As long as you can avoid any dark alleys you just might make it through the end of the year." Man, life around here just won't be the same next year a...ter you're gone," Chalise complained."Hey, what do you have to complain about, at least you'll have access to him," Nancy Thorn responded. She'd joined our table ever since I'd befriended her childhood friend Mia and gotten her out of her dark Goth period."That's not guaranteed," Chalise informed them. "As of now, Alex hasn't made any definite. " We have a blind drop we all use for important things we can't get on the outside and I will give it to you later. Harry, I was not snooping on you but I got my hands on your service record, or at least most of it that wasn't classified, and I couldn't believe half of what I read last night. How come you never became an officer? I saw it was offered and you always turned it down. A field commission is a great honor in times of war. I know it's none of my business but I am curious about it. I. Obviously, I need to talk to her some more, but I wanted to let it sink in and give her a chance to think about it.”“Think about it?” Kara giggled. “She’ll be so hot and bothered she won’t be able to think straight! You know how it is with teenage virgins!”“And older ones, too,” I grinned, looking at Jessica.“What’s the plan for today?” Kara asked, ignoring my leer.“Not much, really,” I said. “There’s a race, but Bill and Alan have both had a really crappy string of races. They did finally fix. "He looked up at her. Again, he stared at her face and he took a ragged breath."I saw you through the window of your store, and I thought you looked like an angel come to lead me on the right path again," he said hoarsely.Mrs. Adams blushed deeply, but her eyes showed no revulsion. Instead, she looked at him with an odd mix of pity and longing."Make sure you douse the light before you sleep," she admonished him before she left him for good.Somewhere, Max heard a bell toll the first hour. He ate.