Monty After Dark

Chapter 8

"I was just going to make supper," she said.

"We'll pick something up on the way and eat at the beach. Like a picnic. It'll be fun." I searched her face again for clues. Her mouth twitched at the side and it looked like she was trying not to smile.

"Okay," she finally said. I almost gasped out loud with relief. I just tried a casual smile and offered to take her gear out to the car.

"It's upstairs, I'll just be a sec," she said. A moment later, she called my name. It felt like I was hearing my name for the first time, like it meant something completely new. I headed up the stairs I had climbed thousands of times in my childhood.

She was in her room. The moment I saw the four-poster bed, my heart skipped a beat. The things I will do to that girl in that bed ... my imagination started spinning into a dizzying blur of silk scarves, handcuffs and Chan's long, dark hair splayed all over her millions of pillows.

"Here," she said, passing me a couple blankets. The dark purple paint was probably named after a fruit or flower. Her dresser was the same dark wood as the bed and had perfume bottles and photos on it, but I didn't want her to catch me looking. That's okay, I'll be back here soon enough, I told myself matter-of-factly.

She grabbed her camera bag, tripod and followed me down the stairs. I didn't say a word as we got into the car. I took out my phone, punched in a number. "Here, just head towards the mall," I instructed as the phone rang on the other end. "Hi, Danny, It's Matt Monteleone. Good, you? Can I get two specials for take-out? No, no, Dad's on afternoons. I'm with a friend... a first-timer!" Dad and I got takeout from Danny's all the time when I was younger. Fish and chips was our Friday night meal, if dad was home. He's not exactly the cooking type. I'm not bad, Mrs. Murphy started teaching me when I was about 12, she said it would impress girls.

"Make a right up here," I pointed out so Chan could stop at the restaurant before we headed down to the beach. I grabbed the food from inside, and Danny said, "What, I don't get to meet your date?"

"Not this time, Danny, maybe next time," I said with a joking laugh. I couldn't have Danny accidentally rat me out to dad.

When we got to the beach, the sun had started to go down, but the sky hadn't started turning colours yet. We sat on one of Chan's blankets and ate, watching the waves smashing against the shore.

"I like the ocean," she said.

"Me, too. You never feel lonely at the ocean," I agreed.

Chan set up the tripod and let me put my camera on first. She showed me how to set the camera's exposure to drink in the sunset. I watched as she blazed through the process. "Sorry, am I going too fast for you?" I shook my head.

We were quiet. The sea did the talking.

When we had gathered our things and got back to the car, I felt strange. I never did things like that. I never shared intimate moments with women.

"Thanks, Matt," Chantelle said as we headed for home. "That was fun. I hope you got some good shots for your yearbook."

"Me, too. I guess I'll have to take a look and see. I didn't realize I had taken so many," I said, scrolling through the hundreds I had taken.

"You always shoot more than you need, and then look through them after to choose your best shots. It was easier before newspapers all wanted photo galleries for their websites, you needed two, maybe at three, good shots to send to an editor. Everything is so different now," she said. She looked serious. I listened intently. I wanted to absorb everything about her. "What made you decide to join the yearbook?"

"Well, I'm trying to get a scholarship for school down in the states, and I'm really good at lacrosse, but I'm good at hockey, too. I'll probably be playing Junior next year and I won't have time for stuff like yearbooks, so I figured I'll do it this year so I have it for my college applications," I explained. "People sometimes think I'm some kind of dumbass because I'm good at sports, but I'm a pretty good student."

"Very responsible of you," she remarked, easing around a curve on the highway.

"Yeah, well, kinda have to be responsible when I'm 16 and basically parent myself," I said in a dull voice. I didn't mean to say it, but that's what came out.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I think that's why your dad doesn't want you spending time with me. He thinks you'll get too attached."

"I think he's jealous," I said. "I'm not sitting at home feeling sorry for myself or hiding myself at work. I'm trying to get out there and make a life for myself instead of dwelling on something that happened over ten years ago."

We were home. Thank fuck, that conversation got awkward really fast.

"Chan, can I run home for a second and grab my computer? I can't stay late, but I was wondering if you could show me that ... thing you were talking about with the editing?"

"Batch editing? Sure," she said.

When I returned with the computer, she set it up on her coffee table, and I plugged my memory card in. When the folder full of photos opened up, the first photos were the ones of Cassie in my bed.

"Jesus, Matt, what the fuck is this shit?" Chan was pissed. I had never heard her say that many swear words in one sentence before.

"Oh, sorry, some girl, she was over, and she wanted to do it, I don't know." I was embarrassed. That was not how I had planned for that to go.

"You know that's illegal for you to have, right? Doesn't matter if it's you, or you know this girl or whatever, that's kiddie porn, dude. Get them off the card, and get them off your computer. Format the card, or just get a new one. This is really bad, Matt."

"Sorry," I said. I closed my computer. "I think I'm gonna go ... I have school in the morning." I felt like a total and utter douchebag. How did I go from feeling like the king of the world to an entire bag of assholes in a matter of a few minutes.

I showered and went to bed. I felt miserable. I curled up in a ball and fell asleep before dad got home from his shift.