“Yes!” I shouted. “Nice one, Shirley!”

The two of them were close in the dark. They stood there, him holding on to her for an extra second.

“Get a room!” Mary shouted, laughing.

They glanced over at us, each taking a half step away from the other.

“Very funny,” Tom said. “Very funny.”

Mary whispered, “Do you mind walking me around? I don’t think I want to try after all.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Shirley made it.”

“Barely! But I mean, if you don’t want to . . .”

“No, no,” I said. “I don’t mind. I’ll walk you.”

“I don’t think I want to jump,” she said to Tom and Shirley. I expected them to protest, but they didn’t.

“It’s okay,” Tom said.

“We’ll wait here,” Shirley added.

“Actually,” I said, “do you mind going on up to my house? It’s the only house up there, with the lights. Tell my parents I’ll be home in a minute. I don’t want them driving all the way over to the party to get me.”

“Okay,” Tom said, and he and Shirley turned and started walking up the hill through the brittle stubble of harvested cornstalks. My house felt like a long way off from there. The front light was a lonely star.

“You sure?” I asked Mary again.

She nodded, and the two of us turned and walked along the stream, toward the road and the bridge. The space between us felt charged by something, like there was an invisible force there, pulling us together, pushing us apart.

“What’s your story?” I asked her. The night seemed less dark as I walked there beside Mary.

She smiled at me bashfully. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know. Tell me something about you.” I felt brave, unabashed. This was not my normal, intimidated self. In the darkness I found a kind of courage.

“It’s my mom and dad and me. Mom works at the Nysa Diner, usually from around four in the afternoon until late, two or three in the morning. Dad works night shift at the warehouse over by the highway.”

“That’s far,” I said.

She nodded. “I spend a lot of evenings at home on my own.”

“Really?”

“It’s okay. I like it. I like the quiet. Why do you think I chose to walk this way? It’s a chance for some quiet.” She smiled.

“I’m sorry. I’m asking too many questions. Messing up your quiet time.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

We didn’t say anything for a few minutes. The bridge was up ahead of us, and far off I could see the headlights of a car on a different road. The stars still shone. The dark profiles of the surrounding tree-covered hills rose around us like massive waves in the middle of the ocean.

“Have you lived out here for long?” she asked me.

“My whole life.”

“In the same house?” She sounded incredulous.

“Yep. Same house. Same parents. Same everything.”

She laughed, and it was light in the dark.