Harkham's Case (Harkam's #1) (6 page)

“I’m not a thing. I’m a man. I’m older than you are, so it’s polite to call me a man.” He blinked at her and wore an odd expression. He shifted in his seat toward Mari.

Kendra snorted a laugh. “Oh my God, you are too adorable for words! I want to stuff you in my backpack and take you home with me.” She kept her eyes on him, but addressed Mari next. “God, he’s smart and gorgeous. I want some of that. Time you shared, girlfriend.” She flipped her brown, salon-highlighted hair over her shoulders, then reached her hand over the table. “You can hold my hand instead.”

Adam ignored her offer. “I need one hand free to eat, and Mari’s hand fits my requirements.”

“And mine don’t?” Kendra asked, her voice going up in pitch.

“No. You have long, painted nails, you wear a lot of scratchy rings, and I don’t think you really like me.” He took a hefty bite.

“I can take my rings off. And I
do
like you.” Her eyes turned fearful.

He refused to answer until he’d chewed his food thoroughly and swallowed. Then he said, “Long nails.”

“They’re fake. I can get rid of them tonight.”

“I detest fake nails. Do you know what that toxic glue does to your nail bed, not to mention what it does to your brain cells? Nail polish and glue are your enemies. Brain cells don’t like them.”

What brain cells?
Mari giggled to herself. Kendra wasn’t known for her smarts. She was known as the girl who could get any guy in the school she wanted. Her tight, revealing clothes were a part of that equation.

So, maybe she did need those big breasts to make it through high school after all.

Lame. Those forks needed a better place to reside. The idea of stabbing them into her melons was more tempting by the minute.

“Does it matter? I’m stopping tonight. You’ll see. Tomorrow, I’ll be ready for you.” Kendra smiled, but her eyes held a different emotion—pure hunger, and not for food.

“As far as I know in this moment, you only have one class with me. Mari’s in four of my classes, and my sister’s in two, so my hand holding schedule-card is full. There’s only one class I don’t have someone, and I can handle that. I’m brave.” He took another forkful and lifted it to his lips. “But maybe at a sporting event I might consider it.” He broke off an edge of the tortilla shell and set it down on his plate.

“Wonderful!” Kendra was bursting with so much joy, Mari was waiting for her to break into Disney princess songs any moment, forcing all digestion in the vicinity to stop. “I’ll hold you to that, and I’ll look for you at the next football game in the bleachers.”

“If I attend. Those are almost as bad as cafeterias,” he said so quietly Mari wasn’t sure Kendra heard it.

Not like she’d listen to him anyway. Once that girl had her mind set to have a guy, she didn’t rest ‘til she won.

And right now, it looked like Kendra was already formulating plans in her head.

Of course she was, the selfish bitch. Kendra’s life revolved around how many dicks she could get in her cunt in a school year. It was a source of pride for her, along with her idiotic nails.

Kendra’s powder-blue eyes were sparkling with mischief, and that’s when Mari was done eating.

She stood up with her tray of food, and when she went to go empty it, she barely realized that Adam had moved right in sync with her, never questioning, merely going about his own business like they’d always been conjoined and he knew exactly what to do.

Mari turned to the side and said barely above a whisper, “She’s right, you know.”

“Right that I should hold her hand?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so. She’s a rotten girl. She hides it with perfume, fake hair coloring, nails that aren’t her own and tight clothes. Those things are only fancy wrapping to hide what she really is.”

Her breathing picked up. Fuck, he was more than just cute—he was incredible. And endearing. And near to her. And smelling so, so good.

“And what is she? Because most guys at this school can’t get enough of her. They almost fight duels for her.”

He laughed. “Oh, Mari—duels don’t exist anymore. I think maybe you’ve read too many historical fictions.”

She poked his shoulder.

He barely budged. “She’s not you. That means she’s not as good. Not what I’m looking for. She doesn’t get what it means to be nice unless she wants something, and she doesn’t even really know what she wants. Silly girl.” He made a tsking sound and shook his head while wearing a knowing smile.

“So, in other words—she’s fake, she’s not good enough and you need someone with substance.”

He snorted. “Yeah—that’s you. Now you’ve got it.”

Her chest heated. She needed air to cool this flame down. Walking seemed like the answer, so she headed out the cafeteria door with his toes licking at her heels.

Good God, this guy was going to be tricky to deal with if he kept on being this insanely sweet and attractive. Not to mention Kendra-wise. He was hard to resist, and she’d barely known him for a few hours.

This might require some smokes to get her through.

* * *

Adam stepped out of the locker room into the gymnasium, tugging at his ridiculously tiny shorts for his PE uniform.

Sam waved him over.

“How was lunch?”

“It was good. Mari’s hands are soft and pliable,” he said. “Plus, she talks to me, so it’s a good time when I’m around her.”

“I think she likes you, Adam.” She smiled at her brother with approval.

“She said I’m her friend, and she doesn’t mind if I hold her hand like that.”

“I mean, I think she’s got a crush on you, and I knew that would happen, what with your looks and height and everything. Just watch out, okay? She seems nice enough, but you never know . . . I don’t want you to get hurt.” She glanced around at the room, probably gauging the girls’ stares in his direction.

“Another girl wants to hold my hand. Her name is Kendra and Ken.”

The other students began stretching, preparing for basketball warm-ups. Nobody paid any attention to them.

She laughed. “
Who
?”

“Hey, handsome, you should be perfect for this . . . With how tall you are,” Kendra said, wandering over to them.

“Hi, Kendra and Ken,” he greeted her.

“You
are
an odd duck, but eccentric can be good,” Kendra said with a purr in her voice. “Call me anything you like. Most guys call me baby. I don’t mind.”

“Adam’s
not
most guys.” Sam turned to him. “You’ll call her Kendra and nothing else.” She took hold of his hand with a defiant look in her eyes.

Kendra stepped around them to his other side, and when she reached for his other hand, his whole body swung away from her.

The next thing he knew . . . Sam was on the ground and Kendra was lurching after him. He tried to get away, but he was worried he’d trample his sister.

So, instead, he froze and chanted volume formulas for the different types of triangles. The numbers exploded in his head when a hand slipped into his.

They took over, all of them, and he yelled each one to get them out of his brain.

The hand squeezed tighter, and his voice grew bolder.

He went from formulas to quadratic equations within moments.

“ . . . Stop it . . . Won’t let you . . .” He heard bits and pieces of Sam trying to get whoever was touching him to quit doing it.

It didn’t work.

The hand was firmly gripped inside his, and the other hand of the person was cupped over their joined hands while some opposing force tried to pull it from him.

His voice escalated to a piercing pitch, and the numbers spewed out of him while his body shook. His vision blurred.

A moment later he was curling in on himself.

“No, no, no! Get off him, you stupid bitch!” Sam screeched. “You’re making it worse!”

The flesh contacting his was finally yanked away, and Sam stood in front of him begging him to do something, but he couldn’t understand what she was saying. Her voice was drowned out by the numbers.

He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around his torso so he could breathe.

The tighter his arms held him, the quieter the numbers were, but they still superseded everything else around him.

Feet shuffled around him, and voices echoed in the corners of his ears, but they were indecipherable.

As he slipped into that state where there was nothing but numbers, a soothing voice called to him out of nowhere. “If I take your hand and stay with you, then you have to behave, Adam. I’m here for you, but you need to calm down.”

He glanced up. She was here!

The numbers flashed before his eyes, but grew to a whisper in his head.

He blinked to clear them away completely.

“Are you Mari?”

She smiled. “I am. And you’re Adam, my friend.”

“I don’t have any friends.” His heart froze. She didn’t really like him. The only reason Mari was here was because he had gotten so bad that Sam needed help, and she must not have been able to find Zach.

But when Mari took his hand, his heart beat again, and the numbers dissolved completely.

“You do now, because we both like each other, so that makes us friends.” Mari’s voice was softer than her hand.

How was that possible? She was like a softness he wanted to hold and sniff and know well.

The coach stood behind Mari, and the rest of the students were backed up against the walls with Kendra gloating to some friends about something.

“He’s okay now.” Sam’s forehead was dotted with perspiration.

What had he done to make her sweat like that?

“Should he sit out the games?” the coach asked.

“No. He likes basketball, and he’s pretty good at it. Once he gets going, he won’t even remember what happened. We just need to make sure nobody touches him outside of regular contact through the game,” Sam said.

The coach agreed but looked reluctant.

“I think maybe I should stay,” Mari said.

Adam’s hand was detached from his body—had to be, because the rest of him was warm, but her hand was fire, melting ice. Before it was the opposite. She had been nice and cool when he was burning up. It was magic the way her skin always knew what his needed and how her soul melted through his skin, seeped into his veins and she became a part of him.

“He’s fine now. You can go,” Sam told Mari.

“I need her to stay,” Adam spoke up with a confident tone.

“You’ll need both hands to play ball,” Sam told him, stepping into his view.

He stared only at Mari, though. The way her big, beautiful gray eyes glimmered in the horrific gym lighting was nothing short of amazing. “I’m gonna sit out with Mari. She’s going to talk to me, because that’s what friends do.” He blinked quickly so as not to miss a moment of her riveting gaze.

There was something there he’d never seen before. A true desire to be with him. There was a lack of judgment, too. She was a good soul, and he needed that in his life. He never knew how much until now. It was surfacing from his blood to his skin, warming him from the inside out.

“I’ll stay. Can you make sure my history teacher knows?” Mari asked the coach.

“I’ll see to it.” The coach called for Kendra to come over, and Adam immediately scuttled back behind Mari and shrank about three inches.

“She’s not gonna touch you,” Sam reassured him.

“But she’s looking at me
that
way,” he said, cowering behind both Mari and Sam.

“I have an idea.” Mari’s eyes were bright and luminous when she turned around to face him.

“Yes, let’s do it,” he agreed before even hearing what it was.

“You don’t even know what it—” Sam began but stopped because right then, Mari moved to kiss Adam’s cheek.

He turned at the last moment and made sure that kiss didn’t land on his cheek—but on his mouth.

It was short and nothing to really throw a parade over for most people, but two things resulted from that small, seemingly insignificant action.

One—Kendra was no longer smirking. She was downright glaring at Mari with her hands in fists, stiff at her sides. The attention was off him, and on Mari.

Two—Adam’s sore spot on his body tripled in intensity, and he was glad it did. It would give him something to concentrate on other than keeping the numbers at bay.

Although . . . Running was gonna be difficult with how sore he was already . . . Because now he was determined to play ball so she’d see he could function properly and be like other ordinary high school guys.

This was twice today he got sore. Calculus and kind of at lunch when she touched his cheek, but the kiss was by far the strongest.

What did it mean?

He’d ask Zach tonight.

* * *

When the school day ended, Mari wondered how she’d gotten through it. It was like she ran a marathon without ever preparing in advance, only this one had hurdles made of four-inch-thick brick walls. When she hit those, and it was only a matter of time before she did, it was gonna hurt like a motherfucking wrecking ball had rammed right into her chest straight on.