Stargazer

I watched the lights of the bridge reflecting on the water. How was it that driving over it today had upset me so badly? Being this close to the water didn’t affect me the slightest. The river looked pretty, and that was about it.

Then I heard footsteps on the sidewalk behind me. Lucas. My heart leaped, and I spun around with a smile on my face to glimpse a shape coming closer in the night.

All my hopes crashed.

“Hey,” Dana said, emerging from the shadows. “I know I’m not who you wanted to see tonight. Sorry about that.”

My disappointment vanished, replaced by fear. “Lucas isn’t—He’s okay, right?”

“He’s fine. Absolutely fine. But his cell is on lockdown right now.

They got themselves surrounded by a nasty crew of vamps in Boston.

For the next few weeks, he’s stuck. Can’t get out, can’t leave. I was somewhere else, so when they told me about the lockdown, he asked me to come find you. I’m supposed to schedule your next secret rendezvous, which, I gotta tell you, makes me feel a little dirty.” Though I tried to laugh at Dana’s joke, it sort of turned into a sob instead. Dana patted me awkwardly on the shoulder and said, “Hey, hey. You know he would’ve come if he could, right?”

“I know. I’m just—I really wanted to see him tonight. But thanks for coming to tell me,” I said hollowly. It was better to get the bad news quickly instead of waiting by the river all night, wishing that Lucas would come. No matter how kind Dana had been, now I wanted her to leave so I could sit down and have a good cry.

“No big thing.” Then Dana’s grin faded as she stood up straight. In that instant, when her posture shifted into wariness and readiness to fight, I saw the warrior in her. “Somebody’s coming. You sure the vampires aren’t on this trip?”

“Only one, and he’s not dangerous.” Dana gave me a look that clearly meant, Are you nuts? I plowed on like I hadn’t said anything about friendly vampires. “It’s either a townie or a student. Just act natural.”

“You got it.”

But I was the one who was going to have trouble acting natural, because the person who came around the river bend was Raquel.

“Hey!” I said, too brightly. “I thought you were at the bookstore!”

“Got bored.” Raquel shrugged. “I slipped out.” Great, I thought. Poor Balthazar’s going to spend the rest of the night tearing apart the whole town looking for her.

“What about you? I thought you were going to the movies to see your parents.” Raquel cast a suspicious glance at Dana.

But Dana grinned and held out her hand. “Dana Tryon. Good to meet you. I’m an old friend of Bianca’s, and we ran into each other on the street. What are the chances?”

“Oh, okay.” Raquel shook hands. “You’re from Bianca’s home-town?”

“Good old Arrowwood Middle School,” I said quickly, grateful for Dana’s fast thinking. “Yeah, we used to hang out all the time. So when I saw her, I was like, forget the movies.”

Raquel smiled, accepting the story. “Cool. Are you guys just walking around down here?”

“Yeah, basically.” Apparently Raquel intended to hang around with us. How were we supposed to fake a big friendship? We’d only met twice before.

Dana didn’t seem dismayed. “Actually, I’m headed back up to grab something to eat. Bianca’s going to hang out with me for a while. You want to join us?”

“Well—I just ate—” To my astonishment, I could see that Raquel actually wanted to go. Dana’s cheerful personality had won a quick con-vert. “But I skipped dessert. The pie looked pretty good.”

“Pie!” Dana grinned. “Everybody loves pie. It’s settled.” We talked easily the whole night, and nobody would ever have guessed that Dana and I were nearly strangers. Raquel certainly didn’t, mostly because we kept the focus on her, drawing her out about her art projects, her skateboarding, and everything else. When the topic strayed from Raquel’s interests, Dana kept making up absurd questions to ask me about the history we supposedly shared: “How’s Hubert doing? God, the way you two used to flirt back at good old Arrowwood Middle School! You really never minded those Coke-bottle glasses he used to wear? Or going with him to Star Trek conventions?”

“Oh, you know,” I fumbled. “I used to be into the intellectual type.”

“You wouldn’t know it from the guy she dated last year,” Raquel said.

“I can imagine.” Dana smirked. I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist teasing Lucas about that later.

I jumped in with, “What about you, Dana? Are you still collecting My Little Ponies? You were only two fillies short of a complete set when I moved away.”

As Raquel started laughing, Dana shot me a dirty look—but she was grinning. “I might have grown out of that.”

About halfway through, Raquel excused herself to go to the bathroom. The second she was out of earshot, Dana said, “So, you and Lucas. When and where?”

“We’d better come back here, to Riverton—say, in front of the movie theater. Let’s try the Saturday after Thanksgiving, 8 P.M.” Surely Balthazar would have permission to take me off campus at that point. “The lockdown will be over by then, right?”

“Ought to be.” Dana smiled. “Now I’ve done my part for young love.