Lurker

7

Kylenevers: How was skool?

MC9010025: 2 words 4 ya: Calculus test.

Kylenevers: Calculus is ez.

MC9010025: So not

Kylenevers: Things back 2 normal? Sort of?

MC9010025: Again…so not. The teachers r. We’re getting homework again, and tests!!! Ugh! But most of us r still weirded out. I can’t beleev it’s been a week since Nicki died.

Kylenevers: We should chat about something else.

MC9010025: I know. Ur right, but it’s like being in 1 of those zombie movies

Kylenevers: You like zombie movies?

MC9010025: Not

Kylenevers: Oh.

MC9010025: I dated a guy 4 awhile and he took me 2 1. Ick!

Kylenevers: LOL. I like them even though they look so fake

MC9010025: So, uv met a lot of zombies? LOL

Kylenevers: Some. They aren’t very good kissers.

MC9010025: GROSS! LMAO.

Kylenevers: Do u like 2 kiss?

MC9010025: Doesn’t every1?

Kylenevers: No. Actually.

MC9010025: Well, I do.

Kylenevers: Do u think u’d like 2 kiss me?

Mandy leaned back in her chair and stared at the keyboard. This was the first time either of them had said anything remotely romantic. For all of their chatting, they usually just joked around and shared stories about their families, friends, and lives. Did she want to kiss him? She wanted to write yes, but it seemed way stupid. She didn’t even know what his voice sounded like, and this realization made her feel really strange. Maybe they should talk on the phone. Or actually meet!

MC9010025: Maybe

Kylenevers: Maybe? U fraid I’m going to taste like zombie?

MC9010025: LOL! What do zombies taste like?

Kylenevers: pork chops soaked in bleach

MC9010025: Ugh! So gross.

Kylenevers: U asked.

MC9010025: Well, since I’m asking questions, do you think we could talk on the phone sometime?

Kylenevers: And ruin the magic? LOL

MC9010025: There’s magic? Did I miss something;-)

Kylenevers: LMAO. Thnx. I don’t feel dissed or anything. Crap! Mom’s calling me. Gotta run. Chat tomorrow?

MC9010025: Sure

Kylenevers: O! If you’re serious about

Prague, check out Karlstejn Castle. It’s totally kewl. Way goth inside. Awesome views. It was the only thing I really got 2 C when I went.

MC9010025: K

Kylenevers: C U

MC9010025: TTFN

Kylenevers: back atcha.

Mandy smiled. She ran her cursor over the name of the castle, copied it, and then closed the IM window. She Googled the name and spent a few minutes surfing pages, looking at pictures and reading blurbs of copy about it. It really wasn’t a very pretty place, she decided, but it was cool. The place looked like one of those castles they used in old, old horror movies—movies from the ’60s. It was the kind of place where insane barons killed their wives in dank torture chambers, the kind of place for ghosts and vampires. One interior shot showed a massive stone room with wooden tables and a faded brown tapestry hanging from iron bars. Kyle was right; it was totally goth. Her imagination let loose, and she pictured Kyle leading her through the dark halls of Karlstejn Castle, gripping her hand tightly to guide her. They were not tourists in this place, but rather the owners—a king, a queen. Mandy shook her head, telling herself how silly she was being.

She closed the Web page.

Not quite ready to let go of Kyle for the night, she clicked on the file with his picture, and it burst across her screen. She followed the wave of his blond hair as it swept back from his forehead and looked into his clear green eyes that sparkled with embarrassment beneath the hand he used to salute her.

“Weird,” Mandy said, squinting at the picture.

Somehow the image seemed different. Kyle was still a hottie holding a hairbrush and saluting her, but he seemed to have shadows on his face that she hadn’t noticed before. They ran along the bottom of his cheekbones, giving him a slightly gaunt look. Something was strange about the hairbrush, also: The light that reflected on its shiny black side looked like a sharp edge rather than just a glimmer of light. Had the contrast of the picture changed somehow? That couldn’t be. She’d looked at the picture a dozen times, but she hadn’t done anything to manipulate the image. Maybe it was the way her desk lamp reflected off the screen that made it look wrong. It had to be something like that. Pictures didn’t just change on their own.

Thursday was a day of surprises.

After school, Laurel and Drew came back to Mandy’s place to hang out. Both were curious about this Kyle guy she kept talking about, so they followed her upstairs to her room and waited for her computer to boot up. When the picture opened, both of her friends pushed in close to look at the screen.

“Yeah,” Laurel said, “he’s got some major yummy going on.”

“God, he’s so cute,” Drew said, already drifting into a romantic haze. “It’s totally fate. I mean, if you hadn’t broken up with Dale, and if Nicki hadn’t been killed, you two might never have met.”

“Yeah,” Laurel said, “more kids should get sliced up so we can all get dates.”

Drew’s face fell, her dreamy voice quieting. “I just meant, it’s great that something nice came out of something so bad. Jeez, Laurel.”

“I’m just playin’,” Laurel said, reaching out to pat Drew’s knee. “It’s all good.”

Mandy smiled, pleased that her friends approved. She leaned back in the chair so they could get a better look and both slid a little closer to the monitor, gawking at the screen.

“I can’t believe I was there when you met,” Drew said.

“We haven’t met.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Hey,” Laurel said, “I thought you said he was our age.”

“He is,” Mandy replied. “He’s seventeen.”

“You sure? Boy looks like he’s already got a couple of years of frat parties behind him.”

“He does look older,” Drew agreed. “Like my brother’s age or something.”

Mandy leaned forward and looked closely at the picture. The shadows on Kyle’s cheeks seemed more pronounced, even more than they had the night before. Another shadow, one she hadn’t noticed the night before or any other time she’d looked at the picture, lay across his brow, disappearing into the bigger shadow cast by his saluting palm. When she pulled away from the details of the pic, she had to admit Laurel and Drew were right; he did look older.

“Once,” Laurel said, “I met a guy online, and he was looking all fine and boylicious. So we meet up, right? He’s got this big old nasty mole on his cheek, and I’m all ‘Where the hell did that come from?’ I figured he Photoshopped it out of his pic or something, because this girl doesn’t go for before-shots. A boy has got to complete Extreme Makeover before he comes callin’ on the L.”

“That was Hoyt, wasn’t it?” Drew asked.