“Online creeper?” he asked, chuckling.

“Yeah.  You know, the guy you meet online with an affinity for sending photos of his penis with every contact.  For some strange reason, they love sharing pictures of their dicks publicly, like they are trying to promote them, make them famous or something.  It’s the equivalent of being a flasher in an overcoat on a train platform.   And they’re always trying to sex-message you some God-awful picture of themselves next to a can of soda to boast their size.”

Kade’s shoulders were shaking from his laughter, “What the hell is a sex-message?”

“It’s one of those sex messages that you constantly get from people.  Hi.  I am so-and-so and I just saw your profile and think you are kind and lovable.  I want to be your friend and share my life with you.  Here is a photo of me, blah, blah, blah.  Do you have any naked pics?”  I sipped at my coffee, enjoying the warmth of it.  “I’m dead serious, Kade.  Just look at sites like Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, you’ll realize the internet is a veritable sausage fest.  Everybody is showing off their dicks these days.  Creepers.”

Laughing, Kade asked, “And what kind of creep was Fran?”

“Oh, he was the creep your friend sets you up with, touchy feely, and the cat creep all rolled into one.”

“Must be hard pickings around here for you ladies to lock your ball and chains on someone, if all the eligible men are as creepy as Francis is,” Kade said, reaching for a napkin.

I drew in a deep breath, blew it out dramatically and laughed, “Why do all women constantly get dragged into the same stereotypical group when someone is talking about relationships, and women needing to be married, like it’s a universal constant?  Not every woman wants to lock a ball and chain on somebody.  It’s like saying that all men actually do think with their dicks.”

Our plates of food were placed in front of us, the smell of delicious greasy diner burger hit my nose like a freight train, and I moaned out loud.

Kade eyes snapped to mine, and a shiver ran down my spine.  I just stared like an idiot back at him, holding my burger in both hands above my plate.

“But, men do.  Take that moan, for instance. That had me thinking of you spread out over this table in nothing but a pair of black lace panties and your legs wrapped around my neck with those old white Converse still on your feet.”  His eyes pierced me and he shrugged his shoulders and smirked.

I froze at the thought, with my mouth just about to take a bite of my burger.  “Subtle.  Kade.  Very subtle. I should give you a taste of your own medicine and go all Harry-Met-Sally on you.”

A few minutes passed by as we both watched each other and ate, listening to the sounds of the kitchen and the wind whipping against the thick glass of the window next to us.

“Tell me about your brother,” Kade whispered, low and cautious.

“What would you like to know?”

“Everything, anything.  I don’t know.”

Staring down at my hands, I began unconsciously folding a napkin and playing with its creases.  “Michael was my best friend.  He was brilliant, a doctor, funny, and was unbeatable at playing pranks on people.  Part of me is still holding onto the small hope that everything that happened was a cruel prank, and he’ll just pop up from behind the bushes somewhere laughing his ass off.”

A faint smile tugged at his lips.  “I think that’s everybody’s default setting on death. Everybody hopes it was just a big sick joke.  But, think about it, why would you want a person you love to be that cruel to you?”

“I wouldn’t care.  I’d just give anything for one more of our talks,” I whispered.  “Are you and Dylan very close?”

Glancing up at him, I noticed his face was twisted in grief.  His brows creased in the middle of his forehead and he rubbed the back of his neck, “I’m not close with anyone.”

“Not even Morgan?”

“Least of all Morgan.”

The waitress leaned across our table, then gathered our emptied plates and poured us more coffee.

“Bree mentioned you both lived in Manhattan.  Must have been culture shock coming all the way up here from a big city.”

“Probably just as big as coming here from England.  When did your family come to the states?”

He cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.  “I was seventeen.”  His expression darkened and I could visibly see his chest tightening.  “So what was it like living in a big city growing up?” he said, struggling to think of anything else to talk about.

“My father always worked, and my mother was always busy, so my brother and I pretty much had the entire city as a playroom,” I tried to explain without giving too much information about any personal subjects.

Slipping the check over the table, the waitress winked at me and walked away.  Kade grabbed for the check, and I reached into my purse for some cash. When I tried grabbing the check from him to see what to put in, he practically bared his teeth at me and snarled.  I watched him leave a hundred dollar bill on the table and he placed his hand on the small of my back and led me to the door.

“So, what’s your story then, Lainey?”

“I don’t have any stories you’re going to want to hear, Kade.  Do you have stories you want to talk about?  Or you want to make this evening light and unheartbreaking?”

His lips curled up playfully, “Oh Lainey, I have tons of stories…” he said as we climbed into his truck and started the engine.  “But my story?  Let’s see…my past is heinously horrid.  Born with extremely powerful, yet flawed super human powers, I accidently melted my mother into a heaping pile of goo as soon as I fell from her womb.  The guilt was unbearable and drove me to wear a mask to hide my deadly grey eyes, deliberately living a life of solitude as I search the world for a cure for my flaws.  Everyone thinks I’m not living up to my heroic potential and that I should work for the government, fighting America’s villains, but the reality is that I’m just saving everyone from my hell.”  Kade had pulled out of the lot and the dark road was racing under the wheels, and the trees were a blur of tangled blackened branches blocking out the moonless sky.  For miles, an awkward heavy silence hung in the air when his story finished, both of us knowing there was some strange truth to his tale.  Turning into the trailer park, he slowed the truck down from warp speed, pulled into the dirt road next to the trailer, and turned off the engine.

“I googled you,” I whispered.

His eyes nailed me to the seat.  Vaporous breath escaped through his lips as his chest rose and fell faster and faster.  His eyes flickered and searched my face maniacally; his breathing became more erratic, intense gasps of air.   “Goodnight, Lainey,” his voice croaked huskily.

I leaned forward and laid the palm of my hand over his chest. I felt him tense and strain beneath the tips of my fingers.  His eyes searched mine, as my fingers felt for the beat of his heart, listening to it, feeling it as it slowly settled into its regular pace.

“Kade.”

“Don’t.  Just go, please.  I can feel you in my darkness, Lainey, and you’re shining, lighting up my way.  Please go.  Leave me to my darkness,” he smiled bitterly.

 “Kade, I know the mess you’re dealing with and how it makes you feel.  More than you know.”

“You don’t know anything!”  He screamed, nostrils flaring and red-faced.  He goes hot and cold like the flip of a switch.  On-flip-Off.  Hot-flip-Cold.  “Yes. I have the characteristics of a real person.  Flesh, hair, bones, blood, whatever…but I have nothing on the inside.  Empty, devoid of any emotion, dead.  Like I did die that day, and only my body remains here. Maybe you could feel flesh and pulse, see my blood and bones and you think I'm just as human as you, but I'm not. I’m fucking empty.  There is nothing inside me.  Nothing but violent scenes and pleading echoes.  Then I saw you, and something small flickered deep inside the dead dark recesses of my mind. I don’t need some stupid little girl like you telling me how you understand me, when you never would be able to conceive the unthinkable shit I’ve lived through. Just fucking leave me here, Lainey.  Walk the fuck out and leave me here.”

“I don’t want to leave you there, Kade.  Nobody should be left there.”

 “So, what?  You’re going to try to save me, Lainey?  Leave me alone.  You have no idea who and what I am.  Get the fuck out and go back to your little perfect bubble.”

Ignoring his rouse, I dug into him, “I can see you’re in pain.”

“My pains are not apparent to the eye,” he muttered.

“What the fuck are you talking about? They’re as apparent as the nose on your damn face, because you wear them so proudly!  You act as if you carry some contagious sickness with you, something that you actually threaten people with.  Well, I’m not scared of you and your self-inflicted disease.  Especially since I suffer from the same exact one, I just know how to live with it.  The first time I saw you - you fucked me like a teenage virgin with your eyes, then when I asked you for your order, you acted like a misogynist.  I know, Kade.  How about we do this? Why don’t you snap a little picture of me and then later tonight, when I leave the premises and you’re all by your wonderful Wizard of Oz lonesome, you could creep in for some quality time with the still, mindless, silent picture.  Or maybe, you could just acknowledge the fact that I might understand what you’re going through and deal with the real life me, the one that you follow around.”