After Me (6 page)

“Okay, I’ll try.”

Not exactly a profession of his undying love, but I still felt giddy and didn’t trust myself to say anything else. Fortunately, Mr. Forrester began to call roll, then he reminded everyone of the quiz he’d promised us the day before. While he passed out the test papers, I sneaked a look at Lew and could tell our conversation had affected him too. Maybe I could take advantage of it some more after class.

But I forgot all about scoring points with Lew as soon as I turned over my test and discovered that even though I hadn’t read a single word of the chapter about atomic and molecular structure, I knew the answer to every question on the quiz. In fact, when I closed my eyes, I could see the entire periodic table of elements.

I started answering the questions as fast as I could, a smile on my face at the thought of the potential brownie points it could mean when Lew found out I had super zombie smarts.

Chapter Nine

I
finished my test in no time, but I realized I’d better wait a bit before turning it in so Mr. Forrester wouldn’t think I’d cheated. And I tried to look like I was struggling to remember something in case anyone was watching. Of course, Lew was too busy making sure I couldn’t see his paper to notice my amazing acting skills. As soon as I saw Gary Gradepoint two rows over get up to turn in his test, I took mine up to Mr. Forrester’s desk. I could tell he was surprised when I handed it to him.

“Finished already, Miss Stewart?”

I nodded. “Yep. Is it okay if I read my library book now?”

His surprise grew a little more. “Yes, absolutely. By all means.”

I went back to my seat, loving the astonished look on Lew’s face. I gave him a cutesy little smile as I sat down and took out the copy of
To Kill a Mockingbird
Annalee had talked me into checking out at lunch. My plan was to only pretend to read, but the story had me hooked before I knew it, and I couldn’t seem to get my eyes to move fast enough across the pages. I didn’t look up again until I felt somebody poking my shoulder.

“The bell rang,” Lew said. “Didn’t you hear it?”

I looked around and realized everyone was leaving the room. “Oh. Guess I got distracted by this crazy book. That little Scout chick is a trip.”

He narrowed his eyes. “What part are you on?”

“They just found out the hole in the tree is filled with cement.” I stood up and dropped the book into my backpack. “Pretty lousy thing to do if you ask me.”

A slow transformation took place on his face, and I knew he hadn’t believed I was really reading it until then. He was looking at me as though he were seeing me for the first time, and my knees actually got weak when he smiled at me. And to think it was all because I finally went into a library.

“It’s a great book,” he said. “I can’t believe you’ve never read it before. Oh… sorry. Forget I said that, okay?”

“Don’t sweat it.” I hooked my backpack over one shoulder and walked around the table, hoping my legs would support me without wobbling. “Annalee couldn’t believe it either when I told her. She’s the one who talked me into checking it out.”

He picked up his own backpack and walked out of the room beside me—actually walked
with
me. I wondered if we had little Cupids circling our heads but resisted the urge to look up and see.

“You just got it last period and you’re already that far into it?”

I shrugged. “You didn’t know speed reading was a mad skill on the streets? Can’t afford to get a library fine when you got open warrants, you know.”

He looked unsure whether to laugh or not, so I bumped his arm with my elbow.

“Hey, lighten up,” I said. “All that’s behind me now. My foster family’s great, and I don’t plan to ever go back to that life.”

He smiled again with the same effect on my knees. “I’m glad you’ve got a good family. Everybody’s not so lucky.”

Well, that definitely screamed for some elaboration, but before I could ask him what he meant, Matt Winston grabbed a fistful of Lew’s shirt and pushed him against the lockers on the left side of the hall.

“Speaking of families,” Matt said through clenched teeth, “yours won’t be able to protect you if you ever talk to me again like you did yesterday!”

Lew glared back at him. “You know your threats don’t scare me, Matt. And my family has nothing to do with it.”

His grip tightened on Lew’s shirt. “Keep pushing me and you’re gonna regret it, rich boy. That’s a promise and not a threat.”

I recovered from my stunned immobility and pushed Matt hard enough to make him stumble and let go of Lew’s shirt but not hard enough to send him flying down the hall.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, Matt,” I said as I moved between him and Lew, “but I believe you’re the one who opened your big mouth about me yesterday just because I don’t want to join your fan club. Learn to deal with rejection and there won’t be a problem.”

He straightened up and took a step toward me. “Yeah, but I know where I made my mistake now. I didn’t give you a price.” He looked at Lew then back at me. “If you’re smart you’ll forget about Junior here and go after his daddy or his grandpa. They’re the ones with the big bucks.”

I stood on my tiptoes so my face was right in front of his. “And if
you’re
smart—which we both know you’re not—you’ll stay away from both of us unless you want to end up on the disabled list for the rest of football season.”

“Ooh, I’m shaking in my shoes.” He laughed and wiggled his fingers next to his face.

Mr. Forrester arrived and pulled Matt away then directed him down the hall. “Okay, let’s move along. I’m sure you all have homework to get started on.”

Matt sneered at us over his shoulder but kept walking. When I turned around to speak to Lew, he was already headed in the other direction.

“Hey, wait up!” I hurried to catch up with him. “I know that guy’s a douchebag in general, but what was all that stuff between you and him? Sounded like some major history there.”

“Ancient history,” he said without looking at me. “Forget about it. And for the record, I don’t need you making threats on my behalf. I handle my problems without resorting to barbarian tactics.”

“Sorry.” I cringed inside at the bitterness that had returned to his voice. “I’m still working on getting rid of my street survival skills. Trash talking is the first one I mastered.”

He glanced sideways at me, and his expression lost some of its hardness. “I guess I can see how you’d need to excel at that. Actually, you remind me a lot of my aunt. She’s good at it too because of stuff that happened to her growing up.”

I added that to my list of things to get more details about. “Great. I’d love to meet her.”

He stopped and looked at me with a little smile. “Maybe you can the next time she and my uncle are in town. They try to make it to at least one of my chess tournaments. I’ll let you know when they’re coming.”

I did my best to look pumped at the idea of attending a thrill-a-minute chess tournament. “Okay, I’ll bring my foster brother Nathan. You’re like his chess idol.” I realized too late that I’d just told him I’d been talking about him at home.

He narrowed his eyes. “Oh, so that’s why you keep hitting on me. Is the kid paying you or blackmailing you with something?” He waited until my face was flaming and I started to stammer, then he laughed. “Hey, lighten up. That was a joke.”

I elbowed him. “Yeah, you’re a real comedian.”

He smiled again. “I need to go talk to my chess coach about something. See you tomorrow.”

I watched him walk away and could almost feel myself floating several inches off the floor. Considering all my new zombie powers, I had to check my feet to make sure I wasn’t levitating for real. I managed to make it to the bus without drifting off to Lovestruck Land on a freaking cloud. Annalee was in a seat near the back.

“Hey, that bird book you talked me into isn’t bad,” I said as I sat beside her. “I got a chance to read some after I finished my chemistry test.”

A smile lit up her face. “I knew you’d like it. It’s my favorite book.”

Dougie got on the bus and made an obscene crotch gesture in our direction before he sat down a few rows ahead of us.

“Looks like Tree Boy’s still pissed at me,” I said. “Can you hear my heart breaking in my chest?”

Annalee giggled. “Yeah, I can see how bummed you are about it.”

“Does he get off before we get to your stop?”

She nodded. “Mine is one of the last stops. Why? You think he’ll try to do something?”

“Who knows, but don’t worry about it. I’m not taking any crap from him. I’ve put up with enough jerks today already.”

Her fingers played with the strap on her backpack. “Yeah, I heard about what Matt did to you and Lew in the hall.”

“Wow, this school’s got a kickass grapevine.”

“Everybody on the bus was talking about it when I got on.” She kept looking at her hands. “I thought you said Lew couldn’t stand you.”

My stomach might not work normally anymore, but I found out it could still knot up. Was I risking my friendship with her if she found out how I felt about Lew, or would I be risking it even more if she knew I was being dishonest? My devious little mind searched frantically for something to say, and I surprised the hell out of myself by coming up with something that was pretty much the truth.

“Yeah, well… I guess I’ve got you to thank for his change of heart. Turns out he likes girls who read the classics.”

“Really?” She looked up at me, and I could tell she was wondering if that might work for her advantage too.

“You like him, don’t you?” I said.

“
No.
” She blushed the deepest shade I’d seen yet. “I just think he’s nice.”

“Yeah, right.” Encouraged by the success of my honesty, I decided to keep going. “Look, I don’t blame you. I like him too, but I can tell he still doesn’t know what to make of me. I think he feels kinda sorry for me right now, but that won’t last long. I don’t want anybody’s pity and sure as hell don’t need anybody to protect me.”

“I got that from the Tree Boy incident,” she said and we both laughed. “You’re probably right about Lew. He might not look like the brawny type, but he’s not afraid to stand up for something important.”

“Sounds like you know that from personal experience.” I tried to keep any hint of jealousy from my voice, but it wasn’t easy. “He mentioned something about you having a lot to deal with. How does he know that?”

She sighed. “I’ll tell you about that when I tell you the rest of my sad story. But remember, you have to tell me yours too.”

Didn’t see that happening anytime soon.

“So are we okay with both of us having a thing for Captain Chess Champ?”

She doubled over with laughter. “Oh, I’m so sure he loves you to call him that. And I don’t have a
thing
for him. He’s just a friend.”

“I repeat—yeah, right.” I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the competition, but at least we’d gotten our feelings out in the open. “Okay, so give me the scoop on him. Matt said something about his family having money. Is that true?”

She nodded vigorously. “They’re loaded. His grandfather owns Stanton Land and Timber, and his dad’s the CEO.”

“For real? So why does he go to a public school?”

“I’m not sure. He only transferred here at the end of last year. I think he went to a private school before that.” She paused and looked thoughtful. “Come to think of it, Matt transferred here about the same time.”

“Yeah, I can tell they have some kind of wicked bad history with each other,” I said. “I don’t see him spilling his guts to me about it though. Hey, maybe I can get Matt to tell me since we’re such good buddies.”

“No, Gwen.” All trace of humor left her face. “Stay away from Matt. He’s bad news.”

I didn’t even bother to ask what she meant by that. Apparently, everybody here had a secret, and it was gonna take some major Sherlocking on my part to find out what they were.

Shouldn’t be a problem for Zombie Girl.

Chapter Ten

J
ulian knew it was no use trying to work when he got this way. It had been way too long. Time to arrange another rendezvous.

He left early after giving McCarthy some weak excuse about a stomach virus. Woefully unoriginal but guaranteed to work because of McCarthy’s pathological fear of germs. Predictably, he’d insisted that Julian stay home for at least three days to make sure he didn’t return while contagious.

Tonight he would get the girl to accept the car and arrange the details of the drop off. Of course, the actual meeting wouldn’t take place until the following week when McCarthy went to Atlantic City, but Julian intended to require another naughty web cam interlude from her as payment for the Ferrari. That would tide him over until their date, and it made him eager to go home and get started.

After a quick stop at the drug store for some needed supplies, he sped home to his small apartment over his mother’s garage. To keep her from hearing the car and coming to see why he was home early, he turned off the engine at the end of the street and coasted down the driveway. If she started in on him again tonight, he swore he would indulge his lifelong fantasy and finally slit her throat.

Inside his apartment, he pulled down all the shades and closed the nauseatingly ugly duck curtains. God, he hated those mallards in flight that his mother had insisted on because she thought they were so “manly.” How old did he have to be before he could make his own damn decisions?

Once the apartment was soothingly dark, he undressed and booted up his laptop. As always, he smiled as he typed the password that unlocked the private world his mother couldn’t infiltrate:
matricide.
The graphic images on the desktop had ceased to titillate him the way they did when they were new, but that was okay. He’d be getting some new ones very soon.

Before sending the chat message to WETNWILD16, he logged in to FaceSpace and went to the page for the new Sugar Daddy group he’d joined. He wanted to check the member list to see if any new greedy sluts had joined. There were several fresh prospects, including one calling herself Cherry Licious. Julian licked his lips and started to click on the profile picture, but he was interrupted by insistent pounding on his door. He closed his eyes and could practically see his mother’s ham-like fist beating on it.

“Julian Francis Pugh, what are you doing in there? Why are you home from work so early? Let me in!”

He grimaced and hurried to the door, leaning against it with his eyes squeezed shut. “Mr. McCarthy let me come home early because I have a stomach bug, Mumsy. I just need to sleep for a while. I’ll be fine.”

More pounding. “Open this door right now, young man! You could be seriously ill. I’m the nurse, not you. I’ll decide if you’re fine or not.”

“No, Mumsy. Please.” He hated the pleading note in his voice, almost as much as he hated her. “I already took my temperature. It’s only ninety-nine. Just a little stomach flu that’s going around.”

“Did you use the rectal thermometer? You know I don’t trust any other method!”

“Yes, Mumsy. Don’t I always do what you tell me? Just let me take a little nap, then I’ll come down and you can check it for yourself.” One of his hands gripped his coarse black hair and yanked hard enough to make his eyes water. God, he disgusted himself.

“Well, I don’t know…”

“Will you make me some soup when I come down later?”

“You mean some of Mumsy’s special chicken soup?” He could hear the grin in her tone and knew he had her. “You love it so much, don’t you, Julie?”

“Yes, Mumsy.” He pinched the inside of his thigh, relishing the pain.

“Okay, go take your nap and then come down to eat your soup. And you’ll be sleeping downstairs where I can check on you tonight, so bring your pillow and jammies with you. We’ll watch ‘Operation Repo’ together.”

“Okay, Mumsy. I will.” When he heard her heavy footsteps descending the stairs, he added, “Yeah, I’ll bring my pillow with me. And after your fat ass is asleep in your chair, I’ll smother you with it.”

But he knew he wouldn’t. He’d wimp out just like he’d done so many times in the past.

As he felt the familiar warm trickle run down his leg into a yellow puddle on the floor, he sobbed and twisted one of his nipples mercilessly. When his tears stopped, he went back to the computer and logged in to his favorite Sugar Daddy chat room.

WETNWILD16 was online.