The Mask Maker Read Online Free PDF

okay?" He turned so that his back was to the rest of the group. "I've wanted to do something like that to him for years. Just go enjoy yourself. I've never seen Alexander this happy."
    I nodded and walked off the stage, immensely pleased with myself.
    *~*~*
    "You did what?" Alexander asked as he poured me a glass of something red. I had already told him twice that night, but he still seemed astounded by the duel. Not that I minded. I enjoyed his company, and his shop was ideal for a humid summer evening.
    "I told you," I paused to take a sip of the sweet drink. "He just made me so mad. So I challenged him and of course, he wasn't going to back down. I'm pretty sure anything green is going to freak him out for a long time now. Maybe I'll give him some green flowers for graduation. That'd be a nice present, right?"
    "You've never gotten me green flowers. You've never gotten me any flowers." He stuck his tongue out at me. I was pretty sure there was something in the drinks he had been making.
    "I've known you for two days."
    He clinked his glass against mine. "And here is to a long life of knowing each other."
    "My thoughts exactly." I clinked mine back.
    Downing his drink in one gulp, he looked me in the eyes. "What time do you think it is, you cute man, you?" He had been slowly paying me compliments throughout the night.
    I looked out to the small window that was placed on the far wall of his shop. It was pitch black. "Looks to be around midnight to me."
    "Follow me!" He shouted, running to his door and heading outside before I realized what he was doing.
    Following him out, I noted that the evening had cooled off considerably, to the point of almost being cold. My eyes adjusted to the light outside and I could see Alexander skipping in the road ahead of me. In the moonlight, he looked just like the little kid I had met so long ago.
    "Slow down. Where are you going?"
    He turned to look at me and then pointed down the road before laughing and running in the opposite direction. I ran behind him as fast as I could manage. Alexander was quick for someone who spent so much time behind a desk.
    "Would you slow down?"
    Whether he heard me or not, I wasn't certain. Instead of slowing down, he seemed to run faster. I ran with him, the shops whizzing by us until they disappeared entirely and we came to a heavily forested area. The moon was having a hard time piercing through the trees above us and several times I lost sight of Alexander entirely. Finally, I came to a small clearing where I found him standing in front of a large fountain.
    It hadn't been used in quite some time. That much was obvious. Why it had been put there in the first place was another question. In some ways it still was a beautiful lady in a stone robe, but the green flecks that grew around most of her hid a lot of her features. She held a basin in front of her that had a bit of water. There was a bench in front of it where Alexander sat, looking up at me.
    "What do you think?" He asked.
    "I had no idea this was here." The forest had never been a place that I ventured into much.
    "No one really does. I've never heard anyone talk about it. I asked Lady Chuff since she's been here forever. She suggested maybe it had something to do with the village that was here before ours." He waved for me to come and sit with him. I gladly did so.
    "How did you find it?"
    "I like to wander around late at night. You know, it keeps up the creep image. Just so we're clear, though, I've never eaten a stray cat. I adopt them first." We both laughed. One of his arms found its way around my shoulder and I wrapped one of mine around his waist, pulling him to me.
    "It's so peaceful out here," I whispered, looking up at the stars that dotted the night.
    "That's why I like it so much. Kind of the perfect spot."
    "Perfect spot for what?"
    He turned his head to face mine and kissed me. It was my first kiss. The statue seemed to smile down upon us in the moonlight.
    *~*~*
    The next morning, I