01 Untouchable - Untouchable (4 page)

CHAPTER TWO

The next morning, I showered and
dressed for school, but skipped putting on my makeup. That was
hard. It was like I was walking around naked—outside.

I pulled into the parking lot at 7:40,
which was extremely late for me. I figured if I only had five
minutes to get to class, then no one would be waiting. Wrong.
Jewels and Evan were talking beside his car when I pulled in.
“Great,” I muttered as I opened my car door.

“
What happened to you?”
Jewels started in. “The bell is going to ring in like five
minutes.” She turned to Evan, “Leese is
never
late.”

“
Sorry. My alarm didn’t go
off.” My story shouldn’t be too hard to believe. Without my makeup
on, I know I looked the part. I started walking toward the school
and let the two of them catch up to me.

“
You look different today,”
Evan noted as he got beside me.

“
Yeah, you know there’s no
time for makeup when you’re in a hurry.”

He laughed. “Actually, I’ve never been
so short on time that I couldn’t put my makeup on.”

I slapped his shoulder. “Jerk! You guys
don’t know how lucky you have it; no makeup, no panty hose, no
bra…” I stopped myself, realizing I was going the wrong direction
with this conversation.

He just chuckled.

“
I’d rather be late,” Jewels
added.

“
Well, in any case, what I
was going to say was that you look really good today,” Evan
grinned.

“
Yeah, right,” I
scoffed.

“
Leese, you can pull off the
no-make-up thing,” Jewels tossed out. “I mean you’ve got the
complexion for it, but me…” She let her sentence trail off,
evidently remembering that there was a guy in this trio.

I turned toward the English wing, “I’ve
got to go. Bye, guys.” When I glanced back I saw that Evan had
started to follow me until Jewels grab his arm and said, “This way,
silly.”

I made it through the classroom door
two seconds before the bell. I took my seat next to Kevin and gave
him a nudge. “What page?” I whispered. Mr. Shultz had already told
everyone where to turn, and I was, for once, lost.

“
Three-fifty-two;
The Raven
.” He flipped
his book on edge as if I was some dolt who needed a
visual.

“
Got it. Thanks.” We had
been studying the biography of Edgar Allan Poe and this was going
to be the first work of his that we would dive into. I enjoyed the
biography even though it was rather depressing, but he reminded me
of myself in that he ended up living with someone else after his
mother died. An uncontrolled shiver ran through my spine as I
thought about my mom. Robert, my step-dad, would make it through
this, but was Mom really losing it? I felt the need to say a prayer
for her. For a moment, I closed my eyes and asked God to keep her
safely tucked in the palm of His hand.

“
Ms. McKinnis,” Mr. Shultz
spoke, breaking me from my private thoughts. “Would you be so kind
as to start us off with reading
The
Raven
.”

I only nodded, and began reading for
the class. My mood this morning was perfect for this assignment and
my tone complimented the flowing poetry. Ten full minutes of being
dramatic in front of the class and I was ready to slip down into my
seat and disappear.

Second period, Kevin and Carlie and I
had gym, so we walked together and talked about what was playing
Friday night that we wanted to see. I always got a good laugh
watching these two together. They were, to me anyway, the ultimate
odd couple. Kevin was a 15-year-old brainniac who had the classic
heavy-rimmed glasses, was fairly short and usually looked like he
had slept in his clothes. Carlie was an eighteen-year-old senior,
with flawlessly long, tan limbs, naturally blonde hair and a face
that would piss off a Barbie-doll. Her plans after high school
included a summer trip to do a photo shoot at the Ford Modeling
headquarters in New York. Then it was back to Florida to start at
FSU in the fall. Why FSU and not stay in New York? She was crazy
about goofy little Kevin.

I was sure that once Evan got a look at
Carlie with those ‘good-grief-how-long-are-they’ legs, he would
forget all about me.

Carlie and I met Jewels as we turned
down the hallway leading to the girl’s locker room. “Coach said we
get to run track today,” she chimed.

“
Cool,” Carlie and I
responded at the same time. Track meant it was basically a free
day. We’d all go outside and walk, not run, at least once around
the track for credit, and then it was hit the bleachers for some
impromptu tanning.

I practically lived in the pool every
spare minute in Palm Beach and my tan had been natural, even and
perfect, but there was no pool at Matt and Bev’s.

The guys were already running the track
as the girls emerged from the gym. I could see Evan’s broad
shoulders and muscled arms standing out like a beacon in the throng
of guys. I sighed, and then suddenly I wanted to run the
track—really run the track, no walking. I bolted.

“
Hey!” Jewels yelled, trying
to catch me. “What are you doing? I thought we’d talk.”

Today was too perfect for moping along
and talking. I could smell the gulf in the stiff breeze that was
blowing from the south and I suddenly didn’t care about all my
worries and problems. “I’m just livin’ my life,” I yelled back and
kept going. I knew I wasn’t going to catch the guys, not that I
couldn’t have poured on the steam and caught them—I felt like a
gazelle today—but I preferred the view from behind.
Ooh-la-la!

It was a quarter-mile around the track
and I was winded by the time I’d completed the circle. Evan was
standing around with the guys as I ran past. It wasn’t that I
planned to run the circle twice, but I didn’t want to talk with
him. I decided to catch up with the girls who were only about a
third of the way around. I hadn’t gone far when I heard a runner
coming up behind me.

“
Slow down a little, Leese,”
I heard Evan call out.

I just laughed, which took some of my
air supply, so I slowed and he caught me.

“
Let me guess,” he said as
he pulled beside me, “Track team, right?”

I was still laughing which continued to
slow my pace. “Nah, it just feels really good to be alive right
now.” He didn’t say anything and we were more than halfway to the
girls. “My mom says,” I continued, “to enjoy life, because there
are no re-dos.” I couldn’t help but smile at him.

“
That’s pretty profound for
someone who can’t even go out for a burger after school,” he
quipped.

“
Cholesterol is bad for
you,” I retorted and then (and only heaven knows why) I smacked his
belly and took off twice as fast. Dang, that boy had some rock hard
abs!

He reached me as I dodged through the
girls to get to where Jewels and Carlie were talking.

“
You’re gonna get it,” he
threatened.

I grabbed Carlie and Jewels by the
arms, “Safe!” I shouted, “I’m safe, you can’t touch me when I’m
around my friends.”

He gave me an odd look and then shook
his head.

Jewels looked at me like I’d lost my
mind. “Ah! What is this all about?”

“
She hit me,” Evan blurted
out before I could answer.

“
It was a tap!” I defended.
“Anyway I think it hurt my hand more than it hurt you.”

Jewels looked at Carlie and raised an
eyebrow; Carlie smiled back at her.

“
Nah, it’s not like that
guys,” I said, reading their minds. “We’re just horsing
around.”

“
Sure,” they said in
unison.

“
I’m going to get some sun,”
I snapped, uncomfortable with them looking at us as if we were a
couple.

I took off running and finished my
second lap. Evan hadn’t followed me, which suited me just fine. I
didn’t really want anything to do with him even if I was acting
like an idiot that did.

I found a quiet section of bleachers
and stretched out in the glorious Florida sunshine.

“
Hey,” I heard a quiet
voice. I looked up and Kevin had come down to where I
was.

“
Hey, Kev—what’s
up?”

“
You don’t think Carlie
likes the new guy, do you?”

I turned my head and squinted in the
sunshine to see that Evan, Jewels and Carlie were still walking.
Was I worried? Sure I was. Was I going to tell Kevin that?
Absolutely not.

“
Kev, Carlie is nuts about
you. He may have the build, but you’ve got the brains and Carlie,
well, she really likes brains.” I glanced up at him and then
reached over and squeezed his hand. “Don’t worry.”

Within a few minutes I heard the
metallic sound of more people tromping up the bleachers. I also
heard Jewels rattling on about needing a new dance routine for the
cheerleading team. I didn’t open my eyes, but I heard Kevin sigh so
I knew Carlie was close. Then a shadow crossed my face and simply
stayed there. “Pardon me,” I said, eyes still closed. “But someone
is blocking my rays.” No response and nothing moved. I could hear
some giggling a few benches over. Annoyed, I finally opened my eyes
and there was Evan standing over me. I started to speak, but he
beat me to it.

“
Sunshine is bad for you,”
he smirked, then acted like he was going to pop me on the stomach.
I tighten my muscles waiting for the sting but I refused to flinch.
His fingers snapped at the air only inches away from my exposed
belly. Exposed belly?

“
Oh, crap,” I blurted out,
suddenly sitting up right. I pulled my shirt down and embarrassment
filled my cheeks as I realized I’d been laying there with it hiked
to my rib cage.

He just laughed and sat down beside me.
“So you live with your aunt and uncle in the historic district?” It
was a question, but he sounded like he knew the answer. That was
when I realized why he stayed back with Jewels and
Carlie.

“
You really do have a touch
of stalker in you,” I snapped.

“
You mentioned you’re mom
when we were on the track—is she…”

“
Yeah, she’s alive if that’s
what you were going to ask. She and my dad are having some
problems.” This wasn’t a complete fabrication, but I left it
sounding like marital problems instead of life-or-death
problems.

“
In Alabama,
right?”

I think my face was a blank for a
moment, then the illusion returned. “Yup, Alabammy.” I tried a
horrible impression of an Alabama accent.

He started to speak and I figured it
was going to be more questions about Alabama. I really didn’t want
him to figure out I was a liar.

“
So,” I interjected quickly,
“Who do you live with?”

“
Myself.”

That was a revelation. “Really? All by
yourself? But how did you register if….”

“
Eighteen,” he answered my
unfinished question. “I’m an adult, I can register
myself.”

“
But you’re only a
junior?”

“
My birthday is in November,
so I started late.”

“
Where are your
parents?”

“
New Orleans,” was his short
response. It only took me a second to recall his conversation with
Mrs. Knoosh from the day prior.

“
What’s in Pensacola then?
Family, friends…?”

“
You,” he smiled.

That sent a tingle to the pit of my
stomach. “Ha, ha, very funny. What did you do, close your eyes and
stick your finger on a map and just show up?”

“
Nah, I wanted something
different and my family used to vacation here a lot. We have a
house out on Gulf Breeze, so I decided why not? And here I
am.”

“
Time to head back inside,”
Coach yelled. The unified groan came up from the bleachers. “Let’s
go, ladies and gentleman, move out! Lewis,” coach called as we
exited the bleachers, but Evan just kept walking beside me.
“Lewis,” coach called a second time.

“
Uh, I think coach wants to
speak to you,” I nudged Evan’s arm. He looked at me blankly. “Your
last name is Lewis isn’t…”

“
Oh!” The recognition
flashed on his face and he turned around. I guess he was a little
deeper into our conversation than I thought. My pace slowed as I
heard coach saying he’d like to see him tryout for spring football.
Evan turned him down flat and then caught up with me.

“
Not in to football,
huh?”

“
Nope,” was the short
response.

“
What sport are you
into?”

“
Does
every
guy have to be in a
sport?”

“
I guess I should rephrase
that then; what sport were you into?”

He had this annoyed-puzzled look on his
face.

“
Okay, you have a scar above
your eye, one on your chin, I think I see a nasty one just under…”
My fingers were reaching for the cuff of his tee-shirt when he
grabbed my hand.