Everything Fails. T Van Santana

and looked over the edge. I felt my vision start to spin. “Aw, shit. Aw, shit, girl. This sucks.”

      Danielle sat down on the platform, her back against the rickety rail. She looked at the spot next to her, then at me.

      I nodded. “Good idea.”

      I sat down, though I couldn’t bring myself to put my back on the rail, so I sat a bit more to the center, rather than right next to her.

      “Fuck,” I said. “I don’t know why the fuck you come up here, man. Gonna have a fuckin’ heart attack.”

      Danielle shrugged.

      Something caught my eye.

      There up in the corner of the observation platform—like under the roofing—was a little patch of luminescent fungus. I hadn’t seen it there earlier, possibly because I was shitting myself with fear.

      “Huh,” I said. “Has that shit always grown up here?’

      Danielle glanced at it, shrugged again.

      “All right, all right,” I said. “I’m calling Terry. Just give me an hour to get down this fucker.”

      I dunno how long it took exactly, but it was good and damn dark by the time we got down. Danielle followed me all the way, waiting for me, not doing any of the usual shit like kicking my fingers or laughing and trying to drop spit wads on me.

      When I touched the ground, I literally put my lips to it. “Oh, thank fucking God. Thank you, God. Thank you.”

      I stood and went over to Vengeance, fired up the comm. “Vengeance?”

      “Yes. What is your command.” Everything Vengeance said sounded like a statement, even questions.

      “Call Terry.”

      “Calling Terry Basai …”

      A second later, and Terry’s voice filled the cabin. “Hey. What’s up?”

      Danielle leaned past me, said, “Baby, I love you! I’m sorry!”

      Terry didn’t say anything.

      Real smooth, Danielle. But I didn’t say that. I put my hand on Danielle’s shoulder and eased her back. “Hey, Terry. I’m down at the Tower with Danielle.”

      Terry sighed. “She go up there again?”

      “Yeah. I think I’ve lost some weight from all the sweating I did.”

      Terry laughed.

      “Look, Danielle’s sorry,” for whatever in fuck she did, cos I still didn’t know, “and she wants to work it out” because that’s what you two always do, and then this will all just happen again later, maybe next week. “How does that sound?”

      Terry was quiet.

      I looked at Danielle, who’s staring back and forth between me and the comm, looking like she really didn’t know how this was gonna go.

      I did, though.

      “Yeah, okay,” Terry said.

      I turned my hand over, as if to say to Danielle, “See?”

      “Come on, baby,” Danielle said. “Come on down here.”

      “Okay. I’m on the way.”

      The comm went dead.

      “All right, well, that’s that.” I said. “Now … potatoes?”

      Danielle smiled at me, then said, “You can’t get away from me.” You know, in that other voice.

      It creeped me out. I tried to be tough. Pulled out a smoke, lit it up. “Yeah?”

      “No.”

      “Well, what happens if I compel you to leave?” I asked.

      Danielle’s face smiled. “Oh, you mean like that bitch Bishop Bleed tried to do?”

      Wasn’t sure how she knew about that. Maybe my mom told her. But then again, I wasn’t sure my mom knew.

      But I played it cool. “Yeah. Something like that.”

      Her grin widened. “How’d that work out for you?”

      I took a drag, thought about it. “Didn’t really do anything.”

      “That’s because it doesn’t really do anything.”

      Took another drag. Thought about it some more. “All right. I’ll play along,” I said. “Dwizaal, I want you to leave Danielle alone.”

      Danielle kept smiling, turned her head some and then let it roll around her neck at odd angles. “Uh, no.”

      “Well then what is it you want? You really just want to hang out in Danielle and Cheney and make weird faces?”

      Danielle’s face went serious, but it wasn’t the same expression she’d worn earlier. “I want you.”

      “Danielle, c’mon, we tried that. It didn’t work for us. Plus, Terry’s on the way …”

      “I’m not Danielle. I’m Dwizaal. Like you said.”

      I smoked some more, burning it down quick. “Okay. So, you want me. What’s that mean?”

      “You and me,” Danielle said, “we have unfinished business.”

      “I don’t know what that means.”

      Terry pulled up, spraying dust and weeds everywhere. They docked all cockeyed and leapt from the car, rushed over to us.

      Danielle blinked twice and was back to normal, looking stunned like she had at the Plant.

      “Huh,” I said.

      “What?” Danielle asked.

      “It’s a neat trick,” I said, “but I still don’t buy it, Dani.”

      Terry reached her and kissed her.

      Danielle’s eyes held mine for a moment, then went closed in the embrace.

      I looked away, you know, to give ‘em some privacy. Or really me, because these two were forever fucking in front of everyone.

      I dropped the smoke butt, ground it out with the toe of my shoe.

      When I looked back up, Danielle was staring at me over Terry’s shoulder, her eyes dark and amused and not entirely her own.

      10 | Not How I Meant It

      Terry’s eyes lit up at the sight of it. “Wow,” they said. “What is it?”

      “It’s a bunch of old music,” I said. “You know, songs.”

      Terry smiled and held it. “Thank you.”

      Danielle was smiling, too, but looking agitated. “That’s great. Thanks for outdoing me on Terry’s birthday. I appreciate that.”

      “Aw, come on,” I said. “You know that’s not how I meant it. I just saw it and thought of Terry. That’s all.”

      Swear to God, that’s all.

      But that seemed to make it mean even more to Terry.

      Danielle saw that, too, and went heavy in the eyes.

      “C’mon,” I said, “let’s go drink by the pool.”

      Terry put lips to Danielle’s cheek, then whispered into her ear.

      “Yeah, okay,” Danielle said. “We can go get wet. It’s cool.”

      “There’s a girl,” I said.

      We stood up and walked that way.

      “Is Mickie comin’?” Terry asked.

      “Yeah. She’s a got