Page 32 of Love, Nemesis
“I don’t stuff them under my bed,” Jasper argued.
“I don’t do that,” Ana said, turning away from the binoculars to see Jasper eating out of a packet of peanut butter with a cinnamon stick.
“Where did you get that?”
“As if I’d tell you,” Jasper sang.
“I’ll find it,” she said before hopping off her horse. She started walking alongside it, stretching her arms up into the sky. She walked on the grass tufts in the center of the road to avoid the puddles. “You have any wax?”
“No. Why?” Jasper replied with a raised brow.
“For my boots.”
“You forgot your saddle wax? Just rub mud on them. They can’t look any worse. You should have worn the ones Salem bought you.”
“Yeah—oh.” She started patting her pockets.
“What?”
“Salt.”
“You forgot salt? You’d think after so many years of doing this, you would have learned it by now. You know, I brought extra lighter oil because of last time.” He chewed on the cinnamon stick thoughtfully.
“That was ages ago.” Ana laughed.
“Chilly rain really freezes something into your memory,” Jasper shot back.
“You could bear to make a few mistakes every now and again,” Ana said.
“Well, the normal people who aren’t martyrs have to get by from doing the little things right; earn our place in the State.”
“Ha,” Ana huffed.
“Just to be clear. I’m not talking about the actual State. I’m talking about the version in your head where people go barefoot in the winter because they don’t want to forget what poverty feels like.”
“Why do you think I like these boots?” she replied.
“Ha,” Jasper mocked.
“Ha,” she mimicked him.
“You know,” Jasper added after a while. “I make mistakes. Plenty of them.”
“Sure. Sometimes I bet you’re late to class.”
Jasper didn’t reply, and after a while, she looked back at him to see a stern expression on his face. He was looking down at his horse.
“You aren’t kidding, are you?” Ana said. “What did you do?”
Jasper jolted as if just realizing she was looking at him. “Nothing, I’m just thinking.”
“Yeah,” she prodded. “About a mistake. A big one, by the looks of it.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Like I said. We all make them, okay? Everyone has secrets. Don’t you?”
She faced forward again when he turned the attention of the conversation back to her.
“Yep,” she replied and said no more. She thought both of them were glad not to discuss secrets any further. Inwardly, she was still scratching her head.
