so that it didn’t fall into the grass. Fortunately, the air-conditioning unit was next to her window and very noisy. Her window was on the opposite side of the house from her mother’s bedroom.
Still, her heart beat really fast when she sneaked out like this. If her mother caught her, she’d be deader than roadkill. Holding her breath, she swung her legs over the edge of the sill and dropped the few feet to the ground below.
The streetlight in front of their house was out, but there was enough moonlight for Kelly to sneak behind the red-tipped hedge at the side of the house and creep out to the street. It was only three short blocks to the park where she was going to meet Byron. She really wanted to talk to him tonight, and not just because she’d been gone for a week or to hear about the truck he was getting.
Kelly wanted to talk about why her mother acted the way she did. Mom should be excited to have a good friend of Kelly’s dad visiting with them. But she wasn’t. Anyone could tell that. Yet she’d invited him to stay with them and they’d never had an over night guest, unless you counted Kelly’s girlfriends.
She picked up her pace once she reached the corner.
Only she had the strange feeling someone was following her. A second later, she knew she was right.
Chapter Three
“Out for a walk?”
Kelly froze for a second, then spun around. But it was only Vincent. “Kind of,” she answered, then felt herself getting all tense. “Are you following me?”
“I heard you leave the house and I thought you might like company.”
“Only if you don’t go blabbing to Mom. If she finds out I sneaked out, she’ll ground me until I’m thirty.”
“You must be off on some exciting adventure to risk that.”
“Not really. I have this friend…” She hesitated. Vincent seemed all right—for an adult—but that didn’t mean she could trust him not to repeat any of this to her mother. “I couldn’t sleep so I decided to go for a walk.”
“To meet the friend? Don’t worry. I don’t squeal.”
“Yeah, I’m meeting a boy, but just to talk, you know?” She started walking again, and Vincent kept pace.
“Nice neighborhood for walking at night,” Vincent said. “Well lit. I guess it’s safe.”
“Real safe. Nothing ever happens around here.”
“You must have missed your school friends while you were on vacation.”
“Yeah, but Byron’s not exactly a school friend.”
“Just a neighborhood buddy, huh?”
“We’ll both be at the high school next year.”
“So, Byron’s older?”
“He’ll be a senior. He’s a lot more mature than the freshman boys.”
“I’ll bet. So, how did you meet Byron?”
“On the Internet. We were in a Lord of the Rings chat room, ’cause we both loved the movies.”
“Good books, too.”
“You read them?”
“The whole series, from beginning to end.”
“So did Byron. I don’t read that much, but I read the Harry Potter books. I like all that magic stuff.”
“I read those, too.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’ve had a lot of time to read lately. Does your mother disapprove of Byron? Is that why you sneak out?”
“You think I’d tell her about him? She disconnected me from the Internet for six months the last time she caught me in a chat room.”
“She’s pretty strict, huh?”
“Is she? You wouldn’t believe. It’s worse than being in prison.”
“I sincerely doubt that.”
“Believe me, it’s true. That’s why you have to promise not to tell her about Byron, or that I sneaked out of my room.”
“I’ll never tell—unless I think you’re in danger. Then all deals are off.”
“I’m not in danger. Byron’s a real nice boy.”
“That’s good to know, but I don’t think your going out at night without her permission is the right choice.”
“You would if you lived with someone who treats you like a two-year-old. What was your mom like?”
“She was terrific, but she died when I was too young to think about sneaking out of the house.”
“I don’t wish anything like that would happen. I love my mom. I just wish she’d ease up with the controlling bit. I bet my dad wasn’t like that.”
“He might have been with a teenage daughter.”
“How come Mom doesn’t like you?”
“You noticed, huh?”
“How could I miss it?”
“Maybe I bring back too many memories of your father.”
“Maybe, but it’s not just you. When I asked to go to the fire station in Charleston so that I could see where my father worked and meet some of the guys he worked with, she said it wasn’t a good idea. I’m beginning to think she didn’t like him very much.”
“I know he loved her and you.”
“That’s good to know. I was only two when he died, so I don’t remember anything about him. I have a picture of him that Mom gave me. He’s very handsome. I don’t look much like him, though.”
“You have his eyes.”
She smiled, and that surprised her. She hadn’t felt at all like smiling when she’d climbed out of her bedroom window. She’d been excited about seeing Byron, but they didn’t exactly have fun when they were together. Mostly they complained about their mothers and talked about how his life sucked.
“What’s Byron like?” Vincent asked, as if reading her mind.
“He’s kind of a loner, what I’d call a deep thinker.”
“What does he deep think about?”
“Life and everything.” Kelly crossed the street and turned the corner. The park was in the next block, and it backed up to some wooded lots. Mostly it was a baby park. A slide. A few swings. A climbing tower. The best part about it was a walking track that went through the woods and
