She shivers, a tremor racking her entire spine. "You don't know that."
"I do." I lift my feet from the sand and take a step toward her. "I wouldn't let you fly over the edge."
Her shoulders drop, and she finally nods. I walk up to her, the cold water crashing around my feet as well. We stand in silence and the only thing that can be heard is the sound of the water lapping at the shore.
"What did you say to Duncan today?" she asks out of nowhere.
I can't look at her. Shame and embarrassment hit me. But another part of me doesn't feel embarrassed or ashamed, because I don't want anyone else to like her. I don't want anyone else to even talk to her, to be honest.
"I told him that he can't like you."
I can feel her eyes sinking into mine, shock and a hint of anger in her gaze. I finally look at her. Her eyes are burning mine, enough so that I have to blink to rid the ache.
"Why?" Her voice echoes into the distance, bouncing off the sand, and water, and my heart.
"Because I don't want anyone to like you."
"I can't have friends?" Her voice raises.
I shake my head, too tired to get into it.
"He can't like you, Luna. You'remyfriend. I won't let him."
"What will you do? Beat him up? Give him a wedgie?"
"If I have to," I say seriously.
She laughs, her voice incredulous. Like I wouldn't actually beat someone up. For her, I would.
I'd do anything for her.
Just that thought makes goosebumps break along my arms.
"Sometimes I feel like I know you from somewhere," she says, stepping closer to me. Our arms are flush now, her cool skin aligned with mine.
I look at her. "That's not possible. I just met you."
She nods. "I know. But my mom calls me an old soul."
"What's an old soul?" My eyebrows furrow. That's a weird thing to call someone.
"Like, I should've been born before my time, or I lived a life before this one. Either way, it feels like I know you. Like, maybe we knew each other in a past life. Don't you think so?"
I think about her words. The craziness of us meeting and knowing each other in a past life. The possibility that our lives somehow connected in this small town in Wisconsin with a whole world surrounding us. That somehow, maybe we were meant to meet.
“My mom says that when you know your soulmate, you’ll be able to feel it in your fingers and your toes. That your chest will feel like you can’t get enough air and are getting too much air at the same time. That the world stops, the ripples in the waters settle, and everything else in the world ceases to exist.” Her eyes are wide, like everything her mom told her, she feels. Down to her bones. “Don't you feel it?" she asks again.
I take a deep breath, letting my hesitation and worry and everything inside of me expel with the air from my lungs.
"I feel it."
CHAPTER FIVE
LUNA
"Do you have everything you need?" Mom asks from the living room. She's crocheting a blanket and is on the last few rows. It's a colorful mismatched pattern of burnt oranges, browns, and creams.
"Yep!" I shake my paper bag full of candy.