Once We Were by Kat Zhang Page B

my feelings toward Devon, or what sort of feelings he might have toward me. Sometimes, his presence grated. His wall-like silences and unreadable eyes seemed like such wastes when I could be having Ryan’s smiles, his surprised laughter, his quiet jokes.
    But other times, I was overcome by a fierce sort of affection for Devon. It wasn’t at all what I felt for Ryan. But it wasn’t like anything I’d ever felt for anyone else, either.
    “Sabine and Cordelia share an apartment about fifteen minutes away,” Jackson said. “Christoph and I live a little farther.”
    Christoph looked over at the sound of his name. Sabine and Cordelia had left the rest of us behind a little, and they turned now to wait for us to catch up. I saw the moment Sabine’s face changed, her easy smile pulling tight, her eyes focusing on something—
someone
—over our shoulder. A beam of light struck us from behind.
    “Hey! You lot—wait a minute.”
    Addie jerked around. A police officer in full uniform directed a flashlight at us.
    Our heart rate rocketed. Heat flared through our body, setting our blood alight like it was gasoline.
    Devon,
I thought.
    Devon, who stood beside us, as immobile as we were. Devon, who, even more than us, should not be seen by anyone. He was doing nothing wrong, breaking no laws, causing no trouble. It was not actually illegal to be foreign, much less look foreign, and a police officer ought to know that better than the average person. But still.
    Someone took hold of our shoulder. Jackson.
    “Something wrong?” he asked the officer. His voice was light. He took a few steps toward the man, pushing us along though everything in me screamed that we should be going in the opposite direction.
    The officer lowered the flashlight beam so it wasn’t blinding us. The stars in our vision didn’t fade.
    He frowned at Addie and me. “Bit late for you to be running around, isn’t it?”
    Our lips couldn’t form a reply. Jackson’s hand tightened on our shoulder, but he laughed. “She’s fine; she’s with us.”
    “You know about the curfew?”
    “That doesn’t start until Monday,” Cordelia said. Without my noticing, she and Sabine had joined us. She grinned. “We’re running wild while we still can.”
    The officer ran his eyes over her short, platinum hair, her red lips. “Well, don’t run too wild. It’s two in the morning. Be careful.”
    “We were headed back anyway.” Sabine tilted her head at the milkshake in our hands. “Just came out for some food.”
    
I hissed, and Addie obeyed.
    We snuck a look at Devon, who wore a look of magnificent boredom. Our smile softened into something a bit more natural.
    “It’s my birthday,” Addie said. Our voice came out quiet, almost shy. We sounded more like Kitty than ourself, which only made us more flustered. Heat crept up our neck, bloomed on our cheeks.
    To their credit, no one looked surprised.
    “All right,” the officer said finally. “Have a good night, then.”
    We all stood quietly until the man was out of sight. Then Cordelia broke down into giggles. Jackson tried to shush her, but her laughter was making him laugh, too. Only Christoph looked as serious as Devon did. Sabine hustled everyone forward.

EIGHT
    “T
hat
was a brilliant play by all involved,” Cordelia said as we hurried through the streets.
    “That was a close call,” Jackson corrected, but there wasn’t any real warning in his tone, only an amused sort of exhilaration.
    “Not really.” Cordelia skipped ahead of us, then turned to face Addie and me, walking backward. She grinned. “He was just worried we were corrupting your sweet fifteen-year-old mind. Gang initiation, maybe.”
    “It’s not really your birthday, is it?” Sabine asked. Addie shook our head. “Good going, then. Nearly fooled me.”
    “It’s my birthday,”
Cordelia said in a surprisingly good imitation of our voice—only higher and breathier. Addie blushed, and Cordelia laughed. “You sounded