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a lot.” It was hard to make real friends when I wasn’t around long enough to invest. I had friends, yeah, but someone I’d call a best friend, someone I’d carve into stone? Never. April ignored me ninety-percent of the time, lost in her own little world. When we did start at a new school, I didn’t have problems making friends; I had problems keeping them.
    Finn narrowed his eyes, his lips pursed together as if I told a lie.
    “What?”
    “You going unnoticed is like ignoring a rainbow after a heavy rainfall.”
    I sat up so we faced one another. “I’m not sure I follow.”
    “After every rainfall there’s a rainbow because rainbows are a promise. A promise that there will always be a light in the darkness. That’s why they are too beautiful to overlook.” His hand crept along my cheek, brushing away the fallen strands of my hair. The same strange look came over him, as if he wasn’t present at all, but somewhere else, in a strange memory. “You, Norah, are our light.”
    I swallowed hard. “Where’s the darkness?”
    His eyes were trained, like he was under a spell, unable to move away or stop looking at me. “Wherever you aren’t.” In our closeness I smelt it, the faint trickle of liquor deep within him, flowing through him like blood.
    A faint bell rang in the distance. And then he blinked. His hand fell from my face and he cleared his throat. “Reality beckons.”

 
    I had to wait almost an entire week to use the phone. Talk about hell. They had some lame rule about having to sign up ahead of time and there were only so many slots. Such bull. Thank god for combat class where I could kick someone’s ass without getting in trouble.
    My back slammed into the mat with a loud thud . A heavy groan escaped my lips. The sword clanked against the ground beside me. A rush pulsed through my veins, the old familiar feeling, like for a second I wasn’t homesick or sad. The world was normal. Well, as normal as it could be.
    Finn’s chest rose up and down as he tried to catch his breath. He rolled on his side and stared at me, his eyes wider than I’d ever seen them. Sweat dripped down his forehead, coating his neck and arms.
    “How the hell did you do that?”
    “Do what?”
    “Don’t act all innocent.” He stretched his arms up over his head. “I’ve never seen a girl use a sword so well. Not even the pirate girls.”
    I copied his stretch and my entire back cracked. So good. “My dad was into combat.” No, Dad was obsessed with combat, thus forcing his obsession onto me. Not that I minded kicking hot boys’ butts and showing off my mad skills.
    “Combat, huh?” He crossed his legs. I did the same. “What’d your mom think of that?”
    “I imagine she wouldn’t approve.” I ran my hands through my damp, sweat filled hair. “But she’s not a part of my life.”
    “That sucks,” he said. It had sucked, especially since my dad never talked to me about what really happened between them, why she left, where she went, if she was even still alive. And it sucked even more when he tried to have “the talk” with me about boys and sex and “menstruation.” Awkward, to say the least. Having a mom would have been nice.
    “It’s probably better that way.”
    “What do you mean?”I bit on my bottom lip and rose to my feet. Grabbing the sword off the floor, I headed toward the rack where the weapons were. Finn followed close. “The expectations aren’t as high for you.”
    I wish. If anything, I had always felt the expectations were higher because I didn’t have a mom. April’s mom died in a freak accident only two years after they’d been married. April was a couple months old and Dad was in way over his head. They needed someone to take care of them. Cooking, cleaning, dishes, shopping, it all fell on my shoulders. Not that I’d complained, I never did, not once, in fear if I had, he’d either A) Find a wife, probably one I hated or B) Send me away to school where my privileges