Night Prowler Part One

by Samantha Steele

  “I left my wallet at the hospital, is there any way I can get my medication now? I really need it, as you can see,” I said, gesturing to my nose.

  The pharmacist looked at me like I was a crazy, homeless drug addict and shook his head.

  “No ID, no drugs, Missy,” he said.

  “My name is MACY,” I snapped. “Mom, I need you to bring my ID to me.”

  “I can’t get off work for another three hours, Mace. But Lindsay is off in ten minutes, so she could be there in less than an hour. Could you get something to eat?” my mom asked.

  “I suppose,” I sighed. “Tell her to text me when she gets here, and I’ll meet her in the pharmacy. My ID is on its way,” I added to the pharmacist, snapping my phone shut. He just shrugged and went back to doing something on his computer.

  Probably playing solitaire.

  While I waited for Lindsay, I wandered around the candy aisle. I grabbed a few chocolate bars and, while I was trying to decide if I wanted milk chocolate with caramel or with peanuts, my nose began to itch as the numbing stuff wore off. I started to scratch it a little, and it was almost relieving to pick off the scabs.

  I didn’t even realize what I was doing until someone behind me started talking.

  “You know, Macy, you can’t make meth out of chocolate.

  But I hear the midtown Wal-Mart isn’t carding. Maybe you could get some Sudafed from there!”

  I whirled around and dropped my candy bars, fuming, but also embarrassed.

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  Jacob Fastner

  I was wandering through the hallways, taking the long way to fourth period, when a large poster caught my eye.

  PROM COMMITTEE MEMBERS NEEDED!

  ALL GRADES!

  VOLUNTEERS FOR FOOD SERIVICE, VALET, AND

  TICKET SALES!

  SIGN UP AT FRONT OFFICE

  A slow, evil grin spread across my face. It was perfect.

  The options were limitless! I could sign up for food service and poison her drink. I could slip a sleeping pill into it and kill her later. But I had no way of knowing for certain she would drink it.

  And if she passed out, how would I get her alone? Certainly Mitch would drive her home, or to the hospital.

  Or, I could sign up for ticket sales and mess up her ticket.

  They wouldn’t let her in, and I could kidnap her and kill her somewhere else. That sounded much more exciting, but there were more variables. What if Mitch just bought her another ticket at the door, or if he never left her alone afterwards? He seemed pretty attached to her.

  No… my best option was to sign up for valet. As long as I made sure I parked Mitch’s car, I’d know what it looked like and where it was. After my shift, I could steal the key and hide in the backseat. Once they were inside the car, I could knock out Mitch from behind, then one quick thrust to the neck with a knife would put Sam out of her misery.

  “Uh, hi, I’d like to sign up for valet volunteering for prom?” I said to the lady at the front desk. She looked up at me as if I’d interrupted something interesting.

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  “Then you should fill out the form,” she said blandly. I cleared my throat.

  “Uh, where is that?” I asked.

  “With all the other forms,” she said, pointing with a fake nail to the opposite wall. There were at least fifty forms on that wall, all different colors and sizes. I stared at my new opponent for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and beginning the search.

  I finally found the volunteer prom valet form in the very bottom right corner, the last place I looked. It was blue.

  I sat down with a clipboard and starting filling out the form. It was very short, and I was up and handing it in within two minutes of finding it.

  “Did you sign the volunteer sheet?” the woman sighed when I handed her my form.

  “Uh, no, where is that?” I asked. She sighed again, as if it was too much work to point at things. I followed her fake nail again to a clipboard on my right.

  I signed my name on the form and asked the woman if I needed to do anything else. She mumbled “show up.”

  “Hey, mom?” I called when I got home.

  “I’m in the kitchen, Jacob,” she called back.

  “I need a ride to prom next Friday. I signed up to be a valet,” I said, taking a seat at the kitchen counter. My mom handed me a plate of hot oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies and poured me a glass of milk, too.

  “Of course! I might be working, but I’m sure your dad can take you if I can’t.”

  She handed me the glass of milk and watched me eat, a concerned look on her face. Finally, feeling a little too scrutinized, I snapped, “What?” My mom looked startled.

  “I’m sorry, dear. I’m just glad you’re getting out there and doing things. You seemed pretty shook up about the whole Cami break-up,” she said, not looking at me. I studied my cookies, trying not to smile.

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  “She just needs time to realize how insane her friend is.

  That’s why I’m giving her some space to think things over. This isn’t the end of our relationship,” I said, fighting to keep my voice steady.

  “Honey… Maybe you should just let this one go. She can’t be worth it if she causes you this much pain. Don’t put your life on hold for her to come to her senses,” my mom said, a concerned hand on my arm. I looked up at her.

  “Oh don’t worry. I’m done trying. Keeping my options open,” I said with a fairly convincing smile.

  “Well, I’m glad you understand and are taking the high road,” my mom said proudly. “I knew I raised you to be a gentleman.”

  “You have no idea what you raised me to be,” I whispered to myself.

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  Annika Dixon

  “God damn it, Annika! You HAVE to wear make-up to prom!” Sam cried, slamming an eye shadow brush onto her dresser. Her nostrils flared and she winced and tenderly touched her new nose ring, a giant butterfly-shaped diamond.

  “Sam’s right,” Cami said, her mouth agape as she put mascara on. She turned from the mirror to look at me and grinned. “Your dress is technically sluttier than Sam’s, she just has bigger tits than you. If you wear make-up, you’ll totally outshine her.”

  “Thanks, Cami! And you’re one to talk, Miss Pardon My Boobs!” Sam said, feigning offense. I laughed.

  “Okay, fine!” I caved. “But only because Cami said I’m hotter than you.”

  Sam pretended to pout as she swirled a liner brush in black and began work on my eyes. She poked me a few times, most likely on purpose, but she did a pretty good job.

  “There you go,” she said, putting a brush down and looking proud. “You look very metal. This pleases me.”

  I looked in the mirror and realized she was right. I had on heavy silver eye shadow with dark, sparkly edges and thick black eyeliner. She stood behind me and crossed her arms over my shoulder, resting her chin on them.

  “This look is called ‘heavy metal’ and it is a bareMinerals tutorial I’ve been using for two years. You should wear it to shows. It looks good on you,” she said. I had no idea what a bareMinerals tutorial was, but I liked it.

  “I like it,” I finally admitted. Sam grinned.

  “So when are the guys getting here?” Cami asked, screwing the cap back on the mascara tube. Sam glanced at her iHome, which was blasting Is It Day or Night? by The Runaways.

  “In about thirty minutes,” she said. “Mitch is picking us up and taking us to Evan’s house. His mom hired a photographer

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  and the limo will pick us up from there and take us to dinner. Our reservations are at Jens for seven o’clock.”

  “This should be fun,” I said happily. I’d never been on a real date before, aside from the movie thing a few weeks ago, so this was exciting, new, and a little dangerous feeling. But so far, Evan se
emed really great. We had the same taste in music, and he knew just how to make me all fuzzy and jumpy inside.

  “So Cami, tell us about Bryce,” Sam said. “I know Evan a little, but I’ve hardly been around Bryce.”

  “He’s pretty outdoorsy,” Cami said, sitting on the bed next to me. “He likes classic rock, like AC/DC and stuff. That’s good. And, of course, he’s totally smokin’ hot.”

  “Evan’s hotter,” I said smugly, laying down on my back and putting my hands behind my head. Sam snorted.

  “Y’all know Mitch is the most gorgeous guy at South,”

  she said. “He’s the Johnny Depp of the class of 2010.”

  “She has a point,” Cami said with a sigh. “But Bryce is a senior. So he can be the Johnny Depp of the class of 2009.”

  “Evan has that evil dangerousness that completely clashes with Annika’s entire personality,” Sam said with a laugh. “It makes for a very intriguing, beautiful couple.”

  “What do you mean, ‘clashes with my entire personality?’” I gasped, sitting up and staring at her. She laughed again.

  “I mean you’re a health nut and a giggle-girl who just happens to love heavy metal,” she said. “So Evan like, totally clashes.”

  “He does not! And I’m not a giggle-girl!” I laughed, though she was mostly correct. I was a health nut. Soda? Not my thing. Dry lettuce? Yummy. Though my dad did own an ice cream shop, and I did enjoy such indulgences rather often.

  “Okay, maybe he’s more normal than we thought,” Sam said, wiggling into her skin-tight dress. “But even though he gave up that menacing glare, he’s still kind of dark and sexy looking.

  Not that I think he’s sexier than Mitch or anything… But I like him on you.”

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  “You mean you like him in her,” Cami mumbled.

  “Oh, God, I didn’t need that visual,” Sam laughed. I started giggling and stood up to slip into my dress. My foot accidently got caught in the stomach hole and I fell over, Sam and Cami laughing their asses off at me.

  “I’m not skilled at the whole being feminine thing!” I cried, throwing a shoe at Cami. It missed her leg and bounced off the bed.

  “Here,” Sam managed through her giggles, “let me help you, dude.”

  Mitch drove a dark, midnight blue truck. Cami and I had to cram into the narrow backseat, but Cami wasn’t too upset because she was pretty much sitting in Bryce’s lap.

  When we got to Evan’s house, my jaw dropped so involuntarily that it hurt. The house was high up in Bear Valley, about ten minutes higher than Sam’s. His house was freaking huge, sage green, and landscaped to fairy-tale perfection.

  He had a circular driveway with a shrubbery statue of a mermaid in the middle. There were pine and evergreen trees all around the driveway, some of which still had Christmas and Halloween lights on them. I smiled. No one in Alaska bothers to take down their Christmas or Halloween lights. Mitch dropped us off by the front door and went to park the car in the garage around back.

  The front door was up on a dark wooden porch, with a pale green porch swing and dozens of potted plants in an array of colors. The door itself was twice the size of a normal door, and made out of the same dark wood as the porch. Bryce rang the doorbell, which was shaped like a small silver hummingbird.

  “Hey, guys,” Evan said cheerfully, opening the door. He was already in his suit, wearing a white tie. He half-smiled, half-stared intently at my dress, his eyes lingering on my slightly exposed stomach.

  With a smirk, Sam and Cami squeezed beside Evan’s immobile figure and followed Bryce into the house.

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  Mitchell Mantel

  “A lily, huh?” Bryce said, looking at the corsage I’d gotten Sam. He was sitting in the front seat of my dad’s Chevy. I would’ve driven my truck (a restored 1957 Chevy truck with custom white leather interior) but there wasn’t a backseat, so there wouldn’t be enough room.

  “Sam said she wanted a lily because it’s the death flower.

  She’s supposedly got a black and white theme, hence Evan and I wearing white ties,” I said, gesturing to my neck.

  “Cami said to get her something light blue and brown. I went in the flower shop and told the woman up front what my girlfriend wanted, and she showed me this. I have no clue what it is,” he said, holding up a clear plastic flower container. Inside was a pale blue cluster of tiny flowers that kind of looked like baby’s breath. They dangled and looked like they were supposed to twine around the girl’s wrist. The wristband was chocolate brown, and could be seen between the flowers.

  I pulled into Sam’s driveway and Bryce climbed into the backseat so Sam could sit in the front. I left the corsage on the dashboard and walked up the front steps to Sam’s tiny cabin.

  “Hey!” she said brightly, opening the door for me. I choked on my hello, and she grinned, taking my hand and pulling me down the steps.

  “Have fun!” her mom called, closing the door behind us.

  Driving to Evan’s house was a struggle. Sam’s hair was in hundreds of pin curls, cascading all around her face and shoulders. She had heavily shadowed, smoky eyes and blood-red lips. Her dress…

  It was made of skin-tight black leather, clinging to all her curves in all the right ways. The front was fairly modest, but since I was taller than her, things worked out all right for my eyes. The back was so low she constantly put her hand back there to make

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  sure she wasn’t flashing anybody. It laced up the back with white silk threads. All I wanted to do was tear it off of her.

  She had on five-inch black platform heels, but even with that, I was still taller than her by about two inches. She had a white leather anklet with a lily and a wolf charm hanging off it.

  Her toes and fingernails were painted with French tips, gently accentuating her tan. To top it all off, she wore a white leather jacket.

  “Here,” she said before she got out of the car at Evan’s house. “Could you keep these in your pocket?” She reached into her cleavage and pulled out her iPhone and her ID, credit card, and a small wad of cash wrapped in a rubber band. Still shocked, I just nodded and slipped them in my pants pocket. She smiled and gave me a quick kiss before following her friends into Evan’s house.

  I pulled around the house and into Evan’s garage, next to his father’s second-generation Cadillac De Ville. The garage was enormous, housing at least twenty five cars, most of them copies of famous cars. In the summer, Evan drives a pristine relic of the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard.

  When I walked into Evan’s house, he and Annika were already getting their pictures taken, and Sam, Cami, and Bryce were sitting on the couch and talking. I came up behind Sam and hugged her shoulders, kissing her cheek and dropping her corsage in her leather-clad lap.

  “Aw, Mitch!” she said, kissing me back. “It’s so pretty. I love it.” She slipped it on her wrist as I sat down next to her.

  Evan’s mom brought us some chips and drinks, and the photographer worked his way through pictures of the couples, just the guys, just the girls, and individuals.

  “If you give me addresses,” the photographer said after about an hour. “I’ll mail the prints to all of you at no extra charge.”

  “Awesome,” Sam said, taking a form and filling out her information. We all did the same, and then Evan’s mom came into the living room to inform us the limo had arrived. We took a few

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  non-professional photos before getting in and starting the drive to Jens, the nicest restaurant in town. Sam’s cousin is the head chef.

  We found out a few minutes after leaving the house that Evan’s mom had stocked the limousine with snacks, sodas, and spiced rum.

  “You’re mom is totally awesome,” Cami said, unscrewing the top on a bottle of rum.

  “She trusts us,” Evan said, pouring glasses of soda. Cami poured the r
um, and by the time we reached the restaurant, Sam was giggling and telling me she felt that tonight was going to be the best night of her life.

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  Bryce Hansen

  From the backseat of Mitch’s truck, I saw him walk up Sam’s front steps and knock on the door. I glanced at her roof (which had moss growing between the shingles, which were falling off) and cringed. The paint on her front steps was a peeling hunter green, matching the siding below the logs and the front door.

  Sam opened the door and completely offset the whole scene. She always looks like she lives in Beverly Hills. If I didn’t know better, I’d assume she’d stolen her leather dress and jacket.

  It’s strange, but for some reason, her house seems like a part of her. Something that says, “screw you for judging me.”

  Mitch grinned and bounced his eyebrows when he turned around and looked at me, leading Sam down the steps in her chunky heels. Annika came out behind her - I won’t even try to describe how hot she was - and Cami came out last, laughing at something Annika said. Sam’s mom called for us to have a good time and closed the door.

  I gaped at Cami. Sam and Annika were hot, too, of course, but I’m just not interested in them. Cami’s dress consisted of three parts. The fabric was a soft, pale blue-green and brown animal print. There was a wide strap around her waist, starting a few inches below her bellybutton (now pierced, and showing) and stopped at about her fingertips.

  Two other thick pieces of fabric were attached to the waist-piece and tied behind her neck, covering her boobs but leaving a strip of skin showing between them. Two gold straps wrapped around her stomach, keeping the dress tight on her body.

  There was no back.

  Cami climbed into the backseat and snuggled against me, my arm around her shoulders. We drove to Evan’s house, the girls arguing over whether Joan Jett sang better during her Runaways days or solo days.

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  Cami and Annika gawked and gasped over Evan’s house, but Sam and Mitch lingered in the car. Evan let us in, and we began taking boatloads of pictures to appease Evan’s mom and the girls.

  “After prom, we should go out for ice cream,” Sam said.