Candid (True Images Series) (28 page)

She looked at me with a fierce desperation. “Well, what about Marisol and that Brian kid? They’ve been waiting too.”

“I know, but I want to see Lee. I can see Marisol tomorrow – and Brian too if he wants.”

The way my mom looked up at Mr. Greeley showed that she was confused. I’d never seen her look that way about a decision before. Maybe it was terrible of me, but I was glad to hear Mr. Greeley take my side.

“Sophia, I think you need to reevaluate your motives here. Are you trying to keep Sienna from getting hurt, or are you just trying to keep her?”

“What do you mean?” my mom asked.

“I think you know. At first, perhaps you didn’t want Sienna to date because she was young. She’s still young, but she’s an adult now. You want to keep her safe from guys you didn’t trust, but I truly believe you can trust Lee. I’ve observed a lot of character in him that is pretty uncommon in kids his age. Regardless, they need to have the chance to prove
themselves
and learn about life while they still have family to fall back on.”

“But Alex…”

“No listen, Sophia. Do you think that maybe you’re afraid of someone taking her away from you?”

My mom was crying now. I could tell by the shaking of her shoulders and the way she pressed her face into his chest. No sound escaped however. After a few moments, she straightened, ruthlessly wiped her wet cheeks with her palms, and turned to face me.

She took my hand and studied it for a moment as she slowly rubbed it with her thumb. “Sienna, I don’t know what I think tonight. It’s been a scary and an emotional evening for me. But I have a feeling that he may have a point to some of what he says. Maybe we can discuss this a little more tomorrow, when we’ve all had a chance to rest.”

“Do you mean you might let me date Lee?”

“Maybe a little – under certain conditions.”

I was so
excited,
I had to choke down a shrill cry of happiness. “Wow. I wouldn’t mind getting hurt all over again for this.”

“It isn’t because you got hurt. It’s because I’m tired and because, well… because I’ve missed you the last few weeks. We’ve been like angry strangers living together, and I can tell it’s driving us apart. It’s made me realize that I might have gone a little overboard, but I wasn’t willing to admit it, even to myself.”

“We both messed up, but I never stopped loving you mom.”

She bent and put her arms around me, careful not to hold me where it hurt. “Oh, honey. I love you, too.
So much.”

We held each other and some of her tears ran warm down my face. Or maybe they were mine. I lost track.

During all this, Mr. Greeley had disappeared. I heard someone open the curtains again, so I looked over my mom’s shoulder. Lee was standing there, doubtful but resolved. He seemed paler than when I’d seen him last, and his face grew tense when he saw my beat up face.

“Lee,” I whispered.

Hearing me, my mom
raised
up and studied him. Lee looked once at my mom,
then
returned to checking over my injuries, his eyes flicking from the bandage over my eyebrow, to my swollen lips.

At last my mom said, “Thank you for staying, Lee. It means a lot to Sienna. I’ll go sign her discharge papers while you two talk.”

Lee moved to allow my mom to pass him, then came to my side and reached for my hand. He held it tightly in his, and I wondered if I would need another x-ray when he was done. He bent and pressed a kiss on my cheek, then rested his own against it.

He murmured into my ear, “Man, when I heard what happened to you, I was so … I don’t even know… worried doesn’t begin to cover it. Someone got a text about it after the game with a picture of you being loaded into an ambulance.”

“Well, that’s more than I saw,” I said. “I’m glad I missed it all. Being unconscious has its benefits.”

Lee straightened up to look at me. “You’re glad you went in and out of consciousness for three hours?”

“I went in and out? I don’t remember anything but waking up once, a little while ago.”

Lee laughed a little, shaking his head. “Why am I not surprised? Mr. Greeley said the only thing you said as you floated in and out was ‘Where’s my camera?’ You truly do have a one track mind.”

“Where
is
my camera? Oh no! Did it get broken?”

“I hate to tell you this, but it got crunched pretty
bad
. Mr. Greeley thinks it’s a loss.” He was worried about how I would take this, I could tell, but I accepted it calmly.

“Well, I’m really glad I bought that insurance on it and all my equipment. It wasn’t cheap, but it’ll be worth it now.”

“You have insurance on it? Why in the world were you so protective of it all the time?”

“Because I liked my camera a lot and because I have to pay a deductible on every item I put in a claim for. Still, it’s cheaper than a new camera. I just won’t get that new lens for a while. Oh
my gosh
!
My pictures.
I was supposed to send them to the paper!”

I tried to sit up, but Lee pushed gently on my shoulders until I gave up. Truthfully, it was kind of painful anyway.

“Relax,” he said. “When they didn’t hear from you, they called Mr. Greeley. He got the card out of your camera and sent them some pictures a couple of hours ago.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want them to think I was undependable.”

“Right, because they would think that when you’d ended up in the hospital.
It’s not like it’s your fault you got hurt.” Lee’s expression grew stormy again as he spoke.

“Lee, are you mad at me for taking pictures?”

“At you?
Of course not.”

“But you are angry. What happened tonight? I’d really like to know.”

“I don’t want to bother you with it tonight. Don’t worry about it.”

“Was it Caleb? It had to have been, or you wouldn’t be so upset. He must have done it on purpose, because the last thing I remember was that the play was over, the ref blew his whistle, and then Brian was calling my name in a panic. Do you know what happened after that?”

Realizing that I wasn’t giving up, Lee said, “Yeah, Brian filled me in on everything. He said Caleb came out of nowhere and pegged a guy standing five or six yards away from you. Not only was the play over, but Caleb pushed the guy right into you instead of just tackling him. There’s no doubt in my mind that he did it deliberately, but of course no one there had any idea what was going on. There were a lot of people upset over it, but Brian said Caleb didn’t seem to care that you’d gotten hurt. Apparently, Jordan was freaking out over it pretty bad. She was crying and trying to tell you something but the paramedics wouldn’t let her get close.”

“Jordan was crying because I got hurt? That doesn’t make sense.”

“There’s a lot about this that doesn’t make sense. We don’t have to get to the bottom of it all tonight, however.”

“You know what I’m glad about though?”

“What?”

“That it wasn’t my fault. I’m glad I didn’t get run over just because I was being stupid or not paying attention or something.”

“If that makes you feel better about getting hit by four hundred angry pounds of combined muscle and shoulder pads, then go with it.”

“Know what else makes me feel better?”

“What?”

“Mom just said that we can date.”

His eyes widened and his hand jerked in surprise. “No she didn’t.”

“Uh huh.
She said ‘with conditions,’ but I’ll take it.”

“Me too.
We won’t be doing much till you get better though.”

“Whatever. I’ve been waiting a long time for this. You think a broken rib is going to stop me?”

“I’m figuring out that not much at all stops you, Sienna.”

There was so much warmth in his voice that I smiled for the first time, even though it hurt my swollen lips.

A nurse came in then, and wanted to check my vitals. I really wanted to go home, so I didn’t mind this time.

“Do you need me to go out?” Lee asked.

“Not if you’ll let me have that hand you’re holding on to so tightly.”

The nurse laughed when Lee dropped my hand like it was a hot coal. Then the nurse clamped something on one of my fingers to check my pulse oxygen. She took my blood pressure, temperature and listened to me breathe. Lee watched as seriously as I did, waiting for the results.

“Well, young man, you seem to have done the trick. All her vitals have finally come back to normal.”

“He usually has that effect on my heart rate and temperature,” I said, winking at Lee.

Checking him out from top to bottom, the nurse chuckled and said, “I can see why.”

As the nurse left again, I realized that Lee was still wearing his basketball stuff. It seemed like forever since I’d said goodbye to him earlier that day. “So, how did your game go?”

He shrugged. “It was a little rough, but we won. I think it had something to do with a good luck kiss I got.”

“I could use one of those
right
about now.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m sure, if you don’t mind kissing puffy lips.”

He leaned over and gave me the softest kiss ever. Then, he took out his phone and took a picture of me. If I’d known what he was doing, he never would have gotten away with it.

“What’d you do that for? I must look terrible.”

“No you don’t. You must have liked that kiss just now, because you’re smiling pretty big, considering. I’m going to put it up on your blog so everyone will know you’re going to be ok.”

“Don’t you
dare!
Besides you can’t. You don’t have the password.”

“No, but Parker does, and I’m pretty sure he owes me. Look, you’ve had hundreds of people on there tonight, all of them worried about how you’re doing.”

“Really?”

“Sure. A lot of people care about you Sienna. You’ve done a lot of great things for people, and almost everyone recognizes it.”

“Seems like all I did was cause trouble.”

“Well, you did a lot of that too. But there’s a girl who got to be homecoming queen and date her long time crush because of you. There’s a high school quarterback who’s getting more attention from College Scouts because of the great publicity you got him. Not to mention all the kids around school who feel better about themselves because you saw something special in them. And you did all that in just a few months. Just think what you’ll do the rest of the year. Actually, forget I said that.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking there are a lot of girls who don’t get asked to prom every year. I bet I could change that.”

“I’m sure you could, but how about if you relax for a little while and wait to change the world until you graduate?”

“But, I’m pretty sure that if you change people in high school, you’ll change them forever, and
that
could really make a difference.”

“Well, with all this changing you want to do, just make sure you don’t change yourself too much. I really like you the way you are.”

“You know what? I’m starting to like me too. Lee?”

“What?"

“Make me smile again.”

“With pleasure.”

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious.

Any similarity to real persons, living or
dead,
is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Copyright © 2012 by Michelle Pennington

First eBook edition April 2012

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written consent of the author.

http://novels-and-novelties.blogspot.com

This book is dedicated to

my
family

and
to

a
17 year old girl I used to know

Acknowledgements

To my husband Ethan for his help with sports terms and guy insight.

To my mom, Lynn, for her photography, yearbook, and technical knowledge.
Without her expertise, I wouldn’t have my beautiful cover or much of a story at all.

To my dad, David, for once again finding my mistakes and helping me polish up despite his crazy schedule. Also, for giving me a personal look at how human teachers and principals can be.

To Ryan for his photography help, offered and taken.

To Diana and Cara for editing help.

To Matt for proving to be a great proofer.

To Kim, Lori, Dianne, and Misty for the editing and support.
My book is done, our friendships are intact, and all is well. Now put me to work.

If you enjoyed Candid, catch the next book in the

True Images Series:

Focused

Coming soon!

Fall of 2012

For more about Michelle Pennington’s books, go to:

https://www.facebook.com/MichelleLPennington

http://novels-and-novelties.blogspot.com/