by Debra Doxer
I giggled, looking at them in amazement.
“I already charged them for you. Put your hands inside.” He handed them back to me.
Tentatively, I slipped one hand in and immediately felt the warmth. “Oh, wow,” I whispered, smiling at him as I slipped the second one on.
“The batteries are rechargeable and last from two to six hours, depending on how high you set them.”
Holding my gloved hands out in front of me, I looked at the red lights at my wrist and couldn’t believe how warm my hands were inside. These things actually worked.
“Your doctor never mentioned these? I mean, your father didn’t—” He broke off.
“My father didn’t know how bad my hands were,” I replied, not meaning to sound as defensive as I did. If I’d ever asked my father to buy me these gloves, I was sure he would have. I just never asked, and my doctor never mentioned them at all.
I knew I shouldn’t accept them, that I should argue more and make him get his money back, but I wanted to keep them too much to put my heart into it.
“Thank you.” I stood and wrapped my arms around his neck while he was still seated. His hands came up and gripped my hips. I wanted to ask how he could afford the gloves, but I didn’t want to offend him or seem ungrateful. Maybe he saved up from his summer job. However he got the money, I couldn’t believe he’d spent it on me.
I lowered my arms and looked at the gloves again. Swallowing, I felt my throat tighten with gratitude. “They feel so good. I don’t want to ever take them off.”
Jonah took my gloved hands in his. “I’m happy you like them. The batteries will wear down, though. You might want to save them for when you’re outside.”
“Right.” I laughed as he showed me how to turn them off and then retrieved the charger in the box so I could put it in my bag.
For the rest of lunch, I sat there with a silly smile on my face and a steady stream of joyfulness flowing through my veins. It was a completely foreign sensation, like gliding on ice skates for the first time. When the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, Jonah collected his things and mine, and headed for the door. As we walked back to the main part of the school together, I knew it wasn’t the gloves that put the huge smile on my face. It was him, and I hoped he knew that too.
My phone buzzed in my pocket during history class. Raising my hand, I asked to use the bathroom, but I didn’t go to the bathroom. Instead I detoured to my locker, retrieved the bag from the drugstore, and headed for the girls’ locker room.
When I got there, Lea was fidgeting in the doorway, waiting for me. “Just point me to her stuff and you can go back to class,” I told her, feeling guilty because she looked like a bundle of nerves.
“But your fingers.” She eyed my hands. “You said you couldn’t do it.”
I held them up, showing her the new Band-Aids on the tips. “They’re better. I got this.”
Lea bit her lip. “But I am kind of curious to see what you have planned.”
I laughed, sure I was corrupting her. “Come on then.”
Never having been in the girls’ locker room since my father managed to get me exempt from gym class, I couldn’t have known how easy this was going to be. There were lockers here, but possessions were mostly strewn on top of a counter that ran the length of one wall and sat beneath a long stretch of mirror with outlets for plugging in hair dryers. The lockers didn’t come with locks, so you had to bring your own if you wanted one, which Lea had told me earlier no one bothered to do.
“Here’s her stuff,” Lea said, pointing to a black leather shoulder bag sitting on the counter.
Peeking inside, I spotted a small travel hair dryer and Parker’s familiar cosmetics case.
“Perfect.” I smiled, going for the cosmetics. Unzipping the case, I withdrew her Chanel makeup, the only kind she wore apparently due to her super-sensitive skin.
“Warn me if anyone’s coming,” I whispered.
Wide-eyed, Lea watched as I proceeded to glue closed all of Parker’s expensive makeup, first the compact case, then the lipstick, and next were her eye shadow and blush. This girl painted her face on every morning. But now, unless she somehow cracked these open, which would likely destroy them, she wasn’t getting into any of her makeup after gym class.
“Oh my God.” Lea giggled.
Once I finished, I carefully replaced it all just as I’d found it. Then I pulled out her hairdryer, held it with the nozzle up, and poured the baby powder inside. Next I made sure to remove all the telltale signs of white powder from the outside rim before setting it down inside her bag again, tilted upward.
The blow dryer prank was a little trickier. If Parker tipped the dryer downward before she plugged it in, some of the powder would fall out, alerting her. But most people routinely grabbed their things and used them without paying much attention. I hoped that’s what she would do.
“You are evil.” Lea was smirking at me.
“Wish I could stick around to see the show,” I said, gathering my things to leave.
“Don’t worry. I’ll get it all for you.” She held up her phone and walked with me to the door. “So, you and Jonah?” she asked, tilting her head at me. “Don’t try to tell me you’re just friends again.”
I shrugged, trying to play it cool, but I couldn’t keep the grin off my face.
She smiled back at me. “That’s so great, Candy. But I can’t say I’m surprised. I saw how he looked at you right from the beginning.”
I was reminded of what Theo had said about how Jonah looked at me too. Why had I never seen it? Maybe it was like Theo thought. Because I wasn’t ready to see it.
“You know,” Lea began softly. “Before class just now, Parker told me she tried to dig up stuff on Jonah too. She couldn’t find anything, though. I mean, no Facebook page, no Twitter, no Instagram, nothing. He’s not online at all. Isn’t that weird?”
“Maybe he just isn’t into that stuff,” I replied, but it was kind of odd, although Jonah was a private person. I could see him shunning all that. “At least Parker didn’t find anything she could use.”
“True.” She glanced at the time on her phone. “I’d better be getting back. This is going to be so epic.” She chuckled.
Walking back to history class, I hummed softly to myself, realizing the tune was “Everlong,” one of the songs playing when Jonah drove us to The Butterfly Place. I had to admit, it was strange Jonah wouldn’t connect with his friends online, especially since he moved around so much. I didn’t even have my own computer, but I had a Facebook page with pictures of my ex that I’d apparently never taken down. I’d have to remedy that soon. I also needed to check out my cousin Kristen’s Facebook. Last time I talked to Theo, he said she was cutting me to pieces in a new post, which also meant she wasn’t doing time in juvie. Too bad.
When I sat back down in class, the teacher eyed the clock, seeming to notice I’d been gone a long time, but didn’t say anything. I figured gym class was ending by now to give everyone time to shower and change. Resting my head on my hand, I slumped down in my seat and wondered when the news would drift my way.
I was a little disappointed as I sat through my next two classes and didn’t hear a peep about Parker. A prank wasn’t nearly as satisfying if your victim wasn’t outraged and drowning in misery. Maybe it hadn’t worked.
Just as I thought that, Jonah approached me in the hallway. “Did you do something to Parker?” He didn’t sound pleased.
My eyebrows shot up. “What happened?”
A moment later, Lea was behind him holding out her phone. “I’ve been dying to get out of class to show you.”
Moving behind her, I watched as she brought something up on her screen. It was a movie of Parker turning on her hairdryer and blowing baby powder in her face. Her jaw dropped in shock as her eyes squeezed close. That allowed the powder to fill her mouth too.
Lea and I giggled quietly together like a couple of little kids.
The dryer fell from Parker’
s hand, pulling out from the wall outlet and crashing down onto the floor. The girls surrounding her were wide-eyed. Wiping her hands over her face, streaking the powder over her cheeks, Parker glared around the room before she stormed out of frame.
“She took a second shower after that. I didn’t follow her in,” Lea said. “It’s not that kind of movie.”
We laughed again, but I noticed Jonah was expressionless, showing neither humor nor disdain. My shoulders stiffened at the thought he might be angry with me. But what if he was? No one walked all over me. Besides, this was harmless compared to what I could have done. I could have told her that her father was cheating on her mother.
As we watched Lea’s phone, there was Parker again, dressed now with her hair dry and styled.
“She borrowed my hair dryer,” Lea said, narrating.
We all watched as she unzipped her cosmetics bag, pulled out her compact, and attempted to flip it open. Gritting her teeth, she strained to lift the cover with no success. Glancing around suspiciously, she threw it down and pulled out her blush. Again, she couldn’t get it open.
“What the hell,” Jonah whispered, watching.
Perplexed, Parker tossed that down onto the counter too before trying the rest of her makeup with the same result. Placing both hands on the counter, she made a harsh noise of frustration and let loose a litany of expletives as other girls approached her cautiously to see what was wrong. Ignoring them, she stretched out an arm and pushed all her possessions onto the floor with a noisy clatter. The movie abruptly ended there.
“I took off after that. She got kind of scary.”
“Where is she now?” Jonah asked.
“I think she went home.” Lea lowered her phone. “She wouldn’t go makeup-free in school, and she couldn’t borrow mine because her skin is so sensitive.” Lea snorted out a laugh, but then she looked at me with a sobering expression. “I feel kind of bad now, though. She was really upset.”
“She got schooled,” I replied. “That’s all she’s upset about.”
Jonah narrowed his eyes at me, but I couldn’t tell if he was really disgusted with my antics or not. When Lea left to get to class, he asked, “What did you do to her makeup?”
“I Krazy Glued it shut.” When he didn’t say anything, I added, “She spoke to my ex, Jonah. She talked to him about me.”
His lips arched subtly, and he tried to keep his face straight, but he couldn’t quite manage it.
“You know,” he said, “this need you have for revenge isn’t normal.”
“I don’t take any crap from people. I thought you liked that about me.”
The teacher came into the classroom, and Jonah and I sat down beside each other. “I do like it. But I can’t help feeling like it’s going to bite me on the ass one day.”
I looked at him through lowered lids. “Scared of me, Bryson?”
His lips twitched. “Yeah. Maybe a little.”
I snorted and the teacher cleared his throat, looking pointedly at me.
Shooting Jonah one last look, I pulled out my notebook and tried my best to pay attention. But the images of Parker on Lea’s phone preoccupied me, helping to release the tension that took up residence inside my chest the moment she’d spoken my ex’s name.
***
Parker didn’t come to school the next day, which I thought was a little dramatic. But I supposed I could understand with the way the girls in the locker room who’d witnessed her humiliation were still laughing and talking about it, relating the story again and again, wondering who did it. Even though Parker seemed to have a lot of friends, none of them were above laughing at her expense.
According to Lea, Parker believed I was behind it and she threatened to go to the principal, but she didn’t suspect Lea’s role. Lea was relieved, and she was a better actress than I would have given her credit for. She played both sides perfectly. While she was comforting Parker, she also promised to tell me if Parker was planning any retaliation. Usually I was smart enough to make sure there were no witnesses to my little pranks, but this time I’d brought Lea in on it. If Parker did tell the principal and I denied it, Lea could find herself in a difficult position. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
In the meantime, Jonah’s football season was wrapping up with a sputter. The team’s only shot at a playoff spot ended when Claymore surprisingly won against Fairfield last week, meaning the guys had already played their last game, and their season ended in an elimination.
Jonah couldn’t have cared less. Malcolm grumbled about it, and Ethan was happy to be moving on to hockey practice. Turns out, he played hockey and baseball too in the spring, but neither of those teams were any good either. Academically, Glenn Valley was one of the top schools in the region because the school focused on academics, not on sports, which was kind of refreshing unless you had dreams of becoming a professional athlete.
That thought made me wonder what Jonah’s dreams might be. What did he want to do when he grew up? Where was he applying to school? Would he be moving away or staying here? I didn’t want to think of us going in different directions, even though it was premature to be anxious over that.
“My dad’s out of town this weekend,” Jonah said as we walked to class. “I was thinking we could hang out at my house, order some food, and watch a movie.”
“Your dad’s out of town,” I repeated, hearing the speculation in my voice.
Jonah smirked. “What exactly are you thinking? This is our first date if you don’t count The Butterfly Place. It’s a little soon for you to be taking advantage of me.”
I rolled my eyes and shot him a half smile. It was the perfect thing to say to put me at ease because I was fairly sure he had no idea I was a virgin. I wondered what he’d think when he found out. The ex and I talked about having sex. We even planned for it, but never actually did the deed, thank goodness, because I found out he’d been lying to me our whole relationship.
At the end of the school week, we made plans for Jonah to pick me up on Saturday night and bring me back to his house. That gave me all day Saturday to catch up on homework and ride the wave of nervous anticipation our date would inspire—good nerves, the kind that bounced through your veins and amped up the anticipation.
My father picked me up from school on Friday, and we were nearly to the house when I realized I hadn’t gotten a text from Theo in a few days. The seed of worry I always felt for him sprouted roots as I sent him a text asking him to message me back. Sometimes the days following a treatment were pretty rough, but he always managed to text me, claiming he couldn’t go more than twenty-four hours without succumbing to the urge to annoy me.
When we went inside the house, my father disappeared inside his office. He’d barely said two words to me in the car, which wasn’t unusual except his silence seemed weightier today. I wouldn’t ask him if anything was wrong because he wouldn’t tell me, but I thought I’d make a nice dinner and try to cheer him up. I hadn’t cooked anything in a while because of my fingers, but I thought I could manage something tonight.
Paging through my mother’s recipe book, I startled when I heard the sharp rise of my father’s voice. Going to the doorway, I looked down the hall. His office door was closed but through the narrow space beneath it, I could see his shadow pacing. His voice rose again before the door rattled harshly in its frame.
I jumped, my heart galloping faster as I stood there watching and listening, but after several minutes, there were no more outbursts and no more attacks on the closed door.
With my heart unwilling to slow down, I distracted myself by pulling down pans and boiling water for a mushroom risotto I’d decided to make. My ears were focused on my father’s office down the hall as I puttered around the kitchen, setting the table. It was twenty more minutes before he emerged, appearing in the kitchen doorway.
“Something smells good.”
I smiled hesitantly. “Everything okay?”
Without answering, he sat down at the table. Dark circles sh
adowed his eyes; he looked exhausted. “You got a raw deal getting stuck with me.”
My hand stilled as I stopped stirring the rice. I’d never heard him sound so defeated. After putting down the spoon, I walked over to the table and sat across from him. “Dad, please tell me what’s happening.”
He eyed me sharply. I hadn’t called him Dad or anything else since he’d allowed my aunt to take me away. It was my passive-aggressive way of punishing him, even though rationally I knew he wasn’t to blame, and by the looks of it, he’d noticed.
“It was Jonah who told you about the job at the diner, wasn’t it?”
Wondering why he asked, I nodded.
He shifted in the chair, rubbing a hand over his mouth. “Getting locked in that freezer wasn’t an accident.”
I blinked in surprise. “How do you know?” My cold hands involuntarily fisted on my lap.
“Because I do,” he said flatly.
I scoffed at his answer, despising the way he threw out bits of information that sent me reeling and then refused to say more. A part of me knew it probably wasn’t an accident, but I was hoping it was a bad joke played by Carol because anything else was too horrible to think about. Even though I’d agreed to not ask him any more questions the other night, he couldn’t expect me to stick to that now. “Why would someone want to lock me in there?”
“To get to me,” he said quietly. “To show me how far they’re willing to go.”
“For what? What do they want?”
“What do you know about the owners of Dempsey’s, the two brothers?” he asked as though he hadn’t heard me.
The pot on the stove began to hiss. Grinding my teeth together in frustration, I stood and walked over to turn off the burner. “I don’t know much about them,” I replied. “They bought the diner last year. It used to be a hangout for the high school kids, but the brothers told them they weren’t welcome there anymore.”