Page 49 of Kill Your Darlings

Wendy turned to Thom Graves, the boy who was desperate to kiss her. She had decided to let him. It was already such a great

night, with MissAckles taking them to see the steps, and being in this cool city, and now it even looked as though she had

a boyfriend. He didn’t move his head, so she moved hers, and their lips met. It was awkward, but it also felt good. Thom put

his free hand on her waist and kissed her harder, and she couldn’t help it but she giggled and they stopped kissing. “That

was really nice,” she said, because he was a little pale and his eyes were big.

“That was my first kiss,” he said.

“Mine too,” Wendy lied.

“All right, you two, I think we should get going now.” Thom stepped back and glanced in the direction of MissAckles, who

was about twenty feet away, her back turned, looking up at one of the brick buildings.

“We should probably go,” Wendy said. “I don’t want to get MissAckles in trouble.”

“Okay,” Thom said. “These steps are pretty cool, though.”

“Yeah, they are,” Wendy said.

MissAckles was coming back toward them, a smile on her pretty face. “Was it all you hoped it would be?” she said.

“Yeah,” Wendy said. Miss Ackles walked ahead of them, back toward the rest of the group.

Thom’s and Wendy’s hands were intertwined again, and Wendy thought about how she’d lied about the kiss being her first. But she hadn’t really lied, because tonight had been her first good kiss.

The best kiss. She pulled herself closer into Thom, thrilled suddenly to be alive.

It was like being introduced to a room in her house that she’d never been shown before.

Thom said, quietly, only to her, “I feel like we’re in a movie. ”

Yes, she thought. It’s like that too.

iv

Thom was a little embarrassed after he told Wendy he felt like they were in a movie. She hadn’t responded, but she’d squeezed

his hand. He wanted her to know how excited he was, but he also wanted to be just a little bit cool about the whole thing.

He decided to be quiet for a while.

The walk to the steps had seemed long but suddenly they were turning a corner, MissAckles in the lead, and Thom could see

the other students gathered around the bus. He stopped holding Wendy’s hand, and they each moved a little bit apart. Mrs.Chappell,

nervously holding her clipboard, spotted the three of them and yelled for them to hurry up. Wendy was suddenly gone from Thom,

having been swallowed up by a small group of girls that included Mary and Ann. MissAckles was by his side now, and she said,

as they worked their way to the sidewalk, “Just so you know, Thom, your romantic escapades were being filmed.”

“What do you mean?” Thom said, genuinely alarmed.

MissAckles laughed and said, “I’m kidding you. Well, sort of. I asked the clerk earlier at our hotel how to find the Exorcist

Steps, and he told me that all these tourists are showing up there now, and how someone fell down the steps and broke his

back. He said they had to put a bunch of security cameras around. I spotted one, on the side of a building, pointed right

down on you and Wendy. It’s a good lesson to remember.”

“What lesson?” Thom said.

MissAckles changed her voice to make it sound dramatic, like she had on the bus, and said, “You were being watched. You’re

always being watched. The eyes of God are on you.” She held up her hands and shook them dramatically.

“We weren’t doing anything wrong,” Thom said.

“I know, Thom, I’m just teasing you.”

They were quiet for a moment, Mrs.Chappell now letting kids onto the bus, making check marks on her list. Thom’s mind was

spinning, thinking about the kiss, about his future with Wendy, about when he would talk to her again. He wondered if he should

tell her what MissAckles said about the camera and decided against it. He didn’t know Wendy that well but suspected that

she liked secrets. He’d let her believe that the two of them were the only people in the world who knew what had actually

begun that night.