Chapter Thirteen

So I snuck out of Aunt Clara’s house wearing my “ninja” suit again, and waited by the dumpster behind Wal-mart.
Damien arrived a few minutes later, and pulled up his car beside me.
“Hey,” he said as I got into the passenger seat.
“Hi. Do you have the stuff?”
“I got the scissors right here, and the huge containers with gallons of coffee are in the trunk.”
“Awesome,” I said. “Did we decide who is doing what already?”
He laughed. “Do you have short term memory loss or something? Yes, we already did.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’m doing the coffee bit, and you’re doing the hair bit.”
“All right. I’ll write the not now. Got a piece of paper?”
“I have a sticky note.”
He handed it to me, and I found a pen in his car.
“Good enough.”
I wrote on the paper. “I got most of the green out of your hair. And you don’t need to straighten it. You are very welcome.”
“All right. So I put this where again?”
“I think it’s best if you put it on her mirror. I think she looks at that the most.”
I laughed. “Right. And you’re going down to the plumbing right?”
“Yeah. It’ll take me a while. We’re going to be in there longer today.”
“How come?”
“I’ve got to go down to their basement, and I’m scared if the stairs creek or something.”
I laughed. “I guess it’s going to take me a while, too.”
“Yeah it will.”
We pulled up in front of Chrissy’s huge mansion-like house again.
“Do you think the house will be locked this time?” I whispered to Damien as we started to approach the house.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. He turned the doorknob, and it opened just as it did the previous night. “She doesn’t expect a part two, remember?”
I smiled, and the two of us crept inside.
I made my way up the grand stairs, and Damien stealthily went behind the stairs, and started tiptoeing down into the basement.
Carefully, I opened Chrissy’s bedroom door again. I cringed as I heard the slight squeaking the hinges made as I slowly pushed it. Thankfully, this did not wake Chrissy. And thankfully, she was sleeping on her side just as I had hoped.
I knelt down next to her bed, on the side where the back of her head was facing me. I raised the scissors up. It took a lot of urge for me not to stab her in the neck. But instead, I lifted up her hair, strand by strand, and snipped it. I cut each strand of hair a different size, and randomly cut off everything. It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. I left the fallen hair on her pillow and bed sheets. I smiled to myself, and proceeded to her bathroom, where I stuck the sticky note to the mirror. I looked back at Chrissy, and laughed at how ridiculous her cut up, puke green hair looked. I couldn’t wait to see her anger tomorrow.
So I quickly made my way back down the stairs, and waited for Damien to finish up his part of part two of the Prank for Just Once. I sat down on the bottom step, and attempted to both entertain myself and keep quiet and hope that nothing wrong was going to happen at that moment.
And then I thought about what I just did. I had just cut up and totally destroyed Chrissy White’s hair. And enjoyed it. I smiled to myself, and heard Damien come back up.
“You finished fast,” I whispered to him.
“Not really,” he whispered back. “I think you were just having so much fun, the time flew past you.”
I smiled, trying not to laugh out loud. “I guess it was fun.”
Damien smiled back. “Let’s get the hell out of here before we get caught.”
So we scurried back out the door, and then sprinted to Damien’s car before anything looked suspicious.
I took a deep breath, and let it out, and started talking in an overly loud voice again. “That was more intense than yesterday.”
Damien laughed. “Yes, it was. And the results are going to be more drastic.”
“I’m excited for tomorrow.”
“Yeah. So do you want to go to your Aunt’s house now, or what?”
“I don’t want to go to my Aunt’s house ever. I’m so miserable there. She doesn’t even know I exist.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. Whatever. I feel like doing something right now, anyway.”
“Like what? Don’t you want sleep? Remember what happened today?”
I shrugged. “I’ll try not to be tired tomorrow. And I really feel like living in the present right now.”
Damien smiled at me. “Fine. What do you want?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know Chicago as well as you do. Where do you want to go?”
“Lincoln Park?” he suggested.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Lincoln Park. It’s the biggest park in Chicago.”
“Oh. Isn’t that also like a band or something?”
Damien laughed. “Yeah, they got the name from the park.”
“Not the other way around?”
He laughed again. “Nope.”
“I did not know that. So what, you want to go there?”
He nodded. “It’s a beautiful park, but in my opinion, everything is more beautiful at night.”
“I see.”
“Yep. You want to go?”
“I do.”
“Let’s go, then.”
So we drove. And drove. And I didn’t even pay attention to where we were going, or how long we were going.
“Paige, it’s late,” Damien said. “I’ll drive, you can go to the back and sleep.”
“No, it’s all right.”
“It’s past midnight, Paige,” he said. “I don’t want you to fall asleep for part three tomorrow. And I don’t know if I can let you off work again. And… yeah, just go to sleep, okay?”
“Not now, I’m gazing.” I did this a lot on long road trips a lot. Especially when I was driving from one new guardian to another. I’d just gaze out the window, seeing and taking in all the sights I could, and I’d try to come up with a story in my head. About anything that fit the scenery I was gazing at. It was something I’d do unconsciously.
Damien shook his head.
“I’m not even tired,” I said. “I got enough sleep at work. But you barely slept at all last night, and you didn’t get a break. Why don’t you go back and sleep, and I’ll drive for a while.”
“Paige, I told you not to worry about me. For the millionth time—”
“That is so not fair! You can worry about me, but I can’t worry about you?”
“I’m the guy, Paige,” he said, smiling. “I’m supposed to worry about you.”
“That is so sexist!” I exclaimed. “I can take care of myself, and other people, thank you very much.”
“Just relax, Paige, because there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“Oh, my best friend—” he smiled “—isn’t getting any sleep for two days straight, and I have nothing to worry about?”
“I’m fine, really,” Damien said. “Just don’t worry about it.”
I shot him a look. “Fine, be that way.”
“I will.”
We drove some more, and I didn’t know how long it was, but I was falling half asleep while gazing out the window. The story I came up with was about a girl whom nobody liked, and then one day this amazing guy who stole her away, but they couldn’t be together so he kidnapped her and drove her across Chicago until the two of them could happily be together.
I yawned.
“Don’t sleep yet,” Damien said. “We’re all most there.”
And I couldn’t even remember clearly, but before I knew it, we were on a large field of grass. We weren’t particularly doing anything. We just lied down there, starring up at the sky. Almost black and just a few stars glittered in the sky like some kind of poster made by a three-year-old with an excessive amount of glitter glue.
“You’re right, Damien,” I said.
“I know,” he said. “Wait, what exactly am I right about?”
I laughed. “About everything being more beautiful in the night.”
He turned his head and smiled at me. “Yeah. It really is.”
I continued to space out looking at the twinkling of the stars, but I felt Damien’s eyes on me. It felt a little weird, but I decided to ignore it. It was like one of those awkward silences, only it felt very different.
I turned my head to the side, and looked at Damien, who was still looking at me. He smiled. “How much longer do you want to stay here?”
“If I’m not at my aunt’s house, I want to stay here forever.”
Damien’s grin grew. “I wish that was true, but we’ve got to go to school tomorrow, unfortunately.”
“I hate school.”
“But your boyfriend is there.”
“Your girlfriend is there.”
“Yes, but I didn’t say I hated school.”
“You don’t hate school?”
“Well… yes. Yes, I do hate school.”
I laughed.
“But only because people like Alexander and Chrissy are at school,” Damien explained.
“The Great isn’t that bad,” I told him. “I mean, of course Chrissy is, but what’s wrong with Alexander?”
Damien put his hands under his head, looked back up at the sky, and shrugged. “Maybe he’s perfect. Maybe I’m jealous of him.”
“Damien, you’re great, too,” I said. “The Great is no better than you are.”
He shrugged again. “I guess.”
“Trust me. You are a very awesome person, Damien. Do you think you would ever date someone like Chrissy?”
“Never.”
“There. You’re already one point ahead of the Great. Do you think the Great would ever come all night with your friend to play a hilariously awesomely epic prank on someone he really hated?”
“I do not think so.”
“Two points ahead. Do you think the Great would stay up all night just to stay up all night with me?”
“Not so sure.”
“He wouldn’t. That’s three points for you. Do you think the Great would let me fall asleep in his lap?”
“Maybe.”
“I do not think so, my friend. That’s four points for you. See? You’re already so much better than him.”
Damien chuckled, and then looked back at me. “Thanks, Paige. It really means a lot.”
I smiled back at him. “Anytime, Damien.”
I yawned. Damien sat up. He took off his jacket, and scrunched it up into a ball.
“What are you doing?” I said, yawning again.
“You’re tired.” He lifted my head up, and put the balled-up jacket under my head.
“Aren’t you going to freeze to death?” I asked.
He shrugged his shoulders. I was afraid that if he did it again, his shoulders would come out of their sockets.
I turned around so that my face was more in his jacket. It smelled nice. Just like Damien. Like pages of an old book, and some sort of cocoanut conditioner. I inhaled deeply, and took in the scent. It went straight to my head, which made me a bit dizzy. I closed my eyes. I was afraid that maybe I was sleeping too much.
Damien’s hand pushed the hair out of my face, and behind my ear. My cheek was suddenly cold. “I’m glad you’re sleeping,” he said.
“You go to sleep,” I mumbled.
“I will, Paige. I promise.”
“You can’t break a promise,” I said into his jacket. “Don’t break your promise.”
He laughed lightly. “I promise, Paige. Don’t worry about me.”
“Stop saying that.” I sounded like a little child waking up at some early time in the morning. All whiny and tired.
“But you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll get sleep tonight, okay?”
“Don’t break your promise,” I repeated.
“I won’t. Sleep.”
So I slept.
I didn’t know how long it was that I was asleep, but after some immeasurable amount of time, I felt the grass disappear from under me. I barely opened my eye, and saw that Damien was carrying me. Back to his car. I didn’t want to move or anything in case he dropped me, because he sounded like he was kind of having a hard time lifting me. So I just acted like I was still asleep, and closed my eyes again.
The next thing I felt was the seat of Damien’s car. I didn’t think about what he had done for me again, and fell back asleep.
After another immeasurable amount of time, I woke up. I looked around. We were still in Damien’s car. Still driving. “Damien, were are we?”
“Morning, sleepy head,” he said cheerfully.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“It’s late,” was all he said. “I’m taking you home.”
“Aunt Clara’s house is not my home,” I said.
“I know. I’m taking you to my house for the night,” he said.
“Whaa—?”
“My house,” he repeated. “I’ll explain to my parents something. They’ll be okay with it.”
“You sure?”
“Of course. We’ve got an extra room and stuff. My parents will be fine with it.”
“Okay,” I said, my voice sleepy. “Better than Aunt Clara’s house.”
“Yes, much better than your aunt’s house.”
I smiled to myself, and we arrived at Damien’s house.
The two of us walked into his house. Both of his parents were in the living room, sitting. Waiting.
“Damien, dear, where have you been?” his mother asked, worry in her voice.
“Don’t worry, guys, I was with Paige,” Damien explained, pointing at me.
“Oh,” David said, as if some realization had come to him. “You were with Paige. What happened to Jessica?”
“Dad!” Damien exclaimed. “I’m still with Jessica. Paige is my friend.”
“Of course, dear,” his mother said. “It’s all right. Hello, Paige.”
“Hello, Mrs. Caster,” I said back.
“Mom, is it all right if Paige stays here for the night?” Damien asked. “We lost track of time when we were out, and she doesn’t really want to go home.”
“Sure. Paige, you can have the guest room. It’s right next to Damien’s room, he’ll show you the way, is that all right?”
“Thank you, Mrs. Caster.”
“Don’t think me, darling, just go on back and rest. You look mighty tired.”
“I am. Thanks again.”
“Oh, don’t mention it.” She smiled, and I smiled back.
So Damien led me into his house, and into the guest room. It was nicer than the room Aunt Clara left me. I went into the bed, and Damien shut off the lights.
“Good night, Paige. Sweet dreams.”