by Kelly Oram
And there was a lot that he could tell them.
I looked back at Carter, my eyes pleading rather than angry as panic began to set in. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said. Unfortunately my voice faltered, so I added, “Leave now, before I call the cops and explain to them that you’re stalking me from clear across the country.”
As I pulled out my cell phone Carter rolled his eyes at me and said, “You can’t afford to act like a teenager right now, Jamielynn. You will be sorry if you don’t hear me out, I promise you that.”
Carter’s threat caused another surge through my body, as did the way he reached toward me like he was planning to pull me by force from the parking lot. But this time the surge I felt was not adrenaline, it was electricity, and it was pulsing rather violently through me. “Don’t touch me!” I shrieked, imagining what would happen to him if he did.
The horror in my voice made Carter draw back his hand curiously, and Mike stepped between us. “All right, dude,” he said, getting in Carter’s face. “Time to leave.”
Carter’s face flushed with anger. “Or what? You’re gonna give me a wedgie?” he snapped, taking an aggressive step toward Mike.
Mike met his advance, and the two started arguing back and forth like a couple of sixth-graders. Immediately all the guys from the football team lined up, ready to pounce on Mike’s command, and Paul Warren started chanting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
I was going to use the distraction to make a run for it, but a single word brought everything to a halt.
Ryan Miller had spoken my name.
That’s all. Just my name. But that was enough. I whirled around and he was right there. His eyes lingered on me for an agonized moment, and then his expression turned murderous. “What,” he asked in a controlled but dangerous voice, “is going on here?”
Even Mike gulped before he spoke up. “This dude was harassing your woman,” he explained. Then he turned back to Carter and added, “He’s about to get a beat-down if he doesn’t take off. Right now.”
Ryan flashed a glare at Carter but couldn’t keep his eyes from returning to me. “Jamie?” he asked again.
My heart spun out of control as Ryan looked at me for the first time in a week. The overwhelming sense of relief was just one too many emotions for my poor body to handle at the moment. I shut my eyes before tears could spill from them and didn’t open them again until I heard Carter sigh. I’d had enough, so I looked helplessly into Ryan’s eyes. “Get me out of here?” I whispered.
Ryan didn’t even hesitate, but as we started to leave Carter grumbled, “I hope you know what you’re doing, Jamielynn. Because these accidents seem to follow you around, and if something happens to your new Derek Witters, here”—he motioned to Ryan—“I’ll be the least of your worries.”
My knees buckled under the weight of his statement. Ryan was too stunned by the reference to my dead boyfriend to catch me before I fell, but not too stunned to ball up his fist and throw it so hard at Carter’s face that it knocked Carter on his butt. Carter’s nose started bleeding everywhere—definitely broken.
“Whoa, Ryan! What is going on here?”
Of all the teachers to witness Ryan bloodying the jerk, I was glad it was Mr. Edwards. He’s cool. He kind of gets me. Or at least doesn’t bug me. He’s also the only teacher that wouldn’t take Ryan directly to the principal’s office. Fighting, even if it is with a sleazy reporter and not another student, gets you suspended at Rocklin High, and I didn’t want Ryan to get suspended. Sure, he was reigning champ of the jerks for ignoring me all week, but he was defending my honor. Plus, it’s Carter. I’ve wanted to pound that man more times than I can count.
Okay, maybe Ryan was forgiven.
“Jamie?”
I shook myself from my thoughts and blushed a deep red because judging from the bemused look on Ryan’s face, I had been staring, probably dreamily, at him while deciding I didn’t hate him anymore.
I scrambled to my feet just about the same time Mr. E. reached Carter. “Is someone going to tell me what’s going on here?”
Mr. E. seemed unnecessarily angry with Carter. He must have seen more of the spectacle than I thought.
“Just a misunderstanding,” Carter told Mr. E. absently, then turned his attention back to me. As he wiped at the blood starting to dry on his face he said, “We’ll talk later, Jamielynn.”
“Not if you know what’s good for you,” I warned.
He became irritated again, and his eyes deliberately flickered to Ryan. “I’m not the one you should be worrying about.”
I don’t know why I got so angry. Okay, I do. Because his subtle warning that I should be concerned about Ryan hit a little too close to home. But even still, I shouldn’t have lost it the way I did. Energy blitzed from my body like an invisible shock wave, and suddenly the lights throughout the student parking lot flicked on. It was only for a second, and most people didn’t even see it, but I noticed, Ryan noticed, and even Mr. Edwards noticed. He was staring up at the lights completely puzzled.
But more importantly, Carter noticed. His eyes grew really wide for a minute as he was unable to mask his shock, but he recovered quickly and gave me a knowing glance before he walked off. “See you around, Jamielynn.” There was no mistaking the threat in his tone.
Once he was gone and the shock of everything that had just happened wore off, Mr. Edwards was the first to speak. “Everything all right, Jamie?”
He was going to ask something else, but I cut him off. “Don’t worry about it, Mr. E. I’ll take care of him.”
I finally looked up to see half the school now staring at me. I took a deep breath and then met Mike’s gaze. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” he muttered, clearly surprised by my sincerity. “Who was that guy? What was he talking about? Who’s Derek Witters?”
“Look, I appreciate what you did, but it’s really none of your business.”
“Whatever,” Mike grunted, and then immediately headed for the parking lot.
“Are you sure, Jamie?” Mr. Edwards pressed again. “I think maybe we should call the police. That man should not be harassing you.”
“Just forget it—I’m fine. His harassment is second nature to me by now.”
“Who is he?”
“Nobody, all right!” I was beginning to lose my patience. Carter just has that effect on me.
“Okay. If you’re sure.”
My expression was ice cold again. “I’m sure.”
“In that case,” Mr. Edwards said with a sigh, “Mr. Miller, I’m going to pretend I didn’t see you break anyone’s nose.”
With that, Mr. Edwards headed back inside, and the rest of the crowd slowly began to disperse. Soon enough the only person still there was Ryan. “Are you all right?” he asked when we were finally alone. “Is there anything I can do?”
I went against my better judgment and met Ryan’s gaze, instantly getting lost in it. There was one thing he could do. He could pull me into his arms again and magically make me forget everything bad in my life the way he had in his backyard.
Remembering the magic of that moment reminded me of how abruptly it ended and how Ryan hadn’t so much as looked my direction since it happened. Suddenly the magic was gone.
“Ryan, you don’t have to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Pretend like you care.” I tried not to snap, but Ryan was still startled by my sudden hostility. “You were right—your paper’s done now, and you solved your mystery. I told you the truth about me, so there’s no need to keep up the charade.”
“You heard all of that?”
I tapped my ear with my finger. “Like Superman, remember?”
“I’m sorry, Jamie. I didn’t realize you could hear well too.”
“So you’re only sorry because you got caught? Is this a joke to you? Do you have any idea how big a deal all of this is for me? I didn’t just disclose intimate details of my life to you last week. I put my entire fami
ly’s lives in your hands by telling you the truth. It’s bad enough that you ignore me so that your reputation won’t be tarnished by association, but to trust you like that and then actually hear you say that it meant nothing? That we’re not even friends?”
“But I didn’t mean what I said!”
“Which part?”
“Any of it!”
I instantly regretted everything I’d said the second I saw his face. He looked so desperate for me to forgive him, so I relaxed as much as I could.
“I was just trying to get them off my case because I was scared,” he finally explained.
“Scared? Of what? Afraid they were going to get mad if you admitted we were friends?”
Ryan blushed guiltily but shook his head. “It’s more than that. After you left my house, whatever you did to me, it was just like when you kissed me. I was bouncing off the walls with all this crazy energy that I just couldn’t explain. My mom started asking me all these questions, and I didn’t know how to answer any of them. She wanted to take me to the doctor, but I freaked out and wouldn’t go. I wasn’t hurt or sick or anything. It actually felt amazing. But I didn’t know how all this stuff works. I was afraid a doctor might find something weird, and I didn’t want it to be able to come back to you.”
My anger was temporarily replaced with horror over the idea that I’d hurt him, and I gasped. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Oh yeah, I’m great! I mean, once it wore off I kind of crashed and slept for like eighteen hours, but other than that everything’s fine.”
I don’t think I’ve ever been more relieved in my life than I was to hear that I hadn’t really hurt him. I was honestly convinced I’d killed him when he didn’t show up to school that next day.
“Anyway, Jamie, I realized that you were right. All those times you told me it was better if I didn’t talk to you—I get it now. So as hard as it was for me, I stayed away from you all week because I’m scared of people figuring it out. I see why you don’t put yourself out there. It’s too big a secret. It would be too easy to make a mistake.”
All I’d wanted was for Ryan to understand. Yet having him agree with me somehow vaporized any hope I had of a normal life. Ryan had been the one thing that ever made me think my life might still be worth living, but now that was gone.
Surprise tears filled my eyes. Ryan reached out to wipe them away but once again decided not to touch me. “Your safety’s what’s important,” he whispered. “If that means staying away from you, then that’s what I’ll do. I give up. You really do win this one.” He gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Feel honored. You’re the first girl to ever successfully reject me. I didn’t think that was possible until now.” He stared at me for another long moment with a lot of regret in his eyes, and then sighed. “See you around, Jamie Baker.”
Letting him walk away from me was the right thing to do. It was the out I’d been looking for, and it was what my dad wanted. It was the safe thing for sure, the smart thing. But in case you haven’t noticed yet, I sometimes lack some serious common sense. That, and Ryan Miller seems to be my Kryptonite. He got only about ten steps.
“Ryan, wait.”
He whirled around a lot faster than I expected, and his hopeful expression made me nearly forget why I was stopping him. “Yes?” he prompted when I forgot to speak.
“I don’t deserve that honor. I haven’t really earned it.”
“What honor?”
“Rejecting you.”
“What are you saying?”
“I wasn’t right. It is too big a secret. It’s too big to try to keep it alone. It’s dangerous and completely unfair of me to push this responsibility onto you. It’s a lot to ask, and I know I don’t deserve it, but if you’re not too freaked out by me, is it too late to accept your offer to be friends?”
I’ve never seen anyone look more stunned than Ryan did right then. It was as though finding out that comic book characters can actually exist was nothing compared to the possibility of me wanting to be his friend. Nice. Real nice. I must have been more of an ice queen than I realized. On the bright side, it was a good kind of surprised. He was definitely happy with my confession. Once he gained his composure, his smile turned into that infamous smirk of his. “Friends?” he asked skeptically, taking a step closer to me.
“Friends,” I warned seriously.
His face was only inches from mine now, and he was smiling down at me as if he owned the entire world. “I knew you secretly wanted me.”
Way to kill the moment. “Oh, would you get over yourself already?”
“I can’t.” His grin grew even wider. “I just won the heart of the world’s only superhero. I’m the man!”
“Ugh. Okay. I’m going home now, before I get sick.”
“All right, all right, I’m sorry. I’m just kidding. Kind of. But seriously, you like me. I can tell. I’m man enough to say it. I want you, Jamie. So bad I’m going crazy over it. Why won’t you just admit that you want me too?”
“I want to keep you alive—that’s what I want.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s a pretty big thing, don’t you think?”
“Well, yeah, not killing me is a pretty good goal to have, but I meant, is that all that’s keeping us apart?”
“Duh.”
Once again Ryan was so close to me that all I’d have had to do was pucker and our lips would meet. I felt my heart speed up, and then suddenly he was leaning in. “You’re not really trying to kiss me, are you?” I breathed just before his lips touched mine.
“You’re not really trying to stop me, are you?”
You know? In the end? I swear it’s going to be Ryan’s cockiness that saves him. It’s a lot easier to say no when he’s so sure he’s getting his way. I sighed and then lightly tapped my index finger to his stomach. The jolt didn’t hurt him, but it definitely didn’t feel good.
“Ow!” he grunted, and then frowned at me. The pout didn’t make me feel sorry for him. “Did you just do that on purpose?” he whined.
“Didn’t have any choice. What you were about to do to yourself would have hurt a lot worse.”
“But you kissed me before.”
“Yeah, and I was completely, one hundred percent calm then because (a) I had no idea that it could hurt you, and (b) that kiss was just a bet. It meant absolutely nothing.”
Ryan’s frown disappeared. “So you admit that kissing me would mean something to you now?”
“No.” I’m stubborn, what can I say?
“You’re killing me, Jamie. Killing me!”
“Look, Ryan, if you can’t handle being just friends, we can always go back to the me-rejecting-you option.”
The angry glare Ryan gave me was priceless. “Fine,” he grumbled, “just friends. But just for now.”
“Just for always.”
“Just until you learn to control it.”
Ryan raised his hand to my face again. I started to back away, but he refused to let me, so I took a deep breath before he ran the back of his hand slowly down my cheek. It felt so good that my eyes fluttered shut.
“All it will take is some practice,” he whispered.
You have no idea how much I hoped he was right.
* * * * *
CHAPTER 12
Eight o’clock Saturday morning I was up in my room—yes, watching cartoons if you must know—when Ryan’s voice suddenly caught my attention. Wherever it was coming from, it wasn’t that far from my house. “That’s great, Mom,” he was saying.
I turned off my TV and tried to concentrate on his conversation. Invasion of privacy? Maybe. My moral compass usually points pretty north, but I do have my moments of weakness, and let’s face it, a teenage girl spying on her crush is not exactly front-page news. I can’t help it if I’m better at it than most. Besides, I was curious as to why he was in my neighborhood.
I could hear his mother’s voice coming through the receiver of his cell phone. “Well, w
e wanted to come home and take you to lunch to celebrate, but we’re going to be a little longer than we thought. I’m sorry, Ry, but it looks like you’ll be on your own today.”
“That’s okay. I actually have plans for the rest of the day. Well, hopefully. I haven’t asked her yet, but I took the day off work.”
“Something I should be worried about?” his mother teased.
“Only if I get caught, in which case the police will fill you in, I’m sure.”
Ryan laughing with his mom had to be the cutest thing I’d ever heard. What a momma’s boy. It’s no wonder he got along so well with my parents. “Actually, Mom,” he said, becoming excited, “remember that girl I was telling you about, Jamie?”
Wait, what?
I was at my window now, trying to see if I could spot him driving down my street. I couldn’t.
“Oh, honey!” his mom gushed with sudden excitement. “She’s finally letting you take her out? Ry, I’m so proud of you! You see? I told you no girl could resist you.”
“Oh sure!” I laughed out loud to myself. “Throw gas on the flames, why don’t you?”
It’s no wonder he has such a giant ego.
“Well, actually,” Ryan said, “she hasn’t agreed to a date yet, but I’ve got a plan that I think will work. I’m headed over to her house right now.”
“Good for you, honey. Good luck.”
“Thanks, Mom. Have fun with Gene, and tell him congratulations for me.”
Ryan was on his way to my house? Not good. If he showed up, acting like we were friends now, my father would have a conniption. Especially if he realized that Ryan knows about me. I had to cut Ryan off before he could reach the front door. I ran downstairs, but then I saw my reflection in the china cabinet and headed back to my room.
I know I could break a lot of world records if I wanted to, but even for moving at superspeed, I took the world’s fastest shower, brushed my teeth, and threw on the first thing I could find. I came flying down the stairs, but my parents are all too familiar with that faint breeze rushing past them.
