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Luthor’s waiting on the other side, looking excited

"I knohat I want to sculpt," he says, stepping into the room

" What?" After the door zips closed behind hie button in my wall and soon the room is filled with the scent of breakfast Wall food isn’t that great--we could go to the caf instead and get so a little better--but it is convenient I pull out the warm meat pasty fro half to Luthor

He takes it, a flicker of surprise on his face "Thanks," hebread cru to make?"

"You "

" What?"

" You" Luthor sets his half of breakfast down on the desk He’s too excited; he needs both hands to fly around as he speaks "I readI know the name better than he does

"Yeah And he ht the ideal woman would be like That’s the whole point of his story, that he created this perfect woman with his art And that’s what I want to do I want to make the perfect woman "

"And you wantme?"

Luthor pauses in his flurried excite in my disheveled hair, wrinkled clothes, and sleep-encrusted eyes "Of course you," he says si

I stand perfectly still in our little studio as Luthor sketches me He wants to make the statue in a "classical " pose, as he says it, and he keeps telling e my arms, or hunch my back more, or hold up one hand

" No, no, no," he says, frustrated I’ in the saet frustrated with my voice when I can’t reach a note "Like this "

He strides across the floor and pullshtly behind lance down at him; he doesn’t see me as a person in this moment--I’m not Selene, I’ one hand intomy chest jut forward

Slowly, he walks around, inspecting ently, tapping ht fro down my cheeks

" Perfect," he whispers "You’re perfect "

I glance down at him, careful not to move my body orpast my skin, into the very heart of who I an quickly, and if he thought there was so odd about his selection ofAfter lunch, workers froe pillar of brown clay, and Luthor tells theht there, in the center of the floor, where the light fros in buckets of water and lays out his tools in a neat arc next to the clay " We could go down to the pond with Kayleigh and Harley," I suggest

Luthor shakes his head, his attention focused on lining up each tool correctly They look almost like Doc’s medical instruments: a dull-bladed knife, tiny needlelike picks, a scalpel "I want to work here," Luthor says "With you Alone "

As if on cue, Victria barges into the studio "So, " she says loudly, her voice bouncing off the walls, "this is where you two have been hiding"

Bartie trails behind Victria He carries his guitar on a strap across his shoulders, one hand unconsciously stroking the strings

" We’re working," Luthor says pointedly

" So are we Looking for inspiration and all that " Victria ignores hi almost protective in her stance

"Look for inspiration sorowls, and I can’t blaet started on the sculpture he’s planned for teeks; Victria and Bartie’s interruption could not have come at a worse time

"I need Selene " Victria lifts one shoulder, as if she’s helpless in the face of her whimsical muse

" So do I " Luthor hasn’t moved away from his clay, but his hands are motionless, his body stiff

Victria leans over "You’ve got a sketch " Her words are casual, but she touches e to h my flesh Bartie shifts nervously by the door

" But I’ll still need her "

Before the two of theht, I speak up "Why do you needMusic "

"You have Bartie" I hope none of the others notice the bitterness in my voice She does have Bartie, all of him, even if she doesn’t appear to want hi "

"Yeah," Bartie says, looking up for the first ti that’ll make us want to drown "

Victria and Bartie chuckle at the jab, but Luthor just scowls "Will you leave if she sings? " he says

Victria hesitates, but Bartie says, "Yes "