As Koath laughed, Gabriel leaned back and whispered to me, “It’s a mystery.”
“I wish that happened last night,” Max mumbled as he cleaned his enormous glasses.
“I take it you weren’t successful in purifying anything?” Koath clarified.
We pulled into the school’s parking lot within minutes. “Yes,” Gabriel answered him, “that is totally true. Although we did find out that Kass would reject my marriage proposal an hour and thirty-two minutes after I got down on one knee. So, after much deliberation, I decided that I should just get down on two knees, because it’ll be easier to kneel on two knees for an hour and thirty-two minutes than just one.”
Koath had to turn and stare at him on that one, eyebrows risen. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh,” Gabriel sighed and smiled. “Yeah. Forgot to tell you.”
“Forgot to tell me what?” Koath repeated, a confused expression on his aging face.
“That Kass and I are getting married in Busch Gardens and that our wedding theme is going to be centered on our twenty-five pets,” Gabriel replied, as if it were the simplest thing ever. He chuckled to himself as he got out of the car.
Koath was silent, so I said, “Just ignore him. I never agreed to any of that. He’s just—”
“I know. He’s Gabriel,” Koath interrupted me. “I’ve met the boy before. I’ve known him for nearly his whole life, so I am aware that he tends to make up stories. It’s just that one seemed the most realistic out of all the ones I’ve heard.”
It took me a few moments to comprehend what he said to me. We got out of the car as I asked, “What? How is it the most realistic?”
Koath shook with the small laughter that was so familiar to me it hurt nearly as much as the fact that he replaced me with a boyish, nerdy version of me. “I’m teasing you, Kass. Just like old times,” he spoke, smiling.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Just like old times. Plus a nerd and an idiot,” I added as an afterthought.
We entered the school building. Koath stopped outside the main office and turned to face me. “It’s good to know that time hasn’t changed you. For a while I was worried that when I came back you wouldn’t be the same Kass I knew years ago.”
“Don’t worry. Nothing’s ever going to change me.” I was wholeheartedly backing that statement, but the look in his old eyes made me stutter on the final word.
He placed his hand on the door handle, replying, “I doubt that. Something is bound to come around and force you to change, hopefully for the better. Now.” Koath put on his principal-like persona and added, “Go to first period, and have a nice day. I’ll see you all at two-thirty.”
As I walked into physics that day, Mr. Straum greeted me immediately, “Claire is waiting for you in the back room, Kass.”
“Okay,” I muttered as I gathered myself up. My legs took me to the back-room’s door, and all the while I couldn’t stop thinking about what I saw last night. About seeing Claire in the cemetery. About what I discovered of her mother.
Her deceased mother.
Should I do anything? Should I be nice to her or should I act like nothing happened? In reality, nothing did happen. Claire didn’t know that I saw her last night. She didn’t know that I knew her mother was dead and that the flowers she put on the grave were white lilies. She didn’t know how bad I felt for thinking that she was the meanest person ever.
“About time,” Claire said with attitude as I sat down into the chair next to hers.
My gaze fell down to my lap. “Yeah. Sorry, I was having trouble with my locker,” I apologized. It wasn’t totally a lie, and yet it wasn’t totally the truth, either. My locker and I were never on good terms since it usually refused to open for me.
“What, never had a locker before?” Claire mocked me.
“Actually, no.” I told her. “I haven’t.” Telling that to her clearly surprised her, for the next few seconds she stared at me and didn’t respond.
All she did (eventually) was say “Okay. Let’s talk about acceleration.”
And we did all period. All period we never veered off the path of physics and acceleration. It was weird. I didn’t think I’d ever talked this much about one, single idea. But I understood the concept. I understood it before we even talked about it, but after forty minutes I knew it like I knew the weak spots on a Nightwalker’s body.
And I knew those weak spots pretty well.
We had a couple minutes of class left when she closed the physics book. Claire looked at me in a new light. “Good job today.”
“Thanks,” I took the compliment and figured I should give her one, too, “You’re a great tutor.”
“Yeah. Thanks, I guess,” Claire muttered.
I couldn’t say why I said what I did next, for it was probably the worst thing to bring up. “I heard what happened. Are you all right?”
Claire’s eyes seemed truly bewildered. “What are you talking about?”
“Your mother,” I spoke quietly, mentally cursing myself for asking. What was wrong with me? Why would I bring that up? God, I was such a terrible person.
“How…” She blinked. “How do you know about that? You weren’t even here when it happened.”
“I, uh,” I scratched the side of my head, not because it was itchy, but because this was getting way weird and awkward. And I didn’t do well in weird and awkward situations. “Saw you last night. At the cemetery.”
“What were you doing there so late?” Claire questioned.
Crap. I hadn’t thought of that. Why was I at the cemetery so late last night? I knew why I was there, but I couldn’t tell that to her without risking her safety and sanity.
I got it. I’d deflect her question. That sounded like a good plan.
“Claire, I know what you’re going through,” I said. “I’ve gone through the same thing.” It was not entirely a lie. My own mother did die. Just not in a way that you could talk about in normal conversations.
She looked skeptical. “Oh, really?” Her derisive tone was back. Great. “So you’re an only child too, were super close to your parents, and right before you started your senior year of high school they got into a terrible accident, killing your mother and leaving your father in a coma he still hasn’t come out of?”
“Well, not exactly…”
“And you have pretty much no other living relatives so your uncle that you’ve only met three times in your life came over to live with you and make sure you don’t do anything stupid out of grief?” Claire was angry, her nostrils flared.
And I was beginning to think that she was going to lunge at me and try killing me. At least that’s what I got from the glimmer in her eyes.
“And all your old friends stopped talking to you because they don’t know what to say or how to comfort you? And you’re putting yourself in all advanced classes, hoping to make the memory of your parents proud?”
“Claire,” I whispered, “I’m sorry—” The bell rang, cutting through my ears like an annoying high-pitch sound. Which it was. Annoying and high-pitched.
“Yeah,” she got up and stormed out. “So was everyone else.”
I felt really bad about what happened with Claire. Like, really bad. I felt so bad that it was all I could think about for the next two periods. Why would I bring it up? She obviously was still in the mourning stage and didn’t want to talk about it. And what did I do? I came along and said hey, you. Your mom’s dead, remember?
It didn’t happen exactly like that, but it might as well have. What was I thinking? Apparently I wasn’t thinking at all.
I watched Gabriel sit next to me. “What is your problem?” he asked as he dumped the contents of his brown paper bag out.
“I don’t have a problem,” I grumbled, mostly to myself.
“That’s total crap. Know why?” Gabriel paused, cocking his head at me. “Because I can read your mind and you haven’t started eating yet. If one wasn’t completely obvious, then the other would have surely tipped me
off that you do have a problem…probably just realized you have more than one problem, and that’s your problem, isn’t it? It’s this never-ending cycle full of problems.”
I suddenly stood up. I knew what I had to do to make me feel better about what happened.
Gabriel lifted his eyebrows as Max sat across from him. “Find another nerd for Max so they can fall in massive, nerdy love?”
Max and I shook our heads simultaneously. “No,” I told him. “I’ll be right back.” I speedily walked out of the cafeteria and ran around the school about ten times until I found the library’s double doors.
Okay, I didn’t go around the school ten times. It was an exaggeration. More like three. Sometimes I found that exaggerations made life more interesting.
I entered the doors and glanced all around the library. Claire sat in the same spot she was in yesterday. “Hey,” I spoke quietly.
She glanced up sharply. “What do you want? No one’s in here but me, so—”
Taking in her lunch that was splayed all over the table, I cut in, “Claire, come sit with me at lunch. You don’t have to eat in here all by yourself.”
“Maybe I want to. Maybe I don’t like anyone enough to be able to tolerate sitting at a lunch table with them for half an hour every day,” she told me spitefully.
My back straightened. God. I was just trying to be nice to her. “I know how it feels to lose someone close to you, but you don’t have to push everyone away. You’ll get used to it eventually, believe me. If you keep pushing everyone who’s trying to help you away, then when you need them the most, they won’t be there for you. You really will be all alone,” my voice got softer, “and no one wants to be alone. Not even you.”
A tiny smirk crossed her face. “You don’t know me well enough to make those judgments. I do want to be alone. I don’t need anyone around feeling sorry for me. All I want is to read this book about enzymes and proteins and be left alone.”
“Fine,” I told her. “But know that the invitation is always open.”
“Whatever.” Claire bit a piece of a carrot and returned her full attention to the huge book that sat open in front of her.
My shoulders slumped. I didn’t have anything else to say, so I turned my back to her and walked away. Deep down, I was disappointed because this girl was practically screaming for help, only she didn’t know it, and no one else knew enough to give it to her. But I’d be patient. I would be the one who, when she was ready, will listen to her rant and rave about how her life sucked, how it would never be the same, and how she wished it were different.
For some reason, I was feeling abnormally nice, so when she faced the fact that her mother was gone and her dad (probably) wouldn’t wake up, I’d be a friend to her.
In a minute I sat next to Gabriel, who was already finished with over half of his lunch.
“Where’d you go off to?” Max pushed his big glasses farther up his nose with a little finger.
“I had to talk to someone,” I said, giving a look to Gabriel while thinking, that’s all I want to say so don’t ask for more.
Gabriel nodded and said, “Well, I want to know your opinion on this. Max and I were talking about it while you were gone, and we wanted to know—”
Gabriel kept talking, but someone by the cafeteria door caught my eye. Soon she was awkwardly sitting on the other side of me. I couldn’t believe it, so I simply watched in awe as the tomboyish chick made her way to my side.
Claire came. Granted, she brought her book with her, but hey. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, right?
“Guys, this is Claire, my physics tutor. Claire.” I gestured to the boys. “Gabriel and Max.”
“Hi,” she said, sounding, for perhaps the first time, unsure of herself. Then I realized why.
Gabriel. It was Gabriel. She probably fell for him in the last few weeks and couldn’t handle sitting at the same lunch table as him. But then I noticed that her gaze didn’t linger on Gabriel. In fact, she barely looked at him.
No, she was too busy looking at the other boy to see Gabriel.
At Max.
“What’s that about?” Max asked her, his interest genuine.
“Um.” Claire held up the book. “Proteins and enzymes.”
“Is that by Colfer? You know, I think I read that book back home.” Max rubbed his chin, pondering it.
While they began discussing things that I could barely understand, Gabriel and I looked at each other. He whispered, “I knew you were going to find another nerd so Max can fall in massive, nerdy love. I just knew it.”
I replied, “I didn’t do it on purpose, trust me. I don’t want to see love, whether it’s nerdy or not.”
Although, it was funny. Gabriel and I were talking about them and they were too busy having their own deep conversation with huge words to notice.
All I could think was, why didn’t I think to introduce them earlier?
Max glanced from me to Gabriel. “Is it just me, or is this as creepy as it seems?”
I shrugged it off as we entered the dilapidated church where Raphael stayed. “It is creepy, but you get used to it after a while. It’s going to sound strange, but it kind of grows on you.” His face looked doubtful, and I could understand why. After all, who would get used to a creepy place like this? Apparently, I could. And Gabriel.
We saw Raphael in the back of the church. He motioned for us to come over. We followed him out of the church, into a grassy opening. The same one where Gabriel and I faced him during our first weekend here. The same field that I lost miserably in.
Another round of fighting? Count me in. That was something I was good at.
“Max.” Raphael handed him two long bandages that he would wrap around his knuckles so they wouldn’t get bloody. “Put these on, and we’ll see how good you actually are.”
Max stared at the bandages for a few seconds, so Gabriel said, “Here, I’ll show you.” He wrapped Max’s fists in them like a pro. “All done. See? Now wasn’t that easy?” It was like he was talking to a child.
I had to constrain my laughter, knowing that Raphael hated it when I didn’t act serious during our lessons. But it was funny. Gabriel sounded like he was in an infomercial. I couldn’t hold myself back from saying, “Don’t you feel like Kung-Fu fighting?”
Raphael glanced sharply at me. “Go sit down.”
“Okay,” I said quickly. I went by the church’s wall and sat, leaning my back against it. As Max readied himself for the fight of his life, Gabriel plopped himself next to me. “Think this kid’s going to be any good?”
“I don’t know,” he answered, “Koath says so, but I have my doubts.” I looked at him while he paused and continued, “I mean, look at him. He has no muscle tone, if his glasses fall off he’ll be blind, and I could practically fit two of him inside me.”
“That’s a weird thought,” I told him as my mind pictured doubling the nerdy Max and fitting both inside Gabriel’s body like a liquid into a mold.
“I know, but it’s true.” Gabriel’s blue eyes left me to land on Max and Raphael. “Look at them. They’re starting. Here’s hoping this’ll be a good show.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “Here’s hoping that it’s not over in five seconds, like it was with me when I first fought Raphael.”
As Max spread his feet shoulder-length apart, Gabriel whispered to me, “I wish I had some popcorn.”
After letting loose a small laugh, I turned my full attention on the fight that was going to start any second before us. Max lunged at Raphael, throwing a double punch. Bad move, I thought. When I made the first move, I lost immediately. Only when Raphael countered, Max deftly dodged his blows and swung a kick to Raphael’s shoulder.
This kid was good. He made it farther than I did my first time fighting Raphael.
Raphael’s top half leaned forward, completely avoiding Max’s kick. He spun around, stood straight once more and landed a roundhouse kick on Max. Max flew back a few feet, falling hard on the ground. He flipped him
self back to his feet and fixed his glasses, which had become somewhat crooked from the fall.
He must be used to fixing his glasses in the thick of a fight. Why not settle for contacts?
The two contestants collided, each trying to hit the other with various forms of punches and kicks, and each defending themselves successfully against the other. It was a deadlock. No, scratch that. It was a deadlock until Raphael feigned a kick to Max’s right side, catching him off guard with a real kick to his left.
Max fell to the grassy ground once more as Raphael calmly said, “Very good. You lasted much longer on your first try than Gabriel and Kass combined.”
My mouth scrunched into a frown. He had complimented Max while insulting me and Gabriel. Raphael certainly did have a way with words.
Chapter Thirteen – Vincent
It was a sunny day, very nice outside. The temperature was perfect, not muggy like it normally was in this blasted town. And yet was I out running and enjoying the day? No. I was laying on my uncomfortable hotel bed.
I couldn’t force myself to get up. I didn’t know why I felt like I needed to be here. Something deep inside me told me that something was going to happen. My intuition.
It was weird. I never laid around and did nothing. I was always up and about, either working out or planning. Right now I didn’t want to do either, though. It was definitely a first for me.
My mind wandered to that girl I ran into. She was young, true, but there was something about her that drew my attention. Something older than her years, something maybe even older than me. I never felt it before. Something about her pulled me in the second I ran into her. It was like she was a refrigerator and I was a magnet. Terrible comparison, but you got the idea.
A knock echoed throughout the small room and interrupted my thoughts.
I tensed. No one knew I was here. No one who knew me back in England knew that I came to America. I hadn’t brought any women to my room, either, and I was reasonably certain that room service in this hotel didn’t exist.
Cautiously, I stood and made my way to my dingy door. As my right hand reached for the doorknob, my left hand twitched in anticipation. A knife was ready to erupt from my skin if this knock had come from someone who would jeopardize my mission.
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