phone for a second, thinking about what to do. While I was holding it, I accidentally brushed the screen and turned it on. The screen showed a familiar website. Citycrawler. net was where I uploaded all my urban exploration photos. In fact, one of my photos from the other night at the Orpheus was featured on the homepage.
It wasn’t until the end of last period that I eventually found Kieran’s locker. He was there, pulling his books and jacket out just as I arrived.
“Hey. This is yours,” I said. Kieran looked relieved as I handed over the phone.
“Thanks, man.” He stared down at the phone. “Listen, about what I said back in the classroom. I kind of lose it sometimes.”
“Whatever,” I said. “Must be kind of hard being the new guy.” Kieran just shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah, except I’m not allowed to be new. It’s the same old shit, same old reputation following me around.”
He closed and snapped shut the locker. We started walking toward the school exit.
“I don’t want to get into your business,” I said, “but I saw that you left this website, Citycrawler, open on your phone.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s an awesome site. I’m on there all the time.”
“You?” said Kieran. “Weird.”
“Why is it weird?” I asked. We had reached my locker. I undid the lock and put my books away.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you seem too nice to be breaking into buildings.”
“Well,” I said, “there’s more to me than you think, I guess. Catch you later.” I slammed my locker shut and started to walk away.
“Hold up,” said Kieran.
I stopped and turned back. Students flowed around us like a noisy human river.
“I just wanted to ask,” he said, “what’s your username on Citycrawler?”
“Urbex604. You got one?”
“Wait-you? You’re Urbex604?” Kieran looked both amused and a little shocked. “You’re a legend. I heard about you even before I moved here. You’ve gotten into everything. You did the Orpheus the other night, right? Those pictures were awesome.”
I didn’t normally like talking too much about this stuff at school. But Kieran seemed like he was genuinely impressed. And I felt kind of bad about the scene in biology class. Maybe I had helped get him into trouble with the teacher-even though Kieran had totally gone ballistic. Still, I owed him a chance.
“Why don’t you come over to my place after school? There’s more stuff from the Orpheus run that I never posted.”
“That would be all right,” said Kieran. He tried to pretend that it was no big deal, but I could tell he was grateful. I was probably the first person who’d actually been friendly to him at this school.
Later that afternoon I was waiting for Kieran in the backyard. Both my parents were at work, as usual. Mom had the night shift at the ER, and Dad wouldn’t be back until he closed out the store around dinnertime. That was fine by me.
I’d taken my skateboard out to the pool. We’d drained it last year when Mom had lost her other job. Dad said it cost too much to keep the pool going for the amount that we used it. That was actually fine by me. When they weren’t around, I cleaned out the leaves from the bottom of the pool and got a little boarding in. It was my own personal skate park.
I was trying to get some air when I heard Kieran unlatch the gate and come in. He appeared at the edge of the pool. When he saw me he sat down, legs dangling over the edge. He lit up a cigarette, totally looking the part of the badass in his camo pants and black T-shirt. No wonder the teachers didn’t trust him.
“Nice setup with the pool,” he said. “If I knew how to skate, I’d be jealous.” I let momentum carry my skateboard up and down the curves of the pool, gradually slowing down.
“You can try it out, if you want.”
“I’d just make an ass of myself.”
“Suit yourself.” With a big push, I jumped the side of the pool, landed and then kicked the board up into my hands. I was showing off, although I didn’t know why I needed to impress Kieran.
We went up to my room. An hour later, I’d gone over some of my greatest hits with Kieran. It was kind of weird to talk with someone in real life about this stuff. Most of the time, it was all online chat forums with people I’d never met. Until I had convinced Jake and Asha to start coming with me, I was pretty used to being a one-man show.
I liked being able to trade stories with Kieran. Before he moved here, Kieran had been into urban exploration as well. I’d never come across him online, but if what he said was true, he had done some cool things. The best was his story of getting into an abandoned wing of an old hospital. He said everything was still there, like all the doctors and patients had just walked away one day in the 1980s. By the time I heard my dad making dinner downstairs, I felt like maybe Kieran was all right. The rumors didn’t seem important now.
Kieran was about to light up a cigarette in my room, and I stopped him.
“Dude, not here. My parents would kill me if they thought I was smoking.”
“Right,” Kieran said. “You’re a good little boy, aren’t you? Just with a dangerous hobby.” We both laughed.
“That’s basically right.”
“Hey,” Kieran said. “Let’s go on a run together. The Harborhead Bridge, tomorrow night. We’ll start from the marina, go all the way up.”
Okay, that sounded interesting. I’d explored the bridge before but never tried to climb it from the bottom. I could bring my ropes and climbing gear, show him some of the moves I’d been practicing at the climbing gym.
“Awesome,” I agreed.
“One more thing,” he said as he got up to leave. “Let’s make it interesting. I’ll race you to the top.”
Chapter Four
The next night, I looked up at the bridge towering above me. I’d been here before. Harborhead Bridge was a dinosaur, really big and at least a hundred years old. It carried four lanes of traffic running over the bay. I’d spent a fair amount of time messing around here with my friends, crawling over and under it to see what we could find. But I’d never climbed bottom to top, like Kieran had suggested.
Next to me, a big concrete column soared up to join with a massive nest of metal girders beneath the main traffic level. From where I stood, that main level seemed really far away. It must have been about nine stories above the water, because pretty big ships could sail underneath it. I could hear the gentle knock of the boats in the marina against the docks. And from way up, there was a steady roar of traffic crossing over the bridge.
I didn’t see Kieran in the shadows until he lit up a cigarette.
“You know, you continue to surprise me,” he said.
I walked over to where he was sitting and dropped my heavy backpack in front of him. The climbing gear inside made a muffled clank. “Why?”
“I totally figured you’d chicken out.”
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just do this,” I said.
“Not so fast. There are a few rules you need to understand before we play this game. First, the winner is the one who makes it to the upper room of the bridge tower first. You been up there before?”
“A few times.” Well, once. The big concrete column that stood in front of us stretched up past the main level of the road, turning into a smaller tower that held the suspension cables. I’d been up there once but hadn’t stuck around to explore much. The wind had been a killer. The well-lit ladders and metal-work leading up there had felt way too exposed to the cars going by below. I liked a few more shadows, a little less danger of falling.
“All right, rule two.” Kieran stood up and ground out his cigarette with his boot. Then, with one fluid motion, he reached down and scooped up my backpack. “No gear.”
He chucked the backpack into the dark, and I heard a muffled plop as it hit the water.
