Midnight Sun(13)

“Of your dad following us with a drone? It’s kind of over-the-top, don’t you think?”

I crack up again. “I meant, what did you think of the songs. That you read. Without my permission.”

He shrugs. “I don’t know, really. You can’t read a song. I’d have to hear them.”

I stop walking. We’re nearly to my house, and ten bucks says my dad is standing in the living room alternately staring at his Find My iPhone app and out the front window, waiting for me to walk back through the door. The last thing I want to have to do is explain who Charlie is and why I’m out here with him.

“Is this your house?” he asks, pointing at the one right in front of us.

I gesture beyond where he thinks it is, a block farther up the hill. “No, it’s that one. But my dad is a pretty light sleeper, and I’d rather not wake him up.”

Charlie stares at where I live. “I can’t believe we’ve never met before. I’ve probably skated by your house like every day on the way to practice.”

“Practice?” I ask, even though, of course, I know what he’s referring to. How could I not know? He always had that Purdue Penguins backpack, his kickboard, and all sorts of miscellaneous swim gear tucked under one arm as he rode by. Not to mention the fact that his name was in the local paper every week when he would break records at the latest meets during the season.

“Yeah, I used to be a competitive swimmer.” And just like that, the adorable spark in his eyes is extinguished.

“Used to be?”

Another shrug. “Story for another day.”

I switch gears, hoping he goes back to being Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky again. “It’s weird, right? That you know my house.”

“Sure.” Charlie still looks sad. The spell between us is broken. Maybe next time—if there is a next time—we’ll get it back. As for now, I figure I should just disappear again.

“Well, I gotta go. Thanks for walking me home,” I tell him.

I get only two steps up the hill when Charlie says maybe the ten greatest words in the English language.

“Hey, Katie. Would you maybe want to do something sometime?”

I whirl back around. “Together, you mean?”

Charlie laughs, back to his regular relaxed self. “No, I meant in general, by yourself, in life. Of course I meant us, together.”

I worry about how I’ll explain my extenuating circumstances to Charlie, and if my dad would even agree to let me go out with him, and whether I could keep my rambling to a minimum even if he did. But then I realize, this is Charlie Reed. Dream Boy. I have to try. For Morgan and Dear Gabby, but especially for me.

“I… I’m pretty busy during the day. I’m really free only at night,” I tell him, skipping over all the complicated parts.

“I can be free at night,” he says with an adorable little shrug.

“Put your number here, then,” I say, walking back over to him and flipping through my notebook to find a spot for him that’s not full of doodles and lyrics and chords. And then I see it. He’s already printed his name neatly on the first available blank page. His digits are right next to it.

I stop short. “Ooooooooh. Oh, that was smooth.”

Charlie gives me another heart-melting grin. “Another one of my moves. I’m old-school.”

And then we just stand there smiling at each other. After a while, it gets kind of awkward that neither one of us is making a move to leave. So I say good-bye for real this time and run up the hill to my house.

I have a date! With Charlie Reed! I turn back around to wave good night to him and discover he’s still standing there, watching me and smiling. Instead of feeling embarrassed this time, I feel all warm and toasty. Like a fire has been lit inside me.

Me. Charlie Reed asked me out.

This is all new—liking an actual reallive Charlie and not just the figment of him outside my window, and him quite possibly liking me back. It’s kind of scary. In a good way.

I think I like it.





7

Morgan bursts into my room the next afternoon right when I’m getting up. “TELL. ME. EVERYTHING.”

I’ve, of course, already texted her what happened, but she wants to hear it from my mouth. She sprawls across my bed as I try to get all the words and Charlie’s expressions just right. I describe the way the moon danced between us as we walked home, how he asked me on a date, and how his name and number were already in my notebook, so it must have been premeditated, not just like a whim or, worse, a mistake. She’s grinning at me and I’m grinning at her and I feel stupid but stupidly happy, too.

“That’s so romantic it disgusts me,” she says when I finish.

I sigh and throw a hand over my heart. It’s beating faster than normal even a day later. “I know. It was perfect.”

Morgan sits up and grabs my hands. “So he was cool about your XP, huh? I had a feeling about him. I knew he wouldn’t be a jerk about it. That’s the only reason I let him give you back your notebook, I swear. I never would’ve let him put his grubby paws on it otherwise.”

I start biting a fingernail. I’m trying to be casual and avoid telling her the truth, but Morgan knows me way too well.

“No. Katie, come on now,” she groans. “You didn’t tell him? You, like, think he’s not gonna find out when you start melting in front of him like the Wicked Witch of the West? Boys are dumb but not that dumb.”