“Mom, what’re you doing?” I jerked my head away from her touch.
“Oh, sorry honey,” she whispered, coming to, “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just thought that you looked a little feverish when you came home tonight. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine, Mom. Go back to bed.” I rolled toward the wall, turning my back to her, trying to convince myself that she wasn’t doing what I thought she’d been doing. Grace Wells, devoted mother, Pastor’s wife, and bible group leader did not just read my mind.
“Goodnight, my sweet redheaded girl.”
“Goodnight, Mom.”
What in the frickity frack was going on? I pulled my blankets up over my head. So far, sixteen was turning out to be weird and more than I could deal with. Not to mention seriously screwing up my beauty sleep.
Chapter Five
I got up at five and jumped out of bed. I wanted to be the first person in the bathroom. Luxuriating in the hot shower, I smoothed a gigantic dollop of conditioner into my hair and let it linger while I meticulously shaved my legs. I scrubbed my arms, my stomach, the small of my back, and the tops of my feet with jasmine scented body wash. Forget tea rose perfume. This was the way to go.
I stepped from the shower and took two clean, but thin, towels from underneath the sink vanity. Securing one around my body, twisting the other around my hair. It was hard to breathe, the room was so steamy. I yanked open the small window above the toilet, letting the steam escape. I brushed my teeth, plucked my eyebrows, and cleaned my ears. Today, when Avery saw me I was going to look like perfection to him for once. All right, I admit it; I was in love, love, love! Something as momentous as that could cause a girl to go spastically hygienic.
At 6:30 Melody banged on the bathroom door. “Zellie! I have to pee so bad. Let me in.”
I unlocked the door, struggling to turn the knob. I was almost done lotioning up.
Melody burst into the room, pushing me aside. She sat down on the toilet. “What are you doing in here? It smells like freaking Bath and Body Works exploded.”
“Whatever,” I trilled. She was not going to ruin my mood. There wasn’t a thing in the whole universe that was going to bring me down. Okay, I was still practicing some major vision denial, but apart from that, nothing was going to bring me down today. Not when there was more severely hot making out to do!
I unwound my hair from the towel turban and combed through it with my fingers. Let the one hour blow dry commence.
Melody flushed the toilet. She turned on the shower, testing the water with her hand. I’m sure it was lukewarm. “Hey. You used up all the hot water.”
I motioned that I couldn’t hear her over the hair dryer. Nothing is gonna bring me down.
“Stupid Avery Adams,” she hissed at me. “Did you hear that? I said your boyfriend is stoo-pid.” Melody whipped off her nightshirt and hurried into the shower.
The goofiest grin in my repertoire spread across my face. She said my boyfriend was stupid. Yay to the...yay!
We Wells women splintered off to our various Sunday school classes. Mom led the adult Bible study, while Melody went to catechism class to prepare for her upcoming first communion. After your first communion you got to go to youth group, which was where I headed.
I tried to hold back a smile as I descended the stairs to the church basement.
Assistant Pastor Morris was walking around the long wooden table in the middle of the room placing Bibles on every other folding chair.
“Hey Zel, how was the birthday party?” he asked, handing me a Bible. I sat down at the end of the table.
I tried to play it coy. Pastor Morris was only like, twenty-three or something. He hadn’t been an oblivious adult that long. “Oh, you know, as exciting as a party in a church basement can be.”
“Wow, must have been a rager then.” Pastor Morris winked at me and took his usual seat at the other end of the table.
All of the kids that had been at my party the night before began filing in and taking seats around the table. Avery and Jason walked into the room. Jason was kicking him on the back of his calves trying to make him fall down.
“Knock it off man,” Avery said. He looked at me and smiled.
Of course, my face flushed hot pink.
There were three remaining empty chairs situated around the table, two on one side and one on the other. Avery made his way toward the two empty chairs, picking up a Bible off of one seat and sitting down. He put his hand on the seat of the other. He glanced at me.
Crap! How stupid could I be? Why hadn’t I saved him a seat? I was already not being a good girlfriend. Now I was stuck at the end of the table. Pastor Morris was sure to tell Dad if he suspected anything.
Jason flicked Avery on the ear, went around to the other side of the table and sat in the last empty chair.
“Okay. Let’s begin,” Pastor Morris said. “Everyone join hands...”
Claire came running into the room, the wide neck of her black t-shirt hanging off her shoulder, exposing a lime green bra strap. “Sorry! My mom like, totally forgot where she put her car keys and didn’t find them until like, five minutes ago. In the refrigerator of all places!”
She came to a halt next to the table. I could tell she had instantly comprehended my dilemma. “Zellie, be a dear and switch places with me, I am so not in the mood to share a Bible this morning.”
“Sure!” I stood up lightning quick, almost knocking over my folding chair.
Claire crossed her eyes and made a fish face at me as we took our seats. Avery pushed the chair next to him back from the table so that I could sit down.
“Okay, now that everyone has arrived and is hopefully sitting in the chair that they want to be,” Pastor Morris smirked, looking right at me, “let us all join hands and bow our heads in prayer.”
I held Laura Weaver’s hand with the fingertips of my right hand and gripped Avery’s with my left.
“Heavenly father...” Pastor Morris began.
The smell of pine wafted up my nose.
“Zellie...I love...please.”
I studied Avery’s face. His jeans and long sleeve grey t-shirt were coated in blood. Bits of windshield were lodged in his forehead. A huge gash tore back the skin under his left eye.
“I could have prevented this. I could have stopped it.” I heard my older self say as I rocked back and forth, holding onto my very pregnant stomach.
“Amen,” the youth group said in unison.
“Amen,” I added, realizing I’d spaced out again and missed the entire prayer.
After youth group Avery and I stayed in our chairs. Man, I was super duper colossally horrible at this whole girlfriend thing. Plan? What plan? I guess I thought we’d just sit here and everyone would leave and then we would get right on the making out. Ugh.
“I’ll collect the Bibles, Pastor Morris. I know you need to get upstairs.” Avery stood, Bible in hand, and began picking up the other Bibles scattered across the table.
“Thanks, Avery. Zellie can show you where they go. See you guys upstairs.” Pastor Morris shot an amused look at both of us and then made his way upstairs to prepare for the service.
I got to my feet and wiped the palms of my hands down the front of my knee length floral printed skirt. “I’m glad you thought of something,” I said, reaching out and picking up a few of the Bibles that were near me. “I guess I’m not too good under pressure.”
“Yeah, it took me almost all of youth group to come up with this.” He nodded to his stack of Bibles. “You usually put them away? I really don’t know where they go.”
“They go in my dad’s office.” I walked over to the door, looking back at him as I opened it.
Avery followed me into the room, kicking the door closed behind him with his foot. Hot. Can I get an Amen? H-O-T.
“Just set them here.” I pointed behind me to the top of the filing cabinet I just happened to be standing in front of.
Avery leaned past me, his cheek skim
ming mine as he placed the Bibles on the filing cabinet. Pulling back, he gazed into my eyes. The spell of the night before had not been broken.
“You still want to meet at the lake this afternoon?” he said, licking his lips.
“Yes,” I lifted my mouth to his and gave him a quick, sweet kiss, “how are you going to get there?”
He ducked his head. “Um, I have to ride my bike.” Avery pulled back from me a bit.
“Good,” I giggled, leaning in and kissing him again, “I do too.”
He slid his hands down my forearms, grasping my hands in his. He smiled a crinkly-eyed smile at me. “Your skin is so soft. Just like I thought it would be.”
“Thanks.” I smiled back. If I had to get up at five in the morning for the rest of my life and loofah the bejeezus out of myself, it was worth it to hear him say that.
He drew me to him and kissed me once more, and then buried his face in my hair and took a big whiff. It was so good to know we were the same kind of perv.
Reluctantly, he pushed himself away from me. “I’ll see you at three. Meet me by the picnic tables, okay?”
I looked at the big clock on the wall behind my dad’s desk. Crud! We were seriously late for the church service. “Okay. I’ll see you at three.” I pushed him toward the door. “Hurry. Church has started already.”
Chapter Six
It was 2:45. I was for sure going to be late to meet Avery. There was no way I was going to be able to make it home, change out of my church clothes, think of an excuse, and then ride my bike the three miles out to the lake.
Mom eased the minivan into the driveway. Both Melody and I shot out of the car, running through the house and into our room.
“Ick!” Melody said, collapsing on her bed. “I hate visiting sick people. Mom better not ever make me do that again.”
“Yeah, well, she’s being really weird today.” I tore off my church clothes, slinging them over a hanger. “I’m supposed to meet Claire for a hike at the lake in like ten minutes and I’m going to be so late!”
“Bull,” Melody said. She walked to her dresser, taking out a pair of shorts and pulled them on underneath her skirt.
“Bull what, Melody?” I didn’t have the time to fight with or ask my sister for help. I kicked off my dressy white sandals.
“Bull you are meeting Claire at the lake. Everyone in church saw you and Avery coming in late to the service, including Mom.” Melody pushed her skirt off over her shorts, letting it fall to the wood floor.
Mom opened our bedroom door and stuck her head in. “When you two are finished changing, come out to the back yard. I need help weeding the vegetable garden. Melody, pick up your skirt and hang it in the closet.”
“But, Mom,” I began, trying stay calm, “I promised Claire I would meet her out at the lake at three and now it’s too late for me to call her and cancel.”
“She has a cell phone doesn’t she? Call her on that.” She shook her head at me. “You know, you didn’t ask for permission to go anywhere this afternoon. I don’t appreciate that at all, young lady.” Mom drew her head back into the hall and closed the bedroom door.
I couldn’t help it; I threw one of the sandals after her. “Crap! What am I going to do now?”
“I guess you’re going to help me and Mom weed the vegetable garden. You ruined my entire afternoon. I was supposed to be talking to Andy Cook on the phone since 1:30.” Melody picked up the sandal. “But no, Mom thinks there’s something going on and I get dragged along on the sick people visits to keep an eye on you.” She threw the sandal back at me, just missing my head, and then flung the bedroom door open. “I can’t wait to help you weed Mom! Zellie can’t either! What a nice way to spend an afternoon!”
I sunk down to the floor and leaned back against my bed. I hoped Avery wouldn’t be too mad at me. Worst girlfriend ever.
The fumes from the wood stain made Avery dizzy. He was pretty sure that he should be wearing some sort of breathing mask. It was just further proof that his father enjoyed torturing him. He slapped the paintbrush against the porch railing.
On a pissed off scale of 1-10 he figured Zellie was going to be about an 8. Their first kinda sorta date and instead of kissing her and talking to her and kissing her some more, here he was sweating his butt off, asphyxiating in the sun with his dad. Worst boyfriend ever.
“Make sure you get the stain in there real good. This isn’t the time to be doing a half-assed job.” His dad stood over him. “Okay...that’s better. Good job.”
Did his dad just give him a compliment? He was up to something.
The Adams men worked on staining the front porch for over an hour before his dad spoke. “Son, what were you doing with Zellie Wells during church today?”
Avery became intent on the railing he was working on. “Nothing, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His dad set his paintbrush down, then took him by the shoulders, looking into his eyes. “You both came into the service late at the same time this morning. You have to be careful around her.”
“Why?” Avery asked, backing out of his father’s grip.
This time when his dad grabbed him by the shoulders, it was not so gently. “Listen, this is for your own good. Break things off with her now before you get in too deep.”
“Dad, I like her, she likes me, that’s it. I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal out of this.” Avery resumed working on his railing.
“I don’t want you to get hurt like...I need to keep you safe.”
Avery was really confused, where was all of this coming from? Then he remembered how his Dad had behaved with Zellie’s mom at the birthday party. Was he jealous? “We’re not you and her mom, y’know.” His dad blinked hard, taken aback. That was it. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t be with her, when you can’t seem to be without Mrs. Wells.” He tightened his grip on his paintbrush handle. “Don’t think the entire town hasn’t noticed how embarrassing you two are with each other.”
“You will do as I say because I’m your father and I said so. That’s reason enough.” He let go of Avery’s shoulders, looking at him with a glimmer of sadness in his eyes.
“Can we just finish staining the deck? I have a lot of homework to do.” Avery turned away from his dad, more determined to be with Zellie than ever.
Sitting on his bedroom floor with his back against his bed, Avery pulled his shirt out from his chest and sniffed it. Great, he totally reeked of wood stain. He dialed Zellie’s phone number, hoping she wasn’t too mad at him for not showing up at the lake.
Pastor Paul answered the phone. “Hello?”
“Hi, uh, is Zellie there?”
“Who’s calling?”
“It’s Avery Adams, sir.”
“Oh, Avery, hi, Zellie’s mom has her doing hard labor out in the garden. Can I take a message?”
Wonderful, so it wasn’t just him being imprisoned by his parents? What were they up to? “No, that’s okay. I’ll see her at school tomorrow. Thanks, um, bye.”
“Bye.”
Later that night he lay in bed fully clothed, listening for his parents. He’d heard his dad turn off the eleven o’clock news about a half hour before. They were sure to be asleep by now.
He crept from his bed, inching open his bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway. The wood floorboards creaked beneath him. This would have been so much easier if he could’ve fit through his bedroom window. He made his way to the garage, opened the side door and wheeled his bike out to the street before getting on it. He looked back at his house, everything was dark and still.
Riding his bike at this time of night was peaceful. All the houses were quiet, only a few had their TV’s on, the light strobing though sheer curtains. The park by Zellie’s house was empty, so much calmer when there weren’t any kids in the sandboxes or on the swings. Avery noticed that they had reached the time of year when the city left the fountain flowing constantly. The night was hushed enough for him to hear the water cas
cading from the cherub’s pitchers into the pool below.
He parked his bike at the end of the Wells’ gravel driveway and made his way around the side of the house.
Walking down the length of it, he ran his hand along the siding to balance himself in case he tripped over something in the dark. Standing to the side of what he thought was Zellie’s bedroom window; he tapped his fingers on the glass.
Someone was shaking me. “Zellie, wake up!” Melody whispered, “Avery’s at the window.”
“What?” I opened my eyes. I was clutching my belly. I’d been dreaming his vision.
“Avery’s at the window, Zel. He wants to talk to you.” Melody backed away and pointed outside. Avery waved at me.
I got up and opened the window. “Hey,” I said, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. God, I must look horrible! Not to mention the fact that I was wearing my Minnie Mouse night shirt. The embarrassment, it seemed, would never end.
He stuck his head into the room and gave me a quick kiss on the mouth. “Hey, can you come with me somewhere?”
I looked at Melody sitting on her bed watching us like we were in a movie. “Right now?” I wanted nothing more than to go with him, but I was also afraid of getting grounded for the rest of my life.
Avery looked to Melody. “You’re not going to say anything, are you Mel?”
“Not if Zellie gives me her allowance for the next two weeks, I won’t.” Melody spit on her hand and stuck it out to me.
I spit on my hand and shook Melody’s. “Deal.”
The excitement of what I was about to do was thrilling. I grabbed a pair of jeans from the closet and pulled them on under my night shirt. I debated for about two seconds whether I should put a bra on, but decided I couldn’t be incognito enough to get it on with Avery standing right there. I was thankful for my nice little B-cups for once in my life. I slipped on my flip flops and then went to the window, trying to figure out the best way to climb through it without making too much noise.
Zellie Wells Trilogy Page 5