“Let’s say I’ve found a new purpose. Anyway, I start work shortly so I’d better get going. I only wanted to stop by and check how you were. It’s all over school how Providence High has lost their only shot at winning the regional finals for hurdles.”
“Why would they say that? You don’t jump hurdles with your hands.”
He threw back his head and laughed. “You crack me up. You won’t be allowed to participate in sports for a few weeks. School rules.”
“That’s a relief. Still, I hope they give hurdle number three a few weeks off as well.”
Leo was still laughing when I followed him out. I waited on the landing to admire his butt, and as he headed down the stairs my dad came round the corner and started on his way up. The only thing distracting me from checking out Leo’s physical attributes was the armload of gifts my dad carried. Resentment welled up inside. I already knew Dad loved Audrey more than me, but did he have to flaunt it?
“Hey, honey, your mom told me about your accident.”
Leo paused at the bottom of the stairs. Over Dad’s shoulder I spied him turn around to give me a wave. Except it wasn’t a goodbye wave, but a follow-me-when-you-can- get-away wave. I’d have followed him to hell. Thankfully he only wanted me to go as far as Hollowglen Road.
“Audrey?” Dad said.
“Huh? Yeah, hurts on and off. Hey, I’m gonna go out for a while.”
Dad paused in the open doorway, following my gaze to where Leo’s dashing figure grew smaller and smaller.
“You’re too young to hang around a senior.”
In the years I’d been alive, my father had never once told me what I should and shouldn’t do. I was a little taken aback. “I’m not too young.”
“You’re only fifteen.”
His smile was patronizing. And so, did I notice, were his gifts. Dolls, board games, jigsaw puzzles, water colors, blank canvases. How old did he think I was I, ten?
He placed the gifts on the dining table. “You’re hanging around Leo Culver. He’s not suitable.”
“He’s a friend. Friends hang out with each other.”
Dad and Teri shared a glance and my blood boiled. I’d copped his formidable stare before and the memory of the time Leo had asked me to be his girlfriend sprang to mind.
The music teacher at Providence High School, Mrs. Sams, had decided Violet Dreamy Youth was good enough to perform at Art Café. Her cousin owned the café, so she’d organized a gig for a Saturday night, their busiest night. We were ecstatic. Mostly because we were getting paid a hundred bucks plus whatever amount of coffee and muffins we could stomach.
“We should wear either the same dress in different colors, or different dresses but in the same color,” Natalie gushed.
Shanessa liked the idea, but in typical control-freak fashion she also suggested we each dress in something that depicted the name of our group. Control-freak or not, hers was a great idea. I drew out ‘Violet’. Shanessa drew out ‘Dreamy’. And Natalie drew out ‘Youth’. To be honest, we’d each gotten the theme which best depicted our personalities. On certain days and under certain light my red hair blazoned strips of the deepest purple. Shanessa’s dark complexion and large brown eyes like a doe’s often caused people to dreamily bump into things when she looked at them. And Natalie was the type of fair-haired beauty who would be forever young.
We were nervous the night of our first real gig, but we’d rehearsed often enough and had performed in the old ladies home quite a number of times already. We really had no reason to be nervous. Except we had every reason. The gossip around town was a hotshot from a Los Angeles recorded music company was staying at Providence on the night we were booked to play. He was either visiting his grandmother or the art museum or hunting in the woods, depending on who you listened to. None of that mattered, except that he actually was here.
Everyone was invited to the café (no surprise this was their secret plan – get the kids to invite their parents and they’d have a huge crowd). Even Dad made a special trip, though the announcement of an exhibition in a few months was his real reason for stopping in. Mom had turned up but sat at another table. Dad had sat at a table with Teri Adams, and at the next table sat Mr. and Mrs. Culver. I knew the Culvers. More importantly, I knew their son, Leo.
Since I was six I’d had a crush on Leo Culver. So when he turned up at the café, I almost died. Forget nerves over rumors about a music company hotshot coming to watch us perform, my heart had hammered at the idea of performing in front of Leo.
Whenever I performed in public, I liked to pick a spot in the background to sing to. It was as if Leo knew my little trick because he’d positioned himself directly beneath the exit sign. Throughout the gig I felt his eyes upon me. If the hotshot from Los Angeles showed up, I didn’t notice, and I no longer cared. My eyes had stayed locked on Leo’s all night.
Afterward, as I swung my handbag over my shoulder, Leo had walked up to me and said, “Guess what?”
I shrugged. “I dunno.”
He pointed to my handbag. It had been a birthday gift from my Mom. “Your bag says ‘Guess’ on it, and I said ‘Guess what’? Get it?”
I chuckled despite not wanting to. “I get it. Ha. Ha. Very original, too, by the way.”
“It’s the only thing I could think of to say that wouldn’t get me slapped in the face,” he said with a wink. The way he looked at me, I should have slapped him. But I was struck motionless.
“Well,” he prompted. “Aren’t you gonna make me guess something?”
“Umm. Guess what book I’m reading for English.”
He laughed out loud and accidentally brushed my arm with his fingers. Shivers exploded up and down and I hoped they’d never settle. “That’s too easy. We share the same class.”
I grinned. “Okay. Guess if I have a boyfriend.”
This time when Leo brushed his fingers along my arm I could tell it was intentional. “You do have a boyfriend.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. Me. When I saw you up on stage, I felt like you were singing only to me.”
“Maybe I was.”
“Cool.” His eyes had a dreamy hue, his hair was ruffled, he seemed to be swaying gently to an invisible tune, and his grin was lop-sided. How could I not fall in love instantly?
“Ruby,” my father called. I ignored him.
Leo took my hand in his. “We’ve known each other for a long time yet tonight’s like the first time we’ve ever met.”
My throat was dry. My legs were weak. My heart was beating fast. I wanted to kiss Leo and I wanted to be kissed by Leo.
He bent forward, to suggest he might kiss me. I wouldn’t have minded if he did.
“Little Red Gem,” he whispered.
“What did you say?”
“A little red gem is what you are.”
I felt a tingle inside my pants. I’d never had sex, but I wanted to have sex with Leo right on the floor in the middle of the crowded café.
“Why? Because my name is Ruby?” I asked.
He shook his head. “One day I’ll tell you.”
“Ruby!” My father was practically shouting. I spun to face him and in that second I noticed he wasn’t happy about me talking to Leo. It was as if he’d read my horny mind. Why else would he be shooting daggers at Leo?
I swung my gaze back to Leo and smiled sheepishly. “I suppose I’ve got to go.”
Leo refused to let go of my hand. “Say you’ll be mine.”
This wasn’t a question. It was a command. And I didn’t hesitate to respond. “I’m yours.”
He kissed me lightly on the lips, right in front of my parents, and when he pulled away his gaze flicked toward their table.
“Until tomorrow, Little Red Gem.”
Chapter Ten
I left Dad and Teri to sort through a pile of gifts better suited to a toddler and headed for Rock-A-Lilly’s. Leo greeted my sour mood with a knowing smile the second I walked through the front door.
; He set the guitar aside. “Parent problems?”
“That obvious, huh?”
I hopped up onto the stool at the counter. He picked up the guitar again and angrily strummed a chord.
“Your dad was on the phone with my mom earlier. He told her I was spending too much time with his daughter.”
“How ungrateful of me to oppose the King’s wishes.”
It felt good that I could make Leo laugh. “Hey, I’m used to it,” he said. “He got pissed off when Ruby and I started going out. Suddenly he’s the protective father. Mrs. Parker had a word in his ear and afterward he chilled out.”
“Really?”
Couldn’t have been my mom advocating for true love. She’d carried a torch for my dad because she still loved him, but she’d also carried a sword to cut him down because she didn’t trust him not to break her heart. I guessed she’d have to sheathe the sword now she was moving to Texas with him.
Leo shrugged. “He’ll realize the more he tries to pull two friends apart, the closer these friends will become.”
I struggled to stifle a grin; I was sure I detected an emphasis on the word ‘friends’. There may yet have been advantages to my dad’s interference.
“Well, he can butt out,” I snapped. “He disappears from my life for a million years and now he has the nerve to order me around.”
Leo winked at me and my sour mood melted into a gooey pile. Forget about a bath in rose scented water. If you wanted to calm down a million degrees, have the love of your life wink at you.
“He’s under the impression bad things will come from us spending time together.”
My voice trembled. “That’s crazy. Like you said. We’re friends.”
Leo’s gaze was on the corridor but I saw him reach under the counter. When his hand came out, it was wrapped around a pocket-sized bottle of bourbon.
“Leo,” I hissed, flicking my gaze in all directions. “You can’t drink that.”
“My girlfriend just died. I need it to calm my nerves.”
My heart raced at the thought of Rock walking out and busting Leo with alcohol in his hand. Rock would have lost his business if anyone blabbed that a minor was drinking on the premises.
“Put it away,” I begged.
Leo took a long swig, screwed the cap back on, and hid the bottle back under the counter. Then he picked up the guitar once more and ran his fingers over the frets. The guitar wasn’t plugged in so there was only muffled noise, leaving the current of anger in Leo’s voice clearly audible.
“You dad has no right telling me who I can and can’t spend time with,” he growled.
“I’m sorry he called your mom. He got back together with my…my step-mother, Ruby’s mom, and now he acts like he’s got the lead role of a play called Pretending To Be A Dad.”
Leo’s attention was fixed on the guitar, but from beneath his fringe I sensed his eyes shift to meet mine.
“Good. Because I doubt I can get over Ruby’s death without you.”
Or a bottle of bourbon, I thought dryly, but this thought was pushed out of my mind when a blast of loud noise attacked me. Charging in its wake was Rock who had stepped out of the rehearsal room. He shut the door and the noise was gone. Almost. My heart hammered that he’d rummage around beneath the counter and find Leo’s secret stash.
“Stop lounging around Leo, I need you to set up studio 3,” he yelled – though I was positive he yelled because he was deaf from the loud music, not from anything else – but at least he stayed away from the counter.
Leo set the guitar aside and hopped off the stool. “Gotta do some work. Wanna help?”
“Sure.”
“If you want a Coke go ask Lilly. Workers get free drinks.”
I laughed. “In other words, you’d like a Coke but you’re too lazy to get it yourself.”
He winked at me again, and while my mom would have had a fit to know I was letting a boy influence my moods, and while I knew I should have been riddled with remorse for wanting to do anything for him – feminism and all that – I was unabashedly ecstatic to be on the receiving end of Leo Culver’s winks.
I raced down to the office where there was a fridge filled with bottles of water, Coke, and other fizzy drinks. Rock and Lilly didn’t bother with vending machines, it was a help yourself honest system where you left two quarters for each drink you took, and the bucket of change was always overflowing. They made a tidy sum, except Leo drank enough Coke some days to send their profits into decline.
Lilly was sitting on a couch reading a magazine when I walked in.
“Hi Lilly,” I said.
She looked at me curiously over the top of her magazine. It was easy to slip into my old life and forget that nobody recognized me.
“I’m Audrey, Leo’s friend,” I explained.
“Friend? Yeah, not from this angle.”
She looked me up and down, and I was taken aback by her hostile scrutiny. I was then struck dumb when she licked her lips and rubbed her hands across her breasts.
“You can’t fool old Lilly. You two are hot for each other.”
I froze to the spot in front of the open fridge, the comprehension of why I didn’t like her running coldly along my spine. Rock was nice. Lilly was vulgar. I’d no idea what he saw in her. Yet, she had one redeemable quality – she was honest.
“Did Leo say something to you?”
Lilly crossed her high-heeled feet one over the other. “He doesn’t need to say anything. The way he looks at you and the way you look at him…more than words.” She sighed and fanned herself with the magazine. “Rock gets the same look on his face right before he—”
I cut her off. “I don’t need the details.”
“Sorry, I get carried away. Guess this kind of talk is a bit over your head.”
My cheeks warmed. “I know about sex.”
“You’re a kid. You think you know about sex. You know nothing. Anyway, I know Leo’s girlfriend died recently, and it’s terrible of me to say anything other than ‘sorry for your loss’, but it’s uncanny. Leo looks at you the same way he used to look at her.”
The can, which had been growing warm in my hands, chilled once more. That was two people in a few hours who had pointed out the same thing. Leo was falling for Audrey Adams.
“Isn’t it too soon for him to, you know, be looking at someone else?”
“Hey, what can I say? Men are horny goats. If I kicked the bucket tomorrow, I’d be naïve not to expect Rock to be on top of the cutest filly around.”
The phone rang and Lilly swung her legs off the couch and got up to answer. Too stunned to speak or move, I was left standing in front of an open fridge, hating her for her honesty, but also quietly admiring her. Leo shouldn’t have been looking at me the way I wanted him to. It was too soon. In fact, a hundred years from now would have been too soon.
The bunch of conflicting nerves in my stomach had the allure of rotten fish. Wearily, I dragged myself into the recording studio where Leo was knee-deep in cables. When he spotted me, he tossed the cables to the floor and rushed over to take the warmish Coke out of my hands. He guzzled it down. Afterward, he looked at me questioningly but I wouldn’t oblige. At last he tossed the empty can into the trash and kicked the tangle of cables on the floor.
“This mess isn’t cooperating,” he said. “Must be why they get the plebs to deal with them. Hey, wanna see a grand piano? It got delivered yesterday for a recording session. Must be for someone famous.”
Leo grabbed a hold of my hand and dragged me through a set of carpet-covered doors. There, in the middle of the oak-paneled room sat a glossy black grand piano.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” he said with an admiring sigh.
When I was Ruby, I’d practiced piano once a week. Practice had been three times a week but school had put more and more pressure on my time so I’d had to cut back. I’d never played on a piano this stunning, though. My fingers ached to stretch themselves over the keys, but my left wrist was encased in
plaster and I didn’t know any one-handed pieces.
Leo walked over and sat on the stool. He patted the seat beside him and promptly ran his fingers over the keyboard.
“Listen to those acoustics.”
“You know how to play?” I asked.
Tentatively, with Lilly’s words still ringing loudly in my ears, I took the seat beside Leo. I snuck a peek – was he really staring at me the way Lilly reckoned? – to find he was concentrating on the keys so my curiosity went unquenched. He started playing Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven and I was struck speechless. Firstly, I didn’t know Leo was skilled on piano. Secondly, his musical tastes usually ran to the dark side. This was a new side to Leo, and I wasn’t happy that Audrey was the one he was showing it to. Maybe if he’d shown this side to me, I wouldn’t have doubted his love.
“You’re sweeter than I remember,” I muttered.
“Huh?”
I hadn’t realized I’d spoken out loud. “The song, it’s sweeter than I remember.”
His fingers continued to dance across the black and white keys and I became swept up in the airy music. His next words snapped me out of the reverie.
“Did you know Ruby was pregnant when she died?”
I couldn’t have felt sicker in the stomach if he’d asked me to murder someone’s dog.
“The doctor told Ruby’s mother. Ruby’s mom told Ruby’s dad. Mr. Parker considered it his duty to inform my mother. He also considered it his duty to call me every name under the sun and then some.”
“Sorry,” I whispered.
Leo bashed a fist onto the keys, bringing a sudden end to Moonlight Sonata. His voice went quieter, but it didn’t lose its hard edge. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
“I can understand why Ruby would keep something this big from everyone, but not from you.”
Liar. I know precisely why. I’d been scared he’d choose his career over me and a baby, the same way my dad had chosen his career over my mom and me. I was scared I’d be left to decide if I even wanted to be a mother. I’d wanted to know if he was capable of realizing the plot without me having to supply the spoilers.
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