Manipulated

by Kimberly Montague

  "And what decision have you made?" My heart hammered in my chest.

  He tilted his head and softly, slowly kissed me until I was pulling at his shoulders to bring him closer to me. He pushed me away and laughed. "As much as I'd love to ditch school today and make out with you here, I know you won't go for that, so let's quit while I have the willpower to stop."

  "Can't handle a little kissing?" I teased.

  He narrowed his eyes at me. "Go dry your hair, sunshine."

  When I came back into the room with dry hair and some makeup on, Brodie had kicked off his shoes and pulled his feet up on the bed, lying on his back. He looked absorbed in something on his phone as he held it up in the air.

  I laughed a little at his intense expression. "What are you doing?"

  "Playing a game." He patted the bed next to him, and I crawled up to lie there.

  I watched him for a moment before he put the phone down and abruptly turned to me, planting his lips on mine in a kiss that shocked me like the first time he kissed me. He slid his leg over mine, and my heart started beating too fast. I tried to tell myself to calm down and go with it, but it wasn't working. I was about to push him away when he grabbed my waist and flipped us over, pulling me on top of him. It was weird how that one little move calmed me down, but it made me feel like I could walk away if I wanted to. I didn't—want to, that is—and attacked his sexy lips again.

  When his hands slid underneath my shirt, I didn't stop him, but the melody of his cell phone made me sit up. He leaned up and grabbed his phone.

  Smiling, he said, "Now we really are gonna be late."

  When I tried to move off his lap though, he shook his head and sat up, wrapping his arms around my back and kissing me again. He pulled my hair to the side and kissed my neck as passionately as he'd been kissing my mouth. I was drowning in the tension that every touch from him created.

  The melodically annoying tone from his phone interrupted us again. "Damn it, Sammy." He pulled his phone between us, and we both looked down.

  You'd better get your ass here. Schrader's personally handing out tardy slips.

  I did not like the sound of that. I tried not to care about what my office family would say when I walked in late with Brodie Decker, but I couldn't help but worry about their reactions. I was so worried that words I never thought I'd utter rolled easily off my tongue. "Let's just skip."

  He let his head fall back as he laughed loudly and forcefully. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his shoulder.

  He recovered quickly from my apparently hilarious comment and squeezed me tightly to him. "Now who can't handle a little kissing?"

  "Well, that was more than a little."

  "Mmm-hmm, and not nearly enough, sunshine." He turned on the bed until his feet were on the floor. "I better get you to school before Schrader expels me."

  "I wouldn't let him. He loves me. I'd talk him out of it."

  He stood up, forcing me to wrap my legs around him. "You are innocent, baby. It's because he loves you that he'll go out of his way to get me out of the picture. Be prepared for that. The office doesn't think too highly of me."

  I held onto him tighter and let him carry me downstairs. "Did we perhaps earn that reputation?" I teased.

  He didn't answer until we got to the front door, and he set me down. "What people say about me—it's mostly true, sweetheart. I've done some stupid shit. I still do dumb things."

  "You don't have the market cornered on stupid, Brodie. Everyone messes up."

  He looked surprised and impressed by my comment, but then shook his head slightly. "Just—if you hear something, come talk to me about it before you make a judgment call."

  Wow, he hit pretty close to home with that request. I was wishing my friends had done the same. But obviously, if they'd really been my friends, they would have talked to me before convicting me. I looked away from him. "I've been—judged like that in the past, Brodie. It didn't feel too good. I'm not about to do it to someone else."

  He was quiet as we left Dad's townhouse. We drove into the student parking lot, but there weren't any bodies around, which told me we had to be really late. I was about to jump out and hurry to the office when Brodie grabbed my hand. I turned to him, and his incredibly serious expression made the worry of being late fly from my mind.

  "Are you ever gonna tell me your story, sunshine?"

  Okay, wasn't expecting that. I looked down at his hand on mine. Did I trust him not to judge me? Maybe. Did I feel comfortable telling him all the details? No, absolutely not. Might I someday? I didn't know, and that's all I could say to him. "I don't really know, Brodie."

  He let go of my hand and got out of the truck. I thought he might be mad at me, but when I moved to climb out, he was there holding his arms up to help me down. When my feet touched the asphalt, he pulled me into his chest and kissed the top of my head.

  We got to the office with a small group of students who had cups in their hands and bags of food with them from the fast food place down the way. Brodie let them go in first and put his hand on my shoulder as we walked into the office. Mr. Schrader was sitting at Ms. Gunn's computer while Ms. Gunn sat at my little desk behind him writing out tardy slips.

  I started tugging on my bottom lip, worrying about their reaction to me being late along with Brodie. I almost stepped away from him, thinking it wouldn't be as bad if we weren't late together, but then I turned and looked up into his gray eyes. I felt safe with him. I liked him—a lot. I didn't want to hide that from my office family. If they couldn't see how he made me feel then I could just lump them in with the pile of other people in my life who didn't stand by me.

  I smiled at Brodie, and for some reason, I think he read my mind or something. Maybe it was just because he really could read people well, but he brushed his hand against mine, giving me the opportunity to take it. Smiling, I threaded my fingers through his. I almost poked him because the arrogant smirk on his face was so not going to go over well with Mr. Schrader.

  Ms. Dunn's eyes connected with mine before Mr. Schrader's as I stepped forward, and she smiled at me, shaking her head. "Miss the bus?"

  Uh-oh. I couldn't lie—wouldn't lie. But the details of how I came to be late needed serious editing, or deletion altogether for this audience. "No," I said tentatively, "just late."

  Her eyes narrowed at me, but Mr. Schrader caught sight of me, pulling my attention to him.

  "Risa, why are you late? Have you ever been late?" The surprise in his voice made me feel a little guilty, like I was disappointing him somehow. "Well, it's your first tardy, but two more and you'll get lunch detention. So be more careful."

  "I will Mr. Schrader."

  "Good, now hurry and get to class." He turned to Brodie. "Mr. Decker. Again?"

  Ms. Gunn handed me my pass and raised her eyebrow at me. I watched her eyes drop to my hand still holding Brodie's. I'm not sure I've ever seen eyes get so large before.

  "Yes, sir," Brodie answered over my head before looking down at me. "I'll see you at lunch, sweetheart," he said softly, but loud enough for Ms. Gunn and Mr. Schrader to hear. When I nodded, he pulled my hand to his lips and winked at me.

  Oh man, oh geez. I let go of his hand and peeked at Mr. Schrader as I walked slowly away. His eyes were about the size of Ms. Gunn's. Ms. Gunn's mouth was open wide enough for every fly in the city to get in. I rushed out of there, not looking forward to fourth period.

  Of course, worrying about going back to the office fourth period, made the periods fly by like they never had before. In second period though, I was happy to see Lara waving at me as I walked in. I waved back and took my seat, which unfortunately, wasn't near her. It was still a comfort to know that I had a friend in that class now.

  When the bell for break rang, she rushed over to me and looped her arm through mine. "I'm supposed to bring you to break with me."

  "Where do you go for break?" I asked, unsure of where I was being pulled. I usually just went to third early and ate a g
ranola bar while looking up strange news articles online.

  "We hang out in the quad," she answered.

  I nodded, wondering if "we" included Brodie. I didn't ask though because I was really fine with going just because Lara was going. I didn't need to make my life center around a guy. I didn't totally know Lara yet, but we had a lot in common, and she seemed really loyal to Brodie. She seemed like someone I could become good friends with and that was just so nice.

  She pulled me with her to an empty table in the quad, and we sat down. We talked about the way Ms. Malone always wears her hair up and the stupidity of the assignment we'd just been given about "visualizing our future." Mason was the first to sit down with us. She pulled out a box of pop tarts and tried to get me to take one.

  Lara laughed. "She has money, Risa. She feels guilty about that, so she's always trying to shove food and stuff at us. I swear, her parents must think none of us eat with the load of food they send with her."

  "Mom says I'm a handful, and you guys keep track of me, so she's happy to feed the crew. Oh!" She jumped up and down for a moment before Lara put her hands up, gesturing for her to calm down. "Dad's out of town again and Mom's working the late shift at the hospital on Thursday and Friday. She wants you to come babysit me."

  Lara laughed. "Sure. The weather's great right now, we can have a tanning invitational by the pool." She turned to me. "Why don't you come? She's always got tons of junk food and this slushy machine that's killer. We can float around in the pool and chill."

  It was really nice to be asked to go anywhere, but I wasn't comfortable stripping away my jeans and T-shirt. "That sounds fun, but I don't have a bathing suit."

  Lara put up her right hand. "I swear I'm not exaggerating when I say Mace has a hundred. I always just borrow one of hers."

  "I don't swim." It wasn't an outright lie. I hadn't been swimming in several years, even though I knew how to really well.

  "Oh, I don't swim much, either," Mace said seriously. "The deep end is like really creepy, but you can lay out with us and soak up some sun."

  "Vitamin D is good for the soul," Lara reasoned.

  I was out of excuses. "I don't know."

  "Come on." Mace nudged me in the arm. "It'll just be us girls. You and Lara can come home with me after school on Wednesday and spend the night. It'll be fun. Please? Please? Pretty please?"

  I really wanted to hang out with them. I just wasn't into the bathing suit idea. I was sure I could find a way around it, though. "Okay, I'll come."

  Mace wrapped her arms around me and squeezed tight. "This'll be awesome."

  I patted her arm. "Cutting off circulation, Mace."

  She laughed and let go. She struck me as a very old child, and I wondered if she wasn't a little slow. Not that it mattered to me, and I really liked that it didn't matter to the rest of Brodie's friends or Brodie, for that matter. Anyone the least bit different was ostracized at my old high school and by the people I used to call friends. I'd never been in a position to do the ostracizing, but I felt guilt by association at having gone there.

  I'd lost track of the conversation between Mace and Lara and listened, trying to catch up. Sammy came over and picked Mace up, throwing her over his shoulder as she laughed loudly. Strong hands grasped my shoulders, and I felt someone standing behind me. I leaned my head back to look up into Brodie's sparkling eyes.

  "How'd it go with Mr. Schrader?" I asked, but he only smiled and shook his head. "Well you're still here, so at least he didn't expel you."

  "Sweetheart, those people are very attached to you. That's all I'm gonna say."

  I turned on the bench, and he kneeled down next to me, putting his hand on my knee. "Brodie, you have to tell me more than that."

  Sammy shouted, "Tell her how many offices you were pulled into."

  Brodie put his hand over his eyes and laughed smugly. "I'm sure you'll hear all about it when you go in there."

  I put my hand on his chest. "But I want to hear it from you."

  His smile became so much warmer. "I just got a lot of warnings about not hurting you and being careful with you. They seem to think you break easily." That pissed me off, and I knew he read that on my face because he stopped smiling and leaned closer to me. "They care about you, sunshine. They just don't realize how strong you are."

  No, but they knew my story, or at least the basics of it. I knew Ms. Abbott had given the general details to the administrators and Ms. Gunn. I'd survived all that, did they really think one guy could do more damage than my own family and friends had? And then it hit me, what if Ms. Abbott told Brodie what had happened?

  "What did they tell you?" The fear and panic were so clear in my voice that I had to look away from his widened, almost angry eyes. I cursed myself for getting too comfortable around him and dropping my sarcasm. I pulled in a deep breath and put my chin up. "Well, whatever. It's not like any of it matters." I thought I successfully managed a flippant tone and turned back to listen to what Lara was saying about prom.

  Brodie walked over to stand with Sammy, but I could feel him watching me and see it out of the corner of my eye. I tried to at least look engaged in what Lara and Mace were talking about.

  The bell for third period rang, and I walked with the group. Brodie hung around the back until I veered off to go to Spanish. He caught up to me and draped his arm across my shoulders. When we reached my classroom, he leaned down and kissed my cheek then my earlobe.

  His warm breath tickled my ear. "I don't know what's going on with you. I get why you hide yourself from everyone, but sunshine, you don't need to hide from me. I'll keep saying it until it sinks in."

  "Hey Brodie, is this the flavor of the week?" A tall red-haired guy stopped next to us. I recognized him from my Spanish class—he'd been obnoxious every single day.

  Brodie straightened up and clenched his jaw. "Back off Craig."

  Craig put his hands up in the air and smirked. "You know me, man. I don't jump in until you're through, so just you know, gimme a heads up when you're finished with her."

  Brodie moved so fast I didn't even have time to blink. He shoved Craig against the wall and held him there with one hand. "Stay away from her." If his eyes didn't look seriously deadly, his face sure did. I took a step away from him, not out of fear he'd hurt me necessarily, but because his shift to anger happened so fast I didn't know what to think.

  "Okay, man. I just thought she was like the others. It's cool. I won't go near her."

  Brodie let go of Craig as a teacher came out of her room and down the corridor. "Mr. Decker, I'm giving you two seconds to move to class."

  Craig took off inside the classroom as Brodie closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He turned to the teacher with a tired voice. "I'm goin' Miss Barry, I promise, just gimme a sec." She stayed where she was and watched as Brodie stepped back to me. Very slowly, he lifted his palm to my cheek. "You okay?"

  I gave him a half-hearted smile. "You told me to be prepared for comments like that, but it doesn't look like you did a very good job preparing yourself."

  He let his forehead rest against mine and almost sounded in pain. "I know." He closed his eyes for a moment then stood up straight. "See you at lunch?"

  I nodded. "Unless they lock me in an office until I refuse to see you again."

  He shook his head. "I wouldn't put it past 'em, sunshine."

  I watched him walk away before heading into class then spent most of the period glaring at Craig's back. I walked as slowly as I could to fourth period. When I opened the door to the office, I rolled my head, stretching out my neck then stuck my chin up and put my mask firmly in place.

  Like Jumping Off the High Dive

  Ms. Gunn was on the phone when I set my things down at my little desk, but she gave me a knowing smile with pursed lips, which told me she wasn't just going to let this slide.

  Literally, the second the bell rang to begin fourth, Mr. Schrader threw open his door and looked directly at me. "Risa, I'd like to speak to you for
a moment."

  Here we go, I thought as I got up and went into his office. He pointed to the chairs in front of his desk, and I sat down. I'd never actually been in his office before. It was intimidating. He had nice wooden furniture and several plants, but it felt really doctor's office-ish.

  "Risa, I wanted to talk to you about your new friend, Mr. Decker. I know you haven't been here long, so you haven't had the opportunity to grow up with your classmates. You don't know their histories, and you haven't had time to see how they behave. Because of that, I just wanted to ask you what your impressions are of Mr. Decker and make sure your eyes are open on this one."

  My eyes were plenty open, but I set aside my annoyance at the slightly condescending words and focused on the rest of what he'd said. He hadn't told me to stop seeing Brodie, hadn't launched into a list of everything Brodie had done wrong, hadn't threatened to call and inform my dad—he wanted me to be informed. I took a deep breath and decided to answer his request. "Brodie's incredibly intelligent, funny, protective, and a gentle guy, Mr. Schrader." His face fell, and he got up to lean against the edge of his desk in front of me. When he was comfortable, I went on. "He's also lazy in school, stubborn, thinks he's always right, and does what he wants when he wants to unless he sees a really good reason not to."

  His face perked up at that. "Well. I, uh, good." He moved to the chair next to me and visibly relaxed, stretching his legs out in front of him. He leaned over toward my chair like we were exchanging gossip. "You know I've always thought he was much more intelligent than the effort he puts in. His SAT scores were really high. Maybe you could talk him into focusing a little more in class."

  I almost laughed. This was not what I was expecting. Was he really asking me to use my influence on him to get him to do homework? Aside from influencing him to kiss me, I didn't feel I had anywhere near that amount of sway with him. But I offered, "I can make the suggestion."

  "Excellent." He clapped his hands together and stood up. "Well, that was all. I'm glad we had this little chat."