Gilly Rae Justice: best friend. Check

Alura Solara Windrum: myself. Check

Today is…Monday, May 27th, 1:16 AM: No classes today. Check

I'm just checking to see if I've lost my mind yet. I was really beginning to wonder. Promptly at dusk we gathered our stash of spy gear consisting of binoculars, cell phones, a map, inconspicuous yellow umbrella for the ninety percent chance of rain, and running shoes. Those were my idea. We shoved most of it in my pack because it's the sensible black one, and headed out.

The car ride was unusually calm considering my earlier feelings on the matter. I really didn't want to face Connor again so soon, but Gilly reminded me that we wouldn't be facing him, hence the term spying. Unless something went wrong, and that is why we wore the running shoes. Either way, there would be no facing the guy.

There was a fog that hadn't lifted for days and would be good cover if it stuck around. As we drove tiny mist droplets formed on the windshield, the radio was off for once, and we didn't say much. I was able to listen to the sounds around us. I rolled my window down to hear the distinct hum of tires on the road, the windless rustle of leaves as we drove past, and Gilly's deep breaths that she tried to hide from me. Somehow she seemed more nervous than I was. Maybe she started to believe me. I don't know, but it was even more calming for me knowing I might get a chance to prove it all to her. Perhaps it was my selfish need to not be alone with this conundrum. It was a longer drive than I expected and I shrunk down into the seat with my hood up and my feet on the dash. It usually drove her nuts when I did that even though the car was a dying breed. She didn't saying anything.

The map pointed us to a park near Connor's house and we pulled in. It was deserted at this hour. It didn't feel late to me but time always deceived me in the late spring. We pulled into a parking spot that sat under an untrimmed dangly tree and the engine sputtered a bit before it shut off. I gave Gilly a "that better not be foreshadow" look as I tried to get out of the car. The tree limbs had enveloped most of the car and I had to push hard on the door to get it open then wrestle it to get it shut again. A particularly unruly limb tried to steal my knit hat, but I fought it off. When I stepped away from the car I had to admit it was great cover. Maybe when the car was ready to spit out its last breath we could drive it there and leave it. I doubted anyone would notice. Then Gilly had a moment of brilliance. Since the car was very well hidden, she left the hatch in the back cracked open so we could dive in from behind if need be. She didn't want to deal with the limbs in the way of the doors. I beamed at her.

The darkness played tricks on my eyes as we found the streets and alleys we needed to take to reach Connor's home. I kept seeing shadows move and bushes wiggle. Gilly indicated his house was the next one down. We had decided to take an alley that ran down behind the row of homes. Most of them were pretty shabby looking from back behind those fences. I always thought it was strange looking when every house in a row had different fencing. I'm sure it looked nice from inside their yards, but from where I stood they were an uneven, mismatched, colorful mess. From the alley we didn't have any house number to go by, so we counted from the end of the row, twice, just to make sure we found the right one.

Connor's fence was sturdy metal iron with skinny black railing. It wouldn't have provided much cover, but there were bushes on the inside snuggled against it. Beautiful reddish orange leaved prickly ones that in places stuck out and tried to grab at you. I noted that and without getting too close I found a few spots that we could see through. One spot had the wrong angle and we couldn't get a good view of the windows, but the other was just about perfect. Save for the fact that if anyone one else came down the alley we would be sitting ducks. Our backsides were completely in the open. There wasn't much we could do about it so we crossed our fingers and took turns being the lookout.

Gilly ruffled through my bag since my arm was still in a sling, pulled out the binoculars and shoved them in my hand. I gave her a surprised look and she shrugged.

"What, he's your alien, you go first."

I had to smirk at that, she obviously had other reasons for not going first, but I didn't ask. I edged up to the gap I found and leaned in until I felt the cold from the metal rails radiating into my cheeks. I wasn't touching it, but another millimeter and I would have. I held up the binoculars and adjusted the lenses while searching for a window in my limited circular view. I could feel that Gilly had leaned closer to me, her thick coat pressed into my side just in case she needed to whisper something. When I found the window I was looking for I noticed something odd. There was no glare on it like the other ones. Another trick of my eyes I thought. A dim lamp was on in the room, but there was nothing to see but the back of a chair, some paintings on the wall, and a glass with a dark liquid in it sat on a side table. I stood there thinking this was going to be a bust. What did I expect he would do, stand in front of a window and turn blue for our little peep show? Maybe he wasn't even home.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" A deep angry voice dropped on us from somewhere above. My cheek bones slammed into the fence and Gilly belted a very un-lady like squeal. I rubbed my burning cheeks and looked up. We should be running. Why weren't we running? I couldn't see anything. Then a large body dropped down in front of us and that was a bit more alarming. Gilly and I backed into the fence simultaneously as he blocked our retreat. All three of us were in the shadow of the tree and couldn't see much other than body shapes. I took advantage of that and slid sideways pushing Gilly as I went.

"We're sorry." I choked out, but he jabbed a long blunt object between the rungs of the fence so we couldn't move any further. He pulled a flashlight out and shined in into Gilly's eyes. The stark light made me squint. I felt the need to explain ourselves, but he spoke first.

"Gilly?" Then it clicked for me and my pulse went into over drive. It was Connor. He looked at me when I gasped and my heart might have skipped a beat entirely. He seemed to have a question on his very human looking lips. I was so afraid. I felt that stupid panic building like the steam in a kettle. All the old playful attraction had dissolved that night I saw him change. It was gone. I'm not sure if it was from the fear or just the high level of weird it would present. I couldn't meet his eyes and looked away toward Gilly. She must have sensed what I was thinking or just saw it my face because she gave me that look. The one saved only for me when she knew something was wrong.

Our attention was stolen by a glass shattering crash from the house. He cussed and bolted through his gate after the culprit. I watched him run through the yard and effortlessly hurtle over a chair, then quickly approach the retreating figure that appeared at the side of the house. Gilly was struck just as dumb as I was, standing as still as weeds amongst the bushes. We looked at each other again. Her face was a mix of confusion and excitement. I didn't know what to do. Should we call it quits and run home with our tails between our legs? I had a bad feeling the answer was no.