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chest.
    â€œGagh,” I rasped, trying to catch my breath in the wake of the blow.
    â€œWhoa,” she said. “Sorry. That was supposed to be more of a playful hit.”
    â€œIt’s okay,” I exhaled, seeing spots of light. “I’m thin, so I think my lungs are close to the surface. How did you learn to hit like that?”
    â€œKickboxing class. I was toning my arms for prom.”
    â€œIt’s working,” I said. “I think you’d beat both the dinosaur and the rhino together in a cage match. In ancient times, you would have been the toast of the Colosseum. Y’know, if they had dinosaurs then.”
    â€œSophius Maximus of Carthage.”
    â€œSophius Aurelius of the Praetorian Guard.”
    â€œHA…hehhhhhhh…”
    I had almost finished catching my breath when Sophie rolled over on the rock and kissed me, and it was gone again.
    The gesture was inexplicable. One moment I was recovering from a blow that had left me dazed and emasculated, and the next moment was the best of my life. I had no idea what I was doing, so I just tried to copy her lip movements and maintain consciousness—it wouldn’t have looked very dashing to faint from the profundity of the moment and fall off the rock. I closed my eyes so she wouldn’t see them rolling back into my head.
    The only thing that went through my mind was that Sophie smelled like a sugar apple, which is a fruit from South Americamy parents had recently been bringing home from the local organic food market. They’re strange-looking things, like hard artichokes. Maybe her family had been eating them too. Looking back, I wish that wasn’t what I was thinking about during my first kiss, but I guess the brain always does what it wants.
    Then the kiss was over, and she was staring at me from one inch away.
    â€œWhat was that for?” I said.
    â€œTo apologize for punching you. And also to see if you’re a good kisser, which is important in a prom date.”
    â€œAm I?”
    â€œYou’re a natural.”
    â€œYou know my reputation.”
    â€œ HA…hehhhhh. Yeah, it’s all the girls talk about. I guess I’m just another in your list of conquests.”
    â€œNot to interrupt the mood, but can I tell you something?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI think I’m still seeing lights from when you hit me.”
    â€œThat’s weird. I see lights too, if you’re talking about those ones near the Big Dipper.”
    Sophie pointed at a group of dots in the sky. There were six total, spaced in two parallel sets, all of them moving together.
    â€œWhy would you be able to see lights if you were the one who hit me ?” I said.
    â€œThat is an excellent question.”
    â€œMaybe the beer had some kind of drug in it.”
    â€œDusty did say he enjoyed crack cocaine.”
    â€œAre the lights getting closer?” I said. “It seems like they’re getting closer.”
    The lights grew larger.
    â€œThat really doesn’t look right,” said Sophie.
    â€œWe should head back.”
    â€œWe should absolutely head back.”
    We climbed off the rock and began hustling toward Roswell, but the town was just a speck in the distance. I looked over my shoulder, and the glowing dots were not only closer but brighter , as if the object behind us had flicked on a set of stadium spotlights. The lights warmed the back of my neck, which confirmed my growing suspicion that this was bad.
    I grabbed Sophie’s fingers. “Run.”
    â€œI can run faster if you let go of my hand,” she said, jerking her arm away. She was right—as soon as she was free of me, she went into another gear and was gone , and I saw how it was entirely possible for her to have won all those mud runs. She was a jackrabbit, zigzagging around cacti, leaping crevasses in the ground, sprinting out hundreds of feet in front of me in just a few seconds.
    Which was how the