“Gross,” Bailey said. “Come on. Let them be, Pete.” She tugged his sleeve. “They'll catch up.”

“What do you know that I don't?” Pete asked Bailey. He looked at me and I shrugged.

I was crossing my fingers behind my back.

“It's raining!” Mickey said. He tilted back and stuck out his tongue.



The rain started slowly. It came in heavy drops that splashed into cracks in the concrete and blew off into steam on the pavement. A drop landed in Tilly's eye and she blinked, wiping her eyeliner with her sleeve.

Pete, Bailey, and Mickey were laughing hard as they disappeared around the bend into the trees south. Mickey ran to catch up, having stooped for every bottle cap on the way. The walk back to South Vienna would take them a good forty minutes. As much as it was the last thing on my mind, I hoped it didn't start to rain too hard. A car honked as it passed below, and Tilly waved. Headlights dotted the horizon all the way down I-70. As far as we could see.

“Hi, Tilly,” I said. “What's new with you?”

She smiled. “Nothing new. Dad's still being an ass. I've been going insane at home.” She stood, taking little pain to brush dust from her hoodie.

I laughed. “That's what guys named Tracie do. You can't expect him to suddenly be all secure about himself with a name like that.”

She rolled her eyes. The hairs on my arms stood on end in the chill. I wanted to wrap myself up in that hoodie.

Tilly pointed down the road, north, toward the water tower.

“Let's climb it,” she said.

“What? The water tower? Doesn't that seem like a bad idea in the rain?”

“Yeah. Maybe.” She looked back at the traffic.

How could I ever say no? I leaned close to her ear.