6:59

by Nonye Acholonu

  Cam’s eyes narrowed into slits as he tried to calm himself. “Bug off, Olive. I mean it this time.” Without another word, he backed out of the driveway.

  But before he could turn onto the road, I was in the passenger seat, locking the door beside me. Ah-hah! Made it.

  Cam slammed an angry hand on the steering wheel, the horn blaring out loudly at the blow. “Get outta the car!” he yelled, baring his teeth in an angry snarl. I’d never seen Cam so angry like this. That was definitely a red flag as to whatever he had planned for tonight. Maybe he was going to rob a bank.

  “No, Cam,” I retorted, keeping up with my newfound assertiveness. “I’m not going to let you do something you would regret.” It was hard to look him in the eye, what with his contacts and such. They were kinda creepy.

  “I said get out.” He sneered, his face inches away from mine.

  I just stared forward and buckled my seatbelt. If I remained unrelenting, he probably wouldn’t go anywhere. Besides, why would he want to go to his planned location with some girl from his school harshing his mellow?

  Cam sighed heavily and stared forward as well, clenching his jaw as he stared through the windshield. It would have been silent if the music wasn’t playing softly on the radio.

  “Get out,” he said after a while.

  “No,” I answered.

  Back to quiet staring. My grandmother probably thought I was still sitting in the lawn chair. She was that oblivious. Other times I would have been peeved by her ignorance, but today seemed pretty necessary. It was going to be a long night of us just sitting here and—

  Cam slammed his foot on the gas pedal, zooming out of the street at the speed of lightning. I was so surprised; my gasp came out more like a scream.

  “What are you doing?” I cried out as the car continued to accelerate faster and faster, zooming around corners at incredible speeds.

  Cam didn’t look my way as he navigated out of the neighborhood. “I have important things to do,” he answered, the look of determination hardening on his tan face. “You wanted to come; you’re coming.”

  My eyes widened in fear. “Where are you taking me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm as my hands clenched the seat handles. My only plan was to stop him from doing something he’d regret — not posing as an accomplice.

  He chuckled without amusement. “I’m not taking you anywhere. I’m taking me downtown. I’ve got a task to complete and I’m going to complete it.”

  “What task?”

  “None of your business.”

  I glanced sideways at him. “How could it not be my business? I’m here aren’t I?”

  Cam glared at me. “Yes. You are here. And whose fault is that?”

  I didn’t answer. Turning forward, I stared straight ahead. This was definitely not going as planned. But I wasn’t going to roll out of the car in fear. I mean, he was still Cameron — even if he didn’t like me calling him that anymore. And if he wanted to get all I’m a rebel on me, then I’d just have to see it through.

  Suddenly, his phone chimed as it vibrated on the dashboard. Both of our gazes flashed to the blinking screen.

  “Answer it,” Cam said.

  “You know,” I said, nodding at the phone. “It’s dangerous to keep a loose device on the dashboard. It could cause a serious injury if we were in a dangerous accident. But then again, it’s the quickest way to reach it, if not on this middle compartment thing here.” I felt myself beginning to blab — but I couldn’t stop. I desperately tried to stop my stupid mouth from moving, but sadly it couldn’t be done. “I think this situation is why they invented this middle compartment. It makes sense if you wanna put CDs or phones or drinks or—”

  “Can you just shut up and answer my phone?” Cam spat at me.

  My gaze flashed on him and widened. He was staring at me with blazing white-gray eyes.

  Not wanting to anger him any longer, I reached for his phone with shaky hands. What had I gotten myself into? I’ve never been treated so harshly by Cam in my entire life. Including the time when I accidentally shaved off his eyebrows! Now he was getting mad at me because I wouldn’t answer his stupid phone? What gives?

  As I touched the screen, a text flashed repeatedly. It was from someone named “Boss.” Did Cam have a job or something?

  “It’s a text message,” I said in a dull voice.

  Cam sighed. “What does it say?” His fingers clenched the steering wheel as he sped down the highway.

  Dutifully, I opened the text message.

  He wants some money from Pedro, the text read. Get him some.

  Money? Why would his boss want some money? Was it possible that his boss wanted him to come into work and, I don’t know, work? Or was it something as ridiculous as robbing a bank?

  “Your boss wants some money,” I said, air-quoting around the word money.

  Cam stared at me for a long time. Apparently not believing me, he grabbed his phone from my hand and looked at it himself. Once he saw the text, a flash of recognition crossed his face. He tossed the phone back on the dashboard and stared straight ahead.

  As we drove, I made sure not to say another word. I really didn’t like being the butt end of Cam’s hostilities. Just this morning we’d been laughing and talking. Now he was bossing me around and calling me pet names. If he were my boyfriend, I wouldn’t have minded those names, but laced with amusement and annoyance in his tone, I didn’t much like the pet names at all. Or the way he kept snapping at me.

  It was only when we drove into a dark, wet alley — cliché but true — did my heart beat quicker. Cam stepped out of the car and headed down the long, narrow passageway.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, jumping out of the car and going with him. Yes, yes, I know I'm screaming to myself, "Are you crazy? Stay in the car!" But it was scary sitting in an expensive car in the middle of nowhere in the dark with creepy gang members huddling at the street corner. I was much safer with Cam even if he weren’t acting like himself.

  Cam shot me a look of pure annoyance. “Get out of here or you will get hurt.” His words were like an icy whip, slashing at me with an incredible force.

  A normal person would take the hint and run. I mean, a crazy person would’ve been outta there in no time. But I stayed where I was, not knowing if I were out of my mind or just plain stupid. “No,” I said simply.

  Cam actually growled and then bolted back at me. He skidded to a stop, inches away from my face. Clenching my neck into his strong grip, he pulled me closer to him and growled again. I let out a tiny squeak.

  “You must be mentally retarded or just plain insane if you think I’m gonna let you come with me in here,” he snapped through clenched teeth. “You get out of this hideout or I will get rid of you myself.”

  That was when something inside me just snapped. Staring into Cam’s angry eyes suddenly made me angry, too. What had I done wrong? Nothing! So for him to be treating me as an annoying pest was so not fair.

  I swatted his hand away from my neck. “Stop it!” I yelled, fury bursting from my every vein. “Who do you think you are just treating me like this, Cam? It’s not fair and it’s hurting my feelings! You have no right to boss me around!” Now it was my turn to get all up in his face. “You apologize to me right now or I promise you I will never speak to you again. You hear me?” By the end of my tirade, my voice was hoarse from the yelling. I swallowed a big gulp, waiting for him to either hit me or yell at me.

  Cam’s face changed almost immediately. I saw a sudden flash of recognition and his face softened. Just when he was opening his mouth to say something, a deep voice from behind me rattled my bones.

  “What are you doing here, Cam?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cam

  Pedro wasn’t supposed to find me out here. I was supposed to ambush the son-of-a-gun and then take his money. My plan was now ruined. All thanks to Olive.

  I tore my gaze away from her and focused on Pedro. “Sup, Pedro,” I said, rubbing
my hands together. As I did this, I stepped in front of Olive.

  Pedro stared at the two of us, digging his hands into his pockets. “What do you want?” he asked, chewing on his cigarette. He wore a dark beanie over his equally dark hair and his clothes were baggier than any gang member I had ever met.

  Pedro had to be loaded. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out. But just in case, I X-rayed him. The world all around me opened up and I saw through his clothes. He had two gats on him and several knives. He expected a fight tonight. Great.

  “I said what do you want?” Pedro snapped, puffing out a thick cloud of gray smoke. His black eyes narrowed at me.

  I stepped forward and glared back. “You know what I want,” I said.

  A slow smile spread across Pedro’s dark tan skin. “You want the money,” he said, folding his arms over his chest. Then he chuckled. “But I ain’t givin’ it to you because — ¿sabes qué? — your kind don’t deserve it.”

  And in a second, he pulled out his gun and began shooting at me.

  “Get down and get to the car!” I called to Olive who began screaming like a maniac. She fell to the ground and crawled toward the car at a fast pace.

  As Pedro shot at us, more gangsters appeared from deep inside of the shadows. They immediately ran at me.

  “Oh, crap!” I cried out, and took off running in the other direction. They all pulled out their guns and shot at me. I quickly dove out of the way and ran faster. When the bullets died down, I knew that they were all chasing after me.

  I had to think fast — guns or powers? What would do the most harm the quickest? Without a second thought, I grabbed at my bag and tore it open. My guns were fully loaded and in my hands in seconds. Then I stopped, spun around, and began shooting at those douche bags.

  Two guys fell down and the other five dodged. When I ran out of bullets, I knew I had to do some man-to-man combat. Chucking my guns at two other guys, I ran at them. The two gangsters fell down unconscious and left me with the three others — Pedro included.

  “Get rid of him!” Pedro demanded, sending his fist crashing into my jaw. Pain flared around my face, but only for an instant. I flexed my jaw and began whaling on the other two that fell on top of me. Kicks and punches were flying everywhere. I couldn’t seem to find my way up from down but I did manage to avoid getting hit in the face again.

  When they began to get tired, I breathed heavily and sent them all flying backwards. They landed into the wall with a loud crash.

  Seeing them all unconscious, I tore into their secret hideout, grabbed the two bags of money, and catapulted myself back out the door.

  “What’s going on?”

  At the sound of her screech, I nearly had a heart attack. I had no idea Olive was still there.

  She was ducking behind the car, tears pouring from her eyes. Olive was breathing heavily and I knew she was about to pass out.

  Why did she have to follow me and muddy things up? If she weren’t here, I would’ve been able to drop down onto the money and then get out of there. Now I had been forced to kill two guys and leave the rest unconscious. Not to mention suffer a couple blows to the head.

  “Just get in the car,” I said as evenly as I could.

  But she didn’t hear me. She had already passed out.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Cameron

  Today I was able to wake up and get my stuff together in record time. However, my books were spilled all over the ground, my bag zipper was broken, and my shoes were dirty. I scratched my head trying to remember why it was so. Last night I had gone straight to bed after practicing my piano. Everything was in order and not even close to broken. So why was my room all screwed up now?

  Deciding to figure this all out later, I tossed my stuff into my old backpack and ran down the stairs to find workers cleaning up our house.

  “What happened?” I asked, walking into the living room where Mila and Dad were monitoring the workers. Looking around, I saw that the living room was a complete mess. Windows were broken, the coffee table smashed, and walls were crumbled.

  Dad stared up at me with a confused expression on his tanned face. “You don’t know? Or are you too trashed to remember?” His words made me take a step back. Where was the hostility coming from?

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said firmly. “And I am in no way trashed, Dad.”

  Dad rolled his eyes and went back to directing the workers. Mila stood up and walked over to me. “There was a peculiar earthquake in our home last night, sweetheart. It seemed to rumble the furniture and break windows. But we’re all safe now.”

  I nodded, knowing I slept through the whole thing. Great. What if a bookshelf had fallen on top of my father and I was idiotically sleeping like a baby. I really needed to get this whole blackout thing checked out.

  “Get on to school,” Mila was saying. “We’ve got this place taken care of.”

  I nodded and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry I wasn’t able to be of any help, Mila,” I said with a frown.

  Mila shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. You were just busy sleeping, honey,” she said.

  ****

  Olive was at her locker when I turned the corner. She wore a hot pink sweater and dark jeans that made her legs look as if they went on for miles. I smiled to myself, popped in a breath mint, and then walked over to her.

  “Hey, Olive,” I said with a bright smile.

  Olive wouldn’t look at me. She kept her gaze on her locker and continued shoving the books in forcefully.

  I didn’t know what to do. I knew for a fact that she’d heard me and was ignoring me. Desperately I tried to remember what I did wrong. As I searched my brain for answers, Olive slammed her locker door shut and headed down the hallway.

  “Olive, wait!” I cried out, hearing the desperate crack in my voice. Why was she treating me like this? What did I do wrong?

  Olive spun around and marched back up to me, allowing me to finally exhale. But my face immediately froze when I saw the look of pure anger on her brown face.

  “You scared the crap out of me last night, Cam,” she snapped, jabbing her finger into my chest. “The sound of constant gun shots kept running through my brain and I couldn’t get the image of three gangsters whaling on you out of my mind.” She stepped up closer to me. “Never again, Cam. Do you hear me?”

  I heard her. But I did not understand a word she’d just said. Three gangsters were whaling on me? Gun shots? What was she talking about? And why in the world was she calling me Cam again?

  “W-what are you talking about?” I asked her.

  Olive’s eyes narrowed and she let out a shriek. “Get your act together!” she screamed, then she walked away.

  My jaw hit the floor. Olive never got mad at me — even when I’d flushed all of her dolls down the toilet.

  “What was that all about?” Armando asked, stepping up beside me.

  I peered up at him, knowing my face was a dead giveaway to my utter and complete shock. “I have no idea, Armando,” I said. “She’s mad at me because I scared her. She said something about gun shots and me getting beaten up by gangsters.”

  Armando scratched his chin. “Perhaps she was dreaming,” he said simply. “She probably had a nightmare and it followed her into reality. Happens all the time.”

  “Hey, that makes a lot of sense,” I said.

  “Right?” he said, clapping me on the shoulder.

  Armando had a point. There were countless times when I would wake up thinking I had super powers or a brand new car. Olive probably dreamt that I was getting beaten up, and freaked.

  The thought of her actually caring about my well-being made me smile. She was that frightened, she thought it was real. I didn’t blame her. If I ever saw Olive in danger in my dream, I would probably still be shaking.

  “So can I come over tonight?” Armando asked as we began walking down the hallway.

  I nodded my head nonchalantly. “Sure,” I
said. “Just make sure you leave before seven. My dad has a policy.” I knew what I said was utter bull, but I didn’t want to tell him the truth; that he had to leave before I blacked out.

  “Will do,” he said.

  When we went our separate ways, I went in search of Olive again. In AP English, she was there thankfully, but she was sitting next to some other kid — not in her regular seat by mine. I let my questioning gaze fall on hers, and she quickly averted her gaze.

  After class, I went looking for Olive but she sped out of the classroom faster than I’d ever seen her run.

  Throughout the rest of the day, I couldn’t sit still. Olive was still mad at me. You’d think she’d get over her stupid dream by now, but no, she was still on her let’s-avoid-Cameron game.

  After school, Armando and I lounged on my couch, eating junk food and watching the football game.

  “She’s still avoiding you?” Armando asked me, jamming a fistful of chips into his mouth. The leftover crumbs fell onto the squeaky clean carpet.

  I nodded. “She won’t even look at me,” I said, feeling sad.

  Armando lay back on the couch, sighing. “She’ll get over it. In a matter of time, she’ll come to her senses and realize that her being mad at you is stupid. Just give it some time.”

  I nodded and tried to block out thoughts of Olive by watching the game. It was no use. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, all I could think about was Olive. My mind was so completely consumed with her, that I almost forgot about the time. It was 6:55 pm.

  “Crap, Armando, you have to go!” I said, standing up quickly.

  Armando looked at the time. “Oh, right, that seven o’clock thing.” He stood up and grabbed his shoes. “I’ll see you tomorrow, dude.”

  “Yeah, see ya,” I said, almost pushing him out of the house.

  The door couldn’t shut fast enough. I managed to look at the time and see it turn to 6:59 right as I blacked out.