The Bridge Over Snake Creek

by Nikki Bolvair

  “But that's with the exception of Win and Snowden.” Novalee smirked. “Those boys like to flirt like nobody’s business. There have been rumors that they've gotten around, but I'm not entirely sure they actually have.”

  What they said caused my chest to hurt, but that was a foolish reaction. They weren't mine.

  “Who has the most dads? Do you know?”

  “The Ridder family,” Cass answered. “They have the most dads; at least, that's what I've been told. The only one who doesn't have more than one is Jamison. But he and his dad are the newest addition to the Jag neighborhood besides the other group couple that moved in two years ago.”

  “No mom?”

  Cass shook her head. "He hasn't talked about his mom. I'm not sure what happened to her.”

  As we talked about Quinn and the others, I swiveled to my computer to check if Trace had sent me that email yet. She did, and now I just wanted the girls to leave so I could upload it to UTimes. Then I went to my UTimes inbox and read Maleficus’ message as the two of them talked.

  Hey Dude,

  You dead or somethin? No uploads for this month yet. I did mine. You might say I one upped you, loser. Link's at the end. Don't rot too long, you're the best competition I got.

  #FallonVsMaleficus.Mal-Thrill@UTimes

  See ya on the Times, man

  - Maleficus Out

  “What are you doing?” Cass asked, right beside me. I didn’t even notice that she had moved.

  I quickly closed my browser and moved around with a confused expression. “Nothing,” I told her, standing up and walking away. I hoped that she would do the same.

  Cass glanced to Novalee, who was still on my bed, and shrugged.

  “You guys hungry?” I asked, heading out toward the hallway but pausing by the door until they followed. Novalee got up and nodded. “Sure what do you got?”

  I started to name off the general snack items I ate as I walked. “We have cucumbers, tomatoes, we even have some butternut squash that’s been cooked. I can make butternut squash fries?” I offered. “Or maybe some salsa with guacamole chips?”

  They followed me to the kitchen, and the two of them sat at the bar with their backs to the second family room.

  “Don't you have anything unhealthy?” Cass asked.

  “Yeah, how about some cookies?” Novalee agreed. “You do have cookies, right?”

  “Yeah, I have cookies,” I answered, thinking about the Ginger Snaps that I kept in the cupboard. I quickly grabbed them and set them on the counter. “I can make up some lavender lemonade to go with it,” I offered.

  “Lavender lemonade?” Cass replied slowly, her gaze going to Novalee's. “How about we skip out on the snacks here,” she said, gesturing to my house, “and head over to Novalee’s and grab something.”

  Novalee nodded with enthusiasm. “Yeah, but maybe instead of my house we can go down by Sportsman Park and get a slushy cone!” she suggested. “I'm always up for a slushy cone.”

  I mentally groaned, thinking about the sugary sweet that I would never be able to have and I grimaced. “Sounds like you guys have a plan. You go ahead. I'm not up for anything sugary right now.”

  With a narrowed gaze, Novalee stood. “Who’s crazy enough to pass up a slushy cone? Come on,” she cajoled, putting a hand on my arm, “you should come with us. With or without getting one. If you want, bring your lavender lemonade with you and your cookie. Afterward, maybe we'll go hit up a movie. There's a few of them that came out that I’ve wanted to see. You game?”

  I shrugged. “I guess. Let me just text my dad and let him know I'm headed out, and I won't be back until late.”

  “All right, then. Meet you at my house.”

  "And dress up a little bit,” Cass suggested, taking in my clothes. “You never know who we’ll see.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

  I smirked and rolled my eyes. “Yeah, okay. I'll do that.”

  After I'd seen them out, I went back to my desk and opened my email once again, typing a reply to Maleficus

  Wimp,

  Running out of ideas, M? Thrills are worth the wait. You haven’t won yet. See you on the curve.

  -Number One

  Chapter Ten

  After I had sent that email along, pretty happy with my jab at my main competition on UTimes, I went to Trace's email and watched the last thrill I had recorded.

  It wasn't one of my best stunts, but it gave me the thrill I needed. I uploaded it to the site and titled the video, "Hanging out with sharks” then went to M’s site and watched his. I’d never seen his face because he always used a head cam, or whoever was with him avoided his face in all of his picture shots. Actually, his whole head was out of view most of the time. I had no idea what he looked like, but from the shoulders down I knew he was hot.

  I watched a video of him scaling a wall up to a ledge and laying down across it. As he laid down, the head camera panned to his feet and torso, and sky, and... yep, there it was. He was giving me the finger. I grinned. The asshole.

  I didn't comment. But even I had to admit that was dangerous.

  I logged out of everything, pretty hyped up about the comments I might receive. The thrill might have been tame compared to my others, but I shrugged it off. It was on my bucket list, as were a few of the others.

  I closed out of the browser and pushed away from my desk to head over to my closet, looking for something more appropriate to wear.

  I chose some navy blue skinny jeans along with a dark purple shirt that had a black pentagram symbol on it. My mom always loved pentagrams, and I loved the color purple. Therefore, when I saw the shirt, I had to get it. I added a pair of flat sandals with little-beaded gems on the top of the straps. Lastly, I put on some earrings and added a watch.

  I grabbed my bag on my way out the door and texted my dad that I was going to hang out with friends and possibly go to a movie, adding that I had eaten a snack and my levels were good.

  I headed on over to Novalee’s house and knocked on the door, waiting for a minute before a guy answered - a shirtless hot guy that had to be in his twenties. He leaned against the door jamb with his jeans low on his hips and a Cheshire Cat grin.

  “Hey.” His rough voice was pleasant to hear as he checked me out. I did the same. Blonde hair, blue eyes, hot bod. My mouth dropped. I couldn't speak, how could I?

  “Hey.” He waved a hand in my face. “What's wrong? Do you need something?”

  After the initial shock, I was able to gather my bearings, but dang, I didn’t think my eyes had got past the shoulders yet.

  “I'm here for Novalee?” My voice went higher at the end, as if I was asking a question.

  The guy opened the door wider and bellowed out her name. “Novalee! Someone's here for you!” Then he walked away, leaving the door open. “Hey,” I called out, “Wait, who are you?”

  He turned around with a grin. “I'm Novalee’s brother, and if you're hanging out with my sister, that means you are jailbait. Sorry, sweetheart. You're fine as hell despite your height, but I'm too old for you.”

  Novalee passed him and shoved his arm. “Not every one of my friends is after you, Asshole. Plus, Quinn kissed her.”

  “Well, good for Quinn,” he answered, walking further inside the house.

  Novalee just shook her head. “Forget him. Once you get to know him past the pretty package, the shock kind of wears off. He knows he's hot, and sometimes it just gets annoying.”

  “Okay,” I said, stepping inside the house so she could shut the door.

  “Come on; we were just getting ready.” We walked deeper into her house, and I was amazed at all the pictures on the wall until we reached her room, which seemed like a disaster zone. Cass had her face pressed up against Novalee’s dresser mirror, putting on makeup, and Novalee walked to her closet, searching for shoes.

  “Sit down,” she said, waving her hand to her bed. “We might take another minute, and then we can go.”

  I sat on her bed, careful not to knock an
ything down, and looked around the room. Her walls were full of posters of the hottest and latest music groups and notes were everywhere. Curious as to what they were, I got up and went over to one of them.

  Sticky notes were posted in a pattern on the wall. The heart in the middle was made up of pink squares and surrounding it were green ones. It went on like this with three more colors. Sticky notes that made a design, making another design surrounding it.

  Each note had one sentence in the center of it. All of them positive. In the core of the whole thing was Novalee’s name.

  I turned toward her as she was stumbling to get her shoes on and pointed to it. “What's this all about?”

  She glanced up then went back to what she was doing. “That was for a positive attitude training class. We had to come up with as many words as we could to describe ourselves in a positive way. And do you know how hard that was to come up with that many? It's kind of eye-opening.”

  Cass paused doing her makeup and glanced my way. “Here she goes again.”

  Novalee glared at her. “No, you don't understand. Have you ever had to come up with...” She gestured toward the many notes posted. “That many positive things about yourself? I had to use the freaking dictionary to find words to use and then I had to explain why I felt I deserved whatever I put. You don't realize how poorly you think of yourself until you're told to write positive things. It's eye-opening because when we did the negative, I could have put a lot more.”

  “I'm sure that's not true,” I reassured her, not knowing why she would have to take positivity training classes. Maybe she had poor self-esteem? I could understand that.

  Novalee shrugged as she stood. “It's just how it is. The human mind resorts to the negative sooner than the positive. Did you know that the human brain typically remembers negative comments more than the positive?” She grabbed her purse as Cass finished up with her makeup. “It's because the human mind is traumatized by the negativity and it gets embedded into our memory whereas positivity uplifts and gives out endorphins.”

  I dropped my hand away from the post-it notes, thinking about what she was saying. “Huh. Guess I never thought of it that way, but now that you say it, I can see what you mean.”

  “All right, let's go!” She clapped her hands to hurry us along. “We have to get slushed and see a movie.”

  Novalee drove with Cass in the front seat, and I sat in the back. She drove out of her neighborhood, across the freeway and toward the bridge that I had jumped off, then around the corner to a parking lot, which held the caboose of a train.

  “What is that?” I asked, pointing to it. “Is that where we're going?”

  It was yellow and situated as if it had been parked there forever. People were all lined up, getting white upside down triangle cones holding an icy treat in a variety of colors that I had longed to have before but couldn’t.

  The caboose gave me an idea for another thrill. I’d have to do some research, but I was pretty sure there were some train lines around here. And I had always wanted to jump on a train and stowaway.

  We parked, got out of the car, and waited in line. I waited with them as they got their tasty treat even though I wasn’t eating one. It wasn’t fair, but it was my life.

  We made our way to the front of the caboose because there wasn't any room to sit, as families were there with their kids, and looked out across the road to where Snake Creek flowed. If you looked to the right, you could see the water tower and the bridge where I had jumped.

  “So what movie are we going to go see?” Cass asked as she bit into her red icy treat.

  “Not sure.” Novalee glanced to me. “You got any ideas?”

  We ended up deciding on an action flick with the reasoning that if any guy was there tonight, that's what they’d be seeing. Cass and Novalee were such guy chasers.

  ***

  We arrived at the small theater, grabbed the closest parking spot we could find, and headed up to buy our tickets.

  With the tickets purchased, we walked into the theater and saw Beth and Serena with their posse. It seemed like we weren’t the only ones with this idea. I paused mid step when I realized who else was with them. Miles and Dare from the bridge were in Serena’s group along with a few other guys. Novalee stopped when she saw I hadn’t followed, and Cass paused with her. The two of them turned, confused by my hesitation.

  “What's wrong?” Novalee asked before glancing over to the group. “Oh, don’t worry about them.”

  I shook my head and started walking again. “It’s nothing.” I was better than this. I couldn’t let myself hide like a wimp. A big scared wimp- I was a fuckin’ daredevil! I should embrace danger, right?

  “Ugh,” Cass groaned as the three of us made our way to the ticket taker and let them tear our stubs. “Why do they have to be here? It’s like Serena can’t go anywhere without her minions.”

  Novalee gestured their way as we moved forward. “Look at them. They all surround Beth and Serena as if they were crowned heirs.”

  I studied them as we went to the concession counter. A guy, maybe early twenties, was up close and personal with Beth. Didn’t he know Beth was jailbait? And Serena wasn’t much better, with another older guy with her. Miles and Dare had girls hanging off of them but seemed disinterested and were staring at something. I followed their gaze until it met the men's restroom. Huh. They must have been waiting on someone.

  Novalee leaned in closer to me. “And you see how both Serena and Beth have older guys by their side? Well, apparently they’re their boyfriends.”

  As she was speaking, a group of guys came out of the men’s restroom. One was tall while the others varied in height and size, but all of them seemed to be waiting for the same thing as their gazes were fixed on the women's restroom while they crossed over to it. It was only moments later when a blonde haired woman came out, and one of them took her hand, but all of them surrounded her. Two beside her, one in the back and one in front leading the way to Serena.

  “Next please!” The concession stand cashier called out.

  “Is there anything you want?” Cass asked before heading up with Novalee.

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “Okay then, we'll be right back. Don’t move.”

  After a moment of talking among the group, the chick and her guys made their way to the concession line. She laughed at something the tall one said before her gaze caught mine. Her eyebrows rose as she gave me a tentative smile and whispered something to the guys before coming to wait beside me.

  With a knowing expression, she reached where I stood and turned to appreciate the view I’d been admiring. “Your envy is showing,” she stated smugly.

  Not feeling the least bit guilty that she had called me out on ogling her guys, I replied, “It’s not envy, it’s observing.”

  Twisting back, I found a smile spread across her face as she laughed. “That's one way of putting it.”

  My gaze met hers, curious. “So... they’re all yours?”

  A look of love crossed her face as her smile softened. “No, I’m theirs.”

  My cheeks flushed with a faint tinge of pink. “Oh.”

  It was then I noticed the slight bulge at her belly she was rubbing. She practically glowed. “I know it’s not the norm, but it works for us.”

  I shrugged, shoving my hands into my pockets before glancing back to the concession counter. Two of her guys had moved into another line and were now being helped while Novalee and Cass were still second in line. How did that even happen? “The world's changing,” I replied when I noticed one of her guys coming this way. He was the most muscular, with dirty blond hair, and his gaze was only for the woman beside me. Watching their interaction had me envious. “I say, as long as everyone's happy, then why not?”

  The guy gave me a quick glance before wrapping his arms around the woman and kissing her lips. When his lips drew away, he asked her, “Popcorn or pretzel?”

  “Pretzel,” she replied with a grin.
/>   He nodded and drew away, his golden gaze glancing back to me. “Hey.”

  I jerked my head up in a nod. “Hey.”

  He turned back to her. “Be right back.”

  Avoiding staring once again as they kissed, I moved my gaze past my friends and over to where Beth and Serena had been, but they were gone. When the woman's husband (I could only assume that's what he was) left again, I asked her about them. “So you know Serena and Beth?”

  “Mm-hm.” But that was all she gave me. “You go to school with them?”

  I rocked back on my heels and gave her the same answer. “Mm-hm.”

  When her guys were out of line, she turned to me and held out her hand. “I’m Carly.”

  I shook it, and a warm feeling came over me before it dispensed. Carly's eyes went wide, and I release her hand. “Hannah.”

  “Carly?” Golden eyes came back again, his hand reaching out to her. “You okay?”

  She gripped it. “Yeah, I just... I think the baby had a restless moment.”

  Once again his eyes flickered over to me, his mouth pressing into a frown. “Who are you?”

  “Hannah,” I replied again before searching out my friends, who were waving me over to them. “Gotta go. Nice to meet you, Carly.”

  “Wait.” Carly let go of the guy, reached into her purse and pulled out a card. She wrote something on the back and handed it to me. “I draw. If you ever want to come and see my work, you’re more than welcome to, or to just talk. This is my number.”

  I took the card, glancing at it before tapping it against my palm. “Sure, thanks.”

  She nodded. “See you soon, Hannah.”

  Chapter Eleven

  I said goodbye and sought out Cass, who was waiting at the condiments counter. “Took you long enough. What did Carly want with you?”

  My eyebrows shot up. “You know her?”

  “Yeah, she works at The Center for the Arts. She’s a prodigy or something.” My head jerked over to see Novalee standing nearby, holding a bag of popcorn and popping a piece in her mouth.