Everlasting Bond

by Christine M. Besze

  Mason’s hazel eyes pierced through her like cold hard daggers, which didn’t surprise her. Since grade school he had been giving her a hard time. She just wished she had the sense to punch his blonde head back then. Now that he was the varsity tight end, he was a mass of muscle that could do more damage to her. Even his neck was too thick to move on its own.

  And then there was Robby. Being Brody’s cousin, they were stuck together more by default than anything else. His gold hair was a much warmer inviting color than Brody’s. The only similarities the two did share were their blue eyes.

  “What are you doing, Brody?” she demanded.

  “Nothing, Kat. So, why don’t you get out of here? Bye now,” he mocked. His blue eyes sparkled with deceit against his purple football jersey, as he laughed at her. The sandy spiked hair complimented his square jaw, which at the moment Katrina wanted to break with her fist. She couldn’t understand why most of the girls found this ass appealing. He was incredibly obnoxious and thought he owned the whole school. She found him to be to be really damn annoying herself.

  “Leave my brother alone, Brody. I still owe you.”

  “What are you talking about? I was nowhere near your brother, but I’d like to shake the hand of whoever was,” he taunted, as he turned towards his friends and laughed at Katrina’s expense.

  “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave him alone.”

  “Or what? What are you going to do about it?” Closing the little space between them, he gave her a deviant glare.

  “Kat, come on. Let it go,” Jake pleaded, pulling on her shirt. Katrina ignored him. She was too pissed to let anything go.

  “Yeah, Kat, let it go. We’re busy, so run along.” He waved a dismissive hand at her. When she refused to moved, he cocked his eyebrows at her and Katrina didn't like the sudden darkness in his eyes. “Unless you want to come to some sort of arrangement…”

  “Come on, man. Let’s just go.” Robby tugged on his arm.

  “No way!” Brody shoved him off. “Thing’s are getting very interesting.”

  “What kind of arrangement?” She tried not to cringe as he eyed her up and down. Feeling the hotness of his breath against her cheek made her skin crawl, but she had to do something so Jake could survive the school year without being bullied.

  “You know what I want, Kat,” he whispered in her ear.

  “When hell freezes, you ass!”

  “Ah come on, play nice. You asked, I answered,” Brody grinned, as he lightly stroked her hair.

  She smacked his hand away. “Don’t touch me!”

  “You’re such a tease!”

  As Brody grabbed for Katrina’s wrist, she felt a cold grip of ice spin her out of the way. It was very firm and chilly, which sent every hair on her arm stand on end. When she spun back around, a very familiar face was standing between her and Brody.

  “Why don’t you guys leave them alone and go outside?” Cole demanded.

  “Why don’t you make me, city boy?” Brody fired back getting into Cole’s face.

  At that moment everything in the cafeteria froze. Then, in a matter of seconds, a good sized crowd started to form and watch. It was obvious by their faces most of them weren’t sure who would win.

  “Gladly!” Andrew eagerly appeared from behind Cole.

  Motioning a hand for Andrew to hold off, Cole stepped towards Brody and both boys squared off. Neither one was giving an inch. It was like watching two bulls ready to pounce on each other and it was clear neither would back down.

  “Let’s settle down,” Principal Weber’s voice made Katrina jump. “Do we have a problem here, Mr. Miller?” His voice growled, as he shoved his way through the swarm of students.

  The short, stocky man stared them all down through the edge of his square black-rimmed glasses. His slick bald head glistened under the cafeteria lighting. Underneath his brown polyester suit, Katrina could see small streaks of sweat start to appear.

  “No, sir. We’re fine,” Brody replied. The deceitful look on his face insinuated everything was far from being fine.

  “Then let’s disperse and enjoy what’s left of our lunch please.” Principal Weber turned to face the crowd that had gathered. They started to dissipate with sighs of disappointment. Apparently, Katrina wasn’t the only student wishing that Brody would have gotten what was coming to him.

  Brody and Mason gave them a smug smile and then made their way outside. This left just Katrina, Jake, and the two Aldrich boys.

  “You okay?” Cole asked, turning to face Katrina.

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  “How about you—Jake?” Andrew asked, stumbling over his name.

  “Yeah. I’m good.” Jake tried to avoid eye contact.

  The four of them stood in awkward silence for a few agonizing minutes, before Cole’s voice broke through. “Mind if we join you for lunch?”

  “Sure,” Katrina nodded. Why did I just say that?

  This frustrated Katrina more than ever. How was she supposed to talk to Stacy with Cole and Andrew at their table? Stacy would be too busy drooling over them to focus on anything else. And having lunch inches away from what could be vicious killers didn’t exactly help her appetite.

  Cole smiled and motioned for Katrina to lead the way. Katrina noticed even his mannerisms were very elegant and polite—too polite for someone from New York. The way his eyes lit up as he smiled was enough to do her in. She felt the warm tingle all the way down to her toes. Sucking in a deep breath, she tried to ignore her body’s reaction and headed for the lunch table.

  Stacy was already seated with enough food to share with the entire cafeteria. She always did have a larger than normal appetite compared to most girls her size.

  It took a while before Stacy looked in their direction, but Katrina could tell the exact moment she realized that Cole and Andrew were joining them. Her eyes glistened in excitement like it was Christmas morning.

  “This is Stacy,” Katrina introduced her, as Stacy gave them a huge grin.

  “Hi.” Both Cole and Andrew nodded their heads in her direction.

  “You told me you weren’t hungry, but as usual I got plenty to share,” Stacy boasted, as she kept her eyes fixated on Cole and Andrew.

  “Thanks, Stace.”

  “Are you guys hungry? I didn’t know you were joining us, but I have plenty.”

  “No, thank you,” Cole politely declined.

  After a moment of awkward silence, Stacy took an oversized bite of her sandwich and with a full mouth chimed in, “So, what’s New York like?”

  Waiting for Cole’s response, Katrina was attempting to focus on her plate. She picked at her food to avoid staring directly at him. Feeling Jake’s nerves on edge only added to the awkwardness swirling inside her. He tapped his fork on his tray, also trying to avoid making any sort of contact with them.

  “It was very crowded,” Cole said. If he was aware of how uncomfortable Jake and Katrina were at that moment, he never let on.

  “You guys must be bored since you moved here—the capital of unexciting,” Stacy wriggled animatedly in her seat.

  “The scenery is much nicer here.”

  At Cole’s comment, the table became uncomfortably quiet. Katrina looked up to see Cole smiling at her. Her face sizzled with tingly sensations and the blood rushed to her cheeks. She could feel the bright scarlet color her face had no doubt become. Between her lashes, Katrina could see Stacy smile politely back at Cole. The five of them remained in eerie silence, as Katrina waited for one of them to speak.

  “Everyone’s leaving, I think it’s time to go,” Jake said, as he got up.

  “Would you like some company?” Andrew offered. “We both have Mr. Krause next.”

  “Sure.” Shock and confusion were written all over Jake’s face, but Katrina could feel fear weighing underneath the surface.

  Katrina watched, as Jake disappeared into the hall with Andrew by his side. Taking her cue from Jake and wanting to make a graceful exit herse
lf, Katrina stood. She watched, as Cole too imitated her movement.

  “Do you mind if I walk with you?”

  Before Katrina could refuse, Stacy interrupted and answered that for her.

  “I need to head across campus. I’ll talk to you later, Kat. Nice to meet you, Cole.” She flashed Katrina a sly smile.

  Katrina stood there speechless, as Stacy turned and made her exit. She was always trying to improve Katrina’s social life and Katrina was going to let her have it later.

  “I guess that just leaves you and me.” Cole gave her a nervous smile.

  “Yes. Yes, it does.”

  “Shall we?”

  “Sure.”

  Walking side by side into the crowd, there was a brief moment where Katrina wanted to run and hide. The silence was uncomfortable. Katrina tried to distract herself, but she could feel Cole's eyes on her. His overbearing gaze was so strange. It was as though he was afraid to take his eyes off of her, as if she might disappear at any moment.

  “Where to?” Cole shoved his hands in his pockets.

  “Miss Thompson’s.” Katrina tried to hide the bitterness in her voice as she spoke. When he gave her a confused look, she rolled her eyes and added, “English.”

  “You say it as though it’s nauseating,” he laughed.

  “It kind of is.”

  “And why’s that?”

  “I don’t know. It just makes no sense to try and figure what someone wrote over a hundred years ago.”

  “Ah, you’re an ageist?” he asked, cocking an auburn eyebrow at her.

  “Yeah, I guess I am.” Katrina laughed. She couldn’t help it. The more she talked to him, the less awkward she felt. He seemed so normal, like she’d known him all her life.

  “What does interest you?” he asked, looking into her eyes.

  “Art.”

  “An artist?” He perked up in interest.

  “More like a professional doodler,” she nervously smiled back. Did I just say doodler? Is that even a word?

  “I’m sure they’re not that bad,” he grinned.

  Katrina let out a sarcastic laugh. “That’s because you haven’t seen them.”

  “Maybe I could sometime?”

  “Maybe.” Their conversation soon faded back into awkward silence. Walking a few steps, Katrina asked, “So, what do you like?” Please don’t say English.

  “History.”

  Relieved, she smiled. “History, huh?”

  “Yeah,” he nodded his head. “It makes the past seem like it’s still alive, staring right at us.”

  “Don’t you find it boring since you already know the ending?”

  “Not really. And besides who’s to say we ever really know how things end?” he winked. Katrina felt her face grow hot, as he looked at her.

  Stopping in front of the classroom door, Katrina found she was sad their conversation was over. “This is me,” she forced out, trying to hide her disappointment.

  “Until tomorrow then,” Cole smiled. Katrina watched, as he turned and sauntered to the end of the corridor.

  Katrina tried to stay focused in Miss Thompson’s class, but nothing she did worked. The same thing happened in history. Sitting in Mr. Fielding’s class, she was usually absorbed in his lessons, but not today. Cole’s face surfaced repeatedly, clouding her thoughts and destroying any attention span she could spare. She couldn’t understand it, but there was just something about him. Parts of their earlier conversation kept replaying in her head and every time her body tingled at the thought.

  After a while, Katrina just gave up and stopped fighting the urge. She let her dizzy infatuation with Cole carry her away. It became a pleasurable daydream. Picturing the way his baby blue eyes stared at her caused her to blush. There was just something about Cole that left her wondering and craving more. He was so mysterious and cute; she convinced herself Jake had been mistaken. Before she could let her mind wander too far, the bell interrupted.

  Embarrassed at herself, she abruptly packed her things up and met Stacy at her locker. Katrina knew by Stacy’s fidgeting body language something was up.

  “I have been dying to talk to you all day! What was that at lunch?” Stacy blurted out.

  “What?” Katrina played off.

  “You know what— Cole and Andrew joining our table for lunch. Or let’s talk about the fact that Cole couldn’t take his eyes off you the entire time.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Right. I told you, Kat. Live a little. He’s totally into you, which is cool because it leaves Andrew, for me. Think about it. We could double date.”

  “Maybe,” Katrina smiled. “Are you coming home with us today or are you catching the bus?”

  “I have to go home and finish my art project, so I’ll call you later and I want every juicy detail,” Stacy grinned and ran off towards the bus.

  Making her way to the truck, she noticed Jake standing in front leaning on the grill.

  “What’s up, Jake?”

  “Looks like we’re walking home. Someone slashed the rear tire and it’s completely flat.”

  “I can’t believe this.”

  “You and me both.” Looking at her brother, Katrina didn’t say it, neither one of them did, but they were both pretty sure who was responsible.

  “We can try and call Marty’s Tow Service.”

  “You can. I left my cell at home.”

  Katrina reached in her bag and pulled out the little black rectangle. She looked at it a second and then frowned. “Oh, that’s real nice.”

  “What?”

  “My battery died.”

  “You forgot to charge it again, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, guess I did.”

  “Oh, well.”

  “Great. Guess we’re walking home.”

  “It’s not a big deal,” Jake shrugged. “I can walk with you part of the way, but then I have to go to Trudy’s and catch up on work. She’s been pretty understanding about school and all the time I missed, or I’d try to get out of it.”

  “This has to be the end to a perfect day.”

  “Look at the bright side.”

  “Which is?”

  “At least it’s a nice day out. Perfect walking weather.”

  “True.”

  “Come on,” he gave her a slight nudge. “I’ll race you to the end of the street.”

  Jake’s lean and lanky body was very fast, but so was Katrina’s. The two ran neck and neck to the end of the street, neither of them faltering. Katrina felt like she was a kid again, as the two of them dashed to the end of the street. Out of breath, they slowed their pace to a brisk walk. They started laughing like children, as the crisp cool air replenished hit their faces. It took a moment for them to catch their breath, but then they started walking. Jake kept his word and walked with Katrina halfway.

  “I’ll see you tonight and we’ll talk. Okay?” Jake asked.

  “Right. Are you going to be home late?”

  “Not sure. Depends on what’s waiting for me when I get there. You know how she is.”

  “Yeah, putting everything off until the last minute.” Or until Jake does it.

  “Hey, why don’t you come hang out with me? I know you don’t want to be cooped up in the house by yourself all day.”

  “I don’t know,” she hesitated. Spending an afternoon with all of the gossiping hens at the salon wasn’t exactly the way she wanted to spend an evening.

  “Come on. It could be fun just to hang out.”

  “Sounds like it, but maybe another day.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you later then.”

  “See you.”

  “Bye, Kat.” Jake turned and veered left towards Trudy’s Salon.

  * * *

  Katrina knew her mom was working a double, but she hoped she’d be surprised and find her faded white station wagon in the driveway. Disappointment hit her, but she knew it was a long shot since her mother worked at Morgan Springs’ only 24-hour caf�
�. Katrina hated the fact that her mother was gone most evenings, but she quickly grew accustomed to the harsh reality. Her father was gone and her mother was doing what little she could, since she was left with an immeasurable amount of medical bills to pay for.

  Dashing inside the empty house, Katrina threw her backpack onto the bench next to the front door. A low moan of disgust slipped out, as she took a somber look around. She hated being home alone. Her house always seemed dreary and cold when it was empty.

  Walking into the kitchen, Katrina exhaled a deep breath and went to fix herself a snack. She couldn’t wait to call Stacy and tell her all about her interesting day. It was only the low growl of her stomach that caused a detour into the kitchen. Since she skipped lunch and had to endure a five-mile hike home she was famished.

  Shoving the peanut butter and jelly sandwich into her mouth, she grabbed her cell phone and plugged the battery in to charge. It felt like it was going to take forever to charge. Leaning against the counter, she quickly found Stacy’s number in her contacts and waited for a ring tone. The phone seemed to take longer than usual to search for a signal.

  “Come on, answer.” Katrina was too impatient and it seemed to ring forever. To her frustration, Stacy never answered. Puzzled, she scrunched her eyebrows together and glanced at the time on the apple clock above her mothers stove. It’s 4:30, where the hell is she? She should be home by now.

  Staring at her phone, Katrina grew anxious. She was dying to talk to her best friend. Not to mention the thought of being stuck home alone left her bored out of her mind. She took just a quick second before coming to a decision. She grabbed her house keys and headed out the door.

  Walking down her gravel driveway, Katrina did a double take. She thought she saw something dark out of the corner of her eye. When she turned to check it out, it was gone. It was enough to set her on edge. She shook her head and wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her. Off in the distance the neighbor’s dog suddenly started barking and made her jump. Strange, Scooter didn’t bark at me when I came home.

  “Hello? Is someone there?” She tried to keep her voice from cracking, but failed.