“You guys know what to do?” Taggish asked, and everyone nodded.
I supposed I wasn’t one of “the guys” because I didn’t know what to do. But that didn’t seem to matter. As everyone else scattered, Taggish took my hand. “You stay with me.”
Gladly. Even though I was completely out of my element, I experienced an odd sense of security with Taggish holding my hand and realized that for what it was worth, in that moment, I trusted him.
“Are you going to tell me what we’re doing now?” I whispered as we inched closer to a large brick two-story house. The others had surrounded the house and were holding up the large rolling pins.
Taggish grinned at me over his shoulder and held up his roll. “Plastic wrap.”
Plastic what?
“Here, hold up my phone until I get it started.” He dropped my hand to dig in his pocket. He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight before handing it to me. “Shine it right here.” He pointed to the plastic roll. I shined the light on the seam and watched him struggle for a few seconds.
“Trade me,” I murmured, holding the light out to him while reaching for the roll. Taggish took the phone but held onto one end of the roll. It was enormous. I’d never seen so much plastic wrap in my life. What had they said as I was walking up? They had ten rolls?
While I struggled to pull the seam away, a few of the guys started walking toward us, each with their own roll.
“Oh, my gosh. Are we wrapping this house?”
“Shhh!” Several of their voices shushed me, but Taggish just smiled.
“Yes, that’s exactly what we are doing.” He talked softly into my ear. “Do you have it yet?”
Goosebumps rippled down my shoulder. Holy crap! That was all I could think as I struggled with the seam. Finally, I had the whole length separated from the roll. With trembling fingers, I held it out for him to see.
“Sweet. Let’s stick it on right here and get moving. We’ll work together.” Taggish turned off the light on his phone and stuffed it back in his pocket. Together we moved to the outer wall of the house, him carrying the roll and me keeping the separated edge from getting stuck back on it.
“Taggish, whose house is this?” I whispered as he walked backward, slowly unraveling the roll so it wouldn’t make any noise.
His white teeth flashed in the dark. We’d made it to the back of the house where no streetlights shone. But I knew he smiled. “Guess.”
“I couldn’t possibly.” My nerves were so shot, not even a single idea came to mind.
“Here. You hold the bottom, and I’ll hold the top.”
I took hold of the bottom of the roll. I didn’t think it would work, but it did. We moved together, our bodies so close, I heard his every breath. Even though I knew the other guys were nearby, I couldn’t hear them and could barely see them against the brick facade.
“Whose house?”
Taggish stopped moving. As close as we were, I could make out the features of his face. “You have to be quiet.”
“I have been quiet.”
“I know, but when I tell you.”
I thought I might throw up. Where were we? The chief of police? The mayor?
“Taggish,” my voice held a hint of a threat.
His face dipped until his lips moved against my ear. “Principal and vice-principal Gentry.”
8
Taggish
“Oh, my—” I slapped a hand over her mouth.
“I said be quiet,” I whispered, my body shaking with the effort to hold back my laughter. “Shhhh,” I whispered again when her lips moved against my fingers.
She’d surprised me. I’d thought for sure she would chicken out and stay in my car.
Mara trembled. Something about her brought out my protective side. She was out of her element, and I’d been the one who’d dared her to do it. I felt responsible. More than anything else, I wanted her to have fun. We were pulling a harmless prank on the school administrators. A principal and vice-principal who were married to each other—they were begging to be pranked. They’d pretend to be mad, but I fully expected a high five from Mr. Gentry on Monday morning. He’d know exactly who was responsible for his house being wrapped in plastic wrap. There was no question. But I wouldn’t tell Mara that. Half the fun of pulling a prank was the anticipation of getting caught while you were doing it.
There was nothing quite like the hysterical laughter brought on by someone making a loud noise when you most needed to be quiet—the kind of laughter I now struggled to stop.
“We have to keep moving.”
Mara’s lips pinched together, and I gave into the irrational urge to kiss them. It lasted less than a second, but I felt the sensation all the way to my fingers and toes.
“Come on, Mara. This is living.”
And it was. For the next thirty minutes it took to exhaust our three thousand feet of plastic wrap, I laughed more than I ever had in my life—silently, of course. Mara was hilariously terrified. She stopped about every thirty seconds to listen for anyone stirring inside the house, which meant I practically had to drag her along with me. It took her a while to loosen up, but when she did, she was laughing just as much as me. We were having so much fun, I almost didn’t want it to end.
But then a light came on in the house. Mara and I were standing just outside a window when it did. I could feel the terror take over her body.
“Taggish,” she mouthed my name, gripping my arm so hard it was painful.
Quickly as I could, I tore the plastic from the roll and grabbed her hand. “We better go.”
The guys would know what to do. It was every man for himself. I led Mara through the yard and onto the street, careful to avoid the glow of the streetlamps positioned at intervals between us and my car. We’d all parked far enough away and, in all directions, to keep from drawing attention in case we had to make a mad dash—experienced pranksters that we were.
I kept hold of Mara’s hand until we reached the car.
“Go, go, go!” she shouted once we were inside.
“I’m going. I’m going,” I laughed and pulled away from the curb. I shot her a quick glance as I maneuvered down the street. “You okay?”
She sagged against the seat. Her head rolled to the side so she faced me. “That was,” my heart stopped a little at the tone in her voice. Was she going to be mad now? It was her choice to come along, but I hadn’t given her all the information beforehand. Would she be angry with me for not telling her?
“So fun!” she shouted.
I breathed a sigh of relief and hazarded another glance at her. We were still in the neighborhood, driving slowly before we reached the main road.
Gosh, she looked cute. Smiling and happy. Before I could think better of it, I reached out and rested my hand on her knee.
“I can’t believe we just did that,” she breathed. And then I couldn’t believe it when she wrapped both her arms around mine.
“You’re not mad?” For some reason, I had to make sure. For some reason, I cared.
I felt her looking at me, saw her smile from the corner of my eye. Her arms tightened around mine, and it occurred to me how close we were, how close we’d been for the last hour and a half. I liked it. Maybe I liked her.