Free After the Moment by Garret Freymann-Weyr

him, and to the surroundings a light that memory would never diminish.
    ~~~
    When they met again, four years later, Leigh realized, with her hand ever so briefly in his as they shook hello, that he'd fallen in love with her—suddenly and forever—on that Sunday morning. And not, as he'd once thought, slowly and over the course of a hot, humid summer before his senior year began. Just as the huge apartment, the party, and all of New York fell away, leaving him with only his memories, so four years ago on that morning the world had vanished, leaving nothing but a girl standing in the sun, grateful for the granting of a favor.
    "So you're at college in the city," she said to him, as Kathleen introduced herself to Maia's date.
    "Columbia," Leigh said. "Just this past year, though. I was ... yeah, Columbia."
    He would spare her the boring saga of his college career. Although, of course, she was the one who had, in many ways, shaped it. Leigh hadn't just fallen in love with Maia on that Sunday; he had stepped off his road, the one full of protection and good fortune, into a kind of violence that had brought him immeasurable joy.
    "I go to Sarah Lawrence," she said, smiling brightly. "I only come into the city for ridiculous things like this. Isn't it funny that I'd see you at one of them?"
    Leigh nodded and hoped his face matched hers in polite amusement.
    She was wearing a black skirt and over it a long-sleeved silk blouse that fit as closely as a corset. Her heavy dark hair was slipping out of its barrettes, and her earrings sparkled against her neck. She had found a way, he saw, to turn fragility into an invitation. Everything about her whispered,
Touch me,
in much the same way that it had once radiated,
Protect me.
    It struck him that as he had failed at the latter, there would be little chance at ever again doing the former. This was a combination of regret and hope far bigger than dinner-party chatter could accommodate, and as he took his seat at the table, he slipped back to when she was still only his sister's friend.
    ~~~
    Leigh was, he found, glad enough to see Maia again at Millie's birthday dinner, but he was mostly relieved that his father had come home from work in time for it. As they ate (meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and roasted carrots—Millie's favorites), he got, without having to ask for them, the details of what had happened to Franklin during the past year. There had been the usual things (name calling, getting shoved out of his place in line), and then worse things (someone stole his bookbag, someone else put a garter snake in his desk), all culminating in his getting locked up inside his locker.
    "And, you know, he has asthma," Maia said.
    "He got bad nightmares after that," Millie said. "Daddy talked to him on the phone a few times to try to help. Because he's seen all kinds of horrible things happen in school."
    Leigh held his breath—it was only the second time he'd heard her mention her father since his death.
    "It was really good of Seth to do that," Clayton said. "I remember he thought that maybe Franklin was in the wrong school."
    "I know, and it amazed me that Park Prep could be wrong for anyone," Janet said, "but they do put a lot of emphasis on achievement."
    "Wouldn't that make him really popular?" Leigh asked. "Kevin told me Franklin skipped two grades."
    "One," Millie said.
    "Not that kind of achievement," Maia said. "Being smart is a given. It's more what you do with it."
    This made no sense, but Leigh didn't want to ask. He was nervous enough about the new school.
    "Seth thought the school didn't give kids enough room to be themselves," Janet said. "Everyone has so much to do. But Millie likes it."
    "I don't think it's the school," Millie said. "It's just these jerks in the eleventh grade."
    "Those jerks will be in Leigh's grade this year," Maia said. "Seniors."
    "So, anyway, Mrs. Staines even talked to Daddy," Millie said, "and then she quit working."
    "She had a pretty cool job," Maia