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She made sure Lucy was asleep, breathing softly with her back to her in their shared bedroom, and pulled out a flashlight from under her pillow. She pushed herself up onto her knees to look out the small window above her bed, and turned the flashlight on, shining it across the way and aiming for Hop’s bedroom window.
“C’mon, Hop, wake up. Wake up.” She muttered.
His face popped up in the window, shielding his eyes from the light, and she turned it off. The streetlamps above the trailer park were enough for them to be able to kind of see each other, and she gestured, waving her arm in a big movement, trying to get him to come over from his trailer to hers. He shook his head emphatically, pointing at his wrist like she didn’t know what time it was. She kept waving at him. He looked up at the ceiling, like rolling his eyes wasn’t enough, and disappeared from his window.
She shifted, nervous he’d just decided to go back to bed. She fiddled with the flashlight, debating on whether to bug him again, but then she saw him come out of his trailer, closing the door quietly behind him and heading over. She slid the window open, glancing at Lucy trying to make sure the squeak didn’t wake her.
He walked across the spotty grass between their trailers, stopping under her window. “Why the hell 're you flashing a light in my window, Joyce?”
She rolled her eyes at him, “I gotta get out of here, I’m going crazy.”
“Okay, why’d you have to wake me up?”
“I don’t know where to go. I just wanna get out. Lucy’s been driving me crazy all day, she’s had this awful fever and my dad had to work so I offered her like, eight different cans of soup before I found something she’d eat and by that point I just wanted to chuck the can at her head. Her fever finally broke, and she’s sleeping, but I’ve been stuck here taking care of her all day and I wanna get out of here.” She rambled.
“Alright, come on. Sneak out,” he dared her.
“My dad fell asleep on the couch.” She frowned, “I can’t go out the front. Plus, my door creaks, and it’s gonna wake Lucy.”
He considered for a minute, then reached up and poked at the screen on her window. “Hold on a sec.” He pulled it off, quickly, so that the noise passed as fast as possible. “That wake her?”
She tipped back, sitting on her heels for a second to watch Lucy’s chest rise and fall, then looked back at him and shook her head with a grin. “You’re gonna have to catch me.”
Hop raised his eyebrows at her. “Alright. I’ll catch you, Joyce.”
Still grinning, she leveraged herself out of the window, headfirst. It was a little awkward, and he basically had to drag her halfway out once she couldn’t push her torso any further out, but in the end, she fell forward into his arms and he set her down. “You good?” He asked.
She brushed her hands off on her jeans. “Yup.” She looked around. “Now what?” She said, tilting her head to look up at him.
“What do you mean, now what? You wanted out, you’re out.” He shrugged, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his coat pocket, holding it out for her to take one.
She pulled a cigarette out of the pack, “Well, we gotta go somewhere, what if my dad comes out for a smoke when he wakes up? We can’t just stand here.”
He lit the cigarette hanging from his lips, then held the lighter out to light hers. He took a drag, blowing smoke up toward the sky, and nodded, “Alright, come on. Follow me.” He started to walk away.
“What? Where are you going?”
He looked over his shoulder at her. “Are you coming or not?”
“Jesus, fine, be mysterious.” She jogged a little to catch up. “Where are we going?” She smoked as she walked, two steps for each he took, just to keep up.
“You’ll see.” He walked to the back of the trailer park, and into the woods.
She stopped at the treeline. “Um.”
He stopped, turning back around to look at her. “What? Ya scared?”
“Are you going to kill me and bury me in the woods, because that’s not exactly what I meant when I said I wanted to get out of the house.” She took a final drag from her cigarette, stomping it out under her shoe.
He laughed. “C’mon, I wanna show you something.”
“Yeah, because you don’t sound like the beginning of an after school special on kidnapped teens at all.” She crossed her arms.
“Joyce, seriously? We’ve been friends for almost a year, do you really think I’m gonna drag you into the woods and kill you now?” He scoffed.
She broke into laughter, unable to keep a straight face, “Nah, I’m just teasing, Hop.” She strolled into the woods with him. “Really, though, where are we going?”
He spoke as he started walking again. “You’re awful annoying when you want to know something, aren’t ya, Horowitz?”
“Yeah, but you know that.”
He smiled sideways at her. “Yeah, I do.”
She smacked his arm, “Screw you, Hop, you weren’t supposed to agree!” She giggled.
“You’re a lot of work,” He laughed, finishing his cigarette.
“Ah, but I’m your best friend and you adore me,” she said, smugly.
“I do, you’re right.” He said, sincere.
She smiled up at him and they kept walking.
She was never one to stay silent for long, so she bugged him again after a bit, “You never did tell me where the hell we’re going.”
“Well, we’re not going anywhere.” He stopped walking, “We’re here”
They stopped as they stepped into a clearing, the moon shining down through the opening in the trees. She looked around, her eyes wide. “Holy shit, Hop, where are we?” She was surrounded with trees and stars and moonlight, and it felt like magic.
He pointed, “My grandad has an old cabin, ‘bout half a mile thattaway, and I found this clearing one day when I was a kid. No one ever really comes out here, but I figured out it's faster to get here through the woods from the trailer park than it is to drive on the roads.”
She grinned at him, “It’s amazing! Look at all the stars!” She tipped her head back and spun, her arms out, until she got dizzy, laughing and lying down in the grass when she couldn’t stand anymore.
He walked over, standing next to her and looking down, “Dizzy?"
She laughed, “The stars are moving.” She sat up, holding her head. “C’mere, Hop, look at the stars with me?”
He shook his head, exasperated with her as always, but he sat down next to her anyway. “Stars still movin’?”
“Nah, they stopped.” She laid back, and yanked him down by the back of his shirt. “But look,” she pointed. “What do you see?”
He landed, laying on the ground next to her with an ‘oof’, “Jeez, I don’t know, stars?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Hop, stars. But what do they look like?”
He paused, looking at them. “Stars, Joyce, they look like stars.”
“You know, you have no imagination. Look,” she pointed, tracing out a shape.
“It’s a blob. You’re an astronomy whiz.”
“I hate you.” She laughed.
“You don't.” He turned his head to look at her.
She turned her head, too, “No, I don’t.” She smiled at him for a second, then turned back to look at the stars. “It’s a star. A star, made of stars.”
He chuckled, “Amazing. A star made of stars.”
“Oh, fine, you try and find something better.”
“Fine, I will,” he said.
They stayed there most of the night.