Heart Waves (22 page)

I breathed a sigh of relief knowing “those people,” weren’t my people.

“You don’t know how serious this it Reece. Or the consequences you’ll suffer for the choices you’re making.”

I didn’t understand the turn of the conversation. I wondered what she could be referring to.

“I did what I did on my own. It was my decision. Mine.” I could hear anger burning in his voice. “They had nothing to do with it. They didn’t even know.”

“They didn’t help you either. They didn’t defend you. If not for your father you would be in jail right now!”

Silence.

Like the last few minutes hadn’t happened at all. Certain I couldn’t have heard right, I looked at Aaron. His eyes darted away from me immediately. I noticed the hard line of his now tense jaw, how his eyes remained glued to the television, clearly he didn’t want me to ask any questions.

“Aaron?”

He looked at me with wide fearful eyes. “You have to ask my brother.”

I got up and moved next to him on the couch hoping I could coax him through proximity.

“C’mon Aaron, I won’t tell him you told me.”

He shook his head, “No deal. You need to hear it from him. Besides, it’s not as bad as it sounds.”

I looked at him disbelieving. All sorts of scenarios ran through my mind.

“It’s not that bad. Really,” Aaron assured me.

Reece returned within minutes. I’d been watching the clock. Only two minutes passed since the conversation went mute and Reece returned, but it felt like two hours. Diane didn’t come near this side of the house.

I noticed the telling look of Aaron’s eyes. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought Reece could read minds. I noticed a slight nod of his head at his brother, before he turned his attention back to me.

“I’m sorry, Jenna. Mom’s not as welcoming as she usually is.”

“
It’s
fine,” I answered in a small voice.

He shook his head. “It’s really not. Let’s get out of here.”

I felt quite relieved at his suggestion, and got to my feet at once.

“See you, Aaron.”

He held his hand up. “Nice seeing you, Jenna.”

The tires squealed as Reece peeled out of the driveway and sped off. Exasperated and vexed, pessimism and negativity radiated off him. It made me uneasy. I’d never seen Reece anything but calm and poised. Even the night on the boardwalk, when I feared he might get into a fight with the
drunk
guy, he stood his ground with confidence.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He muttered a response under his breath, nothing I could make out. I reached over and placed my hand on his leg. The second we touched, I withdrew my hand quickly. It felt like I’d just been stung by fifty bees. I shivered. I couldn’t bear it. He held so much rage and sadness; feelings of betrayal inside him.

I recognized this feeling. I felt it yesterday at breakfast when I overreacted. I remember how wonderful I felt, almost euphoric at how well everyone got along, and the promise of how wonderful things could be for Reece and me. Without warning everything changed.

I felt black. Like the darkness wanted to suffocate me and drag me away. I thought it stemmed from losing
myself
in Reece, becoming that whiny, clingy girl I despised so much. Now that seemed ridiculous.

I’d been next to Reece when it began. It couldn’t be. I’d heard of
empaths
, people who could literally feel other people’s emotions. I wasn’t an
empath
. My abilities were limited at best. I never experienced anything empathic before.

Except with Reece.

At times when we touched or kissed, I knew exactly what he felt. Could yesterday have been an empathic premonition? Did such things even exist?

I found myself so lost in thought I didn’t notice how fast Reece zipped through the twists and turns of the curvy road. Feeling the need to pull and push my body in order to remain upward as we rounded the bends in the road, I realized we traveled much faster than we should have. My eyes crossed over the dashboard to the speedometer. I almost chocked.

“Slow down!” I ordered. I gripped the door with one hand, the armrest with the other, as if that gave me some ounce of control.

Reece glared at me.

“Don’t look at me. Keep your eyes on the road!” I ordered.

He took a long breath, “So you’re afraid of me now?” I’d never seen anger dominate and distort his features.

I shook my head and kept my voice as calm as possible.
“Of course not.
But I am afraid of the way you’re driving.”

He glanced at me with narrowed eyes and shook his head, “Don’t
lie
, Jenna.”

I put my hand back on his leg, this time knowing what to expect and able to handle the flow of emotion from him. I felt eternally grateful he had no idea the crazy thoughts running through my mind.

“Let’s just park somewhere and talk, go for a walk.
Whatever you want.”

Reece raked his hand through his hair, slowing the car to a more reasonable speed. He glanced over at me, his eyes almost back to the steady calm I’d known.

“I’m sorry,” he hesitated and I wondered exactly what he apologized for. “My mother isn’t usually so rude.” His lips pressed together into a thin line. “I don’t know what the hell she was thinking.”

“Fair’s fair. My parents humiliated me in front of you, it’s only right you should have to suffer, too,” I tried to lighten his mood.

I surprised myself at how casually I could go on pretending I didn’t have a million questions. I needed to focus on keeping him composed so we’d stay alive for me to ask those questions.  

Reece turned the car into an empty lot, leading to a playground. He parked in a dark corner surrounded by trees, and sat unmoving.

“You heard everything,” he stated, looking straight ahead, waiting for confirmation.

“Just pieces,” I shook my head. “Not everything.”

He opened his door and got out of the car. Without waiting for me, he headed for a bench in the playground area. I followed close behind. I felt uneasy being there with nothing more than the full moon and stars illuminating the area.

“Aaron
fill
you in?” he asked, more nervous than I expected.

I shook my head. “Not really. He said I needed to hear it from you.”

“I can only imagine what you’re thinking,” he said looking off in the distance.

I leaned forward and clasped my hands around his neck, causing him to look at me. I swung my legs across his and kissed his lips. I understood what a difficult time he had talking about matters close to his heart and I wanted to ease his tension.

“I’m thinking,” I said as he rested his forehead against mine. “You’re still you. And I love you no matter what.”

“I messed up, Jenna.” He almost choked on his words. “I gave my mother something to hold over my head, and she plans to use it for all it’s worth.”

“How can I help?” I asked.

He shook his head, then after a few seconds, “Run away with me.”

I knew he meant it as a joke, had to mean it as a joke. But there was something very serious in his eyes at that moment.

“That always makes things better,” I attempted to joke with him.

“It might.” He looked off again. “My friend Tyler, we were best friends since second grade. We were like brothers, always did everything
together.
” He hesitated, probably figuring out where to go from there. “He lived a few blocks away from us. Our parents were all close too.”

I remembered Tyler and his family were the people his mother warned against. I didn’t say anything but gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.  

“At the beginning of our junior year of high school, we found out his mother had advanced endometrial cancer.” His voice held a note of sympathy. I knew his story didn’t have a happy ending.
Poor Tyler.

“That sounds terrible.”

He nodded. “Even though she wasn’t my mother, she meant a lot to me too.” He looked down embracing a memory. “She was a hell of lot more understanding than my mother. She didn’t freak out if we broke an expensive lamp or stayed out past curfew. She wasn’t a push-over either, always knew when we were lying or trying to get away with something.”

“Let me guess, you spent most of your time there.”

He nodded.

“It was supposed to be a hysterectomy and then chemo or radiation, just as a precaution, and life goes on healthy and cancer free.”

Reece gently moved my legs from his lap out in front of me. He leaned over, his elbows resting on his knees, head between his hands.

“In two months, she was gone.”

I rubbed his back understanding he found the loss of his friend’s mother a loss of his own as well. I doubted anyone understood how deep that hurt stung.

“Tyler lost it. It’s like everything about him changed. And who could blame him right? At least that’s the way I saw it.”

I nodded.

“By the end of our junior year his father started dating again. Tyler wanted to kill him.
Literally.”
He paused a moment, seeming to regain control of his own anger. “He obsessed about it, plotting ways he could do it and not get caught.”

“You can’t really blame him for being upset.”

Reece shook his head. “We were all really surprised. But every part of Tyler’s life suffered after his mom died. He got into fights at school, at baseball practice, everywhere he went. He couldn’t focus at all. His grades took a really big hit. And his father was so caught up in living his own life he didn’t see any of it.”

“How did Tyler get through the day?” I couldn’t imagine losing one of my parents. No matter how much my mother tried to control things or tell me everything I did was wrong, I wanted her around.

“He spent a lot of time with us. My parents did their best to help, but it’s not the same. And then he wasn’t going to graduate. He managed to maintain C’s in everything but English and Social Studies.”

Reece stood, looking tense and stiff as he went on, increasing the distance between us. I knew Aaron told me the truth. It really wasn’t that bad. Whatever he did, he did it to help his poor, suffering friend. My heart ached for him.

“I hacked into the school’s computer system and changed his grades from F’s to C’s.” Reece looked off into the distance, his eyes evading mine. “It’s not like I was trying to get him into Princeton or anything, but he had no one to help him, no way to get back on track. I knew if he didn’t graduate, he would’ve dropped out. That would have been wrong.” He sounded like he was pleading a well-thought case.

“You got caught.”

He nodded, “My parents wanted to kill me. I embarrassed the family. My father had to get involved. It looked really bad for a while.” His jaw clenched as he continued. “Jail was a definite possibility. In the end all my teachers had to meet with the principal and guidance counselor to verify my grades. I wasn’t allowed to go to the prom or walk at the graduation ceremony.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I did the right thing. His teachers had no clue what was going on. His guidance counselor never bothered to tell his senior year teachers how recently he lost his mother, or how hard he’d been taking it. When they found out, they gave him extra credit assignments to pass him legitimately, so he could graduate.”

“Did he get into any trouble?”

Reece nodded. “Even though I swore he had no knowledge of what I’d done, he couldn’t go to prom or graduation either.”

“I guess that makes sense.” I took his hand in my own, “You did something really great for your friend.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled him close so I could nuzzle against his chest. Still stiff and tense, he removed my hands gently and moved away, back to the bench. I made sure to take a seat at the opposite end, as far from him as I could.

Reece shook his head. “All I did was make one mistake after another. Stan, Tyler’s dad, wanted him to work at his consulting company so they could work on bridging the distance between them. But Tyler wanted nothing to do with him and wouldn’t take the job unless I went along with him.”

“Do you and Tyler work together? Doing the same things?”

Reece shook his head. “He’s in customer support and client satisfaction. I actually do the work.
Me, three other guys and my idiot manager.
The guy just doesn’t get it! He isn’t maximizing the tools we have available to us. If we use some of the virtualization out there, we could save a lot of money, and . . .”

I rolled my eyes, “You know once you start with that computer geek talk you lose me, right?”

He cracked a smile. “Sorry. I get a little excited.” He looked back at the ground and continued, “Anyhow, things are different now. I never should’ve worked there,” He paused a moment searching for words to explain, “I mean Stan’s changed so much, it’s almost like he’s a different person all together. Tyler and I can barely tolerate being in the same building these days. We had a falling out recently.”