by Chris Cannon
“How can you—” he started to argue.
I cut off his argument by kissing him. For a second, I was afraid he’d push me away, like this had all been a joke. Then he took a step toward me, pressing my back against the wall of the shed. Suddenly, nothing else seemed important.
His mouth moved away from mine. “So this is you not wanting me?”
My face burned. “Fine. You’re obnoxious and wrong about the library, but I still find you attractive.”
“Then, I win.” He grinned like he was quite proud of himself, and then he kissed me again, a slow, deep kiss that scrambled what was left of my brain. And then he left…just walked away from me and headed back toward the driveway and presumably toward his car. I heard the sound of his engine starting, followed by him driving away.
What. The. Hell? Had he just left me? I stalked around the shed to the driveway and stared at the spot where West’s car should have been. Where he should have been waiting to smirk at me, because obviously I was still attracted to him, but that was okay because he was just as obviously still attracted to me. Which in my brain meant we were actually dating, which meant he should be giving me a ride to school. Apparently, my brain and my body were both idiots. And West was a complete jackass.
Chapter Twenty-Four
West
And the win goes to West. Where did she get off judging me, condemning me for wanting to help convert a building into a recycling center? It’s not like I wanted to burn the place to the ground while orphans and puppies were trapped inside.
Besides, she’d been all talk. When it came down to it, she was still interested in me. I pulled into an open spot in the Greenbrier High parking lot and turned off the ignition. Doubt crept into my brain. I’d been so annoyed by her attitude—her judging me—and I wanted to prove her wrong. I’d won the argument, but maybe I should’ve waited to see if she changed her mind about the ride.
Too late for second thoughts now. Besides, it’s not like I’d left her stranded somewhere. She had her own car. I watched the entrance to the parking lot, expecting to see her pull in. I checked my cell. It was earlier than she normally would’ve come to school. Maybe she’d gone back to her house for a cup of coffee or to make a voodoo doll. For a brief moment, I considered calling her, but if she was mad, and the odds were high, I’d get an earful. Better to let her cool off and talk to her later.
I climbed out of my car and walked across the gravel parking lot. Students hung out in groups by their cars, talking and laughing. A few people looked up as I walked by. Most ignored me. Some acknowledged me with a nod or a smile. I nodded back and kept moving. I didn’t need to be sucked into anymore drama this morning.
Matt and Charlie waited for me by our lockers.
“Where’s Nina?” Matt said.
“Why do you ask?”
Charlie glanced at Matt and then back at me. “You’re dating, right? Or did you screw that up already?”
“We’re sort of dating. That doesn’t mean we have to ride to school together every day.”
Matt sighed. “Nice going, Charlie. Now you’ve made him cranky.”
“Shut up.” I shoved some books in my locker and pulled out the ones I’d need before lunch.
“Incoming,” Charlie said.
I turned around and saw Nina heading my way. She didn’t break stride when she spotted me; she looked right through me like I wasn’t even there and kept on going down the hall.
“Dude, you are screwed,” Matt said.
“Royally,” Charlie added. “And if you like that girl, you better do something to fix it fast because she’s plotting revenge.”
“You don’t know that,” I snapped.
“When a girl looks through you like that,” Matt said, “she’s not happy.”
“Okay. Maybe I messed up.” I told them about kissing Nina and walking away.
“Why didn’t you stick around and give her a ride?” Matt asked.
“She said she’d drive herself.” I shrugged. “It made sense at the time.” Now not so much.
“And you were being an over-competitive jerk,” Charlie added.
“Yes, I know, but thanks for pointing that out,” I said. Maybe I should talk to Nina and try to apologize. Then again, there was no reason for me to approach her during the school day. If she was going to freak out, she could do it away from all the gossips. “I’ll talk to her after school.”
I went about my day with a vague sense of unease. I’d acted like an idiot. I got that now. Sometimes when I was mad I made stupid decisions. Didn’t everybody do that? By lunch, I was tired of feeling like a jerk, so I decided to suck it up and join Nina and Lisa at their table.
She watched my approach with a look of confusion and irritation. I set my tray down and said, “On a scale of I-want-to-yell-at-him to I-want-to-egg-his-car, how mad are you?”
Showing zero emotion, she said, “How mad do you think I should be?”
Lisa laughed between bites of her Twinkie.
Nothing was ever easy, especially with Nina. “I should have waited to see if you wanted a ride this morning,” I said. “But in my defense, you were the one who said you’d drive yourself.”
“That was before you kissed me under false pretenses.”
I blinked at her. “This might piss you off more, but I have no idea what you mean.”
She huffed out a breath. “Then you should go eat lunch someplace else.”
“Fine.” I pushed to my feet. “I tried.”
“Yeah, that’s what every girl wants to hear.” She shook her head. “And just so you know, I won’t be riding to school with you anymore.”
That shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did. Whatever. I headed back over to sit with Matt and Charlie.
“You made it worse, didn’t you?” Matt said.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “It’s over.”
“And now you have to see her every day,” Charlie said. “That’s going to suck.”
“Not a big deal,” I said. “She’ll go back to being my neighbor.” No problem. No problem at all.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Nina
I watched West walk away from me.
“Emotionally stunted jerkwad,” Lisa muttered.
“I was thinking more along the lines of idiotic jackass, but jerkwad works, too.” I took a deep breath and blew it out. “I don’t get it. Why would he kiss me like he cared about me and wanted me to be his girlfriend if he wasn’t really interested?”
“Because he’s a guy?” Lisa said. “I’m pretty sure the identity of the person they’re kissing or doing other things with doesn’t matter as much as the fact that they are involved in those activities.”
“I sincerely hope that isn’t true. There must be guys out there looking for the one special someone they want to spend the rest of their lives with. Right?”
“Maybe males in their late twenties,” Lisa said. “But I doubt there’s a single guy in high school who isn’t looking to hook up with as many girls as possible.”
“For someone whose mom is a therapist, you are really jaded.”
“Maybe that’s why I’m jaded,” she said. “I grew up playing in her office. I’ve seen way too many examples of how things can go wrong.”
Lisa’s dad had bailed before she was born. He was that special breed of asshole who took off when his wife became pregnant. Like suddenly, the demands of impending parenthood made marriage seem overwhelming. There was probably a designated area in hell for men who abandoned their pregnant wives. Next to the section for lying polygamists.
My cell dinged. Had West grown a conscience? I checked the text. Nope it was from the Hilmer Library committee. “Guess what we’re doing this weekend?”
“Going to the bookstore,” Lisa said.
“That’s a given,” I said. “But we are also going to the Hilmer Library to join the picketers protesting closing the library before the new one is ready. It’s for a good cause, and it will annoy the
ever-loving crap out of West.”
“Then it’s a win-win.”
That night after school, I sat on the couch, trying to lose myself in a book, but my brain wasn’t willing to let the question of West go. A cold, wet nose bumped my arm. Gidget wagged her tail with her eyes full of hope and a Frisbee clamped between her teeth.
“Do you want to play Frisbee?” I asked, just to see her reaction.
Gidget jumped up and down, doing a furry tap dance. Blonde fur flew in every direction and floated through the air. “You’re the best dog.”
I headed outside to the backyard to throw the Frisbee. Gidget ran and caught every throw. Watching her had me repeating my mantra. Be more like the dog. Be happier in the moment.
I tried to prevent my gaze from traveling to West’s house. Not easy to do since I was less than one hundred feet away. As usual, the whole house was dark. No. That wasn’t quite right. Stark white light shone through the kitchen window, and a woman was standing there smiling at me. I smiled and waved at her. A look of panic crossed her face, and she disappeared from view.
Well, crap. I hadn’t meant to traumatize her. It was just a wave. West’s whole family must be mental.
I threw the Frisbee a dozen more times until Gidget lay down with the Frisbee by her side. “All done, girl?”
She panted in reply. I stretched out on the grass next to her and thought about West. He had tried to speak to me today, but that didn’t make up for him ditching me, after kissing me like he wanted me as his girlfriend. I should have known this story wouldn’t have a happily ever after. Brooding hotties didn’t fall for bookworm hippie chicks. And bookworm hippie chicks shouldn’t waste their time on boys who weren’t emotionally available.
…
Over the next couple of days, I acknowledged West with a nod when I saw him, just like I had done before any of this mess ever happened. He nodded back. So the universe might be back in balance, but I didn’t love the situation.
Saturday afternoon, Lisa and I met a dozen other people outside of Hilmer Library. We stood on the wide front steps of the building, passing out literature and collecting donations for the effort to keep the library open until the new building was complete.
“How many signatures do we need?” Lisa asked one of the organizers.
“As many as we can get,” the woman said. “I’m hoping to stall the rehab until we can find a benefactor willing to help us speed up the completion of the new library. Excuse me, I see someone I need to talk to.” The woman walked away.
Lisa frowned at me. “The odds do not seem like they are in our favor.”
“At least we’re trying,” I said.
“Don’t look now, but a certain jerkwad is coming your way.”
I thought about asking which jerkwad she meant, but I knew who it was, even without Gidget there to bark at him.
“What’s all this?” West asked, waving his hands around to indicate the dozen people handing out fliers and holding picket signs.
“This is free speech in action,” I said. “I’m not the only one who thinks the library should stay open.”
“The rehab date is set for next week,” West said. “This is a waste of time. You’re not going to stop it.”
“Maybe if I chain myself to the front doors…” I was sort of joking.
“If you love this building so much, then why don’t you help my friends and me salvage the woodwork? Then you’d be saving part of history without impeding progress.”
Behind West, his cousins Matt and Charlie plus a few other guys I didn’t know stood holding all sorts of tools. I recognized the crowbars and the saws but wasn’t sure about some of the other stuff. Unfortunately, what they planned to do with those tools was clear.
“You can’t just stroll in there and start ripping the place apart.”
“Actually, we can. Mr. Stanton received notice that the books worth keeping have been boxed up and moved to storage, so we can start taking out the wainscoting and the doorframes.” He pulled an envelope from his back pocket. “Who’s in charge around here?”
“The lady in the blue jacket,” I said.
West went over to the lady and showed her the letter. Her shoulders slumped in defeat and then she cleared her throat. “Everyone, these young men have a work order that allows them to salvage the contents of the building. We have to let them pass.”
“Can we follow them inside?” I asked.
“As long as you stay out of our way,” West answered.
“Don’t mind us; we’ll just be sitting on the floor in front of the wainscoting…maybe leaning on doorframes. I’m sure you’ll be able to work around us.” I smiled at him. “If anyone else wants to come inside with us, I’m sure we won’t impede their progress.”
A grandmotherly woman with steel gray hair turned and walked up the steps, taking her travel chair with her. She set the chair in the threshold of the doorway. “Oh, dear. I don’t feel well. I better sit,” she announced in a voice worthy of a soap opera.
Blue jacket woman carried her own chair up the steps and plopped down beside the other woman, effectively blocking the entrance. “Don’t worry. I’ll sit here with you until you feel better.”
Both women looked at West. “Sorry. You’ll have to find another entrance into the library.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
West
I’d never been smirked at by someone old enough to be my grandmother. Since there was no way to fight back or respond to a woman in her sixties without looking like a total ass, I resorted to sarcasm. “Sorry you’re not feeling well,” I deadpanned. “Don’t worry. We’ll find another way inside.”
Half the protesters, including Nina and her friend, ran around the side of the building, intent on blocking the other entries. Once again, nothing was ever simple. “Now what?”
“Come with me,” Matt said with more confidence than the situation called for, unless he knew something I didn’t. He led us to the side of the front steps where there was an area of latticework behind some overgrown bushes. He grabbed a section of the lattice and tugged on it. It popped off with a cracking sound.
“This is how horror movies start,” I said.
“This is where the maintenance guy stored his lawn mower,” Charlie informed me. “Plus there’s a door into the basement.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“We did the landscaping here a few years ago,” Charlie said.
My cousins entered the dark, more than likely cobweb-infested area, without a second thought. I put on my work gloves and grabbed a flashlight from the toolbox because I wanted to see how filthy the area was before I walked into it. Weeds and cobwebs seemed woven together. Random tools and lawnmower parts littered the ground. The entire area looked like a tetanus shot or a trip to the emergency room waiting to happen.
“Watch out for rats,” Matt called back to me.
He’d better be joking. I entered the pit of doom, swinging my flashlight around, trying to avoid the worst of the spider webs. I heard Charlie curse and the sound of metal screeching.
“Someone has jacked up this door.” He tugged again and the door inched open.
Something dropped onto my head. I froze and then leaned forward and casually finger combed my hair while I fought the urge to flee out into the sunshine and fresh air.
I heard the sound of screeching metal again. “Got it,” Charlie said.
Great. Because walking into a pitch-black basement was a smart life choice.
“What the hell is that smell?” Charlie called out.
“Forget it.” Matt gagged and backed up. “We’ll find another way.
The stench rolled out to greet me, and it was worse than anything I’d ever been exposed to, and that was saying something. I retreated back to the sunshine. Matt followed close behind me. He was coughing and Charlie looked green. “Dude, I think someone died in there.”
“It was bad,” Matt said, “but not that bad.”
“No.”
Charlie bent over and took a deep breath. “I saw clothes and food wrappers like someone has been living there.”
Hopefully, it had just been squatters who’d left a mess. I pulled out my cell. “We need to tell someone.”
“Tell someone what?” Nina walked toward us, the amused expression slipping from her face.
“Looks like someone has been camping out in the basement,” Charlie said. “And from the smell, they might have died there.”
“Oh my God,” Nina said. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m calling the police.” If anyone specialized in dead bodies, it was them. I Googled the number and spoke to the woman who answered the phone. She said they’d send someone to investigate.
“Not that it compares to finding a dead body, but you have a wolf spider on your shoulder,” Nina said.
I smacked the fuzzy gray spider on my shoulder, smashing the nickel-sized arachnid, which was disgusting. Thank God I had my work gloves on. It still felt like things were crawling on me. “Damn spiders.” I pulled my sweatshirt off and shook it. Just to be sure, I turned it inside out and shook it again and then inspected every inch of it before putting it back on.
Nina was looking at me oddly.
“What?”
“Your hair,” she said. “There’s another one.”
I bent over and shook my head. Sure enough a spider dropped from my head on a silk thread and hit the ground before scuttling away. I pulled off my gloves and ran my fingers through my hair again, hoping I didn’t have any more surprise guests.
“Dude, you could never be a landscaper,” Charlie said.
Matt laughed.
Whatever. “You can play in the dirt for the rest of your lives if you want to, but I’m going to work in a nice clean office with lots of windows.”
“Should we let the others know that the police are on their way?” Nina asked.
“That’s probably a good idea.”