I chose not to look as much like a freak that day, but I still wouldn’t pass for normal. I had drawn images up and down my legs with a pen the night before, pretending they were tattoos, so I showed off the dragons and skulls by wearing cargo shorts. My shirt looked like I stole it from Freddy Krueuger. I popped a fedora on my head, a spiked dog collar around my neck, and laced up my vinyl platform boots. I thought I looked one part Monkey from Korn, one part Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands.
To get to Ellie’s uncle’s date farm, I had to take the bus that trundled down Main Street then walk for a good forty-five minutes. Luckily, I had left early enough in the morning that the sun wasn’t at full strength, and there was a wind blowing up the valley, making the white blades of the windmills spin hypnotically as it dried the sweat on my skin.
When I finally made it to the street flanked by rows and rows of date palms, I felt like a dying man in the desert. Any dapperness that I might have imagined myself having was definitely gone. I really should have thought this through better. Then again, it was almost funny that I was trying to impress this girl when the first impression she had of me would probably be stuck in her head forever.
I sighed, trying not to inhale the dust that whipped through the columns of trees, and went on until I came to a small house with a cracked tile driveway and a well-kept rock garden filled with every type of cactus you could imagine. I spent my whole life in the dry valley and still found myself romanticizing cacti when I saw them, like they were some strange exotic species.
I was still admiring the cacti when the front door to the house flew open and a woman poked her head out.
“What do you want?” she said in a low, suspicious voice. She was pretty hot for an older lady, a nice face with a pointy chin and sexy, dark eyes. Her hair was dark, tinged with red, auburn, and gold, nice colors to work with—autumn colors, and pulled back from her face. I had a sudden urge to paint her.
“Oh my god, mom,” I heard Ellie’s voice from inside. “I know that boy.”
Ellie’s mother squinted at me then quickly shut the door.
Okay. Well…technically I hadn’t even knocked yet. I could have been a random passerby just admiring a cactus. I stood there for a few moments, trying to figure out what to do, then decided to suck it up. I marched up to the door, still hearing frantic yet hushed voices on the other side of it, and knocked quickly.
The voices stopped. Someone squealed. Then yelled, exasperated in the way only a thirteen-year-old girl who isn’t getting what she wants could. It sounded like Kelli and Colleen times a billion. Then the door opened and I saw Ellie.
She was wearing her jeans again, boots, and a flowery tank top with a bunch of silver necklaces on top, some with cool-looking spikes, others with skulls. Tough jewelry with a girly-looking shirt. I liked the combination. It was very her.
Even now, here, at ten in the morning, her face was contradictory in the same way. Her mouth was indecisive, her lips unsure whether to press against each other in worry or smile, her eyes were wide and nervous, yet hard and steady.
I’d practiced my speech on the way over here, but of course it all came out in a tumble of words and noises now that she was right in front of me and I knew her mother wasn’t too far out of the picture.
“Ellie. Uh. Hi. Hi, Ellie. I…I hope it’s not too early. I didn’t mean to drop by. I mean, I did. But I would have warned you. But I didn’t have your number. So I just…came by. I’m sorry. You’re busy. I’m sorry. It’s…oh, I’m Camden. We met on Monday. At the…place. In town. Where stuff happened.”
I clamped my mouth shut. God you sound like an idiot, I told myself, closing my eyes and trying to keep calm.
“I remember,” Ellie said in an oddly quiet voice. “I’m glad you came by.”
My eyes flew open to make sure she wasn’t joking.
“Really?”
She nodded. “Really. I just had breakfast so…” she stuck her head back around the door and said something to her mother who I knew was just standing off to the left. Ellie looked back. “My mom says it’s okay if I’m back before dinner.”
I grinned, a smile propelled by my heart. “Sure. Great.” I completely ignored the fact that I had no idea what my plan was. I was kinda hoping we could have hung out in her room and listened to tunes and talked, but I got the hint that her mother actually wanted us out of the house and gone.
It was confirmed when Ellie quickly stepped out the door and closed it behind her, without even saying good-bye to her mom.
“Well?” she asked me.
My mouth opened and shut like a fish. “You aren’t going to introduce me to your mother?”
Another weird flash of anxiety came through her eyes. “No. She’s…you know moms. She’s got a migraine.”
I nodded. “Oh, okay, that’s too bad.” I understood.
“No,” Ellie said quickly, placing her hand on my arm. A wave of pleasure shot through me, like art growing in my veins. “No, it’s not like that. She doesn’t care who I hang out with. She’d like you just fine…she just doesn’t feel well right now. And she’s
