“Yeah, my parents finally agreed to it.”
“Then get off the phone and get over here. You’re wasting my minutes.”
“Hey, my minutes, too.”
“I don’t see you working to earn yours.”
“You sound upset,” I say. “What’s the matter?”
“Can’t talk right now. Just get over here soon, okay?”
He hangs up on me.
I put the phone in my pocket and my backpack on my back. Outside, it’s a dark and stormy night, perfect for what we have in mind. Or perfect for a bunch of trouble.
For a moment, I wonder if maybe this isn’t a good idea. Maybe it would be better to have a talk with my mother about what’s going on instead of talking to Enrique’s dead great grandmother.
But enough maybes. I’m starting to sound like my parents. My mom loves and understands me, and she believes in magic, but if I told her I was a werewolf, she would love me and understand me all the way to the mental hospital. Then she would ask for the most natural treatments available, and if I could take herbs instead of pharmaceuticals.
But I wouldn’t see my friends anytime soon, if ever.
Now she’s waiting for me at the door.
“You’ll call me, if you need anything?”
“I’ll just open the window and shout over to our house.”
She smiles. “I know it’s just next door, but still...”
“Mom, I’m fifteen years old. You act like I’m a little baby.”
“You want me to keep you here like Josh?”
I shake my head. “I meant to say that I appreciate how you treat me like a teenager and not like a little kid.”
I hear a soft, tentative meow down below me, but I’m paying attention to Mom. I’m afraid she’s having second thoughts now.
She smiles again. “There you go, that’s what I call growing up. See you, and don’t stay up too late.”
“We’ll be fine, Mom, don’t worry.”
I’ve got the door open now, just a little, and it’s letting in the cold and the wet. But there’s another little meow, and I look down. Max is there. For a moment he looks at me, and we lock eyes, and I think we’re friends again.
It’s a wonderful moment. I’m all ready to call out to Josh to tell him I’ve found his cat and everything is going to be okay.
But then my stomach rumbles, my face twitches, and everything changes.
I swear I reached down to hold the cat, not to harm him.
But he hisses at me and he’s out the door into the weather before I can blink.
“Crap,” my mother says as she looks out into the dark.
The door remains cracked open, letting in cold air. I need to get over to Enrique’s, but my mother is looking at me.
“What?” I say. “He’ll come back in. He’s a house cat. He’s afraid of outside.”
She shakes her head. “What just happened?”