Running Out of Time

Chapter Seven

Lia didn't make her move. I waited for days, careful not to overstep my bounds and working with her to perfect our duet for the final showcase. Even though I had promised myself it was her move, I found myself wandering out past curfew once more to seek Lia out.

I think she knew already. When she looked up at me, her expression was bittersweet, and she scooted aside, patting space next to her as though she had been waiting for me. I eased my guilt by waiting for her to speak first.

"I come out here every night to watch the moon. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it's cloudy, but it's always there. Only on the new moon did it ever fully disappear." She murmured. "I like to think that all the way down in Texas, my sister is seeing the same moon."

I looked at her. It'd been over a month in her company, and I hadn't known she had a sister. "You have a sister?"

"Yeah. You? Any siblings?"

I took in a breath. "Well, I have a brother. He's older than me, and he's already in college. We barely talk." I lifted my right shoulder in a noncommittal, 'what can you do?' kind of shrug. Lia looked at me and saw through it immediately.

"Do you... miss him?" She asked. I hesitated, but then I gave in, because any resistance that I feigned to give Lia was all fake. I'd only ever pretended to put up any sort of walls around her—I knew that the moment that she asked, the moment she ever appeared the slightest bit interested in who I was, I'd let everything spill. I'd long yielded to her every whim, and I knew I'd do anything for her, if only she'd favor me with her kindness.

"I do miss my brother." I confessed. "I've always wished to have someone to talk to, especially a sibling. When I was younger, he and I were on better terms, but we kind of drifted apart over time. He and I kind of ignore each other now, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt me. But he never made any moves to reach out to me, and I guess I never reached out to him." I shrugged, trying to play it off as nothing important.

"I guess I just kind of needed a friend I could talk to about everything. I mean, I do have friends back home, but even those I don't trust with... everything."

Maybe I'd hoped that she'd be able to read my secret, to be able to tell that I was, indeed, attracted to her, and indeed, queer. Perhaps I'd hoped that if I'd told her everything, she would return the favor.

She did not face me, and I wasn't able to read much from her side profile.

Halfway. "What about you? What's your relationship like with your sister?"

An amused smile curled up the side of her face. "We're best friends." She said softly. "She's a couple of years younger than me, so she isn't old enough to attend the summer program, but I'm pretty sure she's going to be taking the year-round program, starting next year. She's a real prodigy; I think my parents are going to let her go pro. I feel a little bitter sometimes, I guess, because my parents are letting her live her dreams while carting me off to college for engineering. It's not really fair. But I can't really complain because she really is a talented dancer. She's better than me, even, in terms of technique. She's still developing into her own signature style, but she's really farther along than I was at her age. But even so, we've been doing everything we could together since we were little."

So, she did understand the game we were playing. I smiled on the inside.

"That sounds nice." I mused, resting my chin on my knees.

"It is." She agreed with a hint of condescending amusement in her tone, and I was almost sure she had seen through everything. There was a brief silence.

"Do you ever feel like you're two different people shoved into one body? As if sometimes one side of you comes out, and at other times, you shove it away?" I asked. It was a subtle reference to the way she flip-flopped under the daylight and under the moonlight.