My Knight in Black Converse

The First Night

The chilly October air nipped at Jenna’s exposed skin as she sat outside the boys’ locker room. It was getting late and for the seventh time, she glanced down at her watch. It was 8:24 p.m. and Nick was three hours late. On a normal day, Nick would go to football practice after school and Jenna would sit in the library to do homework and read while her brother did whatever it was that football players did at practice. At 5:30, when practice let out, Jenna would make her way to the boys’ locker room and wait at the door for her brother to change clothes and walk her home.

Today, Nick had not come out of the locker room in changed clothes. Today, Nick had not walked her home. Jenna knew her mother’s rule very clearly, “Stay at the school until Nick can walk you home.” Jenna had walked the five block distance by herself once and both siblings had gotten in trouble for the act. So, Jenna was where she was supposed to be, sitting outside the boys’ locker room waiting for her brother.She wasn’t a stupid girl, though; She knew he had left without her. Where he had gone, through, she didn’t know and she did not have a craving to be scolded by her mother.

Jenna tucked her knees closer to her chest and hugged her shins tighter, trying to keep in the warmth as she shivered from the cold wind. Jenna closed her eyes, tired and cold, and listened to the New York buzz. She didn’t hear the feet that approached her until they were slapping against the sidewalk a few feet from where she sat.

Jenna opened her eyes and turned her head, hoping to see her brother walking toward her to take her home. Instead Jenna saw another boy, equally as tall as Nick and probably just as old. He wore jeans and a dark shirt under his jacket and he wore black converse. He stopped on the sidewalk and looked at her with a blank expression. She looked back equally blank but slightly curious.

“What are you doing?” He asked from his place on the sidewalk.

“Waiting,” Jenna replied and at stared on at him. He was standing in the shadows, intentionally, she thought, because he had placed himself between two street lights as if the shadows were more comforting than the light. Opposite her, she thought as she curled tighter to keep warm in her small bubble of light outside the locker room.

The boy turned to face her, still standing in his shadow. “Waiting for what?”

“I’m waiting for my brother. He’s supposed to walk me home.” Jenna knew that she probably shouldn’t share such information with a boy who could easily overpower her, but for some reason she was being openly honest with him.

“When’s he supposed to get you?”

“He was supposed to take me home three hours ago.” Jenna rested her cheek on her tucked knees and looked at him, gaging his response.

“Three hours? And you're still sitting here?” He sounded concerned now, as if it were somehow up to him to make sure she got home safe. His brows furrowed on his forehead and his hands seemed to turn to fists in his jean pockets.

Jenna continued to watch the boy in the shadows. “Mom says that I’m not supposed to walk home by myself. Girls my age get hurt in the dark.” The boy just stared at her for a long moment. “My name’s Jenna,” she said in the silence.

“Carter,” He introduced and lifted his hands from his pockets to run them through his hair. “Can I walk you home?” he asked after a sigh.

Jenna thought about this for a moment. This boy was a couple years older than her if he was Nick’s age and he was a stranger to her, but it was dark and cold and she knew her mother would be furious if she wasn’t home soon - she was probably worried that Jenna wasn’t home by now anyway. Jenna nodded and stood from the ground, brushing off her rump and gathering up her books along the way, and walked over to the boy - Carter.

He was taller up close, but she was right when she assumed that he was about as tall as Nick. He looked down at her and then around as if to make sure nobody was watching. Carter shoved his hand back in his pockets and instructed her to lead the way. She did.

Jenna started walking back the way the boy had come and he stayed at her side, silent and watching the world go by. Jenna looked up at him, studying his face every time they had to pause at a crosswalk. Carter was actually kind of pale, not sickly, but he didn’t spend much time in the sun. He had dark eyes that watched everything except her and he had dark hair that flopped on his forehead so that he had to flick it away often.

When Jenna was a block away from home, she broke the silence between them. “Why are you walking me home?”

Carter looked down at her, and in that moment she would have accepted any answer he gave. “It’s like your mom says, girls like you get hurt in the dark when they’re alone.” And then he was silent again.

“You can come in if you want, for dinner or a drink or something.” Jenna offered as she stood outside her apartment building. She felt she owed this stranger something for his act of kindness. She was loyal to the rules her mother set and she didn’t wish to get her brother in trouble; she would have sat in the cold all night if Carter hadn’t come to walk her home.

Carter studied her face and then looked up at the building. “Not this time, Jenna,” and then he turned to walk away. Jenna called out a thank-you and he gave an offhanded wave. She watched him walk away, very aware that she quite enjoyed how he said her name. She wanted to see him again though, and for some reason she felt she wouldn’t.

“Carter!” she called out and ran quickly after him. He had turned toward her and braced himself for impact when she warn into him. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug, “Thank you for walking me home.” She looked up at his shocked face, and then to his hand in hers. She kissed his palm and he jerked it back.

“What was that for?”

Jenna stepped back from him and more toward her home. “My mom does that to me when she leaves, incase she doesn’t come home from work because she’s a cop. So I’ll remember she loves me.” Jenna wondered absently if his mother did the same. Probably not, she decided after she thought of his reaction.

Carter looked at his hand and then down at Jenna. She looked up at him with innocence. He sighed and took her hand in his. His hands were warm and rough, like Nick and her father’s. He bent slightly to kiss the palm of her hand. “It was nice knowing you, kid,” Carter said and stepped back, in case she came at him again. “But I probably won’t see you again.”

Jenna knew that was likely the case, and so she waved as he walked away and only went back toward her apartment when he had crossed the road and started his journey back they way he’d come. When she was inside her apartment, her mother was frantic and she wrapped Jenna up in a huge hug. Jenna kept one hand in a tight fist as her mother kissed the palm of the other. Carter’s kiss was still warm in her hand and she never wanted to lose that warmth.