Midnight Kisses| ✓

Chapter 15

It's about an hour's drive from Northfield to Wilmington and thankfully the journey is without any drama or diversion. I don't know how the other kids do it, lie to their parents. But I guess today was easier because mom was really distracted.

"I am going to library to study. With Novahk." She totally called my bluff and didn't even blink twice before saying yes. It was both funny and nerve-wrecking. And also I think it has something to do with the fact that she likes Novahk. But then again, everybody loves him. He's the golden boy of the town, he can't do anything wrong. Even though he's like responsible for half the troubles.

"Be back for dinner," she had called out before I had come running out of the house relieved beyond my own measure.

Thankfully the bus driver has not chosen to blast any music. I need a clear mind to think everything through and as the late afternoon sun spreads itself on the woods we pass by ,I imagine myself being bathed by it too and all the answers are there in its core just waiting for the radiation to deliver it.

"It'll take another twenty minutes top," Novahk says adjusting the cap on his head. There are no other vehicles, except ours in the two lane road and for a moment I think I have stepped foot in one of Frost's poem. It looks like the dead English countryside, complete with dead skeletons of trees. Winter brings death, just as spring brings life.

"So we go to all the clubs one by one right?" he asks scanning the list I had written down of the clubs university students like to haunt.

"But we can't go into all of them. We have to have an invitation or a special access for that." I don't have a fake ID. It's an error in my judgment and I realized it just last night and then I wanted to shoot myself in the foot. I had seen Emily's one, in which she was Banzo Hyung and was a twenty three year old university student. And the drunk people always thought she looked like that famous singer from K-pop.

Way to do racial profiling, she had complained, when somebody had written hot Korean  on the back of her card, in permanent marker. I didn't think Emily needed to look like one of the beautiful, singing divas. She was something on her own right.

Novahk has one though so hopefully he and I can come up with an arrangement where I stand guard outside and he goes in to check.

Novahk is silent for a while tapping on the seat in front of him. There's an older looking woman who looks at us intently and when I look up to see her watching me, she averts her gaze.

"Do you want me there when you do find him?" he asks quietly.

Do I? Heck I have no idea what I am getting myself into. That guy could be a drug dealer or worse. Since he did all those things to Emily who is to say it's not what he usual does with girls, he could be a serial assaulter. But then Novahk would be there when all the confessions went down and could I make peace with the fact that he knew all my dead best friend's secret? And surely after everything we face today, we'll do it together.The dynamics in our friendship is bound to change.

But the pro is he is better at this talking thing, much better than me, so it's a good thing he tagged along. It'll be alright so long as he's with me there. I feel silly for thinking he might prejudice against me, he hasn't done that so far.

"You should stay." I say squeezing his palm which rests on the seat holder, warm and reassuring. He squeezes back and if optimism is really a thing then I can feel it make my way into my system.

"Hey I have an idea," Novahk says as he reaches out to grab the backpack which I kept hanging on the rail beside me. His hand brushes my chest as he retrieves it and I try to ignore it.

"Do you remember what clubs Emily and her friends used to go?" he asks already scanning the list again. "Since he most probably met her there we can narrow our searches down."