k we’d go much further anyway, but a loud peal of Haylee’s laughter shut our passion down. I turned to look toward the house.
“Where, oh, where are you two? Oh, where has my little sister gone?” We heard her sing, and then Jimmy laughed. “Are you swimming nude?” she shouted. “Did you get ideas from Jimmy’s movie after all?”
Before they came around the corner of the house, Matt had moved to his chaise.
“And what are you two doing?” she asked when she spotted us. They kept walking toward us.
“Looking at the constellations,” Matt said.
“Right,” Jimmy said. “The constellations.”
Haylee giggled.
“I can show you Virgo, if you like,” Matt offered.
“I’d rather look at Venus,” Jimmy said. “Think I have,” he added, and Haylee giggled.
“Did you smoke that joint?” I demanded. “Haylee!”
“Just a drag or two,” she said. “Big deal. Mother won’t smell anything.”
“I knew it. You’re going to ruin everything for us.”
“Oh, chill out. Maybe you should take a drag yourself. We always do whatever the other does,” she told Jimmy.
“Oh, really? She always does whatever you do?” he asked.
“But not the same way,” she said, giggling.
“I’ll have to discover one day if that’s true,” Jimmy quipped.
“Like hell you will,” Haylee told him, and playfully punched him in the shoulder.
“Ow! She’s so cruel,” he told us.
“What time is it?” I asked Matt.
“Quarter to eleven,” he said.
“We’d better go.”
“It doesn’t take that long to get home,” Haylee said.
“If we’re there just in time, she won’t like it, and we won’t get out again so easily,” I said.
“What are you, in prison?” Jimmy asked.
“Prison is better,” Haylee replied, now sounding sober and bitter. “You still have some rights.”
“I can take you home,” Jimmy offered. “You can let Matt bring your sister home, and we’ll be there ten minutes later. We can do a lot in ten minutes.”
“Haylee,” I said, my voice full of warning.
“No, sorry, we can’t do that. Mother would be angry,” she said.
“Why?”
“It’s a long story,” Haylee said. “It goes back to birth.”