Part 20 (1/2)

Eventually, we reached the end of the official campus, but we forged on until we came to the football stadium. This late at night, it was deserted, but there was trash all around, programs and Styrofoam cups, making me think there had been a game there earlier in the evening. Someone had left the front gate unlocked.

”Let's go inside,” I said. 137 ”Okay,” said Leah. Inside, the lights were all turned off, and the stands were empty. The air smelled of popcorn and moldy paint and frost. The chalk lines on the field glowed a pale white in the moonlight. It was strange to be in such a vast open s.p.a.ce and have there be no movement and no sound. Still, I could somehow sense the lingering presence of the people who had been here earlier, afterimages in the cinema of time.

We walked to the very middle of the field. I stepped in front of Leah. Her face glowed too, a second moon to light the dark. Her lips were the softest gray I had ever seen, and her eyes were as deep and endless as the starlit sky.

Here at last we could finally say what we couldn't say in front of Dade and the others.

”I love you,” Leah whispered.

”I love you too,” I whispered back.

We met in the kiss to end all kisses.

Up in the stands, the roar of a thousand invisible spectators cheered us on.

138.

CHAPTER TEN.

The next morning, my mom was reading the newspaper at the kitchen table.

”You were out late last night,” she said. ”Have fun?” 139 ”Yes,” I said. I grabbed a banana from the fruit basket. ”I left my cave. Apparently my head isn't so big yet that I can't still fit through the exit.”

She perked up. ”Really?”

”Really.” It was all I could do not to point out that her ridiculous headband made her hair look like she was wearing a shower cap.

”So,” asked my mom. ”How was it on the outside?”

”Nice,” I said thoughtfully. ”Airy.”

”Well, good for you! But now I have to tell you the other story my mother used to tell me, about a fellow who wandered around aimlessly and refused to take a stand on anything.”

”No, thanks, Mom,” I said, withdrawing to my room to eat my banana and IM Leah.

That night, I visited Russel. It was time to finally come clean about everything that had been going on with Leah. ”So,” I said.

”So,” he said sheepishly, his eyes downcast. ”There's been a lot going on in my life lately.”

”Really?” I said. ”Like what?” I liked that he thought he'd been keeping secrets from me.

140 He told me everything that had been going on with him and Kevin and Otto, and finally filled me in on that night in the park with Kevin. I just pursed my face, and laughed, and scowled, and acted like I was hearing everything for the very first time.

”You've had a busy couple of weeks,” I said when Russel was finished.

”Yeah,” he said. ”Sorry I haven't kept you up-to-date.”

”Here's the thing. I haven't exactly kept you up-to-date either.”

”You haven't?”

I shook my head, and started to tell him about Leah.

”I had no idea!” he said. Unlike Russel, I really had been keeping secrets.

I recounted all the times that he had inadvertently helped get the two of us together.

”Ha!” he said. ”I'm a matchmaker, and I didn't even know it!”

I told him the rest of the story, including the part about what had happened with Leah's friends the night before.

He stared at me for a second.

”What?” I said, embarra.s.sed.

He shook his head. ”Nothing. Nothing at all.” Still, I knew what he was thinking. I'd surprised him. That was okay: I'd surprised myself too. 141 ”Just one question about all this,” I said.