Woods - first part

Someone had hung red CD's from the trees. They had looped string through the CD's and then just flung the ends up into the tangled mess of branches. The CD's must have been either the same CD or someone had spray painted them bright red. Either way, the effect was oddly festive, especially from the road.

In the dark, she couldn't see the CD's. Everything was blue and black, the only light coming from the distant windows of Tom's mother's house and the tips of lit cigarettes traveling to and from teenage lips. She could make out the warm mist of her own breath in the late October air, and she hugged her chest tighter, remembering how she and her sister used to pretend they were smoking when they breathed out into the cold. Now that she was standing with a group of smokers, her breath didn't resemble the smoke at all.

Jesse offered her a cigarette and she took it, anxious to look calm and confident, as though she smoked and stood out in the dark and the cold for no reason on a daily - um - nightly basis. She hated cigarette smoke. She hated the dark and the cold. But Jesse, she liked.

Some of the guys and a couple of the girls were sipping beer from a smuggled six pack. When Tom extended one to Jesse he shook his head and put his arm around her shoulders. She could feel the warmth of him through her jacket. She could smell his soap, even though the smoke.

The talk was mostly about guys they knew, about people they knew who could drive, and about how to get pot. She didn't have much to contribute, so she did her best to laugh at all the right places and look like she was smoking the cigarette in her fingers. After awhile, Jesse leaned over and plucked it from her, taking a deep drag and lighting the tip bright red. "Smoking's a nasty habit," he whispered in her ear. "If you don't smoke already, you probably shouldn't start." He pulled her closer as he finished off her smoke.

Her mother thought she was at Heather's. She wasn't worried about her mother calling, and she knew Heather would cover for her because she had covered for Heather on more than a few afternoons while she met with her own boyfriend, Jackson, in his car. Jackson seemed really old for Heather, but whatever. Heather had her own life. And now she was returning the favor. Which made it all worth it.