“Hey there,” she said smoothly. “Surprise?” Her voice turned up at the last second like an uncertain question.

She wore a casual hoodie and black leggings; the combination of baggy top and skin-tight bottoms was admittedly cute, and appealing. 

It took you a moment to reach for her name. Noticing your hesitation, she gave your sneaker a playful kick.

“It’s Courtney,” she laughed. “Remember?” Her laugh was subtly questioning.

Courtney. Will’s twin sister. You hadn’t realized how cute she was up close.

She looked past you briefly.

“Where’s Will?”

“He’s just meeting with someone,” you said. “He’ll be back really soon.”

“Oh,” she said mildly. “Well, least I found you. This is totally the wrong way, though. I know this cool place we can do dinner. Come on—”

She noticed your confusion and gave you an inquisitive look.

“He didn’t tell you I was here?”

“He did,” you murmured, “he just…”

“Tried to keep it a surprise…” she finished, with a small presumptive smirk. Then she said: “Has he said anything about me?”

“No,” you said slowly. “Like what?”

“Oh, nothing. I mean, I’ll tell you later. Maybe. Anyway,” she tapped your shoulder and swished around. “This way.”

Suddenly you recalled the first time meeting her, many years ago. It was Will’s birthday party, and so it was also her birthday. It was the only party they had together since Will hated sharing his birthday party with her, and probably Courtney felt the same.

They were turning twelve and it was a costume party. You mom promised to arrange a really cool costume for you. But when you got home from school, the costume was a frog. She thought it was the cutest thing she’d ever seen. It mortified you but it was too late, so you thanked your mom and put it on, even though you felt like a dork.

Unfortunately, you had already bragged to Will how cool your costume was going to be, so when he saw you, he burst into laughter, and called you ‘Kermit’ the entire time. His costume was very cool.  Meanwhile Will’s parents thought you were so damn cute, Will’s mother practically pinched your cheek and patted you on the head.

When the birthday cake was brought out, Will’s sister appeared, dressed up as a princess. It should have been cute until one of the kids made the obvious observation that, you were a frog and she was a princess, and what should happen next was so obvious it didn’t require the other kids to laugh and spell it out, in chorus:

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”

Then one of the kids broke out with ‘Kiss the girl’ from the Little Mermaid in a terrible Jamaican accent. You went a burning shade of pink.

Courtney didn’t react – except for the kind of glazed over expression girls got when they wisely pretended to not have heard a dumb comment. You guessed she was as embarrassed as you, if not more.

One of the party games was truth or dare. Most of the kids chose ‘truth’ and Will called them out for being ‘pussy’ which caused his mother to grumble at him. So, when it was your turn, you proudly chose ‘dare’. Next second you were being dared to kiss Courtney.  That one kid started up ‘Kiss the girl’ again.

Your face burned again and you tried to prevent your legs from shaking as you mildly shuffled over to where Courtney was sitting. Beneath your webbed green mitts, your palms were sweating.

You told yourself if you did it quickly and casually, it wouldn’t be so bad. Just like ripping off a band-aid.

Courtney sat stiffly in her big puffy gown and tiara and didn’t move an inch, she just stared at you the entire time, which made it ten times worse. She was blinking slightly too much and you couldn’t tell if her blinks were dumbfounded, grossed out or petrified. You wished she would at least turn her cheek for you or lean forward and close her eyes or do something. You shuffled closer, legs leaden and the webbed green slippers on your feet were like pool flippers.

Someone pushed your shoulder and you practically jumped. Suddenly you were on Courtney’s lap and the cheek peck had magically transformed into an accidental lip lock. A magic spell of amnesia was placed over your traumatized memory so you would not clearly remember any of this ever happening.

Now, in the presence of this young woman, much older than last time, you felt warmth in your cheeks once again, but for a different reason. It was a mile away from the birthday party. You were forced to look her in the eye, and she wasn’t a twelve year old girl anymore. She had a driver’s licence now and was even taller than you.

“You okay?” she said. “I said, guess who transferred to your college? You’re supposed to say, ‘Who?’”

“You?” you said.

She smiled.

“I’m starting next year. Maybe Will didn’t tell you that either.” She inched forward, with the ghost of her perfume brushing your awareness. “Will you still be there?”

“Yeah,” you said. “It’s my final year next year.”

She beamed.

“So awesome! You can show me around.”

“Well, I only just moved closer to campus a few weeks ago,” you admitted. “I’m basically new in the city, as well.”

She took this in appreciatively.

“Nice. So, we’ll both be figuring it out together.”

As weird as it felt seeing her here, you realized that if she was going to your college, you would have met her eventually. And it could have been virtually anywhere, the library, the college bar, the mall at the college’s own shopping precinct, or just passing in the hallways.  That wasn’t so weird, though.

What was weird was that, Will had mentioned earlier, that his sister seemed off when he’d met with her before the race, and conjectured it was probably because she said she’d recently gone to a fancy speed dating event held in an upmarket area of the city, and she reported that it was “mostly a waste of time”.

This gave you a weird sensation since it was the same event you had almost attended, but dropped out of last second because of car problems on route to the venue. If you had gone, you would have found yourself dropped onto a table with her staring back at you. The thought of your best friend’s twin sister, now a young woman wearing slinky dress and heels, sizing you up across a table for compatibility and potential sexual chemistry, and consciously knowing that you were supposed to do the same, was very strange. You didn’t know how to feel about that. She was the closest relative to your friend, thinking of her in a sexual light was not a backflip your brain could not easily perform.

Courtney’s touch casually brushed your arm to reel your attention back. You must have mentally zoned out again.

Your eyes had dropped to her admirably muscled set of thighs. While trying to come to, your eyes accidentally ran up her body and you noticed a very faint set of abs, and were even more impressed. It looked like she’d been training for the run in advance.

Maybe she was concerned your attention was going to wander again, because she said in a conspiratorial kind of way:

“Will can do his thing. Let’s catch up.”

She nodded you to follow her across the road, and down a block to an area called Fountain Park. It had an open field with benches and, further, was heavily shaded with trees.

Courtney stretched out on the trimmed lawn and your eyes again ran up her muscled thighs. Only then you noticed her running shorts were so tight they gave her a camel toe. Your stomach pulled tight and you tried not to stare, but the suggestive fold taunted you, pulling your focus like you were a fish on a line. You were trying so hard not to be a perv, it was mentally draining.

“I didn’t know you ran marathons,” she said, leaning back to survey you. You drove your eyes to her face, and locked them there.

“That was barely a marathon,” you said, “and I just came for the view,” you said before you could help it. “Of the city,” you added.

She finally looked away from you, groaning quietly.

“My legs are kind of tight. Mind if I stretch them?”

She was busy carrying out a stretch that seemed determined to split her legs to the fullest extent, and this actually caused her camel toe to shift around. You swore it opened a little, like a small mouth. It looked very tight and smooth. You could hear your pulse firing in your head. The level of discomfort blooming inside you was more acute than if someone threw a glass of chilled water down your back.

She noticed your eyes darting around – from her face and away, and back again. Mid-stretch she paused. Her eyebrow quirked and she smiled.

“What?” she said.

The words spilled out:

“Just, uh, noticed you have a pretty nice tan,” you said.

She gave you a puzzled look. She didn’t have a tan, any more than Will did.

Your eyes settled on a tiny beetle creeping through the razored grass, about the size of a passionfruit seed. You tried to fixate on its winding path, and channel the way the beetle care about anything, including its giant surroundings. Then Courtney repositioned herself to stretch her other leg, unknowingly capturing the tiny beetle squarely beneath one padded lip of her camel toe and neatly pressing it flat.

Judging from the pleasing sinew of her arms and legs, her camel toe was possibly one the softer parts of her, and the delicate beetle could not even tolerate that. When she shifted again, you noticed with a pang of regret, the beetle was still on its blade of grass, but now had acquired resemblance to a beetle shaped postage stamp.

As you squirmed, she stopped stretching and skewered you with another look.

“So…who are you dating now?”

She smiled a sly – very Will-like – smile, with complete awareness of her audacity.

Before you could help yourself, you answered candidly, practically regurgitating your dating history to her, even the bleak parts. Especially the bleak parts.

Courtney said nothing, but her eyes seemed to shine into your soul. And it felt good.  Cleansing. Finally, she gave another audacious smile and remarked conversationally.

“Well, you have an adorable little personality, Fuzz. A girl who really likes you will see that.”

You weren’t sure if this was a compliment, but just in case it was, you smiled gratefully.

Her eyes lingered on you, continuing to appraise you calmly. As you talked about your dating life, she’d been giving you several of these appraising looks. Then looking away. It made your heart flutter a little.

You were both silent for a moment. When you looked back at Courtney, she was looking at you. She tilted her head, coy, and then stretched her leg out and pointed the toe of her trainer in at a soft part of your stomach, giving you a meaningful dig beneath your ribcage. Then she leaned back on one elbow.

“You want to know about me?” she said, not looking up. And said before you asked: “I just got out of a relationship.”

“Oh,” you murmured. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m definitely not.”

Her legs were pressed together and straightened. She dipped, pressing her chest to her thighs, showing off how toned her shoulders were. You wondered if she’d started lifting.

She wasn’t shy about her athletic prowess. She started to slowly do a kind of handstand, and gracefully spread her legs apart, trying to pull off the splits. Her camel toe became more and more obvious until you had to avert your eyes. There was also now a tiny blotch on her the fork of her tight pants where the beetle had been squished. As she stretched, the camel toe tightened and the tiny mouth looked like it was sucking on the beetle’s remains. Your stomach felt like a hurricane of butterflies.

Sitting again, she bristled.

“When did it get cold?” she asked suddenly, to no one. Then she rose onto her shins, and looked right at you:

“I think I need to warm up again. Jog with me?”

She made good speed. You ran until the end of twilight, dark enough to struggle to see where you were going, and had to slow when your back and legs began to groan. Your calves were tight and your stomach was cramping from water you drank earlier, post-race.

Clouds were stretching across the night sky, draining the warmth of the day.

Only now you realized Courtney wasn’t racing you anymore. She seemed to be leading you, deeper into the park, away from the crowd. She’d double back to check where you were.

“It’s getting cold,” you pointed out. She didn’t buy it, her eyes hung on your slight limp.

She leaned into your side, and her palm brushed your chest.

“I’m okay,” she said. Then she eyed you sidewise. “What about you?”

Your eyes dropped from her face. She noticed you staring at her hoodie and her voice became teasing again. She muttered something under her breath that made you blush. She was out and out wild. You just stared, not sure if you heard her correctly. Whatever you were thinking it wasn’t that.

You finally looked away, and in spite of yourself, smiled in surprise. She looked away, smiling also, as if you had just admitted her remark was absolutely correct.

She was teasing you. When you were with Will you felt tough and confident, but Courtney’s teasing made you feel soft and harmless.

Suddenly her hand curled inconspicuously around your own, and she wordlessly slipped your hand into her hoodie front pocket. It was warm.

The two of you kept moving through the park, leaving the roadside behind you. The ground began to turn to slush beneath your trainers. The earth was checkered with puddles and patches of longer grass.

Courtney turned suddenly and her palm brushed your chest to get your attention. She showed you a group of small frogs trilling on the wet dirt. They stopped silent as you drew closer but amazingly the frogs didn’t bound away. They must have been young or very tame.

“Maybe they used to be pets,” Courtney suggested, leaving your side to knee over them. She softly  tapped the head of each frog with soft finger, enjoying their docility. “You think they were dumped out here?”

Out of nowhere you recalled Will's birthday party, how his mother kept patting you on the head. You looked at the startled frog in sympathy. Courtney was very gentle though. She delicately scooped up one of the frogs and softly rubbed its moist body between her fingertips. The frog’s barrel-shaped torso squished agreeably between her finger and thumb. The frog didn’t look alarmed.

Courtney turned to look up at you.

“Remember my birthday?” She said. “It was a costume party.”

“Uh,” you said reflexively.

“I remember it.” Her voice turned up in a strange way. “You dressed up like a frog.” She smiled at your discomfort. “It was so cute,” she reassured you. “And all the kids said I had to kiss you.”

“That was, like, ten years ago,” you mumbled.

As if she hadn’t heard you, she continued:

“I was so young I thought, I would never actually do that,” she grinned, “I’d just keep you as a frog forever. You’d be my pet.”

“Hmm,” you said.

“I was young,” she declared. “Boys were gross, but frogs were cute. They still are.”

She put the frog in her hand back down amidst its buddies.

“Which one?” you said jokingly.

She stood back up, turning towards you. Her face was very close now. Her eyes and her lips were reeling you, that fish on a line feeling.

“Frogs.”

“And boys?”

“I’m not sure,” she said distractedly. “Maybe.”

She paused on your face with anticipation, trying to figure out specifically where your eyes were looking, and without realizing, bit her lip. You searched for a witty retort. Then your voice gave up as it—finally—occurred to you, that she might be—possibly—just waiting for you to kiss her. Hadn’t you already done this on her birthday? Why was it so hard now?

She leaned back on her hand, trying to dispassionately analyze your silence.

Finally, she decided aloud:

“You bonehead.”

In one bold move, she reached forward and squished your nose, a little painfully. You jumped. She laughed.

Someone then passed through the trees and came upon the two of you. It was Will. Your insides went shimmery like eels.

“Oh, you weren’t talking about me for once?” he said to Courtney. Then he looked at you.

“I wondered where you went,” he said.

You didn’t – couldn’t—say anything, as you had completely forgot what you were just talking about.

Even in the dark, you noticed the eye roll pass fleetingly over Courtney’s face before she turned her head to face her brother. He examined the two of you cautiously but said nothing else.

She told him nothing, getting to her feet gracefully and brushing down her leggings, smoothing the dirt off.

You also got to your feet, feeling small like you were twelve again.

Will suddenly broke the silence:

“Just checking out if you want to get some dinner at this great place in town.” He threw a quick glance at his sister. “You’re invited too, sis. If you want, or whatever.”

“Sure!” Courtney gave a dispassionate shrug.

“Cool,” you said.

“Cool!” Will agreed quickly, and said to his sister, “Better get running, Court. It’s down the street. Free tip: cut across the park. It’s faster. Laters. Fuzz and I are taking my car. Catch you there.” He kept going on towards the heavily shaded area, looking back at you. This way, dude.”

Courtney walked calmly behind the two of you, staring into the back of Will’s head. The three of you went back under the trees, heading towards the streets like electric stars twinkling through the trees. But your tendons ached and you were starting to lag. Suddenly, Courtney said from over your shoulder:

“Hey, tiny favor, Will.”

“What?”

“Take my car over there.” She quickly rummaged in her bag for her keys. “I’m going to walk Fuzz there,” she jumped into step with you, and at a glance, murmured: “Will can go back for his car later. It’s not going anywhere.”

“Problem?” said Will lightly, “You can’t drive yourself?”

“Well, let’s see, Fuzz and I were just in the middle of a conversation that you walked right in on.”

“My car’s closer,” Will replied.

Courtney paused, unwilling to elaborate.

“Guess I’ll just go,” she finally huffed aloud. “Don’t leave me waiting,” she said, but and throwing you a sly glance with added meaning.

Bonehead.

In her presence you weren’t sure of yourself. Still, you loved the devilish glances she gave you. Her eyes were a secret just for you, and reached into your inside. In a blink, she captured you, weighed you, and measured you for potential value. Her looks went deep, into you balls.

After this one last look, Courtney was gone through the trees. You wondered when you’d earn yourself another of her special glances.

Never knowing what a long time that would truly be.

Will and you strode through the park in the direction of his car, but little further on, your stride shortened from tightened muscles. The backs of your thighs started to feel like slabs of concrete. Soon you were limping a little and had to stop to massage your legs.  Will paused.

“You okay?” he said.

“Yeah, I just…” you mumbled, then straightened “…it’ll pass.”

You pushed yourself too hard on the run, and now it was catching up with you. For an instant you wished you could shrug off the dinner invitation. But you couldn’t. You couldn’t in a million years, because of the look Courtney would have when she realized you had gone MIA. All the secret light in her eyes would be gone. No more little glances for you ever again. That hurt you in the heart.

You had never met a girl like Courtney, because Courtney was, was…well…

Courtney was perfect.

Courtney was your bestest friend, if your bestest friend was a hot girl.

Literally.

You stopped and gasped:

“The ground is shaking.”

You barely even believed yourself. But when you looked ahead at Will, he was still, just staring into the night. He felt it too.

Will clicked back into action:

“Keep going, okay?”

“Which way is the parking lot?” you said.

“I’ve been following that light,” he said, nodding up ahead, to a white light between the trees. “That’s it.”

“I don’t think so,” you said. “We should be there now.”

“Is that light moving?” Will said.

You looked at the light and it was true; it was weaving through the trees like a drunk snake.

There were a couple of cracking sounds like a whip.

You jaw dropped. Suddenly there was a stick poking out of Will shoulder. He’d been shot by some kind of dart or needle. It was like a pencil sticking out of his back.

Then your back began to sting.

Ahead, Will’s legs gave way and he crumpled to the ground. You wanted to run to him. Then your body lost its tension, and you went sprawling forward, too. The ground pressed against your cheek and you couldn’t move. You could barely open your eyes. A wave of undeniable fatigue crashed over you.

Then it got very bright, and very cold.