It was the end of the school day and Chris, pleasantly, had a blank canvas for a weekend. As he worked his way through the halls and out the doors, he kept hearing about how cool Dexter's party was going to be and how great the weekend was. Rumor had it that Mateo had enough beer in his closet to keep the entire student body buzzed for days. Just thinking of everybody mingling over at Chad's place put more fire in his belly. The weekend was going to be great.
His family had made plans to head out of town for Labor Day weekend, excluding him of course. The minister said that, even though he were their son, his parent's should speak to him only as much as necessary, lest they be leavened by the wildfire of his sin. So he was left to his own devices.
York county of Pennsylvania had roughly forty towns and cities to call its own. He could personally list about twenty of them. He knew every officer by name and had shaken hands with most of them.
His father, being the head of the policeman's union, had made arrangements for most of the Leesburg PD to make their way to Sesame Place over the weekend, leaving Satuday night, playing around the place on Sunday, and making the drive back on Monday. With only a skeleton crew of four officers, of the towns total fourteen, holding down the fort, odds were that he could get up to virtually anything he wanted to as long as he had a decent distraction and the wits not to get the Sheriff's Department involved.
Fortunately, dear old Chad would be the perfect distraction for his Sunday shenanigans. With as many kids going to the party as there were, there was practically no way that any less than all four officers on duty would be anywhere else ten minutes after he'd place his tip with the 911 call-taker.
Piercing the school's double doors by the parking lot, he sqinted through the sunlight and made out, past the low battery notification on his phone, that
The RING had finished construction and he should "apply now!" for a competitively paying position as a security officer.
The sweat dribbling out of the pores in his fist began to ignite but, dropping his phone, he quenched the kindling flames in his coat pocket before tripping over a bench along beside the sidewalk and crashing into another student. Pulling himself to his feet instantly, he began to babble.
"I'm terribly sorry. I didn't see you there. I got distracted by something I'd seen on Facebook." Lending a hand, he pulled the other student to her feet before reaching down to help her gather her spilt books.
"Ohhh," she wilted, drooping. "I hoped that it wouldn't go so viral. That damned Evelyn always has her nose in everyone's business," the girl said.
"I'm sorry. What are you talking about?" Chris asked.
"The Facebook post?" She asked, cocking her head. "With me kicking the car?"
"Oh. I haven't seen it but I'm sorry to hear that it's bothering you so much," he said, offering her her books.
Taking the stack into her arms, she slid her hand over his on accident before dropping them a second time and shouting. "Aggh! God, you're so hot," and licking the back of her hand, having been burned, before self-consciously correcting "I mean, your hand is.. your skin.. you're temperature is high?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I should've been more careful. That's entirely my bad. Sometimes I overheat when I get frustrated. I dropped my phone a second ago," he said reaching down to pick it up.
Tipping the black screen towards her, he harrassed the power button before discovering that the juice had all spilled out sometime when it was on the concrete.
"I guess the battery died. Just my like. They actually built a prison specifically to hold me. The RING. I don't know if you've heard of it or not."
"No, I haven't," she said. "Why don't you text me a link to it when you recharge your phone, though", she smiled innocently.
"Um, alright. I'd add your contact but the battery's dead."
"That's fine," she said, magicing a pen into her hand and carefully sketching her phone number onto the back of his palm.
"Oh, alright then. When I get home I will absolutely do that. Say, what's your name?"
"Letitia. Letitia Green," she said.
"Cool, I'm Chris--"
"Yeah, Chris Crossfire!" she finished for him.
"Christian. But yeah, I guess you do know who I am."
"Everybody does. You're kinda famous."
Chris wilted.
"Are you going to Chad's party Sunday night?"
"I.. wasn't planning on it, no."
"Oh. I got invited but didn't have anyone to go with. Would you mind going with me?" she asked.
"No--I mean, yeah I would. I'd love to go with you," he said, sabotaging his own plans for the evening.
"Cool. Pick me up at seven. I'll text you the deets later," she said.
And at that, Chris set course for home with a little more pep in his step and more mixed emotions about his three day weekend than he knew what to do with.