by Genna Denton
Kelly bit her lip, wishing she could think of something encouraging to say, but instead, she found herself grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him out the side entrance of the school. “I know what you need.”
Kelly gave him a small smile as she shut the door behind her and looked around for teachers. When she saw no sign of adults, she reached into her purse and pulled out her pack of cigarettes. She handed him one and took one herself, then lit them both up.
Alex took a long drag and exhaled deeply, then coughed. “I haven’t had one of these since we broke up,” he said with a laugh.
“I’m a bad influence.”
“I don’t think there’s anything bad about you,” Alex said, looking down at the ground.
Kelly smiled a little. “Well, you don’t know me like you used to.” Alex looked her directly in the eye, giving her a small smile. “I think I do. I’ll always know you, Kel.”
***
Carmen wasn’t sure how she’d meet up with Cole for lunch. He’d never mentioned it and she hadn’t thought to ask. But when she left her classroom after the lunch bell rang, there he was.
Leaned against the lockers just across the hall, with one foot propped up against the locker and his hands stuffed in the pockets of his hoodie, he looked even hotter than she remembered.
She was so nervous she didn’t know what to say. So she just stared like an idiot as he pushed off the locker and walked toward her with a grin on his face.
“Hey,” he said, stopping in front of her, his gaze never leaving her face.
“Hi,” she said, and she hated how young she sounded. She’d never been on a date before—not even a lunch one.
“I figured we could ditch this joint and go for a walk.” He nodded in the direction of the front door. “Sound okay?”
Leaving campus during lunch was against the rules—except for the seniors—but Carmen didn’t really care. It was actually kind of exciting to slip out with the rest of the senior class, wondering if they were going to get caught. Once outside, Cole swung his backpack around, still keeping it on his shoulder, and dug inside it. He pulled out an open bag of chips and then let his bag fall to rest against his back again.
He held the bag out to her, offering her a bite, but she shook her head. “I’m allergic to barbeque.”
He laughed, as if she might be joking. Then he shrugged and popped a few in his mouth. “Sorry if I embarrassed you earlier.”
“It’s okay. I mean, you didn’t. It was funny.” Stuffing her hands in her back pockets, she was afraid she’d sounded ridiculous and childish. Then she scolded herself for worrying too much. Then she worried she’d gone too long without speaking—and then she realized how exhausting her thought process was.
“What kind of music do you listen to?” he asked, pulling his iPod out of his hoodie’s pocket.
“Um...I don’t, not really.”
They were coming up on the park, and he turned, leading her down the rocky path. “You don’t listen to music?” he asked, looking shocked. “How do you survive?”
“Survive what?”
“Life.” He plopped down on the bench to a picnic table and dropped his backpack to his feet. “I get really grouchy if I can’t escape into a musical world for awhile.”
“That makes sense.” She sat next him, setting her bag next to his. “I’ve never really paid much attention to music.”
“Try listening to this and tell me if you don’t fall in love.” Grinning at her, he brushed her hair back and tucked the other headphone into her ear. It gave her chills to be touched like that. The heavy metal sound of the song filled her ear. It amazed Carmen how one song could sound so loud but quiet, so hard but soft, so annoying but so beautiful all at the same time. So much pain was in the singer’s voice. She felt herself feeling sorry for him as the man sang about wanting to die. Or maybe it was about a drug overdose? She couldn’t keep up, because more intriguing than the song was how Cole rhythmically tapped his foot to the beat, how his eyes seemed to radiate with happiness while the music played. A song about dying and depression made him happy? She didn’t get it, but she didn’t want to disappoint him either.
“So, what do you think?” he asked, his eyes almost twinkling in anticipation as he stopped the song once it began to fade out.
“You’re right,” she said, looking over at him. “I’m definitely falling.”
Chapter Four: Hero
Ryder walked down the hall of Westview High, holding a textbook and notebook down by his side. He said hi to various people who would wave and say hey to him.
His reputation had sure changed since he turned his life around. He’d gone from rebel-without-a-cause—sitting in the back of the class when he rarely decided to go, sneaking outside to grab a cigarette, pulling the fire alarm just to watch people squirm—to Knight Ryder, everybody’s hero. Now he was always on time for class, stopped fights instead of started them, and he hadn’t smoked one cigarette since he met Meagan.
Meagan. She was one mystery he just couldn’t figure out. She was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen, with long red hair that hung down to the small of her back. Not the bright, annoying firecracker red, it was more like a deep red with light blonde highlights. Ryder was certain her big green eyes could see straight through his soul, and she was tall for a girl. Standing about 5’6 or 5’7, she fit perfectly under his arm.
He wondered if she had feelings for him, or if she was just being friendly. One thing was for sure; he loved the way she called him Knight Ryder. Normally, it made him cringe—he didn’t think of himself as a hero—but he’d gladly be her hero any day.
As he walked past the cafeteria, he heard what sounded like a fight. With a small feeling of dread and duty, he rushed into the room to find Shane Rivers getting into another fistfight with one of the geekier students at Westview. Ryder recognized the geek—Taylor, a quiet guy who never bothered anybody.
A crowd surrounded them, cheering on the fight. Taylor was trying to walk away, but Shane’s crew had him surrounded. There was a lunch tray and spilled food on the floor. It looked like Shane knocked the tray out of Taylor’s hands.
“What’s going on in here?” Ryder asked, his voice ringing out above the sounds of the crowd.
“Get out of here, Brunette,” Shane said sharply. “This has got nothing to do with you!”
Ryder strutted further into the circle. “Always the troublemaker, huh, Rivers?” Ryder said as he set his books down on the edge of the closest table. “Back off, Taylor doesn’t want to fight you.”
Ryder was sick of Shane and his crew causing trouble everywhere they went. Ninety percent of the fights Ryder broke up involved Shane in some way or another. Ryder put his hand on Taylor’s chest and gave him a small push to get him away from Shane, then stepped into his place.
“Can I help you?” Shane said sarcastically.
“Just stop acting like an immature goof,” Ryder said; his voice was calm and collected. Shane’s friends surrounded Ryder, drawing the circle in tighter. “Look,
I don’t want any trouble. I just want you guys to stop acting like a bunch of Neanderthals.”
The cafeteria was silent now. The smallest sound of a pin drop would’ve sounded loud and all eyes were on him.
Shane patted Ryder on the arm. “Whatever you say, man.”
He turned to walk away and then swirled back around with his fist flying to strike Ryder. But Ryder didn’t miss a beat. Without effort or hesitation, he brought his hand up and caught Shane’s fist in mid air, then gave his arm a twist until he had it pinned behind his back. Shane struggled against him, growing angry, but Ryder just tightened his grip.
“Those who can’t take the heat,” Ryder said in Shane’s ear, “should get outta the kitchen. Don’tcha think?”
Ryder could hear Shane’s teeth grind under the embarrassment of being emasculated in front of everybody. But he nodded, keeping his stony gaze straight ahead.
Ryder let go of Shane’s ar
m but prepared for another attack. Instead, Shane straightened out his clothes with a jerk and scowled at Ryder as he walked away.
The entire cafeteria burst into applause. Ryder pushed up the sleeves of his brown hoodie and blew out a hard breath with a smile. He picked his books up off the table and left the cafeteria.
“Ryder,” he heard from behind him. Turning, he spotted Kay and Zander coming toward him. Kay and Zander were cool; they didn’t stick their noses into everyone’s drama and pretty much kept to themselves. He’d known them for a while; while they weren’t the kind of friends to hang out on weekends together, they talked in the halls a little.
“Hey guys, what’s up?” Ryder asked.
“You were awesome in there!” Kay said. Ryder smiled. “Seriously, look around, you’re like a rock star.”
“Yeah, man, when you gonna get your own comic book?” Zander added.
“I’m just keeping the peace,” Ryder said as he held his hands in the air, palms facing up. He smiled as he started to back away. “I’ll catch ya later.”
Ryder continued to smile to himself as he walked down the hall; for the first time since he started going to group therapy, he couldn’t wait for the meeting tonight, because Meagan would be there.
***
Daphne took a deep breath, trying to ease her nerves as she stood in front of her support group. “I hope everybody is doing okay today,” she started. “With Alex here now, I felt the need to rearrange our back-up buddy system a little.”
The teens exchanged anxious glances. “Don’t panic,” she assured them. “I know some of you guys have gotten close…and that’s good. It’s important to make friends here. I’m going to partner Alex with Kay, and Carmen, that leaves you with me…I hope that’s okay with you.”
Carmen shrugged. “Fine with me.”
The arrangement really had nothing to do with Alex. She’d grown worried about the changes in Carmen’s weight and the darkening circles under her eyes. She wanted to keep a closer eye on her. “Great. Now, I want to give you guys an assignment with your back-up buddy,” Daphne said, then she noticed Alex raised his hand. “Yes, Alex?”
“What’s a back-up buddy?”
“Oh,” Daphne said, remembering she’d never explained it to him. “I’m sorry. A back-up buddy is kind of like a sponsor. You can call her if you’re having trouble and vise versa.”
Alex nodded. “Gotcha,” he said. Daphne handed him a leather bound journal. “What’s this?”
“It’s a journal,” she said with a smile. “I want you to try and write at least one entry a week, but don’t worry. Nobody will see it but you. Okay, so…your first project with your buddy is to spend the day with them. Tomorrow being Saturday, it’s the perfect opportunity. I also want each of you to get answers to at least five of these questions.” She held up a sheet of paper. “There are twenty questions altogether. You don’t have to answer them all, but if you want to, by all means go ahead.” She handed the stack of papers to Kelly because she was sitting next to her. Kelly took one and passed them down. “Would anybody like to say anything?”
“My sister and I agreed to try and make things run smoother,” Carmen spoke up, her voice soft and quiet.
“That’s great!” Daphne said. “I’m very glad.”
“Alex freaked out in class today,” Meagan said, leaning over her crossed legs.
Alex shot her a dirty look. “Shut your mouth,” he snapped. “It’s none of your business.”
“Because there must’ve been some reason that bothered you so much,” Meagan began.
Alex crossed his arms over his chest.
“I’m just trying to help.”
He gave her a dirty look. “I don’t need your help. You’re way more screwed up then I am. You just let Lena and Seth bad mouth you. You know they told the whole school you’re a slut, right?” Alex shot back.
“Yeah, I got the message in big, red letters across my locker. Thanks for advertising it here,” Meagan said, obviously upset.
Whoa! Daphne thought. Who were Lena and Seth? Someone tagged Meagan’s locker? Why was Alex trying to hurt her? Daphne figured it was a deflection technique, but still, it needed to stop.
“You started it,” Alex said.
“Hey, that’s enough, leave her alone,” Ryder spoke up. “You can’t talk to her like that. She was just trying to help.”
“Okay, everybody calm down,” Daphne said. “Alex, do you want to talk about what happened in class today?”
“Not really,” he mumbled.
Daphne turned her gaze to Meagan. “Meagan, who is Seth?”
Meagan crossed her arms and looked down at the big area rug. “Just a guy.”
“Ah-ha and this guy tagged your locker?”
“I don’t really wanna talk about it,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Of course not, Daphne thought, that’d be way too easy. All she wanted to do was help, but she was starting to think she was in over her head. She made a mental note to talk to Brett about coming to group more. Daphne wasn’t afraid to ask for help when she needed it.
***
Meagan and Ryder walked down the hall to his apartment. He was swinging the keys back and forth between his hands. He kept thinking about the big, fancy house that he’d dropped her off at just a few days ago. This was a dump compared to that. He wondered if Dave, his foster father, would behave while Meagan was there or if he should not invite her in. Dave was an okay guy, but he had a tendency to come on to anyone who wore panties instead of boxers. The house was usually a mess, with yesterday’s meals still on the stove and dishes in the sink, but Ryder wasn’t there enough to care. Dave got a check every month for taking Ryder in, and Ryder stayed out of Dave’s way, that was there unspoken agreement. Meagan’s sweet voice broke through his thoughts.
“So this is where you live?” she asked.
“Yeah…it’s kind of a step down from Bennett Avenue, but….ya know, it’s this month’s home.” He gave her a grin, hoping to hide his nerves. Then wondered if what he said sounded a bit judgmental, or too self-pitying, or...
“That’s not what I meant,” Meagan said, looking down at her hands. Ryder noticed they were shaking a little bit and she kept looking behind her. Why was she nervous? She must have noticed him looking because she stuffed them in her back pockets.
“You can wait outside. I just need to get our helmets and I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Helmets?”
Ryder winked at her and disappeared into the apartment. He returned a few minutes later holding two motorcycle helmets.
“I hope those are because we’re going rollerblading.” Meagan laughed. Ryder laughed at her and they began to walk back down the hall toward the exit.
“Come on. Let me show ya my baby.” Ryder walked next to her down the long hall, down the stairs, then out the front door. “It’s this way,” he said, turning the corner. He walked up to a black Harley Davidson with blue trim.
“It’s a beauty, but I only take rides from things that have at least four wheels.”
“Come on, they don’t call me Ryder ‘cause I’m good in bed…well, actually…” He laughed. He climbed onto the motorcycle and reached for her hand. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Her eyes met his for a moment, and then she reluctantly took his hand and climbed onto the back of his motorcycle. She fastened her helmet and took a deep breath.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Meagan whispered.
“You’ll want to hold on,” Ryder added.
“Hold on?”
He reached behind himself to her, gently grabbed her hands, and wrapped them around his waist. He tried to ignore how good it felt.
“Oh right, of course.” A nervous chuckle escaped her lips.
“Okay, you ready?” He started up the motorcycle and Meagan’s grip tightened around his waist. He smiled. I like this already, he thought. He hit the gas and the motorcycle squealed out of its parkin
g space. She gasped and buried her head against his back.
***
Kay paced nervously back and forth in front of her front door. She looked at her watch—four o’clock. She wished Alex would hurry up and get there. Why, why did she agree to him picking her up here? She prayed for Alex to get there before her dad came back from the liquor store. When she heard a car pull up, she looked out the window, grateful to see Alex’s red Corvette. She grabbed her purse and darted out the door, hoping to hurry up and leave before Alex had a chance to come in.
“Hey,” she said jogging out to the car as Alex climbed out of the driver’s side door. “Let’s go.”
“Oh,” Alex said. “You’re in a hurry.”
He climbed back into the car and started the engine. Kay looked behind her as he backed out. That’s when she saw her dad’s pickup truck pull into the driveway. “Oh shit.” She didn’t mean to say it out loud, but it slipped out.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked, coming to a stop.
No, don’t stop, she thought frantically. “My dad…I was hoping to leave before he got here.”
“Oh, sorry, want me to bolt? He won’t be able to catch us,” Alex said with a smile.
“No.” Kay reluctantly opened the door. “I’d better just take care of it now.” She turned back to Alex. “Hey, don’t say anything about group okay?”
He nodded.
“Hey, Daddy.”
“Kaytlin, where do you think you’re going?” Roger said.
Kay was thankful that he didn’t seem drunk yet. “I have to study for biology…this is Alex, my lab partner,” she said, motioning to the car.
“Studying? On a Saturday afternoon?” He leaned into the open passenger window. “Where are you taking my daughter?”
Kay closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip, praying Alex would say something to help her. “We’re going to the Southport Observatory. They have a special show tonight on the different galaxies, and we’re gonna get an inside look at a red giant, sir.”
Kay was shocked. Damn, she thought, that was one hell of lie off the cuff.
Roger grumbled. “Fine, have her back by ten.”