Conrad

by Emily Rose

  Before I answered him, I climbed back into the passenger seat and settled. “I don’t know. There’s really no telling with them,” I said.

  Lucas didn’t respond and I didn’t push the subject anymore as I grabbed my book bag off the floor. Leaning back over the console, I planted a quick kiss on his cheek and then stepped out of the car, directly into the rain. “I’ll call you later,” I said before I closed his door and jogged toward the front door, rushing inside.

  Dropping my book bag on the floor beside the door, I shook off the rain and headed into the kitchen where I found my father sitting alone at the table reading the latest newspaper with his reading glasses perched on the tip of his nose. He didn’t even lay it down long enough to look at me as he spoke.

  “Dinner is in the refrigerator,” he said, clearly engrossed in whatever local news was going on right now.

  “What did Dare want?” I went straight to the point and walked over to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water.

  “I’m not sure. He came in, went to my office, and left without saying anything,” he said.

  My heart stopped and my hand froze on the bottle of water. Without saying anything to Dad, I shoved the refrigerator closed and walked as calmly as I could towards his office.

  When I reached the double doors, I could feel my pulse racing as I lifted my hands, grabbing the doorknobs and twisted.

  But it was locked.

  Dropping my hands, I stepped back and stared at the doors like that would somehow get them to open. Clearly, Dare had a key, which I thought was incredibly strange.

  “Dad, where’s Mom?” I called from where I stood.

  He answered from the kitchen. “She’s not home from work yet. Why?”

  “No reason,” I said as I thought about the file I had found in his office and wondered if that was what Dare had taken, even though I hadn’t seen him come out with it or really anything at all.

  Instead of continuing to stand there like a crazy person, I spun on my heel and headed up the stairs towards my bedroom. When I got inside, I closed and locked the door before I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Flopping onto the bed, I unlocked the screen and scrolled through my contacts until I found Dare’s number.

  And then I dialed.

  My heart kept racing as I placed the phone to my ear and listened to it ring. Once, twice, three times. Over and over. Rolling onto my back, I stared up at the ceiling fan and watched it spin with the phone still pressed to my ear. I was about to hang up when finally, Dare’s voice came over the line.

  “Hey,” he said.

  I sat up quicker than I should have and the room spun around me, but I ignored that and spoke. “Why did you go in Dad’s office?” I asked bluntly.

  At first, he didn’t respond and then I heard his deep inhale through the line. “And how is that any of your business?” he asked.

  Grabbing the bottom of my shirt, I started twisting it around my finger. “It’s not. Not really, but I’m curious,” I said.

  “Well, stop being so curious,” he said.

  Normally, I would have thought he was joking, but there was no indication in his deep voice that told me that he was.

  “Dare, what’s going on?” I asked.

  He didn’t respond, but I could hear the engine of Miles’ car, which told me that they were still driving.

  “Dare?” I pushed.

  He sighed heavily. “Lesley, trust me. Stop asking questions. Don’t worry about it and go be a teenager,” he said.

  “But…” I started, but he interrupted me.

  “I’m serious. Stop digging,” he said before the line went dead.

  I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked down at it just as it was flashing “Call Ended.” If there was one thing I hated, it was when someone hung up on me. That crap flipped my bitch switch like nothing else, so of course, I instantly dialed his number again and put the phone back to my ear. It was horrible that I was stalk calling my stepbrothers and I knew that I should probably listen to Dare’s advice, but I couldn’t help it.

  This time, the phone went straight to voicemail. Frustrated at my stepbrothers, I groaned and threw my phone to the floor. As I sat in the middle of my bed, I tried to think of something, anything, other than what was going on with them, even if my curiosity was itching to keep on bugging them with questions. Since I was caught up on homework, I laid back on my bed and tried to relax enough to take a nap, which to my surprise, didn’t take long.

  And I drifted off into a deep, blissful sleep.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Lesley

  “Wait, so you talked to Brad? Like on the phone?” I asked Noah as we walked through the school doors the next morning.

  He wore a mischievous grin. “Yep, but you can’t say anything. He’s not fond of being open about his… you know, sexuality.”

  My heart swelled for Noah, because despite not knowing much about Brad, I didn’t dislike him. He had always been nice to me and I was happy that Noah found someone he could talk to without any worries.

  I hooked my arm through his as we continued down the hallway, “I’m so happy for you,” I said with a wide smile.

  “Thanks baby. I know I forgot to call you last night, but I was talking to Brad until like 2 am,” Noah said.

  Shoving my way through the crowd of students with Noah still hooked to me, I responded, “No no. Don’t say sorry. I’m proud of you for telling him the truth,” I said.

  About that time, I saw Brad standing next to our lockers with Lucas leaning one shoulder against them, both seemed to be deep in conversation.

  “Hey!” I said and stopped next to Lucas, who looked over his shoulder and caught my gaze for only a moment.

  “Hey,” he said.

  Confused at his reaction, I glanced at Brad and saw that he had dropped his gaze to the floor with Noah standing right beside him, looking just as confused as I felt. My heart twisted and I felt that awful dread sweep into my veins.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked them.

  Brad spoke first, “Uh, Noah, do you want to walk to class with me?”

  Noah, who looked at me for whatever reason, decided to go with Brad. “Catch you at lunch?” he asked.

  I nodded, trying to sort through the confusing situation. Once Brad and Noah left, I turned to face Lucas who hadn’t moved from his spot against the lockers. When our gazes met, I saw something strange in his eyes.

  Disappointment.

  “What?” I asked, if not a bit too snappy.

  Lucas blinked slowly before he answered as if he had to take a minute to gather his thoughts, “You’ll see or hear about it soon enough,” he said.

  With that, he pushed off the lockers and started walking down the hallway. I spun on my heel to watch him, completely baffled by the strange moment.

  He said I would know soon, but I had no idea what he was talking about and waiting was never something I was good at. Clearly, no one was going to explain it to me either, so I had no choice. Turning back to my locker, I opened it quickly and grabbed my English book before I headed off to class, nervously waiting for whatever it was I was supposed to hear or see.

  ****

  Later that afternoon, I walked down the hallway toward the lunchroom with my book bag nearly dragging on the floor behind me.

  Today had been weird, to put it lightly. It wasn’t just the fact that I hadn’t spoken more than a few words to Lucas, but it was also the fact that a lot of people kept giving me the same look he had this morning. I still had no idea why either, but considering the events last week, I had to assume it had everything to do with Josh.

  My mind was so foggy with questions that I didn’t even notice that I had already reached my table in the lunchroom until I was already there. To my surprise, Noah, Lucas, and Brad were all there. Numbly, I sat down between Lucas and Noah, scanning my eyes toward them. The first thing I noticed was Brad and Noah. They chatted amongst themselves, clearly unaffected by the strangeness of the d
ay.

  I shifted my gaze to Lucas and our eyes locked. The disappointment I had seen in his gaze earlier was no longer there, but instead, I saw what looked like a genuine apology.

  He grabbed the apple off his tray and held it up, “Apple?”

  Surprised by his sudden change of attitude, I was about to respond when I heard gasps throughout the lunchroom, pulling my attention away from him. My gaze locked on the person who had walked into the lunchroom and that was when I sucked in a sharp breath of my own, because I finally understood what Lucas had meant. My hand came up to cover my mouth as I slowly took him in.

  The bruises. They were everywhere. His face was covered in them and not to mention the cuts. He looked like he had just walked out of a bad car accident as he limped toward his table without a single look in my direction.

  Someone had beat the ever-loving shit out of Josh.

  “Oh God,” I whispered.

  Lucas spoke then, “I told you that you’d see or hear about it eventually.”

  Without saying a word to him, I shot up from the table and started toward where Josh had seated himself without knowing what I was going to say. Behind me, I heard Lucas and Noah call my name, but I didn’t stop. Not until I got directly up to Josh’s table and brought my hand up to tap one finger on his shoulder.

  One moment, Josh was sitting and the next moment, he was standing.

  The move was so sudden that my own heart shot through the roof and I took several steps back, gazing into his wild eyes as he looked down at me.

  “Stay away from me,” he said in a voice filled with so much fear that it stunned me.

  I blinked. “Wh…what happened to you?”

  At this point, I knew the entire lunchroom was watching our interaction, but I didn’t care at this point. I wanted, needed, to know what happened to him.

  Josh took a few steps forward, but I stood my ground as I looked up into his eyes. “Stay the fuck away from me,” he said lowly before he spun on his heel, rushing out of the lunchroom almost as quick as he had appeared.

  Confused, worried, scared, I stood numbly next to his table with every set of eyes laser focused in on me. I couldn’t believe what I had just witnessed. Josh, the football player, told me to stay away from him. That wasn’t possible. There was absolutely no way he was scared of me. I knew for a fact that I hadn’t done a single thing to him, much less caused those injuries.

  But someone had and I didn’t have to think about it for too long before I realized who must have done it.

  ****

  Despite what happened at lunch, I tried to go about the rest of the day like normal, even though it was far from it. By the time school was let out, I was on the verge of beating my head against the wall. I needed to get to Lila’s. I needed to find Dare and Miles, even if it was the last thing Lucas wanted.

  I needed answers.

  Josh was a lot of things and he had tried something horrible with me, but that didn’t mean I wanted this done to him.

  After Lucas dropped me off at my house and left, I didn’t even bother going inside. I sat on the porch after texting Lila to come pick me up and during this down moment, I really felt just how much my life was beginning to spiral out of control. Secrets seemed to pile on top of more secrets, and it was slowly driving me insane. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take of this, but I knew there wasn’t much I could do about it.

  Nothing would ever change the fact that Dare, Lila, Miles, Kevin, and their mom was my family, even if I barely saw some of them. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had seen Kevin or had more than a ten second conversation with my stepmother. Those two seemed to always be MIA, which was strange to me despite never saying anything about it. Anytime I tried to ask my father questions, he would shut me down and tell me to accept the fact that they were involved in our lives.

  In the distance, I heard a roll of thunder as evening begun to turn into night and a warm breeze blew across the land, telling me that a storm was coming. It was a moment that hit me stronger than I thought something like that ever would, because I felt like the storm was already here. Like somehow, Mother Nature was trying to give me a warning about just how dark my life was going to get. A horn hooked and I snapped out of my thoughts only to see Lila’s car sitting in the driveway.

  Grabbing my book bag off the swing, I got up and headed toward her car. When I got into the passenger seat, I caught her concerned look, but I wasn’t ready to explain anything.

  “Just go. Please,” I said.

  She sighed, but put the car in drive and took us back toward her place without any more questions. The whole drive there, I sorted through questions I wanted to ask, that I needed to ask, but none of them seemed normal. All of them seemed crazy, but maybe that was just the way it had to be. Maybe crazy was just the new normal for me.

  When we turned down the alleyway that would lead us toward her house, I instantly saw that neither Miles’ Chevelle or Dare’s Jeep was there.

  Great. It was just my luck for them to be MIA.

  “Where’s Dare and Miles?” I asked as Lila put the car in park and shut the engine off, taking the keys out in the process.

  “They’ll be back in a little bit,” she said before she stepped out.

  Relief washed over me and I got out, following her into the house and taking a seat on the couch as she went straight for the kitchen.

  “So are you going to explain what this is all about?” Lila asked as she poured a glass of whatever alcohol she was drinking.

  I watched her from my spot on the couch, debating on the best response for longer than I should have. Lila wasn’t an idiot. She could read me just by looking at me and I should know better than to think I could keep this from her. So I took a deep breath and decided to pull my big girl panties on before I spoke.

  “Josh came to school today and he looked like he had just been in a bad accident. Do you know anything about that?” I asked.

  Lila paused with her glass midway to her mouth. I could see her eyes meet mine over the top as she slowly sat the glass down.

  “Wh… what? I mean no. I don’t know anything. Is he okay?” she asked, as she quickly tried to school her face into an innocent expression.

  The thing about Lila was that she could read me, but I could also read her just as easily and I knew when she was lying or trying to lie to me.

  And right now, that was exactly what she was trying to do.

  “Don’t bullshit me. Did Dare and Miles do that to him? Why are they always being so shady? What is going on, Lila?” I asked.

  Lila took a deep breath before she dropped her gaze from mine. She seemed to think about what she would say for a moment and then responded. “Lesley, there are… things that you don’t know, things that you don’t need to know about my family,” she said, lifting her gaze back to mine and it was at that moment that I saw just how serious she was.

  My fear flared to life, but I ignored it. Whatever these things were that I didn’t need to know were affecting me anyway, which in my mind, gave me every right to know. “Try me. I already think all of you are weird, so I doubt anything you say will surprise me,” I said with as much bravery as I could manage.

  I half expected her to laugh at my comment, but she didn’t. Lila stared at me with an unreadable expression on her face, which only made my fear that much stronger.

  “What if I told you that someone you know isn’t supposed to be alive right now?” She asked without ever breaking her gaze from mine.

  Her question took me off guard and I laughed. But it soon faded when I saw that she wasn’t smiling nor laughing.

  “You’re serious?” I asked, trying to ignore my pounding pulse.

  Lila didn’t respond with a yes or no, which told me everything I needed to know. She was dead serious, even if she wasn’t going to explain exactly what that meant. I looked away from her as I tried to let that thought process. The only person I could think of it being was the only person who had shown up rig
ht out of the blue, riddled with gunshot wounds.

  “It’s Miles. Isn’t it? He’s supposed to be dead,” I said more as a statement rather than a question before I met her gaze again.

  Leaving her glass at the counter, she walked around it and took the empty spot beside me before she answered. “I know this must be so confusing for you and I wish I could explain it all, but I can’t. Not without putting you in danger. The more you know, the more dangerous it will be for you. Honestly, I would have never told you about Miles if you hadn’t of been with me that night he showed up here,” she said.

  I blinked a few times before my words came to me. “So, what you’re saying is that Miles is deep in something and he’s the one who did that to Josh?”

  Lila sighed heavily. “Miles isn’t the only one deep in something, Lesley. We all are. Me, Dare, Miles. All of us, and the last thing we want to do is pull you into this shit storm too. Trust me, it is the last place you want to be and the longer we can keep the fact that Miles is alive a secret, the more advantage we will have against those who control this war.”

  My mind raced with thoughts. I couldn’t think straight. So many questions popped into my head, but all of them sounded like ones she couldn’t answer.

  “What about Kevin and your mom? Are they in this ‘shit storm’ too?” I asked.

  Lila’s gaze dropped to the blanket that laid between us and I knew I had hit a topic she wasn’t comfortable talking about, but to my surprise, she answered. “Kevin still is, but mom isn’t anymore because Dare agreed to keep working for my father as long as he didn’t do anything to my mom or me, or you for that matter,” she said weakly.

  Her answer explained why Kevin was never around, especially the last several months, but that wasn’t what scared me the most. It was the fear I heard in Lila’s voice. That was something I hardly ever heard coming from her. And that told me that Kevin was definitely not on our side of whatever was going on here.

  Before I could ask any more questions though, the front door opened. I looked up just as Dare and Miles walked in, both looking drenched. Before either of them could say a word or really notice me, I spoke with a sharp tone.