Page 21 of A Dream of Stars and Curses

It’s probably for the best Bonnie didn’t comment on Sunitha having a tail, though. Granted, her face apparently said everything, but maybe Sunitha thinks Bonnie is one of the Veiled, too? No, that would be worse. If Sunitha thinks Bonnie lied about that—that a human lied to get close to one of the Veiled—then this relationship is definitely over.

‘It takes a while to get home, doesn’t it?’ I ask, hoping the right words will just kind of come to me. ‘That’s plenty of time for her to try and make sense of what happened. You should message her.’

Bonnie sniffs.

‘Need a tissue?’ Finally, something I know how to help with.

She nods, so I grab a pack from the kitchen and hand it to her.

Bonnie blows her nose. ‘She already messaged me. She asked me what happened, if I saw anything that scared me in the water.’

‘But you haven’t replied?’

Bonnie wipes her tears away on her sleeve and shakes her head. ‘I don’t know what to say. Shit, I wasn’t prepared for this! I thought we’d just have a nice day together, hopefully plan the next date. I feel terrible about how I reacted. What if she can’t trust me now? What if she can’t trust me once she learns I’m not one of them?’

‘You should talk to her,’ I say. ‘We fought for this, right? For the freedom to see the Veiled for who they are? This is—’

‘We fought for your right,’ Bonnie says. ‘When we made that deal with the Dreamcatcher and the Mara, they had no idea that I’d get your super vision thing, too.’

I shrug, but really I’m hurt. It’s not my fault she can see them, too; at least, I don’t think so. We don’t know why she can, but I doubt it’s because of me.

‘That doesn’t matter,’ I say. ‘This is the perfect chance to prove that we can stay calm around the Veiled, that we can be around them without exposing them. So what if you didn’t expect her to be a mermaid? I didn’t expect Leverett to be a vampire when I walked into his bookshop. We didn’t expect Kate to practice witchcraft when we moved here. But we’re fine.’

Bonnie mumbles something under her breath that sounds a little like, ‘That’s not the same,’ but I don’t quite catch it.

‘Besides, you should apologise for running away. She probably thinks you thought she looked awful in a bikini or something.’

A small, pained smile creeps onto Bonnie’s lips. ‘She didn’t. She looked beautiful.’

It makes me smile, too. Disaster averted, hopefully... or rectified, anyway. ‘Right, you should tell her that. Tell her why you left. This is probably new for her, too—I doubt she’s come out of the mermaid closet to many humans by accident.’

Slowly, Bonnie nods. ‘You’re right. I’ll message her.’ She leans into me again. ‘Thank you.’

‘I should thank you,’ I say. ‘This actually helped me make a decision, too.’

She blows her nose again and raises an eyebrow with her nose still in the tissue. ‘Oh?’

‘I had second thoughts about going to the event, but not anymore. I’m going.’

After the speech I just gave Bonnie about not running away and proving that we can stay calm around the Veiled, that we deserve to know or at least aren’t a mistake, I can’t very well run away from the event and the Veiled. Besides, Leverett will be there. I’ll be fine.

I pull out my phone and type, ‘Hey, it’s me. Esta?’ I blush. If he’s saved my number into his phone, my name would come up. But what if he hasn’t? Shouldn’t I explain who I am? But the question mark after my name seems so excessive. He might not recognise the number, but I sure as hell hope he remembers me. I delete it and start again. ‘Hey, it’s Esta.’ Better. ‘I’ll come with you. Looking forward to it :)’ I hit Send before I can regret the smiley.

I do regret it immediately afterwards. Is it too much? Will he think it weird or too straightforward? What if—

‘Whoa. Hold on.’ Bonnie peeks at my phone. ‘You have Leverett’s number?’

The blush creeps back onto my face. ‘He gave me his so I can call him when I’ve decided what to do about this party. I gave him mine since, you know.’ The blush threatens to burn my skin. ‘It would have been weird not to, and now he can call me when my cards are there.’ That’s totally why. Just being polite.

Her eyes widen, and she looks more like my happy Bonnie again. She takes out her own phone and starts typing.

‘I guess if you could do that, I can do this.’

We smile at each other like we’ve been to hell and back.

‘I’m proud of us,’ I say.

‘Me too.’

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