Chapter 2

She came back down, in a sweatshirt and jeans, looking great.

“How about, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER,” I suggested?

“That sounds kind of scary, but the ad for it makes me think it might be fun to watch,” she said.

“I could find something else, but it’s about to leave town. I’ll never get to see it with Lynn; she doesn’t like spine-tingling movies any more than you do. I was hoping to see it with her, so I could hold her when it gets real scary.”

“Well, I don’t want you to miss seeing the movie ... but I may get scared myself,” she rationalized.

“Just remember, to keep your hands to yourself, young lady. I have a girlfriend, and we tell each other everything,” I said.

Once again, you’re probably way ahead of the curve, there is no Lynn, there never was. This is all part of my master plan, but I’m getting ahead of myself, a little.

We yelled up to Mom, that we’d be gone for a couple of hours. She acknowledged our yell, by yelling back that it was fine with her.

We took my car; it had bench seating, although Kami sat over by the window. I took a right turn faster than I should, and she slid into me, apologizing repeatedly. The passenger seatbelt is strictly for show; it hasn’t been functional for a while.

We pulled up to the Carmike One Dollar Theatre. I got out, ran over to her side and opened her door for her.

“I’ll bet Lynn likes dating a gentleman,” she said.

“Oh, yeah – Lynn likes a lot of the things I do,” I said.

When we were a lot younger, Mom would let us off at the theatre and told Kami, not to let go of her little brother. Either for that reason, or anticipation of this scary movie, Kami took my hand, as we got in line for tickets. I insisted on buying, so I paid the required cash to get in.

It looked like nobody was going to see this but us, but after finding a seat near the back, some others came in during the few commercials and made enough noise, that I was about to get up and tell someone about it.

“Don’t be a tattletale, Randall ... they might settle down. You were exactly the same way, when you were that age,” she said.

“I don’t remember being that age, Kami – I went from being cute to being ‘almost a man’ as Mom used to call me.”

We both laughed, as the theatre got dark, I felt her hand on my arm already.

One hundred and five minutes later, I had some permanent scratches in my right arm. The blood was just beginning to come back to the fingers and palm of my right hand. She actually crawled into my lap and put her head face-first into my chest. I also had to discretely reposition my boner, inside my pants.

Of course, after it was over, she apologized for my scratches. I told her that Lynn would want to know how they happened. She figured they would go away in time, so no explanation would be necessary.

Back to the car, this time she scooted over next to me as I started it up to leave.

“Do we have to go home yet?” she said.

“We don’t have to do anything, pretty girl – what’s your fancy?” I said casually.

“Well, that movie’s going to give me nightmares, so why don’t we go to the park like we used to, and watch people?” she proffered.

“That was a very long time ago, Kami,” I said.

“No it wasn’t, I was ... fourteen, and you were twelve. We went everywhere together back then. I remember very clearly,” she said with a giggle.

“Well OK, now I’m twenty, and you’re twenty-two, so the oldest gets to pick.”

We found the same park we used to walk to from home, parked on the street and found a shady patch of grass to lie on. We were on a slight incline, so we could see people walking by. This is exactly what we used to do, people watch.

Our favorite game was when a couple walked by; we would each guess what their relationship was. There was a thirty-something couple passing by.

“Married for ten years, not sure if they’re still in love?” was Kami’s suggestion.

“He needs to tell her that he’s found another lover,” was my guess.

“Why do you say that?” she asked me.

“Look at their hands, not touching at all. Almost defiantly ‘not touching’ one another,” I rebutted.

We didn’t do the next few couples walking by, until a really cute couple walked slowly by.

“They’re in a brand-new relationship. They can’t keep their hands to themselves. See, they stopped to kiss. They seem inseparable to me,” I said.

“She’s older than he is, they even walk in the same step pattern,” Kami said.

“Do you do this with Lynn?” She asked.

“No, this is ‘our thing’. We’ve got other things we do together. I miss her a lot. Even though I’ve only known her for a short while, she could be ‘the one, ‘“ I said quietly and pensively.

“You really like her, don’t you?” Kami asked.

“Yeah, I do!”

This specifically wasn’t part of my plan, but it was working. I heard a shift in my sister’s voice as she asked me about Lynn. I was trying to make her jealous, but I knew this wouldn’t happen all of a sudden; it would take time. I had a semester of acting class; I learned how to cry on cue. I wasn’t ready to use that quite yet.

“What’s going on with you these days Kami? Are you seeing anyone special?” I asked still quietly.

“No, I just can’t seem to find ‘that’ guy – you know that person that you see, and suddenly you think to yourself ... Wow, how have I lived without him?”

“I never met any of the boys you went out with, tell me about them, please?” I asked, looking down at this blonde vision of beauty.

“I only had about eight boyfriends, before I gave up.”

“What do you mean, gave up?” I asked, lowering my head to whisper to her.

“When I was little, I had been waiting for my boobies to start growing, but I realized that all boys are pigs. Everyone one of them, started staring at them, and not me.”

“So, it was all boys your own age?” I persisted.

“Yeah, one guy was five years older and after a nice dinner date, he went for the kiss and tried to grab my breast. I kicked him in the nuts and took a cab back to the sorority house.”

Putting my hand on her forehead, and brushing away a lock of her hair, I said, “I wish you had told me that. I would have found him and beat him up really bad.”