Page 87 of Even in the Dark

“This is bullshit,” she says, but she doesn’t sound as upset as before. “I don’t understand.”

“You throw model planes the same way you drive,” I tell her. “That’s the problem.”

“There is nothing wrong with the way I drive.”

Ha.

“Or the way I threw those planes,” she adds.

I shake my head, and Scarlett laughs.

My own mouth lifts into a grin.

After a bit, we walk over to the front of the letters. They’re imposing and almost majestic against the deep purple sky. Scarlett climbs up into the lower section of the “B”. She settles in, sitting with her back against the curved inner wall, legs bent, hair back-lit by an orangey-pink glow from the neon lights. It highlights every fluffy strand blowing lightly in the breeze.

“Have a seat!” she calls over to me.

I’m standing close to the very front part of the flat roof with my free hand in my pocket, my own hair blowing around my face asI look out at the expansive scene around us. Still kind of stunned by how awesome it is up here.

“Dylan, seriously. You’re freaking me out standing close to the edge like that,” she calls again, so I turn and make my way over, climbing up across from her. Lean my back against the vertical part of the lower bubble of the “B”, knees bent like Scarlett, the toes of my scuffed sneakers touching her small, probably expensive as fuck ankle boots.

We sit in silence for a while, staring out at the sparkling town sprawled before us, beautiful and as close to perfect as an evening has ever been.

“This is amazing,” I finally say. My voice is low and rusty, like it was down in the lobby earlier.

“Yeah… I kind of forgot about this spot, honestly.”

Another stretch of silence.

“I broke up with Gavin on Friday.”

I drop my head forward to look at her. Kind of surprised she’s sharing this. Also, confused about why. “Thought you had a date with him on Friday.”

“I did.”

Not sure what to say to that. Not sure why I feel kind of pleased to hear they broke up, either. Why I even give a crap. Other than I guess the fact that Gavin is kind of a loser, and Scarlett is… not.

Her right leg is still bent, but her left one is hanging off the side of the giant letter now and she’s swinging it slowly back and forth.

“Those boots cost a thousand dollars, too?” I ask.

She laughs. “You mean like the shoes Cromwell took a leak all over?”

"Yeah."

"Roughly the same. Definitely more than a pair of bootsshouldcost.”

“So why do you buy them?”

She shrugs. “Same reason anyone buys anything. I like them.” She pokes at the bottom of my sneaker with the tip of her over-priced boot. “Why do you buy comic books?”

“I don’t. I stole ’em.”

Her upper body tips forward. Leg stops swinging. “Youstoleall those comics?”

Wish I hadn’t said that now.

“The ones from before. Mostly, yeah… A couple Eli got for me. And the ones I had the other day at Jays, I paid for those.”

---