Drift (Drift Series) (7 page)

We chewed in silence for a minute or two, only the sounds of clanking utensils bouncing on china could be heard around the table. The no-etiquette Scruffy shoveled food into his mouth like it was his last meal. I giggled under my breath at his sloppiness.

His father broke the silence. “How long have you and Mark been friends, Leo?”

“Umm…”

Before I could answer, Scruffy did it for me, never breaking concentration from his plate. “We’ve been friends all school year, Dad.”

“And we still haven’t met his folks?” Mr. Spears glanced at us suspiciously.

Scruffy beat me to an answer again. “Dad, I’m sure Leo will do it when it’s convenient for everyone to get together.”

His dad quickly corrected Scruffy, humorously scolding him
.
“Can’t Leo speak for himself, son? Are you his press secretary?”

Scruffy playfully pouted his lips out at his father. I made sure not to get Scruffy in too deep and promptly answered
. “Yes, sir. I’ll make sure to bring them over to meet you both as soon as possible. I promise.”

“Okay, let’s do it as soon as we can. I just want to make sure there
’s a constant line of communication going on between the parental figures here. It’s a full time job keeping young men like the two of you out of trouble.” He winked, picking up his napkin to wipe his mouth.

Scruffy wasted no time
. “Dad. Mom. Whatever are you trying to imply? We’re perfect angels.”

Both parents scoffed humorously. Scruffy looked at me and grinned, still chewing his food. The only thing I could do was shake my head at Scruff. I thought, how ironic—angels.

“What will you boys be up to today?” his mom said over a cup of coffee.

“Nothing much
, Mom. Probably gonna go up and jam some music in my room after we eat. Maybe tonight we’ll go to BNB’s, talk to some friends. That’s about all.”

“Well, whatever you two boys do, you better be responsible in your decisions. Don’t raise a stink, and you won’t begin to smell,” Mrs. Spears added, sipping more coffee. I noticed her trade an assertive look with Mr. Spears as if putting the exclamation point on their authority over us.

“Yes, Mom, yes, Dad,” Scruffy responded lazily, like he had heard this a thousand times before.

“Yes, ma’am,” I added.

A few more minutes went by full of idle chatter until Scruffy stood up from his chair, taking his empty plate.

“Leo, you done? I’ll grab your plate if you are,” he yelled to me over the sound of water flowing from the faucet as he washed his plate before putting it in the dishwasher.

“I can bring it, bro. I’m finished,” I said, but Scruffy took it from me, anyway.

“Geez
, honey, if we could get Mark to do that when company isn’t around, it sure would save us a lot of effort.” His father smiled.

We shared a chuckle at Scruffy’s expense.

“C’mon, Leo, we better cruise up to my room before they conjure up fresh chores for me to do.”

I excused myself from the table, following him upstairs. I was sure to thank his parents for the wonderful meal.

We entered his room, he closed the bedroom door, and leaped onto his bed. Just as he hit the mattress, he reached over to his headboard and turned on his docked iPod so we could listen to some music. I plopped down in the beanbag on his floor and we continued talking.

“Something keeps bothering me, man.”

“What’s up?”

“It’s not just my parents, but I haven’t even met your parents yet. Hell, I don’t really know exactly where you live. Is there a reason for that, bro?” He squinted at me.
“Are you ashamed of something?”

“Nah, I just hate going through the whole parent meeting thing.”

“Well, I’m not so much worried about meeting your mom and pops, although it would be cool, but for my parents, it’s mandatory. So if you don’t do it soon, we can’t play anymore.” Scruffy joked as if we were children.

“I promise
, Scruff, the next chance my parents get, I’ll make sure you meet them, and on top of that, actually find out exactly where I live. Besides, you’d miss me too much if I didn’t get this done,” I kidded.

“Anyway, changing the subject now, but still feeding your conceit, that race was over the top! Not only did you tick-off Darryl, he said you did something, and it looked like it freaked him out.”

“Freaked him out? What’s he talking about?”

“When most of us met back at BNB’s, we all started talking about the race. Darryl showed up there, not smart enough to keep a low profile like you did. He was dang
lucky he didn’t get noticed by the police…”

“They probably
did
know he took part in the race, but Mommy and Daddy are much too prominent for the police to harass their sweet baby Darryl.” I interrupted Scruff with some not-so-exaggerated truth.

“I know, right?”
he agreed before continuing with his story.
“So anyway, he looked a little confused when he arrived. He gave us his first-hand account about when he was spinning out of control and about to fly off River Road.”

Scruffy
waited for me to confirm Darryl’s recollection of events in the race, so I did.

“Well, he said all of a sudden his car felt like it jerked back into proper position, like it was being pulled or something. He said he saw your hand grabbing his passenger door like you were actually keeping him on the road.”

I was taken aback. I couldn’t believe Darryl noticed what I did. Surely neither Scruffy nor Darryl truly believed someone could just casually reach over and pull a speeding, few-ton car into place. I scoffed at the outrageous claim.

“What? Is he on the pipe?”

“That’s basically what I said, Leo, until he walked us over to his Camaro. Bro, I gotta admit, on his passenger door was a perfect hand print. It was pinched so tight he was unable to roll his window back up. It was kinda freaky, Leo.” Scruffy looked at me with an inquisitive smirk.

“Is he serious? Are you serious? I didn’t touch his car. Did I mention that it
’s physically impossible for any human being to achieve such a feat? Besides, if something did happen like that, and I was freakishly strong enough to hold a speeding car on a road with just one hand, I would have
still
let his sorry butt go flying off the edge, anyway. One less douche bag on the planet, ya know? Think about it dude, seriously.”

Scruffy stayed silent for a moment, flicking his comforter back and forth as he came to terms with logic. He snapped out of space with a head jerk.

“Yeah, man, I know you’re right. he must have banged it against something at some point during your race. It just looked like a handprint, I guess. That’s all.”

“Yeah
, Scruff. He was pretty reckless up there. He could have hit anything. I mean, he doesn’t care about his stuff anyway because his parents are going to fix it for him, anyway. He was just being dramatic, lavish-attention-on-me Darryl.”

“That’s for sure; he was agonizing over his baby quite a bit. Before I forget, I better tell you one more thing he said. He knows you and I hang out together and he told me to make sure you to show up at his party. You don’t think he
’s up to anything negative, do you, Leo?”

“Nah, I
’m not worried about him. I think he probably does wanna blame his car dings on me. Nothing is ever his fault. Knowing him, he probably wants me to pay for them. The only thing we have to be worried about from Darryl is his reaction when I laugh in his face.”

From the
n on, we small talked about nothing the rest of the afternoon. Between listening to music and chatting, we didn’t realize that the time had arrived for us to get ready for the big party.

Scruffy took a shower and was debating over what he wanted to wear to the festivities. “Leo, do you think this shirt looks good with these pants?” Scruffy turned back and forth in the mirror.

I got off the beanbag and walked into the bathroom to get a better look.

“You think the chicks will dig my duds or what?” Scruffy slapped the back of his hand into my chest.

“Scruff, no amount of designer clothes could make your ugly mug look any better.”

He continued gazing at himself, all the while adjusting his hair. “That’s pretty big talk coming from a guy who drools on the shoes of females he’s interested in.”

“Very clever, Scruff, very clever. We’ll see how smart you are when you’re
walking
to Darryl’s party. It doesn’t matter what you wear for the ladies, every man looks like a clown with his thumb in the air, hitchhiking.” I shoved him on his arm.

“Well, then I better shut up.” We laughed as he shut off the light in the bathroom. “C’mon, let’s go, we are outtie.”

“Time to get this over with,” I muttered, quite sure that tonight may change the course of many lives, and not for the better.

We bid his parents farewell and they advised him to be home on time because he had his Sunday chores to do in the morning. The warned us again to be responsible. Of course we promised to be on our best behavior and excitedly leaped out the front door. Twilight loomed as we strutted up to my car and got in.

“Let’s stop and snag some food somewhere before we get to the party. I hate drinking on an empty stomach, gets me hammered way too fast. Besides, I don’t wanna show up too early, I like showing up casually late.” Scruffy tussled again with his hair in the vanity mirror on the visor.

“Yeah, you are all about class, bro.” I laughed.

“Pure class, don’t you forget it.” Scruffy snickered as we barreled down the road towards inevitability.

CHAPTER 6

DESTINY

After snagging some chow,
we arrived at Darryl’s house and parked among the many cars that were snaked along the roadside at the base of his driveway. We sat in my car eating before going into the party and were pleasantly amused watching other late attendees struggle up the steep driveway. You could see their pace slow to a stagger as they reached the halfway point. Some even gestured like they were out of breath. We couldn’t help but joke about them.

A ton of people were already partying. I remained on the lookout for Shade or her friends. It was hard to tell if she was here or not. I didn’t see Sandra’s car. She might already be up at the party and I just missed them. I was still a little fearful that she may not come, even though Darryl did his best to make an honest apology to her.

“Oh man, this party is gonna be live! Leo, hurry your slow butt up and eat so we can get to the show, baby.” Scruffy got out of my Mustang after polishing off his meal.

“Calm down. I’m finished
, anyway. I can’t eat any more.” I sealed the paper around the half-eaten hamburger and tossed it into the bag with a thud.

“Cool, let’s do this thing
, then!” Scruffy threw his arms in the air in excitement.

Music thumped from Darryl’s home at the top of his ridiculous driveway. As we climbed the brutal hill, the music grew louder and louder. You could distinctly hear the sounds of laughter and chatter from the attendee’s the closer we got. As loud as the music was, I distinctly heard Scruffy over it, sucking air due to the stress of the incline.

“I hate this damn hill. God forbid if I need to run to the car for anything more than once over the course of the night. I need to tote a defibrillator just in case I go into cardiac arrest climbing this sucker.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at his plight. I felt just fine, not tired at all. Scruffy apparently noticed my demeanor
. “Shut up, Leo.”

I
tried to stifle my laughter but it didn’t work.

Although winded, we finally made it to the top. A sea of heads hung around outside of the house. Everyone held some kind of cup, probably
filled with beer, and were smiling and chatting amongst themselves. I looked up at the massive structure to see if maybe Darryl opened the two remaining floors, something I’ve been told he never does, and saw that the second and third floors were indeed off limits to the partygoers.

Darryl’s home is absolutely sensational, a testament to his parent’s work ethic and good fortunes. It
’s one of the most luxurious homes in town, an extraordinary Colorado log structure. Blending perfectly with the vast wilderness that surrounds it, by the way people speak about it in Mountainside, it seems it’s the envy of everyone who dreams of success there.

The home contains three floors; the basement is at the bottom
, of course, the second floor houses his parents’ bedroom, a kitchen area, and couple of living and dining areas. The entire third floor is Darryl’s bedroom. His room alone is bigger than most people’s homes, another shining example of how spoiled that kid is.

With
the exclusion of Darryl’s close friends, the bedrooms have never been seen by anyone else. Darryl makes it seem as if it’s some kind of privilege to be able to hang out with him in his room.

The basement is essentially a game
-slash-media room with some lengthy couches and comfortable chairs sprinkled around. Scruffy has mentioned that most of the time, people rarely stay inside at all, other than the occasional game or two of foosball or ping pong. Outside is where we’re supposed to chill, according to Darryl. Besides, this many people couldn’t fit inside anyway.

Out back
was a large Olympic-sized pool and a bubbling spa. We preferred to sit at the many umbrella-covered tables with stand-alone iron benches around the concrete patio. Sometimes, if Darryl was feeling generous, he let some people barbeque hamburgers and hotdogs on the two enormous grills. Tonight, the grills remained cool.

One detail that fully completes the splendor of his home are two log porches
that surround the second and third floors. Just like the pool area, the same kind of chairs and tables are sprawled out precisely. Wondrous sights can be seen from these porches, so I hear. Acting almost like a backdrop, a slew of windows surrounded the two upper levels.

A breathtaking view of a very long drop-off down the edge of the mountainside c
ould be seen from one side of both porches. Since the porches hang so freely over the edge of the cliff, there would be zero chance of survival if someone fell over the railing. So, as Scruffy has mentioned to me before when people party here, they are not allowed to go on that side of the house at all. Even walking too far from the ground floor on that side can be a death sentence. Just to be sure family and guests don’t accidentally fall, his parents built a tall wooden safety fence on that side. The only way to fall off now is to either climb over the gigantic fence, or jump off one of the porches.

Now one might think why on Earth would Darryl’s parents take the chance of such a tragic event occurring at their home because of their son’s parties? Well, it’s simple, they
were out of town. They were gone a lot, so, either they didn’t know he does this, or they don’t care.

I glanced down to see Scruffy sprinting into the middle of the masses
; a girl had called out to him.

“Oh yeah, come along and watch the master work, Leo!”

“I’m good, Scruff; I’ll just chill for now.”

“I’ll bring you back a brew then, brotha!” Scruffy waved at me over the crowd and
was quickly absorbed into it.

I have my reasons for staying low-key, but tonight there was a lot potentially going down.
Well, as long as Shade showed up. The last thing I needed was Darryl getting distracted by my presence. So, staying true to form, I stood on the outside of the party looking in, blending among the shadows as I searched for Shade.

It wasn’t long till a familiar laugh
called to me from the crowd, warming my inner core. My search was over. It sounded like Shade. Had she shown up?

It only took a few moments to confirm she had arrived. I saw her gorgeous smile and heard her soothing voice through the plethora of high volume chatter. Her every move seemed slow and deliberate as she socialized with her friends, totally unaware
she was being observed. Her smile resonated through my soul like a favorite song. I marveled that she’d showed up after Darryl had betrayed and violated her just days before. It showed she was courageous and strong-willed, another element of her personality that attracted me.

“Dude, Leo
—here, man!” I was buried so deep in Shade’s essence that I hadn’t seen Scruffy approach.

“I called you like a hundred times. Couldn’t you hear me?” Scruffy nudged a cold beer against my stomach.

“Take this brewski from me, broski.”

“Thanks
, man.” I accepted his offering. “I was dazed out, sorry. I didn’t hear you at all.”

“Yeah. I know what you were doing
—checking out Shade again. It’s pretty obvious.”

Scruffy lifted his eyebrows over his cup, drinking in celebration
of his keen observation of my behavior. “Why don’t you finally go up to her, Leo? She should know how you feel about her. Are you worried about Darryl or something, tough guy?”

“Nah
, man.” I wasn’t worried about Darryl at all when it came to Shade; I was worried about me. Something Scruffy couldn’t possibly understand even if I could tell him. “Darryl is nothing. It’s more because of reasons like not being sure how she would react to my advances. I’d be embarrassed if she didn’t feel the same way.” I was putting up a typical emotional front for Scruffy. Such interaction with her would be forbidden for something like me, although there was an element of truth to what I was saying.

“Well…how do you feel about her?
Really
feel?” Scruffy looked at me with sincerity, something he rarely showed in his off-the-wall personality.

I was taken aback for a moment. Would I dare to really answer this question truthfully? Keeping emotions on the inside
was one thing, but there’s power in spoken words. It seems like once such things are vocalized, it’s almost as if they’re etched into the fabric of our lives and we have to pursue them, no matter what the cost may be.

“I think…I love her, Mark.”

I was sure to call him Mark, not Scruffy, letting him know just how serious I am.

“Then tell her, Leo. No matter what reservations you
have, everyone likes to be told that they’re liked…especially loved.”

The truth was out now; I
am
in love with Shade and admitted it vocally. Even more shocking was that Scruffy understood on a much deeper emotional level, and he actually gave some very good advice in return. I was proud of him.

“Besides, what do you have to lose
, anyway?” He shrugged.

If only he knew. I didn’t say anything. I just bowed my head
, took a drink of my beverage, and asked a question of my own. “When should I tell her how I feel? How will I know the right time? I don’t wanna tell her in front of a bunch of people just in case she laughs in my face.”

As I spoke, something grabbed Scruffy’s attention in the distance
behind me. Then, Scruffy confidently looked back at me with a smirk and spoke before I could get a look.

“Funny you ask. It seems you
’re about to get an answer to your question.” He took another drink and slightly raised a finger, pointing.

I turned
, and much to my surprise, Shade was approaching. Alone. A flow of excitement rushed through my being like a tidal wave.

“Looks to me like there
’s no better time than right now.”

“I think I
’ll catch up to you later. Good luck, bro.” Scruffy walked away, leaving me alone.

I kept my eyes locked to the
earth beneath my feet, pretending I didn’t see her. I couldn’t believe this. Why was she coming to me in the first place? While I tumbled the thoughts around in my distressed head, one of the sweetest tones I’ve ever heard spoke my name. “Umm, hi, Leo.”

I gulped another drink and nervously answered, “Hi
, Shade. How are you?”

“Umm, I’m fine. How…how are you?” Her voice trembled a little, like
she
was nervous about speaking to
me
.

Our eyes met and we simultaneously looked to the ground in awkward shyness.

“I’m doing good, just internally cussing Scruffy for bailing on me.”

My shallow attempt at humor must have worked a little, Shade giggled hesitantly, like she was blowing out a belly full of butterflies.

“Yeah, that’s what friends are for, I guess. I hope I’m not bothering you. I wanted to come up to you last night after the race, but I never got the chance.” Shade paused a moment, like she was conjuring up the courage to go on.

“You
’re the best company I’ve had all night.” I laughed at my well-aimed shot at Scruffy. Shade joined in.

“Mark is a cool guy. He
’s nice. Umm, I just wanted to thank you for what you said to Darryl, and for taking a stand against him. It was nice to see him get knocked down a peg or two for a change. Hopefully it will help him loosen up for the better.”

Our eyes met again, and this time, neither of us looked away as we both cracked an adoring half-smile at one another. “It was my pleasure, Shade. I was honored to do it…for more than just self-serving reasons.”

“A gentleman…sometimes I forget what they look like.” We both puffed out air in shy laughter again, unsure of what to say about the other’s playful banter. “Well, anyway, thanks again, Leo.”

Shade lightly squeezed my forearm. An unexpected feeling overtook me, something unnatural for me
. Her touch was so pleasant it made me tingle inside, but it also stung like a bee and I almost pulled away. It was very strange. If I was capable of blushing at this point, I would have. Unsure what to say or do next, I did nothing but smile at her.

She released my arm. “I guess I
’ll catch you later, Leo. Bye.”

As she strolled away, Scruffy’s nagging voice replayed throughout my brain—what do you have to lose? Before she could get out of range, I went for the gusto and jogged a few steps, catching up to her. “Shade, would you like to get together sometime and hang out…or something?”

There it was, dangling in limbo nakedly. Seconds felt like days as I awaited her response.

She looked away
for a second, then back with a smile. “Th-that would be nice. I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”

I looked at her
, stunned, not sure what to say next. Shade seemed to be in the same boat. Neither of us spoke, only chuckling in a nervous sense of release, like we were both waiting for this moment.