“Oh? That’s good. I’ll try to say it more.” For all things Wes committed to memory, there were still so many out of his reach. But he always reached for the next one like he was accepting the spark of life. Wes liked it that way. Good scientists didn’t always have the right answer, but it was only a matter of time before an explanation was found.
He shook his head. “None of this is your fault.” Would she listen to the guy who just admitted he didn’t know something? Wes hoped so. Some things he didn’t need to think about. “I’m the last person who’d want to boss you around, but you should hear me when I say that you’re not to blame for other people’s decisions. So you believed in someone. That’s a good thing, Ral. Just because they disappointed you later on doesn’t mean your first instinct was the wrong one.”
“We can and we will,” Wes promised. Lines were quickly being drawn, though not in a way he wanted. They would have to make do with what they had. “We have a head start now. When they close ranks, we’ll…I don’t know…open enroll?” There were more people in town who weren’t in Tony’s inner circle. If they had anything, it was the numbers.
“Oh,” Wes said again. Telling Raleigh and Fern was all well and good, but what good was he without an explanation? This was only a discovery, like the frog realizing the water in the pot was boiling. Wes had a plan to get everyone out of the boiling water, though, even if he couldn’t admit that to Raleigh. “Well, Betelgeuse moved. The supergiant? Or us—Earth. These things don’t just happen.”
“So,” Wes prompted, still toying with his food, “weird enough?”
"You promise?" Raleigh said with a shy laugh. There was something so soothing about that notion. Maybe because it reminded her so deeply of her brother, the professional know-it-all who was always admitting how little he knew. (Johnny was squarely not a boy to her mind. Never had been and never would be. She realized, suddenly, she was clinging to the idea of a future where she got to see him again like a rope above a chasm. All she could do was keep herself from looking down for too long.)
The laugh turned bitter, and not just because of the thought. "My first instinct is always the wrong one, Wes. Second, third, and fourth, too." Even the people who loved her knew that. Rals and her terrible taste in men. She was waiting patiently for Young to reveal himself to be a terrible fit for her. But right now the only flaw she was seeing was that he was too nice, too careful. She should have spent the night with him instead. But knowing that didn't make her feel any less embarrassed. Young would have had the good sense to skip this mess.
"Open enrollment in the New Romantics, can you imagine?" She found herself smiling at him again somehow. "You're going to force Lou to lower her standards. Good luck with that." Still, she knew what he meant. "It's true that people unite around a common enemy, but I'm not sure I want to be part of that kind of group. Hasn't gone well for my kind before." It was a dark reference for a dark time. She told herself she was thinking of Christian's unfortunate ancestors rather than the other thing.
Raleigh blinked at him as he started to talk about star stuff. "It moved? What do you mean it moved? Like the whole sky? Or just Beetlejuice?" It was the same thing as whatever weird word he'd just said, right? It felt like the same thing.
