Night Prowler Part One

by Samantha Steele

As I was mumbling to myself, my phone started ringing.

  “Yeah?” I grumbled.

  “Hi Austin,” I heard Macy’s voice. She wasn’t her usual cheery self, but then again it was odd for her to be calling me at all. She sounded quiet and almost a little nervous.

  “Uh, hi, Mace,” I said.

  “Could you meet me at the coffee shop in the mall? Like, now?”

  “Uh, sure, I’ll see you there,” I said, hanging up. I pondered what the hell she wanted as I donned a jacket and slipped into my shoes.

  “Hi, Austin,” Macy said as she looked up at me. She stirring a bowl-like mug of cappuccino and looking uncomfortable. I gawked at her nose, which was red and swollen and oozing.

  “What’s wrong with your nose?” I asked, intensely curious. Macy cringed and tried to cover it with her fingers.

  “I… I tried to pierce it,” she said quietly. “I don’t think it worked very well. But I can’t take the ring out. It’s too swollen.” I fought the urge to laugh.

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  “So, uh, it’s nice to see you, but I have to ask why you wanted to meet me,” I said, taking a seat and trying not to stare at her nose.

  “Well, as you know, Mitch and Sam are officially together, so he’s taking her to prom,” Macy said. She sighed and acted as if that’s all she wanted to tell me.

  “You made me come all the way down the mountain to tell me my best friend has a girlfriend? Whom I’ve already met, and already know?” Macy shook her head.

  “Evan asked that Annika girl to prom. And she said yes.

  And then Bryce asked Cami to prom. And she said yes, too.”

  “You mind telling me something I don’t know?” I was getting bored, but I was proud of that. Two months ago, I would have been nodding and listening enthusiastically to everything she said. Macy looked me in the eyes.

  “So I don’t have a date to prom,” she said flatly. I knew exactly what she wanted, but I refused to give her the satisfaction of admitting it.

  “And you wanted me to do what with this information?”

  “Austin, please,” Macy said, throwing down her spoon.

  Coffee splashed onto her shirt, but she didn’t notice. “This is hard enough as it is! I’m a beautiful blonde teenage upperclassmen girl who didn’t get asked to prom, so I’m resulting to asking you. I can’t go alone, and I HAVE to go. You don’t have to buy me dinner or anything, just my ticket. You’re getting a deal here.”

  I stared at Macy, shocked. Not shocked because she asked me - I was expecting that. I was shocked that she told me I was a less than satisfactory date. She even had the balls to ask me to buy her ticket! What a bitch!

  “No,” I said, blankly staring into her eyes.

  “What?” she choked.

  “No.”

  “You’re refusing to go to prom with me?” she cried. I nodded. “But you love me! You can’t reject me! I’m the most attractive girl you’ll ever have!”

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  “You know, Macy, I just really have to disagree. To be honest, Sam’s friend Taylor is actually pretty hot.” I laughed.

  “Hell, Sam’s hot!” I stood up and pointed a finger at Macy. “You know what you are? You’re finished. Two years ago, you were South’s queen bee. Everyone wanted you, and you let it go to your head. But the truth is, everyone’s tired of your ego. I’m ashamed I was ever interested in you, you snot-nosed bitch.”

  Macy stared at me with a shocked and infuriated expression. I tried not to smile, but I felt pride and confidence swelling in my chest.

  “You’re wrong,” she whispered.

  “No, I’m not. Face it, Macy. You’ve just been upstaged.”

  Macy sniffled and looked away. Suddenly I felt bad, despite the intense pride roaring through my veins.

  “Well, I also came to ask you something else,” she said quietly. “You’re good at biology, right? Will you look at my bellybutton?”

  I rolled my eyes and walked away.

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  Samantha Steele

  “Oh my God, Sam, that is so you,” Cami said, eyeing the black dress I was holding. “Not only would you look ferocious in it, but it’ll drive Mitch completely insane.”

  “Completely nuts is more like it,” Annika muttered.

  “You guys are the best,” I laughed. Then I added, “and the worst!”

  “Try it on, you teeny upperclassmen-dating whore!”

  Cami laughed, shoving me into a the dressing room.

  “Annika’s dating an upperclassmen, too!” I said through the wall. Cami and Annika were in the dressing rooms on either side of me, trying on dresses themselves.

  “Evan and I are dating?” Annika asked tentatively. “He never said anything was official.”

  “You guys make out in the hallway, Anni,” Cami called.

  “And he bought your prom tickets, and he already called you three times today to ask if you’d picked out a dress yet. He is so totally your boyfriend.”

  I could almost feel Annika blushing.

  “I’m scared,” she said in a small voice. “He has a reputation, you know.”

  “Yeah,” Cami said, “and Mitch hates him.”

  “Mitch doesn’t hate him anymore,” I interrupted, struggling with the zipper on my dress. “He said Evan isn’t actually that bad. And Zac and Austin like him. Mitch said Macy made a lot of that stuff up, and Evan didn’t think it was worth the fight to argue it.” I giggled, remembering a tiny Evan fact.

  “Why are you laughing?” Annika demanded.

  “Wanna know a secret?” I asked.

  “Yes!” Cami called. Annika laughed and crawled under the dressing room wall to stand next to me.

  “Evan’s a virgin!” I whispered.

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  “No fair!” Cami called, squeezing under the dressing room wall, too. She stood up and smoothed her dress. “Say it again.”

  “Evan’s a virgin!”

  “No way! Evan Cage is so not a virgin. He’s slept with all the girls in the junior class. And at least three-quarters of the senior class,” Cami stated matter-of-factly.

  “No,” I said slowly. “According to Mitch, Macy started throwing wild stories and Evan didn’t deny them, so other girls started doing it, too, and eventually he got this really bad reputation without actually trying.” I turned back to the mirror and continued to struggle with my zipper. “I guess Evan is actually a pretty sweet guy.”

  “Huh, I never would’ve guessed,” Cami said, finally assisting me in zipping my dress.

  “I’ve seen him at shows, but I guess I never really thought about it. He always looked so out of place there, I assumed he was just some really nice scene kid or something. He doesn’t look metal at all.”

  “Unlike me,” I laughed, posing with my arms in the air.

  “Dude, that’s not metal, but you look hot,” Cami said.

  “Mitch is gonna die a very slow and happy death,”

  Annika said.

  We had to hit three more stores before all of us had prom outfits, complete with shoes, dresses, jewelry, bras, and matching panties. Cami and I were fairly quick to buy, but Annika, of course, took a lot of coaxing. She wanted to wear a suit, but I managed to find a very “metal” dress that she felt dangerous and sexy wearing. I was proud of such a find.

  “So what do you guys want to do now?” I asked. “My mom said she’d pick us up in about an hour.”

  “I’m hungry,” Annika stated. “And tired. Can we go somewhere to sit?”

  “Aw, all this shopping wear you out?” I laughed.

  “I don’t know how you do it,” Annika said. “But you’re damn good at it.”

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  “Well, you know my mom. I was raised by the best.”

  Out of habit, I led us to the Nordstrom Café. We each ordered our favorite sandwiches, Annika of course taking her
s apart and only eating the roasted turkey and raw lettuce. She’s an odd child.

  “Oh my God,” Annika moaned, sliding down in her seat, nibbling a piece of lettuce like a rabbit. “Macy’s over there.”

  I looked to my left, and sure enough, Macy Hawskins was daintily eating a salad. When she looked up and saw us, I saw a tear slide down her cheek and she suddenly became very interested in her salad.

  “Oh God, look at her nose!” I whispered. “Looks like she tried to pierce it herself. It’s really infected.”

  “That girl is so dumb,” Annika sighed, shaking her head.

  Then she laughed. “I guess she was trying to be like you, Sam!”

  “Actually that makes sense,” I laughed. “She’s obsessed with my boyfriend.”

  “Well, at least we know she eats on occasion,” Cami said.

  “Yeah, she eats about as many calories in a week as Annika does in a day,” I replied, taking a bite of my sandwich.

  “Hey!” Annika snapped.

  “What? You only eat raw lettuce, fruit, turkey, and on occasion a French fry or two,” I said, waving my hand at her. “I wish I could stand eating like you.”

  “But I look better than Macy, right?” Annika said shyly.

  Cami and I laughed.

  “Evan left her for you, didn’t he?” Cami said. “Of course you look better than she does. And you don’t have to specially order your tiny size.”

  “Yeah, you’re just naturally skinny and pretty, even without make-up,” I said. “Imagine Macy without all that crap on her face.” Annika shivered. We all laughed.

  “I’m not sure I should let you wear that,” my mom said when I showed her my dress. “I don’t think I can trust Mitch with you in that, and I know I can’t trust you around him at all.”

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  “God, did you hear that?” I complained to my friends.

  “She trusts Mitch more than she trusts me!”

  “Well, in all fairness, Mitch is pretty damn irresistible,”

  Cami said. “And clearly he has self control or he’d be an even bigger man-slut than Evan.”

  “I thought we agreed Evan is not a man-slut!” Annika cried.

  “He has the reputation of one,” I chided.

  “Please,” my mom interrupted, “I don’t want to hear about my daughter and her two best friends going to prom with a bunch of older guys known for being players.”

  “Geez, Mom, where’d you learn that word?” I laughed.

  “Hey, I’m a hip mom,” my mom smiled, putting a hand on her hip and snapping her fingers.

  “Mom, just because you read my Seventeen magazines when I’m not looking doesn’t mean you know what they’re talking about!”

  “Yes it does. I’m totally in the know about you girls.”

  “Whatever makes you happy, Mrs. Steele,” Annika teased.

  When we got back to my house, the three of us went into my room and tried on our entire prom outfits. Well, Cami and I tried on our prom outfits, and then we wrestled Annika back into her dress. Just as we zipped her up in it, Mitch called me.

  “Hey, what’s up?” he asked.

  “Nothing much,” I said, grabbing Annika’s wrist as she tried to unzip her dress and get back into her jeans. “Cami and Annika and I just got back from the mall.”

  “Oh, really? Did you buy your prom dresses?”

  “Yes.”

  “What does yours look like?”

  “You’ll see,” I giggled, looking at myself in the mirror.

  “I have to know what it looks like or else I’ll pick the wrong corsage. And if I don’t know what color it is, my tie won’t match,” he pleaded. I giggled again.

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  “All you need to know is that my color scheme is black and white,” I said. “Cami’s is light blue, and Annika’s is black and silver.”

  “Alright, I guess I can live with that. Are you up for going out tonight? Maybe dinner and a movie?”

  “Cami and Annika are staying the night. You should ask Bryce and Evan if they want to go, too,” I said. “I’d like to go out with you tonight.”

  “Okay, I’ll call Evan right now. Later, babe.”

  “See you.” I hung up and went over to my closet, pulling out bunches of clothes. Cami and I began to dig, looking for something to wear tonight. I threw a few things at Annika, but she hated most of them.

  “You’re going to give this boy a heart attack before he hits eighteen,” Cami said, throwing a pillow at me. We had all finally changed and were waiting for Mitch to pick us up.

  “You’re one to talk!” Annika said, poking Cami’s exposed stomach.

  “What? It’s finally warming up! This is Alaska, we have to take the luxury of warmth whenever we get it,” Cami defended.

  “She has a point,” I said. “Besides, this isn’t nearly as sexy as my prom dress, and I want Mitch to be shockingly impressed when he sees that.”

  “Where did you even get these clothes?” Annika asked, staring at herself in the mirror.

  “Las Vegas,” I said matter-of-factly. Annika and Cami both rolled their eyes. I grinned.

  “Of course all your clothes would be from the state where prostitution is legal,” Cami said sarcastically.

  “True. But aren’t you glad I have them?” I replied. Cami laughed and nodded. My phone rang, and I lunged to answer it.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, we should be at your house in about twenty minutes,” Mitch said. “Bryce is driving.”

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  “Great. See you soon,” I said. Hanging up, I turned to Cami and Annika. “They’ll be here in twenty minutes.”

  “Thank God. Do you think Bryce and I are like, dating now?” Cami asked. I shrugged.

  “I guess we’ll see how he acts tonight. I can always ask Mitch about it. Or I guess Anni could ask Evan, he seems to know Bryce better than Mitch does,” I mumbled, slipping on my favorite leather jacket. Annika grabbed her worn plaid coat and we all headed upstairs to wait.

  A black van pulled into the driveway a little while later, and Mitch got out of the passenger’s seat and came to knock on my door.

  “Bye, Mom,” I called. “We’re going out with Mitch and his buddies.”

  “Do you have your cell phone?” my mom asked.

  “And my pepper spray,” I joked, although my mom probably took it seriously considering a pocket pepper spray was one of my Christmas presents last year.

  “You’re mom is so awesome,” Cami sighed as we went out the front door. Mitch took my hand and we all got in Bryce’s van. Mitch and I sat in the very back, Cami sat in the passenger’s seat, and Anni and Evan sat in the middle.

  “She’s just not overbearing,” I said.

  “Who’s not overbearing?” Evan asked.

  “My mom. Both my parents, actually. They’re pretty lenient. I guess that comes from raising two boys before me. They trust me.”

  “My parents won’t let me out of the house unless it’s with you,” Annika said. “They have no idea your parents don’t give a shit about anything. Why is it that parents always love you?” she laughed.

  “I don’t know. I guess it’s cause I get good grades and I seem pretty safe.”

  “Not in your prom dress!” Cami called from the front. “I can’t believe your mom even let you buy it, not to mention she’s letting you wear it!”

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  “She trusts Mitch,” I said, smiling fondly at my boyfriend. “But she’s smart enough not to show it to my dad!”

  “I’m still curious about this little black dress of yours,”

  Mitch whispered, his lips brushing my ear. I felt my face get hot and I kissed him to hide my embarrassment.

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  Mitchell Mantel

  “Hey, Evan, you mind letting Mitch sit in the front? I need directions on how to get to
Sam’s house,” Bryce asked. Evan nodded and got in the back seat of the van, and I took shotgun.

  “Start up Rabbit Creek Road, like you’re going to Goldenview,” I directed. “She lives way up there.”

  “I used to live up there, when I was a kid,” Bryce said. He made a left onto Rabbit Creek Road, and we started the long trek to my girlfriend’s tiny cabin.

  “So… I don’t really know these girls. What exactly is Cami like?” Bryce asked. I laughed.

  “Didn’t you know her enough to ask her to prom?” I asked. Bryce shrugged.

  “I work at Hot Topic. She comes in a lot. She came in one day to buy a band shirt and I just kinda… asked her to prom,”

  Bryce said. I laughed even harder.

  “You work at Hot Topic? I can’t believe they hired you!”

  Bryce is definitely not your Hot Topic type. I never suspected Evan to be a metal music kind of guy, but Bryce is your normal Alaskan teenager: super outdoorsy, loves fishing, hunting, four-wheeling. He looks totally normal, with brown hair and dark blue eyes, and the classic Costco wardrobe that mostly consists of solid-colored tshirts, cheap jeans, and a battered Carhartt jacket.

  “The owner was one of my dad’s clients. You know, on the fishing boat? He got me a job. I guess I’m a lot more reliable than those who usually apply. I think I used my employee discount like twice in the past two years.”

  “You’re not the best judge of people, are you Mitch?”

  Evan joked. I shrugged.

  “I guess not. I should probably trust Zac’s judgment more often.”

  We got to Sam’s house a few minutes later and I got out of the car to get the girls. I knocked and Sam opened the door.

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  Cami was saying something about Sam’s mom, but I was too busy staring at my girlfriend’s outfit to listen. She was wearing dark blue jeans with lace-up sides, her skin showing through. Her top was a deep v-neck grey Van Halen shirt that hugged her in all the right places. I gleefully took her hand and didn’t even notice that Cami was wearing Sam’s favorite shirt -

  with the bottom cut off.

  And to top off all their outfits, they were each wearing their old, worn out Chucks.

  “Zac has fucking excellent taste,” Evan said. We were waiting in line to buy soda and popcorn for the girls, who were holding our seats in the theater.