Broken (13 page)

The gears finally ground to a stop and
Britney sighed as she put her head down on the table. I tried to
stop from smiling at her theatrics, but happened to look over at
Rachel just in time to see a matching smile on the younger girl's
face.

Before I could look away, Rachel held up the
red side of her card. "Do you have a minute?"

Happy to be able to do something, I hurried
over and took a look at her open book. "Fractions huh?"

"Yeah, I'm supposed to reduce them after I
finish adding, but I can't seem to get to the same answer as the
book on this one."

She'd transposed a couple of the numbers when
working on one of the intermediate steps.

"Here it is, you've changed the numbers here,
it should be fourteen sixty-fifths, not fourteen fifty-sixths."

Rachel's skin was several shades darker than
mine, tan enough that it didn't show embarrassment as easily, but
it still looked like she'd gone the slightest bit red. "Oh, I'm
sorry to bug you with such a stupid mistake."

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad it was
that easy. I've been worried all day someone would stump me on
something right out of the gate on my first day."

Rachel looked up at me through dark lashes as
I stood. "I've wanted to say thanks for a while. I really
appreciate you making Cassie back down yesterday. Nobody else has
ever stood up for me like that. At least not people that I didn't
already know."

Based on what I'd seen less than thirty hours
ago, it didn't look like her friends stood up for her either.

"No worries, it just seemed like the thing to
do at the time. Why did she want to hurt you anyways?"

Rachel looked down, but somehow it wasn't a
gesture that conveyed guilt. "It's complicated."

I'd spent too much time with emotions and
thoughts floating around in my own head that I didn't want examined
too closely. I wasn't about to pry if there was something she
didn't want to tell me.

"I guess that's fair. Let me know if you have
any more questions."

Rachel nodded, and then turned back to her
book, apparently having used up her store of courage for the
afternoon.

I stopped by Britney's desk to ask if she
needed any help, and had to avoid an attempt to suck me into
another gripe session about Mrs. Campbell. Satisfied that there
wasn't anything I needed to be doing to help either of the other
girls, and that they'd let me know if that changed, I broke out my
Spanish book and reviewed some more vocabulary.

Despite my growing hatred for Mrs. Tiggs, I
managed to get deep enough into my Spanish homework to lose track
of time. When I finally surfaced from abeja, camisa, and reloj it
was just five minutes before I was supposed to close up for the
afternoon.

Rachel pulled her things together and left
while I was straightening up the chairs. It was petty, but I waited
inside the room until the clock showed exactly the time the lab was
supposed to finish, and then joined Britney outside in the
oppressive heat.

The air was so dry I could nearly feel it
pulling the moisture out of my body as we started around the school
towards where Britney had parked her car. As we reached the west
side of the building, the high-pitched growl of a performance
engine tore a hole in the relative silence.

The edge of the student parking lot was just
barely in view now, but it was enough to see the source of the
noise. A tiny figure barely recognizable as Rachel, was walking
towards a dark-blue bullet bike, which had just roared to life. We
had to walk several more steps before I recognized the
leather-clad, dark-haired figure on the bike as Alec.

My feet must have unconsciously slowed
because Britney was now several steps ahead of me and looking back
impatiently. I tried to catch up, but Alec chose that moment to
look up and stare in our direction. He was quite a ways away, and
his lovely eyes were covered by a pair of sunglasses, but I somehow
knew he was looking at me. He handed Rachel a helmet but continued
to look at us, at me, while she put it on.

I was moving again, but my pulse sped up as
Rachel grabbed a hold of her brother and swung her leg over the
pillion seat on the bike. She seemed to see us for the first time
as a cold chill arched down my back and the horizon started to
vibrate.

I managed to raise my hand in response to her
wave, but it was an absent motion. My attention was still on Alec
and his unwavering stare. Rachel leaned forward as if to say
something to him, and he finally nodded and dropped the bike into
gear. A few seconds later the pair was screaming out of the parking
lot, and my breathing was too labored for it to be anything other
than a full-blown panic attack.

I made it another couple steps, just far
enough to grab Britney as I started to fall. I had a split second
to be grateful I'd lost all of that weight so Britney wouldn't
collapse under me, and then the darkness claimed me.

Even though I knew I wouldn't remember the
void when I finally came to, I wanted nothing more than to just
float in the darkness. It had been a hard day. I'd....actually I
wasn't sure why it'd been a hard day, but something told me I'd
unconsciously been at the end of my rope just before I'd collapsed.
Unfortunately that same thing told me I couldn't dwell here in the
comforting absence, there was a very important reason for me to
regain my feet.

The void was reluctant to let me go,
stripping me of memories and experiences as I fought my way free.
By the time I was near surfacing I no longer remembered just how
much I wanted to stay.

Britney was pacing back and forth when I
opened my eyes. She had her cell phone out and was looking like she
wanted to dial 911, but was worried about the possible fallout. I
was on the ground, which for some reason made me more irritable
than it should have. Didn't she realize how hard it was to make it
over to someone before collapsing like that? It kind of defeated
the whole point if they then put you on the ground where your
clothes would take their normal, instantaneous-collapse
beating.

"Oh my gosh, are you ok? I wasn't sure what
to do."

"I'm ok, I just need a minute."

Since I was already on the ground, I really
did just want to lie there for a moment, scorpions, dirt and all,
but Britney didn't seem to understand that concept. Now that my
eyes were open and the whole 911 question had been answered, she
was determined to get me back on my feet.

Chapter 8

I was midway through brushing my teeth before
I realized I'd had another night filled with nothing but regular
dreams. I'd walked into two different classes and found out that
there were tests I'd forgotten about, been stranded at the side of
the road, and chased through some kind of rain forest, but while
some of those dreams had been plenty terrifying, none of them had
even a touch of the surreal vividness of the one's I'd had my first
few nights in Sanctuary.

Maybe they were just some kind of
psychological defense mechanism popping up in response to all the
changes. If so, I kind of wished I could be sick still. It's a heck
of a thing to not want to be healthy, but I'd gone to bed most
every night hoping I'd get to experience another one. It was
depressing to realize I probably had one less thing to look forward
to.

Looking at the clock, I realized I was a bit
behind schedule. The bus would be here in about ten minutes, and
Britney was supposed to arrive just a tad before that. It was sad,
but I didn't trust her anymore, so I'd probably take the bus if she
didn't show up before it did. I just couldn't risk her leaving me
here without a ride. She'd been way weirded out after my collapse.
I wasn't sure even the promise of Brandon's continued presence
would be enough to convince her to come through on her word.

I hurried downstairs and grabbed my liquid
lunch replacement out of the fridge. I was in such a hurry I almost
didn't see the new note on the white board.

Sorry I missed you last night. Found a
really promising spot. Left early-looked like it might work if I
was there at sunrise. --Mom

I wasn't sure what to think. In theory she
might be working on stuff for the brochure, but somehow I knew she
was busy chasing her dreams once again.

Good luck, I'll see you later. --A.

My backpack creaked and groaned as I picked
it up. Luckily most of my classes weren't moving as fast as I'd
expected. I was far enough ahead I could start picking a few
subjects and working on them every night instead of bringing home
my entire locker every day.

As always, it was already heating up despite
the sun having only barely cleared the mountains. It did seem like
it wasn't quite as hot though. Maybe it was getting late enough in
the year to bring the temperatures down slightly. It was too much
to hope it would actually drop to the low seventies, even when
December came around.

I made it down the lane and then really
started worrying. It was like I couldn't win. If Britney drove all
the way out here and I was already gone because I took the bus, she
was going to be really mad. On the other hand, if she didn't show,
I had no other way to get to school, and mom would freak out. Part
of the reason she felt like she could be gone so much ever since
the accident was the fact that I always did the responsible thing.
If she started thinking I was cutting class, she was going be mad.
It would be like I was behaving irresponsibly and taking away her
ability to pursue her art, all at the same time.

It was past time for the bus to arrive, and
she still wasn't here. A car zipped around the corner driving way
too fast, just like Britney always did, but it wasn't white. I
looked past it, hoping to see another one following it.

My mouth nearly hit the ground when I
recognized the throaty roar and dark paint job of Brandon's
Mustang.

"I knew you'd be sitting here worrying she
wouldn't come."

It took a minute for the words to make sense.
"Fine, but that doesn't shed any light on why you're all the way
out here."

The gray eyes just visible in the slowly
growing light crinkled up in a smile. "I called her and told her
I'd pick you up. She can take you home, I'll come pick you up every
morning."

My head was spinning. Why would the most
popular boy in school want to pick me up for school every
morning?

"You don't need to do that; I can always just
ride the bus."

Brandon flipped open the passenger door and
motioned for me to get in. I started around the vehicle, stumbling
and nearly falling before I finally made it to my destination.
Brandon waited for me to get my seatbelt on and then gunned the
engine, flipping around 180 degrees in a maneuver I'd never seen
anyone perform outside of the movies.

"Of course I don't have to pick you up. It's
more a matter of wanting to if I can say that without making things
all weird. I have obligations at school, people who depend on me. I
can't spend the time I'd like getting to know you there, so it just
made sense to free up some time in the mornings to make that
happen."

Everything was just too unreal. I couldn't
believe it was all happening, so I chose to ignore the implications
of what he was saying. Boys like him didn't go for girls like me.
They didn't even acknowledge the possibility unless they were after
something.

We'd been driving in more or less comfortable
silence for several minutes before I decided to act before things
got uncomfortable. "So, tell me about yourself."

"There isn't much to tell. I was born here,
and I'll probably die here."

"More of the obligations you were talking
about?"

Brandon nodded, staring off in the distance
for a second. "Yeah. It sounds pretentious, but a lot of people
depend on my family. Half the businesses in the town are owned by
my family, the other half are owned by Alec's mother."

The revelation was a bit of a shock. I'd
known all along they were both ridiculously rich, but them owning
the livelihood of nearly every person in the town was mind
boggling.

Brandon seemed to know where my thoughts were
headed. "Pretty amazing huh? Anyways, I've been raised to believe I
have an obligation to the town, to the people that work for us.
Part of that includes making sure other people with substantial
resources don't abuse their power."

It was probably about as good of a chance to
really find out what was going on under the surface as I was going
to get, but something inside me shied away. It was like I'd be
entering a new world, one in which some of my illusions would be
shattered. I'd have to face a colder interpretation of certain
people's actions.

Brandon successfully defused any awkwardness,
chuckling as he pulled into the school parking lot. "You really
didn't know any of that?"

I shook my head, more or less speechless, and
he reached out and playfully tapped the side of my face with one
finger. The touch left my skin warm and tingling.

"That's what's so amazing about you. Almost
everyone else at school was born here. They essentially look at
every action as choosing between Alec and I. Britney, who could
have legitimately stayed neutral, has been trying to get in my good
graces almost since she arrived. You on the other hand could care
less who has the most money."

It was an explanation. Not an iron-clad one,
but good enough for now. I thanked Brandon for the ride, and was
rewarded with one more wide, open smile before we split up and
headed our separate ways.

I kept telling myself not to get caught up in
the idea of being with someone for the first time in my life, but
still went through the first two classes more or less in a daze.
Mrs. Sorenson was just as nasty as she'd been every day this week,
but I didn't care when she managed to stump me on her second
question.