Chapter 17

Dusty waited within the famous foyer of Grand Central station. Any minute the woman she had fallen so deeply in love with while at Princeton would come surging through with the oncoming crowd to spend a week with her in New York City. She had not seen Kyera Aroura since that fateful day in the hospital when she reluctantly let her go so she could spend her summer travelling Europe with Ashley.

Now they were to be reunited once more, and Dusty's stomach flip- flopped with a mixture of nerves and excitement. Kyera train had arrived on time, so the large arrivals board stated. She had travelled in from Boston, her hometown, a place Dusty had once summered with her when they were together. Her house, her family, all things which had once felt so familiar, felt foreign to her now as though they now belonged to someone else.

It was as if any time she'd spent with them was merely borrowed, not really hers. Looking through the crowd, Dusty tried to find her. There were families of tourists bustling nervously together, students meandering through, and professional commuters moving with intense purpose. Then, amongst the crowd, she saw the familiar black long of hair and, beneath it, the intense eyes that she used to get lost in for hours.

Almost as soon as she spotted Kyera, her eyes locked on hers, and she her hand in greeting, smiling. "Kyera!" Dusty went over to her and put her arms around hers. It felt so good to see her that for a moment she forgot herself, holding her close and inhaling her heady scent of cigarettes and vanilla. Then she remembered that the friend barrier was now between them, and self-consciously she pulled back.

"Dusty, hey." Kyera smiled warmly at her, and she looked her over. She was slimmer than she had been in Princeton, which made her cheekbones more pronounced. No doubt, the months spent in the hospital were responsible for her weight loss. Being slimmer made her seem all the more gothic in appearance, with her pale skin, black hair and sharp eyes. It could be argued that the term brooding had been coined solely to describe her dark allure.

But there was something different; she was somehow changed. She looked the same, spoke the same, but her sparkle was gone. She was still Kyera but without the extra dose of that fatalistic essence often referred to as the 'it' factor. It saddened Dusty, but she figured she'd be back to her magnetic self once her internal wounds were fully healed. She just needed more time.

"So how was your trip?" she asked politely.

"Okay." Kyera shrugged, her eyes still boring into hers.

"Just okay?" Dusty pressed, certain that the Kyera she knew would be full of a tirade about how crowded it had been and the terrible people she'd been forced to endure for the duration of the journey.

"It was lame, okay?" Kyera conceded, sighing. "But I knew that at the end of it I was getting to see you, which made it not so bad."

Dusty blushed at the compliment and began leading her out of the famous terminal. "My place is a couple of stops on the subway away," she explained as they stepped out onto the sidewalk. Kyera glanced around approvingly, taking in the sights and smells of the city.

"Do you mind if we grab some lunch first? I'm starving," Kyera asked, hungrily inhaling the scent of a hot dog vendor's cart they passed.

****

They headed into a small diner. Dusty ordered a Caesar salad while Kyera had a grilled cheese sandwich that she delved right into as soon as it arrived. "You haven't eaten since I last saw you?" she joked, watching her wolf down her food.

"Hospital food is so bad," Kyera said between mouthfuls. "And my folks refused to sneak me in any food, which was pretty lame."

"How are your mom and dad?"

"Okay." Kyera shrugged. She was saying okay an awful lot.

"They didn't mind you coming here to stay with me?" Dusty queried, wondering if perhaps she should have spoken with them prior to her arrival, checked on her mental state in case there was anything she needed to be aware of, any medication she needed to take.

"They trust you." Kyera finished her sandwich and noticed the troubled look on Dusty's face as she gazed distractedly out the window. "I'm a big girl, Dusty," she told her. "I can look after myself."

"Are you... are you on anything?" she asked, lowering her voice.

"I'm on some meds, yeah," Kyera answered, her jaw clenching. "And I'm on top of taking them, before you ask."

"So you're feeling much better?" Dusty's eyes grew wide with concern.

"I'm feeling better. Let's leave it at that." Kyera said, not enjoying being scrutinized. She'd had a whole summer of people assessing her and overanalyzing her every move; she didn't want that behavior to follow her here to the city.

"Well, I've thought up lots of things we can do," Dusty said, trying to lift the mood.

"Oh yeah?" Kyera asked with genuine interest.

"I've booked us some theater tickets for tomorrow night, and I was thinking we could go ice skating."

"Ice skating is a tad cliché," Kyera commented, her old persona surfacing, much to Dusty's relief. She liked the old opinionated Kyera who had something to say about everything.

"I know, but I think it will be fun." Dusty smiled sweetly.

"For you maybe, I can't really skate that well," Kyera admitted.

"Still it will be fun," Dusty declared.

"I guess."

"And I'm determined for you to have fun while you're here," Dusty told her, feeling guilty about the summer and desperate to make it up to her.

"So when do we start having this fun?" Kyera teased, flashing her mischievous smile, which Dusty had missed seeing.