Page 26 of Stranger Danger

No one has anything like it.

I’ve counted enough spiders and dragons and tribal to make my head throb. I can’t judge too harshly, though. My own work is the same basic bullshit I got when I was eighteen and overexcited; the badly done devil girl on my calf is enough to make me consider laser.

I wait until I’m the only person here, glancing over each shoulder. Then I pull the other Polaroid from my pocket and thumb-tack it on the far right side of the board, half-covered by a “Friendsgiving” flyer.

My finger hit the button twice last night, and I didn’t realize until it popped out a second photo on my sneaker. I must have moved my hand too quickly because the colors are smeared, shapes barely visible.

I write two more words on the bottom of this one, too.

ur turn

I double back a second later, just to make sure a curious freshman hasn’t moved it.

At least, that’s what I tell myself.

Even if I’m smiling.

Ira

Snow piles outside the windows in the old AV room we use for horror club. It’s still coming down in giant flakes as I shove another handful of red and green candies in my mouth.

There’s a police car parked under a dead tree. No lights. No sirens.

Which dumbass got caught smoking weed on campus again?

Our president hasn’t put on a movie yet, and I’m so damn warm and comfy in the bean bag that I’m going to fall asleep before he does. Until one of the new members trips over my legs and slams face-first into the carpet. I almost bolt out of my fucking skin.

Beckett stops hanging Christmas decorations long enough to help the new kid up and dust off their sweater.

“Are you okay?” he asks. “You need to go anywhere?”

“No. Sorry. I was looking at my phone.”

Horror-club-candy-guy hops onto the long table, screwing up the checkered tablecloth on one side.

“Who’s posting the new Polaroid?”

Technically, it’s my turn, but it’s not like I can say it out loud. I pull my legs to my chest and curl onto my side, watching the twenty-plus people roam around our dinky space.

My best friend and I have been posting back and forth for a month now. He doesn’t make me wait long, either—I get one almost every week.

I’ve never smiled more in my life.

After I saw the blurry photo in November, I posted the very next day.

I'm trying haha

His next one was a Polaroid of the ceiling with a broken fan blade.

nice comp b4

It was a perfectly straight line from the broken blade to the corner of the ceiling. My reply wrote itself before I had some guy’s intestines on my wrists.

You used a ruler?

protractor : )

He brings school supplies with him.