"Don't you think there's another way to get these things off?" Mercury asked as we came out onto the road.
The headlights cut hard white across empty asphalt. The night air coming through the open vents was cooler than the car, carrying the thin, continuous smell of smoke.
Behind us, Trapper and Linn were still going at each other. They had used every single second since the lot to argue about something neither of them could name anymore. The words overlapped and cancelled. The dark shapes of their bodies shifted in the rear-view mirror under the occasional street light.
"There has to be," I said.
She glanced sideways at me. The dashboard light laid a soft green edge along the side of her face and left the rest in shadow.
"But?"
She'd heard the but before I got anywhere near saying it. The single syllable sat between us like something she'd already weighed.
