by Amity Hope
“How’s the ankle?” he asked.
I glanced at Seth as he rounded the front of his truck. He shrugged. “I mentioned it at practice last night.”
“He said you weren’t able to walk on it. He had to give you a ride,” Brent said. “Is it okay now? Do you need some help?”
“I’m good,” I assured him. The three of us started off toward the school. It was bitterly cold again this morning. No one was lingering in the parking lot.
As we reached the double doors that led inside, Brent put his hand on my arm. I stopped so I could turn to face him.
“So I was wondering…” he started. “Would you maybe want to go out for pizza tomorrow night?”
I felt my eyebrows shoot up. Was he asking me on a date? Or was this just a friend thing? Then I realized it didn’t matter. I made an apologetic face. “I can’t. I have plans. Maybe a different night?” Did I even want to go out a different night? I wasn’t sure. That would depend on exactly what it was that he was asking me.
“Well, tonight is out. We have a game,” he said.
“I know. Alyssa and I are meeting Caitlin and Gabby there.” I glanced at Seth. He hadn’t continued on inside without us. Instead, he was standing, face expressionless, waiting for us to go in too.
He shrugged. “Okay. Maybe some other time?”
“Sure,” I agreed.
*****
“Harper,” Dad said as we stood in the foyer. “I don’t know if it’s such a good idea to have him over.”
“Why not?” I demanded. He’d just walked in. I was getting ready to leave. I was picking up Alyssa so we could go to the hockey game together.
He hesitated as if choosing his words carefully. I pulled on my mittens and waited.
“I just don’t think he’s the same kid that you remember. I think he’s had a hard time since his mom left.”
“So because he’s had a hard time I’m not supposed to be his friend anymore? Dad. That doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean? Wait,” I said, “do you know why his mom left?”
Dad frowned as he shook his head. “Rumor has it, and keep in mind it’s just a rumor, I didn’t hear it from Bart, but I heard she had an affair years ago. Apparently Lily wasn’t his. He found out about it. I don’t think she left so much as she got kicked out.”
I stared at Dad for a moment in perplexed silence. I couldn’t imagine Mrs. Ryerson having the freedom to have an affair. But if he made her leave, maybe he’d made Seth stay.
“I don’t think Seth has handled it the best,” Dad said.
“How would you know?”
Dad’s gaze dropped to the floor. Indecision bounced across his face. I could tell he had something important to say. The question was whether or not he was going to be willing to say it.
“Dad?” He swung his troubled gaze my way. “You know Seth used to be one of my best friends. I still care a lot about him. He lives next door. We have two classes together. If there’s something you think I should know, then please tell me.”
“I hate putting my nose in other people’s business but maybe you’re right. I don’t know the details but apparently Seth got out of hand last fall. Bart had to call the cops. They took Seth away. I don’t think any charges were filed. I’m sure Bart was able to sweep the incident under the rug. He’s been on the city council for years. He knows a lot of people.” Dad’s expression was grim.
“Bart called the cops on Seth? Are you sure it wasn’t the other way around?”
“Positive,” Dad said. “I watched them take Seth and then I went over to see Bart. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. He said that Seth had been a handful ever since Joanne left. He said something set Seth off. I guess it wasn’t the first time. But it was the first time it got that bad.”
That just didn’t sound right. Or did it? Had Seth finally retaliated after all of the years of abuse his dad had thrown at him? If he had, I couldn’t blame him. I’d go as far as to say I was proud of him. Or at the very least, relieved. Until the weight of Dad’s words settled down on me. Seth was not the violent one. No matter how I spun that around in my head, I couldn’t weave it into a scenario that made sense. Bart was lying. I was sure of it. I had no idea what had really happened but I was sure it wasn’t the story that Dad had repeated.
“Maybe you should postpone this cooking thing. Or maybe Paula and I can get out of the dinner party,” he said with a sigh.
I shook my head. “No, you’re not changing your plans because of me. And it’s not like I’m afraid to be alone with him. Come on Dad, it’s Seth!” I frowned, wondering what Seth would think of our night alone together. I didn’t want him to think I’d manipulated him into an accidental date of sorts.
Dad mistook my apprehension for something it wasn’t. “You look concerned. Paula could probably go to this thing alone tomorrow. I think I should be here.”
“What? No, that’s not it. I mean it is, but not the way you think,” I said.
He was clearly waiting for further explanation. He wasn’t going to get it.
“I’m not worried about being with Seth. And you shouldn’t worry about it either. I mean, come on, you’ve known him since we were in preschool. Besides,” I pressed, “you know what Mr. Ryerson is like. You know how he manages to twist things into something bigger than they really are. I mean, just look at the mail.”
He didn’t look entirely convinced but I didn’t want to give him any more of a chance to argue his point.
“I’ve got to go, Alyssa is waiting for me,” I said. I reached for the doorknob but worked up a smile for him. “Don’t worry about tomorrow night. It’ll be fine.”
He gave me an unconvinced nod and I was on my way. As I drove to Alyssa’s, it was impossible not to think about what Dad had said. When I got to her house, she didn’t even give me a chance to shut off my Jeep.
“Hey,” she said as she pulled herself into the passenger seat. “Thanks for the ride. I hate not having a car! I didn’t want to have to ask Gabby again. Not tonight anyway. Not when she’s going with Caitlin.”
“You don’t like Caitlin?” I asked in surprise.
“No, I do,” she said hesitantly. “I’m just not sure what Gabby thinks of her right now. I think things might be pretty tense.”
“But they’re riding together?”
“You know the saying. Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer?”
I raised surprised eyebrows at her. “Caitlin and Gabby are enemies?”
She shook her head. “Not yet but the potential is definitely there.”
“Right,” I said, suddenly understanding. “Does this have to do with Mason?”
Alyssa blew out a relieved sigh. She probably had not wanted to explain it to me. “Yeah. You noticed?”
“It was kind of hard not to.” My mind immediately pulled out the memory of Mason’s eyes lingering on Caitlin. He’d mixed her a drink but had left his girlfriend to mix her own. Then there was the light flirting at school. Mostly on Mason’s end but Caitlin didn’t exactly discourage it. “I’m not too sure what I think of Mason,” I carefully said. This wasn’t entirely true. I knew exactly what I thought of him. I didn’t like him much.
“I know. But Gabby’s had a crush on him since the day he walked into our biology class last year. He had a thing for Caitlin from day one.” She cringed. “Obviously, I think he still does. Caitlin claims she’s not interested even though sometimes I wonder. I hate to say it but I think that’s the reason he’s going out with Gabby. I don’t know if he’s trying to make Caitlin jealous or if he’s just using Gabby to be closer to Caitlin. Either way, it’s a crappy thing to do. I’ve tried talking to her about it. But she doesn’t see it and there’s really no delicate way to put it. I figure it’ll just have to run its course. Hopefully she doesn’t get hurt too badly in the end.”
“I think it’s pretty crappy of Caitlin to encourage it.”
/> “Me too. But that’s just how she is. She likes being the center of attention. Of course she knows that Gabby and Mason are together. But it’s like she has to have constant reassurance that she’s the one he really wants. That’s why she eats the attention right up,” she explained.
“What about her and Seth?”
She shrugged. “It’s the same thing, really. There’s nothing serious going on. I think she just likes to know she can get him whenever she wants.”
“Right,” I muttered.
We rode in silence for several minutes.
“Do you know anything about Seth getting into some trouble?” I darted a look her way.
“What do you mean? Are you talking about the time he got suspended? Because Brandon totally deserved that black eye. He had no right grabbing Caitlin like that.”
“Wait, Seth got suspended? For getting in a fight?”
She nodded. “That’s not what you were talking about?”
It hadn’t been but now I was curious about that too. I decided to evade her question.
“Who’s Brandon and what did he do to Caitlin?” I asked.
“Brandon Seymour? He graduated last year. Anyhow, it happened last spring. She had a short skirt on. She was at her locker and he came up behind her, slid his hand under her skirt and grabbed her ass. She tried shoving him away but he laughed like the whole thing was just a joke. Seth happened to be walking by. When Brandon didn’t let go of Caitlin when she asked and when it was clear that she was trying to get away, he clocked Brandon right in the face. The whole thing was pretty one-sided. Brandon hit the ground just as Mr. Conrad walked by.” She scrunched her face up in annoyance as she referred to my Trig teacher. “We tried telling him that Brandon had it coming. I mean, he really did. He was always being inappropriate with Caitlin and Seth knew that. It didn’t matter though because Seth threw the only punch and Mr. Conrad said it was completely unprovoked. Seth got suspended.”
I could feel her looking at me but I kept my eyes on the road.
“That wasn’t what you were wondering about, was it?” she demanded.
“Why? Is there anything else?”
“Not that I know of,” she said. “Did you hear about something else?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure. I just heard he’d gotten into some trouble but I didn’t know the details.” It wasn’t a lie, even if it wasn’t the whole truth. “But that sounds like it really wasn’t his fault,” I agreed. I had my suspicions that whatever really happened at the Ryerson’s that night wasn’t his fault either. I was tempted to tell Alyssa what my dad had said but it seemed that she really didn’t know anything about it. I was sure she wouldn’t gossip about it if I told her. Yet, if she didn’t know, then Seth had somehow managed to keep things quiet. I was not going to be the one to ruin that for him.
“You might as well just park back here,” Alyssa said as we pulled into the parking lot. “The games usually sell out. I don’t think you’ll find anything closer.”
I was surprised because we were actually pretty early.
I pulled into the spot she pointed at, realizing she must be right. Despite being early, the lot was filling up.
She hadn’t been exaggerating. As soon as we walked in, it was clear the place was packed. Woodbury was a small town. There wasn’t a whole lot else to do on a Friday night in the wintertime. We had to wait in line to get our tickets.
“I haven’t been to a game in years,” I admitted with a grin as I followed her. The last game I’d gone to had been Woodbury High’s last game of the season, our freshman year. It had been a JV game.
As the rink came into view, I caught sight of the guys practicing. It was crazy how much faster they looked compared to three seasons ago.
“I don’t know anyone’s numbers,” I said to Alyssa as I followed her up the bleacher steps.
Over her shoulder, Alyssa rattled off Brent, Logan, Mason and Seth’s numbers. “Is there anyone else you’re wondering about?”
“I’ll concentrate on those four for now,” I said. I glanced back at the ice. I picked out Seth and Brent right away.
“We usually sit here,” she said as she took a seat on the bleachers. “I told Gabby I’d save them seats because Caitlin is always late.”
I took the seat next to her and she turned to me, half covering her mouth with her gloved hand.
“The Ravens are really good,” she muttered. Then she glanced around, as if afraid someone had heard her disloyal comments. She lowered her voice even more. “Logan was kind of worried about this game.”
I spotted Mr. Ryerson standing up at the top, leaning against the railing. He was alone. Arms crossed and a solemn look on his face. It appeared that Logan wasn’t the only one worried about the game.
“Does he always come?” I asked Alyssa as I nodded my head his way.
She frowned when she saw who I was asking about. “Always. And he always leaves immediately after. You would think he’d stay to talk to Seth after the game but he never does.”
I pulled my gaze away from him and redirected it to the ice. The players were done warming up. They were all clearing off the ice, heading back to the locker room.
My skin began to prickle in the way it does when some archaic part of your brain knows that something isn’t right. I glanced over my shoulder again. Bart Ryerson had leveled his gaze on me. I could almost feel it, like a physical thing. Cold, hard, malicious, and impossible to shake. I stared right back at him even though I had no idea why he was paying me any attention in the first place.
Did he know that I knew things?
A part of me hoped he did.
“Hey,” Alyssa said as she leaned into me. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”
I blinked, pulling myself out of my thoughts as I turned back to her. “What? Yeah. I’m fine.”
CHAPTER 9
“I’m sorry,” I said as I answered the door. “Dad had other plans. So it’s just you and me. I hope that’s okay. If it’s not, then maybe we can try another night?”
He squeezed past me and then just looked at me for a moment. I wondered if it would kill him to stop looking so damn adorable.
I had hoped to talk to him after the game last night but he’d left before I had a chance. Gabby had chimed in that Seth always headed straight home on the rare nights that they lost. Alyssa had speculated he just wasn’t in the mood to be with people after a loss. Brent informed me he thought Seth had left with Caitlin. I hadn’t seen her, either. So I had to assume he was right.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Seth said in answer to my question. “Unless you wanted them here?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t really care. I just didn’t want you to think…”
“What?”
“Nothing,” I said, deciding I should just stop while I was ahead. “Should we get started?”
“That’s why I’m here,” he said as he followed me into the kitchen.
I washed my hands and then moved out of the way so he could do the same.
I started pulling the ingredients out of the fridge and cupboards.
“No offense, but it just seems weird that you’re in this class,” I admitted.
“And that sounds sexist,” he teased. “Would you give Gabby a hard time for taking Auto Tech?”
“Gabby took Auto Tech?” I couldn’t quite picture it.
“Sure, she and Cait,” he said. “They said they wanted to be comfortable changing their own tires and checking their oil.”
Or maybe they wanted to be able to check out a roomful of boys on a daily basis. That seemed more likely to me, but what did I know?
I placed the cutting board on the counter and then picked up the recipe. “It’s not as bad as I first thought,” I said. “The ingredient list is long but the prep is pretty basic. So do you want to chop and slice? Or do you want to prepare the chicken?”
He glanced at the raw chicken with an endearingly dumbfounded expression on his face. “Maybe I’ll
do the slicing?” He reached for the knife I’d set out and grabbed the red pepper.
“That was a good game last night,” I said as I measured out flour.
He stopped, knife in hand and frowned at me. “I don’t like losing.”
“You still played well. And you only lost by one point.”
He shrugged, letting me know that my reasoning clearly didn’t matter.
“I looked for you afterwards,” I said as I reached for the paprika.
“I left right away.”
“I noticed.” I added the other spices to my bowl. Without looking up I said, “I saw your dad there last night.”
When I was met with silence, I glanced at him. His jaw was set as he used stilted strokes on the pepper. When he felt me watching him, he glanced up. “So?”
“So, I was wondering if you’re okay with him being there.”
“Sure.” He didn’t look at me when he said it.
“Really?” I pressed.
He placed the knife and the pepper on the cutting board. “Is this the real reason you asked me to come over tonight?”
“What? No.”
“Are you sure? Because the minute I heard you were coming back, I knew you were going to do this.”
“Do what?” I demanded. “Try to have a conversation with you?”
“No. I knew you were going to drag up all the crap from the past.” His tone was coarse with annoyance.
“I’m not doing that,” I quietly said. I had meant the words to be true but as they crossed my lips, I realized they might be a lie. Seth must’ve seen that realization flit across my face.
He ground out a sigh. “Right.”
“What can I say? I’m worried. I’ve always been worried about you. I’m not going to apologize for that. When we moved away, I wished I’d done more. I wished I’d done something, anything, to help you.”
“I didn’t need your help, Harper. Not then, not now.”
I had seen the bruises over the years. At first, I’d been too young to really question it. But then there was the night I’d seen through my bedroom window how those bruises were acquired. I frowned at the memory.
