Sixteen

BENNY

It was so dark out I could barely see. Dakota’s pool house was closed. At least I thought it was the pool house from how she’d described it to me—it looked more like a house-house, like it could sleep ten people. But it was next to the pool, which was next to the tennis courts, which was next to some other building that looked like a garage. Whatever. The place was sick.

Anyway, I’d done what she’d told me—parked on the side of the road about half a mile away, then hiked down her long driveway. Any minute I kept waiting for the cops to show up, or at least some hired security dude, ready to scare me off the property. I belonged here about as much as I belonged at HF: not at all.

Somehow, with all this EagleFly business, I’d been sucked into HF’s crazy drama whether I wanted to be or not. There was that whole scene during third period when Dakota’s boyfriend was stuffing an albino rat into Jason’s locker. There were a few of us around, and he wanted us to watch as he tried to get it through the slats. It was a dick move but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to call attention to myself, so I just kept sitting there on the floor, pretending to read like I always did during free periods.

Then, out of nowhere, who should show up but Alice. She went right up to Dylan and kicked him in the ankle. Then she took the rat and tucked it into her shirt. He was all, “What the hell?” And she was like, “Rats take care of their injured peers, unlike you. And they don’t sweat, definitely unlike you. Ergo, this rat is more evolved than you. In fact, I’m taking him home.” She even gave it a little kiss on the nose, for real. Then she walked on down the hallway like it was nothing.

That girl had cojones the size of front-loader tires. She just didn’t give a fuck. Dylan and his friends were just standing there all weirded out after she left. And then he was like, “That girl’s an elf. Yo, we should glue the lock on.” What did Dakota see in that guy?

“Psst,” Dakota called in a whisper, her silhouette bobbing in front of me. “Where are you?”

“Over here,” I said.

Hands reached out and touched my chest, and then we almost bumped foreheads. “Hey!”

“Sorry,” she said, giggling. “I can’t see!”

I tried to make my voice sound normal, even though she’d just touched me. “Don’t you guys put the lights on?”

“Not this time of year. No one comes out here. That’s why I thought it would be a good place to meet. Sorry I was late. I couldn’t get away from my dad—he always wants a progress report on school.”

“Right,” I said. “So do you have the thing?”

“You’re all business, aren’t you?”

Sounded like she was offended. But it was cold, and super dark, and I needed to get home to do some stuff. Also, Dylan would try to kill me if he knew I was here. Not that I couldn’t take that kid, but the last thing I needed was some brawl on the quad with all the preppies watching.

“I thought that’s what we were here for.”

I’d been extra careful to keep the lines in place, keep my distance from all of them, but with Dakota it was tough. She didn’t seem to notice.

The whole thing was nuts. I’d thought about bailing, a few times, because I had as much to lose as anyone else, if not more. There were plenty of people who’d be happy to see a kid from North Philly in jail.

“Well, we can be human, can’t we?”

I remembered our conversation the day I drove her home from school. “Sure,” I said.

“Anyway. Here’s the reader. The info should be on there.”

“Great,” I said, taking it from her and zipping it into my backpack. “I’ll make us a copy. It was no joke getting those blanks. I had to go through a couple of different channels to get the empty roll. I guess they protect them like that to keep them away from people like us.”

“Criminals, you mean?” she said and I could finally make out her face in the darkness. She was smiling, her eyes shining.

“Ha ha. Yeah.”

“Why are you shaking your head?”

“Because you could never be a criminal.”

“Sure I could. I stole that card today, didn’t I?”

“But that was an extreme situation. Believe me, you’re no criminal.” I was thinking of the guys I knew in my neighborhood, the ones who got busted over and over, who couldn’t stay on the street without the cops breathing down their necks, and they were some rough-looking dudes. “You’re too soft . . . and pretty.”

There was a pause then. Now I’d gone and done it. Embarrassed both of us. Why did I have to say she was pretty? Why did I have to cross that line? But you couldn’t take something like that back.

She looked at me. “Thanks,” she said softly. “I . . . umm—”

And just then, we heard a door opening, and someone calling out her name. Her pops, probably.

“Dakota? Are you out here?”

I don’t know why, just an instinct, but I immediately hit the deck, and my chest slapped against the cold stone of the patio.

She stifled a gasp, looking down at me sprawled at her feet. “Yeah, Dad!”

“What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?”

“Just . . . meditating,” she answered.

“Well, you’ll catch a cold. You can meditate inside.”

“Okay, I’m coming.” And then to me, giggling a little, “You can get up. Are you okay? I thought you fell!”

“I’m a’right,” I said.

“Are you sure?”

Just then, she pulled me closer. At first I thought it was some kind of accident, like before when she was grabbing me in the dark. But it couldn’t have been an accident, her lips lined up perfectly with mine as she leaned in. The slightest pressure. Soft. Her hair was loose, brushing against my neck.

My arms were around her, pulling her even closer. It’s not like I thought about it.

I couldn’t think of anything. My mind went blank. It was dark, but my eyes were closed anyway, and in all that blackness, it felt like there was nothing else around us.

Before I knew what we were doing, our tongues got involved, too. Her mouth had a fresh taste, like parsley, and my hand went right to her jawline, tracing it with my fingers. Her skin, it was so smooth and warm.

I couldn’t believe what was happening. It was the longest shortest moment of my life. For real.

“Dakota!”

She pulled away and met my lips again with hers, like she was almost sealing the kiss. I couldn’t have spoken a single word if I tried. I was that shocked.

And before we could say anything else, she was hurrying back up the hill. “You’d better go,” she hissed. “See you tomorrow!”

Yeah, we’d see each other. That was no news flash. We went to the same damn school. It just felt weird, her leaving like that, in the middle of everything. She’d kissed me!

But maybe I should’ve been grateful, because if she’d stayed, I would have had to say something more, and what the hell would I say? The whole thing was bananas. Even so, I had to smile a little as I walked to my car. Sometimes you had to let a moment be a moment. Sometimes being a fool felt really, really good.