Lost in Flight (16 page)

Right now, it was bothering him and he was sick of it.  He was done talking or thinking about Christina Martin and wanted a change of subject.  Shrugging his shoulders, Riley snapped, “I don’t know.  Maybe you should ask her or Gabby?” 

Then, he got up and went to bed with Jed’s laughter following him all the way into his room.  He slammed the door to make his point, but he could still hear Jed’s loud guffaws. 

Chapter Ten – Unaccompanied minor

Christina, Shanwick, The Past, November 2000, (Twelve years ago)

“Hey, beautiful.”

Christina looked up in surprise to see Riley leaning against the wall, waiting for her beside her locker.  She was busy stuffing books and items into her bag, and she grinned back at him.  It was Friday afternoon and kids were packing up all around her, making noise, and getting ready for the weekend.

“Hey you,” she grinned.  “I’ll be with you in a second.” 

Riley shrugged.  “Take your time.” 

He had a particular way of lounging that she loved, with one foot up behind him and the rest of his body pressed firmly against the wall.  It gave him the perfect appearance of nonchalance and arrogance.  Riley had been told on numerous occasions to remove his feet from the paintwork by teachers and he always did so at his own leisure, with a look of bored, affected reluctance. 

Riley’s long dark brown hair was tied up in a knot on his head and his green eyes were glinting at her.  He had a half smile on his face that became a full grin when she made eye contact with him.  Like Christina, Riley was dressed from head to toe in black.  He peeled himself off the wall, falling into perfect step with her, slinging his arm around her shoulder.

Christina automatically turned her face up to Riley’s for a kiss and he obliged by dropping a full one on her mouth in front of everybody.  “RILEY,” a teacher called behind them in warning, but Riley waved his arm over his head, and they kept walking out the front doors. 

“I thought you skipped today?” Christina asked.

“I did,” he laughed, “but I always come back for you.”

“Where were you?”

Riley laughed.  “I was at your house with Johnny.” 

Christina smiled and shook her head.  Riley and Johnny were in senior year and she wished they’d be more responsible, but she couldn’t see that happening any time soon.  Johnny’s eye was on a music career and Riley was going with him.  Both were waiting for the school year to end, but only Riley had a hope of graduating.

They stood beside Riley’s old pickup truck and she looked at him with satisfaction.  This guy was hers.  Whenever she looked at him she thought “mine.” They’d been officially together for seven months, but they’d known each other their whole lives.  It had taken her a while to believe he really did want to be with her, but here they were seven months later with no end in sight.

********************

Christina, Shanwick, The Past, October 1999, (Thirteen years earlier)

At fourteen, nearly fifteen, Christina had tried out for her brother’s high school band, “Alternate Course.”  Johnny wanted her to sing lead vocals, so they could take advantage of some of the angry girl music that was popular.  The band’s lead female singer, who was also Johnny’s ex-girlfriend, had left leaving an opening that Christina was hoping to fill. 

She’d remember that day in detail for the rest of her life, even when she wanted to forget.  She’d had to audition with many other people interested in the job, but she had an advantage.  Christina, Johnny, and her father had been practicing Hole’s “Celebrity Skin” and “Malibu” in the lead up to her audition.

Johnny and her father wanted her to join the band, but they told her she’d have to earn her place on her own merit.  Christina was confident that she was good enough, but she was Johnny’s kid sister and the rest of the band were her brother’s friends.  The same people that had spent years chasing her away from the garage and calling her “Klingon” if her parents were in earshot, or “a pain in the ass” if they weren’t. 

Sometimes, Johnny and Dave would let her hang with them, but only if Riley was absent.  If Riley was there, it was a no-go area.  It didn’t seem to bother him telling the Martin sisters or their friends to “get lost,” even though it wasn’t his house. 

On the day of the auditions, her two best friends, Mandy and Bonnie, came over to help her dress.  They’d brought every bit of make-up and clothing they could find; spending ages getting her look “just right.”  She had long straight hair, which she dyed black and the girls sprayed a temporary purple color into it.  The dyed hair her parents had eventually become accustomed to, but they were very strict about make-up and girls trying to appear older than they were.  This, however, was a special occasion and even Mom agreed to relax the rules “just this once.”

Her friends put heavy eyeliner on her and dark maroon lipstick.  They painted her fingernails black and she teamed her makeup with a long black dress that had tiny red flowers on it.  She wore a white t-shirt underneath and a denim jacket over top, and they agonized over whether it was “cool enough.”  For luck, she put on her trusty black Doc Martens, the ones her parents refused to buy for her, but Johnny did. 

He got them for her Christmas present so their parents couldn’t complain, and they didn’t, but they did ground him for a week.  Johnny took the punishment with a lopsided grin agreeing to take his licks only if Christina was allowed to keep the Docs.  To her delight, she got to keep the Docs.

Christina sat nervously in her bedroom with Bonnie and Mandy, spying on the singers as they made their way down the Martin driveway to the garage.  The girls made derogatory comments to boost Christina’s confidence and although she joined in, she did think it was a bit mean.  Most of the singers they knew from school, but some were older people that she didn’t know very well from around town.  All of them were girls and they were a lot more sophisticated than Christina.

They listened to singer after singer audition, analyzing their vocal weak points.  She knew that she had a more powerful vocal range than any of the other singers, but that didn’t automatically qualify her for the job.  “It’s just a stupid lame band right?”  Christina asked her friends tensely, “I mean if I don’t get in it doesn’t really mean anything…?”

Her friends agreed with her vigorously.  The band was just “lame”, “stupid”, “none of it mattered”, “it was just high school”, but they all knew it did.  If Christina got the job with the band, it would mean something:  they wouldn’t be just stupid kids anymore.  They might have some social status beyond being Johnny Martin’s weird sister and her equally weird friends.  Johnny was weird, but he was a cool weird and even though they tried their hardest, “cool” was not a description readily applied to the girls. 

It seemed like forever before she was called to audition.  When Johnny and Dad came to take her out to the garage, she was so nervous that she insisted Bonnie and Mandy go with her.  She was formally introduced to the band members and even though she knew these guys as “the living gremlins in her garage,” she shook hands with them as if it was the first time they’d ever met.

Riley sat watching her impassively, as he always did, as if her only real value was her connection to her brother and the garage he basically lived in.  He always made her self-conscious and as if she was beneath his contempt.  And he could be really rude, and mean.

Dave Warnock, the drummer, however, was a different matter.  He couldn’t take his eyes off Mandy and he looked like he had a cross between apoplexy and rabies.  She swore there was drool on Dave’s mouth and it made Christina uncomfortable.  She was grateful when her father broke the ice by quietly, but pointedly, coughing at Dave.

Christina felt small standing in the garage with these guys.  Riley was at least 6 feet tall, and he was long and lean, like Johnny, but seemed taller.  Johnny and Dave were about the same height, 5’10, but Dave was slightly heavier built.  His arms were like cannons from all the drumming and he seemed to be a contained physical powerhouse.

It wasn’t just their size.  It was also the way they judged her and made her feel like she was an intruder, but the key here was Johnny.  He was the exceptional talent in the band and he was her brother.  Johnny had a stage presence and charisma that was apparent early on.  His gift with musical instruments, combined with his voice meant that he was the central figure and she knew that Johnny wanted her in the band.

Christina’s nose turned up at the smell in the garage.  It smelled of stinky boys and stale liquor, and she was pretty sure she could smell remnants of marijuana, too.  The guys didn’t seem under the influence today, but it was probably just a respite until the end of the auditions.

The double standards that applied to her and Johnny by their parents never ceased to amaze her.  Johnny seemed to be able to do anything he wanted, but she was kept under strict lock and key.  All her acts of rebellion came from snarky comments and modifying her appearance. 

She dreamed of having Johnny’s freedom or his courage to just do what he wanted, but she wasn’t like that.  Christina was sensitive to criticism and judgment, and her parents made her feel bad if she disappointed them.  There were other plans for her and she’d already ruined one.  She refused to continue with her opera lessons because she hated it, even though her mother wanted her to go to college on a music scholarship. 

If she could stand up to her mother on that, then she could face up to these guys.  Christina squared her shoulders and stuck her chin out.  She would be damned if she was going to act weak in front of a bunch of judgmental weirdos. 

Riley looked her up and down in challenge, as if he was unimpressed with what was before him.  It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she glared back.  He asked her in a low growl.  “What can you sing?” 

Christina gave him a level look and stared him straight in the eye, responding honestly, “I can sing anything.  What do you want me to sing?”  Something sparked between them and it gave her a shock.  It felt like he could see inside her, right down to her soul, and all the secrets she kept there. 

Riley was dressed from head to toe in black, as if it was his uniform.  He had his hair in a ponytail and he was slouching on the couch.  She saw his eyes open wide and then narrow.  He straightened his long body and sat forward in interest.

She blinked a bit, severing the connection, and looked at her friends.  She didn’t want to make sparkly eyes with Riley.  He was dangerous, everyone knew that, and there were all sorts of rumors about him with girls at school.  He’d been in so much trouble, that he made Johnny look well behaved. 

Riley’s eyebrows rose and he smirked at her, making her go red.  She calmed herself by doing some breathing exercises and concentrating on the job at hand.  Her friends were counting on her to lift them out of the social mire and if she blew this, Dad would make her feel like she’d shamed the Martin family name.

Johnny looked at Dave asking, “Do you know the drum routine for Hole’s “Celebrity Skin?”  Dave nodded and Johnny said, “Well, that’s what she’s singing.” 

They had the band set up like it was an actual gig, with a microphone in the middle.  Christina went to the mic and stood waiting until Johnny and Dave were ready, but Riley made no move to join them.  Johnny said to Riley, “You can sit this one out.  Just tell us what you think.” 

Riley nodded, but his eyes never left Christina.  She kept sliding glances toward him and scowling, but it just made him chuckle.  Christina decided just to ignore him, but it was like he had some gravitational pull. 

Johnny plugged in his guitar, looked at Dave, and asked Christina, “Cool?”  When she nodded the guys started the opening of the song.  Christina opened her mouth with a growling “Oh make me over” and belted the song out with everything she had.

Christina loved this song.  As she sang, she swayed, and danced with a real intensity.  Like most teenagers, Christina was unsure of herself in her daily life, but once on stage, she became someone different.  It was as if all her insecurities, embarrassing flaws, hopes, and dreams melted into the music.

Johnny came and played his guitar beside her just near enough to show her that he was with her.  Every now and then, he would lean his shoulder into hers in encouragement.  They shared the mic and when Johnny did the harmony they’d practiced, they grinned at each other. 

Her and Johnny’s enthusiasm carried over to all those watching and she noticed Riley tapping his feet, moving his shoulders, and body in time to the music too.  Mandy and Bonnie were grinning, and dancing.  Even her father was moving around.  Christina really wished he wouldn’t. 

When they finished she looked at them expectantly.  There was a pause and no one said a word.  Christina’s heart sank. 
I’ve blown it
, she thought and wondered how fast she could get out of there. 

She heard Mandy clear her throat.  “Oh.  Wow, Dina.  That’s almost as good as the original.” 

Riley shook his head slowly and looked at Christina.  She felt her face fall and wished she’d never done such a stupid thing as making a fool out of herself in front of these guys and her father.  “No,” Riley said with quiet conviction.  “That was better.”

Her Dad looked at Riley with surprise and respect.  “I agree,” Dad nodded.  “It was better.” 

She watched her father and Riley share a grin, and then Riley’s eyes slid to hers.  She felt that electricity again and his eyes lingered on her face.  Christina tried not to pull an “ewww” face.  This was scary and she looked anywhere else, but at Riley.  She’d never had anyone look at her the way he was, and it made her skin feel like it was burning. 

Instead, she looked at her Dad who smiled and winked at her.  “So,” Dad prompted.  “Has Dina got the job?”

“I can’t imagine anyone else singing with us now,” Riley said dryly.  “No one else came close.”  He stared at her and his eyes glinted.  His smile started from one corner of his face and spread out to a full grin.  “But, just to make sure, why don’t you sing another song?”