"How about dinner and a movie this Saturday?" Cyrus asks while we wait on Macey.
"I've heard good reviews about Paranormal Hunters." I suggest.
"You and your paranormal obsession." He teases. "What got you so obsessed with paranormal stuff anyway?"
"Pop did. He always told me old folk tales as a child. He told me about the time a werewolf bit off his left index finger. But what really happened was he got drunk and decided to build a coffee table. He cut his finger off with a buzzsaw." My family is a whole mess.
Aunt Steph has a purple rose tattoo on her lady area, she did it on a drunken dare. Granny threw her knee out two years ago while dancing in the shower. Nana likes to antagonize the Jehovah Witnesses that show up at her door. One time she answered the door and chose spite. She asked question after question, they flipped through their bibles page per page, but they couldn't keep up. They ended up crying and have yet to return,
My family is such a mess.
"You actually believed him?" Cyrus laughs.
"Until I was ten and learned that if a person is bitten by a werewolf, they turn into one under the full moon. I spent nights at their house during full moons and he never transformed. I was fourteen when granny told me what really happened. The ER reattached it in time, but it just doesn't work the same anymore. He gave up drinking after that though." I laugh.
"You're Pop sounds like a character." He scoffs.
I sigh, "What if I told you I'm the normal one out of my whole family?"
He looks at me with concern. "And what does that mean?"
"You'll find out sometime." I mumble, hoping that he'll be around long enough to meet my crazy family.
In the blink of an eye, Macey rolls into the parking lot, heavy metal booming from the truck. How she hasn't gotten arrested yet for reckless driving, I have no clue.
I turn and look up at Cyrus, heat flushes my cheeks. "Hey, Cy." I get his attention.
He looks down at me. "Yeah?"
I hesitate a moment from self-consciousness. "May I kiss you? It's ok if you say no."
His eyes widen in disbelief. "Yes."
I rise up on my tip toes and chicken out, kissing him on the cheek instead of the lips. The man smells like steak and cologne, I'm not complaining though.
Salvaging my last shreds of dignity, I look into his eyes and say, "Good night, Cy. I'll see you Saturday."
He opens the truck door for me, and I climb in. "See you Saturday." He confirms, closing the truck door for me.
I watch as he walks to his Durango and notice how well his denim jeans compliment his butt. That Ass! Oh God, now I'm a pervert.
"Ok, so I want to run an idea by you." Macey says, pulling into my driveway.
"What's up?" I ask.
"When does the school let out on Spring Break?" She asks.
Her question catches me off guard and I have to think. Today is March 5th, and Hulsey Highschool usually does spring break midway through March. "They get out the 12th and return on the 22nd. Why?" I ask.
"I've been doing research lately and there's towns in Tennessee and Mississippi that are being attacked my mystery animals. I think it's cryptids and want to check it out. Want to come with me?" She asks excitedly.
Does she hear herself?
"We'd be gone for at least seven days. Do you know how much money we'd have to pay on hotel bills, food, and gas?" I point out.
"I've already planned it out." She says. "We'd take my Airstream. If we start stocking it with some foods now, we'll be set, then all we'd have to worry about is gas." She has this manic look in her eyes.
Macey lives in an Airstream on her aunt's property.
I think long and hard about her proposal. It would be fun to go cryptid hunting. We probably wouldn't find anything, but a girl's trip would be fun. Also, I have a good chunk of money built up. Mom only makes me pay two hundred dollars rent a month. I pay one hundred and fifty dollars a month for groceries and fifty dollars for my phone service. I have about five grand built up in my account.
"What about your job? Don't you have to work?" I ask her.
"I have enough time to put in for that time off. Plus, I'm way overdue for a vacation." She explains.
I give her a wry smile. "We head out Saturday the 13th, nine o'clock sharp."
"You are so on." She chuckles mischievously.