do youknowme?”

I opened my mouth, though I’d seen her like this enough times that I probably knew there was no point.

“You must not because if you did, you’d know what my fifth-grade teacher told my parents during the finals of the district spelling bee when I paused for eight minutes on the wordchiaroscuro. I was just standing up there, rooted to the spot, dead silent. They said my eyes were as big as saucers. They thought I had broken down. That I was choking under the pressure. That I’d run off the stage crying because it was too hard. But I went home with a blue ribbon, and you want to know what he told them?”

“What?”

“To always ask for the language of origin,” she said, grabbing my chin and wrenching it toward her to look me dead in the eyes, a kiss fierce and bold, as bold as I had once been with her. “And to neverevergive up on me.”

And I fell, collapsed bodily into her, my face in her warm, silky nest of curls, waiting there for me, despite the odds.

And I whispered the two words I’dtoldmyself not to say. Even though they were the only two words at that moment I knew, without a doubt, to be true.

“I won’t.”

“You promise?”

“I promise. Like I said, I—”

“But you said you never think about freedom. You—”

“You didn’t let me finish.”

She stopped interrupting.

“Because the truth is, if it’s freedom alone that could give methis, could give meyou,I know it’s not just half of me that wants it anymore.”

She just sat there wrapped in a quilt with her freshly kissed mouth half-open in surprise, her eyes the same color as the starless sky. “No?” she whispered as if she didn’t dare to breathe. As if she knew what I was about to say. And never expected to hear it.

“No,” I whispered, never having expected to hear it myself. “It’s all of me. Every single part.”

HER

Milagros said she wanted him to have tried at least two Mexican dishes, so she made us all chilaquiles.

“She never makes breakfast forme,” Erica pouted before walking us, just after daybreak, all the way back to where we’d left the car.

At that hour, the campus was quiet and mostly empty, with dew in the grass and rosy shafts of sunlight on the red brick buildings that lined the mall. The walk was all business: no run-ins, no hugging, and no getting caught. Before she left, though, Milagros slipped him a new burner phone, with both her and Erica’s numbers in it. By the end of the day, with any luck, she said, he’d knowsomethingabout Maeve.

She waved off our thanks, just as Erica had earlier. “Until next time.”

Even with her neon blue hair, it was amazing how fast she melted away into the tapestry of campus, calling no attention to herself. She’d been a slave, after all.

“Think we can get back before the housekeeper notices we’re gone?” I asked him once Milagros was out of sight.

“I can guarantee it,” he said. “If you let me drive.”

“What?!”

“Wait, hear me out,” he said. “I know this is going to sound weird, but on our last drive, this car and I developed, like, this telepathic bond.” He ran his hand lovingly along the glossy white hood of the Cadillac. “And it’s telling me it doesn’t want toletyou drive it. The last time was just too traumatic. I’m sorry, but I’m only looking out for the car’s mental health.” He awaited my response, a smile playing on his lips.

“God, just when I thought you couldn’t be any more full of shit,” I said, even as he started laughing. “Besides, I told you, I don’t normally drive like that. And I don’t even know if youcandrive.”

“I can but even if I couldn’t, I think I’dstillfeel safer. Plus, I won’t tell if you won’t.”

I bit my lip, hating that I was even considering it. “I think one thing we can agree on after the past few days is that from now on, nobody is telling anybody anything. And anyway, it doesn’t matter. It’s illegal since I know for a fact you don’t have a license.”

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