after dark

She rang the doorbell. Nothing. Finally, she called Kyle on his phone. It was so dark out now that everything felt so unknown and the chill of winter clung to the night.

"I"m here," she said.

Kyle unlocked the door and said into his phone. "About time." He let her in.

Ellie notice Kyle was just in his dark green plaid flannel pants as if he'd been to bed, already.

"Don't you dare tell anyone you saw me in these pants." He told her reaching for a t-shirt that was way too big for him. Perhaps it was his brother's Green Day shirt.

"I won't."

"What happened?"

"There was this thing, its really not important. I didn't stay. I came here."

"Yeah, which isn't like you, you know. You never come over." He plopped himself back on the couch and started back to his video game pouring with classic rock music and gangsters.

"I said I would."

"But I didn't think you would." He stared at the TV. That's when she noticed the marks on his forearm.

"Since when did you get a tattoo?" She sat down next to him and examined his forearm of the dots there which turned out to be scabs.

"I didn't."

"Yeah, I can see that now." She squinted.

"I just had this scratch, that's all."

"What did you do, use a ball point pen?" Had he pricked himself to make those marks?

"Maybe." He shrugged. "It might have been the cat."

"Might have been?" She didn't believe him. Was there anything not disturbing about tonight?Ellie pulled her her hair back over one ear as she stared at the video game. Her stomach growled. Evidently, Kyle heard it.

He paused the game. "I'll make you something. You'll feel better then." She didn't think that was possible, but Kyle knew some magic with cream of chicken soup, a can of chicken and noodles along with a lot of parmesan cheese.

"How do you do this stuff?" She ate the whole plate.

"I gotta lot of time on my hands." He went back to his game. She drank a glass of chocolate milk and watched. It felt good to comfortable. Finally.