“Want to go sit by the pond?” I asked. “The fireworks look cool reflected off the water.”
Bray shrugged. “I guess so.” Then she went to her feet; Lissa was already standing up ready to go before Bray had even made up her mind And just like that, as if I’d never called her ugly and she had never kicked me, we walked side by side toward the pond and sat together for the next two hours. My friend, Mitchell, joined us eventually and the four of us laid on our backs on the grass and watched the fireworks explode in an array of colors in the clear black sky. And although Lissa and Mitchell were there with us, Bray and I carried on with each other as if we were alone. We laughed at stupid jokes and made fun of people walking by. It was the best night of my life and it was only just beginning Shortly after the fireworks ended and the darkness settled across the pasture again, most of the town had already packed up and gone home.
My mom found me with Bray, Lissa and Mitchell.
“Time to go,” she said standing over me.
Bray was lying next to me, her head pressed against the side of my shoulder. I hadn’t really noticed it much, but my mom sure did. I saw a look in her eye-upside-down since she was standing behind us, which made that look all the more scary-that I’ve never seen before. I raised up from the grass and turned around to face her.
“Can’t I stay and hang out a while longer?”
“No, Elias, I have to work in the morning. It’s already late.”
She gestured with her free hand for me to get up and follow.
Reluctantly, I did as I was told.
“Oh come on, please Ms. Kline,” Mitchell said on the other side of me. “I’ll walk home with him.”
Mitchell was a year older than me, but I did not need him to walk me home. This made me mad, probably because it embarrassed me in front of Bray.
I glared at Mitchell and he looked back at me with apologetic eyes.
“I’ll see you guys later,” I said.
I took the ice chest from my mom to relieve her of some of the load she was carrying, and I followed her through the pasture toward our truck parked along the dirt road. Aunt Janice waved us goodbye and sputtered away in her old beat-up Corsica.
My mom went to bed right after we got home. She was the manager at a hotel and rarely got any time off. My dad lived in Savannah. They divorced three years ago. But I had a great relationship with them both, often staying at my dad’s in the summer except that this year he had to go to Michigan for his job and so I stayed with my mom all summer for the first time since their divorce.
I think it was fate. Bray never would’ve ended up outside my bedroom window that night, tapping on the glass with the tip of her finger if my dad hadn’t gone to Michigan. I wondered how she knew where I lived but I never asked, figuring Mitchell or Lissa must’ve told her.
“You’re already in bed?” Bray asked with disbelief as she looked up at me.
I raised the window the rest of the way and the humid summer air rushed in past me.
“No. I’m just in my room. What are you doin’ out here?”
A sly little grin crept up on the edges of Bray’s lips.
“Want to go swimming?” she asked.
“Swimming?”
“Yeah. Swimming.” She crossed her arms and cocked her head to one side. “Or, are you too chicken to sneak out?”
“I’m not afraid to sneak out.”
Actually, I kind of am. If my mom catches me she’ll whip me with the fly swatter
“Then come on,” she said, waving at me. “Prove it.”
A challenge. Fly swatter or not, I couldn’t back down from a challenge or she’d never let me live it down. She’d go to school and turn my friends against me. The whole town would think I was a chicken afraid of his ’mommy’ and I’d grow up an outcast and never have a girlfriend. I’d end up homeless and die an old man living underneath a bridge-these are the things my mom told me would happen to me if I ever dropped out of school.
OK, so I was overthinking this whole sneaking out thing.
I bit down on my bottom lip, thought about it for a moment and when I noticed Bray about to start running that mouth of hers again, I tossed one leg over the windowsill and hopped outside, landing in a smooth crouched position, which I was quite proud of.
Bray grinned, grabbed my hand and pulled me along with her away from my house.
Admittedly, I thought of the fly swatter all the way to the pond in the pasture.
Chapter Two
Bray was so free-spirited, she didn’t seem to have a worry in the world. I noticed this about her the moment we reached the outskirts of the pasture and she broke away from me and ran out toward it. Her arms were raised high above her head as if she was reaching for the stars. Her laughter was infectious, and I found myself laughing right along with her as I ran behind her. We jumped off the end of the little rickety dock and hit the water with a loud splash, not even stopping to take off her flip-flops or my shirt beforehand.