Manipulation (Shadows)

by Jolene Perry

  “I see.” The judge’s brow is furrowed as he looks over the paperwork in front of him. “You’re lucky this is a privately run railroad, and not federal charges.”

  The girl doesn’t even flinch at that. It would scare the hell out of me. I was locked up for a couple nights once at fourteen, and tight spaces and me do not get along.

  “What’s the least I’m going to get?” she whispers to her attorney.

  “On a good day, restitution and this life skills class he likes to send everyone to. That’s the best.”

  She nods.

  “Ms. Prince.” His voice is coated with the same irritation he used with me.

  “Yes, your Honor?” Her voice is sickeningly sweet. Surely that can’t work.

  I can see as his face softens that it does. “Why, sweet girl, when you can travel for so little, would you try a scam like this?”

  My thoughts exactly. I sit back, curious to see how this will play out.

  “May I approach your Honor? It’s a bit...personal.” She bites her lip. It’s like the only girl move I see and understand.

  It means you’re about to be played.

  But I have no doubt he’ll allow it. I can tell by the way he’s watching her. The girl is some kind of genius. Annoying, probably spoiled, but a genius.

  “Very well.”

  She steps behind her attorney, around the table and up to the judge. They whisper across the top of his podium. She reaches out and touches him briefly on the arm.

  Come on. That can’t work. Unless... My heart starts racing. I sit up in my seat, dropping my foot to the floor. What if she…? No, no. Dean. You’re crazy. No one does what you can.

  “Thank you, your Honor.” She walks back carefully and gives her attorney a huge grin.

  “You will need to pay restitution in full, Ms. Prince, and you will need to show the court proof of completion of Life Skills. A new session begins next week.”

  I inwardly groan. She’ll be in my class. But I look at her from behind again.

  Her grey slacks accentuate a nice, tight form. Hmm. It’ll give me something to look at, at the very least.

  “Good job, Bunny.” The attorney whispers in her ear.

  She smiles and looks pleased to capture his attention. Maybe he’s her dad?

  “Your dad will be here to pick you up in a little bit.”

  Guess not.

  Her face falls, almost imperceptibly. “I figured he’d be here.”

  “We both know how often that happens,” he whispers back as they walk down the aisle and out the courtroom door.

  I follow. I know it’s stupid, but I’m curious about the spoiled girl and forged train tickets. And I can’t get that itch out of my brain that the way she touched that judge had a very familiar feel to it…

  * * *

  I’m on the second of the two busses it’s taking me to get back home. Addison climbed into a Rolls. She rides in a chauffeured Rolls and yet felt the need to forge train tickets. Her forgery had to involve a guy. Had to.

  I pull out my small sketchbook and do an exaggerated drawing of the judge. Something that’ll make Katy laugh. I add some wildness to his grey hairs, some thickness to his eyebrows, and bring them far enough up on his forehead to warp his hairline. It makes me laugh. It’s sure to get Katy.

  The bus is filling up fast—just after five and people are getting off work. I stand up to give my seat to a lady with a little kid.

  “Thanks.” She grasps her son tightly in her arms.

  I loop my arm casually around the pole. I’m on this line a lot and the white-haired driver really likes the brakes. Even I almost slip at the next stop. An older man with a cane is standing in front of me and nearly loses his balance. I glance around. There’s a guy in a shirt and tie, maybe a few years older than me, just sitting. Relaxed. I let myself bump against him. Offer your seat. I send the suggestion and he’s up a moment later, and the man with a cane is in his place.

  This works with almost everyone unless they’re really determined not to do what I tell them to. A brief touch, a directed thought, and then a very satisfying action on the part of the person I make contact with. I probably use it too much, but I never steal. That just seems like taking advantage of a cool thing. Now tardies…

  At my stop I head for the door and run down the two steps to the sidewalk.

  “Hey, Dean.” Katy stands up from the bench as I step down.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Waiting for you, stupid. How’d it go?” She tilts her head full of pink spikey hair and looks at me with wide eyes.

  “About what I figured.” I shrug. “Oh, I have this for you.” I tear out the small page and hand it to her.

  “Awesome.” She laughs. “Thanks.”

  There’s sure to be more on her mind so I wait.

  “Did they ask why your guardians weren’t there?” She starts to walk in step with me. Her boots scrape on the pavement as she shuffles and her striped tights half glow in the lamplight.

  The noise pulls and stretches my spine. “Can you not shuffle in those things?”

  She laughs. “You are so weird with noises, Dean.”

  “It‘s like a chalkboard! How do you not hear that?” I laugh.

  “Fine.” She takes a few purposeful marching steps.

  “Very, funny.” I shake my head. “No, they didn’t give me any crap about that. I think they assume some things when you come in as a foster kid.”

  “So, what do you have to do?”

  “Restitution to the state for the money they spent arresting me, which is going to wipe my savings, and some life skills class.”

  “Wow, you know you got off lucky, right?” She elbows me in the ribs.

  “I know.” It was my ballsiest move yet, going into the state offices and trying to login.

  “I’m sorry you didn’t find your brother.” She loops her hand through my arm.

  “Me too.” I glance down at her. For a guy I’m not all that tall, but Katy’s really short. She can’t be much over five feet. “Pink now, huh?”

  “Yeah. The green kept washing out. Pink stays in the longest.” She bats her eyes as she looks up at me.

  The scraping starts up again. “I swear, the first thing I’m going to do when I get rich and famous, is buy you shoes.”

  “Well, I won’t wear them.” She squeezes my arm. “But thanks for the thought.”

  “Hey.” I gesture slightly with my chin. “Jesse’s closing up shop.” Jesse is the neighborhood music guru. His shop sells mostly CDs and vinyl, but also all sorts of random music paraphernalia from tour T-shirts to rock n’roll artifacts. He’s even sold a few of my drawings.

  “I already told you, he’s not into me.” But she’s staring at his back as she speaks.

  “Because he thinks I’m into you. Or you’re into me.” Like everyone else. Like somehow because we’re the opposite sex, and hang out, we must be secretly dating.

  “Ew.” She drops my arm. “I mean, there’s no denying you have a certain hotness about you. You know, nice body, that dark and mysterious thing, but… eww...”

  “Wow, Katy, thanks.” She knows I’m not offended. We kissed once, but it was way too weird—maybe it’s just that after spending years taking care of my brother, I needed someone else to take care of, and God knows her parents don’t do anything.

  “Oh, come on! You’re just… You’re Dean.” Her tiny shoulders slump.

  “Go say hi, and I’ll owe you one.” I stop.

  She sighs. “One what?”

  “One…” I scramble to come up with something, but don’t. “I don’t know... Just do it.” I know her well enough to know she’ll hate herself if she lets the opportunity to be with this guy go, and it’s really hard for me to snag a girl when I’ve always got Katy with me. She just needs a little distraction.

  “He’s like twenty.” Her shoulders slump even further.

  “And you’re eighteen.”

  She gives me her bes
t wide-eyed frowny-face to show me she’s nervous.

  “Fine. Tell him I told you to take him out on a dare because I want you to lose so you’ll have to wear normal shoes.” I poke her ribs with my elbow. Go talk to him. I wonder if a poke is enough to make her do it.

  She bites her lip. Definitely considering. I read people well. Always have.

  Jesse’s across the street and about to turn the corner. “Just coffee. Do it.”

  “Will you really make me change out of my boots if I don’t?”

  “Actually, yes. I really will.” I narrow my eyes. We both know I’m joking. I touch her again, on the shoulder this time. Go, Katy.

  My thought hits her. “Shit.” She drops my arm and runs across the street. “Jesse!”

  Okay, I feel a little bad for “forcing” her to go but in my experience, people won’t do something that they really don’t want to do. It’s just that people don’t pay attention to much of anything, so when I can put a thought in their head—they generally follow it. Especially when it’s something they might want.

  I laugh at Katy bouncing her way across the street in her boots and open the door of my building. No doorman here. I wonder where Addison Princess lives? Well, me thinking about Addison, Bunny, makes me an official loser. I jog up the narrow stairway to the third floor just hoping to get through my stupid sentence as fast as possible.

  THREE

  Addison

  “Chase.” I exhale as I answer my phone. “There you are.” Why did it take you two days to call me? And why can’t we live closer so I can touch you and make you answer these things?

  “What’s up?” His voice is normal, relaxed.

  “Didn’t you get my messages?” I left him three messages. How does he not check after the second?

  “You know I don’t check messages, babe. I just call you back. And here I am, calling you back.” He sounds so pleased, like he should get some sort of prize or something just for doing the decent thing.

  “I got arrested.” Now I’ll get the reaction I’m looking for.

  “What?” Okay, his voice is way too calm.

  “Well, come on. I’ve been sneaking onto the train forever.” Now I want to downplay, maybe that’ll make him worry more.

  “Are you trying to tell me it wasn’t worth it?” His voice sounds hurt.

  “No, no, of course it was worth it.” I can’t have him think I don’t want to be with him. It’s so awkward with how picky his parents are, and our age difference. I’m pretty sure mine would be okay with it, well, if they didn’t know we were having sex, but I’m sure his wouldn’t be. Wait. How is he not more worried about me getting arrested? And how is this suddenly about him?

  “Well, I’m going to be really busy for the next little bit anyway. Caitlyn’s family’s in town, but I’ll make time for you next time I’m in the city.”

  I hate Caitlyn. She thinks she has some kind of hold over Chase just because their families are close, which is pathetic, because he and I have been together for two years.

  And that’s it from him? It sucks feeling like second to, well, everything. The thing is, when we’re together, I come first. This is why I know that if we just lived closer, all this weirdness between us would go away, and maybe the random whispers I hear about Caitlyn would also disappear.

  And make time? I hate it when he talks like that. Like I’m this burden, an extra responsibility. It makes me worry that he’ll get sick of me. “Oh you know…if it works out…” I strain to keep my voice light.

  “Oh, right. I forget I’m talking to the great Addison Princess.” He’s teasing. That’s good. We’re okay.

  “So, I’ll be seeing you soon then?” Crap. Did that make me sound desperate?

  “You know I can’t resist that body of yours.” His voice lowered a notch.

  Now I’m grinning like an idiot. “Okay. Soon.” Annoyance forgotten.

  “Not soon enough...” His end clicks.

  “Addi - son!” Deborah’s voice sing-rings down the hallway. “I’ve come to your shack in the sky to see the delinquent!” Her voice is still half singing.

  “Very funny!” I yell through my door.

  “Hey girlie girl.” Her head pokes in my room. Deborah’s hair is the blond version of mine. Long, straight, smooth with bangs. But my hair hangs nearly to my waist. She’s attempting it, but hers still stops around her shoulder blades. I don’t think it’s going to get any longer, not without extensions.

  “Hey, come on in.” I smile as she steps into my room.

  “So, are you jealous?” She sticks out a foot to reveal the most delicious pair of Chanel boots. Tall, black so soft they look pettable, and heels that take practice for normal walking.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I fold my arms. Her parents’ apartment might not be as nice as ours, and they might not have as many cars, but she and her mom dress. “You are the most spoiled…”

  “Look around you, Addison. You have your own walk-in closet and bathroom. How many people in New York can say that?”

  “You.”

  “My closet is not a walk-in, and I share the bathroom with my brothers.” She makes a face.

  “Right. So that means I should feel better about you having the most gorgeous boots ever?” I pull my feet onto the couch.

  “Nope.” Her smile turns wicked. “You can still be jealous of that.”

  “So, what are you up to?” I don’t want to talk about her stupid boots anymore.

  “I want to know what happened? At your hearing?” She sits across from me.

  “Some life skills class that Dad’s going to get me out of and restitution.”

  “But weren’t you charged with, like, thousands?” She pulls a tiny mirror out of her purse to check her reflection. She’s always doing that. It makes me crazy. Like, what’s going to happen to your hair or makeup in five minutes?

  “Yeah, but since I can travel for almost free normally, the restitution isn’t all that bad.” I stand up and catch myself in the full-length mirror. I start to do a once-over and then realize that I’m acting like Deborah. I immediately turn away.

  “And speaking of traveling, how is the elusive Chase?” Deborah’s the only one I’ve told about him. Well, except for my sister, but Ellie knows everything.

  “We just got off the phone.” I try not to sound smug, but I kind of am. “He’s coming to town to see me soon.”

  “So, what are we up to?”

  “I was about to get Ellie from school.” I always look forward to seeing Ellie. She’s young enough to still be honest. At least with me.

  “Isn’t that what Marla’s for?” Deborah’s mouth pulls into a full pout—like that would work on me.

  “Mom had extra stuff for her to do here today and it sucks being picked up by an empty car.” It happened to me more often than not. I don’t want it to happen to my sister if it doesn’t need to.

  “It’s not empty. Doesn’t Jimmy still do most of the driving for your dad?”

  “Most of it.”

  “Well?”

  I ignore her attempts to make me understand that she does not want to pick up my sister with me. “Wanna come, or should we get together later?”

  Her shoulders slump. “Call me when you come back. But it sucks because we never see each other.” She widens her eyes in standard dramatic Deborah fashion.

  “Right, because we live so far away.” I mimic her expression of annoyance.

  “Hey, to some people, three floors is a big deal.” She’s teasing, but we both know kids snobby enough that it could also be true.

  “That’s crazy. Now…if you were in a building further south…”

  She shudders. “Don’t even tease.”

  * * *

  Ellie’s smile is wide when I open the car door to let her in. I did good coming here. She hands her bag to me, then her violin, and I scoot over while I hand her my coconut hand-sanitizer because a lot of people go through that school in a day. She takes it without questi
on because it’s just part of our routine.

  “So, now that you’re not allowed to ride the train anymore, does that mean Chase is finally going to go away?” Ellie takes a drop and rubs her hands together before stuffing my bottle back in my bag.

  “Definitely not.” I shake my head. I will never understand why she doesn’t like him. We all grew up together.

  “I still don’t know what you see in him.” She shakes her head. Ellie’s grown-up mannerisms crack me up, but I try not to let on.

  “Oh come on, Ellie.” Just look at him, is what I want to say but don’t. That would probably bring on a lecture, that while amusing from an eleven-year-old, is not one I want to hear.

  “I’m not arguing about his rich parents, even though I think they’re obnoxious, or the fact that he’s cute, but you could do so much better, Addie.” She sighs and sits back in her seat, keeping her eyes on me.

  “Listen to you, talking all grown up.” I grab her knee, trying to tease.

  “No guy that doesn’t want to be seen with you, and wants you to sneak around—is worth it.”

  “It’s just until I’m eighteen,” I remind her.

  “But he’s been busier lately, right? And I heard...” Ellie stops and sucks in her bottom lip. Afraid to tell me something.

  My heart starts thumping harder for something that is going to be totally fine and easy to explain away. “What?”

  “I heard he’s dating one of the Johnson girls, and that’s it’s getting really serious. Like getting the two families together kind of serious.” Ellie mumbles out the words. Now her grown-up demeanor is gone.

  “Oh, it’s just Caitlyn.” I seethe a little at my inability to be around him to show her who his heart is with. “They’re good friends, Ellie. Nothing more. He even told me they were all getting together.” He loves me. He’s just trying to make sure no one’s on to us. He wouldn’t hurt me.

  “If you say so.” I can tell by the raised eyebrows that Ellie doesn’t believe me.

  “I say so.” I put a hint of authority in my voice so she’ll know to drop it.