He opened his eyes, and saw a span of pink. The sun was coming up, and birds sang outside the windows. Rachel's canopy hung over the bed, and she slept beside him peacefully. Tyler rolled onto his side, wrapped his arm around her waist, and felt her breath flow in and out.

He dozed off again, and woke back up. Rachel was still beside him, and was still asleep. He got out of bed and stretched, and went to the windows. Through the glass, tree branches swayed in the wind, and the morning sky was blue. Tyler looked into the distance, and told himself he would remember this weekend for the rest of his life.

He went down the hall to the bathroom, and flipped open the toilet. He'd slept in his jeans and nothing else, and he pulled down his zipper to take a piss. When he stood at the sink to rinse his hands, he examined his eye. The cut was scabbing over, and it looked like it might leave a cool scar. He went back down the hall, stood in Rachel's doorway, and felt happy.

Leaving the room, he crossed the hall to the stairs. The house was quiet, and he stepped down to the first floor. He went through the hall to the kitchen, stepped around a corner... and froze in surprise. He wasn't by himself. Christian was home, and he sat at the table.

He was eating a bowl of cereal, and his spoon paused in the air. "Oh, hey," Tyler said, and tried to act as casual as possible. He went to a cabinet, and got out a glass. "So, um... you're home early?"

"Yeah," Christian said, and glanced over Tyler's bare chest. He looked away with disgust, and said, "I guess you weren't expecting me."

"Are your... are your parents home?"

"No. They're still in Rolla."

"Why'd you come home?"

"Because it was boring."

"Oh."

Tyler opened the refrigerator, and took out the bottle of Coke. He poured some into his glass, and stood at the counter to drink. The empty pizza box sat on the stove, and he scrunched it up and dropped it into the trash. "Look," he said. "Rachel's eighteen. She's old enough to do what she wants."

Christian sat still, and gazed into his milk.

"I'm not going to harm her or anything. I mean, she's not in any danger."

He remained silent, and Tyler didn't know what to say. So he grabbed his soda and left the kitchen, and walked back up the stairs. Stepping into Rachel's room, he closed the door behind him. He found a place to set his glass, and got back into bed. "Christian's home," he whispered. "He came home early."

"Hmm?"

"Your brother," Tyler said. "He's downstairs in the kitchen."

"Okay." She barely opened her eyes. "Hide in the closet...."

"He already saw me."

Her eyes closed again, and she fell back asleep. So Tyler lay back on a pillow, and covered his face with one arm.

After a while he got out of bed and found his phone. He saw a dead screen, and got the charger from his duffle bag. An unused outlet was just beside the dressing table, and he sat in a chair to plug it in. He leaned back and crossed his legs, and asked himself what to do. The only option right now was to stay in Rachel's room, and wait for her to wake up....

The table was set with a brush and a comb, and a hand mirror and some perfume. Tyler picked up the fragrance and sniffed it, and it smelled like summer, and Rachel, and love. He mindlessly opened a drawer, and saw some bobby pins and nail polish, a notepad and a pack of gum. A few guitar picks had been tossed in. They were each a different color, and Rachel had taken a marker and written a word on every one: pain. sex. death. poetry. fame. Tyler slid closed the drawer, and looked at her sleeping body.

He wondered what Christian was doing, and decided to take a shower. But he didn't know where the towels were.... He crossed the room and drank the last of his Coke, and unzipped his bag. He found a t-shirt and put it on, so at least he wasn't half-naked. Rachel began to stir, and then rolled over and opened her eyes. "Hey," Tyler said. "You're awake."

"What time is it?"

"I don't know. My phone's not on. But your brother's home."

"What?"

"Christian. He came home early."

"Oh my gosh.... What are we going to do?"

"I don't know. But he already saw me. I went downstairs and he was there."

"Okay... um...." She threw off her blanket, got out of bed and left the room. A minute later he heard the toilet flush, and water running in the sink. Rachel came back and said, "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know.... Do you think he'll tell your parents?"

"Yeah," she said. "I'm sure he will."

"Well, so what?" Tyler asked. "We're not breaking the law."

"But...." She sat on the mattress, and leaned forward with her face in her hands. Like she was really scared, really freaking out. So he sat beside her and said, "Look, it's not that big a deal. They would have found out eventually. We couldn't keep it a secret forever."

"But..."

"Let's just go downstairs and hang out and act like everything's okay."

"Oh no, I can't," she said, and shook her head back and forth. "I can't go down there."

"Okay.... Well, let's just stay up here, then. Like it's our own little universe."

She took his hand, like she had to grab onto something solid, and he wrapped his arm around her. "It's okay," he said, and whispered into her ear: "It's okay. Nothing terrible is going to happen."

"Okay, well... let's pick up our clothes."

"Yeah, we probably should."

She grabbed her bra and underpants, and threw them in the closet. Tyler got his boxers off the floor, and zipped them into his bag. Rachel peered into the trash can and said, "What are we going to do about that?"

"I don't know.... But you're not supposed to flush it. I heard that somewhere."

She looked around the room, and saw a box of Kleenex. Snatching it off the dresser, she pulled out one tissue after another, and dropped them on top of the condom. "There," she said. "I guess that covers it."

Tyler's phone flashed on, and he went to yank it from the wall. "So," he said, "it's Saturday. What do you usually do today?"

She took a few breaths. "I don't know.... Clean my room. Bake cookies. Watch TV."

"How about we listen to some non-religious music?" he asked, and tapped his screen. "Since we're being so bad anyway."

She smiled. "Okay. Like what?"

"Marilyn Manson?" He laughed. "That might be a bit much.... How about the Beatles?"

"Okay."

His thumb moved on his screen. "Here Comes the Sun" was probably their happiest song, along with "Strawberry Fields Forever," so he played them at full volume. "Want to take some pictures?" he asked, and tapped his camera. "To commemorate today?"

She lay back on the mattress. "No, not now."

"Why not?"

"I just woke up. I look like...."

He laughed. "Okay."

He set down his phone, and grabbed a bed post. He swung around it, reached down and took Rachel's hand. "Come on, let's dance," he said, and she laughed and said, "There's no room in here."

"Then let's go out to the hall."

"Okay." They held hands, and stepped out to the hallway. They did a sort of waltz across the landing, past the stairs and past her parents' door. When they arrived at Micah and Josiah's room, they tumbled onto each other, and laughed.

Just then, Tyler happened to glance over the stair rail. Christian was on his way up, and Tyler quieted down. Rachel saw her brother, backed herself into a corner, and waited for him to go past. He purposely looked away from them as he walked to his room and closed the door.

"Well, he's grouchy," Tyler said. Rachel's expression was grim, and he took her hand and squeezed it. "Come on, don't worry." He looked across the railing, and noticed the attic stairs. "Is there anything up there?" he asked. "On the top floor?"

Rachel started down the hall. "Just some old toys and stuff, I think."

"There's no treasure chest with a map inside?"

She laughed. "Probably not... but we can go look if you want to."

"Okay."

They crossed the landing again, and arrived at the attic stairs. They were dark and creaky, and so narrow that Tyler had to ascend behind Rachel, and walk sort of sideways. At the top of the staircase, she opened a door, and they stepped through into the dark.

"I don't think there's a light up here," she said. "I forgot about it, but there's no light. 'Cause when the house was first built it didn't have electricity, and they just never installed a light up here."

"When was it built?"

"Oh, I don't know... 1880s, maybe."

He felt his way to a wall, and touched some rough wood. It seemed like there had been a few windows, but they had been boarded up. "This would be a cool place to play hide-and-seek," he said, and Rachel said, "Yeah, but –" and then she kicked something, and it slid across the floor. "I think that was a box of stuffed animals. Christian slept with them till he was... I don't know how old. Then he finally brought them up here."

The room was hot – it was neither lit nor air-conditioned. And the air was static – like it didn't move. It kind of smelled, like dust, or mildew... or just like old. Tyler pictured the house from the outside, and wondered about that round tower thing. "Isn't there another room up here?" he asked. "Above Christian's...."

"I don't know," Rachel said, and her voice sounded farther away. "I'll see if I can find a flashlight.... I'll be right back."

"Okay," Tyler said, and waited as she walked down the stairs.