Moonlight Secrets (7 page)

My mouth dropped open and I started to gag. Then I felt a cockroach slither out over my lips and cling to my chin.

I grabbed Shark's arm. “I . . . don't understand . . .” I choked out.

But I couldn't talk. I pulled another cockroach off my tongue. Then another one. I tossed them to the floor. My tongue itched and throbbed. I could feel more insects crawling in my mouth—on the roof of my mouth, under my tongue, poking out through my lips.

“Whoa!” I spat the cockroaches out. One
of them flew onto the table. Another bug stuck to my cheek.

I gagged again. I pulled two more cockroaches from my open mouth. Another one slid down my chin.

My face itched. My whole body started to itch.

I struggled to keep my dinner down.

Another brown insect scrabbled out of my mouth.

“What is
happening?
” I choked out.

Cockroaches swarmed over our table.

I leaped to my feet. I shoved Galen out of the way. I pressed my hand over my mouth, squeezed out of the booth, and started running to the front door.

Where was I going? I didn't know. I couldn't think straight. Cockroaches were
pouring
out of my mouth.

“Wait! Nate—,” I heard Shark calling to me.

“What's up?” Ryland called.

I couldn't answer. Cockroaches crawled over my hand. My mouth was filling up with them.

As I reached the door, I glanced back.

And saw Candy, watching me from her booth. She sat stiffly, one hand on that jeweled pendant.

And she had the biggest smile on her face.

“Let's cut Ms. Harvey's class,” Shark
said. He tossed his government text into the locker and pulled out his jacket.

I said okay. It was the last class of the day, and she was just reviewing stuff anyway.

I couldn't concentrate on anything all day. I kept thinking about the night before. Seeing cockroaches everywhere I looked.

I couldn't eat. I couldn't even
think
about putting something in my mouth.

The cockroaches didn't stop coming until I left the bar. I threw up a dozen of them into the curb on Fear Street. I hunched over the curb, feeling sick, waiting for more bugs to crawl out.

But there were no more.

The next morning my tongue kept tingling
and itching like crazy. I could feel the little legs crawling over it. I kept poking my fingers inside my mouth, feeling for more bugs. But there was nothing there.

Just the memory of it.

And the memory of Candy Shutt's strange smile. As if she was really enjoying seeing me suffer.

Shark and I stepped out the back door by the boys' locker room. It was a warm day, the sun beaming down in a cloudless sky. I unzipped my jacket. It felt more like May or June than October.

I swung my backpack onto one shoulder and followed Shark to the students' parking lot. I had parked my mom's little blue Chevy Malibu by the fence.

Some kids in a gym class were kicking a soccer ball back and forth on the field beside the stadium. I heard the coach's whistle and saw some other guys on the track getting in position to do sprints.

“Hey, Nate—leaving early?”

I heard the shout and spun around. Aaron. Calling from the soccer field.

I waved. And saw Candy watching us from
beside the track. She wore white gym shorts and a gray T-shirt. Her black hair flew around her face in the warm breeze. She had her hands on her waist and stared hard at us, squinting into the sun.

I spun away from her. Up ahead, Shark had his head down. He took long, loping strides. I had to run to catch up to him.

“I just want to get out of here,” he muttered. He shook his head. “I'd like to get in the car and start driving and just keep going. I mean, never look back. Just keep following the highway wherever it leads.”

“Whoa. What's up?” I asked. That didn't sound like Shark.

Well, yes, it did. I mean, you never knew what you were going to get with him. Some days he was up and enthusiastic and really into things. Other days . . .

“You mean the thing at the bar last night?” I asked. “The cockroaches?”

He shook his head. “That's not what I was thinking about, Nate.”

I unlocked the car door and started to slide into the driver's seat. “What were you thinking about?”

He shrugged. “Whatever.” He suddenly looked embarrassed.

“No. Really,” I said.

He gazed at me a long time, as if deciding what to tell me. “It's my dad,” he said finally, lowering his eyes. “He . . . he gets drunk every night. I think my mom . . . I think she's had it. I mean, she says she can't take it anymore. You should hear the yelling and screaming.”

He kept his eyes down. His hand tapped the side of the car, beating out a fast, tense rhythm. “It's everything, Nate. I mean, my grades totally suck this term. And . . . well . . . Nikki. You know. I mean, I don't want a
relationship
or anything. But she's talking all the time about the two of us being a couple or something. I mean . . .”

His voice trailed off. I'd seen him like this before. He usually snapped out of it in a day or two.

“Maybe it's Nights,” I said. “Maybe you're just wrecked, Shark. Maybe you should stay home and sleep and—”

“No way!” he said sharply. “Late at night in the bar—that's the only quiet time I get. That's the only time it's like . . . peaceful, you know?”
He rubbed his temples as if he had a headache.

I turned back. Candy was still watching us. She stood there beside the track like a statue, hands on her waist, not moving.

Was she trying to freak me out?

Shark moved to the other side of the car and pulled open the passenger door. He tossed his backpack into the back seat.

I heard voices. Ada and Jamie came hurrying across the parking lot, their shoes thudding on the asphalt.

Ada jogged toward us, shouting our names. Jamie tried to keep up with her, but her bad leg kept her several paces behind.

They didn't say a word. Just squeezed into the back seat of my little two-door car. “Where are we going?” Ada asked.

I pulled my door shut. Shark crushed a Burger King cup on the floor and tossed it out the window. I turned the ignition and the car started up. I floored the gas pedal a few times, making the engine roar.

“Jamie? Cutting class?” I said. “Aren't you afraid of messing up your grade point average?”

“I took the stupid course last year,” she
said. She straightened her dark hair behind her shoulders. One of her long, silvery earrings tangled in her hair, and she struggled to pull it out. “I can't believe they're making me repeat this stuff.”

Ada blew a big, pink bubblegum bubble. Shark reached back and popped it. Bubblegum splattered over her face. “Nice, Shark,” she said. “Welcome to kindergarten.”

I tore out of the parking lot with my tires squealing.

“Great way to sneak out of school,” Jamie said.

“Who cares?” Shark replied.

Ada, Jamie, and I talked and kidded around while Shark sat in silence. He kept his eyes straight ahead and didn't seem to be listening to the conversation.

Soon we were on the River Road, which curves along the shores of the Onononka River. A forest of thick pine trees whirred past on our right. To the left, tall reeds poked up from the grassy shoreline of the river.

The road curves along the water, then climbs to high rock cliffs. The wooded clearings on top of the cliffs are a popular parking
spot for Shadyside High kids looking for . . . you know . . . some privacy.

But I didn't follow the road up. Instead I hit the brakes hard, squealed to a stop, then turned into a wide, grassy clearing between clusters of tall reeds.

We climbed out of the car, pulled off our shoes, and made our way along the muddy shore to the river. The girls and I held back, but Shark stepped into the water. He tugged up the legs of his jeans and let the water wash over his ankles.

“How is it?” I called.

“Freezing cold,” Shark replied. “Feels good.” He took another step, and the water rolled over the bottoms of his jeans.

“Whoa!” Shark shouted. “The bottom—it drops straight down. It's totally deep here.”

I waded in for a second, but the icy water made my ankles ache. I hobbled back, shaking the pain from one foot, then the other.

The two girls and I found a sunny, dry spot in the grass. We dropped down and stretched out and raised our faces to the sun.

Shark splashed along the shore for a while. Then he began picking up stones and heaving
them with all his strength into the river. He tossed one after another, grunting with each throw, his face tight and intense as if he was having some kind of contest with himself.

Finally Jamie called for him to come and sit down. To my surprise, Shark obeyed. He stretched out between the two girls, pulled up a fat blade of grass, and jammed it between his lips.

“What's your problem, anyway?” Jamie asked him. She was leaning back with her hands in the grass. Her dark eyes caught the light of the sun.

Shark scratched one shoulder. “Don't really know.”

“You looked so intense,” Ada said. “What were you thinking about?”

He frowned. “Cockroaches.”

Jamie turned to me. “That was so freaky last night,” she said. “I couldn't get to sleep, Nate. I kept thinking they were in my bed.”

Shark chewed on the blade of grass. He kept his eyes down.

“It's so gross,” Ada murmured. “I'm so glad I stayed home last night. I mean . . . crawling on your
tongue
?”

“Stop talking about it,” I said sharply. “I can't stop thinking about it either. My mouth has been itching all day.”

I picked a ladybug off the knee of my jeans, dropped it into my other hand, and watched it cross my palm. “Did you see the look on Candy's face?” I asked. “When I had the cockroaches climbing out of my mouth?”

Jamie and Shark shook their heads. “Candy
is
a cockroach,” Shark muttered.

“Well, she was grinning,” I said. “I mean, she had this big grin on her face, like she was so enjoying it.”

“You're joking,” Ada murmured.

“Candy is a witch!” Jamie exclaimed. “That explains it. She cast some kind of spell on you, Nate. Then she sat back and watched.”

Ada laughed.

“That's dumb,” Shark said.

Jamie tossed a clump of dirt at him. It bounced against his T-shirt and crumbled to the grass. “It's not dumb at all. I've read a lot about witches. They really do exist.”

“Dumb,” Shark repeated.

“Then what's
your
explanation?” Jamie demanded.

Shark scratched his hair. “You know that story about the girl on a farm who fell asleep in the barn, and a spider crawled into her ear? It's an urban legend or something?”

Jamie shook her head. “What about it?”

“The spider laid eggs in the girl's ear canal, but she was asleep. She didn't know it,” Shark continued. “And a few weeks later, she was sitting at dinner, and her ear started to itch. And hundreds of tiny spiders came crawling out of her ear.”

“Oh, wow.” Ada made a disgusted face. “Is that a true story?”

“Could be,” Shark said.

Jamie sat up straight. “And you think Nate swallowed a cockroach sometime, and it laid eggs in his throat or something?”

“It's possible, right?” Shark replied. “And they all hatched last night.” He frowned. “That's better than saying Candy is a witch and cast a spell on him.”

“No way,” Jamie murmured.

“Candy sure thought it was a riot,” I said. “She was, like, really into it.”

Shark got this faraway look in his eyes. “I know how to deal with Candy,” he whispered.

“Excuse me?” Jamie asked. “What did you say?”

“I can handle Oink-Oink,” Shark said.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

Shark didn't answer. He climbed to his feet and started to walk rapidly to the shore.

“Where are you going?” Jamie called after him.

He turned back. “For a walk. Want to come?”

Jamie struggled to her feet and took off after Shark. Ada and I sat side by side in the grass and watched them disappear behind a clump of tall evergreen shrubs.

“The cockroach thing is totally creepy,” Ada said, turning to me. “You must have been so scared, Nate.” Her eyes were kinda watery, and her chin trembled.

Before I could reply, she grabbed my head with both hands and pulled my face to hers. She started kissing me, kissing me hard, moving her lips against mine.

Stunned, it took me a little while to kiss her back.

Ada had never been into me in any way. But here we were, holding each other, pressing
against each other in the warm grass, and lip-locked so hard I could barely breathe.

I wrapped my arms around her waist as I kissed her. I felt her mouth open. Our kiss lasted for another minute or two. Then she suddenly pulled away. Her face was red, like she was embarrassed.

I wanted to act casual about it. You know, be cool. But I didn't really know how to do that. I just stared at her wide-eyed, breathing hard, until she laughed.

Was she laughing at me? Or laughing because she liked me?
Did
she like me?

I didn't have time to think about it because I saw Shark and Jamie returning from their walk. I jumped to my feet and brushed off my jeans with both hands. And pretended that scene with Ada had never happened.

“Let's go,” Shark said.

I grabbed Ada's hands and tugged her to her feet. Her face was still red, and she had a strange smile frozen there.

We walked to the car, put on our shoes, and climbed back in—Shark and me in front, the girls in back.

I fumbled in my jeans pocket and found
the key. The car started right up. “Hey, this beats seventh-period government,” Shark said.