Days Of St Croix

Eleven

  Mills was glad the other girls had gone back inside. Sure, it was good to have company sometimes, but Brooke, Chelsea and Alex had really started to piss her off. It was like they didn't realize how inappropriate their questions were; they seemed to be grilling her for juicy details about Jas. When Brooke had asked her, outright, with no preamble, what Jas's thing looked like, Mills had almost bitch-slapped her. It's not like she was a prude or anything, but that was just bloody tacky. She wasn't entirely sure how she would have answered, anyway. Alex had interrupted Brooke at that moment with a totally random anecdote about her brother's thing. I mean, yuck! What the hell? Who on earth were they letting into St Croix these days anyhow? The thing is, she couldn't have answered Brooke, because she had never actually seen Jas naked. She had sort of felt him, when he was pushing up close to her, but it's not like she was a blind person reading braille. You can't describe the feel of guy's thing. There are some things you have to see with your own eyes.

  Mills had the rest of the pack of cigarettes in her pocket, and although it was pretty cold, she was enjoying sitting out on the fire escape, buzzing from the vodka, wrapped up warm in her dad's old sailing sweater. She pulled her knees up to her chest and fingered another cigarette out of the packet when she heard a noise from down below her.

  She froze. Someone was on the fire escape. She could hear shoes sliding on the iron steps, a dull clunking sound, barely audible. Whoever it was down there was trying not to be heard. Mills grabbed the Kettel One and hopped up onto her feet, crouching low. So long as she couldn't see who was down below her, she was pretty sure they couldn't see her, either. She tip-toed over to her window, which she had left open, and pushed the sash all the way up. It creaked loudly, and she froze again, listening intently for any other sounds from below, but she heard nothing. Whoever it was had either gone, or was listening closely, too. Or maybe it was the school cat, Fluffles. Maybe, Mills thought, it was my fucking imagination. Whatever; she wasn't hanging around out here any longer. She dropped the vodka through the window onto her bed, then squeezed through, head first, and tumbled onto the soft cotton comforter which covered her bed.

  Jas waited to see if the sound would come again. He was certain he had heard it; a creaking, squeaking noise, like wood rubbing tightly against wood. He knew someone up above was opening a window. Or closing it. Whatever; someone was awake. Which meant someone might see him. It was one thing to be out after curfew, but it was quite another to be a boy in the girls' dormitory after curfew. Or any time, for that matter. They threw kids out of school for that kind of thing.

  "Shit." Jas cursed quietly to himself. He thought briefly about texting Mills, but she was almost certainly asleep now, and anyway, he had seen all the missed calls and messages on his phone after he had left the Imperial. She would be so pissed tomorrow. He sat down on the step and counted a full two minutes, but he heard nothing. If someone was still up there, they were being extremely quiet.

  "This is stupid." He said, getting up and tip-toeing up the next few steps. He rounded the corner and climbed the next flight of steps on the fire escape until his head was almost level with the highest platform. Gradually, silently, he peeped over.

  Jas sighed with relief. It was clear, and all the windows were dark. The metal platform ran the length of the third floor, and was punctuated by two fire escape doors. The doors could be opened without a key, but they automatically set off the fire alarm, so the girls who had rooms on this side of the building simply used their windows to gain access to the fire escape when they wanted to sneak out for cigarettes. One of the windows led to Mills' room, Jas knew, but he had no idea which one. Last year, she had been on the other side, with a window facing the courtyard.

  He stepped lightly up onto the platform and moved to the end, reaching up to the brick course which protruded beneath the eaves. He stepped up onto the rail of the fire escape platform, shoved himself over, and he was on the roof.