The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (6 page)

With a fatalistic smile,
she silently wondered what it would be this time, hoping the
impending argument wouldn’t be too severe. With growing dread, she
wished, whatever it was, they could get through it quickly and get
onto much nicer things. The last time was just a little too intense
for her liking. The bruises had only just begun to fade…

She brought her head up a
little and gazed across the parking lot, seeing the steady stream
of cars, vans, and SUV’s driving in and around the cul-de-sac
beyond, parent after parent picking up student after
student.

Walking on the far side of
the dead-end street was a figure she recognized. Immediately, the
ants-in-her-pants evolved into full-blown apprehension.

It was Derek Benson, an
African American ninth-grader that, for some reason, Sonny
absolutely hated and would antagonize on sight.

Don’t play dumb, girl, you
know exactly why Sonny hates him.

Shut the hell up!
She frowned at the thought, glancing around, into
the traffic, looking for Sonny’s beat-up, black and primer-ed-out
1999 Nissan Maxima. She didn’t see his vehicle through the throng
moving before her. She breathed a quick sigh of relief, craning her
neck as Derek walked behind a group of cars too tall for her to see
over. She wished he would hurry the hell up and get out of the
vicinity. It would be nice to be able avoid another incident.
Something she really didn’t want to deal with right now. The fact
Sonny was late was enough for her to deal for the time
being.

“
Hey sexy,” came a husky
voice at her left elbow.

She nearly jumped out of
her skin.
Jesus Christ on a pony!
she howled silently. She’d been so intent on
searching for his car, Kimberly hadn’t considered he’d walk through
the throng on foot. She was shocked to see Sonny at her
side.

His face was aglow, a
faint sheen of aged sweat coating its’ skin. When his eyes looked
into her hers, she saw a glossy, sort of detached, glimmer to them.
That is when the fourth reason for his tardiness surfaced in her
brain and she felt a thickening swallow of lead bear down in her
stomach. No, it wasn’t his father or his jacked up car or another
girl swinging from his jock. He was back on the Meth, and that was
something she could
not
abide.

“
Hey yourself,” she
managed after a time, though, in his impaired state, he didn’t seem
to notice her hesitation.

He had sandy blonde hair,
mussed and dishelved. His face, covered in days’ old sweat, didn’t,
in any way, add a healthy glow to his visage. Rather, it looked
caked-on and made him look older than the twenty years he’d
accumulated since birth. He stood about four inches taller than her
five foot four with a slim build that, at one time, had been wiry,
ropey, but now, tended toward lassitude. He wore a tattered
avocado-colored t-shirt of some misbegotten band one of his old
buddies had put together a few years back. A pair of dirty looking
blue jeans sagged on his narrow hips, threatening to fall to the
ground. On his feet, he sported a pair of besmirched Chuck Taylors
that, at one time, might’ve been black, but where now more gray and
molted.

“
Ha-had to walk the last
few blocks to get here, babe, too many… too many fucking cars and
shit,” he babbled, wiping at his nose, though it wasn’t running.
Then, he stopped mid-swipe to pick at something non- existent on
his cheek. His eyes fluttered back and forth, before settling back
upon her. A crooked smile, he could barely maintain cracked the
lower half of his face.

Thinking, she glanced
about quickly. She couldn’t make hide or hair of Derek, and felt a
modicum of relief. She looked upon her boyfriend once again,
wondering how she was going to get rid of him this time with a
minimum amount of fuss.

“
You sure you can drive,
Son?” she asked using her pet name for him, half-expecting him to
go off the deep end as she came off the railing, shifting slightly
to the side. She was facing him more directly.

To her surprise, he merely
smiled wanly, looking at her through muddled, light-brown eyes,
focusing on her face for a few moments, then unfocusing the next
few. He chuckled, almost losing his balance, as if he stood on the
deck of a crab fishing boat and not upon the concrete of the
walkway.

Jesus, this dude is wacked
out of his mind!

“
Fo shō I can drive,
baby,” he slurred, reaching out to grab onto the railing in order
to steady himself. He missed on his first attempt, but succeeding
with the second.

Crap, I gotta do
something. There’s no way I’m gonna get in a car with him, he’ll
kill me… and probably somebody else as well…

“
What took you so long?”
she inquired, forging on, but stalling at the same time, trying to
think her way out of the situation.

“
I told you, sweet azz. I
had to walk all the way from the other cul-de-sac like three blocks
away,” he replied leaning into her space.

For the first time, she
could smell the burnt metallic residue of the drugs in his clothes
and the sour waft of alcohol on his breath.
Great, fucking Meth and booze
, she
thought.
He held the railing so tight, his
knuckles were turning white from the pressure. She knew the moment
he let go, he would crash to the ground like a stone.

“
And your being late has
nothing to do with the fact that you’re baked out of your mind,
right?” she asked, willing to risk a confrontation versus being
around him in his current state. There was no way she was going to
let him get her into his car. There was no telling what could
happen then.

He smiled anew, as if he
hadn’t heard her. He fell back to lean fully onto the railing,
glancing up at the sky and the few clouds lingering
above.

“
Sonny?”

His gaze remained
skyward.

“
Sonny!?!” she said in a
raised voice, not caring who heard.

The number of students
around them was rapidly decreasing as the minutes passed. Still,
though, a few heads turned their way.

“
Yeah, what, girl? Do you
have to freakin’ yell in my ear?!” His eyes looked down into hers
with the first signs of irritation.

“
What do you expect me to
do when you can’t keep your train of thought longer than a
two-year-old?” Her response was filled with an equal amount of
irritation.

Sonny’s face had already
lost all expression. Suddenly, it melted into a smile he could
barely sustain. It looked like it was made of clay. “Give me a
kiss, baby-girl. I want to taste your luscious lips.”

Kimberly, for the second
time in the last few minutes, felt like throwing up. The last thing
she wanted to do was kiss the gross remains of the crystal-meth and
Jack Daniels in his mouth. She felt his other hand grab a hold of
her elbow in an attempt to pull her closer to him.

Out of instinct, she
resisted.

“
Hey, Kim, give meh sum
love.” His voice sharpened when he realized she didn’t intend to
get any nearer to him than she already was.

“
Are you crazy? You smell
like shit, Sonny! There’s no way I’m gonna make out with you when
you’re walking around with the stench of an addict!” croaked
Kimberly through clenched teeth, afraid if she relaxed in any way,
she would indeed sick-up on the concrete.

Sonny’s brow furled with
anger fast becoming fury. His grip tightened on her arm until it
became painful.

Here it comes.

“
Wha d-hid you say, you
little bitch…?” His voice trailed off dangerously.

“
Let go of me,” she
demanded, ignoring his question altogether, twisting her arm this
way and that, trying to get out of his grasp.

His hand tightened even
more.

She could feel her flesh
beginning to bruise.

He spoke through the
clenched muscles in his jaw, his chin jutting out as if he had an
under bite. “You gonna do wha I say do, do you hear meh?” He spoke
an octave lower, always an indication he was about to turn
violent.

“
Sonny, let go of me!
You’re hurting my arm!” she exclaimed, letting her Physics book
drop to the ground as she attempted to free herself from him. She
yanked more vigorously than before, tugging and pulling much
harder.

“
Fuck your arm, give meh
my kisssss,” he insisted, letting go of the rail and grabbing her
around the waist, pinning her arms beneath his. He smashed his
pelvis into hers, which sparked another, deeper, hidden set of
memories in Kimberly’s brain.

A Roman candle went off in
her head. “LET ME GO, YOU ASSHOLE!” she screamed at the top of her
lungs, squirming back and forth in his harsh, uncaring embrace.
Those memories exploded to the forefront of her consciousness,
making her react with equal violence - revulsion and anger bringing
tears to her eyes.

Sonny, though, wasn’t
listening as he leaned closer, loving the feel of her young, firm
body writhing in his arms. Blood flushed into his face, emboldening
him, fortifying his will, stiffening his resolve. Kimberly would
always be
his
no
matter what!

“
Hey! Is everything cool
between you two?” came a voice from atop the steps of the South
Gym.

Kimberly’s head pivoted in
that general direction. Her vision blurred, but the look on her
face was more than enough to call the tall, lanky teenage boy with
a basketball tucked under his arm to action.

“
Hey, ass cheese, let her
go!” he hollered as he let the ball bounce to the ground. He
sprinted down the four steps and onto the terrace, making his way
for the narrow set of stairs, leading up to the walkway where
Kimberly was wrestling with Sonny.

Kimberly, despite her best
efforts, watched as Sonny’s lips edged ever closer. The intent look
in his eyes was plain for her to see. This would be more than a
kiss, she was sure of it. She managed to wrench one of her hands
free and with all the might she could muster, she smacked him
across the face. The blow stunned him, bringing him from his
lecherous thoughts. His eyes bored into hers, lust turning to rage.
Her blow had lacked any sort of real leverage, so it had done
little damage.

“
You lil’ whore,” he
muttered under his breath, letting go of her arm, rearing back to
strike her as she had him. Only, he had the weight of his entire
body behind it -.

The basketball player was
there.

He struck downward, a
chopping sort of motion with his hand, whacking Sonny in the crook
of his arm. That caused two things to happen simultaneously –
Sonny’s vice-like grip on Kimberly broke and she fell,
unceremoniously, to the ground.

“
What the -,” Sonny was
about to say when his eyes caught sight of the size of the other
boy. He immediately took a half-step back.

“
You better get the hell
out of here, dude, before I kick the shit out of you,” the boy
sputtered angrily. The shallow hue to his complexion was flushed
red with the blood coursing through his body. He was ready for
things to get physical. His entire body was rigid, like a rubber
band ready to snap.

Sonny glanced from
Kimberly to the towering teenager, then back to
Kimberly.

“
This isn’t over, Kim. I’m
not finished with you,” he bellowed with false bravado, puffing out
his caved-in chest, though he was already clutching at his
arm.

“
Dude, I’m not screwing
around, get your scrawny ass out of here,” repeated the basketball
player.

Sonny gave the big kid a
second look, then turned and lurched across the parking lot,
holding the arm the other boy had hammered.

Kimberly watched him
stumble down the sidewalk toward where she assumed he’d parked his
car. He was weaving so dramatically from one side to the other, she
doubted he would be capable of holding himself upright for long.
With each step he took, her fear ebbed, but her apprehension
peaked, as it had every time Sonny had made threats. More often
than not, he followed through on them.

“
Are you ok?” queried the
boy.

Kimberly glanced up at
him, feeling embarrassment creep over her body, making her tingle
from the bottom of her spine to the very nape of her neck. “I think
so,” she muttered, her voice meek and shaky. She saw he’d extended
his hand toward her. She swallowed her pride and took it, so he
could help her to her feet. She began to dust herself off, while he
bent to retrieve her fallen textbook.

“
Here you go,” he offered
it to her, which she took with a wan smile. “You want me to get
some help or something?” he asked, his brown eyebrows rising with
the inflection in his voice.

Kimberly shook her head.
“No, man, I’m okay, just a little bruised on the arm, but thanks
anyway.”

His face lit up with a
brilliant grin. He nodded, after a time, when she didn’t respond.
“Ok then, well, see you around,” he gulped and turned to go back
down the stairs and scoop up his ball.

“
Hey,” Kimberly called to
him.