Red wakes us up early the next morning. He makes this face when he first wakes us up that is a little unsettling in the normal Red way, his mouth twitching while he attempts to smile so hard that I think his face is gonna fall off. He gets like this sometimes when things get really rough but he also does it when nothing's actually gone wrong, so it's hard to tell what his deal is. Guess that's just the way things are with Red. "Adaline, I got your medicine bright and early," Red whispers, and he gives me the vial. "Can you make sure she takes these?"

He's looking sideways at her mouth. I peel back her lips to reveal tar and teeth, which makes my face wrinkle up, but Addie's slit pupils are on me and she looks so sad. I very carefully shake out what looks like candy and place it in her mouth. She swallows, although it sounds pained, and shakes her head. I see the teeth begin to withdraw.

"I don't want to wake up," she whines, "It's so bright out."

"You have to get up eventually," I tell her, running my fingers through her long hair. "Just how it is." I look through the open windows. The sun--our sun-- is shining in, and the white drapes are being blown around like butterflies in a heavy breeze. "You feeling any better?"

The violent wind lets up as Red closes the door, and he doesn't look so happy anymore, just all stern. Red gets like this sometimes, too, usually when he thinks we can't see him. He faces the sun like it stepped on his toe and then walks away, hands folded behind his back. "Dylan."

Dylan is in the other room, which is the same almost yellow color and has the same kind of fresh paint smell to it, barely covered by us, since we've been there a while to make our mark on the room. I drag Addie up with me and we find him eating pancakes on the other bed. Angel is eating her own with one of the fancy human utensils on one of the tables in the room, and she balks when she sees us. Dylan waves her down. "Hey, looks like someone's looking a lot better! How do you feel, Adaline?"
Addie stammers to herself a few times and practically covers her face with hair. I squeeze her hand. "I'm fine--" she barks out, suddenly, and clasps her free hand over her face. I sense her sniffling.

Angel raises an eyebrow and starts getting out of her chair. "Adaline."

"Dylan, do you think you could take Angel out and see where Elle is? She's been missing all morning," Red says.

"I'll stay here," Angel offers, her voice so full of sweet that you can almost tell that it's all needles underneath. "It is my prerogative as their guardian to ensure their welfare."

"What's provocative?" asks Mary, poking her head in from outside. "Wait, is someone leaving? I'm bored. If I have to watch another episode of... whatever it is... I'm going to put my hand through the wall."

"Hope you break it," yells Alex, who is right next to her. Gillian rolls her eyes hard. Damien laughs in the way people do when whatever was said wasn't actually that funny. People do that a lot when Mary talks but even more when Mary laughs at her own jokes. Right now Mary is laughing hysterically until she bends over from all that laughter and only stops when Red raises one hand.

He's mad this morning. I don't know why, no one here does, but we all know when he silences anyone that he's not messing around. He nods, as if considering his options, and decides, "You're right, Angel. Do you think you could grab Adaline some more medicine instead? We're heading out today and I'm afraid I'm no good with people. I know right now this doesn't seem like a decision that makes much sense, and I'm sorry to be so cryptic, but I promise that this is the most important thing for you to do right now."
Angel folds her arms and pouts her lip hard. "You've caught me. It doesn't make much sense at all."

"You don't even like hanging out with me," Mary gripes in the background.

Damien objects, "I just want to hang out with Gillian every now and then. She wants to hear me sing."

"I want to hear you sing!" Mary yells, offended.

"You said like I sounded like a dying donkey."

"I was totally joking. I don't know why you have to take everything I say so liberally."
"Literally," Kali interjects. "I don't know. I'm pretty bored myself."

"When are you ever not bored, Kali?" asks Angel. "It's not our job as a party to keep you out of trouble."

"It's not your job to keep Elle out of trouble either, is it? Yet you still have to go after her when she sneaks out at night... ah, whoops, didn't mean to blow her cover. Actually, yes I did. What the fuck does she keep getting up to?"

Soon all of them are yelling at each other again.

Adaline clenches my hand and drags me away. We end up against the wall in the other room, with Adaline breathing like she's been hurt all over. Her body is a map of bruises even though no one's hit her, pale flesh contrasted with purple, like the oils' trying to burst out of her. "They're all yelling at each other again."

"It'll be over soon. I'm glad we're leaving," I grip my hands in hers. Her skin is so cold, like a dead fish, but she's still my Addie, and she's so pretty even like this. "Everyone's going to have a little more space, you'll get better, and maybe Mary will take us out again. We could go do fun things out on the town. Get more ice cream. Do you want ice cream, Addie?"

"I guess," Addie says. She gurgles deep in her throat but manages to swallow whatever it is. She brings her hangs up to her throat, like she might be choking, and says, "I think you're making me sick, Trace. I can't think of anything but you and how angry I am, all the time."

"It's okay to be angry," I say.

"I don't have any reason to be angry!" Adaline cries. "It can't be okay if it's my fault I feel this way. All it does it hurt people, and scare people, and now everyone has to stay here in this tiny room and wait when we could keep going, and I don't want to stand still forever, and I don't know how to stand up for myself even though I need to say something." She's sniffing, but her tears are almost clear, and the snot isn't oil, it's just regular good old Addie snot. I wipe her face off with one of the messy bedsheets, and I almost sink into her arms, feeling the quick pace of her heart. It's a little rabbit in her chest, but it doesn't have anywhere to go, now. "Trace. What are you doing?"

"I'm just glad you told me," I say. "Doesn't it feel good to sneeze that all out, Addie?"

"No," Addie whimpers. Her eyes are like ivy burns I see on the legs of travellers who've gone too far into the place where nature doesn't want them, all red and swollen. Her hair drapes around me like a waterfall as she pulls close. "It doesn't, because I still want to do this."

She kisses me hard until we're almost out of breath, and then she giggles for the first time I've heard her laugh since she got sick. It's the prettiest sound in the world, even prettier than all the church bells.

"Oh, thank goodness," mutters Red.

I bolt up and space crunches in around us. Everything looks like a wadded up paper ball, with some of the walls pulled in too far and others contracted. Red's physical body is split and everything is bleached, so that all the colors are wrong. Adaline's body is wrong, her face extending too far, and her eyes are pools of oil-- no. She is the night when the two of us kissed, after the sun set. It's a darkness serene as the sky. She reaches out across the distorted face and grabs my hand with her own, which is extended into tiny white needles. "Trace."

I try to spread space back out. Red is looking at me with this mix of confusion and fear, his classes askew on his face, and I bite my tongue. "Sorry, I was just a little startled. No one else even knows, so I guess... you've got to keep it a secret, or I'll crush your head into nothing." I lift a fist to demonstrate and clench it hard.

"Trace!" cries Adaline. "You can't hurt Red!"

Red makes a calm down gesture with his hands. "That won't be necessary," he says. "You girls have a right to your privacy. I just wanted to ask, while Angel's out, if you'd want to go with me and hear some music downtown."

"Yes!" I yell, and a little quieter, I say again, "Yes. Sorry for threatening to crush your head out of existence. I don't think I can actually do that."

Adaline nods. "Could we please go? I think I'm a little better."

Red nods back to her. "I think so too. It'll be our secret, anyways."

Addie smiles so hard when she looks at me, and I smile back, and Red leads us out of the room and down the hallway all stealthy, like anyone could be on us at any second. The elevator is so pretty when it opens for us in its brave gold attire, the lobby is soaring columns and marble floor, and when we hit the city every street corner is a friend. Red walks with purpose, holding Addie's hand, and I get her other hand, so that she's right in the middle, perfectly safe. When he finally turns in towards what must be the building, because it's the largest, most massive glass building I've ever seen in my life, Red waves with his free hand, like he's saluting a friend.

I wave too. Addie opens her mouth wide. "Is this it?"

"No, I just like to wave into this one."

"Who are you waving at?"

"The people indoors," Red says. The opening to the building is all glass, and on the inside are a bunch of different stores with big colorful signs and people dashing between them with bags. It's like watching fish in a pond, frantically dashing back and forth through the water to get breadcrumbs. A few people see us and wave back, while others look confused. I make fish faces against the glass. "They're good sports about it. I don't know what they're going to do with so much stuff, though."

"We don't need much stuff," I say, removing my face from the window.

"No, we don't," Red agrees. "We couldn't carry it anyways. There is one thing we can have as much of as we want, though, and we can get it for free."

"What's that?" Adaline asks. Her mouth is still open. All her teeth are back to normal, and her sharp teeth are just a little sharp. All of them are still a bit grainy from the black stuff that was all stuck in there, but it's still my Addie's teeth. I know. I put my tongue against them earlier.

Red leads us down a road to where a bunch of people are lined up on the sides, playing instruments together. A few have hats out in front of them, and one of the men has a face like mine, with big, dark hair. He has his mouth on a big golden tube that makes the second or third most beautiful noise ever, and I pause to listen. There are a few people gathered around, and the air is thick with the smell of food. "Memories," Red says.

"Oh!" Addie says. She runs to a tree nearby, in the little bit of grass that popped up in the huge city. There are trees and a nice fountain, too, but this one is much taller than the one back where Mary took us. There's less money in it, or at least, not much I can see, but that doesn't matter much. "Red. Red. Can you please lift me up?"
Red helps Addie and I into the tree, and we watch the musicians play near the side of the road and get some ice cream. Addie hasn't sniffed the entire time, and almost all the oil is gone from her complexion. She leans her head on my shoulder, way up in the tree, and Red leans against the trunk. He's still got that expression on his face, but he's nodding to the music too.

"Is this the thing Damien does?" Addie asks.

"He sure does," Red says. "He's planning on doing this with his ukulele in the next town. I'm sure you can get Angel to let you guys go watch him."

Addie looks to me, fearfully. "You think she'd let us?"

"Of course," I say. "Angel likes Damien. She just doesn't like when we're around Elle, or Kali, or when we're not learning, or whatever. Angel doesn't even matter right now. You shouldn't even be thinking about her."
Addie's face twitches. "I guess you're right. I was just worried... what if she doesn't like that I'm getting so close to you?"

"That's dumb," I say. "Plus, it doesn't matter what she thinks, or what Mary thinks."

"Did Mary say something?" Addie gasps.
"When does Mary ever not say something? It's Mary." I stick out my tongue. "That's why no one likes her. I bet even Damien and Gillian don't, and they basically have to like her, because she's there all the time."

"That's so mean!" Adaline's hair rustles around her shoulders. "Everyone in the group has friends, don't they? We all have to be liked by someone, or... or..."

"Who are Angel's friends?" I ask.

Adaline looks out at the crowded streets. "I'm her friend."

"I don't think that's what we are to her."

"What else is there to be? There's... what we are, and then there's what Mary and Gillian are." I pause. The music hits a high note in the distance, and I stare down at all the people in the band, their instruments going off in harmony. Together, their sounds converge into a single rhythm, a shared melody, that sounds at once like all of their instruments and none of them. "Maybe all relationships are just different."

Adaline nods.

"Sounds like a good conclusion to me," Red says. "We have twenty minutes before everyone else gets home and the walk is exactly seventeen minutes, fifteen if we walk fast. Girls, we need to go."

Adaline casts a glance in my direction, equal parts need and mild fear, but she's better, and if she needs someone to remind her of that, I'm right here. I wipe a trail of purple-black from her lip, wiping the remnant against the bark, and as the song winds down and another bursts into life behind it, we slide down the tree.

"You should give them some money for playing for us," I say as we pass the musicians.

Red nods, placing his hands in his trenchcoat. "I've got a little in my pockets. We're a little lean right now, financially, but I'm guessing no one will notice if these coins are missing." He stops to deposit the coins, then hands them to me.

I run up and place them in the hat, and one of the musicians, the one with the beautiful hair, nods to me as I pass. I run after the others and put my hand in Adaline's, the music still echoing in my ears. This place is familiar, and the colors aren't as scary as the rest of the city: the way the sun bounces off all the buildings makes it shine a little brighter on the streets and the people, and they kind of feel like home.

"You always know just how to make me feel better," Addie says, clenching Red's hand. "I wish I could be as smart as you were, or as tall, or as..." She purses her lips.

"You don't want this," Red insists.

We exchange a look.

"No one can be as Red as Red. That's just how Red is." I reassure Addie. "But you're the best Adaline in the whole world."

Her smile is soft as the first snow in the winter, melting as the sun peeks out over the frigid horizon. We're not there yet, but the weather's been getting colder ever since we got here. I don't want to leave the summer behind, with all the pretty skies and molten sunsets, but that's kind of silly, isn't it?

We enter the room to find that almost no one else is there, though Mimsy's curled up on the bed. The room feels a little smaller, and I feel crowded by it. I settle near the television, and Adaline sweeps her feet back and forth by my side, her head safely in her thin white hands.

"Adaline," Angel says when she enters, her arms covered in bags. Her eyes begin to well with tears, and then she runs over and hugs Adaline tight as she can. Adaline threads her own hands back through Angel's arms, and the two of them embrace real tight. "You look so much better. I guess the medicine finally worked."

"Oh, yes. Medicine." Addie says, looking up from the TV. She draws herself up, turning the screen off, and says resolutely. "Angel, I think I'm ready to go now."