“It’s because of the poison,” she said out loud. She had nobody to compare her teeth to, she realized.
She ran to the bathroom and spit out nothing. One morning, Arlo woke up with glass on her tongue. For so long, the story had been a prism, casting light into the corners, loosening the edges.īut Arlo was starting to forget the way it felt in her hands. “Come visit!” she’d write (when she remembered to), as if it were something Arlo could control, as if turning sixteen gifted you the freedom you longed for instead of more awareness of the walls. So did Ruby, on some far-off shore that pictures couldn’t capture. Savoring the twist in their middles when everything, everywhere went dark. Sometimes, Arlo could almost feel the apple her hands, and Ruby’s legs braided around hers. The boy and the girl and the shimmering orchard. She’d hurry home after school, her back still angled from the rigid seats and her ears stinging from teachers’ voices, and spend entire evenings curled around it. A dark story by any measure, but because Ruby had given it to her, Arlo saw its light. Then they turned fourteen, and Ruby moved away.Īt least Arlo had the story. Then she kissed Arlo in that joyful way of hers, like giving. “We’re the most dangerous of them all,” Ruby said.
Ruby’s were already sharper when they grinned in the mirror to compare. But soon it’d come over them like a virus: burning limbs, aching teeth. Their mothers had warned them about the poison in their blood. “Probably he was doomed anyway,” Ruby continued.Īrlo giggled. At thirteen, she didn’t know much about boys. The girl found an apple that shone like a prism, but only she could see its light.īut then the boy took a larger bite, even though the girl asked him not to, and the light dimmed and died, and so did everything, everyone.Īrlo shrugged. It was about a boy with rough hands, and a girl who saw a shimmer around the edges of things, and their walk together in an orchard. Ruby just laughed and braided her legs through Arlo’s. Ruby didn’t know where she’d first heard it.
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