Check Yes Juliet

I keep my head down, my footsteps fast and quiet as I pull up my hood and stick my hands in my pockets, trying to sink into the shadows and not get noticed as I make my way to the T, waiting for some creep in a white van to tap me on the shoulder and ask me, "Hey, kid, you want some candy?"

Honestly, that's the only thing that could creep me out any more than wandering around alone at night, armed with nothing but a laptop and a copy of the first five novels of John Carter of Mars (which, in a pinch, can actually be used as a weapon. I mean, have you seen the size of the collective volumes?)

"Hey," Someone grabs me by the arm, "Juliet, right?"

I suck in a deep breath, my body tensing and relaxing when I realize who it is. "Anders," I say, pronouncing his name 'On-ders' with a "hard-on" (as he says, anyway. Usually with a suggestive eyebrow twitch because he's got the maturity of a sixth grader and thinks cheap innuendos are comedy gold, apparently).

"I... Yeah. How'd you know?"

I roll my eyes a little, shivering from the cold. "You're in my chemistry class and you're loud as hell. How could I not notice you?" I'm not usually rude, but it's late and cold and I really want to be home. Plus, I really only know his name- we aren't friends or anything, so as weird as it is to run into him on the street in the middle of the night, it's a bajillion times weirder that he'd know my name and it's, like, comparatively impossible that he would actually stop me and talk to me.

He frowns, "I'm not that loud."

I snort at the way the expression looks on his handsome face, smiling a little. "You really are."

"Am not!"

He's walking next to me now, and if it wasn't so late and I wasn't so tired, I'd probably think that him randomly saying hello to me on the streets of Dorchester and following me home would warrant something more than mild surprise, but as it is, I'm kind of grateful for the company.