“What?” My eyes bulged. “Stayed over?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Oh, I mean, not like that—I was just babysitting his little sister.”
“Oh, okay.” I folded over a little, trying to catch my breath. “Didn’t you go to the wake, at Betty’s?”
“Yeah, but Spencer’s mom’s a nurse. She got called in on nightshift after.”
“So—can’t Spence babysit?”
Emily scoffed, obviously humoured. “He’s just not that kind of guy.”
“Oh.” I wandered over and leaned next to her on the brown picket fence. “Give his mom my number then. I love babysitting.”
“Okay, I will. So—” she looked down at my running shorts, then my sweat-covered forehead, “—I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess you were—going to a ball?”
We both laughed.
“Uh, yeah.” I looked down at my shoes. “I thought I better start getting fit.”
“Hm.” She folded her arms. “Fit. Is everything okay?”
“Of course it is,” my tone rose upward.
“Is it David?”
“A little.” I sighed and sat down on the curb.
“Let me guess—” she sat beside me, “—he’s got you all confused?”
“It’s a talent of his, isn’t it?” I said.
“Yeah. So, what is it? What’s he done?”
He’s a vampire and he kills people. “He said he loves me.”
Her mouth fell open a little, but nothing came out.
“Yeah.” I laughed. “I know, hey.”
“Hm, well, he’s never done that before, either. Are you happy?”
I nodded and sort of shook my head too.
“Have you said you love him?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“I dunno. Just wondering.”
I tensed. “Is that…a bad thing?”
She laughed. “Why would it be bad?”
“I just…I don’t know. I’m not really too good at this boyfriend thing. Normally, when I have this kind of crisis, I ring Mike, but—” But I couldn’t tell him about this one.
“But?”
“I think he’d laugh at me.”
“For being in love?”
“Maybe. He never really takes that stuff seriously, you know. I don’t think he’d get it.”
“You could always talk to me,” she suggested.
“Thanks, Em. But I think I just need some time to sort my head out.”
“And running helps with that?” She tried not to laugh.
“Uh, well, it used to.” I sat back, leaning on my hands. “I used to run with Mike every day. It was like, even running with him, even talking while we did, I always came back feeling like I’d left my problems behind.”
“How’s that working out on this run?”
“Not so good.” I laughed, then stopped. I knew Emily was trying to get me to open up. She was using the exact same tactics as Vicki, without even realising it. “We had this band of seagulls on the corner of my street,” I said to divert the conversation. “Whenever we’d run that course, the damn things’d barely scatter a few feet in the air to get out of the way. It was really annoying. I always promised myself I was gonna put my foot right up their butts if they didn’t move.” I rested my elbows on my knees, my chin on my palm. “Mike called them gullsters…instead of gangsters.”
“You didn’t, though? Did you? Kick them?” Emily looked horrified.
Leaning back quickly, I said, “No! No way. Mike would, though.” I stared ahead then. “He never had any problems kicking butt. I guess that’s why he’s so suited to the Force.”
“The police?”
“Yeah. He’s joining the…kind of like, SWAT unit.”
“Really?” Emily grinned. “That is super sexy.”
“I guess.” I breathed out slowly. “It’s dangerous, though.”
“You worry about him?” she asked.
Pressing my lips together, I slowly shrugged. I actually worried a lot. “I just miss him.”
“So, why’d you decide to move away from your real mom?”
Gulp. “Uh, to be with my dad.”
Emily nodded. “Do you like it here?”
After a deep breath, I looked down at the mildly busy street, then tilted my face into the warming sun as it melted the early-morning chill from my cheeks. “It’s not like home. It’s not hot and dry, and there’s no ocean in the distance, no black cockatoos on the lampposts, but—”
“But you still like it?”
“Yeah. I think I actually love it.”
“Well, good—” she nudged me with her elbow, “—because you’re starting to grow on us, Ara. Everyone was really disappointed you weren’t there last night—at Betty’s.”
“Yeah.” I smiled sheepishly and looked down at my untied shoelace, dangling, wet and muddy, from my sneaker. “I wasn’t feeling well.”
“I know. I saw the whole save me, David, save me thing—” she held her forearm to her brow, pretending to fall backward a little, then dropped her hand, smiling. “He was really worried about you, you know?”
“I know.”
“We all were.”
“I know. I’m sorry. It’s just because I didn’t eat.”
“Yeah, Mr Thompson told me.”
“I know. He said you called last night.”
“Yeah.” She looked up then as a car pulled into Spencer’s driveway. “Oh, I gotta go. My mom’s here.”
I stood up and dusted the loose pebbles of asphalt from my shorts. “Okay, Em. I’ll see ya later.”
“Are you coming to school today?” she asked.
“Nah, Dad’ll give me the day off after what happened yesterday.”
“Okay, well, don’t be a stranger.” She walked backward toward the burgundy car.
I waved and turned toward home, then walked the rest of the street and landed, in a huffing mess, on the porch step near Vicki’s grey cat. “Hey, Skitz.”
He ducked low, growling at me.
“What?” I leaned forward, the creaky step dipping under my weight as I reached for the cat. But I drew my hand back when his growl intensified, moving deeper to the back of his throat, his tail lashing about. Then I noticed something grey and wriggly between his paws, and it wasn’t his fat belly coming to life, either. It was a field mouse.