by Tom Twitchel
As dances go, I guess it was okay. I had no way to judge, it was my first. Music is a super subjective thing, but I thought most of it was okay. My moves on the dance floor shall remain private. I was thankful that Justine was a good sport. Maddy and Baffle danced twice, both fast songs, with Maddy politely declining to slow dance with him. I saw him check off on Gabby several times during the evening. I doubted if she even knew he was there.
Justine dragged me out on the floor for the last song. A lot of people had left for private parties so there weren’t many kids on the dance floor and since it was a slow song the mosh pit style of group thrashing that had gone on most of the night was replaced by a more easily chaperoned pattern. She snuggled into me and put her arms low around my waist. Every time we turned, I saw Maddy’s eyes on us and Baffle tuning into what she was looking at. You didn’t need a knack to read that he was pissed.
The ride home wasn’t awkward. It was painful. The only conversation that took place was between Maddy and Justine and to say it was friendly would be a stretch. Civil maybe, but not friendly. Justine, who was leaning against me in the backseat, kept most of her answers short and to the point. Maddy was relentless; she talked all the way to Justine’s, which was our first stop.
I got out and opened her door for her and walked her to the front door of her parents’ house.
“Thanks, Benny. I had a really good time,” she said smiling coyly at me.
“Well, thanks for inviting me and putting up with my two left feet.”
We stood there awkwardly for a second or two and then Justine moved into me, threw her arms around my shoulders and laid one on me, on the mouth, right there in front of God, Maddy and Baffle. If they hadn’t been in the car just a few feet away I might have enjoyed it, but because I could feel their eyes boring into the back of my head, I was distracted and it was over before I knew it.
She gave me another brief hug and slipped into her house.
That just left me with the short, uncomfortable walk back to the car.
When I got in Baffle gave me a leering smile. “Nice going Romeo.” He snickered. It seemed like he had picked up some rude habits from his new friends.
“Stop it, Baffle,” Maddy said. She sat facing front and didn’t turn around when I slid into the backseat.
“Whatever. At least somebody got their groove on tonight,” Baffle said.
Now, I was irritated. “Shut up, man. You don’t even know what that means.”
He made a rude sound under his breath and we drove on to Maddy’s house in silence. There wasn’t much about that ride that wasn’t unpleasant. Baffle drove fast and a little recklessly, which caused Maddy to snap at him several times to slow down. When we finally got to her parents’ condo building she got out before Baffle could unbuckle and get to her side of the car. He followed her up the steps to the brightly lit entrance, hustling to get there to open the door for her. She turned, gave him a brief hug and started to turn away when he reached out and grabbed her clumsily. He leaned forward to kiss her and she pushed him back with both hands—hard. I couldn’t hear what she said, but it was obvious she was mad and he was too. She spun on her heel pulled open the door and flounced inside. Baffle stood for a second staring at the door as it closed. The whole thing reminded me of Gabby embarrassing him in the parking lot at school. From his body language, it looked like that’s what it reminded him of too.
Stomping back down the stairs he wrenched open his door and slammed it shut after he got behind the wheel. I was still in the backseat.
“Hey, hang on and I’ll get up front with you,” I said.
He threw the car into gear and pulled out into traffic before I could even get my hand on the door.
“I don’t want you up here with me. I’m pissed at you!” he shouted.
“Me? What did I do? You’re the one who’s been behaving like an ass,” I snapped.
“Seriously? Really? Like your date was checking me out the whole night?”
Uh oh. “Maddy wasn’t…”
“Shut up! All she did all night was watch the two of you and talk to Justine. We danced twice and she wouldn’t even slow dance with me!”
I needed to head off where this conversation was going. “Baffle, you’re not giving Maddy any credit. She went with you, not me. She went with you so that Gabby would see that you don’t need her.”
“What? This was like a pity date? Oh, that’s awesome. She goes out with me because she feels sorry for me and so she can keep an eye on you. Perfect!”
He slammed on the brakes and the car skidded to a stop and jumped the curb.
“Holy crap, Baff…you…”
“Get out!” he screamed.
“What? Look, I’m not getting out. Do you know where we are? It’s like a…”
“Get out!” he screamed again. His voice cracked and it sounded like he was about to cry.
“Baffle, don’t do this man. I live over forty minutes away on foot,” I said quietly, trying to calm him down.
He’d lost whatever slippery grasp he’d had on his temper. “Get out; GET OUT; GET OUT!”
He unlocked the doors. I put my hand on the door handle.
“This is a game breaker Baff.”
I took off my seatbelt and opened my door. He sat looking out through the windshield, not looking back.
“You leave me out here, I’m not going to forget it, Baff.”
I slid out of the seat and got out on the side of the road. He pulled away, the door slamming shut on its own as he sped off without saying another word.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Maddy. She didn’t pick up. Like any kid our age, her phone was practically glued to her hand; she just didn’t want to talk to me. I texted her and told her what Baffle had done.
No response.
Nice.
I called Mr. Goodturn and didn’t get an answer there either and he didn’t text so I left him a message. I flipped on the GPS on my phone and punched “home” for directions back to my building.
Forty-four minutes. Even better.
Saturday night, after ten o’clock, fifteen years old and out on the street by myself. Well, I’d been there before, and I’d been two years younger too. Thinking about that didn’t make me feel any more confident. I couldn’t believe he’d dumped me. It was going to take me a long time to get over it. A couple of colorful words streamed through my head. I might have said a couple of them aloud.
I walked for about ten minutes when I became aware of somebody following me. A great story would be how I swirled around, put my hands on my hips and demanded an accounting from my would-be assailant.
Yeah. That would be a good story.
My heart was thudding away and my knees were shaking as I picked up speed. The footsteps behind me kept pace. I tried to invoke my camouflage knack, but I was too upset to access it the right way. As fast as my leg would allow, I ran to a corner that had a streetlamp overhead that cast a large cone of yellow light on the street. The corner was at the bottom of a residential neighborhood on a steep grade with a large concrete retaining wall that screened us from view in two directions. Breathing heavily through my mouth, I stopped and looked behind.
He was under six feet tall, slender and wearing dark clothes. Moving funny, in a jerky hesitant way, his hands and arms kept fluttering around in a random pattern. A tweaker, that’s just what I needed, some brain-addled druggie trying to roll me for whatever money I had on me. When he got closer, I could see that he was wearing a ratty jean jacket and black sweatpants. Stopping about ten feet away, he sized me up and smiled. His grin said it all, “easy pickings.”
“What you doing out here all by your lonesome kid?” he said. His voice was thin and reedy.
“My parents live right up this street,” I panted.
“Nah. Nah. You don’t live around here. That house,” he pointed at the house on the corner, “is empty. And there ain’t nobody that lives around here that
would have a kid your age anyway.” He twitched his shoulders and the fingers on his right hand moved rapidly.
I sucked in my breath and tried to calm my nerves. “Look, just leave me alone. I don’t want any trouble.” My hand went into my pants pocket and I drew out what I had put in there before I’d left home for the dance.
“Trouble? Trouble, trouble, trouble. No trouble. Jus” hand over your wallet, or whatever you got and we can both get on with our business.” He looked suspiciously at what I had in my hand.
“I don’t have much money on me, and I’m not giving it to you,” I said, my teeth chattering slightly.
“Oh, no? You just better think on that for a second. “Cause if you don’t give me somethin’ in about two seconds, I’m gonna take it off you.” He rolled his shoulder and shook his arms loosely at his sides. He looked like someone who was getting ready for a race.
I grabbed a metal card off the deck in my hand and flicked it at him, using my knack to direct it at his chest. My nerves must have messed up my aim because it hit his jacket and fell to the sidewalk with a light twanging rattle.
He flinched and cursed at me, then looked at the card on the ground. He started laughing. I flicked two cards in rapid succession. The first one caught him in the forehead and stuck there. The second one hit his hand and then fell to the side. Waving his arms wildly, he swore at me, swiped at the card sticking out of his forehead and knocked it away. Looking at his hand, he turned it over and frowned at the blood trickling from the back of it where I’d hit it, and then at the palm where he had smeared blood from the wound in his forehead.
“What the…” he reeled off some more profanity and then glowered at me. “You little piece of…”
“Leave me alone and I won’t hurt you again!” I snarled, more out of fear than anger.
“Leave you alone? Oh, I’m gonna…”
Snapping off three cards, I hit him with two, the third sailing past his left ear. One stuck in his hurt hand and made him howl like a wounded dog. The other stuck in his shirt in the middle of his chest. In pain, but now really pissed off, he started running toward me. I dropped the cards and reached under my jacket as he barreled into me, knocking me to the ground. My face scraped along the sidewalk and fiery pain burned along my cheek. I jerked my right hand free, shoved the stun gun into his armpit and pulled the trigger. He flew off me and lay on the sidewalk convulsing and then he was still. His jacket lay open and I could see the two of spades sticking in his chest with a small red stain spreading on his dirty gray shirt.
Gasping for air, I got to my knees and then to my feet. We were the only people on the street. I picked up my cards except for the one in his chest and put the stun gun back in its holster under my jacket. I started shaking so bad I almost fell down again without any help—adrenaline. Fumbling for my phone, I woke up the screen so I could see what time it was and how much farther I had to go. Almost ten thirty and over a half hour from home. Looking down at him, I could see his chest rising and falling. I didn’t know how long he’d be out, but I wasn’t going to hang around and find out. Putting my hand to my face, I touched my cheek and pulled it back, my hand bloody. Score one for the crazy team. My face throbbed. Perfect, I thought. Zipping up my coat I began climbing the hill up into the dark. Every attempt at manifesting my camouflage was met with a flickering of patterns and colors and then nothing. Apparently, struggling with an adrenaline rush and pain short-circuited that knack. Lame.
I’d gone maybe a mile when a car approached from the opposite direction. It slowed down and the driver’s window rolled down.
“Benny? That you?” It was Maddy’s uncle, Ty.
“Yeah. Can you take me home?” I asked.
He stopped the car and pointed to the rear door. “Get in here, dude.”
When I opened the door, I saw Maddy sitting in the front passenger seat. She opened her door, got out and climbed into the back with me.
Ty looked at us in the rearview mirror. “A little too much excitement tonight, huh? No monkey business back there you two. This is a PG-rated vehicle.”
“Uncle Ty, just shut up,” Maddy growled. She turned to look at me and her eyes widened when she saw my face.
“Did Baffle do that?” she whispered.
“No. Some tweaker tried to mug me,” I said. I found a perverse joy in sharing that little tidbit with her.
Her finger lightly brushed at my cheek, and although it stung, I didn’t pull away.
“What happened?” she asked. I could feel fear pulsing through her.
“Not much. I was walking home. He tried to mug me and I zapped him with my stun gun,” I said. I’m not gonna lie; I was proud of myself. No more being a victim.
She drew in her breath sharply. “You had that with you tonight? On a date?”
“It wasn’t a date,” I sighed.
She leaned close to me and put her lips to my ear.
“What am I going to do with you? You get into more trouble than anyone I know. And don’t think that just because you went and got yourself scratched up that I’m not still mad at you—because I am.”
Then she linked her arm in mine and leaned against me.
At that moment, I wasn’t in any great hurry to get home.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
By the time Monday rolled around my face had scabbed over and hurt less. I didn’t see Baffle in the parking lot and that was okay with me. He was going to have to come crawling back and beg me to forgive him. Not likely.
When I slid into my seat, Mrs. Sayles frowned at me, probably noticing my cheek. Justine came in with a group of girls, all of them talking and giggling, and then sat down next to me.
Her eyes widened when she looked at my face. The color of her eyes looked strange to me, like not so brown anymore, darker somehow. Was that new?
“What happened to you?” she asked.
“Long story. I can tell you at lunch,” I said. Why hadn’t I noticed her eyes being that color on Saturday night?
“I have band practice during lunch period today. Seriously, Benny, what happened? Are you okay?” she reached across the aisle and touched my arm.
“Yeah, I’m good. It’s really a messed up story. Baffle got mad after we dropped you and Maddy off. He kicked me out of his car way out in Queen Anne. Some druggie jumped me.”
She made a small sound and her mouth opened in surprise. “He left you there?”
“Yeah, but I got home okay.”
“Benny you should have called me.”
Where had I heard that before? I needed to change the subject.
“Uh, yeah, but I’m fine. Hey, so what happened to your eyes? Is that color from new contacts?”
Looking down at her desk, she wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Do you think they’re ugly?”
“No, of course not. How does that happen though? I didn’t know that eye color could change.”
Glancing shyly at me, she gave me a good look. Definitely darker and a weird shade I couldn’t define. “It’s the weirdest thing. Last week I started getting these headaches and my eyes started changing color. I’ve been in for tests and they’ve ruled out most of the dangerous stuff, but they haven’t figured it out yet. Do you hate it?” She asked, clearly upset.
“No. Seriously, you’re just as pretty as you’ve always been. But, I didn’t notice it at the dance. Is it new?”
She smiled and shook her head. “No, I wore colored lenses to the dance because I was self-conscious about it, but I couldn’t find one this morning so I’m wearing my old pair. Are you sure you aren’t creeped out by it?”
Smiling to reassure her I said, “No, and don’t ask me again. I’ll think you’re just fishing for more compliments.”
Her smile widened, showing a lot of teeth. “You are so sweet!”
Mrs. Sayles’ Boston accent cut through the air and we turned around in our seats. Justine smiled at me throughout class. I couldn’t get over her eyes.
When class was over, she walked out with me
and squeezed my hand before we went our separate ways. Munger suddenly appeared at my elbow.
“That’s real cute. You two hooking up?” he leered.
Stopping to face him, I took a step back so that there was some room between the two of us.
“Get away from me Munger. You want to get on video again?” I said angrily.
His eyebrows furrowed and his mouth drew into a snarl. “Don’t tell me what to do! We’ve been laying off, but it’s coming, Brown. We’re nailing you. You just won’t know when.”
I could feel righteous anger rising inside of me. “I’m not afraid of you Munger, and I know about Witkowski getting kicked out of school, again. You mess with me one more time and I’ll make you sorry.”
“You…you’ll make me sorry?! I’ll…” he took a step toward me.
“What’s going on here…gentlemen?” asked Mr. Conroy. We’d been so focused on each other that he’d surprised both of us.
Munger looked away and then back to Mr. Conroy with a fake smile. “Oh, nothing sir. Me and Brown here were just talking about a test. Just school stuff. No big deal.”
Looking at Munger’s smarmy face, I couldn’t resist taking a dig. “That’s right Mr. Conroy. Coby’s flunking out of a couple of classes and was asking for my help. But I’m too busy.”
Munger struggled to control himself. I could tell he was pissed but was afraid to show it in front of the vice-principal.
“That’s interesting. You boys get on to your next class. I think I’ll watch you to make sure you get there on time.” He frowned and shook his head at me. I could tell he didn’t think much of my goading Munger.
Our classes were in different directions so we moved away from each other. Munger shot me a dark look.
“Get that attitude straight Mr. Munger. I don’t want to hear about any problems,” warned Mr. Conroy.
Lunch was lonely. Justine was at practice, preparing for a recital and her friends were somewhere else so I ate alone. Baffle was in the middle of Munger’s group and I caught him glaring in my direction a couple of times. My irritation with him made me think of something else I might want to consider: Baffle knew where I lived, which meant that Coby and his band of jerks would know that too.