Tate Berndon didn't know he was still up at this time watching TV, but he blamed it on nerves. He heard what sounded like a ghost of a knock on his door and got up to open it, before rethinking the safety of that decision and peaking through his sheer front curtains at the late night visitor. A girl he knew stood on his front porch. He pulled on a shirt from his hall closet that was meant for coats and opened the door.
"What are you doing here, Kat? It's really late."
"Will you come out with me for awhile?"
He stared, blinking fast without meaning to, wondering if he were really awake.
"What?"
"We graduate tomorrow." Kat laid her arms across her chest, folded tight. It didn't answer his question, but for a moment it seemed to make enough sense he closed the door behind him, closing the sounds of the quiet infomercials in.
The night was quiet.
"Where do you want to go?" he asked, hand lingering on the doorknob. She reached forward and pulled him by his shirt sleeve so he'd let it go.
"I just want to go for walk around town." she shrugged. He did back.
"Won't your parents notice?" Tate asked, then shook his head. "It's three in the morning, Kat. I can't just wonder around town. There's a curfew. My dad would kill me if he woke up and-" he cut himself off motioning widely with his arms to try to make her see his point.
"We graduate tomorrow." she repeated, and this time it sounded so helpless it drew him a step forward. He was at least ten inches taller than her.
"Yeah." he replied, sighing. He followed when she walked off his porch. The sky was clear. She took his hand with one of hers and pulled out a cigarette with the other.
"I didn't think you smoked."
"I don't." she whispered, setting it between her teeth and fishing a lighter out of her pocket.
"But you are." he stated, brows tight together to show his confusion. Her hair was dyed white and laid loose around her head and when she looked up at him a piece of it fell in her face and he swore he'd never love anyone else. He shook the thought away.
"I didn't think you wondered around town at three in the morning." She smiled and his hand tightened around hers like he was scared she'd disappear if he didn't.
"I don't." he whispered. She lit the cigarette and pulled it from her mouth without taking a breath, dangling it between her fingers.
"But you are." she stated. He tilted his head back to look at the stars.
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Tate's parents knew Kat Longley's the entirety of their lives since freshman year of high school, so when both couples found themselves expecting within months of each other, the play dates were arranged before the two were even yet born.
Things changed when Tate's parents divorced when he was in third grade. His mother blamed his dad and his dad blamed his mom's alcoholism and he blamed himself until he was old enough to learn not to. A town and school over, Kat became an occasional visitor in his life where she used to be a constant.
When they were finally reunited when he and his father moved back into town for high school they'd seemed more strangers than childhood best friends. They spoke rarely until a few weeks before the eve of their graduation.
"Tate," Kat called, one day in the hallway. Her hair was blue, then.
He paused, halting conversation with his friends and excused himself with a smile before turning to go to her side. Josh Jacksin, a boy he'd met and created an instant bond with over an incident involving getting locked in the boy's room of a Taco Bell twenty four hours he'd considered his best friend with pride for the last four years, watched after him with concern. Kat was friendly, anyone who knew of her knew that, but she spent so much time with people who weren't nobody could believe the validity of her niceness. It always seemed weird how many people knew of her rather than just knew her.
