The Wright Brother (4 page)

She rolled her eyes. “Gah, anyone ever tell you you’re cocky?”

“Nope.” He scratched the back of his head as his eyes twinkled. “Never. Anyway, where you going?”

“Chas and I are going to lunch. You want to join us?”

He frowned and stopped at his set of lockers, resting his back against it. “Can’t, we don’t get lunch for another forty minutes. You coming to our match tonight?”

“I think it’s ridiculous to have a match on a Wednesday.” Chastity sniffed, curling her nose up at him. “Not a chance in hell I’m going.”

She might dress like a goth princess, but her friend was obsessed with her grades. The only way she’d make it to college was by winning a scholarship; her GPA was something she took very seriously because of that.

“Good, ‘cause I don’t recall asking you.” Roman gave her a little snarling grin.

Shaking her head, Elisa sighed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you guys were flirting.”

“What?” Chastity smacked her on the shoulder and cocked a hip. “You do know the boy’s jailbait, right?”

Roman stuck out his tongue and wiggled his brows. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

Flashing him the finger, Chastity rolled her eyes. “Suck my—”

“Now children.” Elisa shook her head, slapping Chas’s finger away. “Play nice. And of course I’ll be there, Rome. You know I will.”

“Sweet.” Giving her a playful hip bump, he turned and spun the dial on his locker, opening it quickly to take out more books. “See you then. It’s at five, don’t forget it, lame ass.”

“Oh jeez,” Elisa sighed and shook her head as she and Chas headed for the cafeteria.

“I cannot believe you are friends with those boys, bunch of arrogant assholes.” Chastity gave Roman one final withering glare over her shoulder before turning back around.

“Nah.” She shrugged. “They’re not so bad.”

Which was true. The past two weeks Elisa had gotten to hang out with the Wrights a lot. Mostly because her mom kept inviting them over for dinner every freaking night, which was kind of annoying, but she was getting used to it.

One thing Elisa had learned from hanging with them was that she basically had to relearn all of them. They in no way resembled the seven-year-old boys she remembered. They were way beyond cartoons and playing wrestling matches.

Roman and Christian were hardcore athletes. But Julian… She still didn’t really know a thing about him. Other than he barely ate, he picked at the food on his plate, and that he did indeed have tattoos.

Even her parents had been shocked when he’d shown up three days ago wearing a short-sleeved CBGB shirt that clearly showed the thick, swirling bands of tribal tattoos down both arms.

No one had asked about them, but she was sure her family had thought the same thing she had. How was it possible that at fifteen Julian was already so tatted up?

Chastity sighed. “Damn, we’re going to have to sit in loser row.”

Glancing up, Elisa realized that because of the rain almost everyone was inside today, which meant only the tables all the way to the back were still open.

“Then let us press onward to our most certain demise.” Elisa shook her fist and struck a dramatic pose.

Giggling and rolling her eyes at the same time, Chastity shook her head. “I do not know you.”

Turning on her heel, Chas walked over to a table to save their seats, pulling a packed lunch out of her book bag. The Debisette’s weren’t poor; Chas could have afforded to buy hot lunches if she’d wanted to, but Fareed Debisette was a penny-pincher if ever there was one. Chas’s father believed in the merits of saving and hard work and had raised his only child to live by his same code.

Jumping into line, Elisa frowned at the day’s selections. She was a swimmer and needed carbs, but that didn’t mean she liked noshing on things like fried chicken and fettuccine alfredo.

With a growl, she snatched up a wrapped tuna fish sandwich, a carton of whole milk, and was digging through the bowl of fruit, trying to find one stinkin’ red apple in the pile of greens and oranges.

“Excuse me.” Elisa looked up at the heavyset lunch lady.

Elisa had never learned her name, but everyone in school called her Scary Mary, mainly because of the flesh-toned wart on the tip of her nose and the wild shock of purplish red hair tucked behind her black hairnet.

“Yes?” she said in the deep voice of a pack-a-day smoker.

“Do you have any red apples back there?”

“Nope.” She popped the P and began snapping her fingers for Elisa to hand over her money.

“Nothing at all?” she tried to use her sweetest wheedling voice, but there would be no taming Scary Mary.

“Look, young lady, the world doesn’t revolve around you. Either pay up or get out of line, there’s a lot of people waiting.”

When she said that Elisa glanced down the row, ready to murmur an apology when she noticed that three kids down stood Julian. His intense sea-green eyes roved over her face, making the back of her neck feel suddenly hot.

“Oh, I’m…ah…” She snapped her gaze from his. “Sorry about that.” Dropping a five into the lunch lady’s hand, she waited for her change and then stepped to the side, waiting for Julian to come up.

Today he was dressed in dark tapered jeans and another one of his rock band t-shirts. She was hopelessly clueless when it came to the band names. She wasn’t really into rock, Dad had raised her to be a lover of jazz and blues.

Elisa was also slightly surprised that Julian wore rock shirts considering he couldn’t hear the music.

His dark hair slipped over one eye and she couldn’t help but want to pat it back into place. Julian was just so different from his popular brothers. He didn’t seem to care about fitting in and being cool; for him it was all about being who he was and doing his own thing, and she had to respect that about him. It wasn’t easy marching to the beat of your own drum, especially not in high school where opinions mattered so much.

She knew he could feel her looking at him, because his left finger kept tapping his tray in an agitated manner. But he didn’t look back at her as he paid.

“Jules.” She tapped his hand before he could walk off.

Glancing down at her fingers, his eyes narrowed.

She wasn’t sure what that look meant, but she had been practicing some sign language in the past two weeks. Sadly, she wasn’t very good at it yet, but she was determined now that he was back in her life to learn from her past.

Julian didn’t talk much in school. She’d catch him every once in a while signing to his special ed teacher in the halls, but almost the moment he’d catch her watching him he’d drop his hands to his sides and saunter off.

Whether that meant he was embarrassed because he had to sign or he just didn’t feel like talking anymore, she didn’t know. But she was tired of pretending like they didn’t know each other.

It was one thing to be five and seven and communicate with jerky weird movements that only the two of them could understand. The days of pointing to a playground and having that be enough were long gone. There was really only one way to learn him and that was to talk with him.

Back when they’d been little they had a way of talking with each other that’d been slightly different from what others had done.

Sometimes when they were too busy digging in the sand or watching cartoons to look up, Elisa and he would tap things out on each other’s bodies. Two taps would be “food.” Three would be “run,” etc. Sort of like Morse code, but on skin. As they’d matured their taps had taken on different meanings, meanings only they’d understood. Elisa couldn’t help but think that if he hadn’t moved away from her their language would have evolved into having actual conversations.

It’d felt special to their relationship, like something only the two of them had shared, and feeling all of sudden like talking a walk down memory lane, she tipped his hand over and placed her fingers on top of his palm.

But instead of tapping, she used her letters.

Lunch
. She signed it slowly. Her fingers weren’t as dexterous as they needed to be to really have a fluid conversation, but given time she knew it would get there.

She lifted her brow, proud of herself for trying, and then pointed to herself. “Come with me?”

His hard stare always left her feeling slightly breathless. Julian was so much more intense than she’d remembered him being before.

She was pretty sure he would say no, so she was surprised when he shrugged and turned his tray toward her.

Giving him a brilliant smile full of relief, she turned and headed toward Chas. Julian dropped into the seat next to her.

Chastity was taking a bite of her
very
red apple and Elisa almost moaned. Chastity knew how much she adored red apples. The fact that she was forced to eat lunch and not get her daily red apple had obviously not escaped Chas’s notice as she proceeded to groan and chew dramatically.

The wench.

“You’re Julian, right?” Chastity said after she swallowed, rubbing her mouth with the back of her hand.

Elisa pointed to her ear. “He’s deaf, Chas. He can’t hear you.”

Julian frowned, glowered at her, and then reaching into his pocket, pulled out a small pad and pen and furiously scribbled something down on it. She cocked her head when he turned the pad around.

In bold, sure strokes he’d written: “I read lips.”

Mortified, and ears burning a bright shade of crimson, Elisa covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh, Jules, I’m so…I’m…”

But he was looking down at his tray and she could tell by his rigid body language that he didn’t want to see anything she said.

Chastity patted her shoulder gently, telling her without words to drop it, and began chatting about dresses. But Elisa’s heart just wasn’t in it. Every once in a while she’d peek at Julian, hoping to catch his eye so she could say she was sorry, but he wouldn’t look at her.

Disgusted with herself and beyond embarrassed, it was an effort to pretend like nothing had happened.

Halfway through lunch Joey Crawford, star quarterback of the Bay Consolidated High Mariners, sauntered up to their table. “Slummin’ it, I see, Adrian.”

With his short brown spiky hair and his rich brown eyes, he made her heart flutter. Every girl in school wanted to be with Joey, and right now, Joey wanted to be with her.

It made a girl feel special.

He planted his hands on the table, leaning forward until their faces were close enough to kiss. To her left Chastity snickered and Elisa’s throat grew warm. The spicy scent of his aftershave was all she could smell.

“Joey?” She smiled. “What do you want?”

He took a deep breath, as if considering something important. “I’m the hottest guy in school, you’re the hottest girl, bada bing bada boom.” He winked. “So what do you say?”

Her brows twitched. “Jeez, that was lame. Wasn’t that lame, Chas?” She turned to her friend, who was having a helluva time hiding her humor at the situation.

“Totally, straight up lame as hell,” Chastity agreed and then took a huge bite out of her apple, as if for emphasis.

Joey snorted. “Fine. Come with me to homecoming.”

Elisa flicked at her milk carton. “You asking me? Or telling me?”

His pretty eyes narrowed. “Whatever it takes to make you say yes.”

Laughing, and very aware of the multiple sets of eyes on them, she nodded. “Don’t wear brown. You look terrible in brown.”

Pretending to be affronted he clutched his chest. “Damn girl, you telling me I have to go shopping again?”

“A price must be paid, Joey.” She sniffed.

They sealed their date with a handshake, which was probably not at all what Joey would have wanted. For months now Elisa had gotten the feeling that Joey was going to ask her to be his girlfriend.

Which was cool. She had every intention of saying yes, but Mom had always told her guys didn’t like desperate girls, so until he asked, she’d continue to play coy. But even though she got the feeling he would, he never actually had. They flirted like crazy, but not much beyond that, which had begun to make her wonder whether it was all in her head.

With a wink and an air kiss to her, Joey turned and pumped his fists in the air as the table he’d been sitting at erupted with cheers of, “Score!”

The silly smile died on her face when Julian’s chair scraped back. He didn’t look down at her or even wave goodbye. Picking up his tray, he turned and walked away.

She didn’t see him again in school that day.

And after Rome and Chris’s game, the Wrights went to the Adrian’s for dinner, which she hoped would be her opportunity to talk with him. But tonight Julian didn’t show.

Which made Elisa feel terrible. She shouldn’t feel terrible about it. But she did. She wasn’t sure what she was doing wrong, but Julian was obviously upset with her. Was it the ear comment?

Or her making the date with Joey?

Her mouth grew dry at the thought. Did Julian like her more than he should? No way.

She almost laughed at that dumb thought. Julian barely even spoke to her. There was no way that he was upset about the Joey thing, which meant he was angry about the ear thing. She sighed. Maybe he’d feel better in the morning.

But her hopes for getting a chance to apologize flew out the window when he failed to show the next day too.

It was stupid to think he wouldn’t go because of her, but he didn’t show up to dinner again that night, either.

She knew she needed to apologize to him for the comment she’d made to Chastity, but there was no way to do it when he continually refused to show up. When she’d asked Roman about it Thursday night at dinner, he’d just shrugged.

But it was Mrs. Wright who’d glanced up at her with a sad look in her eyes and lips that’d thinned down to slits that made Elisa stop talking about it.

She didn’t ask about him after that.

It was a shock to her when she finally saw him on Friday in the lunch line. But now so many days later, it felt weird to go up and apologize for that. What if he wasn’t mad at her for that at all? What if he’d been sick and she was just crazily overreacting?

Unsure of herself, she sighed and walked over to where Chas was saving her a seat.