Wings From Ashes Trilogy

by Linda Nelson

  Neil quickly handed over the phone to Mr. Centon. “Hi, I’m Brian Centon. The father of the girl your son is here to tutor. I had no idea the two kids had made plans for tonight, and I had gone and made plans of my own.”

  There was a pause heard while they all listened in to his one sided conversation.

  “I see – which do you think would be better?

  Well it’s just this, you see, my daughter was in a little bit of trouble a couple of months ago, and I honestly don’t like leaving her home alone with, you know right?”

  Another pause was followed by, “That would be great. We should be there in a few minutes. Thanks for understanding.”

  Mr. Centon ended the call and handed the phone back to Neil and turned to Karla. “Get your books together or whatever it is that you need for your tutor lesson. Neil is going to tutor you at his place instead. His folks have no plans for the night, and they are more than happy to chaperone.”

  Karla glared at her dad but didn’t say a word. She also gave Carrie a look of contempt. Since her dad was behaving like a jerk, then this woman probably would be just like him. He had no right to question whether she could be trusted or not. Not when he never mentioned his desire to see woman other than her mom.

  Neil was a little bit confused by what had just happened. Did this mean that his dad didn’t trust him either? He’d just have to prove them wrong wouldn’t he? At least he was still able to help Karla with her math as he said. They’d just have to do it at his house instead.

  Karla still couldn’t believe her dad wanted to see someone else. It was like he had just ripped her heart out and he never had the gumption to fill her in on it. She didn’t know which was worse, the fact that he was dating, or his not telling her to begin with that he was going to bring someone home that wasn’t her mom. And he had a nerve to complain about her having Neil over without asking him.

  Neil lived on the outskirts of Brantwood where the homes were far away from each other. They pulled up in the dirt driveway, and Karla could make out in the darkness that was broken by the small solar lights lining the driveway the two feet snow pack from a storm that has passed a week before. It had been pretty cold out the past few days keeping the snow from melting.

  A two story Tudor home greeted them. The outside porch light was on awaiting their arrival. Neil was the first one out of the car, and he hurried around to Karla’s door and had it open before she knew it. This left her extremely much surprised and made Karla’s dad smile too.

  It wasn’t that he was on a date with Karla it was just that he did like her, and he wanted to make a positive lasting impression on both her and her dad.

  They entered the house into a large hallway where a coat rack stood in the corner near the door. Neil’s parents were expecting them.

  After a brief introduction and greeting Karla’s dad left her. He felt very confident about her being there with mature adults being present. It was about time Karla found a suitable boy to be around. He just wished that she had told him before-hand, and then they could have made other arrangements. He knew that Karla seemed a bit off by his introducing Carrie to her. He thought it was going to be different, or so he had hoped.

  Neil decided on the way over that they would go and sit in the den. He was sure his dad didn’t have any plans for its use tonight. It was in the finished basement. A wide screen TV hung on a wall opposite to an old coach, and a pool table took up the other half of the room with a dart board hanging on the wall. An old coffee table in front of the couch offered them writing space. He instructed her to put her book there and went off in search of some extra paper and pencils.

  His mother met him at the top of the stairs with a proud smile. Instead of asking him she pointed to a plate of chocolate chip cookies she had rummaged out of the freezer along with a couple of glasses of milk.

  Neil scowled at his mom. She was going to be the ruin of him if he couldn’t lose the weight he was trying to lose by next week. But, what could a couple of cookies do in the meantime? It was study material.

  While she watched her son carry the cookies downstairs to offer to Karla, she whispered softly to her husband. “Neil’s got a girlfriend. She’s pretty.”

  Her husband put a finger to his lips, signaling her to keep quiet. The last time they made a fuss about his having a girlfriend didn’t go well. Since then they decided to try and keep their enthusiasm to themselves and let their son be. Just a casual trip to the basement to get an item, or check on the clothes in the dryer that mysteriously didn’t seem to want to dry the clothes properly was all they needed to keep tabs on their son without alerting him to their prying eyes.

  Karla caught herself looking at Neil while he went over equation after equation. Fifteen minutes of explanation passed before she caught on to how easy they were to do. What a difference it made to her once she was able to understand how the formulas worked.

  Neil smelled of a light blend of sandalwood and musk. He talked softly to her when he went over each equation. Some times this made it almost difficult to hear him. She wondered, was he shyer than he appeared to be.

  He wore a light yellow button down short sleeve shirt untucked at the waistband of his loose fitting jeans. The bulge at this waist did not appear to be as big as it was just a few days ago when Karla thought him to be overweight.

  In order for him, to teach her properly how to do the equations, he had to sit close to her on the coach. Every once in a while his bare arm would brush up against her own sending goose bumps up her arm. The more time she spent with him the more she began to warm up to him.

  Maybe Darcy was right. He didn’t look half bad after all. Finally, she had to ask him about the fight at school the other day. “What happened after Mr. Crandace broke up the fight? Did you get a detention?”

  Neil looked toward the stairway before answering. He hoped that his mom hadn’t heard Karla just now. He replied in a soft whisper, “I was asked to join the wrestling team.”

  “Oh cool.”

  “Sh… keep your voice down. My folks don’t know about the fight, and I want to keep it that way. Most of all, my mom does not need to know.”

  Karla lowered her voice. “Oh okay. I didn’t know, sorry.”

  “Hey, I’m going to get a soda, do you want one?”

  “Um – sure.”

  The main reason Neil went for the soda was to check to make sure his mom was not eaves dropping on them. He was happy to see that she wasn’t. She sat watching TV with his dad.

  Neil returned with the soda, only to find Karla checking out the pool table.

  “Do you want to play?”

  Karla giggled. “I’ve never played it before.”

  Neil smiled and gathered up the balls from below the table and began racking them up. “I’ll show you. It’s fun once you get the hang of it.”

  Neil demonstrated how to hold the cue stick, and he put cue ball in front of the rest of the balls and showed her how to break them all up.

  “Just don’t get the black eight ball in the pocket until you get the rest of the balls in or you lose the game. And, if you get the cue ball in the pocket you lose your turn.”

  He then handed a cue stick to Karla to use. She looked at it funny and then proceeded to try and mimic the way he held the stick. But she had it all wrong.

  Neil found himself setting his stick back in the rack. Standing behind her, he helped Karla hold her stick properly. His body found hers an enjoyable match. Her hair smelled like apples as it softly tickled his neck. He liked the way her body felt against him.

  Karla fumbled with the stick until Neil came up behind her. His grip right behind her hands changed the sticks angle so she would be able to connect with the white ball.

  “Ready?” He whispered in her ear. His breath tickled her neck and made her feel funny inside. All she could do was nod.

  Neil thrust the stick forward with Karla’s hands too. A yellow striped ball fell into a side pocket. “Go again,” he said.

/>   Neil began to pull away so Karla could try to put the next one in the pocket on her own. She was disappointed when he released his hold of the stick, and moved away. She took aim and struck at the white ball with the tip of the stick sending the ball slightly up in the air. She laughed.

  “Here, let me help you again. You’ll get it after a few tries.”

  Once again he came up behind her and helped her with the stick. His closeness made her feel tingly and kind of giddy, bringing on an urge. She didn’t know what the impulse was at first then she knew, she felt like kissing him.

  Neil nestled his chin against the side of her neck. Her soft skin sent a thrill down his body. “Ready?”

  “Uh – huh.” Karla was ready this time for the forward motion. She laughed softly as the ball fell into the pocket followed by the white ball. Before he let go she tried to turn around in his arms to face him, hoping for the desire to be mutual.

  Neil’s eyes moved toward Karla’s soft lips. He began to bend forward as Karla started to lean toward him.

  “Neil, you have a phone call.” His dad shouted down the stairway. “It’s some girl by the name of Ashley.

  Karla, your dad’s here for you.”

  The announcement stopped the two of them in their tracks.

  “I better get my stuff.” Karla broke away from Neil. She felt embarrassed that she had almost been caught kissing him by his folks. It was an intensely uncomfortable feeling.

  Neil was a little bit off by what had been about to happen between the two of them. This girl made him feel strange feelings. He regained his composure and was glad that she didn’t question him about the phone call he had to go get.

  “Thanks for helping me with my math.” He watched her race up the stairway like a scared rabbit. Before he had a chance to say anything in response, she was out the door and in her dad’s car.

  Now was not the time to think about what had almost happened. Neil had a phone call to take from Ashley, his new girlfriend, and he didn’t even know if he liked her. How could he have let her talk him into going out with her?

  All the way home, Karla kept thinking about Neil, and how guilty she felt from her sudden desire to kiss him. She had a boyfriend already. Feeling like this about Neil, did it make her a cheater? Is that how it worked?

  It wasn’t like she had actually kissed him but still she had thought about doing it.

  But Neil wasn’t her type or, so she thought. She liked the tall skinny guys. But her mind kept wandering back to Neil, and how he had stood so close to her while he demonstrated how to hold the cue stick and take the shot. He was warm and cuddly. Unlike Gerry or Max. And she had a lovely time even when he was tutoring her.

  Just before they pulled up to the parking lot to the apartment her dad broke the silence. “I hope you were able to get done what you were working on.”

  “I did, Dad. Neil helped me with my Math.”

  “Good, but remember next time you should mention something like this ahead of time in case I have plans.”

  “YOU have plans? Dad? How could you bring another woman into our lives, what about Mom? I don’t think you are being fair to her.”

  “Karla, I thought you understood. Your mother and I are done. I have had enough of being with that woman. I have no plans of getting back together even when she finishes up her treatment. There is only so much a person will put up with before they have to say – enough is enough.”

  Karla couldn’t believe her dad was talking like that about her mom. He used to be the first one to defend her actions and now he was ditching her. Karla couldn’t believe it. This wasn’t happening. And as far as Carrie was concerned, Karla knew she was just going to hate the woman. The last thing she wanted was a stepmother. Step mothers were bad news, just like they were in all the fairy tales and this one would be no different.

  Chapter 8

  Neil spent the next hour on the phone talking to Ashley, or better yet trying to listen to her. Some of what she said he heard and the rest just passed from the phone into his ear and bounce around inside his head and was lost in a cloud of nothingness. All he heard Ashley say was, “Yakkity, yak, yak.” His mind was on Karla and how she felt when he stood close to her.

  The way her hair smelled and the sweet smell of her skin.

  “Neil, are you there?”

  “Yeah, I’m still here.”

  “Didn’t you hear me?”

  “Hear you say what?”

  “That I want to go to the movies tomorrow.”

  “Oh, right, you can.”

  “Huh?”

  “I can’t go, sorry; I promised my uncle I would help him in the garage tomorrow.” Neil thought up any excuse he could find so that he wouldn’t have to continue listening to Ashley talking about herself. “Look I have to go. My dad needs to use the phone.”

  “Oh, okay. Neil, will I get to see you at all this weekend?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “All right, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  When Neil went to bed that night he wondered how he had let himself be talked into a relationship with someone he didn’t even know. What was he going to do? Would it be right for him to break up with her before even giving her a chance?

  There was only one thing to do. He would have to ask his Uncle Conner for advice on girls when he saw him tomorrow. He could ask his dad, but it wasn’t the same. This was kind of personal and he felt a lot more comfortable talking to his uncle about these matters instead of a parent.

  Right after Ashley got off the phone with Neil she called Maggie.

  “Can you believe that, he never called me as he said he was going to do? I had to call him and then I don’t think he heard one single word I said. When I asked him if we could go to the movies this weekend he said that I could go, not we could go. He said he was too busy.”

  “Ashley, you have to give him some time to adjust. He just moved here, and he probably has lots of moving stuff he has to do.”

  “No, he said he had to work at his Uncle’s garage. He said he was going to call me as soon as he got home from his Uncle’s. I’m sure of it. He promised me. And, I think, I should come first if he wants our relationship to last. All he needed to do was take just a minute or two to pick up the phone and call me. Is that too much to ask?”

  “I think you are being too hard on him. If I can remember right, Gerry and I didn’t go out on our first real date until we had been going together for about three months.”

  That confession didn’t help Ashley out one bit. She knew for a fact that Gerry had never agreed to go out with Maggie. He had dated her once but only once. She also knew that her relationship with Neil was not the same as the relationship with Maggie and Gerry. Especially since Gerry never did know that Maggie thought they were going out long before he actually agreed to go out on that one date with her.

  If Ashley only knew which garage belonged to Neil’s uncle, she would pay him a visit tomorrow since he couldn’t come to her she would have been willing to go to him just for a chance to see him.

  That night as Karla lay in bed trying to fall asleep all she could do was keep replaying the night up to the point of being so close to Neil. Why did he make her feel strange?

  She knew she shouldn’t be feeling this way. She had a boyfriend already, even if she hadn’t heard from Max. She just should be grateful for the fact that Neil had helped her get her math. Now she should be able to take and pass the mid-term.

  If only Max would come back to Brantwood. She hoped he was doing okay.

  Come morning, Karla could not remember falling asleep. The last thought that had crossed her mind was Max or was it all a dream?

  She looked out her bedroom window. A cascade of snow fell heavily to the ground. It was snowing an inch an hour.

  In the kitchen, her dad was busy making some sort of breakfast. Weird…

  “Hey Dad, what are you making?”

  “Pancakes, you want some?”

&nb
sp; “Sure.” Karla took a seat at their little drop leaf kitchen table to wait for her plate.

  “Morning Karla…” Carrie came from out of nowhere. She was the last one Karla had expected to see so early in the morning wearing one of her dad’s bathrobes.

  “Forget it Dad. I don’t feel hungry. I think I have an upset stomach.” Karla got up from the table.

  “Karla, don’t be like that.” Mr. Centon said to Karla just before she slipped back into her bedroom to shut the world out. “You’re not being fair.”

  “You’re not being fair either.” Karla said just under a shout.

  This was not happening. There was no way he was going to get her even to think about welcoming this strange woman whole heartedly into her life. No one was ever going to replace her mom even if she had been a nasty bitch to her a few months ago. She was her mom. Wasn’t that the way moms were supposed to be?

  Karla continued to fuss and fume while she donned a pair of low rider jeans, a blue striped V-neck short sleeve shirt, socks and sneakers. There was no way she was even going to hang around to see the two of them together.

  Darcy probably wouldn’t be doing anything. She could go hang with her and maybe watch some TV or something.

  A black hoodie sweatshirt was all she needed since she was in the same apartment building as Karla.

  “Karla, I thought you were sick? Where are you going dressed like that? Can’t you see it is snowing out?”

  Karla ignored him and slipped out the door without a single answer.

  After a couple of raps on the door, Darcy finally answered. She was dressed and ready to go out followed behind by her mother.

  “Hi Karla. What’s up?” Darcy asked while she put her coat on.

  “I thought we could hang out together today.”

  “Oh, maybe later. My mom needs to bring her car over to Conner’s Garage. The car keeps stalling, so she is taking it to be fixed. She needs it for work on Monday, so I decided to go and keep my mom company.”

  Karla didn’t want to go back home and be around her Dad and his new girlfriend. “Can I come with you?” She asked, “I don’t have anything else to do.”