Page 9 of The Sun
My pulse clanged in my ears, and my skin itched with that tingly heat that made me want to jump up and run right out of the house.
“Sunny?” I just wanted to hear her voice. I needed to be reminded that I was here and not back in the house on Rural Route 21.
“Huh?” Her voice was lazy, half-asleep.
“You ever been to the beach at night?”
“No.” She yawned. “Have you?”
“Yeah. I used to sneak out when my Paw was drunk and mad and shouting. I’d run right on down to the highway and across the hot pavement until I felt the sand under my feet.”
She turned toward me. Thanks to the soft glow of the nightlight, I could make out her blue eyes all wide in wonder. Paw always spoke about feeling like a man, and right then, I thought I knew what he’d been talking about. The way Sunny looked at me in that moment made me feel how I thought men felt. My chest puffed out, and my lips curled into a grin.
“You went by yourself?” she breathed.
I nodded. “Swam out in the water sometimes, too.” I thought about lying and telling her I swam with a shark, but used my better judgment and decided against it. After all, Sunny and her family didn’t care much for sin, and I’d heard lying was just that. I didn’t want to sin against Sunny. Not ever.
I rolled onto my side, placing my nose inches from hers. “Wanna go?”
She stared at me for a long minute before exhaling. “We’ll get in trouble.”
“Only if they catch us.”
Excitement darted through me like a hot liquid until I found myself jumping out of her bed and grabbing her hand to pull her to her feet. She didn’t argue with me, just followed me right to her window, stifling giggle after giggle.
I threw back the frilly curtains and pushed the latch on the windowsill until it clicked, the seal popping when I finally shoved up the wooden frame.
I’d already swung both legs over and was sitting on the ledge just about to jump when Sunny placed her hand on my shoulder. “But the dark’s not safe,” she whispered.
“It is when I’ve got my sun with me.” I kissed her cheek fast, then hopped down, landing on the soft grass with a thud.
Sunny’s hair tumbled over her shoulder when she leaned over the ledge. For a moment, I didn’t think she’d come, and something in my chest went all tight, but then she threw her legs over and joined me, landing with an oomph at my side.
I took her hand in mine, and we started across the yard, the crickets silencing as we waded through the damp yard.
The sky was clear, lit up by a moon so full it looked like a marble I could catch in my fist like a firefly. By the time we reached the gravel road, Sunny stopped, pulling on my arm. “I’m scared.”
“So am I.” I grinned. “That’s what makes it fun.”
Her teeth went to work on her lip again.
“You can go back if you wanna,” I said, noticing how sweaty her palm had grown.
“I wanna be with you.” She squeezed my hand, and my heart did a weird flip-flop thing that sent heat buzzing over my body.
“I won’t let nothing get you. Promise.”
“Never?”
“Never. Ever.” That had been our promise to each other since the first night I slept in her bed, since the first time in my life I’d known what it was to feel safe. Two words that meant everything to the both of us.
Sunny gave me a quick nod, and we started down the road beside the house. It wasn’t but a few blocks to the highway that ran parallel to the ocean, and I was pretty sure I knew the way, but in the country darkness, it was hard to tell one turn from the next.
We passed Rural Route 21, right past the white mailbox with a dent from Paw’s baseball bat, and I never breathed a word. I was too scared Sunny would ask questions if I told her that was where I once lived. Afraid that the terrible, bad thing I had done would somehow come to life and chase us both down the dirt road before it swallowed me up, leaving Sunny all alone in the dark.
“You okay?” Sunny asked, out of breath. I realized I walked so fast that her short little legs struggled to keep up.
“Yeah.”
