Deception (7 page)

“She’s mine,” Kin barked to the empty door. Kin’s high arched brows drew in and continued growling at every other male in the room like they, his friends, were now his enemies too.  Since this whole display of morbid affections took less than a minute to play out, and my real savior was now standing by to break this little party up, the moment passed like a blur and left me wondering if I imagined it. Then if happened over again. A second growl was coming from Ian who suddenly appeared, and I do mean suddenly.  I took a brief moment to have a standard out of body experience as I pictured an aerial view of this little powwow, and held back a snicker at the audacity of this group of men.  They looked like wolves fighting. I watched Ian go into some type of face off stance and Kin the same. "We made a pact. She chooses." Time to take action, I told my inner she-wolf. “Whoa!  This is unnecessary, boys. I can handle myself, Ian. And I belong to no one.”  I eyeballed him willing him to see it my way.

“Yeah, let her handle herself, guardian boy.”

              Two bodies flew towards each other. Mike threw the first punch but Ian was on the ground, pounding his face in.  Mike had to be twice his size and then some, but Ian had him laid flat. Ian was six feet, strongly built and the picture of a lean, fighter so it made Mike and Kin the size of cavemen. Back up to standing, Kin was laughing one second and snapping his fingers for the other crony to move back to their once again standoff. His eyes went flat staring at the doorway
again
.  All this repetitiveness of the day was waning on me.

Inside I hoped for a teacher, but again, luck wasn’t with me today. Another body full of testosterone. Christian. He folded his arms and didn’t speak. He never did. I watched in disbelief as Kin backed off from his animal crouch away from Ian and motioned for the two cronies to follow.  Ian nodded to Christian and he stepped aside.  Kin and his towing tails left like rats on a sinking ship. 

Christian stood right where he was and never moved.  Ian took my arm and we left without a word.  I was desperate to demand what and why. Sadly enough, I wasn’t shaken.  It wasn’t the first time Kin cornered me.

At some point in the yank and tugging I asked, but he never once told me what it was all about. Just that he had a heads up Kin was going to try something and he needed backup. Since when Christian became his backup, I didn’t know, but I'd definitely ask before the day is out when and where did the famous Kin and my Ian made a
pact
. And what? When Ian half hugged me in the hallway, I just stayed put and let him. I couldn’t remember a time when Ian put his arms around me in a
hug
.  And this wasn’t a friendly hug.

After school I met him at the lockers saying my mom texted and asked if he’d come for dinner that night.  She was making him chicken and dumplings, his favorite.  He said yes, of course.  He ate with us most days since his mom was out of town more than home. 

Kin was ten lockers down bullying a freshman into his locker.  I almost slid by him, but he brushed my cheek with the tip of his pointer finger and back of his thumb.  I heard the sound of his rough fingers sliding across my skin and shivered.  Not a good shiver!  How did I even think I
heard
it, not felt it, I don’t know.  I was losing my mind.  And I smelled his sweat.  Like animal sweat.  Eww!  I jerked back and took off out the main doors to the senior parking lot.  Ian followed too close with his hand on my back adding yet another physical contact to the list from him lately.

****

If the weekend was a cloudy, mud puddle mess, today was all blue sky clear and smelling like the beautiful Arkansas fall day it is known for.  We were to my car now where we parted for the ride home.  He didn’t turn to his bike, but side stepped forcing me to look him in the eyes then looked back towards the main doors before saying, “Do you want to ride and I’ll bring you back?  I’ll take you wherever you need.”

Staring a little too long, my gut wrenched with excitement at the thrill of having my arms around him, but I said with very little feeling, “Sure!”

I climbed on the back of my pretend knight shadowed prince and followed him into the cloudless ocean of sky.  The motor started making me jump like always and felt his chest move when he’d chuckled at my reaction.  My grip tightened.  I felt my little fantasy start to form where I believed Ian was doing this to make me grip my hands a little tighter around his hips and would turn around and lean his face into mine and—

“Ready, princess tree hugger?” Ian’s voice purred from the side where I could only see his lips facing me below the black mask.  He said this each time I climbed on the back of his bike.   Of course, I knew he could see this through his mask and knew every time I would be staring, but heaven help me, I didn’t care.  For a few seconds once or twice a week, I could do that. 

“Yes, my shadow prince,” I always exaggerated as playful as I could muster under the guise of being so severely flustered from the lip ogling. My hands gripped tighter from the quick fear of falling that tore through me as he always responded with hitting the accelerator and the bike lifted on the front.  If I pulled any tighter I would pinch his skin.  I had a brief encounter with getting a glance at his stomach muscles one time in gym class.  Freshmen year volleyball proved an awful class turned fairy tale when Ian ended up on opposite teams from me.  I carefully positioned myself directly across from him and basked in it daily.  Even then, he was built solid like a rock.  Puberty skipped him in junior high.  Him and Kin both were instantly men and I wasn't the only one to notice, but Ian never gave anything but flirty smiles and sweet words to most of his watchers.

“Where first?” he yelled sideways.

“The edge of the park,” I forced myself out of my Ian fantasy and back to the tree hugger focus. I made my monthly route of checking my trees lingering at the maples a little longer than the rest. My fruit trees were no longing bearing fruit. It was past the season.

“They’re clothed in the most brilliant colors this time of year,” I told Ian’s back as he drew things in the dirt and waited. He smiled and watched on. The blanket of various reds covered the ground beneath. When they swirl in the wind, I envision reaching out to catch them.
Little treasures. 

The wind circled higher and whispered around me making little reminders that the earth was calm. I liked to think that they were answering me. There were times it seemed little whispers sounded like words. Words of encouragement, or thanks, or approval. It was all in my head, but I felt a responsibility to make the earth happy with me. Ian was picking off dead leaves like I’d shown him while I scooped up the few pecans I’d gathered that were ready to eat and put them in my hoodie front pocket. Watching, he seemed at peace with his decisions unlike lately when it concerned me.

Perfect peace could be found anywhere in nature. Why did people have to be so complicated?

That afternoon Ian and I stayed outside for most of the fleeting daylight studying and talking in the backyard gazebo. Mostly talking.  Caylie came over a while to study, but left after an hour because her mom said she had to study at home where she wouldn’t be distracted.  She would just text me a hundred times anyway, but mom knows best, right?

Sure enough, it started like clockwork.

ANSR 4 #2 is B, RT

“Her mom should just let up on her some,” I shouted getting frustrated easily lately.  The days seemed weird and u ordinary, not routine. I texted back to her.  RT LOL

“She is just watching over her.” 

“You sound like a grown up,” I glared at him, “but I know you are right.”

“GRACE!  IAN!  DINNER!” my dad called. 

The two of us had it down for the days Ian joined our house for a sit at the table dinner. We would argue over who was going to fold the napkins. I would fold them into careful triangles and lay the silver just right. He would fold the silver into the napkin and roll it into bun. Most of the time we ended up having a mismatched table of linens. I insisted everything be symmetrical, he insisted everything be lopsided. Then he would smack his lips and snap his teeth pulling me from the moment.
  

We sat down to eat moving the short stemmed green roses that appeared on our napkins into the vase my mom put into the center of the table. Not even my father seemed to think it odd when I asked him. They showed up everywhere lately
.

I wasn’t crazy about chicken and dumplings, but knew how much Ian loved them.  So, I ate them with a smile and fought back the tears as I forced them down. My mother said something about it being the last batch for a while but wouldn't explain. Everything else was weird lately, so why would dinner prove normal.

I gagged inwardly to swallow haphazardly cutting my hand across the palm with the knife I picked up. I jumped from the table and ran to the kitchen sink. Ian was up just as fast and standing behind me cradling my hand. I stretched my eyes up to him eyeing his sudden audaciousness.

He eyed me with a deep unreadable gaze landing his hand on my chilled-to-the-bone arm effectively calming me down.  Finally he spoke, “It’s okay.  You didn’t really cut it as bad as you thought.”  I looked down seeing the last of the blood go down the drain in the flowing water knowing well how bad I’d cut my hand.  But…where there should be a wound of some kind was a thin fading line. 
Impossible!

Ian’s eyes pleaded some mysterious message to me. I had not spoken to my parents yet and they seemed to have missed my clumsy episode even with the mad dash from the room. A poke of my head backwards to where they were completely ignoring us told me as such.

“See, guess it wasn’t as bad as you thought.” 

I didn’t believe for one minute that I didn’t cut my hand as bad as I did, but some inner feeling forced me to calm down and return to the table.  Ian held my arm the whole time and only released me to sit at the table again.  It always happened like this when my injuries healed but he never spoke about it with such clarity, insistence that it was minute. Another happening to shake off it seemed.  At some point my give would give though.

We politely cleaned up and he offered to take me to ice cream, but instead took me to Burger Giant where all the kids hung out so I could eat real food.  Oh boy, twice in a day on the back of the Shadow.

The whole group was there on Monday nights.  By the time we arrived, Caylie had finished ALL her homework and was munching on a plate of cheese fries and chasing it with a soda. 

We waited for the busboy to clean up since there wasn’t another empty table in the place.  The drama club, speech club, and entire football team including the cheerleaders, had their usual spots.  The Burger Giant used to be a full size restaurant, so it was larger than most fast food places. 

Caylie and her latest treat, the new guy, were decidedly leaving when we walked in.  Stringing Mike along while ogling any other boy who would look her way was her specialty.   She shimmied by me and whispered, “cruising this weekend or else.”  She slid her finger across her neck.

“Delusional!”

“Meaning?” she asked.

“Google it!”

“Not the definition, dork.  The reason.”

I shrugged and left her standing there without a yes or no, again.  Her mumbling was something about Ian’s bike and me and a proverbial metaphor about riding on something and didn’t want to look back.  Not if Caylie was thinking it for sure.             

Two burgers, two fries, and two large sodas later, I was in heaven.  And I was enjoying every bite of my burger when Ian interrupted.

“Four o’clock.”  Ian said without looking up already finished with his food. My head snapped up faster than the blink of an eye.  Ian’s directions were always headed by the time so I knew the exact direction to look since junior high when dodging Kin by hitting the girls’ bathroom to avoid him.  He saved me then just like always.  This time it was Ben, the newest stalker.

“I’ll be good!  Give the boy the benefit of the burger joint he followed you to just to talk to you.” He’s just that good at fomenting things that make their way under my skin. 

“Hello, Grace.”  Ben, the tall lanky boy with splotchy red cheeks and a skateboard/goth kind of look going on stopped in front of the table.  For a freak, I seem to attract the “freaky” in every way.

“Hello!” I squeaked.

“You mind if I sit with you?”

I had a half a burger left and didn’t want to leave it, but was deciding quickly I’d last till morning.  I looked to Ian for help gaining just a smirk.  No help was coming out of him and his decisive moments to save or not. “We were just leaving.  Maybe next time,” I said.   Idiot!  What was I offering?

His face showed it too.  Next time! 

“Maybe I’ll meet you here this Saturday?”

Quick thinking I blurted,
“I can’t.  I have to help with the house this weekend.”

“Okay.  I’ll see you Monday at school then.  See ya!”  He looked severely disappointed.  When he was out the door, I slammed my fist into Ian’s arm.  Twice!

“Ow, woman!”

“Woman me!  No help from the peanut gallery.  You’re full of perpetual comments that lead to no end and yet you’re speechless tonight.  What’s up with that?” I widened my eyes at him then glanced at my healed cut from earlier.