Tao Lin: Richard Yates

About an hour later it was dark out and Dakota Fanning went in her house. Haley Joel Osment stood on the street one block away. The plan was she would call him when her mother was in bed watching TV and then come outside and bring him in.

Haley Joel Osment walked on the street thinking “Dakota said she sleeps naked and her mother is afraid of seeing her naked and so never opens her door at night.” Haley Joel Osment knew Dakota Fanning had been involved with older men before and had run away to see one of them and that her mother had threatened to tell the police to arrest the man and then the police had found Dakota Fanning in Philadelphia and Dakota Fanning’s father had said “I wish this would all just go away.” When Haley Joel Osment thought about Dakota Fanning’s father he saw a normal-looking man sitting on the edge of a bed in the morning, standing in an office with a neutral facial expression, walking to his apartment at night, walking into his bedroom, quietly closing the door, screaming in agony, brushing his teeth, sleeping.

Haley Joel Osment looked at his cell phone. “Walking,” he thought. “Waiting,” he thought. A house had its front door open and inside was a yellow light and people who were eating dinner. Haley Joel Osment imagined either someone running in the house on an insane killing rampage or else someone running out of the house on an insane killing rampage. He walked by an SUV. People in the SUV were watching a movie. They seemed to be Hispanic. Haley Joel Osment felt a little confused. He walked on the street listening to music from his iPod. “Here I am,” he thought. “Hispanic,” he thought and his cell phone vibrated.

Dakota Fanning came outside wearing pants and a shirt.

Haley Joel Osment followed her upstairs into her room. It was very dark.

She turned on a string of blue Christmas lights that were on one wall.

On the other walls were drawings, posters of bands, photos of Dakota Fanning and other people. “These are Dakota Fanning’s friends, and maybe family,” thought Haley Joel Osment. There were maybe fifteen glass cylinders on the floor by an electric guitar. Dakota Fanning said they were candles she had got off eBay and used and that she was saving the empty cylinders because they looked pretty.

They sat on her futon bed that was about seven inches high.

Dakota Fanning asked if Haley Joel Osment wanted music. He said he did and she put on music. He lay on the bed and covered his face with a blanket. They listened to “Tripped” by Neva Dinova which Haley Joel Osment had emailed to Dakota Fanning a few weeks ago saying it was one of his favorite songs. He moved his arm in the air and Dakota Fanning touched his hand. He held her body and they listened to another song.

One tear left her eye and he licked it.

“I licked your tear,” he said.

“It was a small tear,” she said.

“It was salty,” he said.

They left her house to hide somewhere until her mother was asleep. “I don’t want to go back to New York City,” said Haley Joel Osment on the street. “I mean forever. I’m being serious.”

“What about your roommates?” said Dakota Fanning.

“What do you mean?” said Haley Joel Osment.

Dakota Fanning was quiet a few seconds.

“Will they be worried if you’re not there tonight?” she said.

“No. I only see one of them. We see each other like twice a week for forty-five seconds. He probably won’t notice. I don’t know. I don’t think he cares. We are adults. We can choose what we want to do, with our lives.” Dakota Fanning grinned and said “What are you going to do?” Haley Joel Osment said he didn’t know and grinned. They talked about living on a field or maybe the ledge. Haley Joel Osment said he would be too afraid to sleep on the ledge because he might roll into the Delaware River. They ran holding hands across a street. They went in a twenty-four-hour grocery store called Price Chopper. They stood in front of a gas station called Taco Palace and held each other under a very tall streetlamp next to a highway. Haley Joel Osment stared into the distance at a homeless center Dakota Fanning had said closed a few months ago because it was attracting too many homeless people to the area. “I don’t know,” he thought. “I think we’re holding each other like this so we can’t see each other and don’t have to do anything. We don’t know what to do. I should decide something and do it. I feel like she is thinking the same things I am.”

They walked to Dakota Fanning’s house.

Around 2:00 a.m. their heads and bodies were under blankets with their lips touching but not kissing. Haley Joel Osment stared at Dakota Fanning’s face. After a few minutes she kissed him with dry lips. He licked her lips and kissed her. The windows were up because Haley Joel Osment was allergic to cat hairs. Dakota Fanning usually did not put her windows up.

Dakota Fanning’s mother opened the door. “For God’s sakes Dakota,” she said.

Haley Joel Osment scratched Dakota Fanning’s back with a finger that was already there.

“Put down those windows,” said Dakota Fanning’s mother. “It’s freezing in here.”

“Put down those windows now,” she said.

“No, just let me have them up,” said Dakota Fanning. “Hearing the cars go by on the street helps me sleep.”

“That’s funny,” thought Haley Joel Osment. “Clever.”

“Just go away,” said Dakota Fanning. “Please.”

Haley Joel Osment heard Dakota Fanning’s mother say “I can’t reach that one” and make weak struggling noises. Dakota Fanning’s mother left the room closing the door. Haley Joel Osment moved away from Dakota Fanning until he was off the bed a little. He said Dakota Fanning’s mother didn’t knock. Dakota Fanning said her mother never knocked. Haley Joel Osment said he was afraid. “Come here,” said Dakota Fanning and pulled Haley Joel Osment and he moved toward her and stood and walked into the closet and closed the door. He felt a little clever. Dakota Fanning told him to come out.

He came out and lay on the bed putting a blanket over himself.

“You said she didn’t come in at night,” he said.

“She doesn’t. It was because the windows were up and cold air got in the house.”

“What if she comes back?” said Haley Joel Osment.

“She won’t,” said Dakota Fanning. “It was just the cold air.”

“Do you regret coming here?” she said with a worried facial expression. Haley Joel Osment said he did not. Dakota Fanning covered her face with her hands. Haley Joel Osment pulled her hands off her face while grinning. Dakota Fanning hugged him very hard. They held each other under blankets. She twitched sometimes. She made small noises. Haley Joel Osment wasn’t sure if she was crying or dreaming. After some time he felt himself wake and asked if she was asleep and she said “A little” and he woke her and asked what time it was and she looked and said “Shit” and left the room. She came in and said it was safe and he went in the hallway, quietly walked down the stairs, ran for about six minutes, sat in the train.

One week later he visited again. They ate at Ming Moon and walked three miles to McDonald’s to visit Kailey who Dakota Fanning had said was her best friend. There was a pagoda by McDonald’s and Dakota Fanning said she used to go there alone on her break and sit and stare for twenty minutes. She said one time she didn’t want to work anymore so she hit herself until she was bleeding but when she went back no one said anything about the blood on her face. Kailey came outside and said her shift wasn’t over yet. Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning sat in the backseat of Kailey’s car. Dakota Fanning put a CD in the car’s CD player and her head on Haley Joel Osment’s shoulder. She said last summer Kailey’s mother left Kailey and Kailey’s sisters alone in the house for five months while she went to Alabama to marry a 23-year-old from the internet. She said Kailey’s mother was 40 and worked at Wal-Mart and was living with an 18-year-old co-worker.