“No,” he said quietly, “I was just thinking that you sound like me now. I hope I’m not turning you emotionless.”
“You have more emotions than you give yourself credit for,” I told him. “If you didn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to read that on your face just now.”
“This could get ironic; the hit man gets emotional and the victim goes cold.” He gave a light laugh, but the seriousness stayed with him.
“Maybe that’s why God brought you here,” I sighed.
“You really believe that, don’t you? Not the part about God, I know He exists, but about everything being according to His plan.”
“Yes, I do. Why? What do you think about God?”
“I believe He created us and put us here, but everything is a simple matter of chance. We make our own decisions and then, someday, we’ll answer for them.” He glanced at me and then looked back to the track.
“But you can change,” I insisted.
Coach’s whistle blew.
He turned to me, his eyes getting that void look to them again. “In five weeks, I’m going to put a bullet in you. I’ve been on a path straight to hell for the last seven years and even though this feels good to me right now, I’d rather go back to feeling nothing at all.”
He left me standing there as he walked away. Within a few moments Jewels and Natasha were flanking my sides begging to know the scoop between Evan and me.
I ignored them both and went inside.
Ryan was waiting for me outside the locker room. It didn’t totally surprise me, after all our next class was Chemistry Honors, so I half expected he would walk with me. What did surprise me was that he was quiet most of the way. Just before we went through the doors into class he stopped me. “You know, Leese, if you were dating me you’d at least be smiling instead of looking suicidal.”
I swallowed, “I don’t look suicidal.” My argument was weak and I knew it.
I followed him to the lab coat rack, thrust mine on and then went to stand and fume by my table.
“Okay. Today we are going to pit the boys against the girls,” Mr. Chester began. “I want everyone to come up and get an empty soda bottle, a nail and a balloon, then find a partner of the opposite sex.”
I inwardly groaned; I’d had enough of the opposite sex.
I went forward to get my supplies. Ryan was waiting at my table when I turned around. “I want a different partner.” No one paid me any attention and Ryan only smiled.
The experiment was simple, the guys stuffed the balloon into their bottle, peeling the top of the balloon down and over the bottle’s threads and then they were instructed to try to blow up the balloon. I enjoyed watching Ryan’s pitiful efforts as his face turned red and then he stopped because his ears were aching.
The girls were instructed to fill their bottles first with water, cap it and then take the nail and pierce a hole near the bottom of the bottle. We emptied the bottles and then did the same thing as the boys, stuffing our balloons inside and attempting to blow them up. To my amazement the balloon inflated easily. What was even cooler was the fact the when you covered up the nail hole with your finger and took your mouth away from the top of the bottle, the balloon remained inflated.
As we were all ooing and aahing over the results, he told the boys to repeat the same thing with their bottles. The experiment was completed and we spent the remainder of the period listening to him explain the principals of air. He also showed us a large clear vacuum chamber with a rock and a feather. Once the air was removed and a vacuum created inside the cylinder, we watched in amazement as both objects fell at the same rate of speed when he turned the chamber over.
Ryan was still playing with his bottle and balloon as class was ending. He’d blow it up, put his finger over the hole and observe the balloon staying inflated, then move his finger and watch it deflate. I was starting to wonder just how many times he would do this before getting tired of the amazing little trick.
“I wonder,” he whispered as Mr. Chester continued to speak. He reached in front of me to the sink in our table and turned the water on very slowly. He had his balloon inflated and was keeping his finger over the hole as the water ran inside the balloon.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, R…”
But before I could finish my statement, Mr. Chester noticed what Ryan was doing.
“Mr. Faultz! Don’t…”
It was too late. Being caught in his own private science experiment, Ryan’s hand slipped down the bottle, uncovering the nail hole. The water shot up dousing my head, our table and he even managed to hit Mr. Chester before the balloon emptied.
“You stupid ass!” came out before I could shut my big mouth. The entire class roared with laughter.
Mr. Chester stood there staring at the two of us. Finally, he gave a steely smile and went on to explain how the air rushing into the bottom of the bottle caused the water to shoot out of the balloon.
The bell rang, but he stopped us. “Well, you two have a choice. You can both get referrals…”
“What did I do? He’s the one who squirted both of us!” I snapped.
“Miss McKinnis, you are correct about his experiment, but what came out of your mouth was inappropriate. So, if you’ll allow me to finish.” He stood there waiting for me to respond.
“Fine, I’ll be quiet.”
“As I was saying, I know you both have lunch right now, but in lieu of referrals, I’ll allow cleaning up the mess to serve as your punishment. Agreed?”
“Yes, sir,” Ryan said moving to where the mop was kept.
I only nodded and went for the stack of paper towels to dry off the counter.
“Very good. I’m going to lunch and when the two of you have cleaned this up, you may go also.”
As soon as he was out the classroom door, I went to smack Ryan but he dodged my hand.
“Come on Leese, I’m sorry,” he was backing up with his hands up in the air. “I didn’t know it was going to do that.”
If I chased him, we would surely end up with an even bigger mess, so I resigned myself to go back to drying the table, and my hair, and my face, and the front of my shirt. I even had a little on my jeans. Fortunately for me though, my lab coat had taken the brunt of it.
“Let me help,” Ryan offered when he saw that I was trying to peel off the wet coat.
He grabbed it by the collar and pulled it down and off behind me. “What the crap…” I heard him exclaim.
And that’s when I realized what he’d done. He had grabbed the collar of my over-shirt with the lab coat and removed them both. My face flushed with embarrassment as I jerked my over-shirt out of the coat and away from his hand.
“I—I hurt my arm in the fight Saturday night, that’s all,” I lied.
“No, no you wait just a minute.” His voice had become hard and commanding, all the teasing disappeared. “Annalisa, I saw you hit that woman and you did it with your left side.”
I was surprised that in all the commotion he had seen my battle. Then he reached out and carefully placed his hand around the bruised skin. It was an almost perfect, large hand print.
“That son-of-a…”
“Ryan, stop! It wasn’t his fault.”
“He did this to you? I’m surprised he didn’t break it like he did that guy’s elbow! I’m gonna kill him!”
At this point I was trembling all over. I didn’t want him to confront Evan, and I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to calm him down if he got out of the classroom. “Please, please,” I said stepping directly into his path, pushing my five-foot, eight inch frame into his. “Please, don’t do this. Let me explain.” I was trying to keep the tears back, but I could feel them building up on my lower lashes.
His face was flushed and his eyes were wide with anger. “I told you he was dangerous! I didn’t think he was that stupid though.”
“Please believe me, he didn’t mean to do this. He feels awful about…”
“He should!” He snapped.
The tears had finally started to fall.
He seemed to calm immediately. “Hey, it’s okay, I’m sorry. I don’t want you to cry.” His arm wrapped around me but that only seemed to open the flood gates wider.
We must have stood there for two or three minutes as I tried to gain my composure. I couldn’t tell him all the stress I was under or anything that was going on—that, I was certain, would put him in danger if he challenged Evan, but I needed an emotional release.
He sat me down on a lab stool and handed me tissue, after tissue as I got myself under control. He finally must have felt that I was holding it together, so he asked me to tell him exactly what happened.
A million stories raced through my head. But the only one that was going to work was the truth. “Remember how I passed everyone on the bridge?” I said snuffling back a tear.
“Yeah, you scared the hell out of all of us,” he gave a little laugh.
“I got to the circle before any of you and—well, I learned how to spin a car three-sixty when I was fifteen,” I glanced up to see the look of surprise on his face. “Evan didn’t know what I was going to do and I was feeling a little crazy…”
“You were the one who made those marks in the parking lot?”
“Yeah, I spun out the car and kind of freaked him out. He didn’t mean to grip my arm so hard and he really did feel bad about it afterwards. Please don’t start anything with him over it, okay?”
He still had a perturbed look on his face, but he finally broke into a grin. “Would you like to drive my car?”
I choked out a laugh and smacked his shoulder. “It’s a thrill-junkies’ wildest ride if you put me behind the wheel.”
“Anytime,” he stated with emphasis, “you want a walk on the wild side, my vehicle is available—and I won’t freak.”
I thanked him for his offer and put my damp over-shirt back on. “So we’re cool, right? You aren’t going to get to the cafeteria and flip on me are you?”
“I’ll be fine, but if he ever lays a hand on you and does mean it, I’m gonna hurt that boy.”
We headed down to the cafeteria with only about ten minutes left in the lunch period. Just before opening the cafeteria door for me, he paused. “Do you really, really like him? You’re sure you don’t want me to kick his…”
“Ryan!” I stopped him. “Yes, I really do like him, and please be good.”
Every head at our regular table snapped our direction when we came through the door. I was looking a bit like a drowned rat and Ryan still had that, ‘I’d like to choke someone,’ expression on his face. Evan was on his feet and moving toward us. Ryan had promised me he would be good, but he must have not been able to resist clipping shoulders as they passed each other. Thankfully, Evan seemed more concerned about what had happened to me than Ryan’s challenge. With any luck, he’d just think that was left over male ego from this morning’s race.
“Where have you been? And what,” he said letting a handful of my wet hair slip through is fingers, “happened? You’re soaked.”
“I had to stay after and clean up in chemistry class. Ryan had a little accident with a water balloon.”
“If he had the accident, then why did you have to stay after and clean up?” He was already starting to look Ryan’s direction and the visual challenge was beginning.
“I—I called him an—I cussed in class,” I said dejectedly.
“You cussed?” he mused.
I only nodded.
“Good girl,” he said as we sat down at the table, his warm arm wrapping around my damp, chilly shoulders.
“Don’t call me good for doing that. I almost got a referral.”
I could tell he was trying hard to hold in the laughter. He pushed his salad toward me, “I saved you half. Hurry up and eat; the bell is gonna ring any minute.”
He and Ryan began their usual staring competition. I ignored them and simply followed orders because I was starving. Six bites down and one sip of coke, and the bell rang.
Once we made it to math class and took our seats at the back table, Evan lean toward me and whispered that he wanted to know what really happened in chemistry.
“I told you,” I tried to say it calmly.
“Leese, he was looking at me like he could kill me—and, I mean really kill me.”
“He saw my arm,” I finally admitted. “He was trying to help me get off my wet lab coat, but he got my over-shirt, too. Can we talk about it later, please?”
He was staring intently at me and then it was as if he flew right into me. He and I went sprawling across the classroom floor, the chairs and table going every which way. My head went back hard but it was cradled in his hand, keeping me from hitting the terrazzo. I heard two loud cracks and glass shattering, everyone was screaming and diving for the floor. I laid there trying to make sense of what was happening, but Evan wouldn’t let me up. I was covered by his body and he had my head pulled into his chest.
“Crawl for the door!” he yelled, half dragging me and half allowing me to move on my own.
People were still shrieking and cowering as we reached the door and pushed it open; others began to follow. Once in the hallway, he pushed me against the wall, frantically looking me over. “Are you okay? Were you hit?”
“I—I—I don’t know what—what just happened?” It was as if my body had gone in to convulsions from shaking so hard. I looked at myself, realizing I was whole. “I’m—I’m okay,” I finally managed to say.
The P.A. system went off as Principal Lykman’s voice came over and urgently told everyone we were going to immediate lock-down. The teachers were instructed to move the students to safety and lock the doors.
There was a small teacher’s lounge not far away, and I could see Evan’s mind working as he looked at the door. “In there, no exterior windows—come on.” We moved into the darkened room, the only light coming from the glass panel in the door.
I was still shaking as he held on to me, yet as frightened as I was, I felt safe and warm.
“I still don’t understand what happened. One minute we’re talking and then you got this incredible look on your face and we were on the floor. Were those shots?”
His eyes were wild as if his whole body was running on years of instinct and training. “You were talking to me when I saw the red bead hit your shirt. This would have been really hard to explain if it had been someone’s laser pointer instead of a laser sight, but there was no time to wonder that at the moment.
I know my eyes batted several times before I could process what he’d just said. “You mean there is another one, someone else like you after me?”
“Just be quiet and lean against me. I’ll find out what’s going on.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket, he always carried it, but I had never seen him use it. “Damn it,” he muttered. “There isn’t any signal in here.”
“What are we…”
“Shhh, don’t talk,” he whispered as soothingly as possible. “We’ll wait here until they give the all clear and then we’re out of here.”
I laid my head against his chest and listened to the rapid beating of his heart. I closed my eyes and began praying.
Within an hour, an announcement was made for the student body and faculty to calmly proceed to the gymnasium. We stepped into the hallway. Police were everywhere, and there was yellow tape around our math classroom entrance. He was pulling me left as I was going right toward the room.
“No!”
“Wait, give me a second,” I pleaded.
He was still moving me the opposite direction when I pulled from his grip and approached one of the officers.
“Young lady, you are supposed to be going to the gym. You’re not allowed…”
“Please, that’s my classroom. My purse is on the floor…”
“You’ll have to wait…”
“I can’t go home, no car keys, house keys, my—my medication for—epilepsy.” I lied, but I was still so shaken that he probably thought I was
on the verge of a seizure.
“Oh—okay, what does it look like?”
I pointed just past the tape line. “There, the small black leather one, by the orange chair.”
He ducked under the tape and quickly retrieved it.
“Thank you so much,” I said grabbing my bag and turning to Evan. “Let’s go.”
He wrapped his arm around me as we headed toward the gym. “Very nice job, but you should have told me you were epileptic.” He smiled.
I looked at him and rolled my eyes. “Aren’t we leaving?”
“Not yet, you’d stand out like a big bulls-eye if we were the only ones in the parking lot. We’re getting a change of clothes.”
“I don’t under…”
“If the shooter is anywhere around, he is looking for you in your yellow top and white over-shirt, with blue jeans. We’ll get you into the girl’s locker room, and I want you to put on your gym clothes. I’ll try to do the same.” We rounded the bend to find the gym hallway was packed with students. He moved me like a chess piece until he got me to the girls locker room door which was, fortunately, unlocked. “If you can make it to the boys’ locker room door, wait for me there. If they make you go in the gym, I’ll come in through the west doors. Keep watching them until you see me.”
I nodded and slipped into the locker room. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to get my stupid combination lock undone, but finally it gave way. I pulled on my shorts and tee-shirt when I remembered my arm and put my over-shirt back on. The counselors and office staff were moving everyone into the gymnasium. I tried to slip around them undetected, but it didn’t work and I was sent into the throng of nervous students.
Within minutes, Evan came through the west doors. He was frowning as I walked up to him. “No over-shirt,” he stated firmly.
“But my arm...”
“It doesn’t matter, take it off. Do it now. And here,” he said, handing me a ball cap. “As soon as they release us, put up your hair.”
I cringed as I removed my over-shirt and tossed it onto the bleachers. “What now?”
“We wait, but we’ve got to work out a ride.”
01 Untouchable - Untouchable Page 15
