6.

He met her again at that kid Marc’s party. He got there late, later even then he wanted to. There were a lot of people around, and the keg was damn near empty. Some of the kids were already talking about raiding the wine supply in the top of the pantry. He knew that shit would get everybody caught, get Marc grounded. He wasn’t in the mood to drink tonight. He wasn’t in the mood to sell anything either, so he was glad nobody was really asking.

He had been by The Captain’s house earlier, to pick up the pound he had waiting for him. The Captain was an ex-marine, now a P.O., probation, not parole. The Captain would leave the pound sitting on the front porch of his house in a plain cardboard box, small and sealed with duct tape. It always had a name written on it in black magic marker, and sometimes he’d notice other boxes with other names written on them. He knew better than to fuck with those boxes. He’d take the box with his name on it and, as directed, put the sealed envelope under the mat in front of the door. It was a plain black mat, made to wipe your feet on. It was far from welcoming. He’d see other envelopes under the mat every once in a while too; he didn’t think anybody was fucking dumb enough to touch any of them. You didn’t fuck with The Captain or his money. But, so he had the pound now, still in the cardboard box, sitting beside the mailbox at Marc’s house. He didn’t have anywhere else for it quite yet.

He was glad to see the party start dying down some a little after midnight, the keg was probably empty. He saw the girl from the game come into the room, head his way. He was sitting on the couch in the house’s main room, flipping through cable channels with the TV on mute, sort of half listening to the conversations going on around him. The music was up in an adjacent room, a room that still had several kids playing pool, but he could hear some of the voices anyway. There were some kids in the kitchen too, and in one or two of the bedrooms upstairs, he was sure. This room had three people left in it now. She sat down next to him on the couch, but didn’t say anything to him for a couple of seconds.

“Are you in a bad mood?” Not concerned, but curious.

“Naw, I think I’m just tired,” after another short pause.

“So I think Marc told me why you aren’t on the team anymore. How come you quit school?”

“School wasn’t really teaching me that much. I’d rather skip it and just work, you know?”

“You got a job?”

“Yeah.”

“Doing what?”

“Sales.”

“And you don’t need school for that?”

“Not really. I sort of learn as I go.”

“And you’re not in a bad mood?”

“No,” with a little grin. “Should I liven up some?”

“Yeah, you definitely should; unless talking to me just isn’t that exciting for you.”

He smiled. “You wanna go out to the hot tub?”

“It’s kinda cold out.”

“It’s a fuckin’ hot tub.”

“I guess so. I did bring a swimsuit. Did you.”

“No. But I got boxers on. I’ll wear them. I saw some towels in the bathroom. I’ll go get ‘em.”

He got the towels and led her out to the hot tub. There were four kids there already, one was getting out. They seemed pretty sober. He thought hot tubs were supposed to make you drunker. They got in and sat there in the hot tub for a while talking, mostly to each other.

By two o’clock everybody else was gone, and he knew a lot about her. Her name was August, and she was a sophomore. She was sixteen and her birthday was in September. She had been born a week late, but her parents were already too attached to the name to think about changing it. She was an only child, her parents were still together, and they had gotten her a car for her birthday, but it was her Christmas present too. She said she was in love with her car, then she laughed. It was named Carl, her car, even though it looked more like a Violet; she laughed again. He loved her laugh, it was as perfect as her smile.

They got out of the tub at two-thirty or so, and ran for the house. He didn’t think he’d ever been so fucking cold. He followed her into the bathroom when she told him they probably shouldn’t drip all over the carpet. He was still cold, even with the towel around him. He took off the wet boxers, the towel stayed on. She stayed wrapped in the towel, swimsuit and all.

“Follow me,” she said, with a new look that he hadn’t seen yet, but still with the smile. It was her eyes that were mischievous. She walked back through the main room, a couple of kids asleep on the couch and the floor. She walked into the kitchen and opened a door to stairs he didn’t know were there.

“I thought this was a fuckin’ closet.”

She chuckled. “Nope, there’s a basement.”

Down they went. There were a couple of kids in the finished basement’s main room playing video games, football it looked like at a glance, but she walked right on past them and opened another door, to a bedroom, small and empty.

“This is a better place to talk, it’s warmer.”

“Yeah, a little less wet too huh,” he said.

She smiled, damn he liked that smile. He sat down on the bed, it was the only thing to sit on it the room besides a chair and a desk, both piled with books. She closed the door.

“I’m gonna turn the light off, if that’s alright.”

“Go for it,” he told her.

The light went off, and he heard her lock the door as well. There was a nightlight in the outlet beside the door, and it cast just enough light in the small room. A bit of light snuck through beneath the closed door too, so that her figure sort of glowed as she stood there. He saw her drop the towel to the floor and step towards the bed. She hopped onto the bed and lay there on her back. He stretched out on his side, propped himself up on his elbow.

“So what did you want to talk about?”

“I don’t think I really want to talk anymore.”

He knew his cue when he heard it, and he could feel that smile after she spoke, even if he couldn’t really see it in the low light, so he leaned over and kissed her, and it lasted. She giggled once and he stopped, made fun of her. She took it like she was supposed to, quipped back. That’s how it went for a while.

He remembered years later that moment when she sat up a bit, his eyes adjusted to the light some, still to dark for detail though. He remembered how she reached behind her and untied the top of the bikini she was wearing. He kissed her again and she laid back down. He remembered how she let him kiss her neck, then her breasts, then her stomach. He remembers thinking, what about my girlfriend?