I just smiled and nodded. This was ‘the stuff’ for him. And how envious I was of him that he knew exactly what made him happy in life. I guess deep down I did, too.

“Well you be careful, ok? Take it easy? I’m just sitting up there with the girls if you need anything,” I patted his shoulder as I went to climb back up the steps.

“OK then. Same goes for you, you know,” he winked. And I did know. Through it all, I had grown to really love Buck, and I was so grateful for my relationship with him.

As predicted, the game was a complete blowout. Reed even threw a few Hail Mary passes down the field just for practice. I texted Tyler the score and told him I’d give him a call in the morning after the lock-in. It took him a while to respond, but I didn’t really mind. This night was for me, and I was taking it.

Sarah and I worked the check-in table for the students coming into the gym for the lock in. We had secured the gym area, locker rooms and attached health and science hallways and classrooms for the night. Each room had a different activity, and the gym was for dancing of course, which is where I knew Sarah would spend most of the night. I had come up with the idea for an Adam Sandler movie room, which is where I was planning to spend at least a few hours.

The crowd was getting fairly large and most of the students had started to dance to the music in the gym when the football players finally started to arrive. Each time a new one came in, there was a round of screaming from the girls in the gym.

I was counting the cash in our box to see how many $5 entries we had taken when Reed walked in with Sean. Becky ran over to Sean right away, wrapping her arms and legs around him and dragging him to the dance floor. Reed just stood there smiling at his helpless friend. I was staring, and when his eyes snapped to mine, I startled and started counting again, though I had no idea what number I was on.

I could feel his presence when he walked closer to me and started saying random numbers. “Forty five, sixty, three hundred, fifteen,” he joked.

I elbowed him in the side, blew the stray hairs from my face and put the money back into a pile on the table in front of me. “You ass, now I have to start over.”

He just winked as he pulled out his wallet and gave me an extra $5. “Start with that one,” he smiled, the smile. It was the first time in a long time we had talked, and the first time he gave that smile to me. It was short-lived as he put his arm around one of the senior cheerleaders and walked over to a corner of the gym with her, dropping his practice bag and taking her by the arm to lead her out into the hallway. His hair was wet from showering, and he was wearing his baggy jeans and a long-sleeved gray T-shirt with the short-sleeved plaid button one over it. My favorite shirt. The shirt he was half wearing when he said he loved me, I thought.

Sarah coughed a little to bring me back to reality. “Start counting, sister,” she was snarky.

“Oh yeah, uh… sorry,” I said, starting with my pile again.

The doors were locked by 10:30 p.m. Sarah and I talked to a couple of the teacher chaperones and gave them the envelope of the money we’d raised. Not wanting to waste any more time, Sarah pulled me to the dance floor where Sienna was standing awkwardly waiting for us. She had picked all of the music for the night, so of course it was all something we could dance to.

We spent the first hour of the lock-in dancing with a lot of the other girls. Most of the boys at the party were sitting along the walls watching. Typical, I thought.

I could only keep up the poor showing of hip-hop that came from my feet for so long. I leaned over to tell Sarah and Sienna that I was going to check out the movie rooms and they both nodded. Sienna was determined to learn some step that Sarah was trying to teach her. Hopeless. But I admire her determination.

The halls were quiet, no one tucked in a corner making out. I was glad of that, mostly someone in particular. I looked into the room that was showing scary movies and saw a lot of seniors sitting in there, some cuddling a little too close. The chaperones are going to have an issue with that.

Not really in the mood for blood and gore, I stopped in at the game room. Sean and Reed were in there playing a competitive game of ping pong. I slid into a seat next to Becky and asked her who was winning. She said it was all tied up and they have to play a tie-breaker game. Just then, Sean hit a shot that nicked the corner of the table and sent the ball flying into my lap. I jumped a little with surprise and then held the ball out in my hand to give it to Reed.

He had a sinister grin as he turned to me, his eyes lowering a little. I felt very much like prey that he was focusing on.

“I believe that’s my ball, madam,” he snickered.