Waiting for Mercy (Cambions) (6 page)

“Well, I guess you’re stuck with me then. How about we watch Star Wars?” I asked.

He laughed again. “That sounds cool. We can go for ice cream after school, unless you have other plans.” He eyed my hand full of roses.  For a minute, I wanted to toss them in the trash.  The burden of not knowing who sent them made me tired of carrying them.  But what if one, if not all was from Luke, I thought.

“No plans. I’ll meet you by your car straight after school,” I said. I hoped not to be seen by gossips if we left right away.

Our conversation had me make a classic error in judgment.  We entered the front of the school building. I knew better and should have taken one of the circuitous entrances like the gym or cafeteria, but I wasn’t thinking.  Vice Principal Wright was at the door waiting, tapping her black lace up clad foot.  Her gray suit and nude stockings made her look old and mean.  Her graying hair was pulled back so tight she had no lines on her face other than the frown she bore.

“Well, I’m shocked,” she said to us. “You are new,” she said pointing at Tom. “But you missy,” she said pointing at me with beady eyes, “you know better.”

“I,” I stammered.  I’d never been caught doing anything wrong before. I had no practice on how to handle it.  I could see in the distance several students leaving the cafeteria early.  They darted down a different hallway to avoid the Vice Principal.  I sighed.  I’d been seen, so rumors would ensue.  I so didn’t want to be on display for anymore to see.

Tom was quick on his feet though and helped me where I had failed. “We didn’t go out,” he said. “I walked her to her car to get Brent’s homework.”

“When did you get a car?” she asked, focusing her dark eyes on me and I swear she could see the lie.  Even though our school in no way could be considered small, Principal Wright prided herself in knowing each and every one of us.  I don’t think however she remembered my name which is why she called me missy.

“He means Flynn’s car,” I said thinking clearer and quicker now hoping to end this soon. I pulled out my key for Flynn’s car from my pocket.  David said I was welcome to drive it, but I hadn’t taken him up on that. But I kept the key so I didn’t have to stand by the car waiting for Flynn every day.

Tom was muttering an explanation that I didn’t quite follow.  Halfway tuning them out, I had been eyeing the hallway knowing more people would be coming out at any moment before the bell signaled lunch was over.  I prayed we could get through this before anyone else saw.  My luck was on a dive southward, however.  I watch in horror as Flynn strode out of the lunchroom followed by Luke, Paul and Sebastian in that very order.  

Vice Principal Wright couldn’t have picked worse words to say then. “We don’t allow students to go make-out in their cars at lunch.”  Her words were stern and clear.  Although she hadn’t yelled them, the empty hallway carried her voice all the way to the frozen faces of the guys that were now watching the exchange.  My face was horrified and I made the mistake of looking down at the floor like I was guilty. 

Looking up, I was just in time to see Luke’s face sour.  My newest rival walked out at that point and assessing the situation quickly, her face quirked a smile. He abruptly changed directions striding down one of the perpendicular hallways out of sight once she linked her arm in Luke’s.  Tom must have noticed too because he said, “Shit.”  All I could think was that Nina was wasting her efforts on me.  There was someone else she should focus her on.

Ms. Wright hearing the curse chided Tom on language.  I looked at Flynn who shook his head with a grimace then went down the same hall following after Luke. Maggie and Amber caught up with Paul and Sebastian catching sight of me.  Maggie narrowed her eyes then began talking to Paul backing him away from the scene.  Amber and Sebastian followed with nothing else better to do.  

Finally, after being released with just warnings, thanks to Tom’s smooth words, the bell ending lunch rang. Tom and I headed into the mob of students heading to class.  Before we parted ways, Tom muttered sorry to me.  He’d obviously seen we’d been caught.  It wasn’t his fault.  But all I could do was to nod at him and headed to my locker before class.  Lucky for me, Maggie’s locker next to mine was vacant.  I needed to talk to her, but last I saw her, she was with Paul. 

Afternoon classes would drift by in a blur.  I was surprised when Tom turned up in my history class right after lunch.  He’d entered right when the bell rang, so we didn’t get a chance to speak.  Then the teacher called him up after class, so I headed on to my next class without saying one word to him.  It was just as well.  If anything had been said about us, maybe the rumor mill would die down if there were witnesses to us not talking to each other.

Second semester had changed classes around.  So I didn’t have the next class with Paul and Maggie.  Instead, I shared last period with them both.  Just when we sat down, before I could talk to her about lunch and her impending date with Brent, my earlier cupid girl showed up with the same glower on her face.  She gave Maggie six pink roses to add to the six red ones I saw her with at lunch.  I gave her a super smile trying to be happy that her relationship was rosy, pun intended.  While Maggie read the single hang tag tied around the bunch, the sour faced girl turned to me and handed me two yellow roses. 

This time there wasn’t a mystery as to who had sent me the pretty flowers.  The tag said I’m sorry, your un-Valentine.  The writing was scrawled and I had to assume Tom had written it himself.  Apparently, there were last minute Val-O-Gram sales.  Who knew?  I smiled to myself.  Tom was a nice guy if not a little annoying with the whole ‘
I’m not
interested in you
’ mantra.  Just then Paul sat down in his usual spot behind me.  Maggie had to ask at that exact moment, “Who are those from?”

I didn’t have to see Paul because I heard him shift in his seat. I needed to think before I spoke but I also couldn’t think too long because then they may think I was finding an excuse.  I saw the anticipation on Maggie’s face and it started to slip.  Time was up, I had to answer. And for a second I wondered why I even cared what Paul thought.  To him, we weren’t even friends.  “Tom,” I said flatly. “He is apologizing for getting me in trouble for a big misunderstanding.” 

“Eme,” Maggie said with a long sigh.

“Maggs, there is nothing going on between me and Tom.  He was just being a friend.  And if you don’t believe me he will proudly tell you he has absolutely no interest in me.” 

She frowned.  I didn’t have time to react because the teacher started class.  In a way I was happy because I hadn’t been subtle in my conversation.  In fact, I was hoping to be overheard.  You know the best way to start a rumor that favors you, is to start it yourself.

At the end of class, I high tailed it to the parking lot after a quick bye to Maggie.  I was hoping to find Tom before the whole school saw us leave together to avoid any further rumors.  There was surely already a rumor that I had to have not one but both of the new boys in school.  I knew that because Sebastian sat with me every day at lunch, there would be those who thought we were together too.

Leaving so quickly, I didn’t have a chance to speak to Maggie about her plans tonight.  We did pass several notes back and forth during class.  We couldn’t text each other because our seats were too close to the front.  Pen and paper were much more inconspicuous.  She admitted that she was going forward with her plans for tonight being ‘
The
’ night.  Brent apparently made elaborate plans that he hadn’t shared with her.  Even with my ‘
Are you sure?
’ big and bold on the page, she didn’t doubt her decision.  Her only concern was that she worried Brent would ruin it somehow with his new found temper. 

Wanting her to know, I’d told her about me spending my un-Valentine’s Day with Tom.  She made it clear she felt like I should get back with Luke.  She’d never made any bones about her favoritism towards him.  She did say that she thought Tom was nice but in her words he was ‘
full of shit
’ about not being interested.  I didn’t believe that.  In the past few months my admirers had picked up.  Tom just didn’t look at me the way they did.  So I ended the note by saying, ‘
He does not.  No worries.  Just a movie.  Call me later’
. 

As it turned out, Tom was pretty prompt and only a quarter of the student population saw us leaving together.  To cap off my incredible streak of bad luck, those students who were outside to see included Flynn and Luke.  Could my day get any worse?

Getting in the car, I tried to pretend I hadn’t seen them and just acted casual.  I texted Flynn while Tom pulled out of the parking lot.  My text said in fewer words but the same meaning that ‘
I was getting a ride with my un-Valentine so you don’t need to wait for me’
.  I hoped that would squash anything they were thinking.  He certainly would share the text with Luke. At least I thought he would.  Maybe hope is a better word.

Once my phone was tucked safely back in my pocket I turned to Tom. “Thanks for the roses,” I said.

“Yeah, about that,” he said. “I picked yellow not because they were the last available but more because yellow is a friendship color.”

I laughed. “I know.  You’re not interested in me because I’m trouble.  You don’t have to keep reminding me,” I said.

“It’s not just you. Any girl,” he added.

That gave me pause.  “Are you not into girls at all?” I asked seriously.

It was his turn to laugh. “No,” he said. “My life is too complicated for any relationship right now.”

I leaned my head back. “Is that your mantra?  You don’t have to keep explaining it to me.”

“It’s just that I don’t want to lead you on,” he said.

Now it was getting old and maybe I shouldn’t have said what I said because I really didn’t feel this way.  I just wanted to get him back.  “You don’t have to worry.  There are at least three way hotter guys who are interested in me. So if I really wanted to date, I’d choose one of them,” I said and pursed my lips.

“Duly noted,” he said.  I couldn’t help but notice that he looked slightly hurt.

I sighed to myself.  I shouldn’t have said that. “I’m sorry.  That was mean. You are way cute but I’m not interested,” I said borrowing one of his lines. 

That seemed to break the spell.  We laughed and just like that things were back on track. He took me to get ice cream and while we ate we debated about the wisdom of eating ice cream in winter.  The main agreement was that ice cream’s main purpose was to cool you off on a hot summer day. In the end we both loved ice cream but the debate was fun.  I enjoyed hanging out with him.  It was even better than hanging out with Paul because neither of us liked each other in any other way than friends.

When we pulled up to what I had to accept as my house now, I asked him to stop at the curb before moving up the long drive. I hopped out leaving the door open and dropped the bundle of flowers in the trash.

When I got back in, he asked, “Why’d you do that?” He paused before saying, “I paid for two of those.” His tone was half joking because there was a laugh in his voice.

I’d seen the car parked in the driveway.  And there was no way I was going to carry flowers in there when I wasn’t sure who gave them to me.  So I said nothing.

surfeit
(n.)
an overabundant supply or indulgence; excess

Not wanting to take the risk of Flynn finding the roses and taking the opportunity to humiliate me, I made the decision to trash the flowers.  This because I knew he would read the hang tags out loud in front of God knew who, specifically Luke and embarrass me.

“Luke’s here,” I finally said flatly.  Tom nodded and pulled up the drive, parking behind Luke’s white BMW.

“If you want to do this another time, I understand,” he said.  Luke and I weren’t together anymore.  He and Flynn were best friends for reasons beyond me. So Luke would be over a lot.  We knew we would see each other and we had.  But never like this.  In this case, there was nothing going on between me and Tom.  So it wasn’t like I was throwing another guy in his face.  So we would all deal.

“No, it’s fine,” I said.  Then leering at him I said, “What are you scared?” I added, shaking my knees together mocking him while I looked for my keys.

He laughed.  “Of who, golden boy?” he said. I rolled my eyes.  If Tom knew who the golden boy really was, he’d bite his tongue.  He added, “May the force be with me.”

I had to giggle at that. “Wait here,” I said. “I’ll be right back.” I left him in the grand entrance, darting upstairs to grab my movie disk for us to watch in the den.  Easily found, I headed back downstairs and frowned when I didn’t see him.  I heard voices from down the hall and followed them.  When I walked into the den, I stopped short.  Tom was standing behind the couch watching Flynn and Luke play Madden.  But once I get closer I saw it was a war game.  Probably Call of Duty.  War. 
Figures
, I thought.