Safe with You

by Shelby Reeves

  Who is that? The force the unknown girl gives off hits me square in the chest, hard enough for me to stumble back. I grab Bo’s arm for support as I watch her walk down the hall in our direction. The first thing I notice is she didn’t look like any of the girls at our school, she has a look all her own. The second thing I notice is that she seems the type to keep to herself. The third thing I notice is how drop-dead gorgeous she is. And I bet she had no clue. Her shoulder length golden brown hair is draped around one shoulder. My fingers itch to tuck it behind her ear. Her bright blue eyes remind me of a beautiful sunny day when the sky is clear. She is at least five three…maybe five four, which was about a good four inches shorter than me. She doesn’t look like she is from the country nor does she look like she is some rich girl like Ellen. She looks perfect and she never looks my way, not once. Not even she stops at her locker to put some binders away.

  In my daze, not once did I even think to walk over and talk to her. It is too late now because by the time I break the trance she has me right back in another one. My eyes glued to her backside as I watch her sway her hips as she walks away.

  Bo hits my shoulder blade. “Hey man, are you alright?”

  A smile breaks out on my face as I rub my hands together. “Yeah…I think I’m gonna be just fine.”

  As usual, the clock ticks by slowly until finally, the one fifty bell rings and it’s time to suit up for gym class. Bo and I head straight for the locker room to dress out.

  Somehow, I had not seen the new girl since this morning. For a minute, I think I had imagined her. That is until I overhear some of the guys on our team talking about her. Heck no, it’d be a cold day in hell before I let one of them get to her first. The odds for me aren’t looking good at all since she isn’t in any of my classes.

  I walk up to their huddle to but in their conversation, pretending not to know what they are discussing. “What are you crazy asses goin’ on ‘bout?”

  “We have a new girl that is fine as hell,” Colt informs me of what I already know. He has a shit-eatin’ grin on his face I’d like to wipe off.

  “What’s her name?” I at least need to know that bit of info before I go and talk to her.

  “Cassie?” He looks to the other guys for confirmation and they all nod in agreement.

  “Cassie,” I test her name on my lips. Darn, now I really need to meet this girl who has my world spinning on its axis.

  I hear my name being yelled from across the gym. I whip my head around to see Bo motioning me to throw him the ball. I walk over and pick up the football lying in the middle of the court. I rear my arm back fixing to let it loose. And that’s when I see her. She has her headphones in, jogging the baseline around the gym. Cassie looks incredible in baggy mesh shorts and a t-shirt.

  “J, throw the ball!” I rear my arm back once more and let the ball fly in Bo’s direction; well I thought it was heading in his direction. Bo had to sprint a few steps to his left to catch it and ends up plowing into Cassie. When I notice the collision about to happen, I run towards her. I guess I thought I was superman and I was gonna be able to stop Bo from colliding with her.

  Bo hits her with so much force it knocks her back several steps and she falls into the concrete wall. I wince myself when I hear her head smack the wall. “Cassie!” I didn’t reach her in time to catch her before she hit the floor. I punch Bo in the shoulder when I see he rendered her unconscious.

  “What the heck, bro?!” I growl as I press my fingers to her throat making sure she still has a heartbeat. “Thank God,” I mutter when I feel the steady beat of her heart beneath my fingertips. My heart is running a hundred miles an hour as I continue to reprimand Bo.

  Jessie, one the girls from our class, crouches down beside us. I’d like to point out that Jessie is not one of the girls who fawn over us all the time. “Oh my God! Is she okay?”

  I want to say yes, but I’m not sure she is. “I hope so.”

  When she finally starts stirring, my heart starts beating faster than ever. Her eyes flutter open, revealing her sea blue eyes and I am sucked in. Heck, I am done for. Looking at me, you wouldn’t know it, but I’ve always been a sucker for the ‘love at first sight’ stuff. I am a goner before she even utters a word.

  I tried to keep my jealousy at bay when Bo kept flirting with her, but she made it bearable when responded to his ‘charm’, as Bo would call it, with a threat. Right off the bat, I notice this girl can hold her own. Heck, she just drew me in further with that.

  I am like a darn cow she is roping in, and I am loving every second of it.

  Chapter Three

  Cassie

  Bo doesn’t set me down until we are in the nurse’s office, and that was on the table. J stands by the door, blocking it, with his arms crossed like he thinks I’m going to make a run for it. I just might…

  Taking a good look at J, I notice he is as muscular as Bo. What are they on, steroids?

  Bo stands next to me, explaining to the nurse what happened. After she asks me question after question, I guess to make sure I’m not looney. She checks out my head and then proceeds to shine a light in my eyes.

  Finally, she gives me some more ice for the knot on the side of my head and instructs me to go home and lie down. I don’t mention to them I don’t have a car. I’d hate to know what Bo and J would do then. And I’m not riding the bus home. No way. I’d rather walk home. I have not ridden the bus a day in my life and I’m not going to start now.

  “Alright Cassie, let me call your parents and have them come get you.”

  “No!” All three heads whip in my direction. Well, four including, Jess. “I mean, they are at work so I don’t want to bother them,” I add quickly. What I really mean is that my dad is probably stoned out of his mind and my mother would brush it off like it was no big deal and then yell at me for it as soon as I got home because “I attracted attention to myself”. She is probably as coherent as my father right now to tell you the truth. She acts all high and mighty, but she is no better than him. “I’m fine, honestly.” The nurse purses her lips but doesn’t say anything.

  “We can take her home,” Bo speaks up from beside me.

  I look at the nurse, shaking my head. “No, no I’m fine.”

  “Cassie, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go home by yourself. I highly suggest letting someone drive you home.” She turns and looks at Bo. “Y’all don’t mind taking her home?”

  “No, ma’am. We’d be happy to.”

  She smiles sweetly. “That’s sweet of y’all boys.”

  Jess gives me an apologetic look. “Girl, I would take you home in a heartbeat, but I have some get together with my parents.”

  “It’s okay. See you tomorrow?”

  “Bye, Yankee.”

  Ignoring my attempt to walk on my own, Bo sweeps me up in his arms again like I weigh nothing. “Why do you insist on carrying me? I have two perfectly good legs!”

  “Trust me, I know how perfect your legs are,” he smirks.

  I feel my face getting hot. Did he really just flirt with me?

  This time Bo doesn’t set me down until I am in the passenger seat of his truck. Even if he had set me down on the ground he would’ve had to lift me up in the truck because it is lifted too high for me to climb. J climbs in the back seat of the candy apple red Dodge Ram 1500 that is covered in mud. I’m surprised I could even make out the color of the truck.

  “Do you ever wash your truck?” I ask as I fasten my seatbelt.

  He shrugs as he backs out of the parking spot he parked in. “No, I like it muddy.”

  “Why?”

  He chuckles. “You’re definitely not from the South darlin’.” There’s that damn word again. Rearing my fist back, I let it fly, punching his bicep as hard as I can. That turned out to be a big mistake.

  He slams on the brakes when I scream and clutch my hand. “What the hell! Is your arm made of steel?”

  I hear J curse from the back seat and then he is between Bo a
nd me, checking out my hand. I didn’t miss the spark that ignites from him grasping my hand. No…I can’t be attracted to anyone. One…I will be gone soon and two…these two are thorns in my side.

  “No darlin’, it’s man made muscle thank you very much,” he smirks. If my hand wasn’t throbbing I would punch him again.

  Very big thorns.

  “Where do you live?” Bo asks when he pulls up to a stop sign.

  “Uh, good question.”

  “Okay…let’s try this again. What road do you live on?”

  “Another very good question.”

  Bo pinches the bridge of his nose. “How in the heck do you not know where you live?”

  “I haven’t been here, but a week so excuse me if I don’t know my address by heart yet!” I immediately wish I hadn’t of yelled because now my head is starting to throb harder.

  “Cass,” J murmurs softly, grabbing my hand again. The gentleness of his touch calms me. “How did you get to school this morning?”

  I lick my lips and gave an innocent shrug. “I walked…”

  “You walked?” J sputters. “I’ll get to that topic in a minute. Can you tell me which direction you came from?”

  “Uh…” I pull my eyes from J and glance around, taking in the surroundings as I try to remember which road I turned off of when I made it to the school. Then a brilliant idea hit me. “Wait…” I start scrambling through all the papers I got today. “Here it is!” I pull out a piece of paper which incidentally has my address on it, handing it to Bo.

  Bo stares at the page with a dumbfounded look on his face. “Dang it, darlin’ you walked a good thirty minutes at least to school this morning!”

  What is so wrong with walking thirty minutes to school?

  “Let me see that.” J snatches the paper from Bo’s hand and scans it with his eyes, I guess to see for himself. “Really Cassie? It’s not safe for you to walk alone anywhere these days.”

  “I’m not a five-year-old; you do not need to lecture me on what the real world is like.” I already know.

  Neither of the guys utters another word to me as Bo drives toward my new home for, at least, four months. I shift my weight and lean against the door, my head against the cool glass. For once, I actually like the silence seeing how these two like to get under my skin so much.

  When Bo turns into the driveway I notice right away that the one car we have is gone, which means they are gone. Surprise, surprise. They are probably out looking for their next score. I don’t know where in the hell they will find drugs out here, but I guess you’d be surprised. They would drive pretty far to find their next fix. Who knows what all they are on? I’ve never cared enough to find out.

  My father used to have an undercover job, but he could never go into detail about it. My mother was the typical stay-at-home mother. I can’t say that I’ve had a bad home life because I haven’t. My parents, up until recently were pretty normal. Now, they’ve just gone off the deep end. I’m not exactly sure why. According to Dad, he claimed he was fired from his job so he turned to drugs for an ‘escape’ and somewhere along the line my mother got hooked on it. I’ve tried to explain to them that drugs don’t help, but I gave up after giving the speech a hundred times.

  “Thanks for the ride,” I mumble before I climb out. I close the door and walk up to the porch. To my disappointment, they both are behind me, right on my heels. I turn the knob to walk in, but it is locked. What the heck? I run my hand across the top of the door frame hoping they left me a key. No such luck.

  “When will your parents be home, Cass?” J asks from beside me.

  “Soon.” Heck, I didn’t know. I just assumed they’d be here when I got home or at least left me a key. I knew they wouldn’t leave the door unlocked.

  Bo takes a stance, folding his arms across his chest. “Really? It looks to me that you expected them to be here judging by the way you just tried to walk in. I thought you said they were at work?” Dang it, Bo is too observant.

  I needed to choose my words carefully around these two, especially Bo. “No…I, uh, I mean we only have one car so of course I knew they were not here. I just assumed they’d leave it unlocked for me. Like I said, they are at work.”

  “How long is soon, Cass?”

  I turn my gaze to J, his brown eyes penetrate mine. They are soft, like the tones of the earth. “Like four.”

  J produces his phone from his pocket. “Great, that’s in like fifteen minutes. We’ll just wait with you.” He sits down on the porch steps.

  “Good idea, J.” Bo jogs back to his truck, killing the engine before I can protest, and sits down on the steps with J.

  I hold my hands up in the air. “Hold the phone!” Bo holds up his phone and I smack it out of his hands. It skids through the grass a good two or three feet away. “I didn’t mean literally!” I snap at him.

  He grunts and gets up to pick up his phone.

  “Who said I wanted you two to wait?”

  “We did,” they say in unison, and I groan out loud.

  Palm meet forehead. I would seriously high five my forehead, but it would just add to the headache I already have from them, so instead I clench my fists and close my eyes, taking deep breaths. I seriously need to calm my nerves before I punch one of them again, probably Bo.

  I slowly open my eyes and harden my glare. “Exactly…I did not say you could wait with me.”

  Bo’s response is to pat the open space between him and J. J holds out his hand for me to take for some unknown reason. My hand flinches in the direction of J’s outstretched hand, but I force it to stay by my side. “If I can get in the house will you two leave?”

  Bo snorts. “Oh, this should be interesting.”

  I grab the door handle and shake it violently, trying to force it open. I back up a few steps and run full force into the door, you know like they do in movies. In the movies it worked, in real life or at least my life, not so much. I clutch my shoulder, rubbing the sore spot I now had.

  “Dang, I haven’t had this much entertainment in a while.”

  J punches Bo’s shoulder. “Shut it, Bo. Cass, please stop and sit down before you hurt yourself more than you already have.”

  My mind is conjuring up images of me kicking their butts. These two had me resorting to violence as a coping mechanism.

  Bo happily pats the space between him and J again. Feeling defeated, I sigh audibly and sit down. “It’s about time you see it our way.”

  “If you want to keep your balls intact I would highly suggest that you quit talking.” Bo’s eyes widen and he motions his lips were sealed. J chuckles next to me so I cut my glare over to him and he instantly quits.

  There, now that’s more like it. Now, if I can just get them to leave it would be a lot better.

  Chapter Four

  J

  It didn’t feel right leaving Cassie waiting on her front porch alone. She said her parents would be home at four o’clock yet we haven’t seen them yet and it’s going on five o’clock.

  “Cassie, why don’t you just come hang with us for a bit and then we’ll bring you back?” It is also another way to get to spend some time with her and a way to get to know her without coming straight out and asking. I will ask her eventually, but she seems hell bent on getting us to leave. I know she doesn’t know us, I mean, she just met us almost three hours ago and judging by the glares she’s shooting our way, I’d say we are at the very bottom of her favorites list. I blame Bo and his smart ass mouth for that.

  “They’ll be here soon.”

  “No offense, Cassie, but you’ve been saying that for the last thirty minutes,” I remind her.

  “Yeah darlin’ and I’m starving.”

  “Bo…do I need to remind you of my previous threat?”

  “No ma’am.” Cassie narrows her eyes at Bo for like the hundredth time. “What am I not allowed to call you ma’am either?”

  “No, because it makes me sound old.”

  “Come on, that’s the be
st excuse you could come up with?”

  “It’s the only one you’re going to get so I suggest that you like it.” God, I love her snarky attitude.

  “Cass, just please come with us for a couple hours you’ve at least got to be thirsty.” I try again against my better judgment. Her stomach betrays her by growling. “See, you’re hungry.”

  “Fine, I will, only because I’m hungry, I’m bored, and my butt is starting to hurt from sitting on this concrete.”

  “Fair enough.” I stand up and hold my hand out to help her. She ignores my hand in true Cassie style and stands herself.

  “Thank God, darlin’! I’m starvin’ so bad I could eat a horse!”

  “Bo…” Cassie says in a sweet voice that I have yet to hear her use, but we all know what she’s fixing to say won’t be sweet at all. “Just because I said I would go doesn’t mean that I’m not conjuring up ways to inflict bodily harm.” She pats his shoulder and walks ahead of us.

  “Darn it,” he mumbles. “Don’t you ever leave me alone with her,” Bo grumbles under his breath to me and I laugh out loud. “I’m serious! That girl will probably behead me and use my head as the face of a dang scarecrow!”

  Cassie must’ve heard his little dramatic outburst because she turns and says, “Aww…Bo, you didn’t tell me you could read minds!”

  I swear I just saw fear flash in his eyes. Note to self: never, ever leave Bo alone with Cassie or she’ll more than likely kill him.

  I walk up behind Cassie and placed my hands on her hips so I could lift her into Bo’s truck. I swear I hear her breathing falter for a split second. On the inside, I’m grinning like an idiot because it means she is feeling it, too.

  Bo is quiet on the ride home. Heck, I think he is afraid to even breathe around her at this point.

  When Bo turns down our long gravel driveway that winds back through the woods, Cassie, showing her roots asks, “Are you bringing me out here to kill me?”in a drop dead serious tone.