Enchanter (10 page)

The sound of a door somewhere behind the one Brandon had
gone through forced my attention away from his living space. The bathroom must
have been adjoined to his bedroom. Going through his bedroom in order to have
access to the bathroom would prove to be interesting.

Geez, now I’m dying to see his bedroom? I must truly be
losing my marbles.

A knock on the front door startled me enough to make me jump
slightly.
That has to be the pizza guy!

“Leah? Can you get that?” Brandon’s voice sounded from what
I assumed was his bedroom.

“Yeah,” I shouted as I rummaged through my purse, looking
for my wallet. As soon as I located it, I hurried to the door and opened it. A
delivery boy was standing with a pizza box in one hand and a Coke in another.

“Large pepperoni and two-liter?”

“Yep.” I took the food from his hands, set it on the end
table next to the couch, and turned to hand him the full amount, plus a five
dollar tip for making it in less than twenty minutes.

“Thanks,” he said before walking away.

I shut the door, locked it, and hurried back to the coffee
table just as Brandon emerged from the bedroom. Instead of his normal, all
black ensemble, he came out wearing a cotton white tee and a pair of dark blue
shorts. Although the casual wear was far from sexy, the fact that I could now
see his arms was more than satisfying. His long, dark hair was still wet from
the recent washing and hung lose over his shoulders like a black veil.

Seeing him standing there looking like a Hollywood superstar
forced all the air out of my lungs and made me feel as if I had been punched in
the gut.

Good God, I’m in so much trouble.

“I’ve got diner,” I said, unable to take my eyes away from
him. “I thought you might prefer something warm to eat before we got started.”

 “You didn’t have to do that.” He started toward the
kitchen. “I was going to fix myself a sandwich before we did anything.” He
opened a cabinet above the sink and removed two plates and two glasses. My eyes
automatically drifted to his muscled arms, appreciating the sight of them. Try
as I might, I could not stop staring.

Dear Lord! It’s not like I’ve never seen a handsome guy
before. I’ve seen plenty. Hell, I’ve even dated a couple. So, why is my heart
racing just at the sight of him?

With the plates and glasses in hand, Brandon walked back to
the living room.

“Well, now you don’t have to make anything,” I said.

When he smiled, I could literally feel my stomach knot and
twist. It was hard not to stare at him after that. He was so incredibly
handsome when he was not frowning.

“Thank you.”

I returned his smile. “Ah, it’s nothing.”

“You can sit, Leah.” He gestured to the couch.

“Is it okay if I sit on the floor? It’s just that I like to
sit there.”

“Make yourself comfortable.” He smiled again, nearly
knocking me down with the force of it. “I don’t mind where you sit.”

“Thanks.” I dropped down to the floor and resumed the same
position I was in before he had walked into the room moments later.

“Do you mind if I sit next to you?” he asked, forcing me to
glance up at him.

“No… go… ahead. I mean, this is your house. You can sit
wherever you want, so I don’t think you need my permission to sit wherever you
prefer.”

Leah, you’re rambling.

“I know, but I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” he
said.

Too late for that.

“You don’t,” I lied through my teeth.

He took a seat next to me on the floor and placed both the
plates and the glasses on the coffee table before turning to look at me.

“Are you sure? Because you look like you’re just seconds
away from bolting out of here, screaming.”

Despite the awkwardness of the situation, I laughed. “Am I
that obvious?”

“Yes.”

“I’m okay, really.”

“Well, let me see if this helps.” He opened the pizza box,
removed a couple of slices, and placed them on his plate before continuing, “I
don’t use drugs, nor do I drink. Despite all the dark clothing, I’m not into
any weird religion, nor do I worship the devil. Although I do listen to rock, I
also like pop music, and even some classics from the eighties. However, if you
tell anyone I told you that I’ll deny it to the end.” I smiled and a glimmer of
amusement crossed his features as he went on, “I spend way too many hours
working so that I can put myself through college, which leads me with very
little time to go out and do anything fun. When I’m not in school or working,
I’m usually studying, running errands, or jogging in the nearby park. On the
rare occasions when I do go out, I like to visit the movie theater, go to a
concert, or visit with my buddies.”

As I stared back at him, I could not help but smile at the
easygoing, relaxed tone of his voice. It was nice to see a Brandon that was not
glaring at the people around him or acting as if the world was nonexistent.

“You certainly are thorough.”

“Well, sometimes when you open up for others it seems to
ease the tension of whatever awkward situation happens to be playing out at the
time.” He shrugged.

“And it works?” I asked, intrigued by what he would say
next.

“You no longer look as if you’re getting ready to run off on
me, or am I wrong?”

I laughed softly before shaking my head. “I only have one
problem with your autobiography.”

“What is that?’

“You just said that you like to visit your buddies whenever
you can. But you told
me
that you
don’t
visit.”

“I guess I should clarify that mishap.”

“Please.”

He smiled again. “I don’t visit people who I don’t consider
to be friends of mine.”

Those words stung.

“Ah, I see.” Then again, what was I expecting? In all the
years I had of knowing Brandon, I had never bothered with him. In fact, I had
probably treated him like he was absent more times than I could count. It was
no wonder he did not consider me a friend, and that was because well, I was not.

“You were my friend once,” he said before taking a bite of a
pizza slice. “But that was back in kindergarten.”

“Kindergarten?”
What is he talking about?

“Yeah, don’t you remember?”

I shook my head, embarrassed by the fact that he remembered
something I obviously did not. “No, I’m sorry.”

“You were the first girl to ever say hi to me. You stood in
the middle of the class, wearing a little pink sundress and two big bows on
each side of your head. You waved, smiled, and said, ‘Hello, my name is Leah.
What’s yours?’”

I sat in mute silence as he recalled that event of so long
ago.

“Oh, my God.” A new wave of guilt washed over me as I
remembered that at some point in my life, Brandon had been my friend too, if
only through the first two or three months of our kindergarten year. As I recollected
our brief conversation that first day of kindergarten, my heart became
painfully entangled. The memory of me going up to him, sitting on the chair next
to his, and convincing the tiny, black-haired, blue-eyed boy to allow me to
paint a portrait of him while the teacher began to get acquainted with the rest
of the children rushed through my mind in rapid flashes. “I remember now.”

“That was a long time ago.” He shrugged as if it was not
important anymore.

“I don’t even remember why we stopped talking.”

“
We
didn’t stop talking.” He took the bottle of Coke,
uncapped it, and poured some into our glasses as I waited for him to continue.
“
You
decided to stop associating with me when the other kids started to
call me names.”

No matter how much I wanted to deny it, he was right. I did
pull away from him when others started saying that he was weird or that he was
overall not qualified to be in our same social group. Who were they to decide
what kid belongs where? And why did I allow others to think for me? Why did I
become part of that group of people who judge others by what they’re not?

“That should’ve never happened.”

Brandon seemed genuinely surprised by my answer.

“It doesn’t really matter now, Leah.”

“Yes, it does.”

“We’ve grown out of that phase.”

“That’s not really true.” I watched as his eyebrows shot up.
“Just moments ago I was acting like the typical prom queen.
You
pointed
it out yourself.”

He shrugged. “I was annoyed, tired, and hungry.”

“That may be, but I still went overboard, again.”

His smile should have eased the tension, but it only made me
feel worse. Why did he have to be so nice now? Especially when I did not deserve
it?

“I remember your smile back in kindergarten.”

“What about it?” he asked, his voice perhaps deceptively
casual.

“It’s just that I was thinking that I haven’t seen you smile
since.”

“I’m surprised you’ve been thinking about me at all.”

I rolled my eyes at his comment. “I’ll be surprised when you
let something slip under your radar.” Why couldn’t he be happy that I had just
revealed that I think about him? More than I dared to admit even.

Brandon chuckled softly. “I smile often, you just never see
it.”

“Except for now.”

“Except for now.”

And it was quite a striking smile at that.

“We were so tiny back then.” I chose to change the subject
before my cheeks started turning red at the sight of him, and being that he was
so damn close, there was no way of that happening without him noticing.

“
You
still are.” He laughed, breaking the tension
brought on by the memories of the past.

“It’s not my fault you grew three sizes in one summer. What,
you had steroids for breakfast, lunch, and diner?”

“Nah, let’s just say I underwent a major transformation.”

“No kidding.”

Brandon decided to chow down his pizza slices without
providing any more information and I did the same. Filling my mouth with food
seemed to be the appropriate thing to do, because by that point the subject of
his sudden change was not something I wanted to discuss. By then I was pretty
sure I would end up saying something that would completely embarrass us both.

Once we were done eating, Brandon cleaned up while I set up
an area on the floor to use as a substitute for a table. After he finished up
in the kitchen, Brandon excused himself and hurried to his bedroom from where
he emerged a couple of minutes later with textbook, notebook, and pen in hand.

“I hope you came up with pretty good questions for me,” he
said as he took his place next to me. “Because I have a few good ones for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re supposed to interview each other, remember?” he asked
with a frown.

“You know, I don’t mean to complain, but I still don’t see
the purpose of this assignment.”

“Didn’t you read the guidelines? We’re supposed to get a
sense of how much one human mind differs from the other or how similar they can
be based on whatever social groups they associate with.”

“I don’t think we need to interview another human being to
understand that every person thinks differently.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

“Even if swayed by a high social group?”

“Everyone can think for themselves, I’m sure of that.”

“Let’s put that theory to the test, then.” Brandon picked up
his notebook, opened it, and inspected it for a few seconds before turning his
attention back toward me. “What made you cut our friendship short?”

I was completely taken aback by that question.

“I don’t think that should be—”

“The guidelines specify that we can ask whatever questions
we want.”

Damn my luck!

“And what then? You’re going to write an essay on how big of
a bitch I’ve been to you over the years?” If my outburst bothered him, he was
good at hiding it.

“I would never do that. Unlike
others
, I wouldn’t
purposely hurt anyone.”

His response made me feel like a fool. When was I going to
get that he would not hurt me because he was not the type to cause pain to
others, not even when he had reason to do so?

“What are you trying to prove, Brandon?”

“Answer my question and I’ll tell you.”

“Fine.” I took a deep breath, held it in for a second or two
before exhaling, and turned my attention back to him. “I guess you already know
the answer.”

“Which is?”

Damn! He wanted me to say it aloud.

“I don’t really want to hurt—”

“I’m beyond past that, Leah.”

I silently prayed for the floor to open up and swallow me.

“I… didn’t want to be associated with the… strange kid.” Although
Brandon did not react to my words, I could tell they bothered him nonetheless.
“When the other kids started to talk about how strange you were, I wanted to
set myself apart from you in order to avoid being singled out for hanging out
with you. Even at such a young age, kids can be incredibly cruel and I was
afraid of what would happen if I kept our friendship up. I was a coward, okay?
I took the easy way out! I bailed out on my friend to keep myself from being
picked on.”

“Did you feel the same way they did?” His beautiful blue
eyes were studying me, scrutinizing my face in a way that made it impossible
for me to turn away from him. “Did you think that I was what they said I was?”

Did I? Did I ever look at Brandon and think he was strange?
No, I could honestly admit that I never did. The thought of him being different
might have crossed my mind a few times over the years, but never that he was
weird in any way that I could tell.

“No.”

“So, basically you decided to follow the crowd and not your
gut instinct?”

“Yes.”

“Despite the fact that you thought their assumption of me
was wrong?”