Center Ice by Cate Cameron

much good at being the comforting guy, and this was none of my business. I had my own stuff to worry about, and I’d already messed up once with someone in the Beacon house so I didn’t really want to dive into another mess. But still, I took a couple steps forward. “You okay?”
    “What are you doing here?”
    “Squirrel hunting. They let down their guard at night.”
    She looked at me for a few breaths as if trying to decide whether to go along with my nonsense, then finally said, “You don’t have a gun.”
    “I use my teeth. Want to help?”
    “Do I want to help you hunt squirrels with your teeth? Not tonight, no.”
    “Some other time, maybe.” I sank down carefully onto the other bench, twisting around so I was still more or less looking at her.
    “I have seriously never had this many squirrel-conversations with one person before in my whole life.”
    “Welcome to Corrigan Falls.” I guess I probably should have taken the conversation in a more meaningful direction from there. I should have asked her more about why she’d come here, or why she was living with the Beacons. I absolutely should have mentioned that Miranda Beacon hated my guts and probably had a fairly good reason to. Yeah, there were all kinds of responsible things I should have done.
    Instead, I swung my feet up on the bench and lay back, looking up at the stars like Karen had been doing before I arrived. I guess what I should have done was leave her alone, but something about the tears had made me think she hadn’t really wanted to be alone. And after running into her, I didn’t want it anymore, either. “You watching the stars?” I asked.
    “I guess.” She didn’t sound hostile or anything, just a little sheepish.
    “You know anything about them? The constellations or anything?”
    “Not really. You?”
    “Oh, yeah, I’m pretty much an expert. That one right there, over toward the trees. Big Dipper, obviously.”
    “Okay, that one I knew.”
    “The one over to its left?” I raised my arm and tried to trace the picture. “Two squares, kind of? That’s Rodentus minor, the angry squirrel.”
    “Oh my god, you’re obsessed.”
    “But don’t worry. Runner majoricus is right there to rescue any fair maidens who are attacked.”
    “Is that how you’ve built it up in your head? You’re a great big hero?” She sounded better now, and I let myself relax a little more.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about. These are the stars we’re looking at. I’m not saying there’s any connection to any real life events.”
    She was quiet for a moment, then lifted her own arm and pointed. “So, those ones there. Those aren’t Driver horrificus and Passenger odiferous?”
    And right there, lying on the bench in the summer darkness, it was like I had a weird out of body experience. I knew the logical response, the one that would take me the next step down the path I always took. Attractive, friendly girl, already lying down, under the damn stars…it was too easy, really, but that had never stopped me before. I should say it was actually Driver horrificus and Passenger beauteous, or something. I should build on the fair maiden line I’d dropped a little earlier. Either of those would work.
    But it was like there was another me, one looking down at the scene, and that me saw how nice things could be just as they were. It told me I didn’t need to push forward, didn’t need to race for the goal line. Just this once, I didn’t have to be quite so focused on scoring.
    So instead of feeding her a line, I smiled up at the stars. “Damn,” I said. “That is what those ones are. I guess maybe there’s some connection after all.”
    We lay there a while longer, looking up at the stars and trading lies that somehow felt like the truth. And when Karen finally sighed and sat up and said it was late and she had to go back to her real life, I knew she was right. But I really wished the two of us could have stayed in our little