While Angie worried about centerpieces, Daniel decided to do some planning of his own for the awards ceremony. Namely, getting beer for the afterparty. He joked around with Charlie and Elsa while Bwana and Spence stayed very quiet in the corner.
As Spence carried a case of Natural Light back to his car, he whispered, “What the hell happened to his ears?”
“Some prison thing. C’mon, let’s go play ball.”
They loaded the beer in the trunk and headed to the park. Bwana asked, “Who’s Misty he asked about?”
Daniel had hoped they’d been too startled by Charlie’s appearance to catch that. “She’s Charlie’s cousin. She introduced me to him. I know her from church.”
“Bullshit,” Spence laughed. “It’s Misty Sandlin. Don’t lie. Somebody said you were asking around for where she worked.”
“Are you for real?” Bwana started laughing too. “Danny Boy. Don’t tell me you’re that hard up since you left the team. I used to go to your house, there’d be girls camped out on the lawn. I used to follow you around like a seagull hoping for your scraps.”
If they hadn’t been cousins, Daniel might have gone and banged Keith’s skull against the ground until the memory of printing out Misty’s information plopped out. Daniel looked at his friends. There was only one answer they’d believe. “Well? She’s got a nice pair of tits if you actually look at her.”
“Need to be careful. Crazy one like that will bite a chunk off.”
Daniel shook his head. “Just flip them facedown. They’re like catfish; be careful how you handle them, they’re harmless.”
Daniel’s friends didn’t love him because he was a bastard. They loved him because he was so good at it. They crowed and tried to top one another’s jokes. Inside, Daniel stewed over Keith. He never would have trusted the loudmouthed idiot except he’d needed him. He didn’t trust Bwana or Spence much more.
“Just keep quiet, all right? I sure as shit don’t need Angie finding out.”
“We aren’t going to say anything,” Bwana said.
“Not even to Geneva. I’m serious, okay?”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it, man.”
At the park, they played one-on-one, but Daniel was out of practice. He kept missing easy shots and lost to Spence, then Bwana, in forty-five minutes. At least it gave them something to laugh about besides Misty.
After two more embarrassing rounds, it was past dark. Daniel said good-bye and headed to Florence Deli. He hadn’t been to his night classes in almost a month. It was still early in the semester, though. Daniel figured he could catch up later.
Misty was wiping off tables in the dining area when Daniel walked in. Seeing her, he gave her his perfect lopsided smile.
Eric showed up a few minutes later. After Misty and Val clocked out, they went to hang out on the sidewalk, breathing warm air into cupped hands. Soon, Val and Eric decided to go.
“We’re hitting the town tomorrow, right?” Eric asked.
Misty nodded. “I’ll tell Marc.”
Leaning close, Val said, “Just use him, then make him do the laundry.”
Misty elbowed her but grinned, anyway.
“Bye, wolf girl,” Val whispered, making Misty feel a little more confident.
Watching them pull out of the parking lot, Daniel asked. “So what do you guys have going on tomorrow?”
“Whatever.” Misty shrugged. “Just run around.”
“Spray-paint a few more taxis?”
She stiffened. “How’d you know about that?”
“I notice things.”
Misty realized Daniel thought about her when she wasn’t around. Maybe as much as she thought about him. Watching him from the corner of her eye, Misty knew she couldn’t stand being inches away from him, but still miles away, much longer. She had to risk telling him what she was. When she opened her mouth, though, she couldn’t force the words out. “So I read about this basilica in Florence,” she said instead.
“Yeah? Thinking about going there?”
“Why not.”
They sat on the cold sidewalk. Daniel was in a glum mood. After some cajoling, he admitted, “I went to the park with Bwana and Spence today, and the awards ceremony is Saturday, and I don’t know, I just wish I could have played ball this year.”
“It sucks your parents wouldn’t let you.”
Daniel shrugged. “It wasn’t like I’d ever get a scholarship or anything.”
“But that’s still what you were good at. That’s what made everybody cheer for you.”
“Yeah.” He scraped at a patch of ice with the heel of his sneaker. “That’ s not what I miss, though. I miss pushing myself like that. Just running as hard as I could, whipping through all these other guys running as hard as they could. It’s like …” He searched for the right words. Misty found them for him.
“It’s like you can’t let yourself think,” she said. “You have to just let instinct take over. If you think, you’ll stumble.”
“Yeah. You ever play sports?”
“No, but I know what you’re talking about.” In her mind’s eye, Misty was prowling the city, muscles and tendons singing like violin strings. “Going crazy from sitting still all the time. Wanting to just run until you’re exhausted.”
“Exactly. That’s what I miss, when you can’t even hear anyone cheering because the blood’s pounding in your ears so bad.”
Misty had gone to a few games. She’d listened to people chanting Daniel’s name and watched him stride through the school in his letterman jacket. She’d never thought about what he got out of basketball except what she heard and saw herself. Misty studied Daniel’s profile in the artificial noon of streetlights and storefronts, imagining him as a wolf.
She kissed him this time. She tasted his mouth and neck, and let her hands explore his chest. Daniel held her warm against the icy wind.
Then Misty’s phone rang. She cussed, already knowing it was her mom. She lied, saying she was just coming back from Val’s house. After hanging up, Daniel asked, “You in trouble?”
“No. But I better go.” Misty stood up, and Daniel did too. Out of habit learned with Angie and other real girlfriends, he leaned forward to kiss her good night, then halted, not sure what to do.
Misty didn’t know what to do either. Her face felt flushed and hot. Her mom had slammed the brakes on their make-out session but couldn’t slow its momentum. She’d only sent Misty fishtailing.
“Hey, you want to come out with us tomorrow?”
Daniel made a soft murmuring sound. “Can’t. I got some things to do.”
“With Angie?”
“Yeah.” The word came out as an apology.
“What do you have to do with Angie?”
“The ceremony’s Saturday, and we still need to pick up some of the decorations and put together the gift bags. Plus some of the paperwork—”
“That sounds really boring.”
“It’ll be excruciating.”
“Get out of it, then. We’ll go run around instead. Let instinct take over.” She grinned, knowing he wanted to. “Get the blood pounding in our ears.”
Daniel hesitated for a few seconds, then nodded. “I can probably talk my way out of it.”
“Cool. See you tomorrow, then.”
“See you.”
Walking to her car, it sank in that she’d just invited Daniel into the pack. She hadn’t even asked the others first.
CHAPTER 6
Meeting up at school the next morning, Misty told the rest of the pack. They just stared at her until she started to squirm, until she wished one of them would at least blink.
“No,” Eric said once he realized she wasn’t joking. “There’s no way that over-the-mountain dick is tagging along with us.”
“He’s not from over the mountain. He lives below Vulcan Park.”
Birmingham sprawled through a valley. On the other side of Red Mountain, curtained from the city’s smog, teacup mansions dotted curlicue streets. It wa
s a fifteen-minute drive over the mountain into Southside. From Southside, the emerald green suburbs marked the borders of the known world.
Eric glared across the teeming lobby at Daniel, watching him laugh at something one of his daylight friends said. “He wishes he was from over the mountain. That’s even more pathetic.”
“Daniel’s not like that,” Marc said. “Some of them are like that, but Daniel’s cool.”
Marc was defending Daniel because they liked the same basketball team. Misty needed all the support she could get, though, so she kept quiet.
“I don’t care how cool he is,” Eric hissed. “We can never trust him. No matter how friendly he acts or how much he jokes around with you guys, he’s a hand-licker. When trouble starts, he’ll betray you.”
“Betray us? To who?” Misty demanded. “The Spanish Inquisition? Even if Daniel did tell anybody, they’d never believe him. And he’s not going to tell. Just because he’s a jock doesn’t mean he’s a hand-licker.” Misty recounted what Daniel had said the night before about missing basketball. He had the same maddening restlessness that had driven them blindly toward the furnace, toward release through Amanita muscaria.
Eric wouldn’t budge. He refused to go to the furnace if Misty brought Daniel with her. Marc, though, was more excited about tonight than before. Val didn’t say much until after the bell rang. Leaving Eric and Marc, she walked with Misty to her homeroom.
“You should have asked us before you invited him. Before you invited anybody.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. But you were right; there’s no way to just tell him without him thinking I’m crazy.”
“So you’ll just scare the hell out of him, instead?” Val asked.
“It scared us too, at first, but we ended up loving it. Daniel will too.”
“And what if he doesn’t?”
“I already told you, even if he did try to tell—”
“I’m not worried about Daniel. I’m worried about you. What happens if he decides you’re evil and never wants anything to do with you again.”
“When I first told you me and Daniel kissed, you said I was too good to be his gutterfuck, right? If Daniel really has a wolf inside him, then he’s not going to keep wasting his time with Angie. If he doesn’t, then it was never meant to be or whatever, but at least I can quit wasting my time with him.”
Val sighed. “Bring him then. I’ll talk to Eric.”
Misty hugged her. “Thank you. I love you.”
“You really need to quit listening to me. I’m just making it up as I go along half the time.”
Government class seemed to languish for hours. While Mrs. MacKaye droned on, Misty kept glancing at Daniel across the room. She silently recited, He wants to be a wolf. He just doesnt know it yet.
Lost in thought, she didn’t notice Mrs. MacKaye had stopped talking until the teacher snapped her fingers in front of Misty’s face. Startled, she whipped around to meet Mrs. MacKaye’s sickly sweet smile.
“How about you stop ogling Mr. Morning and concentrate on passing my class?”
Stifled laughter rose around Misty. Mrs. MacKaye kept her hand, tobacco beneath the scent of lotion, hovering an inch below Misty’s nose. Misty wanted to grab it and twist. But she straightened in her seat instead, pretending to be entirely human.
After the bell finally rang, Daniel talked to Bwana as they stuffed binders into their book bags. Misty waited for Bwana to leave before walking up to Daniel.
“Hey. So you still want—?”
“Yeah. Do you want me to call you later or—?”
“Actually, Marc needs the car today. Think you could give me a ride home after school?”
Daniel almost managed to mask his nervous expression. She wasn’t supposed to make demands on his time. “Just this once,” Misty added.
“Sure. No problem.”
“Cool. I’ll see you at three.”
“Cool.”
Entering the cafeteria, they separated without a parting glance. Daniel slipped up behind Angie and wrapped his arms around her. Misty found her pack in the lunch line. Val had smoothed things over with Eric, but he was still sullen about the whole thing. Ignoring him, Misty told Marc to take the car and go somewhere, anywhere, just as long as she had the apartment to herself for a few hours.
The sensation of his skin shifting around him would scare Daniel at first. But Misty could get him through it, she could give him a reason to stay, and soon he’d see how beautiful he could become in the dark. Then, maybe, Misty could become beautiful in the daylight.
Daniel had already told his parents he’d be chauffeuring Angie around all day, so they wouldn’t expect him home until late. At lunch, he told Angie he needed to finish a paper for one of his college courses. She was pissed, but Daniel promised to get to the hotel early tomorrow and help set up for the awards ceremony.
After school, he slipped through a backdoor, avoiding Angie and his friends, crossing the parking lot with quick, short-breathed strides. A few people shouted his name. Daniel shouted back but didn’t slow down.
Misty milled near his car and smiled when she saw him. Daniel didn’t smile back. He relaxed once they were heading down Thirteenth Avenue, away from Angie, the awards ceremony, and the shooting star. He felt himself become that other Daniel, waiting for sunset to hit the city with Misty and her lovable crew of graffiti-bombers.
“So what are we doing tonight, anyway?” Daniel asked.
Misty shrugged. “We’ll find something. I just need to change first.”
He drove to Center Gardens Apartments. Misty pointed to an empty parking space beside her door. “You can park here. Mom’s still at work.”
“Okay.”
Across the complex, Charlie Say What sat on his stoop, drinking beer with a couple friends. Misty and Daniel waved. Then, unlocking her door, Misty led him inside.
Daniel had never been in Misty’s apartment before. Ceramic knickknacks filled the living room. Everything was so proudly clean, Daniel could have built microchips at the coffee table. A white cat brushed against his leg, and Daniel bent down to scratch it.
“That’s Lily,” Misty said.
“Hey, Lily.”
Misty crouched to pet her too, their fingers brushing each other’s in Lily’s short fur. After a few seconds of quiet, Misty stood up, playing with her lip ring. “Okay, I need to change. C’mon.”
Daniel hesitated, watching Misty turn down a hall. “C’mon,” she said again.
Daniel followed her into a room wreathed in fruity scents from lotions and makeup. The beige walls were covered with pictures cut from magazines and a pastel drawing of Misty asleep at a desk.
“Val do that?” Daniel motioned to the drawing.
“Yeah. And it only got a B; that’s kind of insulting,” Misty laughed nervously. “You like Pins & Needles?”
“What?”
“The band. They’re okay.” Misty dropped a CD into her stereo. Piano notes filled the room, followed by winding lyrics about a girl on a train.
Singing under her breath, Misty started unbuttoning her shirt. Daniel glimpsed her storm gray bra, then turned to examine a column of snapshots between the door frame and light switch, the last things Misty glimpsed before heading into the world.
Most were of Misty and her friends. They stood in Wal-Mart sometime near Halloween in one, posing with the masks and plastic pitchforks. Val stuck her tongue out in another. One was of a black man and white woman Daniel guessed were Misty’s parents, her and Marc infants in their arms. And one picture made him chuckle.
“Oh, my God. When was this?” Kids in Renaissance costumes lined up along a stage, a forest of tempera-paint trees and plastic ivy behind them. Misty stood in the center, wearing a pair of blue fairy wings.
“No, don’t look at that. My whole face broke out from that stage makeup.”
Daniel heard the rustle of fabric falling to the floor. “Seriously, when was this?” he asked.
Daniel stared at the fourteen-year-old Misty smiling out from the photo. She didn’t smirk or sneer; she beamed without any caution at all. Her eyes glittered. “You remember any of your lines?”
“Daniel.” Misty sat on the edge of the bed wearing nothing except her jeans. When he turned, she started to cover herself, then stopped and held her hands in her lap.
For years, he’d barely noticed Misty. When he did, all he saw was a scrawny, pallid thing. Now, Daniel couldn’t imagine being blind enough not to see how rare she was. Misty’s skin was the color of autumn. Even naked, with peering eyes and lips pressed into a thin, nervous line, she tipped her chin up, the mildest hint of challenge.
They started kissing. One of Daniel’s hands tangled into Misty’s hair. The other touched her shoulder blade and the knobs of her spine. Her armor of scowls and tanker boots stripped away, Misty’s body shook a little. She trusted him, though. Misty didn’t trust many people, and Daniel knew what a gift this was.
When she started unbuttoning his fly, Daniel pulled back. “Wait. Wait a second.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got—”
“No, not that. It’s just …” Daniel traced her collarbone with his fingertips. Its shape reminded him of the curving lines of spray-painted wolf heads, of Puck’s butterfly wings. He forced himself to remember he was leaving the city for Cornell’s Milestone towers in a few months, then on to even greater heights.
Misty had enough problems without falling for him.
“Daniel?”
He pulled his hand back. “I used to have this pet hermit crab.”
Misty’s eyebrows pinched together. “Oh … kay …”
“From Panama City. We used to go on vacations there a lot, and they sell hermit crabs in the souvenir shops, and one summer I saved all my money and bought one. I named him Herman. I was eight; I thought that was really clever.”
Sliding her arms across her breasts, Misty’s expression grew more mystified. Daniel talked as fast as he could.
“Anyway, I bought him, and had him for a couple weeks. Then one day I was cleaning his aquarium, and dropped him on the bathroom floor. Accidently. And he curled up inside his shell, but I figured he had that hard shell, so he was fine, just startled, right? But inside, he was really delicate, and me dropping him killed him. Even though he had that shell.”
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