Midnight Kisses| ✓

Chapter 17

I never thought I would say this. I am a moron. Yup there I said it. A moron who at ten in the night is sitting in the police locker, my face freshly washed and Novahk sits next to me pressing a ice bag to his bruised eye.

A officer talks on the phone, somebody else's parents, because they are already called mine, probably of the two girls handcuffed and blown hair sitting opposite to us. They came in after us with the proverbial kicking and dragging.

God I feel sick. I imagine mom and dad hurtling through the night in the Camry. The weather is so bad, what if the tires skids or worse. I send a silent prayer out to God, I haven't prayed in months, but I hope he listens anyway, whoever it is I am praying to I am not sure. Maybe it's my namesake.

"What do you think is going to happen?" I ask Novahk who for the first time is not smiling. His face is solemn and his eyes are dark as he looks up to me and I remember the searing kiss we shared only a few hours ago and the thought makes me look away, my face beet red.

"I don't know. The officer called your parents and mine," he shrugs. "I guess they'll come and take us home." For some reason he doesn't seem sure of the words he says out loud.

"Do you think it'll be harder for you, seeing as your dad is an officer and all?" I ask. Novahk fidgets in is seat for a second before answering me, his chin tilted up. "Frankly I don't give a shit." He has so much anger in his choice, I don't think it's because of the bitterness of the situation. It's something else, something darker.

I don't say anything for a while and Novahk hums that song again under his breath. "What's that song?"

"Huh?" he asks. He's oblivious to his singing again.

"That song you always keep humming? What's that song." He frowns before answering, "I didn't realize I always keep singing it under my breath. I guess its kind of addicting."

"What's its name?" I prompt.

"When September Ends by Green Day," he says looking up at the cracked ceiling where there's a light bulb as if to look, for answers.

"Do you ever feel like getting away from here, from Northfield, from everybody new and just start afresh."

"I do. But I guess that's what all teenagers feel." Novahk shakes his head.

"If I had a choice, I would," he finally says.

"But you will go to college, after a year." Novahk looks at me and I wish he wouldn't. His eyes are so bright, I think he might kiss me again but its not his lips that does but his eyes, teeming with so much unsaid emotions and turmoil that I remember seeing on my own face every morning.

Girls are more emotional than boys, Emily used to say. Boys are cold dolls. Especially after a she had gone through a bad breakup and needed a tub of ice cream and me. Maybe I don't know anything about dating but I do about what comes next.

But if Emily were here, she would see Novahk and how he kept all the emotions on his sleeves but covered it perfectly. He was even more fragile than me.

"That door has closed." he says chewing on the sentence, like it leaves a bad taste in its mouth.

"Does that mean you're not going to college?" I ask. But before I can get an answer out of him, the locker door swings open and an officer jingling set of keys dangling in front of us says, "McAllister and Covalho." The two drunk girls make a run for it but even before they're halfway out of the seat, the officer turns to them and says. "Uh huh not you. I am talking about them." He jerks a finger at us and we follow him out of the locker, all the while getting dirty looks from the duo whose mascara is running down their faces.