Thanks to everyone who reviewed! It really means alot to me. Now I have a announcement to make about James...he will not be in this story. But in part 2 called 'My guardian angel' he will. It will converse to his and Kendall's relationship and Carlos and Logan's too. Now to chapter 4...

By seven o'clock the sky had glowered into a inky blue, and I zipped my coat up for warmth. Kendall and I were on our way from the movie theater to the parking lot, having just watched 'The Sacrifice'. It was my job to review movies for the eZine and since I'd already seen every other movie showing st the theater we'd resigned ourselves the latest urban chiller.

"That," Kendall said, "was the freakiest movie I have ever seen. As a rule, we are no longer allowed to see anything suggestive of horror"

Fine by me. Take into consideration that someone had been lurking outside my bedroom window last night and compound it with watching a fully developed stalker movie tonight, and I was starting to feel a little bit paranoid.

"Can you imagine?" Kendall said. "Living your whole life never having a clue that the only reason you're being kept alive is to be used as a sacrifice?"

We both shuddered.

"And what was up with that alter?" he continued, annoyingly unaware that I would rather talked about life cycle of fungi than about the movie. "Why did the bad guy light the stone on fire before tying her down? When I heard the flesh sizzle.."

"Okay!" I practically shouted. "Where to next?"

"And can I say if a guy ever kisses me like that, I will start dry heaving. Repulsive doesn't begin to describe what was going on with his mouth. That was makeup, right? I mean, nobody actually has a mouth like that in real life..."

"My review is due at midnight," I said cutting across her.

"Oh. Right. To the library, then?" Kendall unlocked the doors to his 1995 blue Dodge Neon. "You're awfully touchy, you know."

I slid into the passenger seat. "Blame the movie." Blame the Peeping Tom at my window last night.

"I'm not talking about just tonight. I've noticed," he said with a mischievous curve of his mouth, "that you've been unusually crabby for a good half hour at the end of bio the past two day."

"Also easy. Blame Carlos."

Kendall's eyes flicked to the rear view mirror. He adjusted it for a better view at his teeth. He licked them, giving a practiced smile. "I have to admit, his dark side calls to me."

I had no desire to admit it,but Kendall wasn't alone. I felt drawn to Carlos in a way I'd never felt drawn to anyone. There was a dark magnetism between us. Around him I felt lured to the edge of danger. At any moment, it felt like he could push me over the edge.

"Hearing you say that makes me want to..." I paused , trying to think of exactly what our attraction to Carlos did make me want to do. Something unpleasant.

"Tell me you don't think he's good looking," Kendall said, "and I promise I'll never bring up his name again."

I reached to turn on the radio. Of all things, there had to be something better to do than ruin our evening by inviting Carlos, albeit abstractly, into it. Sitting beside him for one more hour every day, five days a week, was plenty more than I could take. I wasn't giving him my evening, too.

"Well?" Kendall pressed.

"He could be good looking. But I'd be the last to know. I'm a tainted juror on this one, sorry."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I can't get beyond his personality. No amount of beauty could make up for it."

"Not beauty. He's...hard edged. Sexy."

I rolled my eyes.

Kendall honked and tapped her brake as a car pulled in front of him.

"What? You disagree, or rough and roguish isn't your type?"

"I don't have a type," I said. "I'm more not that narrow."

Kendall laughed. "You, babe, are more than narrow...you're confined. Cramped. Your spectrum is about as wide as one of Coach's microorganisms. There are very few, if any, boys at school you would fall for."

"That's not true." I said the words automatically. It wasn't until I'd spoken them that I wondered how accurate they were. I had never been interesting in anyone. How weird was I? "It isn't about boys, it's about...love. I haven't found it."

"It isn't about love," Kendall said. "It's about fun."

I lifted my eyebrows, doubtful. "Kissing a guy I don't know...I don't care about...is fun?"

"Haven't you been paying attention in bio? It's a lot more than kissing."

"Oh," I said in a an enlightened voice. "The gene pool is warped enough without me contributing to it."

"What to know who I think would be really good?"

"Good?"

"Good," he repeated with an indecent smile.

"Not particularly."

"Your partner."

"Don't call him that," I said. "Partner' has a positive connotation."

Kendall squeezed into a parking space near the library doors and killed the engine. "Have you ever fantasized about kissing him? Have you ever stolen a peek sideways and imagined flinging yourself at Carlos and crushing your mouth to his?"

I stared at him with a look I hoped spoke appalled shock.

"Have you?"

Kendall grinned.

I tried to imagine what Carlos would do if presented with this information. As little as I knew him, I sensed his aversion to Kendall as if it were concrete enough to touch.

"He's not good enough for you."

He moaned. "Careful, you'll only make me want him more."

Inside the library we took a table on the man level, near the adult fiction. I opened my laptop and typed: 'The Sacrifice, two and half stars.' Two and a half stars was properly on the low side. But I had a lot on my mind and wasn't feeling particularly equitable.

Kendall opened a bag of dried apple chips. "Want some?"

"I'm good, thanks."

He peered into the bag " If you're not going to eat them. I 'll have to. And I really don't want to."

Kendall was on the color wheel fruit diet. Three red fruits, two blue, a handful of green...

He held up an apple chip, examining it front to back.

"What color?" I asked.

"Make me gag Granny Smith green. I think."

Just then Jett Stetson, the only sophomore to make varsity football in the history of Coldwater High, took a seat on the edge of our table. His brownish-Blondish hair was combed up into a Mohawk and like always, his skin was glowing like a fish.

"Hi, Faggot," Jett said to Kendall.

"Hi Freakshow," Kendall said back.

"My mom is looking for models this weekend. The pay is nine dollars an hour. I thought you'd be interested."

Jett's mom manages the local JCPenney and on weekends he has Jett and the rest of the football players modal in the stores street facing display windows.

"She's having a really hard time finding gay people to model," said Jett.

"You've got food stuck in your teeth," Kendall told Jett. "In the crack between your two front teeth. Looks like chocolate Ex-Lax..."

Jett licked his teeth and slid off the table. As he sashayed off, Kendall stuck his finger in his mouth and made gagging gestures at Jett's back.

"He's lucky we're at the library," Kendall told me. "He's lucky we didn't cross paths in a dark alley. Last chance any chips?"

"Pass."

Kendall wandered off to discard the chips. A few minutes later he returned with a romance novel. He took the seat next to me and displaying the novels cover said, "Someday this is going to be us. Ravished by half dressed cowboys. I wonder what it's like to kiss a pair of sun-baked, mud crusted lips?"

"Dirty," I murmured, typing away.

"Speaking of dirty." There was an unexpected rise in his voice. "There's our guy."

I stopped typing long enough to peer over my laptop and my heart skipped a beat. Carlos stood across the room in the checkout line. As if he sensed me watching, he turned. Our eyes locked for one, two, three counts. I broke away first but not before receiving a slow grin.

My heartbeat turned erratic and I told myself to pull i together. I was not going down this path. Not with Carlos. Not unless I was out of my mind.

"Lets go," I told Kendall. Shutting my laptop, I zipped it inside it's carrying case. I pushed my books inside my backpack dropping few on the floor as I did.

Kendall said, "I'm trying to read the title he's holding...hang on...how to be a stalker."

"He is not checking out a book with that title." But I wasn't sure.

"It's either that or how to radiate sexy without trying."

"SHH!" I hissed.

"Calm down, he can't hear. He's talking to the librarian. He's checking out."

Comfirming this with a quick glance over, I realized that if we left now, we'd properly meet him at the exit doors. And then I would be expected to say something to him. I ordered myself back into my chair and searched diligently through my pockets for nothing whatsoever while he finished checking out.

"Do you think it's creepy he's here at the same time we are?" Kendall asked.

"Do you?"

"I think he's following you."

"I think it's a coincidence." This wasn't entirely true. If I had to make a list of the top ten places I would expect Carlos on any given night, the public library wouldn't make it. The library wouldn't make the top hundred places. So what was he doing here?

The question was particularly disturbing after what had happened last night. I hadn't mentioned it to Kendall because I wad hoping it would shrink in my memory until it ceased to have happened. Period.

"Carlos!" Kendall stage whispered. "Are you stalking Logan?"

I clamped my hand over his mouth. "Stop it. I mean it." I put on a severe face.

"I bet he's following you," Kendall said, prying my hand away."I bet he has a history of it too. I bet he has restraining orders. We should sneak into the front office. It would all be in his student file."

"We are not sneaking into the front office."

"I could create a diversion. I'm good at diversions. No one would see you go in. We could be like spies."

"We are not spies."

"Do you know his last name?"

"No."

"Do you know anything about him?"

"No. And I'd like to keep it that way."

"Oh come on. You love a good mystery, and it doesn't get better than this."

"The best mysteries involve a dead body. We don't have a dead body."

Kendall squealed, "Not yet!"

Shaking two iron pills from the bottle in my backpack, I swallowed them together.

Kendall bounced the Neon into his driveway just after nine thirty. He killed the engine and dangled the keys in front on me.

"You're not going to drive me home?" I asked. A waste of breath since I knew the answer.

"There's fog."

"Patchy fog."

Kendall grinned. "Oh boy. He is so on your mind. Not that I blame you. Personally, I'm hoping I dream about him tonight."

Ugh.

"And the fog always gets worse near your house," Kendall continued. "It freaks me out after dark."

I grabbed the keys. "Thanks a lot."

"Don't blame me. Tell your mom to move closer. Tell her there's this new club called civilization and you guys should join."

"I suppose you expect me to pick you up before school tomorrow?"

"Seven thirty would be nice. Breakfast on me."

"It better be good."

"Be nice to my baby." He patted the Neon's dash. "But not too nice. Can't have her thinking there's better out there."

SO WHAT YA THINK? IS CARLOS A STALKER? LOL KENDALL HAS THE IMAGE OF KISSING CARLOS.

REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW PLEASE!