Don't Go In Alone

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 9

We've got a three day weekend. I have no idea what holiday it is, but we don't have school on Monday so happy whatever day! My friends and I plan on spending the weekend together at my house. Our sleepovers are never anything too crazy. Most of the time, we veg out on the couch and do themed movie marathons. Lately, we like to do ones where we watch movies that only have a specific actor in the main role.

Other times we do things like go inside creepy houses that leave me feeling like I'm losing my mind afterwards. Never again. I've effectively put a ban on doing anything that we could get in trouble for if someone were to catch us. Kris was upset about it at first, but got over it five minutes later.

This weekend, we have plans to start off with a movie marathon—since Mom and Zach are both home, we decide on a theme of movies we watched a lot as kids. We only make it through two movies before we're bored. So we put another one on for Zach and book it out of the house.

There's a small park a few blocks from my house. Most of the time, it's full of little kids and their parents, but today it's empty. Kris runs off and jumps onto one of the swings, standing on it and pushing herself forward with her whole body.

I blow on my fingers, rub them together to try to get them to warm up. Casey takes a picture of Kris with her phone. We mess around on the play structures for a while before the three of us settle into one of the little covered sections by a slide, our knees pressed together and breath clouding the air around us. We talk about school, about the movies we'd just watched, possible plans for winter break. And then Kris has to go and ruin the night.

"So are we going to talk about how absolutely hot Carson was on Halloween, like ever? Or is that something we aren't going to discuss?"

I pull a face, lean back against the bars of the structure. "Do you want me to leave? Is that why you're bringing him up right now?"

"Ah, but you're avoiding the question. I saw you talking to him that night, by the way." Kris makes a kissy face at me. "Looked cozy."

I kick my leg out at her, knocking against her hip. She rubs at the spot but doesn't do anything other than grin at me. "Hey, Case, don't you think Molly and Carson would make a super great couple? If Molly here could get her head out of her ass and see just how much he adores her?"

"Um—"

"It's not adoration. It's obsession and it's creepy. He's been pulling the same shit since he moved in next door and it's seriously old at this point."

Kris ignores me, stares at Casey until she talks. "I'm not going to join this conversation because I'm pretty sure whatever answer I give is going to get me hit by one of you."

"Boo. You're no fun." Kris taps her fingers on my ankle where it hasn't moved from the spot next to her hip. "But seriously. If you don't want him, I do. I would do absolutely filthy things to that dude. Like, ugh, his mouth. How is that even legal."

"Jesus, Kris." I pull my foot back towards me. "At least try to keep your boner for him in your pants over there."

"I'm just saying."

"And I'm just saying, don't."

"How about we change the subject?" Casey glances between the two of us before moving to get up. "I'm hungry. Let's go get something to eat."

  ~~~  

The deli next to the grocery store down the street makes the best sandwiches. Also, it's never busy in there so there's always an open table. The guys who work behind the counter know the three of us by name since we're frequent customers of the establishment. For all of Kris' talk about how she's got it bad for Carson, she spends a lot of time making eyes at one of the employees making her sandwich for her.

But she's always been that way. A little boy crazy.

Casey gets a salad instead of sandwich. And she doesn't make eyes at the guys behind the counter. One of them tries to get her to flirt back at him, and I don't have it in me to let him know that he's wasting his breath since Casey is probably more interested in the girl standing in line behind us than him.

There's a moment of blessed silence from Kris once we start eating and her mouth is too occupied with chewing her food to form sentences. Casey talks about the play they've been working on at school. The one that's going to be opening the week before winter break. It's cute how excited she gets about this stuff.

  ~~~  

We stay out until the sun starts to set. It's so much colder once we lose the light so we do our best to get back to my house before it's too dark out. With the loss of light, there are more shadows than earlier in the day. I've never really been afraid of the dark. I still don't consider myself afraid of the dark. But there's something about the shadows that has my body tense and my fingers going numb.

I jump at the shadows that are cast when a car drives past us. I have to shut my eyes when we walk through the stretch of dark left by one of the streetlights being out. I almost have a heart attack when I see a tall shadow ahead of us and it's only when I realize that it's from the stop sign on the corner that my heart slows.

I guess I'm noticeably more on edge because when we're almost to my house, Casey tugs on my hood. "Hey, you doing okay?"

"Hm? Yeah, I'm good. Why?"

"You haven't said anything for the past five minutes."

"Oh. I don't know, I must be tired from all the walking around or something."

She makes a noise, but keeps her eye on me the rest of the walk back to my house. I make more of an effort to be involved in the conversations until she stops watching me like I'm about to start screaming and pulling my hair out.

It's only around four when we get back to my block, but it's dark enough that it looks like it's already eight. Kris shoves my shoulder when I make a comment about whatever it is she's just said and I'm laughing at her until my eyes land on the spot near the corner of my house. My laugh dies in my throat and I have to stop walking.

"Molly?"

I swallow whatever's threatening to come out of my mouth and shake my head. "Do you guys see that?"

"See what?" Casey stands next to me and looks off in the direction I'm staring at.

"There's something standing over there. By the edge of my house." I don't dare point, in case whoever or whatever is over there is watching me. It's only a shadow. A figure. I can't tell who it is, but it looks human. I guess. It's hard to tell what I'm looking at when it's a shadow inside of other shadows.

"I don't see anything," Kris says.

"It's dark over there, are you sure you see something?" Casey asks.

"I'm sure. There's something standing over there. How can you not see it? They're halfway behind the house. I think they're watching us." I squint at the shadow and something clicks in my mind. If someone is standing there being a total creep, there's only one person it could be. "It's gotta be Carson."

"Ooh, wanna invite him over for a movie?" Kris presses herself against my back and laughs next to my ear.

I frown at her and take a step forward so she can't lean on me. "No. Come on. Let's go inside."

I try to keep my eyes on the figure as we approach my porch, but I look away for a second to listen to Casey asking a question. I look back and the shadow is gone. But there's the sound of a gate latching shut as we walk up the steps of the porch and I know it was Carson. There's no other explanation for it.

"What a creep," I mutter to myself.