Page 57 of Turn

I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay home and brood over the things Cami had said about Curtis. He wasn’t around, having gone to the store to get some groceries or something. Even though my folks kept insisting he didn’t need to restock the cupboards he was stubborn about it.

“I think I’m going to stay here,” I told my mother.

“Do me a favor and let the dog out,” my dad said. “He peed on the floor a little while ago.”

“Poor Angus. He’s getting old.”

My dad touched the area near his temples where the hair was beginning to turn gray. “He’s not the only one.”

“Well, I hope you don’t start pissing on the floor. I don’t think I can handle that.”

“I think I’m at least a few years away from that possibility,” my father said. “You want us to bring you back anything?”

“No thanks. It would just melt in this heat by the time you got home anyway.”

“Okay. See you in a little while.”

Once everyone was gone Angus the Dog padded into the kitchen, panting the whole time, and stopped to look at his water bowl expectantly. I refilled it and patted him on the head while he drank. His tail moved slowly from side to side and I had a melancholy flashback to Angus as a puppy, this relentlessly wiggling, black shaggy creature with infinite energy.

While petting Angus I noticed that there was a ketchup stain the size of a quarter on my shirt, courtesy of the burnt hamburger dinner. I dashed to my room for a quick change of clothes while Angus was lapping up his water. I planned to slip into my usual pajamas of loose shorts and a shapeless t-shirt but then I remembered a nightie that was hanging at the back of my closet. It wasn’t all sex and laciness but instead made of comfortable cotton and fell to my knees. Still, it hugged my body in all the right places and even though I wished it were a color other than a tame, virginal white, I knew I looked good in it.

And who are you trying to look good for, Cassidy?

I told myself it didn’t matter either way. He wasn’t even here right now and I was already yawning enough to justify an early bedtime. He probably wouldn’t be back by the time I shut my door for the night.

Angus was already waiting at the backdoor and whimpering to be let out. The second I slid the sliding glass doors open he galloped into the darkness. The back patio lights were off and I decided not to turn them back on. Instead I stepped outside into the stillness of a desert summer night punctuated by the music of crickets and alight with stars. The stars weren’t as bright here in the middle of a major metropolitan area. They would be brighter and far more numerous away from the city lights, down in Emblem. At least I thought they would. I’d never been to Emblem at night. My father would be able to tell me whether the stars were brighter there. So would Curtis.

“Where did everyone go?” Curtis’s voice startled me. I hadn’t heard the sliding glass doors open but suddenly there he was beside me in the backyard. Angus trotted over to him, licked his outstretched hand and then returned to the darkest corner of the yard.

I cleared my throat, ignoring the way my pulse began to race. There was something intimate and a little dangerous about being out here alone with Curtis in the darkness.

“Cami and Dalton left. My parents took Brecken out for some frozen yogurt.” A piece of hair fell in my face. Earlier I’d tied it all back in a knot because I was hot but now I pulled it free and let it cascade past my shoulders. There wasn’t much light since I hadn’t turned on the patio lights. I could hardly see Curtis. I assumed he could hardly see me. But I sensed the way his eyes raked me over so he must have seen enough. He was close now, close enough for me to smell the musky scent of his aftershave and hear the way his breathing quickened. A primitive feeling of sexual power brought a smile to my lips. Let him stand there and stare and lust. I was still a little irritated with him for implying earlier that I had everything so easy.

“A girl like you…”

That was what he’d called me. As if I couldn’t possibly have known a moment of hurt in all my pretty, privileged life. I knew hurt. I was far more intimate with the feeling than I’d like to be.

“I made you mad today,” he said. “Didn’t I?”

I wasn’t in the mood to flirt and deny it. “Yes. You did.”

He sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I didn’t mean to. I have a bad habit of saying all the wrong things to you, Cassidy.”

I pivoted to face him. “You’ve never called me that before.”

“What?”

“Cassidy.”

He shrugged. “That’s your full name, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Usually no one but my family ever uses it though.” I scanned the sky above. “There’s no moon tonight. My Uncle Chase can point out every constellation and every star. I never learned.”

He was now looking up too. “Neither did I.”

“Curtis?”

“Yeah?”

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