Lurker

5

MC9010025: Do U have a pic? With everything going on, I’d feel better if I knew what U looked like.

Kylenevers: Sure. But how do U know I didn’t just cut it out of a mag and scan it in? I could have downloaded it off some kid’s site. It might not be me at all. LOL

MC9010025: I’ll manage my own paranoia thnx. LOL

Kylenevers: Well, just 2 b sure, I’ve got a digital. I can take a pic now. Tell me 2 hold something like a pen or something.

MC9010025: Salute

Kylenevers:???

MC9010025: Salute the camera like an army guy

Kylenevers: NOT!!!

MC9010025: LMAO Okay, just hold up a hairbrush or comb

Kylenevers: K brb

Mandy leaned back in her chair and waited for Kyle to send his picture. They’d been chatting ever since Mandy excused herself after dinner and ran back upstairs to see if he sent a reply to her note. Though her away message was on, Kyle had sent an IM—just sayin hi again—and she immediately replied.

Though their conversation was only twenty minutes old, she liked him. Kyle was funny and not a student at Hammond Special Studies. Since his parents moved so much on business, they’d started homeschooling him so he didn’t have to endure enrolling in classes just to be yanked out before the semester ended. Things had settled down, and his family had lived in Elmwood now for nearly a whole year. Kyle assured her that was a record. LOL. In fact, he was technically a high school graduate, but he still studied because he wanted to get a jump on his engineering degree.

Besides, there’s not much else to do.

She felt sorry for Kyle, and she envied him at the same time. Going from town to town, school to school, always having to make new friends, always leaving friends behind must have sucked, but he’d lived all over the country, seen so many places. When she asked where he used to live, he replied, Everywhere. Ugh. LOL.

If someone asked Mandy the same question, she’d say Elmwood. Just Elmwood. She imagined Kyle must have had wonderful stories to tell about oceans and mountains and big cities and quirky small towns. Mandy wanted to hear about every-place he’d ever been.

Kyle’s photograph arrived, attached to an e-mail that read, Happy now? Her heart beat fast as she clicked the box to download the image. She saved it to her desktop, waited for it to finish. With her fingers trembling on the mouse, she double clicked the file and waited, holding her breath, hoping he didn’t look like one of the kids at school that collected Lord of the Rings action figures.

When the picture opened, Mandy laughed. It was a good laugh, an amused and relieved laugh. Kyle stood in a bedroom with walls painted a soft sand color. He was wearing black jeans and a white button-down shirt. His body wasn’t as bulked up with muscle as Dale’s, but he was tall and solid. He was blond—she’d thought he would be—and had a smooth, handsome, tanned face without a single blemish. He was very nice-looking. In fact, he was hot, even though he looked a little embarrassed in the picture. There in his left hand he held a shiny black hairbrush as she had requested. With his other hand, he saluted the camera.

MC9010025: LOL. Nice pic.

Kylenevers: Thank you, Sir.

MC9010025: LOL. Sorry bout that. Can’t b 2 careful

Kylenevers: Understand. The whole thing with N creeped me so bad, I just wanted to chat with people so I didn’t feel alone.

MC9010025: U don’t have any friends in town?

Kylenevers: Just a buddy. We hang. Catch flicks. Play PS. It’s just not the same as being part of the crowd, U know?????

MC9010025: Not really. Always been part of the crowd

Kylenevers: U R lucky. I never got that, but maybe college

MC9010025: Definitely college. I’m sure of it

Kylenevers: Thnx. It’d b nice 2 chill in 1 place. Travel bcause I want 2 travel not bcause I have 2. Still luv 2 go places

MC9010025: Where do u want 2 go next?

Kylenevers: Brazil…Rio, Sao Paulo. Or maybe Prague.

MC9010025: Prague? Really? I was just thinking about it. Weird.

Kylenevers: Kewl. What were u thinking?

MC9010025: Just someplace I’d like to go.

Kylenevers: I was there once, but only a couple days. Didn’t c much. 2 much running. I’ve spent time in most of the big European cities…London, Paris, Berlin, all over Italy, and I got 2 see a lot. Met kewl peeps, but not Prague. Rio would b kewl 2 though bcuz I’ve never been b4.

Mandy’s heart beat a little faster reading his reply. He’d seen so many cool places. And she could picture Kyle there. Her imagination put him on a bustling street in London with a red double-decker bus rolling by; she saw him at the base of the Eiffel Tower, and pictured him in a gondola floating slowly along a canal in Venice. In this last daydream, she pictured herself on the bench next to him, nestled in the crook of his elbow, drifting on the water and looking out at ancient, beautiful buildings. She felt herself blush.

MC9010025: Sounds amazing. I hope u get 2 go.

Kylenevers: Thnx. U 2. I totally have to go somewhere soon. Definitely b4 college. Need some time to let the waves settle

MC9010025: Waves?

Kylenevers: family crap. No big deal

MC9010025: We all have that

Kylenevers: HEY wheres ur pic? U got mine.

MC9010025: Well, u were the 1 stalking me remember. I don’t have 2 prove anything. LOL

Kylenevers: LOL. I’ll get u 4 that.

“So, let me get this straight,” Laurel said through the phone at Mandy’s ear. “The rest of us are freaking out and locked up 24/7 because Nicki died, and you’re out cruising the superhighway for hottie hitchhikers?”

Mandy laughed. “It’s not like that.”

“You’re some kind of megaho.”

“I told you, he IM’d me.”

“Ho.”

“I am not a ho,” Mandy said with another laugh. “Knock it off. God, I don’t even know if I’m going to meet him or not. He’s just a nice guy.”

“You said he was a full-on hottie.”

“He is.”

“And you just want to chat with him?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yeah. Uh-huh. Ho.”

“Whatever,” Mandy said. “You’re just jealous.”

“Damn right,” Laurel replied. “I haven’t had a date in like two months, and you’re lining ’em up like a boy-band producer.”

“It’s one guy, L.”

“And Dale.”

“Who is soooo yesterday.”

“Said the ho.”

“I’m calling Drew back. She totally understands.”

“I bet,” Laurel said. She changed her voice, suddenly speaking in a softer, higher tone. “Ooooooo, he sounds so dreamy. I’ll bet he sneaks over to your house with roses and kisses you. He probably reads poetry and has a unit the size of your arm. Oh, tell me about him again. Oh. Tell me. Oh. Oh. Harder. Oh Kyle. Oh.”

Mandy cracked up, falling over on her bed as Laurel continued to coo into the phone, imitating their friend. She laughed so hard that tears filled her eyes. “Knock it off,” she said, her voice spluttering from the laughter.

“Yeah, she understands all right. Until we get her a man, she’ll keep using ours and her shower massage.”

“You can be such a bitch to her.”

“It’s all from love,” Laurel said. “I love. I tease. They are my gifts.”

“So, is your dad letting you come to school tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Laurel said, as if the word weighed a ton. “Now that everyone knows what that guy looks like, he figures I can go places that are populated and well lit. His words. Not mine.”

“Then you don’t have to sit home all weekend,” Mandy said, wiping the last tear from her cheek. “We can catch a movie or something.”

“Definitely.”

“Good. The sooner things get back to normal, the happier I’ll be.”