The Sky is Everywhere

Chapter Twenty

She's about my age, with hair that's such a bright blonde it can't possibly be real, and even though she stands several inches shorter than me, she exudes a wealth of confidence that I can only aspire to. Silver rings glitter in her ears, and she's squeezed into skin-tight, shiny black trousers with thick-soled boots, and a dark t-shirt that hangs off one shoulder.

I've never seen anyone like her, and I falter, suddenly unsure.

Who is she?

Why is she here?

I look to Roan, my eyes full of questions.

"Caia, this is Rosie," he says.

Rosie waves at me. Every one of her fingers sparkles with rings.

I lift my hand in response, but I still feel strange and out of place. Rosie is part of Beyond, and more than that, she's Roan's best friend, so she must be here for a reason, but this is our place, mine and Roan's, and I'm not entirely comfortable with someone else being here.

Maybe it's silly, but I wish he had told me she was coming.

Roan kisses me, and I relax a little. He knows me, so if he's brought Rosie here without prior warning, it's for something important.

"It's so good to meet you at last," Rosie gushes, and I think she's going to shake my hand, but instead she throws her arms around me and hugs me like we're old friends. "Roan hasn't shut up about you."

I steal a small look at him, and he smiles back.

My heart flutters.

"Thank you so much for agreeing to help us," Rosie says.

"I don't know much help I've actually been," I admit.

She waves a glittering hand. "Oh, please. You've been amazing."

Her praise warms me.

"Rosie's had some ideas, and we need to talk to you about them," Roan says.

Rosie hurries over to the thickest clump of bushes that screen us from the rest of the grounds, and for the first time I notice a big black rucksack sitting there. Crouching down, she unzips it and pulls out a plastic box, a little larger and thicker than the phone Roan used to show me pictures of the world.

"Remember what I told you about Rosie being a tech-head?" Roan says. "This is one of her little inventions."

Rosie gives him a mock-withering look. "Little? This is genius."

"I know, but I can't let your own brilliance go to your head."

She laughs.

They're so easy together; I'm suddenly very aware that they have known each other a long time. There's nothing romantic between them, but this is the first time I've seen Roan interact with anyone else, and it makes everything feel off-kilter somehow.

I'm not jealous of Rosie, but I need some time to adjust to this.

"Okay," Rosie says, holding the plastic box aloft, "this is a genius piece of kit developed by yours truly."

"Uh, Rosie?" Roan says. "I know you're about to unload a whole bunch of technical jargon, and maybe don't do that. Keep it simple."

"Because I won't understand it otherwise?" I say, feeling a little stung.

"Because I don't understand it. She explains to me what she's doing sometimes, and honestly it's like she's speaking gibberish," Roan says.

"This is a super special Rosie scanner, and it's one of several similar projects that I'm currently working on," Rosie tells me. "Basically, I can use it to scan a piece of tech, and it analyses what that tech is and how it works."