Out by Laura Preble Page B

Shh .” Her finger touches my lips, and it burns where she
touches me. My heart pounds, a crazy drum, as she pulls so close I can feel her
breath touching my cheek.
    “We can’t do
this.”
    In the shadow
of the balcony, her face is half lit, like a waning moon, and I blink to see if
she’ll disappear. But she doesn’t. “I know,” she whispers.
    “I should go.”
But I don’t go. She pulls me close, and her lips are on mine, sweet, warm, full
of life and passion, cherry sweet mixed with the scent of jasmine and autumn
leaves in her thick, dark hair.
    Waves wash over
me, stars burst behind my eyes. I take her in my arms, and we ease down onto
the green rug, kissing, caressing, breathing each other in like oxygen.
    “Stop,” she
whispers desperately. “What was I thinking? We can’t do this here. If they
catch us—”
    “They won’t.” I
can’t stop. I nibble her ear, her delicious vanilla-cookie skin, and all the
hunger I’ve stored up in my life gallops through my gut and into my head, and I
don’t think I can stop. I don’t want to stop.
    “Someone’s at
the bedroom door!” she says, terrified. “Someone knocked!”
    Her words wake
me up like a bucket of ice water. Unfortunately, my lower half doesn’t get the
memo. My pants won’t be able to lie about what’s been going on. “What do I do
about—” I point to the obvious bulge.
    “Uh…” she
blinks rapidly, then looks away, embarrassed. “Kneel down by the telescope.”
The knocking becomes more insistent. I kneel down, even though it’s kind of
awkward.
    “Give me the
blanket!” I hiss. She plucks it from her shoulders and drapes it over my lap as
the bedroom door opens. She jumps back as if I’m on fire.
      “Chris!” It’s Jana, thank God. She might
tease me, but she won’t rat me out. She makes her way to the deck. “Ah, I see
you’re giving our guest the grand tour of fantastically boring Ohio.” She leans
over my balcony and breathes deeply. “Just smell the conformity!”
    Carmen shivers
in her light shirt, and I consider giving back the blanket, but I don’t want to
reveal my…occurrence. “Just looking for constellations and stuff,” I say,
pretending to focus on the night sky. “Did you need something?”
    “Forgot to tell
you something.” She turns and studies Carmen, then glances at my lap. “He took
your blanket? No manners.” She darts into my room, digs through a drawer, and
retrieves a soft blue sweatshirt, which she tosses to Carmen. It’s too big on
her, but it looks so cute I want to grab her again and just…well… I can’t think
about it.
    “Thanks,”
Carmen says, smiling at me. “I think it’s charming here.”
    “That’s because
you don’t live here.” Jana taps the end of the telescope. “If I thought Chris
could find me a better planet to head for, I’d go in a heartbeat. Or maybe
Canada. Can you see Canada on this thing, Chris?” She leans over and presses
her eye to the focus.
    “Canada?”
Carmen asks. “Why would you want to go there?”
    “No reason,”
Jana answers quickly. “I like moose. Moose jerky, specifically. And bacon.” She
straightens herself up and grins.  
    “What did you
forget?” I ask, my voice cracking like it did in seventh grade.
    “Oh, yeah.” She
puts an arm around Carmen. “I think you two should go for a walk or something.
You can show her the sights of the country at night. You can go out my window
and then the grownups won’t see you.” She waves behind her as she leaves, and
closes the door gently. “I’ll lock this, too. Just knock if you want to escape.”
    “Interesting
girl,” Carmen says, stepping closer to me. “Is she…?”
    “Is she what?”
    She kneels next
to me again and whispers, “Perpendicular.”
    “Jana? No.” I’m
not ready to admit that yet.
    “ Here. ” Carmen grabs the end of the blue blanket and drapes
it around her shoulder, snuggling into my lap so we’re a double-stacked mass of
stargazers huddled