After I was done with work, I changed clothes and snuck out behind the chapel. S.D. wasn’t there. I sat against the chapel wall wishing it were Jane I was waiting for. The sky was clear except for a few wispy purple clouds in front of where the sun had just set. A sliver of moon and one bright star were pinned to the cold blue to my right. Every once in a while I heard boys’ voices coming from the woods. Kids smoking cigarettes or pot. That was a disappointment since these woods were only a couple of hundred yards deep. It was surrounded by athletic fields and teachers’ homes, which were protected by barking dogs. We’d have to cross the fields to the mountains if we wanted to be alone. Why be alone though? I decided we could do whatever we were going to do right in these woods.

Vern Stevens and Seth Crawford came walking around the corner. “We’re next,” Stevens said.

“What?”

“You’re after us,” said Crawford.

“I’m after you what?”

Stevens looked at Crawford. “Told you we should’ve waited.” Then to me, “We’re next.”

“What are you guys talking about?”

“You’re here to meet S.D. Stuart, right?” Stevens said.

I paused. “Yeah.”

“Well, we are, too. Only we’ve got her before you. You’re getting sloppy sevenths.”

“Huh?”

“You heard about S.D. in the North Dorm today, right?”

“I didn’t hear nothing.”

“She walked into the North Dorm this afternoon,” Crawford said, “and blew five guys.” The two of them looked positively giddy.

“You’re crazy,” I said. “Who told you that?”

“Ten guys who watched,” Stevens said.

“They’re full of shit,” I said. “No way. She’d have to be out of her mind.”

“Maybe she’s come to her senses,” Crawford said.

“It’s our lucky day,” said Stevens.

“Ain’t my lucky day.”

“Why the hell not?” Stevens said. “If she wants to give it out.”

“She don’t want to give it out. I know her. She wouldn’t.”

“What do you think it was, a mass hallucination?” Stevens said. “And what are you doing here?”

“She wanted to talk to me.”

Stevens coughed up a laugh. “You think Crane and Kelliher are in there talking to her?”

I remembered the voices and turned toward the woods. Crawford grabbed my arm. I swung him against the chapel wall. “Don’t touch me,” I said.

“Relax,” Stevens said. “You’re getting all tense, Dunphy.”

“Don’t fucking touch me,” I said.

“Okay,” Stevens said, “you were here first.”