It was this last comment about leaving without telling my parents that started a big fight between us.
Shanna was outraged that I would even consider something so dangerous as sneaking out and meeting a boy in a strange place late at night. I worried that if I didn't go, Damon would see it as a sign I wasn't interested and he might back off. Shanna insisted that if he really liked me, he'd understand, which was reasonable enough. But at some point during the course of our fight, I'd set my heart on going. I'd never felt the way the note made me feel, and I didn't want that feeling to go away.
I climbed out the window onto the fire escape and lowered the ladder as quietly as I could.
"Celeste!" my sister whispered furiously. "Get back inside!"
I ignored her. I didn't care how much trouble I might get into. I was going to meet Damon, and that was all there was to it.
When I'd fully lowered the ladder, I started climbing down.
Shanna leaned out the window. "You're going to get yourself killed!"
I ignored her. I kept climbing down, wrung by wrung.
Then my sister crawled out through window too. She lowered herself onto the ladder.
"I can't believe you're making me do this." Shanna shook her head furiously as she descended the ladder behind me. "I can't let you go alone. If you're going to do this stupid ass shit, at least someone better come with you."
Whatever happened after my sister and I climbed down that latter, though, I still don't remember any of it.
