Push and Shove: The Ghost Bird Series: #6 (The Academy) (4 page)

I tugged at his arm. “Is everything okay? Should I go tell him you plan on being home tonight? Maybe he’ll give us a break.”

“No,” he said. He turned to me. “I don’t want you talking to him anymore, or to anyone else following us. Okay?”

I shifted on my feet, unsure. He hadn’t said anything about the night I went with Luke and stopped Mr. Morris from following us. That time, I’d promised Mr. Morris I’d report information back to him about the guys. I thought it might be useful. “But shouldn’t we work with him? Couldn’t we get information from him? Maybe he knows something we don’t and it would help you figure out what Mr. Hendricks is up to.”

“Maybe he could help us,” he said. “But we haven’t confirmed why he’s working for Mr. Hendricks in the first place.”

“For money,” I said, recalling the conversation I’d had with him. “He said he doesn’t get paid enough.”

“I think there’s more to it,” he said. “I’m pretty sure Mr. Hendricks has a couple of partners working with him, I just don’t know who. It might be Morris or it might not. But don’t worry about it for now, just stay away from him. Mr. Blackbourne has taken over giving him the information you promised him. He’ll figure it out.”

The vibe I got from Mr. Morris was that he was under pressure from Mr. Hendricks and thought the surveillance was pointless. I glanced once more at the sedan, but then relented. Kota and the others may have decided they needed to be more careful. Given recent events with Volto, I couldn’t blame them. We still had no idea who Volto was; he could be anyone.

If Mr. Blackbourne took over what I was supposed to be doing, I had to let it go. They must have had a plan, and I had to trust them.

I followed Kota down the road and to the garage door of his house. Max, his golden retriever, was out on the lead. Kota ignored Max’s happy barks at our arrival. Max approached me, following us inside the garage, as far as the lead would allow. I dropped my fingers behind his ears, giving him a small scratch.

Kota stuck his key into the lock, twisting the handle, and shoved the door open. He stepped back, stretching his arm toward the open door. “Coming in?”

I passed him, stepping into the short hallway inside the house and then paused to wait for him. The rest of the house was dark, ominous.

Kota dropped our things just inside the door, and stepped back out. He unhooked Max’s lead. The retriever made a dash for the open door. Max paused long enough to sniff my leg once before trampling on through the house, smelling every corner as if inspecting.

I had to smile. I wasn’t sure if he was glad to be inside or if he was trying to do a security check. I suspected the latter. Max was Kota’s dog, after all.

Kota came back inside, shutting the door. “Where do you want to sit?”

I eyeballed his bedroom door and then the hallway that led to the rest of the house. “Is Jessica here?”

“She must have been home,” Kota said. “She let Max out. But I have a feeling she’s at a friend’s house. She would have popped out and checked on who was coming in if she was here.”

If his sister wasn’t going to be home for hours, and his mother didn’t usually get off work until late, and Nathan was away...

My tongue suddenly glued itself to the top of my mouth. We were alone?

I stared at Kota, wearing his faux school uniform. The maroon tie was still neatly tied at his neck and the dark blue jacket was buttoned properly. I tried to focus on them as it felt easier, because his eyes had a way of making me feel he could see into my thoughts. I didn’t want him to know I was nervous.

He bent at the hip to meet my face and catch my attention. His smile softened. “Something wrong?”

I shook my head, trying to force a smile. I didn’t want to tell him the truth. My heart raced just thinking about it. Despite all we’d been through together, being around the boys was what I enjoyed the most, but being alone with one of them terrified me. I was excited by the idea, but he was afraid he’d discover that I’m just ... me?

Kota bent over, scooped up our bags with one hand, and with the other he nudged me toward the living room. “Why don’t we sit downstairs today?”

That sounded good to me.

He dropped our bags on the floor by the coffee table and sat back in the corner of the couch, putting an arm up on the armrest. He patted the spot next to him.

I settled onto the couch, with my feet flat on the floor, and my hands positioned in my lap. For a moment, I sat straight as an arrow, until I realized he probably would think I didn’t like him, or something was wrong. I forced myself to sit back, until his arm was grazing my shoulders. His fingers stretched out and folded over my collarbone, welcoming me to lean into him.

I breathed in deeply to try to remain calm. The scent of his sweet spice cologne awoke so many memories all at once – even the first time we met.

That’s when it struck me. Our lives had been in such a fast forward state for weeks. Mr. Blackbourne’s orders had forced us to completely stop. With nothing before me now but several days of free time, I felt like we were starting at the beginning. Who was Kota Lee when he wasn’t leader of the Academy group? What was he like when we weren’t fighting or working, which was usually all the time?

“Well?” he asked quietly, his fingers brushing softly against my shoulder. “Any homework tonight? Do we want to get that out of the way?”

I wanted to say yes. It was brilliant of him to think of it. I yearned for something to distract us and homework seemed perfect. It would at least give me something to focus on until I got more comfortable being alone with him.

But I didn’t have any tonight. I’d caught up at lunch time like we normally did, and my afternoon classes didn’t have any. “Did you have some?” I asked in a small voice, hoping.

His eyebrows scrunched together as he thought for a moment. “Actually, I don’t think I do,” he said. A smile caught in the corner of his mouth. “I’d say study, but maybe we should skip it.”

“Skip it?” Was this really the same Kota that asked me about homework and studying every single day?

He scanned the room. He got up, fished the television remote from the entertainment center, and sat back down again. “What do you like to watch?”

I didn’t have a clue. I hadn’t watched any sort of TV program in weeks. I had no idea what was currently running. My finger fluttered up toward my lips. “I don’t know.”

His gaze followed my finger. There was a slight dip in the corner of his mouth, but he corrected it quickly. He rotated the remote in his hand, as if reconsidering. “How about a game?” he asked.

I perked up at this. A game! That was perfect. Plenty of distraction. Why I needed something to distract me from him, I didn’t know. Deep inside, I wondered what would really happen if he had to focus on me, but I was too scared to find out. “Okay.”

He smiled, and got up again to find the Xbox controllers. He stopped halfway back, looking down at me on the couch with his eyebrows scrunched again.

“What?” I asked. I expecting him to pick up his phone and find some Academy business he needed to get to.

He strolled forward again, and placed the controllers in my lap. “Find a game you want to play,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” He dashed around the couch, back toward the hallway. A second later, I heard his footsteps on the stairs going up to his room.

He didn’t pick up his phone, so I guessed it wasn’t Academy work. I got up, crossed the room, and knelt in front of the television, gazing at the collection of video games. He had a lot, mostly single player games. I didn’t want to play alone. Did Kota play games by himself when no one else was around? I checked the titles. A lot of them were role playing, with swords and bows and arrows. So he liked fantasy games?

As I searched for something that was two–player, Kota returned, hauling one of the large blue bean bag chairs across the living room. He dropped it in front of the couch, and turned it over until it was sitting upright. “Thought this might be more comfortable,” he said.

Just one? I turned from him, appearing interested in the games in order to hide my excited smile.

“Did you find one?” he asked.

“Which one is the car racing one?” I asked. I couldn’t find another one that was two-player.

He came closer, hovering over me. He reached around my shoulder, plucking one of the games from the shelf. “Go sit. I’ll put it in.”

I grabbed the controllers, taking them with me to the bean bag chair. I settled in. I still had my shoes on so I kept my feet on the floor. The cool of the chair material met my thighs in the short gym uniform shorts. I zipped the hoodie up a bit to keep the warmth in.

Kota inserted the disc and stood by to make sure the game started up properly. He left the game case on the shelf, and returned, dropping down heavily into the beanbag chair next to me. I tilted sideways and the controllers fell from my hands. I splayed a hand over his chest to catch myself before I tumbled along with them.

Kota laughed, sitting up a little and inching himself over to give me more room. “I’m still not used to these things.”

I smiled a little, pressing on him to sit up again. My knees knocked into him. He hooked an arm under my thighs, dragging me around until my legs nestled over his.

“You can take your shoes off if that’s more comfortable,” he said. He checked with me to see if I wanted to. I nodded. He eased the heels of my shoes off my feet and tucked them away on the other side of the bean bag chair, along with my socks.

I wanted to press my palm against my nervous heart. We were cuddling so close. I wasn’t sure I could concentrate on a game, or anything else for that matter. My shorts were up higher along my thighs since we were sitting awkwardly in the bean bag chair. Warmth from his thighs meeting mine, and his side and chest – I felt every little breath he made, every movement.

Kota started up the game, picked a short race, and turned on my controller for me. When the race started, it took me a couple of moments to figure out the buttons.

“Come on slowpoke,” Kota said, nudging me in the thigh. His car slowed until it was crawling beside mine.

It had been a few weeks since I’d played this game with them so it took time to get re-familiar with how it worked. I tapped at the speed button, and tried collecting turbo bonuses. I managed to catch up with the last of the computer-controlled racers, and Kota’s car remained parallel with mine.

I didn’t understand what he was doing. I knew he could play better than this. He didn’t use a speed bonus unless I did. I wanted to look over at him, but I found myself still shy and wasn’t sure about looking at those questioning eyes.

A sharp left turn appeared in the game. My car swerved, knocking against another car. It flipped over, crashing.

Kota stopped his car, waiting while mine was game-magically transported into position.

“Why’d you do that?” I asked.

He leaned his arm against mine. “Do what?”

“Why’d you stop?”

“I was waiting for you.”

Waiting for me. He said it casually like blessing me after a sneeze. It still didn’t feel right, though.

He’d done something similar once when we played together before. He managed to stick right behind me until we got really close to the finish line, before he zoomed around me and took off and won.

When our cars managed to get close to the finish line this time, he slowed his car until his was behind mine. I crossed before his. Kota took last place.

I turned on him, using my elbow into the back of the bean bag chair to prop myself up. “Did you just lose on purpose?”

Kota smirked. “You were going slowly. I was giving you a chance.”

“I’m not used to this game.” I studied his face but his eyes were telling me things I wasn’t sure about. “You’re letting me beat you?”

Kota’s eyes shifted until he was staring down the screen. “What’s the big deal? I just wanted you to...”

“Nu-uh,” I said. “Don’t play like that.”

Kota’s eyebrows shifted up. “Like what?”

“It’s not fun if you’re not going to do it right.”

“You don’t want me to beat you all the time,” he said.

I dropped the controller in his lap, folding my arms over my chest. “Kota, they said to take it easy. They didn’t say baby me.”

Kota did a tiny eye roll and picked up the controller, passing it to me. “All right. One more time.”

We did the same course again, the same race. There were five other cars besides ours. This time when we started, Kota took off right from the start. I managed to make my way into third, but ended up tailing the computer-controlled second place car.

When we got to the sharp turn again, I slipped again, crashing. Before the game corrected my car, Kota’s car zoomed over the finish line.

“You can’t take the sharp turns head-on,” he said, dropping the controller into his lap. “You have to hit the brake.”

“You can’t slow down. It’s a race,” I said, finishing the lap and ending up second to last again. “You sped through the whole thing.”

“I braked at the turns,” he said. “And I drifted when I needed to.”

“Drifted?”

Kota pushed the button on his controller, turning it off. “Here, play the next race.” He lifted his arm, tucking it around my back, leaning against me.

I stiffened, not meaning to, but his body was suddenly pressing up against mine. It made it hard to focus. I pressed the buttons and started the race, but I was thinking about his hip up against mine, and his fingertips tracing along my collarbone.

“Ignore the other racers for a moment,” he said. “When you get up to the next turn, hang on to the brake and turn your car. When you even out again, release the brake and hit the boost full on.”

This was the Kota I was familiar with. I kind of liked when he took time with me to teach me something new. I tried focusing on the race. I avoided the other cars, got up to a good turn, and slapped at the brakes. The car came to a complete dead stop in the middle of the track. “That doesn’t work.”

“You’re going in too slow on the turn,” he said. His hand dropped down on my knee. “Don’t slow down when you get there. You can keep your finger on the gas, just hit the brake and turn at the same time.”