Free Bright Lights, Dark Nights by Stephen Emond Page A

I’m just falling asleep and I hear someone in my home. I should have stayed put, but I didn’t. I turn on the light, go into my living room, and there’s this kid, just standing there. I ask him what he’s doing here; I tell him to get out before he answers. He throws me into the wall.”
    Rosie stopped talking there. I heard her blow her nose again. I brought the ice pack out for Rosie.
    â€œHe tells you to get him something valuable and he’ll leave,” Dad says. Rosie nodded. “You freeze up; he hits you and runs.” Rosie nodded again, her face was all wet from crying. Rosie lived next door—this creep was on our street. We could be next.
    I’d just taken Naomi through the city. I’d just walked through the Basement in the dark. There were crazy people out there, right here, right near us. It felt like something that happened to other people. Getting mugged, being attacked—that was stuff you saw on TV or read about online. My dad was a cop—how much safer could it get? But here we were.
    â€œRosie, I’m gonna find this kid, all right?” Dad said. “I’m gonna personally find him, and when I do, I’m gonna give him a lot worse than a black eye.”

 
    Chapter Five

    Â 

    Kate was in love with Naomi already. It was Wednesday, lunch break, and I was with Just Nate and Just Kate on the outside staircase behind the school. We were looking over the woods and city on the third floor while Nate and Kate smoked. It was another nice day, and the leaves were red and falling. I’d explained the dinner, the date, and even the hallway passings and the harp from before I’d even officially met her, and Kate hung on to every dorky word like it was the world’s worst romance novel.
    â€œSo you kissed her?” Kate asked.
    â€œI think so,” I said.
    â€œWell, dude, you either kissed her or you didn’t,” Nate said. “It’s that thing, with the lips touching…”
    â€œOkay, yeah, I kissed her,” I relented, pacing around. “But, like, right after she basically told me no, no kissing. But then she was apologizing for saying no, and she was hinting I should maybe be more assertive, but assertive feels douchey to me, so I had no way to tell if I was being an aggressive douche or romantic. I don’t know if the kiss was any good. I mean I’d never really made a move like that before, and I didn’t know if I should open my mouth or not. It was probably a terrible kiss, honestly. I probably was just smooshing my closed mouth into her face. I should have gone on the Internet and looked up how to kiss or something first.”
    â€œNo, don’t go to the Internet for love advice,” Kate said. “Bad move. I’m sure your kiss was perfect. She didn’t squirm or hit you or anything?”
    â€œNo, she didn’t hit me,” I said.
    â€œAwww,” Kate said with a big grin. “She didn’t hit you! Walter!”
    Nate and Kate brought it all back down to earth. It didn’t feel so monumental when I said this stuff out loud, and heard their reactions. It felt like this was a normal thing that people go through. A good thing.
    Nate and Kate were in some ways the most ideal couple; they fit like Legos. Somehow they could still talk, they could still be inseparable, and they could still be Nate and Kate, even though the relationship hadn’t worked out. You look at the statistical probabilities of failure and heartbreak, which are astronomical, but you realize sometimes it can still end like this: decent. They were a failed romance but a spectacular failure, as these things go. You looked at Nate and Kate and you were almost not afraid to try.
    â€œNow the issue is, what do I do next?” I said, and I’d been pacing back and forth and leaning over the railing. I’d felt nervous for a couple of days and really needed to know how to stop feeling