Page 159 of Priest and his Anarchist

“Well, what?” I ask, raising a brow at how she ties her laces around her shoes. Our parents are busying themselves with getting everyone ready, so it is Luna and I sitting on a bench near the start of the track.

“Can we play a game? You never want to play with me.”

“It’s not that I never want to play with you, it’s that you don’t even know what you want to play.” Halen isn’t a fan of her, and she makes no point to hide that. Stella isn’t old enough to care,and River just watches. No one really engages with Luna but me. And at times, Vaden.

“I do know!” Her eyes widen, and when she pushes from her spot, I already know she’s not going to shut the fuck up about it. “Have you ever hurt, Priest?” she asks after leaning in and resting her hands on the table that I’m lying back on.

The question doesn’t throw me off, because for as long as I knew Luna, and that’s all my life, she has always been like this. Strangely observant yet carelessly reckless. Last winter is proof of that when we both took someone apart and got caught. It was like she exists inside a bubble, and everyone else is just there for the show.

“What do you mean?” My eyes move from hers to her lips.

We kiss often. The first time we did, we were so young I barely remember anything else around just that one moment. That single moment in the maze of the castle. She followed me, and I let her. I kissed her, and she kissed me back. Kind of swore to never tell a single person because we knew everyone would just think it was more than it was. It wasn’t. I wanted it to be more, but it wasn’t. The movies lied. It was always that once a year that I looked forward to. My parents thought I was soulless, no emotions, but when we killed that man, I felt something. I don’t know what that was, but it was something.

Something.

“Have you ever hurt?” Her eyes widen once more. Her dark hair contrasts to the pale snow. It only makes her lilac eyes seem so much darker. As if they weren’t as light as her mother’s, grayer.

“No,” I answer honestly, shifting farther into her. “But I know I could.”

She seems to search my face, her lips a breath away from mine. I look to the left slightly, making sure no one is watching.

“What are you doing, Luna?” I whisper, but don’t pull away. “Gonna kiss me in front of our families?”

“Maybe.” She smiles, and it’s so wide I’d be able to pick it in any crowd. “Or maybe not.” She shrugs, pushing away. I launch for her, wrapping my arms around her waist and throwing her over my shoulders when my board hits the blanket of snow.

“Priest D’mon Hayes!” my mom screams from the distance behind me as I cut and curve my way down the track.

Luna laughs boldly over my shoulders. It’s infectious. The laugh I want to hear forever.

The kind I know I want forever.

We hit the bottom finally, and I lower her down onto the snow. She peers at me with that same wild glint in her eye.

“How fast can you get those off your feet?”

“Get what off my feet?”

She nudges her head down to my board.

“I don’t know. Fast.” I’ve been shredding all my life.

“Really?” She shoots to her feet and bolts forward. “Catch me if you can!”

“Fuck! Luna, no!” I unclip the board from my boots and shift off my jacket, following the trail she ran through. These forests aren’t kind to anyone, much less small girls with no sense of awareness.

“Luna!” I call out, moving a large tree branch away from my face. “This isn’t funny!”

Her laughter eats the darkness of the forest, so I take more steps in. We are in trouble already no doubt, and since everyone already side-eyes us both whenever we are together, I know that it is something we’ll both have to answer for.

“Riddle me this!” She laughs manically. “Or I’ll kill you one day, Priest Hayes.” I believe her.

“I’m not riddling shit!” I yell, tracking the echoes of her laugh.

“I—” Silence.

Hours.

The snow has long since melted off my chest and sweat sticks to my forehead like glue. Everyone is pissed I lost her. As if I can control the unhinged Lunatic.

---