you,” he said. “I think you look great. You always look great. Clothes aren’t really that important anyway.”
She pulled on a pair of old blue Converse and held her hand out to him, pulling him up off the bed.
“Do you ever sleep?” she asked him.
“Only during the day.”
“You’re weird.”
“That’s why you like me.”
“Fucking vampires.”
“Hey, watch what you say.”
She walked him over to her bedroom door and turned toward him.
“Now,” she said, “here’s the part where we have to be very very quiet. We have to use our catlike skills.”
“Understood,” he said. “I got in, didn’t I?”
“I’ll give you that.”
Slowly, she opened her bedroom door. She was making a bigger deal out of this than she really had to. She lived in a huge house on Walnut Street. Her parents’ bedroom was on the second floor and hers was on the ground floor. She had chosen this room knowing it would be a lot easier to come and go as she pleased. All she really had to do was cross the living room and leave through the back door and she was certain she would probably be able to stomp through the house and still not be noticed. Holding Zack’s hand, she led him to the back door. He was right. He was very good at being quiet. She wouldn’t have even known he was behind her if he hadn’t been holding her hand. She unlocked the glass back door and slowly slid it open. She shut it until just before it latched. This would ensure her reentry would be equally as soundless and she didn’t really think her parents would be burgled or maimed within the next couple of hours.
“We’re free,” she said.
“Free at last.” He pulled her toward him and kissed her deeply.
“You know,” she said. “We don’t have to go all the way to the cemetery. There’s a perfectly secluded patch of woods right back there.” She nodded behind her back yard, where the Lynchville Nature Reserve began.
“I know. But I want to go to the graveyard. It’s not going to be this warm much longer.”
“It’s not exactly warm now.”
“But it isn’t winter yet.”
“Okay. You win.”
“This is definite graveyard weather.”
Together, they walked through the back yard and across the side yard until they were on the sidewalk. They would have to keep to the side streets. If a cop were to see them out walking this late, they would most definitely have to answer some questions. If the police found out she was under eighteen she would either get an escort home or a call to her parents. Technically, the curfew for minors in Lynchville was ten. This relaxed a little on Friday and Saturday. And it didn’t seem to really apply so much to those over sixteen. Charlotte was seventeen. But it was Thursday. She didn’t know how old Zack was but she didn’t know if an officer would take so kindly to him escorting a high school girl around town at two o’clock in the morning. That kind of behavior just had prurient written all over it.
“So why do you want to go traipsing around a creepy old graveyard, anyway?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I just want to.”
“Do you do ev erything you want to?”
“Mostly, yeah.”
“That’s good, I guess. Are you ever going to take me to your house?”
“Someday.”
“Do you still live with your parents?”
“Something like that.”
“Yes or no. What, do you live with like an older sibling or grandparents or something?”
“No. Just some friends.”
“ Older friends.”
“Yeah, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t really think about age so much.”
“So how old are you?”
“I told you I don’t think about age very much.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“And I’m not going to.”
“That’s frustrating. It’s a simple question.”
“Did I ask how old you were?”
“No. I’m seventeen.”
“Good for you.”
“You