Trust: The Hero Chronicles (Volume 2)

by Tim Mettey

  **

  A week before the dance, the National Weather Service had started predicting a winter storm that would paralyze the city, which was odd, because the weather had been so warm with temperatures in the upper 50s. With the weather as cold as it had been before, the warmth was welcome. It felt like a heat wave. Luckily, the day of the dance, February 13, fell a day before the storm was supposed to hit. But still, it was something that we had to keep an eye on because it might make guarding Elle and Bryce difficult.

  The day of the dance brought even warmer weather. Bryce and Elle, along with a couple of underclassmen, were busy collecting canned food at the entrance. The lunchroom, which normally was decorated elaborately for Winsor dances, only had a couple of heart decorations here and there. The normal budget for a dance was all donated to the local food pantry to buy food. Elle made sure the dance committee didn’t overspend so they could give the pantry as much as possible. She had a majority of the staff and their spouses there to help. Elle had managed to get Cora to come and help also. She was helping Riley and Genevieve with the auction, which would raise more money. Elle had asked specific teachers and their spouses to volunteer to be part of the Teachers’ Dance Auction. Anyone there could place a bid to dance with a teacher or spouse for one slow song. Genevieve and Riley had agreed to be auctioned off. I felt bad for Riley because I knew that Joy Lemmins would be bidding for him.

  I met up with Eric, who seemed to be in a much better mood, probably because Oliver wasn’t around.

  “Hey, Eric.”

  “This place looks like a dump. Where are the decorations?” He grinned.

  “They are donating the money—”

  “You would think that after two years, Keller, you would know my sense of humor by now. I’m joking.”

  “You sounded so serious this time.” I smiled.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crisp 100-dollar bill. “I am going to bid 100 dollars for a dance with Mrs. Moore.”

  “I was thinking I would do the same,” Chad said, walking up with Matt.

  “Nicholas, is it true you know her?” Matt asked.

  “Know her? She’s a close family friend,” Eric replied, holding up two fingers and crossing them.

  “Cora and I are friends with them,” I hissed.

  “I’m kidding about bidding,” Chad said. “Amber would kill me on the spot. You better watch out, Eric. Livi will do worse than kill you for sure if you win.”

  “No she won’t. I make the rules in this relationship,” Eric said. “And anyway, I am bidding because it’s for a good cause, right?”

  Matt laughed and said, “And the fact that she is hot has nothing to do with it.” They laughed.

  Sure, Genevieve was beautiful, but was she really that incredible? The guys were all collectively gawking at her. Maybe she had the same effect on men that Chase had on women.

  I walked over to the table with the guys and watched Eric and Matt drop their bids into the plastic box that had “Mrs. Genevieve Moore” written on it in bright pink letters with hearts. I left them to search for Elle. She was still stationed at the entrance, but Bryce was gone. I sat down next to her. She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “How’s it going in there?” Elle asked.

  “It’s going great, but Eric wants to know where all the decorations are.”

  “Tell Eric that he can take his wisecracks to a different school.” She grinned, attending to the next person in line.

  “So where’s Bryce?” I asked.

  “He’s taking a quick break. I’m glad I asked him to help, especially after the breakup with Erin. He seems a lot better.”

  “Spending that much time with you would make anyone feel better.”

  She squeezed my leg.

  “Could you check to see how the auction is going? I want to start reading off the winners in about 25 minutes,” Elle said.

  “Will do.”

  Walking toward the auction area, I saw Bryce. He was hovering around the tables, watching people put in their bids.

  “Bryce?”

  “Oh hey, Nicholas, how’s it going?”

  “Pretty good. You sure have done a great job.”

  “Thanks, but I think we both know it’s your wonderful girlfriend who has done a great job. The rest of us are just along for the ride.”

  A half hour later, Elle and Bryce walked through the crowd up to the front of the dance floor with the auction boxes and put them up on the stage where the DJ was set up. Bryce handed the microphone to her and started going through each box, pulling the winners out to give to Elle.

  “Hello, everyone, and thank you for coming to our first ever Valentine’s Day Dance, to help our local food pantry. All of the food and money collected tonight will go to help people who are desperately in need.”

  There was a lot of applause. Then a voice cut through the crowd’s applause.

  “Come on, read the winners.” It was Eric, of course.

  Ignoring him, Elle continued, “I will read the winners and how much the winning bid was for. Once you have won, please make your way up to the side of the stage. After we have read the last winner we will have our auction dance. Good luck.”

  Bryce pulled the first couple of winners out. Some of the boxes had tons of bids and others only had a few. The ones who had a lot of bids slowed down the process because Bryce had to look through every bid to find the winner. They had finally announced almost all of the winners. The last two boxes belonged to Riley and Genevieve. There was excitement in the crowd as they waited for the remaining winners to be announced. Riley’s box was full.

  “And the winning bid for Coach Riley Moore is Cora Keller, with a bid of $350.” Riley must have made sure that Joy Lemmins wouldn’t get that dance. The next box belonged to Genevieve. It was busting at the seams. Bryce looked through each bid, then handed the winning one to Elle.

  “We have saved the best for last.” She looked down at the piece of paper. “This can’t be right,” Elle whispered, but it was still audible over the loud speakers. “The winning bid for Genevieve Moore is Nicholas Keller with a bid of $500.”

  What? I didn’t bid that. When she said my name the audience oohed and then when she said the amount the oohs grew louder. Elle couldn’t see me, but I could see her. Her face was pale. There had to be some sort of mistake.

  “Thank you to everyone who put a bid in. We will start the dance in one minute.”

  She then disappeared from sight off the back of the stage. I went searching for her but she was gone. I saw Bryce and stopped him.

  “Bryce, there has to be some sort of mistake. Let me see that bid.”

  He shook his head, “I went through them twice. There was a bid with your name on it and it had five 100-hundred dollar bills attached to it. I saw it myself and Elle did, too. I can go get it out of the trash if you want?”

  “No. Where did Elle go?” I looked around frantically.

  “Not sure, but she was in a hurry. She told me to make sure I closed everything up and to get all the money to the office after the dance.”

  Why did someone do this to me? I thought.

  I pushed past him into the crowd of people. I had to find her. But where did she go?

  Riley stopped me. “Nicholas, don’t worry about Elle. Cora went after her. You need to give her some time to cool off.”

  “But I didn’t make that bid. Someone else did it. I have to tell her.”

  “It doesn’t matter. The damage is done. Give her some time.”

  The world began to spin out of control around me. Who made that bid? Two people came to mind. One was Genevieve herself and the other was Oliver.

  The music began to play for the auction dance and the DJ said, “And now for a classic from the movie Say Anything, Peter Gabriel’s ‘In Your Eyes.’”

  I turned and Genevieve was right there. She grabbed my hand and led me into the crowd of winners. I couldn’t fight her; I was in shock. She put her arms around me
and pulled me close to her. Everything became still.

  “Did you put in that bid to mess things up with Elle?” I whispered angrily.

  “You didn’t put the bid in for me?” she asked. “I thought you were being kind and making sure I wouldn’t have to dance with one of the perverse students who have been eyeing me like I’m a piece of meat,” she responded.

  “No, of course I didn’t. I would never hurt Elle that way.” I tried to push away, but I couldn’t. My body wanted me to stay with her.

  “Nicholas, even if you didn’t bid on me, it’s nice dancing with you.” She pulled me closer so our bodies were pressed together. I felt uncomfortable with the contact, but at the same time, it was comforting in that moment.

  “Genevieve, I’m glad I got to dance with you. I wouldn’t want you to dance with any of those guys from the school.”

  For the rest of the song we stayed in the middle of the pack of winners, and she kept her body lightly pressed against mine. And all I could think of was Elle.