Taking Risks

by Cassie Allee

  The next day I actually made it to school on time…with Grays help. When I got to my English class the first thing that I noticed was that Risks seat was empty. I really wanted to talk to him about what the rumors I had been hearing about him and sort out fact and fiction, but it was going to have to wait. I caught the Mean Girls snickering at me in the middle of class. I rolled my eyes at them and made sure that they saw me do it. Right before lunch time I received a text from Risk that said, “Hey I don’t know what happened last night, but I hope we’re okay. Couldn’t make it to school today but I’ll be back tomorrow. See you then xoxo”

  I didn’t know what to think about the “hugs and kisses” part at the end, but I wasn’t unhappy about it. The whole relationship with him was becoming way too complicated, too fast. He and I needed to talk as soon as possible before I freaked out and never spoke to him again just to avoid the stress. I’ve never liked wondering and waiting.

  The rest of the school day passed and I had a slow night at work. I had gotten a few more texts from Risk throughout the day, but I never replied to any of them. Remi wasn’t working that night so she wasn’t there to grill me about the night before. I was sent home from work an hour early because of the lack of customers. When I got home I joked around with Gray a bit, who followed me all day to make sure no red eyed weirdo’s got me, and then I went to bed to get some sleep.

  TALKING IT OUT

  “Ugh, school again. Damn it.” Gray laughed as he watched me struggle around to pound my alarm clack to dust. I had the nightmare again, but I was scared to tell Gray about it. I didn’t want him to overreact over a silly dream. I made sure to pretend like I was a little peppier than normal so he wouldn’t catch on to me.

  I took my time getting ready, not wanting to deal with the Risk drama, but eventually I made it out of my house and to school. I was starting to worry a little about how tired I had felt lately. Was it the nightmare? Was I working too much? I decided that I’d figure it out later, or just eventually slip into a coma.

  At my locker I felt a warm hand lightly grab my waist. I jumped at the contact and spun around, only to come nearly nose to nose with Risk. I could feel his warm breath on my lips and it smelled sweet. His hand was still on my waist and our groins were barely touching. I was completely aware of every spot that he was touching me and I tingled in all of the right places.

  “We need to talk.” He said. He was starting to breath heavier and he was looking at me funny again.

  I let out a breathy reply, “Absolutely.” And then Risk grabbed my backpack and keys and led me out of the front door of the school.

  Gray raised an eyebrow at me as he followed, and I only shrugged my shoulders because I was just as confused as he was. We got to my car and Risk motioned me into the passenger side as he opened the door for me.

  “Um, you are driving my car?”

  “Yes. You look like you haven’t slept in weeks. I’m driving.”

  Risk hadn’t even known me for weeks so I wondered just how bad I really looked. Gray followed his comment up with, “You really do look like shit today. Sorry, but you do.” I stuck my tongue out at him as he appeared in the back seat. Risk caught me out of the corner of his eye and raised an eyebrow at me in confusion.

  “Where are we going?” I asked. We were headed north away from town.

  “I know a place where no one will bother us.”

  We drove for about twenty minutes and I started to get nervous as I saw how secluded we were.

  “I hope you’re not bringing me out here to murder me. No one likes me so you’ll never get famous for my death, also, I have weapons stashed all over this car.” The farther away from civilization we got, the more I realized just how little I actually knew about Risk. I was actually starting to get a little jumpy.

  Risk smiled slyly at me as he pulled into a clearing in the woods. He stopped and shut the car off. I glanced at Gray, who looked curious but not uneasy, and then Risk turned to me. I could see the desire in his eyes and I started to sweat as we watched each other getting tenser by the second.

  “Uh…Should I leave?” Gray said and it snapped me out of my trance. I looked away from Risk and shook my head nonchalantly so that Gray would know that I needed him to stay.

  “So what’s up with you? You’ve been avoiding me.” Risk said.

  I took a deep breath. “Your mom cornered me at the bar yesterday…”

  Risk seemed to get anxious and rubbed his palms on his jeans. “Well…What did she say?”

  I repeated the conversation between his mother and I word for word, even the parts that I called him my friend and defended him. He didn’t look surprised.

  He lowered his head and started fiddling with a fray on his jeans. “You know she can’t just stake her claim to me. I’m an adult now, and they don’t even want me anyway. I’m not their biological son.”

  So at least I now knew that the rumor of Risk being adopted was true, though his mother nearly confirmed it when she called him a bastard.

  “I’ve heard that your parents say that you’re crazy and dangerous. They say that you’ve had a bad past. What’s that about?”

  “Look Marlee, I know that you feel like you barely know me, but I don’t know much about you either. If you want to be…whatever it is that you want to be with me, than you’re going to have to be patient until I’m ready to tell you my story. It’s pretty interesting too so I suggest you stay tuned.” He said and revealed his movie star smile. How could he do that? How could he start off talking so serious and then be smirking by the time he was done? I could tell that life had dealt him a bad hand, so I wondered if making everything a joke was a coping mechanism for him, or a way to hide.

  “I have some things I need to talk to you about too, but like you said, you’ll have to wait until I’m ready. I need you to have a chance to get to know me so you can decide if I’m crazy or not.” I confessed and Risk gave me an uneasy look, but then shrugged it off. It was the time to be real and honest with each other as much as we could be for now.

  “So what is it that you want with me? Friendship? Security? I can’t figure it out.” I tried to ask confidently but I could feel my cheeks heat in embarrassment.

  Risk sighed as he searched for the right words. “That’s a hard question Marlee. I’ve never really been the relationship type. All I can tell you is that I feel something unique with you, but I’m also scared that we aren’t going to like each other once all the secrets are out. Why don’t we start off dating, nothing exclusive or labeled, and see where that leads us.”

  “I can handle that, I think.” I heard Gray laughing quietly in the back seat. He knew that I had never had a boyfriend before so being exclusive wasn’t going to be a problem for me. “Where are we anyway?” There was no way that he just found this place at random with all the twists and turns that he took.

  “I come here when I don’t want my parents to find me. I can have peace for a while when I’m here.” He looked at peace as he observed the clearing.

  “Where are you from?”

  He looked at me as if he were surprised that I was starting the getting-to-know-you process so soon. I figured that we may as well start since we had skipped out of school anyway.

  “Um, here, actually. I was born here and my parents moved to some back woods town in Alabama when I was three. That’s where we lived until we came back here.”

  I heard a bored sigh from Gray and then he ghost vanished out of the car. Once he was out he walked around the clearing to take in the scenery.

  “What do you keep looking at?” Risk asked.

  My body stiffened at the question, but I was used to getting caught being weird so I was quick to answer. “Oh, just admiring the scenery. It’s beautiful out here.” Risk starting rambling on about how he found the place and my inner self was wiping sweat off of her forehead and thanking the heavens that he bought it.

  We spent the rest of the afternoon asking each other simple questions while caref
ully avoiding the sensitive subjects that we knew were off limits at the moment. I planned on putting off telling Risk about Gray and my “special abilities” until I was forced into it. When we were driving back into the school parking lot I remembered something that I wanted to ask Risk. "Why do you miss so much school?” It was probably one of those sensitive subjects, but I was too curious. He had only been going to that school for three weeks and had already missed three days. I was surprised when he answered me.

  “Sometimes I get scheduled to work during the weekdays and I need my job.” He said it very matter of factly and I knew that he needed his job to take care of his parents. His mom told me herself at the bar that it was Risks turn to take care of them now.

  “I bet that working on cars is better than waiting tables for a bunch of perves with your ass hanging out. Talk about being fed to the fish.” Risk joked.

  “It’s not so bad. Having several men each night lusting after me is kind of flattering.” I said and then laughed heartily at the joke on myself. Men obviously didn’t lust after me. I looked up at Risk and was taken back what I saw in his eyes. He looked a little angry, but there was also a look of pure desire that was unmistakable. I had never felt sexier in my entire life. The longer he looked at me like that the heavier my breathing got. I parted my lips and prepared myself for Risk to kiss me hard and deep. All of the sudden he got a pained look on his face and got out of the car. Seconds later, the passenger door was opened for me.

  That was the second time that I had felt rejected from Risk and he knew what I wanted this time for sure. I got out of the car and stomped to the driver’s side snatching my keys from him as I passed. I was going to pout, and he was going to know that I was pouting. I plopped down into the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition. After I slammed the car in drive I looked up to see Risk shaking his head and laughing. That pissed me off even worse so I put my foot down on the gas and pealed out of the school parking lot.

  Gray got into the front seat with me and he was laughing too. “Oh man, you got schooled!” I glared a hole right through his stupid ghosty body. “Watch the road! You’re going to get us killed.” Damn him. He knew I had a morbid sense of humor. I laughed at his joke on himself, but I hated every minute of it. I pulled into the parking lot at work and huffed. I needed to ask Gray something uncomfortable, but he was a man and I was a woman, and I needed advice from the male perspective.

  “I need to ask you something, and I need for you not to laugh or make jokes about it. Don’t even ever speak of it again, got it?”

  He smirked at me curiously and then saluted me like we were in the military and I was his superior. “Yes ma’am.” He said.

  “Risk won’t kiss me, and I feel like it would feel better if he just punched me in the face rather than reject me. Is it such a big deal to me because I’m a virgin?”

  “Oh Mar, rejection hurts everyone. Duh. But it wouldn’t hurt for you to cut him some slack. I can tell he’s a good guy and I see the way he looks at you. I’m an amazing judge of character and I just know this is going to be a good thing, okay?” I nodded in response. That’s when Gray decided to go ahead and be immature. “You could use a good spanking though.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I karate chopped the air that made up his ghosty form. He disappeared from inside of the car and reappeared in front of the bar. He was pretending to be shot, and then he threw himself down on the ground where he simulated a seizure. Right then and there I decided that the very first thing I would do when I died would be to beat the shit out of Gray.

  That was my last night of work until Saturday, and the next day would be my date with Risk. I wasn’t so nervous anymore since we had started getting to the bottom of some of the rumors, but I was still keeping a huge secret from him, and I was sure that his secret was going to be just as big. I was really hoping that we wouldn’t get ourselves in too deep with each other before those secrets came to the surface.

  I knew that I would be working with Remi tonight and I knew that I wasn’t going to get out of telling her about Risk. Last time we worked together was the night that I had started to tell her about him and he was already in the bar. When I walked into the employee room Remi’s face lit up. “SO!!! Are you going to tell me about Mr. Hot Pants?” She said and it made my mind wonder to Risks pants…

  I shook that thought away and told Remi, “He’s very nice and as of right now we are dating with no labels, whatever that means…”

  Remi’s bright face turned into a disapproving scowl. “When a relationship has “no labels” it’s just a man’s way of saying that he doesn’t want a relationship, but would love a good booty call.” I had a hard time believing that Risk would try and defile me right off the bat. I was having a hard enough time just getting him to kiss me, however, he did have a way with heating my body with just a look.

  “So what? I can do that too. We aren’t in love…I can handle it.”

  Remi looked at me in surprise and then surprise turned to excitement. She smacked me on the shoulder and said, “You slut!” She obviously approved of casual sex.

  I worked out the rest of my shift and Gray seemed to have fun pretending to flirt with a hot girl in business attire that appeared to be on a date. He answered all of the questions that she directed at the man that she was actually with, and made hand gestures like you would if you were really caught up in conversation. At one time in the night I actually looked over to see him in the woman’s lap. He only did it to make me laugh, and I did…hysterically.

  After I clocked out Gray said goodbye to his date and we jumped into the Delray to head home.

  “So I was thinking of something today. I wonder what’s so bad in Risks past that he’s keeping it some big secret. He doesn’t seem unstable or aggressive.” Gray said. He acted like he was starting to get nervous of Risk, even though he was so sure about him just a few hours before.

  “I don’t know, but whatever it is, I’m sure his sleaze ball parents are involved.” I had no doubt in my mind that whatever Risk had done, he had to do.

  Gray and I pulled up to the house and, to our surprise,

  Little Dirty Boy was standing in front of my front door. My heart sank at the sight of him. He looked worn down and his face was scrunched up like he was in agony, but the worst part was…his eyes were glowing red. I would have stayed in the car and let Gray handle it, but Little Dirty Boy had come to be face to face with me, and if he wanted to talk to me there would be no stopping it. Gray and I exited the car slowly.

  “What’s happened to you?” I whispered quietly. My eyes started to well with tears as I looked at the poor boy. No living or dead soul should ever feel the way that I knew he was feeling.

  My blood ran cold when he laughed at me. It was maniacal laughter like you would hear in a horror film. “I’ve seen what my actions can do to people. You’re all weak minded and if I have to go down, you’re all coming with me. I hate everyone. Especially you. You think that because you can see us and hear us that you can actually relate to us. You have no idea what it feels like to be on our side. Your little lap dog ghost can’t even explain it to you. He doesn’t remember what it’s like to be alive and he hasn’t seen what his death has done to the people that he loves.”

  “What do you mean by “We’re going down with you?” I was shaking. I had never had a real interaction with one of the angry ghosts, and children can be unpredictable anyway. Gray had always made sure that I ignored them and stayed away from them. He didn’t want any of the angry ones to know that I could see them, but this one did know, and he had come to me.

  “I know about your nightmares, and I know how you’ve been feeling run down lately. I know because I’m the reason those things are happening to you. I’ve figured out how to siphon your energy by using your connection to the two worlds. There’s no way you can stop me. I’m going to use every ounce of your energy until your dead.”

  Oh man I’m in trouble. I never told Gray about my nightmares, and h
e was going to be so pissed about hearing it from the boy and not me. Sure enough, I took one glance at him and he was practically fuming. Great.

  “What are you planning to do with the energy you get from me? What good is it to you?”

  He flashed me a devilish grin and then I saw the terracotta flower pot that I made for my mom in grade school started to scoot off of the concrete step on the porch. It moved until it tipped over the edge and hit the sidewalk where it broke into several pieces. I looked at Gray and he looked at me. He was more frightened than I had ever seen him. Little Dirty Boy spoke again.

  “That’s only a fraction of what I’m capable of, and I’m not limited to just moving things either. I’m also getting energy from all the others like me. I’m gathering them together and feeding off of their anger, and in a short time I’ll have enough energy to do as I please. I’ll even be able to walk with the living.”

  “So you’re going to be a zombie?” Gray said and he didn’t seem so scared after that. Sarcasm was his comfort zone.

  Little Dirty Boy let loose a scream in response. His scream was much like the scream from the red eyed spirit that we met in the woods, but his was fiercer. I even thought that I felt an unnatural breeze accompany it. I clamped my eyes shut and held my hands to my ears. When the screaming stopped I opened my eyes and found that he was gone.

  Gray turned to me with angry eyes. “What the fuck is with the nightmares? You didn’t think to tell me about them?”

  “It was just one nightmare Gray, I just had it a few times. I thought that I was just worrying about the boy and I didn’t want to freak you out. Had I known that they had any significance, of course, I would’ve told you.”