Taking Risks

by Cassie Allee

  “There’s something about Risk that I can’t put my finger on.” Gray looked as though he was choosing his words carefully. “He seems to have plenty of secrets, but he also seems to be a good person. Not like that idiot father of his.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me Gray, besides, Risk is the first person to ever even show an interest in me when he should be freaked out like everyone else. I believe now that I was wrong to think he was laughing at me that day at school. I think I amused him.” I remembered how I overreacted and ran away from Risk the day that we met and I cringed. How embarrassing.

  As Gray thought that over I curled my hair, not that it would stay. The curls would more than likely become a disarray of waves before I ever even left my house. When I was satisfied with my hair I applied a modest amount of makeup and huffed at myself in the mirror. I was normally indifferent to how I looked, but I wanted to look like a girl that Risk could see on his arm. Risk was out of my league and I wanted to at least attempt to measure up to the kind of girl that he should be pursuing.

  Gray cleared his throat behind me as I scowled at my reflection in the mirror. “Do you want me to stay behind this time? I don’t want to be in the way or…distract you.”

  “Are you kidding me? You’re my best friend and I really need your opinion or maybe even a few pointers…” I muttered the last part.

  With his bad boy smile, Gray nodded and looked satisfied with my answer. “You really need to make some new friends. Having a figment of your imagination giving you pointers on boys…that’s just sad.”

  Sometimes I really wished that I could punch him, but I settled for a good eye roll instead. Gray rolled his eyes back at me and flipped me off. He really hates when I do that. Gray has always been more like a father or a big brother to me than a best friend. Sometimes I wondered if he had been a father in his lifetime, he seemed to know the role well enough.

  After a glance at the clock, I realized that I was probably going to be a little late. “Shit.” I had wanted to change my outfit again before I had to leave, but my skinny jeans and plain gray shirt would have to do. With one last good scowl in the mirror I rushed out to the Delray and headed towards town.

  On my way to the coffee shop I quickly typed out a text explaining that I was running late and that I was on my way. A moment later he replied saying, “K.” What a waste of a message. One letter that’s the most impersonal way to say “Yes, I understand, thank you for letting me know.” Not that I expected him to write any of that out or to be so concerned with me being ten minutes late. I guess that it’s just a pet peeve of mine, and I know it’s a little ridiculous. I’m a girl about things sometimes.

  When I got to the little coffee shop and walked in I saw that there was no sign of Risk. Gray and I took a seat at a booth near a window and waited for his arrival. With every passing minute I started to freak out. “Oh my God, Gray. What if he’s standing me up? What if he really was laughing at me at school? What if there’s a group of jocks waiting outside to publicly humiliate me?” It wouldn’t be the first time. When I was fifteen a boy asked me to a pool party and I gleefully agreed. I was never invited to parties and I was so excited. I wanted to wait until I got there to change into my swim suit so I packed a bag with a suit and towel. When I got there everyone was staring at me and when I finally found the boy who had invited me he motioned me over to him. He was sunbathing by the pool and before I could take the seat beside him he yelled, “FREAK!” and pushed me into the pool, fully clothed.

  “I don’t think so, Spud. I think he’s a good guy.” Gray said and I bit my lip trying to keep my nerves under control so I wouldn’t bolt out of the door.

  I waited another five minutes before I saw him walk by the window. Boy did he look good. He was wearing a green and black Green Day t-shirt with some faded-from-wear blue jeans that fit his butt just right. Whenever Risk entered the coffee shop I saw a few women take notice of him without even trying to hide it. I also noticed that he had something in his hand, a quaint bouquet of wild flowers. Gray smirked at me and I felt my face get a little warm.

  “Hey, I’m so sorry. I saw these on the way here, and when you said that you were going to be late, I went back to pick them for you. I don’t know if flowers are proper etiquette for a coffee shop date, but I thought that it couldn’t hurt.”

  So it was a date. “Oh, thank you so much. No one has ever given me flowers before. Well except for on my birthday my parents would always send flowers to school for me so I would feel special.” My inner self was shaking her head. Stop talking! What I should have said would have simply been, “Thank you, they’re beautiful” but my mouth traveled faster than my brain.

  Risk blushed and then took his seat across from me, beside Gray. I glanced at them both and wondered if Gray being there was a good idea. We made small talk about the weather and ordered our drinks. Risk ordered a black coffee and I got a cappuccino. When the waitress dropped off our choice beverages Risk started in on the “Q and A.”

  “So why do you seem to be a loner at school?” He was curious enough to ask, but not brave enough to look me in the eye as I answered.

  “Um well, I guess everyone thinks I’m strange. I don’t ever go places with any of them and sometimes they catch me talking to myself. I suppose I’m just a sort of mystery and shallow minded people are scared of what they don’t know or can’t control. I’m content being an outcast, but it does get irritating when they shower me in milk or artificially flavored drinks.” I flashed him a smile, but he looked irritated.

  “They do that to you? Throw stuff at you?” He had a fire behind his eyes as he asked the question.

  “Well it’s really no big deal. Everyone’s always been kind of afraid of me. It’ just their way of dealing with it.” I wanted to change the subject. “What’s your deal? I’ve heard the Mean Girls whispering about you too.”

  The fire faded from his eyes and he looked amused. “Mean Girls?”

  “Uh…yeah. I’ve heard them talking about you in English. About how you apparently didn’t spend an entire conversation talking about how hot they were so they decided to hate you, however, they were impressed by your physic.” I blushed a little at realizing just how impressed I was with his appearance. He chuckled warmly and looked down at his steaming cup. “Yeah I guess you can’t really talk about beauty with someone who has none. I have a very specific idea of what beauty is and apparently it doesn’t appeal to everyone.” It was his turn to blush, but he still had the courage to look me in the eye this time. It was as if he wanted to be sure to get his point across and leave no room for interpretation. I glanced at Gray who raised his eyebrows almost to his hairline in surprise, but he also somehow found enough facial muscles left to have the biggest dopiest grin ever. “He must really appreciate Risks moves.” I thought.

  My cheeks heated more as I spat out the only cliché thing that I could think of. “So what’s your story anyway?” Risks face darkened as he searched himself for an answer I knew would be vague.

  “Oh nothing really that interesting. My family is originally from here and we just decided to move back.”

  “So are you really twenty one?” I had been wondering that ever since I saw his license. It seemed creepy that someone so old would still be in high school.

  Risk just chuckled at me and said, “No that was totally fake. My old man had the license made for me when we moved here so that I could fetch him more booze when he ran out. I’m eighteen.” I was so relieved.

  Just like Risk had read my mind he said, “You thought I was some kind of creep, didn’t you?”

  I took a sip of my cappuccino and slyly replied, “It hadn’t crossed my mind.”

  After our drinks were gone we split a piece of apple pie with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. When we were finished Risk paid the waitress (who had been checking him out the entire time) and looked me right in the eye, stopping me from leaving my seat. “There was a specific reason that I asked you here today…” His
voice trailed off and Gray started to rub his hands together in excitement with that stupid looking grin on his face. I knew the question that was to follow too, so I nodded at him to go on.

  “Well you know prom is coming up, and I know it’s sort of short notice…I mean, you probably have a date already, but I was just wanting to know if maybe…” He stuttered around with the question and Gray yelled at him “JUST ASK HER!!!” After muttering a curse word under his breath Risk finally asked, “…Would you go to prom with me, Marlee?” I smiled so big that it hurt my cheeks. Someone amazing had just asked me to prom. I never thought that I would get a date to prom, let alone someone who was as gorgeous as Risk. I was already picking dresses out in my mind.

  Gray waved a hand in front of my face. “Answer him! He’s getting ready to run!”

  “YES!” I blurted out. Oh man, why couldn’t I talk to this guy like I had any brains at all? “No, I don’t have a date, and yes, I would love to go with you.” His nervous features washed away and a look of relief replaced them. “Oh good,” He said, “I thought you were going to call me a freak and run away.” He smiled as my eyes got wide and I said, “That happens to you, too?” Risk just sort of pinched his lips at me and raised an eyebrow as it dawned on me that he was joking and I was an idiot.

  “Just kidding…” I muttered and glared at Gray who had fallen over, laughing his ass off.

  We all got up to leave and Gray whispered in my ear, “Are you going to let him kiss you?” As if anyone else could hear him. That was something that I hadn’t thought about yet. I guess I was on a date, and I was eighteen years old and still had never been thoroughly kissed. I whispered as low as I possibly could while following Risk out of the coffee shop, “I don’t know…Should I?”

  Gray was no help. His only answer was a shrug of his shoulders. I would have been better off had he never planted the question in my mind in the first place. At least then I wouldn’t have time to worry about whether or not it would be awkward or magnificent. When we got to the sidewalk I was a nervous wreck and sweating like a pig, yuck.

  “Well I had a really nice time. I would really like to take you out again sometime soon. Would that be okay?” Risk was looking nervous again, but I was grateful that he had enough nerve to ask me out again because I could barely speak.

  “Yeah I would love that.” I finally said after staring at him a little too long. Gray was standing too close to us and he was making me more nervous than what I already was.

  “Awesome!” He had a real genuine grin. I wasn’t used to seeing someone excited to hang out with me, so the moment seemed special. “How about tomorrow after school?”

  “Oh I have to work every night until Thursday…so how about Thursday evening?”

  “That works for me! I’ll see you at school tomorrow. Maybe we can sit together in English.” He winked at me and then opened my car door. “This is an amazing car! It’s from the 1950’s right?”

  “Yeah, my dad and I restored it together. She’s a real peach.”

  “That makes this a special car then. It’s really cool that he took the time to do something special with you.” Risk said and a hint of sorrow crossed his face. “Anyways, see you tomorrow.” He said with a sweet grin and I thought that it was the most attractive grin that I had ever seen. I was standing there with my lips half puckered and ready for my end-of-date kiss when Risk turned on his heal and walked away.

  I temporarily forgot about Gray being there, but he made sure that he reminded me of his presence by singing “Love is in the Air” as soon as we got into the car.

  “Since we’re already in town, do you want to go see if Little Dirty Boy is at his old house?”

  “Sure.” I was actually kind of dreading it. I didn’t want anything to be able to put a damper on my amazing day, but I was growing to care about the boy, and he desperately needed help from someone and I was the only person that I knew of who could talk to ghosts.

  When we pulled up to the house I saw Little Dirty Boy through one of the windows. He was in a part of the house that hadn’t been completely destroyed by the fire, but was still badly damaged. The window had been broken out and black soot had coated the Bedford stone on the outside of it. Little Dirty Boy had a blank expression on his face. He was still wearing the same clothes that he had worn the first day that we met and he was still covered in dirt from head to toe. I sat in my car and watched him as he stared at a soot covered wall. It looked as though he might have been staring at some kind of picture that had somehow remained intact.

  Gray, of course, broke the silence. “What do you think he’s doing in there?”

  I sighed, “I don’t know. Hopefully he’s getting things sorted out with himself. Let’s go see if he’ll let us talk to him.”

  Gray and I got out of the car and walked slowly over to the house. Little Dirty Boy didn’t seem to notice us. I wanted to go inside and comfort him, but it looked like it would fall down and crush me as soon as I set foot in the door. I cleared my throat to make a little noise in hopes that I could get his attention without surprising him. Still nothing. I looked over at Gray and he sighed as he disappeared only to immediately reappear inside the house, behind the boy.

  When Little Dirty Boy decided to acknowledge us, he grit his teeth. “What are you doing here? Can’t you tell that I’m avoiding you?”

  Gray rolled his eyes. “We’re just trying to help, bud. Marlee and I think you shouldn’t be alone right now.”

  In a flash the boy appeared outside of the house right in front of me. He was inches from my face with eyes blazing and teeth clenched. I yelped and stumbled back only to end up flat on my ass. He spat at me, as if ghosts could salivate, and Gray appeared right next to me from thin air.

  “What’s your problem, dude?” Gray was pissed. He didn’t like it when people bullied me, even if they couldn’t physically harm me.

  “What’s my problem?” Little Dirty Boy didn’t seem so innocent anymore. He was transforming himself into an ugly soul without even realizing it. “My problem is that you two jerks won’t leave me alone! If you knew what I had done to people than you wouldn’t be standing here like dummies!” Then he vanished once again.

  “How do I keep ahold of you people?” I accidentally yelled at Gray. “As soon as we find him, we lose him again!”

  Gray shrugged and said, “If he doesn’t want to be helped than what else can we do? We can chase him down every day and hope that eventually he’ll talk to us, or we can ignore him and let him go his course. Either way, I can’t make that decision for you.”

  I didn’t like either of those decisions, but Gray was right. There was nothing else we could do but try and get through to him.

  “He’s starting to scare me, Gray. I know he can’t hurt me, but he just seems mad and unpredictable.” Gray looked at me sympathetically. Trying to ease my mind, he put on his prize winning half smile and said, “At least you got a date to prom. You should call your mom right now. She’ll be so proud, especially when she sees that he’s not a swamp monster or a fifty year old virgin.” The rapid change of subject made me laugh. My mother was going to be ecstatic about prom, but not nearly as excited as I was. It had nothing to do with getting to dress up, in fact, I hated that part, but I think I was beginning to see what Gray saw in Risk. Risk seemed genuine and unfazed by my reputation at school. I could tell that he had secrets, like Gray could, but there was no guarantee that Risk wanted to be involved with me anyhow. Maybe he just wanted a friend for the last few months of his senior year at a new school. Either way, I was okay with it as long as I got to look at him and be on his well-defined arm.

  MYSTERIES AND…RISK

  I called my mom just as soon as Gray and I got back home. She actually had time to talk for a second, instead of just texting or ignoring me altogether, because she was in between meetings at the moment. Mom was amazing at her job. She ran an up-and-coming company that manufactured and sold eco-friendly cleaning supplies. So whenever she could squ
eeze a little time for me into her busy schedule I was delighted.

  “Hey Mom! When are you going to be home again? I thought that we could go shopping.” I was so excited to tell her my news that I was practically bursting at the seams.

  “You hate shopping…What’s gotten into you? You’re not normally this perky.”

  “Well I was hoping that you would come home for a bit sometime in the next two weeks, because I got a date to prom and I need your help finding a dress!” I heard a sigh from her and I bummed by her lack of enthusiasm. “What’ wrong? I thought this is what you wanted?”

  “It’s nice to hear that you’re socializing, I just don’t want you to have some sort of awkward date that’s going to make the kids at school harder on you than they already are. You definitely don’t need any more bad publicity to add to your reputation around town.” I knew the meaning behind her words and what she really meant was, “Don’t take some super freak to school just to show him off and say that you did as I asked, because that would just add to the embarrassment that you cause me every day.”

  “Um, actually Mom, he’s pretty hot. He’ new at school and kind of an outcast like me, though I’m not sure why. His name is Risk and I think you’ll be happy to meet him.”

  She put an effort into perking her voice up, but I could tell that she didn’t believe me. “Okay sweetie, I’ll try coming home next week.”

  “Okay Mom.” I sighed, “I love you.”

  “Love you too, baby.”

  She hung up the phone before saying goodbye and I was left to wonder how she always made me feel like the biggest disappointment in the world. I was happy about going to prom with Risk, but before the phone call to Mom I had also been happy about her reaction to the news. I was being the daughter that she had always wanted. At least Dad used to pretend to be proud of me and try and understand what I was seeing and hearing, without thinking that I needed to be hauled off to the looney bin.