Fox at Midnight

Leo swallowed his vitamin C with a grimace—the chalky orange kind his mom swore would keep him from getting mono, as if that was his biggest problem. His biggest problem was actually Maya Chen, who sat three rows away in homeroom and didn't know he existed.

"You going to the baseball game Friday?" his best friend Ben asked, spinning a pencil between his fingers. "Tyler's pitching."

Leo shrugged. Tyler was the kind of guy who could pull off wearing a varsity jacket to every class. Maya would be there, probably cheering from the bleachers with her perfectly glossed lips and that laugh that made Leo's chest feel weird.

His real mission started at midnight. For the past week, Leo had been playing cable guy—hooking up the stolen premium cable box his cousin had scored, running wires through his bedroom window so he could watch R-rated movies when his parents thought he was asleep. It was his first rebellion, small and pathetic, but it made him feel like someone else. Someone interesting.

That's when he saw it: a fox.

It stood in the alley behind his house, orange fur glowing under the streetlamp, watching him with eyes too intelligent for a wild animal. Leo froze, holding a spool of coaxial cable like an idiot. The fox tilted its head.

Then he heard the whisper.

He wasn't proud of it, but Leo started spying. Every night that week, he watched from his window: the fox appeared at midnight, and then—two minutes later—Maya Chen walked down the alley, ducking behind the old garage. She'd emerge twenty minutes later, smelling like cigarettes and looking like she'd just survived something.

Friday, Leo followed her.

Behind the garage, four guys sat on milk crates, passing a blunt. Tyler, the baseball star, was one of them. Maya was there too, sketchbook in hand, drawing them with charcoal-stained fingers. She looked like she belonged in a different world than the one Leo imagined for her.

The fox sat at the edge of the alley, watching them all.

"You gonna stand there all night?" Maya asked, not looking up from her sketch. "Or are you gonna come say hey?"

Leo stepped forward, his heart hammering. "I—I take vitamins," he blurted. "For energy."

She grinned. charcoal smudged on her cheek. "Good. You're gonna need it."

He sat next to her while she drew, and for the first time, Leo felt like the main character in his own life.