Nightfall ✓

Chapter 13

We didn't say anything. We just lay and gazed up.

"Do you know any constellations?" I asked finally.

"Yeah. I know Orion, the hunter."

"Can you spot it?"

He smiled. "I've never found a constellation. But if you can spot the Sirius star, then you can find Orion, too. If you imagine a straight line passing through the three middle stars of Orion, and if you look along this line towards the East, you'll spot Sirius. It's the brightest star in the night sky."

"Wow."

He took my hand and squeezed softly. I squeezed it back, but he squeezed mine again, and I realized he wanted me to look at him. I did.

"You're beautiful," he said.

"You, too."

He laughed. "I'm a boy."

"Boys can be beautiful too."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

Then he kissed me and I shut up. I rested my head on his chest; he looped his arm around my waist. We lay for some more time, even though it was time to go home. It was late, and his curfew was ten, and even though I didn't really have a curfew— one of the perks of living alone — I tried to get home by ten too.

The silence hit me abruptly. The park was deserted, and it was dark and eerie-quiet. I sat up and looked around. "Liam, we should go home."

"Why?" He sat up too.

"That ghost...she usually comes at night, and..." I trailed off.

The hair at the back of his head was sticking up. He smoothed it down with his hands. "You think it will be any different at home? That bitch can come wherever she wants to."

I closed my eyes and exhaled.

"I don't want to leave you alone, Hazel. Last time when she touched you, you kind of blanked out and..." He shuddered. "I'm not leaving you alone. Not now." He took my hand. "Do you want to sleep with me?"

"What?" I raised my eyebrows. He suddenly realized how that sounded. "I mean, do you want to sleep in the same bed as me? Not in a 'hot night of passion' kind of way, silly."

I laughed. "Yeah. That sounds much better than sleeping alone."

We walked to my house to collect my night-things, then his. 

His dad was sitting on the couch. He looked up when we entered.

"Dad, this is Hazel and she's my girlfriend, and we're going to my room." I choked out a polite 'hello' before Liam dragged me away. I was his girlfriend, huh?

When we were halfway to his room, he ran back to the living room and said, "And she's going to sleep here today."

"What? You guys are not sleeping in the same room!" he called, but Liam was already walking towards me.

"We are! I'll sleep on the floor!" he answered and opened the door. His room was still as messy.

"Gosh, why don't you ever clean this place?" I asked.

He grinned. "I like it this way. And if you have a problem with walking, then —" he picked me up with one arm around my shoulders and one arm under my knees, carried me to the bed and threw me on top of the covers.