Bright Lights, Dark Nights by Stephen Emond

Author:Stephen Emond
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626722071
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

“Tonight,” Naomi said. And when she kissed me, my heart beat heavily like the first time she touched my hand, but for all kinds of reasons now.

I understood where Naomi was coming from but it also felt so formal and mature, like I was asking her hand in marriage. Keeping it secret felt like we were doing something wrong, though, which we weren’t. And the longer we kept the secret the more it seemed to imply this was something we shouldn’t be doing. I wanted to be Naomi’s boyfriend, and if talking to her parents was what it took to make it happen, that was what I was going to do.

Naomi picked up a discarded spray can.

“Think there’s anything left?” she said, and shook the can. She sprayed a little spot on the ground next to her, a bright orange spot. “Works! Tag something!”

“I don’t know how to tag,” I said. “Listen, I’m no ten-year-old misfit anymore. I’ve matured.”

“You just write something,” Naomi said. “Put our names together. Wallomi.”

“Wallomi?” I said. “Is that what we are, Wallomi?”

“Yeah, it’s like a wallaby,” Naomi said. “Like Rocko. Draw that.”

“What’s a wallaby, and what’s a Rocko?” I asked, and Naomi laughed.

“You don’t know anything!” Naomi tossed the can, and we kissed. Then she added, with disappointment, “I guess we’re good kids after all.”

Not two seconds after that, a cop walked by and looked at us, two kids kissing under the bridge in the middle of a school day, inches from a can of spray paint.

“Shouldn’t you two be in school?” the cop asked, turning to face us, looking authoritative. But before we could respond—not that we had a response—he said “I’m just kidding!” The cop went on his way, protecting the city, or possibly ignoring crimes.

“Should we head back?” I asked, a nervous rock still sitting in my stomach.

“Yeah,” Naomi said, and we got out of there.

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