There are certain moments in your life that are irreplaceable.

Invaluable.

Unparalleled.

The end of September brought about Rick's seventeenth birthday and a big, beat up old Chevy pickup from his parents. Since baseball season (the only thing that really ever kept Rick busy) didn't start until March, we were finally free to escape the usual, boring small town entertainment and tear around on backroads on the weekends. Fall was beginning to settle over Dale, nudging the heat aside to make way for a seemingly ceaseless autumn wind. Harvest was beginning, too, and every other two-lane road was jammed with a crowd of combines moving from parcel to parcel to cut corn. This particular evening Nova had called to tell me they were picking me up at sunset but refused to tell me where we were going--typical, huh?

"Dad, I'm going out!" I yelled down the hall from the kitchen, where I was hunting for a sweatshirt.

"Where are you headed?" He asked, popping his head in from the garage, wiping his brow with a greasy rag. Dad was a self-proclaimed handyman and probably had one of our neighbor's lawn mowers in a dozen pieces in there.

"Just over to Rick's place," I lied. Obviously I had no idea where we were actually going, but it was just easier not to tell my dad that, as he could be a worrier sometimes if he wasn't sure of where I was.

"You staying the night?"

"I don't know, probably. I'll call you."

"Sounds good. Stay out of trouble." I nodded, but he wouldn't let it go that easily. "I know you three are trouble when you're bored, and now that Rick has a truck you guys are twice as dangerous. Seriously, don't do anything stupid!"

"Alright dad!" I called, exasperated, as I fled out the door while pulling a grey hoodie over my head. Rick was laying on the horn in the driveway and Nova had some kind of punk rock turned up as loud as it would go. She was wearing a red flannel jacket about three sizes too big and jeans so tattered it could have been a crime to wear. She pulled her aviator sunglasses off and put them on the dashboard when I opened the door and scooted over to the middle of the bench seat so I could climb in.

"It's about damn time, slowpoke!" Rick threw his truck in reverse and sped backward out of the driveway quickly enough to make the tires screech. I cringed, hoping my dad was listening to the radio or something in the garage.

"Well, where are we going?" I yelled over the angry music. I reached for the volume knob on Rick's radio but Nova deftly swatted my hand away.

"Hell if I know! Little-Miss-Mystery over here called me right in the middle of a football game I was watching and demanded I come pick you two up!"

"Well?" We both turned to Nova, who seemed perfectly content to ignore us completely and rock out to the music, throwing her head all over the place, filling the already-windy cab with a whirlwind of auburn hair. We pulled up to a stoplight on the edge of town next to a car full of seniors headed to a party or something. They turned up their music and Nova turned up ours. They started cat calling her, and she leaned over me to stick her head out the window.

The kid in the driver's seat, a real jerk by the name of Tony, shouted something horribly vulgar that I didn't quite hear. It could have been because Nova was practically sitting in my lap, breasts an inch from my nose, but I couldn't tell you. Whatever it was caused Nova to smile her sweetest, most sultry smile and flip Tony the bird with both hands just as the light turned green. Rick gunned the engine and engulfed their little four-door in a cloud of exhaust from his ancient engine, whooping in delight the whole way.

"Rick, cut these sons-a-bitches off!" Nova screamed over the music.

"Why? We got em' didn't we?!" He yelled back.

"'Cause you have to turn right, RIGHT now!" she shouted, reaching toward the steering wheel. Rick knew better than to let Nova anywhere near the steering wheel of his speeding vehicle and we all yelled in unison as the he ripped us right, an inch away from the front of Tony's car, and roared down an old dirt country road, missing the sign pointing us toward Carsonville by half a foot. I clung to the dashboard and the "oh-shit" handle above my right shoulder, trying to dislodge my stomach from my throat as Nova egged Rick up to over ninety miles per hour the whole fifteen miles to the next town.

"Remind me," I gasped, stumbling out of the truck a terrifying ten minutes later, "to never get in the same vehicle with you two lunatics ever again, Never. Ever. Please."

"Aww, don't be such a baby Puck," Rick laughed, running his finger down a long, ragged scratch in the paint of his door--a souvenir from when we turned, at nearly twice the speed limit, past the gates of the dirt parking lot we were now standing in. "Damn it. I hope I can convince my parents this was here when we got it."

Carsonville, Dale's bigger, uglier older brother, only had one reason anyone ever visited it: they had the biggest corn maze in three counties, which turned into the local high school hangout from late September until just after Halloween. We had never been before, though, as it was pretty much just a place for teenagers to get drunk without any decent adult supervision, all for just five dollars.

"Because we've never been," was all Nova said when we asked her why she rushed us out of our houses to come here, of all places. Nova flashed Rick an unopened bottle of vodka hidden underneath her huge jacket, which was enough to shut him up and get him to pay for all three of us--to be fair, he was the only one whose parents gave him any sort of allowance.

"Come on boys, we're going to be cool kids tonight!" Nova yelled loud enough to make several people to turn and look. Without any warning, she took off into the maze at a dead run. I sighed--life just wasn't going to be normal as long as I spent time around her, was it?

"C'mon Puck, my vodka is running lose in a maze," Rick said grumpily, grabbing me by the shoulders and steering me into the corn. "Let's go find your crazy girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" I laughed. "Yeah, right! Like that would ever happen!" I scoffed a little too bitterly.

"Aww, give it up man." Rick looked at me sideways and grinned. "I see the way you look at her. You're whipped, man. Admit it."

"No way!" I protested. "We're just friends, come on."

"It's not like nobody's noticed you're attached at the hip," he pointed out. "Well, maybe not at the hip... more like the leash. She drags you around like a puppy, Puck."

"Speak for yourself!" I shot back. "You're right here with me!"

"Oh, that's different. She's got vodka! And speak of the devil--"

Nova burst out of a corn wall beside us, scaring the daylights out of a couple ten year olds behind us.

"Hey, I think the point of this place is to go around the corn" I said, raising my eyebrows.

She rolled her eyes. "Thanks, smartass," she replied with a smirk. "Come through here, there's a pretty cool spot in the middle of the maze." Rick made a whipping motion in midair and I punched him in the arm before we followed her between the stalks, losing ourselves almost immediately in an impenetrable wall of cornstalks.

Nova pushed and prodded her way several dozen yards until we burst out into a sort of clearing stacked with bales of hay that must have risen at least ten feet over the top of the corn. "Help me climb up!" Nova tossed rick the vodka and grabbed my shoulder without further ado and lifted herself bodily up onto the first bale, picking and prying her way up two more bales until she stood at the very top, towering over us. She threw her arms up and shouted triumphantly before flopping straight onto her back and out of sight with a puff of golden dust.

"You coming?" I hoisted a leg up onto the first bale and winced as a stray stalk jabbed me in the palm, drawing blood. Rick unscrewed the cap of the bottle and held on finger up as he took two long draws, grimacing as he swallowed it all down.

"That shit's like rocket fuel!" he gasped, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and tossing me the bottle. I pulled the cap off and took a whiff, blinking back fumes as the pungent odor of it assaulted my nostrils.

"When in Rome..." I said reluctantly, more to myself than to Rick, and choked down a sizable gulp. I instantly wished I was better with peer pressure. The cheap stuff burned like fire and acid on the way down. My head spun immediately and I screwed the cap back on, tossing the bottle up to the top of the haystack. It must have hit Nova, because a long and colorful stream of swears floated down from above just a second later. Rick and I looked at each other and burst out laughing before we started tediously crawling our way up to Nova's perch at the top of the world.

Nova had probably picked the best spot in the whole state to watch a fall sunset. Though we weren't up that high, it was flat enough to see straight across to the very tips of the Rocky Mountains to the west, where the sun was beginning its daily disappearing act. Below us billowed a rolling sea of golden corn, only broken by carved lines dotted with groups of people here and there, each looking like a school of lost fish searching for the end of life's maze. I could see the end of the maze a few hundred yards to our right and if I tried, I could trace the path from the entrance to the exit in my mind.

"I kinda feel sorry for everyone down there," I finally said after a few minutes of drinking in silence. I was definitely on my way to intoxication, and though it had occurred to me that one of us should probably stay sober enough to drive, I managed to push the thoughts to the back of my brain.

"How come?" Nova was sitting up, arms wrapped around her knees, staring off into the sunset, clearly lost and similarly enjoying the effects of such horrible vodka.

"They're gonna wander around down there for... who knows how long? And I can, like..." I paused to gather my hazy thoughts. "I can see the end from here, you know?"

"Wha's the point of going to a maze if you know where the end is?" This time it was Rick who spoke, sprawled spread-eagle out behind Nova and me. "Takes the fun out of it, man."

"Yeah, but what's the fun of being lost?" I pointed out, watching a group of screeching teens from the sophomore class take the wrong turn for what seemed like the eighth time.

"Hey, I think being lost is the best part." Nova turned back to us, looking like a fiery goddess with her head framed in the dying sun. "I'd spend my whole life lost if I could. I want to make it all up as I go, you know?"

"How does that work?" I asked, squinting at her. "You have to have a plan, right?"

Nova laughed the kind of laugh you give a kid when they ask if the moon is made of cheese. "Hey Puck, ask me what I'm doing in five years. In five months. In five minutes."

"Hey, Nova. What are you doing in five minutes?" I asked. Rick laughed himself into a coughing fit.

Nova gave me "the smile" and shrugged. "You know, I've not a fuckin' clue, Puck. And I love it!"

We spend almost two hours laughing and screwing around eventually getting drunk and rowdy enough for one of the bored-looking maze employees to come over and tell us (none too politely) that we weren't allowed to be up on the hay bales and that, in fact, we should probably leave the maze immediately before he called the sheriff. It could have been because we smelled like a distillery apiece, but he was altogether unpleasant regardless.

"Yo, who's gonna drive?" Rick tripped and nearly put a dent in the fender of his truck by the time we found it in the parking lot twenty minutes later.

"Clearly, it's going to be me," Nova said, snatching the keys out of his hand. Rick looked like he was going to protest, but vomited on my shoes instead.

"Point taken," he said weakly. "I feel a lil' better now, though, for the record."

"How in the world are you okay to drive?" I asked, prying off my ruined old Converse sneakers and making a sad attempt to clean them in the dewy grass. My head was very fuzzy, but at least I wasn't as drunk as Rick. "God, Rick, did you eat a pile of compost today?"

"Jus' burritos." He said with a groan and a dry heave. "Les' get outta here, please?"

"I have a naturally higher tolerance than you two," Nova smirked, answering my question. "Besides, practice makes perfect, you know!"

"Hey! I... I rec'nize that truck!"

Even in my inebriated state, my blood ran instantly cold. The three of us turned to find Tony, the kid Rick had violently cut off on the way here, and he looked both drunk and pissed as hell. His two greasy friends hung back a little, looking like they'd rather be drinking than starting a fight.

"Hey, which one of you pricks was driving?" He asked, rolling his neck in a threatening manner and stumbling a little on his feet. "C'mon, I don't have all day!"

"Gotta get home so your daddy can throw some stuff at you?" Nova asked, rolling her eyes.

I felt my jaw drop--physically drop, mind you, and Rick and I stared at her in disbelief. It was well known that Tony's dad was a useless good-for-nothing drunk, just like him, but I don't think anyone had ever had the balls to say something like that to him.

Nova did, of course. And the look on her face said it was her pleasure, thank you very much.

"What'd you just say to me, bitch?" Tony's face went from slightly pink to deep purple in a matter of two seconds. He took an unsteady step forward and Rick and I took a step back.

One of his buddies stepped forward and grabbed his shoulder weakly. "Hey, Tony, how 'bout we--"

"No!" Tony yelled, throwing off the other kid's arm. "Did you hear that? She disrespected me, that... that..."

Tony said a word that snapped something inside me, something fueled by liquid courage, stupidity, and my misplaced loyalty in the girl who teased my heart. I was on Tony in a second, fists flying at lightning speed as I tried to smash his words back into his mouth. It was like something out of some cheesy old 80's teen movie...

Except Tony was built a little like a brick house, and I had no fighting experience whatsoever. After he recovered from two decent hits to the cheek and jaw, he threw his whole body into a punch that, had I not flinched at the last moment, probably would have relocated my nose into my brain. Blood and pain exploded simultaneously and I fell flat on my ass into the dirt with him on top. Eventually Tony's friends dragged him off of me and took him away, kicking and cursing the whole time.

"Holy shit, dude! Tha' was awesome!" Rick said, laughing hysterically, pulling me to my feet. He opened the passenger door of his car and got me a sweaty old t-shirt to try and staunch the blood squirting out of my nose. Nova coaxed me into the truck and checked under the t-shirt to make sure my nose wasn't broken.

"Nope, just swollen up like an eggplant!" she said cheerfully. Her hand lingered on my face as she looked at me with a mixture of sadness and gratitude. "Hey, you didn't have to do that. Seriously, Puck. He could have beat the shit out of you."

I shrugged, dazed. "Ca' we go homb sood?"

Somehow, we managed to get back onto the main dirt road without any hitches, and Nova appeared to be content to drive the speed limit home. In fact, Nova just seemed... content in general. The corners of her lips were played up ever so slightly, almost like Mona Lisa's smile. Her face was lit with the dim glow of the dashboard instruments, skin as tanned and flawless as ever. I marveled at the way her nose was upturned ever so slightly, just enough to make her look innocent in her constant debauchery. Her hair whipped about her face wildly in the wind coming from the open windows, an untamable force to be reckoned with, just like the storms that lay just behind those impossibly blue, hieroglyphic eyes.

Rick was right: I was totally, completely, irreparably in love with Nova Fletcher.

"What'cha lookin' at?" Nova startled me out of my thoughts and I realized she had been watching me out of the corner of her eye. I felt my face grow hot and hoped she couldn't read my mind somehow.

"Jus'... looking out th' wi'dow," I stammered, averting my eyes. The swelling was coming down and I could finally breathe a little.

"You know, that thing in front of you? That's a window too," Nova said with a wink. We pulled up to a lone stoplight, surrounded by nothing but darkness and the lonely crimson illumination of the single light. Rick was passed out in the seat next to me, slumped up against the door.

"Yeah, well, I like th' view out your wi'dow better." I said bravely, feeling my heart flutter straight up into my throat. I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers, and I could imagine my eyes were as wide as saucers.

Nova leaned in a little closer. "Is that so?"

I could smell the cherries. The vodka. You could have cut the tension with a knife. I froze, unwilling to believe what was about to happen was about to happen. I had no idea what to do. Did I use my lips? Did I turn my head? Did I open my mouth? Oh, God, what the hell was I supposed to do with my tongue? God, my whole face was covered in blood!

"Take a picture, Puck," she whispered, moving in for the kill. "It'll last longer."

Just like that, her lips were on mine, soft, warm, and oh-so heavenly. I closed my eyes and leaned in a little, letting her take over and getting drunk on far more than just the alcohol on her breath. She raised her hand up and placed it flat on my chest, grabbing the front of my shirt and pulling me in a little bit deeper. The light around us turned a brilliant vermillion, but we were too far gone to care at all. Nova slowly slid her hand over my own sweaty one and lifted it gently, pulling it closer to her, placing it on her hip, and the slowly moving it upwards as we kissed. This was it. The moment of truth. My hand wound under the fabric of her jacket and over the soft material of her t-shirt. She grasped my hand harder, pulling against her hard as she opened her mouth wider and—

"OH SHIT!"

I jumped backward onto Rick, horrified, afraid that I had done something horribly, unforgivably wrong. My mouth was still half open as I tried to figure out what the hell just happened.

"The fuck's goin' on?" Rick woke up with a snort and pushed me off him, and promptly passed back out.

"Dammit! Shit! Fuck!" Nova stomped on the gas, flinging us back into the seats like rag dolls. "I'm supposed to be back home by ten!" she said with gritted teeth, taking us all the way up to eighty before leveling out a little bit. I looked at the clock numbly--it read nine fifty-two.

Never had I hated a string of numbers more in my entire life.

Nova managed to get us back in just under ten minutes, which seemed to be the norm for travelling back and forth to Carsonville by now.

Once we pulled into my driveway I tried to wake Rick up enough to get him inside. All the lights were off, meaning my dad had turned in early, for which I was extremely relieved. Nova and I found gum in the glove box and took two pieces each to try and cover up our breath. Nova took the keys out of the ignition and put them in the glove box, too, so Rick wouldn't lose them in his state

"Hey, I gotta run," Nova said, opening her door. I nodded, wondering how I was going to explain Rick to my dad, especially since we were supposed to be at his house.

"See you tomorrow?" I asked hopefully.

"As always," she said, flashing me a smile. "Hey, Puck?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For everything." Nova leaned over and gave me a quick peck on the cheek before slipping out the door and walking briskly toward her house. I watched her every single step and saw her turn back for just a moment and look at me before disappearing behind the huge bush in front of her front door.

I sighed, wondering if everything that had just happened was a dream. A wonderful, spectacular, impossible dream.

"Yo." Rick leaned over, breathing a blast of vodka-breath right in my face. "Did Nova just kiss you?"

"You have no idea," I said under my breath, handing Rick five sticks of gum.