18 Things by Jamie Ayres Page A

Saturday.”
    Everyone nodded.
    Reaching down, I fixed another s’more, then shoved it in my mouth. All this talk about food made me hungry.
    “Enjoying yourself?” Tammy asked, grabbing her pack of cigarettes from her purse.
    “Hmm, I can never get enough of this chocolaty goodness.”
    Sean laughed hard, tossing his dread-locked hair. “Well, you might want to take it easy. A moment on the lips is a lifetime on the hips.”
    Nate joined me in my gluttony, smashing an entire s’more into his mouth, making a huge mess on his face while everyone chuckled.
    “Sweet tasting all the way through, just like you,” he said, looking straight at me.
    I glanced over his head toward Tammy who mouthed the words ‘I told you so,’ referring to our conversation earlier today when she claimed Nate was interested in being more than ‘friends.’
    Standing, I collected everyone’s paper plates to distract myself. I needed a moment to absorb all this.
    “Okay, I think you’ve fulfilled your corny comments quota for the day. Congratulations.” I winked at him and then headed to the trashcan at the side of the yard.
    Ugh, did I just wink at him?
    That moment of flirtation caught Mom’s attention. I swear she always watched me with eagle eyes. “You ready to go home?”
    I tucked my hair behind my ears. “Um… I dunno. Do you and Dad want to leave?” I was surprised I didn’t want to head home, considering how badly I wanted to avoid coming here tonight. But I followed Mom’s line of sight to Tammy smoking her cigarette, and I knew Mom wasn’t really asking but
telling
me it was time to leave. She wasn’t a Tammy fan, and she always said hanging out with someone like her made me look ignorant.
    Well, ignorance is bliss, right?



“Never, never, never give up.”
―Winston Churchill
    onight, I attempted something else for the first time. I threw on a pair of jeans and a Grand Haven High Bucs sweatshirt at 2:00 a.m. to sneak out of my apartment. As I tiptoed out of my bedroom, worry jolted through me like I’d drank a dozen cups of coffee. My parents’ room was further down the hall, and they slept with their door shut. It only took me a few seconds to realize how easily I could sneak out of my house. We didn’t even lock our windows and doors. Ever. Dad said as soon as we needed deadbolts, we’d move. He was very big on safe, small-town living.
    Tammy had sent me a text message thirty minutes ago with the plan, telling me to meet at Nate’s house. He lived two miles away, and keeping a steady jog, I arrived in twenty minutes, albeit a little out of breath and sweaty and probably with messy hair, but that last one was nothing new. He waited in his driveway, a bulky backpack slung over his shoulder and his guitar case in his left hand.
    Just seeing him gave me goose bumps. I didn’t know what that meant, and I tried not to think about it.
    “I grabbed you one of mine in case you need an extra at the lake,” he said a little too boisterously with his deep voice, holding out a blue Michigan hooded sweatshirt.
    “Shh!” I warned as we set off down the sidewalk, the leaves of the overhead trees rustling as a breeze blew over us. “Did you leave your parents a note in case they wake up to find you gone?”
    “Yeah. Right on my bed. Even signed it Cantankerous Little Monkey. But they’d be fine with it. They’ve woken up to find me gone before.”
    “Wow, I wish my parents were so forgiving.”
    “Did you leave one, too?”
    “Yup, on my desk. But I’m dead if they find out.” I gave him a flat look, letting him know I meant business.
    “No worries. We’ll be back before they wake up.” He lifted his hand, then raked his fingers through his shaggy hair.
    “I can’t believe I’m fully awake and haven’t even had my cup of coffee. Must be the adrenaline of sneaking out.”
    In the dead of the night, his big shoes sounded too loud against the concrete. “Good, because we got places to go and people to