Stay With Them Tonight

ALLIE P.O.V.

After the zoo, Tyler and I went to my house, where we were already going to be having dinner with his family over. We had ham with a honey glaze and potatoes and green beans and multiple other things my parents could cook up as Kelly scrutinized Tyler and I, sitting next to each other, and still eating everything. How she could look at us the entire time and then not drop anything off of her fork amazed me. I said as much across to her, but she just pouted at me, still not sure of what was going on. I let her suffer and silently refused when she was “going to the bathroom,” our code for “time-to-talk.” It wasn’t that I was keeping anything from her, it was just that I was confused as to what was going on as she was. Tyler seemed oblivious to the whole thing, talking instead with the other side of the table.

To my surprise, both of Kelly’s and Tyler’s parents were there, even though they rarely spoke at all. They had avoided bringing lawyers in and had settled their divorce quietly, but they were never able to see eye-to-eye and were usually stony in each others’ presence. Today, both of my parents engaged them in conversation, sometimes separately and sometimes they all spoke and laughed together, like when Kelly and I were little.

The last time we had had dinner, it had been with the Luces. Danny had been talking my ear off, and I had still disliked Jas- I shoved the thought away then, but as if my mind conjured him up, Jason reappeared later, his car idling on the curb, when I went outside with Tyler after dinner.

A beautiful girl with a modernly beautiful face, all sharp cheekbones and full lips, was sitting in the passenger seat, playing with the radio. I studied her curiously, not having seen her before. She had short black hair in a pixie cut around her face, the soft hairstyle accenting her tiny chin and big eyes. I was instantly envious of her, like you can’t help but be envious of a fantastic truck that goes by or of someone eating a really good-looking sandwich, it’s that automatic. She looked like a fairy, or a pixie.

As Tyler turned from talking with me to see what I was looking at, the girl looked up and smiled at me. So she was friendly. I gave a smile back, and when she saw that I had stopped and was still looking curiously at her, she got out of the car and walked over to us.

“Hey, do I know you from somewhere?” she asked, still with that smile with her perfect teeth. I shrugged, regretting my slightly sharp canine teeth. I had been a vampire four Halloweens in a row before I began to dislike my odd canines. I had inherited them from my father, but I only noticed them at times like this, when I got tooth-envious.

“I don’t think so. I was just wondering why I’ve never seen you before. Are you Jason’s friend, then?” I asked, curious. I had thought that most girls who were friends with Jason (Ginger) or who were this pretty might be bitchy and distant, but this girl was happy and straightforward.

“Yep. Well, I think this is the last time I’ll see him for a while. He’s taking me home now.” She told me. I wondered why it would be the last time, but didn’t want to ask. I hadn’t even known the girl existed. I thought of all the time Jason had gone to hang out with “friends” and wondered if he had ever gone to hang out with her. Not that it’s any of your business, Allie, my mind warned.

“Oh, I’m Cher,” the pixie said happily. She held out her hand, which I took.

“I’m Allie.” I smiled. Tyler introduced himself. Neither of our names garnered any reactions from her, good or bad, so she probably didn’t know us, and Jason didn’t seem to have said anything to her.

“Cher?” Jason asked, coming up behind her. “Allie? I should have known you two would find each other,” he muttered to himself. I rolled my eyes while Cher gave him a smirk, like she knew something I didn’t.

“Oh, and Pe- Tyler,” Jason amended quickly. I narrowed my eyes at him. It sounded like the sound you make when you say “Pez,” although I couldn’t think of what he was going to say. No doubt he had been thinking of Tyler negatively. He didn’t try to hide it much, either. In fact, his eyes were slightly narrowed in the way I had come to recognize to mean that he didn’t particularly like a person. We had given each other enough of these narrow-eyed looks in the first weeks we had known each other.

“Al, I’m going to take Cher home, but then we need to work on that project for Cinema,” he told me. I searched through my head for some information on a project I had with him. I voiced my thoughts.

“The one she assigned today. It’s due Monday.” He said. I searched around some more in my head. It was no use- I had no idea what he was talking about. I thought about what I had been doing during Cinema that day, and realized I couldn’t remember a single thing the teacher had said. I had been too busy thinking about the zoo, and trying not to notice that Jason was right next to me, laying down behind his computer. His hair had brushed my arm when he shifted, and my hair had risen, like I was cold.

“How do you know? You were sleeping the entire time!” I accused. He shrugged, looking flippant.

“I was paying attention some of the time.”

JASON P.O.V.

I was bull shitting. I hadn’t been paying attention at all. There was no project. But I had to talk to Allie, and that was the first thing that popped into my head. She didn’t look sure, but she doubted herself, too. She usually doodled while the boring movie teacher went on about silent films and iris shots and pans and all the other boring things that made a movie “great.”

Today she had doodled a hand, rings on every finger of different sizes and shades of grey graphite. I had just happened to see.

“Just come meet me as soon in twenty minutes, okay?” I asked, hoping to rush her before she figured out I was lying. She was good at that. I smirked at her, and it had the desired effect- she looked a little pissed, but was now embarrassed about her “forgetfulness.” It would also bring her back to my place, just so she could figure out what the project was about.

I rolled my eyes and walked back to my car, hearing Cher say goodbye and trotting over.

“Well, that was fun,” she commented.

“What was?” I asked ingenuously.

She looked crossly at me, smirking.

“That was. You like that girl. Allie, right? She seems sweet,” she seemed to think on it.

“Now you’re talkative,” I muttered. She leaned towards me.

“You sure she’s going to go for you? She seemed pretty cozy with that Tyler guy. They held hands when they first came out,” she said, not maliciously. She was stating the facts, not trying to be catty. I shrugged, unconcerned with it.

“I’ve seen them hold hands before.” I think. “They’ve been friends since she was a baby and he was a creepy old man,” I said. She laughed at this. “What? He’s in college already,” I defended.

“Please, Jason. He’s hardly a cradle-robber.” She shook her head disappointedly.

“Just try to get her before he does, okay? I think he might like her. And she looked embarrassed when I walked up, like she had been caught doing something. Does she like you?” she asked.

“Apparently you have a better idea than I do,” I muttered, but she was already going on.

“I’m pretty sure she does. Did you see how she jumped when you walked up so suddenly? She doesn’t look like the type to be afraid of the boogeyman.” Cher studied my reaction, which I did my best to suppress. A tiny grin escaped.

“She looks like the type to get hurt, though. The type to take things too seriously.” Cher observed. My grin didn’t budge- I wasn’t looking to hurt her. Cher sighed.

“Jason, just know that if you hurt her, I will definitely come to shoot your balls off myself. That type of girl doesn’t deserve to be hurt- it’s like kicking a puppy, because they don’t deserve it or respect it. And you’re the type to break hearts.” She spoke matter-of-factly, not looking at me. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought she was talking about me breaking her heart. I glanced over at her, but she was looking forward with a thoughtful expression. I was glad.

I didn’t want to hurt Cher, either.

*****

I pulled up outside my house, and was startled when a figure popped out of the darkness, walking towards me from the sidewalk, her hair whipping around her like a ghost.

I pointed to my passenger seat, and she obligingly got in. I kept my heater on low, my car a spot of warmth shielded from the brisk wind outside.

“You were lying,” Allie said as she settled herself back in the seat, comfortably. She adjusted the chair until she was satisfied while I bit back a laugh. She was so comfortable in my car, something that not many girls could claim.

“About what?” I asked, remembering her question belatedly.

“There is no project in Cinema.” She said, glaring at me. I shrugged.

“There was a project?” I asked. There was no point in covering up the lie now. She rolled her eyes.

“So, if there’s no project,” she drew out “project,” resting her head back and staring at the ceiling of the car, much as she had done the day I kissed her. I decided not to this time. Ask first, time to kiss her later.

“Hey, who was that girl? Cher?” she asked, sitting up and turning towards me a little. “She seemed nice. I’m surprised, Mr. Luce, I didn’t think you knew any nice girls.” She had a look of mock-shock.

“I know you,” I pointed out.

“True,” she conceded.

“And don’t call me Mr. Luce, it makes me feel old.” I admitted. I thought of my dad, seemingly decrepit compared to everyone else. He probably only seemed decrepit because I didn’t hang out with many thirty- and forty-somethings.

“Aw, poor Jason. I thought you were old!” she said. She was in a playful mood.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice that you still aren’t answering my question. As a matter of fact, you’ve been pretty quiet, Jason. Cher said it was your last day together. Did you break up? I didn’t even know you were going out-,”

“Okay, okay, I get it. Repeat the questions slowly.” I emphasized “slowly.” She blew air out and settled back against the seat. She was constantly going from hyper to tired like a confused dodo bird. She thought for a moment.

“Uh. So who’s Cher? I haven’t met her before.”

“You wouldn’t have. Unless you saw her at your old high school, the one on the other side of town. But it’s so big I wouldn’t be surprised that you didn’t know her.” I strategically avoided the first question.

“Yeah, it’s huge. Still, it’s hard to believe I didn’t notice her.” She shrugged, moving on. “So how did you meet her?”

“You’re awfully curious. I met her over the summer, we’ve never gone out or anything close to it.” I didn’t lie- I didn’t count what we did as close to dating. She looked at me disbelievingly and returned to staring at the ceiling.

“So why didn’t you come back with us earlier?” I asked, already knowing that Tyler had picked her up.

“I was making friends with zebras,” she said flippantly. I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Stop doing that, show-off,” she said without even looking at me. I grinned. “That, too.”

“I can move my own face if I want,” I said stubbornly. It was almost as bad as saying “You can’t make me.” Her smirk said as much.

“Allie, what do you think-,” I got cut off as her phone rang loudly, to the tune of “Once Upon A December.” I only knew what it was because I had been conned into watching it during one of our movie-marathons. And I had laughed as she sung every word.

“Helloooooo?” she answered comically, back in her hyper-dodo phase. I smirked, not being able to help listening in as Kelly yelled that she needed a full report of what she and Tyler had done at the zoo- so that’s where they went- and that Kelly was waiting inside, so Allie had better get her butt back in there before Kelly hid every single one of Allie’s favorite CDs. Allie’s ears were pink as Kelly yelled about the zoo, and her eyes widened in horror as Kelly threatened her music.

“I’m coming!” she yelled into the receiver, shutting her phone and getting out of my car, shutting my door none too lightly and then running without a second glance. I sighed heavily and got out of my car, going inside much more slowly.

ALLIE P.O.V.
I woke to the sound of something small crashing downstairs. I opened my eyes groggily, turning over in my bed.

“Go away,” I muttered into my pillow. The sound came again, and this time I recognized it as something else- someone was throwing something at my window. It sounded muffled through my curtains, closed tight. I made my way slowly to it, peeling back an edge of the curtain. I jumped as another small rock hit the pane. I peeked out and saw a shape, and I recognized it right away as someone I knew. I threw on my green fuzzy slippers and padded downstairs, avoiding the table in the main hallway which I always knocked against when it was fully light out.

“What?” I hissed as I ran around the side of the house.

“Were you sleeping?” Tyler asked.

“Maybe.” I replied nonchalantly, picking at my pajama bottoms, which were warm and fuzzy like my socks.

“It’s only eight,” he pointed out. I shrugged.

“Why were you throwing rocks at my window?” I asked.

“Yours was the only light on. Why was it on?” he asked. He seemed nervous and fidgety. I looked and saw that our neighbor’s lights were still on, and was glad we were on the other side of the house from the Luces’. I didn’t know how I would’ve explained this.

“I was studying motherboards,” I complained. Tyler finally looked at me straight. I realized he might have been blushing.

“So Kelly doesn’t know much about this, but-,”

“Tyler what did you do?” I asked, expecting the worst. “Are you on some drug?” I asked seriously. He was moving like a caged chicken.

“What? No, Allie, why would you think that?” he looked at me incredulously, halfway between amused and offended.

“Well, what am I supposed to think? You’re pacing and came here in the middle of the night.”

“It’s eight,” he pointed out again.

“Irrelevant.”

“Okay. I came here to ask you something.” I looked at him, waiting for him to go on. “Allie, how do you think of me?” He asked.

“Uhhhm,” I said, not sure. He looked at me imploringly. “You’ve been my friend for a really long time . . .” I said. He nodded, like he wanted more. “I- I used to like you a lot,” I admitted, blushing. I stared at my feet, but glanced up and saw he was still looking at me, but seemed disappointed.

“I don’t know how I feel about you know. Earlier- you were acting like more than a friend?” It ended as a question. He looked away and nodded tersely, and if it wasn’t just my imagination, he was blushing more.

“I didn’t hate it,” I muttered. He seemed to hear me.

“What would you say if I asked you out?” He asked.

“I don’t know, I-I would p-probably say yes?” I asked another question. My ears burned while he turned to look at me suddenly, searching my face. I smiled a little bit at him, not sure if that was what he wanted.

Sink or swim, I thought. I didn’t know if we could recover from this, if he didn’t want to go out with me. But even as ignorant as I was, I was pretty sure that was what he was leading to.

We were standing closer than I realized, and I looked up at him. He took my hand, and I thought I was going to melt into a little puddle in the freshly-mown grass right there.

This is what I always wanted, I told myself, even though in a stray part of my mind I thought of Jason.

“Will you think about it?” he asked quietly. If I hadn’t been so close, I wouldn’t have heard it.

I nodded, unable to do anything else. He gave a little smile and released my hand, walking back to his truck. Halfway there, he turned and gave a happy little wave, and I smiled.

*****

The next morning, I got out of bed, and spent time in the shower and carefully picking out my clothes, something I don't normally do. I messed with my makeup before scrubbing it all off and doing it as I usually did, and after I was done procrastinating, I sent Tyler a single word.

Yes.