I had to jog to keep up with Aric as I followed him through the school's mostly empty hallways. He made a beeline to the boys' bathroom. As he shoved the door open, I hesitated, not sure whether I should follow into the male's precinct. Through the open door I spotted Michael struggling on the floor, being dragged toward the urinals by Simon. I charged in angrily after Aric.
"Let him go." Aric's voice was calm and authoritative, his self control was impressive - I wanted to deck the bully.
A range of emotions flickered expressively across Simon's face. Surprise, defiance, uncertainty, then fear. He let go of Michael's shirt, and pushed him away with a sneer, then stood, stretching up to his full height to face Aric warily. Even though the kid was much bigger than his classmates, Aric was easily a foot and a half taller than him and I was pretty sure Simon, even if he was as dumb as a brick, realized he could never take Aric on.
Michael scrambled to his feet and skirted around the room, giving Simon a wide berth, until he was standing awkwardly beside Aric. He looked back and forth between Aric, who was staring silently at his opponent, and Simon, who's ruddy face, now clean of volcano ooze, was growing paler, his eyes widening.
"Er, Aric, it's okay," Michael tried to intercede. "Me and Simon were just... um, mucking around." His voice trailed off as Simon's expression grew more stricken.
"I think Simon would like to apologize to you, Michael." Aric's tone was almost conversational. His eyes never left Simon's face.
"It's okay, he doesn't need..."
I felt for Michael. No doubt he was thinking ahead to the confrontation he'd have with Simon once Aric wasn't around.
"Oh, but he wants to," Aric interrupted. "You see, he's had a bit of an epiphany. He realizes that if he doesn't apologize to you, and if he's less than pleasant to you in the future, you might take it upon yourself to let everyone in the school know a few things."
Michael threw a confused look between Simon and Aric. "I don't know any..."
"You know," Aric prompted, his voice smooth, but with a hint of steel, "embarrassing stuff, like how Simon still wets the..."
"Sorry!" The word erupted out of Simon like a giant belch. His pudgy white face reddened and he backed up, only to come up against the wall. He stood awkwardly, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
Aric shrugged, the tension disappearing from his body. He smiled down at Michael who was eyeing both of them in confusion.
"Well, I'm glad we could sort this out. Simon's so keen to be mates now, he's even going to clean up that mess for you." He gestured toward the urinal. The green plastic bowl, squashed out of shape, had been thrown into the steel trough. "You may as well throw that out Simon, and you owe Michael's mom a new bowl."
Simon's head bobbed vigorously, and he quickly retrieved the bowl, holding the dripping object gingerly between two fingers.
Michael's eyes were just about popping out of his head. Simon, cowed and obedient, was apparently a rare sight.
Aric, clapped his hands together, a signal the situation was dealt with.
"Right, well, ready to head home then?" His charming smile was aimed at the two of us. We were standing, speechless, still unsure how he'd managed to defuse the situation so easily, with so few words.
I nodded, still lost for words, and we headed out the door, leaving Simon alone in the bathroom, holding the crumpled bowl.
* * * * *
The next day I found Aric waiting in front of his truck outside my school. He waved to me and I veered away from the school bus line.
"Thought I might try and talk you into having something to eat with me? I hear you have a particular penchant for the greasy delights of that fine Josie's establishment..."
I shuddered dramatically. "Yuck! - who told you that?"
He opened the car door for me and I climbed in. "They actually do a decent pie and milkshake, but you have to make sure you've had your tetanus shots before you step inside the door," I said.
"I think I can risk it."
Josie's was at the other end of town. We made small talk on the short drive, but my mind was still on the night before. I'd never had a chance on the way home, with Michael chatting animatedly in between us in the truck, to ask how he'd come to know Simon's secret.
"That was pretty impressive, what you did last night," I finally said.
Aric waited for a kid on a bike to move across the driveway, then he turned the steering wheel, edging into the car park at Josie's. He didn't offer any further comment.
"So how did you know?" I asked bluntly.
He switched off the engine. "About Simon wetting the bed?"
"Yeah."
He shrugged and unbuckled his seat belt. "Kids like that always have some deep dark secret. I hit on his. They're always secretly scared of something." He opened the car door. "Come on, I'm starving!"
We sat in the same booth I'd been sitting in when I'd first caught sight of him. I showed him the most hygienic choices on the menu, and he ordered for us, sending the waitress into a fit of giggles and blushes.
"Do you always do that?" I asked.
"Do what?"
"Make women, well, you know." I picked up the salt shaker and ran my fingers over the glass facets of the cheap container. "Make woman... go all gooey over you."
He chuckled and held out his hands. "Only the straight ones!"
"Well, that's obvious," I joked, "but maybe you underestimate yourself. If you can charm even the likes of Aunt Janet, then maybe you could turn the gay ones to the other side as well."
"Are you saying you suspect your aunt is gay?"
"No! I'm saying she doesn't like anyone much. But she likes you. I think she has the hots for you."
"Maybe. To tell you the truth, I'm used to it and don't notice it anymore."
If anyone else had said that it would have sounded conceited, but Aric made it seem like he thought it was an unremarkable fact of life his charm and good looks had an astonishingly captivating affect on any female. I supposed if charisma and good looks came naturally, you'd get used to it, even take it for granted. Aric obviously learned to live with it, and I was impressed he never seemed to use his charm to take advantage of anyone.
I considered asking him if he had anyone 'special' he'd charmed, but he changed the subject.
"This is where I first saw you. In Craigsville, I mean."
I looked at the empty booth he'd been sitting in.
"I know, and you kept staring at me. I was beginning to think I'd grown two heads or something."
"Sorry. And I wasn't staring - I was admiring. There's a difference you know! I couldn't help myself - I thought - think - you're very pretty."
My heart leapt, pleased with the compliment, and I knew I was blushing. I snorted to cover my embarrassment. Had he really thought I was pretty? I didn't think I was particularly pretty. Average maybe. My uncle and my friends often told me I was gorgeous, but I figured they were just trying to boost my self esteem. At most, I thought I would rate a six out of ten for looks.
"I'd rate you ten out of ten," Aric said.
I looked up sharply. He was looking at me with intense blue eyes.
"Why'd you just say that?"
"What? Ten out of ten? Because, I told you, you're very pretty, in fact, more than pretty - beautiful."
"Yes, but why'd you just say you'd rate me ten out of ten? I was just thinking that I was... it's like you can read my mind."
"You rate yourself ten out of ten? Great to see a girl with good self esteem!"
I gritted my teeth. "No! I gave myself six out of ten, in my mind and then you... oh never mind."
The waitress appeared with our order, and Aric slurped happily on his milkshake for a while, all the time, looking at me from under impossibly long eyelashes. This was the first time I'd been able to sit with him in broad daylight, face to face, the first time I had a proper excuse to submit to this compulsion to stare at him, study him. His eyes were a strange, deep shade of blue I'd never seen before -
almost aquamarine, but not quite. They were extraordinary - not just because of their color, but because they held in them what seemed to be the answers to a mystery I didn't even know I'd been trying to solve. We stayed silent, looking at each other, for a long moment.
In a staring contest, he would win. I broke eye contact, blushing after I imagined myself leaning over to kiss his lips.
I coughed, embarrassed, pushing my milkshake aside. He cocked his head to one side, and my heart lurched again. He was adorable. I could tell he was stifling a grin. I was certain I must be close to dark crimson by now.
"Okay, what are you thinking?" I asked, in the absence of nothing witty to say. His eyes met mine, and for once I couldn't look away, no matter how acutely aware I was of my blushing complexion.
His expression was thoughtful as he watched me, and then he looked away, throwing his straw into the milkshake cup. "I'm thinking this milkshake is absolute rubbish."
I laughed. The mood was broken. "Sorry. Maybe I'm immune to the food here now. I don't get around much. I don't think I've been further than fifty miles from this town in the past couple of years." I cringed at how that might sound, but what the hell, I told myself, if it made me sound like an unworldly country bumpkin, too bad. He probably had worked that out for himself.
He smiled and peered out through the window at the sky, his face unreadable.
I finished off my pie and wiped my mouth with a napkin. I was being extra careful I didn't leave anything on my face after yesterday's ice cream debacle.
"Thanks for the grub," I said, throwing the crumpled napkin on to my plate.
He leaned back against his seat, and I tried not to drool as the outline of his chest showed through his t-shirt. The words 'and for the view' sprang to mind and I quickly diverted my eyes. Cut it out Lucy, I told myself sternly. You're turning into a besotted perv. This was so weird. I'd never reacted so strongly to anyone like this before. I had to get myself in hand before it was too late and I really was 'in love'.
He stood up and fished his wallet from his back pocket.
"You're welcome," he said, producing some bills for the tip. "I wish I could thank you for recommending it!"
For a second, caught up in my own thoughts, I couldn't work out what he was talking about, and then I remembered we'd been talking about the food. We laughed together. I didn't think there would be another moment in my life where I could be happier and I wanted to save the moment like a snapshot I could revisit in the future. He stood up and stretched out his hand to me.
"Come on," he said, "I'd better get you home. I think your uncle has a job for us."
* * * * *
Chapter Three
Uncle Tom already had two horses saddled up when we got back to the ranch. Gus was tying his sleeping bag to the back of the saddle. They seemed to have plans to spend the night out of doors. Tom fetched a load of gear from the front porch and dumped it near his horse.
"Ah, Luce, I was about to phone you. I need Aric here. I'm afraid a fence is down over at the Flats. We're missing four head of cattle - probably headed over Turner's Ridge into Shadow Valley. Don't know what it is about that place, but the heifers love it there. Gus and I are going to have to go after them, we're taking the gear in case we don't find them before night fall. We need Aric to repair the fence."
Aric passed a bag to Tom, and he strapped it across the front of the saddle. "Well I can go find the cattle if you like - it'll give me a chance to see the lay of the land."
Ask to take Gus's place. Aric's voice appeared inside my head. I reacted with a start. He was affecting me so weirdly I was hearing things but I did as the imaginary voice had ordered.
"And I can go instead of Gus." I suggested. "I know my way around up there as much as you two do, and well, Aric and I are, well young and fit and you two are..."
Gus shook his head and his leathery face broke into a grin. "The young pups are trying to oust the old dogs."
I tried again. "It's going to be pretty cold tonight - wouldn't you rather be inside by the fire?"
Uncle Tom laughed. "So what you're really saying is that us old geezers need to put our feet up and take it easy?"
"There's also that game on tonight... you don't want to miss that." Aric seemed to hit on the persuading point.
"Well, he's right enough about that," said Gus. Tom shrugged and handed the reins to Aric. "He's all yours. I'll fix the fence. Lucy, I doubt if they've got as far as the valley, but if they have, you'll have to sleep rough and take up the search in the morning. Maybe you'll make it to the cabin by nightfall, but if you don't, we've packed the sleeping bags."
"What about food?" I asked. They'd forgotten it, and I raced inside to make up some ham sandwiches and a large thermos of coffee. After getting warm jackets and replacing my cell phone battery with a charged spare, we headed for Turner's Ridge.
We followed the trail of cloven hoof prints up the path which skirted Carson's Creek. The trail rose from the sparse woodland near the flats to the rockier slopes at the approach to the Ridge. The cattle had broken through the fence a few times before, and had always headed for Shadow Valley. I had no idea why - the grass there didn't seem any different to the lush pasture of the ranch.
We rode in companionable silence for a while. Occasionally I would point out a landmark, and two thirds up the ridge we stopped to watch the setting sun cast its golden glow across the valley. It was worth the ride up here just to see that view, but we had a way to go before we reached the cabin at Turner's Ridge. It looked as if we'd be spending the night on the mountain, but I was secretly pleased. It was a nice change, and I loved the company.
Aric led the way up the trail, and I spent my time marveling at how the sun transformed his dark blond hair into a shining golden halo. His hair was long enough to cover his ears, and one piece in particular flopped over his forehead and fell into his eyes. I had an urge to push it aside as it seemed a shame to cover such a beautiful face. I wondered what it would be like to run my fingers through his hair, and then I wanted to smack myself - I sounded like a love-sick moron from a romance novel. I watched him ride up a particularly rocky and steep part of the trail. He stuck to the saddle easily, his denim clad thighs expertly guiding his mount around the obstacles. I couldn't look away as he urged his horse into a trot and he rose in the saddle. He had a cute behind. I wondered what he'd think if he knew my mind wasn't on finding cattle...
The sun had almost set by the time we reached the small cabin on Turner's Ridge. The only sign of the cattle had been a few stray tracks among the pine needles littering the path. I was glad we hadn't found them - we could spend the night on the mountain.
We checked out the cabin. It was built for hikers and forestry workers for temporary shelter. It was sparsely furnished with a couple of rusting, uninviting camp beds and a rickety table. A box with some matches and an old lantern lay on the web-covered window sill. Despite the spider webs, the cabin was fairly clean, and the rough hewn timber walls were solid and kept the cold mountain air at bay. Rejecting the squeaky camp beds, I set up our bivouacs on the cabin floor, while Aric headed out side to make us a camp fire.
* * * * *
Aric's campfire was blazing cheerfully when I left the cabin. I found him hunched on a log, poking a stray branch back into the mound of glowing firewood. He motioned for me to sit on another log he'd pulled closer to the fire. I wished we'd brought along something to cook, but all we had were the sandwiches I'd quickly put together. We sat in silence for a while, munching on our bread and ham and gazing into the flames.
A few sparks escaped the fire and sailed up into the night. Aric's gaze followed them.
"This is nice. Those cows should escape more often," he said.
I nodded in agreement. Our little spot in front of the cabin was cozy, intimate. We could see the faint lights of the ranch house far below in the valley through the trees, but it still felt as though we could be the only two people left on earth.
I took a st
ick and drew a smiley face in the dirt near my feet. "My dad used to take me camping when I was little. My mom hated camping. She never came along."
A twig cracked sharply and the coals settled lower. We stared into the dwindling flames, embraced by the sense of peace and contemplation only a flickering fire can bring. I looked at Aric, he was waiting for me to continue. I knew I was nearing territory I had never shared with anyone, but I sensed he wouldn't judge me. Perhaps now was the time we could share whatever it was we'd been holding back from one other.
"My dad and I used to play a game, around the camp fire. 'Truth, Dare or Promise'- you heard of it?"
"Of course."
"I used to ask him silly things - you know, like would you rather be eaten by an alligator or a shark? Stupid really..." I looked at him from under my eyelashes. "Do you want to play it?"
"Sure."
"Okay, so, um... you go first. 'Truth', okay? I'll ask the question and you have to answer truthfully."
"Don't I get to choose truth, dare or promise?"
"No."
He grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, you're the boss. Ask away."
I frowned and embellished the smiley face in the sand with a head full of spiky hair. I didn't want to waste my truth question, so it had to be a good one. I didn't know where to start. Maybe I should just start from the beginning.
"So... where are you from? I mean... what town? Where exactly?"
Aric moved to sit on the ground and leaned back on the log.
"England, originally - you heard of Stonehenge?"
"The place with the big circle of stones, right?"
"Yeah. Well, not far from there."
"You don't sound English - in fact, you don't sound like you've come from anywhere."
"It's because I've moved around a lot." He waved his hand around as though he were indicating everywhere and nowhere.
Starcrossed: Perigee - A paranormal romance trilogy Page 6
