Captivated (An Affliction Novel)

by Raven

  “We have to follow him,” Markus stated.

  “We can’t do that!” I quickly replied.

  “Maybe you can’t...” Markus drummed his fingers to his chin and looked up to an invincible title above him. “…but private M can.”

  “Private M? It must have taken you forever to think that up.” I teased.

  “What would you have used?” Markus retorted.

  “Private DORK!” I threw back my head and laughed.

  “You’ll see! I’ll get to the bottom of all of this.” Markus pointed his finger at me. “I’m telling you, Mindy.” He tried sounding serious, but it wasn’t taking. I was too hyped up on his ridiculous theory.

  We reached my front door after only a short time. The motion sensor came on and the bugs started bumping into our heads trying to get to the light. The dog noticed something at a distance. At first he gave out a deep growl, but after staring for a while, he ceased and instead wagged his tail and barked a friendly bark. I squinted, trying to focus on what he was seeing.

  “It’s probably a deer.” Markus said.

  “Why would a dog wag his tail for a deer?” I pondered aloud.

  “Hey. What’s his name anyway?” Markus asked while tilting his head towards the dog.

  “I haven’t thought of it yet. Ummm…I don’t know. What do you think?” I asked.

  “Zeke.” Markus insisted. “That’s what I would have named a dog if I was allowed to have one. Gramps doesn’t like pets.”

  “Your gramps doesn’t like anything.” I commented. “That’s a cool name. Okay. I’ll name him Zeke.” I said in quick agreement. Hey, I didn’t have a list of names or anything. Why not call him that?

  “I guess I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” Markus said.

  “Oh yeah. School. Back to reality.” I muttered.

  Markus walked to his car looking in the same direction the dog was. He drove off slowly then finally out of sight. When I stepped inside, I took the harness off of Zeke and he ran around, excited to be in his new home. After I let him sniff every object in sight, I took him upstairs to my room. After a quick shower, I plopped down on the bed and fell right to sleep.

  Waking up to the smell of musty dog breath was like a vicious hit to the face. Yuck! I opened my eyes to find Zeke lying on the bed next to me. All that ran through my mind was his dirty paws rubbing into my sheets, the many hairs he was leaving wherever he touched, and worst of all, the white stains of dried drool on my maroon pillows!

  “Zeke!” I shouted. “Get down!” Zeke immediately jumped off the bed. I swear he was laughing. I narrowed my eyes at him as a warning.

  Then the alarm sounded. I climbed off the bed and stumbled to the alarm clock to shut it off. Awake on time for once! Now what to do... I didn’t want to have to rush getting ready, so instead of lollygagging, I made sure to prepare myself for school. After I finished getting ready, I watered the lavenders that sat beautifully beside my bed. I had some French toast with my mom and Markus arrived right when I was finished and ready.

  Once again, Dean was on my mind. He wasn’t just lurking around in there. He was starting to take over completely. What was he holding back on and why? I knew there was more to the way he looked at me than he tried to make it seem.

  Markus and I didn’t talk on the way to school. He was singing his heart out to the metal songs he played on his car system. He knew about so many bands and songs it was unreal. He always had to upgrade his mp3 players for more storage. I knew of maybe fifty songs. Tops. But he was always talking about having thousands.

  When we pulled up to the parking lot, we saw a group of girls surrounding someone. They were next to a lifted truck with a roller cage, which was used for off-roading and dangerous stunts.

  Ayden’s truck.

  My stomach got a little queasy but that shortly ended when it was followed quickly with anger and curiosity. I wanted to see the damage my mysterious hero left on him.

  Determined to find out, I strolled towards the group.

  “What are you doing?!” Markus exclaimed.

  I ignored his question and kept walking. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say to the pig, but I was damn well going to say something. I squeezed through the Barbie girls and came face to face with Ayden.

  “Watch out, Mindy.” Ashley shrieked while tumbling back.

  I ignored her. It was amazing. Both of his eyes were black and purple. He had stitches on one eyebrow and scrapes on his cheek. His wrist was wrapped up and he had a small cast on his pinky. His expression was priceless! I could read it all over his face-he was shocked to see me.

  “What happened to you, Ayden? You look like you got beat up!” I laughed out, loudly. The guys gasped around us in disbelief, and others were snickering.

  “I didn’t get beat up…” Ayden raised his voice, “…I was jumped,” he assured me while squaring off his shoulders.

  “I thought jumped meant being beat up by a number of guys at the same time. I’m pretty sure it was just one guy, Ayden.” I teased with a hint of warning.

  “Were you there?” Ayden asked in a demanding tone.

  “I wouldn’t ask me that question if I were you.” I flat out warned. If he pushed me, I would tell all in a heartbeat.

  “What do you mean? Look at me. I was definitely jumped. I was taken out to the forest and got mugged.” Ayden said.

  “You’re kidding me. Are you serious?” Frustration filled my voice and I bunched my fists at my sides.

  “I don’t remember much. I was drunk.” Ayden said as he shrugged his shoulders, and with that motion, I could tell he was shrugging me off too.

  As I examined him, I realized that he wasn’t going to give up his act. He was lying beautifully and everyone believed him. I knew he wasn’t drunk enough not to remember, that it was all a cover up. It had to be. But it would be pointless to say anything else to Ayden.

  I felt Markus pulling my arm behind me. He knew he had to get me out of there.

  “What the hell are you doing, Markus?” Ayden yelled out. “She’s not yours to drag away.” He stepped forward and broadened his shoulders.

  At that moment, Ayden averted his gaze from Markus and stared down someone passing behind us. “You got a problem?” Ayden lashed out at Dean. Dean ignored him and passed us. “Yeah, that’s right. Keep walking, faggot!” Ayden yelled.

  Dean stopped mid-step and turned to Ayden. But he didn’t approach our group. Ayden looked confident with all his friends around him. His best friends, James and Ricky, stood on each side of him with their arms crossing their chests-they were ready for a fight. Irritation was noticeable in Dean’s eyes and that was when he noticed me standing there. He then turned away and began walking again. I watched him walk away, unsure why my eyes were glued to him. I wasn’t just looking at him, I was watching the way he walked and I liked it, the way his shoulders moved in tandem with his legs, like a well-oiled machine.

  A soda can went flying at him, the dark liquid splashed against his back and soaked his shirt on contact. A disturbing chuckle came from Ayden and his squad. That time, Dean dropped his books to the ground and whirled around with rage in his eyes. He stalked towards us and everyone but Ayden, James, and Rickey got the heck out of the way. Dean had his fury focused solely on Ayden, but that didn’t matter to James and Ricky. They were always burning for a fight. James jumped in front of Ayden with his fists ready in front of him. Before James could make a move, Dean already had his fist smashing into his face. Blood trailed in a rush out of his nose as he stumbled out of the way. Ricky came around next and punched Dean in his side-it didn’t look like it hurt him at all. Dean turned towards him and swung at Ricky’s ribs, easily knocking the air right out of him. Ricky dropped to the ground gasping for breath and gripping his ribs.

  Ayden was struck with terror. He backed up hurriedly, but not enough to avoid Dean. Dean grabbed Ayden by the neck and slammed him into his truck’s side door. Ayden’s head slammed against the window with a loud thud.r />
  “What did you call me?” asked Dean with a grim tone.

  Ayden didn’t answer. Dean pulled Ayden towards him a little then slammed him into the window again, that time cracking the glass.

  “No…Nothing,” Ayden managed to stutter out. “I didn’t.” He tried gulping for air.

  Dean released him and Ayden’s body dropped to the ground. He peeled off his soaked button-up shirt and threw it in Ayden’s face. What was left on Dean’s upper body was a tight, black wife-beater. All the girls were gawking at him, including myself. Dean picked up his books from the ground and strode off.

  Ricky finally got up and helped Ayden get to his feet. James was sitting on the floor holding his nose. He raised his hand up so Ayden could help him get up, but got a soaked shirt thrown at his face instead.

  Markus began to lead me away from there when Ayden called his attention.

  “I’m not done with you, Markus.” Ayden stepped up to Markus.

  “She’s done with you. Don’t go near her again.” Markus warned. I had never seen him so furious. All I could do was look back and forth between them; it was so much to take in. He stared down Ayden. Markus was as tall as him, but not built like Ayden. Markus wasn’t into sports or anything, so he didn’t care to build up as much muscle as the jocks did.

  Silence came over the group. Everyone stared at Ayden, expecting him to lash out. But he didn’t. Was he backing off? Did Markus just officially end our unofficial relationship? A silent agreement exchanged between Ayden and Markus. I couldn’t tell what the emotion was on Ayden’s face, but I knew that Markus was safe from him and his friends. We walked away from them as the bell rang.

  “He remembers. If not everything…I know he remembers a little. Enough to know that he harmed you.” Markus said in a huff.

  “Thanks. But you shouldn’t have done that with his friends around.” I said.

  “I know. Good thing Dean beat them all up. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten away with that.” Markus laughed.

  I felt anger, infuriation towards Ayden because of what he tried to do to me and the fact that he was lying about it.

  “Ayden got his ass handed to him though!” Markus laughed.

  “I wonder what that was all about.” I said before joining him for the laugh.

  First hour was a breeze. I lied to Mr. Shapiro by telling him I couldn’t see the board from where I was sitting so he moved me farther away from Ayden and sat me next to Shane. A total step up! It was hard to concentrate with him next to me, though, because I was way too tempted to gawk at him. Luckily, the teacher let us out early again so Tanya and I slowly walked down the hall as she was attempting to text someone as we strolled. She couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone walk and text.

  “Oh my gosh!” Tanya squealed. “We have to hurry!” She grabbed my arm and rushed in the opposite direction.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. I kept up with the same speed as her. She still held onto me though.

  “Martha just texted me. The weight lifting teacher has a few guys doing like a million pushups outside.” Tanya giggled out loud. “Dean’s one of them.” As she said that, she tightened her grip on me in excitement. Clearly she had a crush on him.

  “Why is he making them do that outside?” I asked.

  “As punishment. I guess Dean and a couple of Ayden’s friends got into it during class. The coach is pissed!” Tanya said in excitement.

  We pushed open the double doors and sure enough, there were a group of students surrounding the guys and the coach. More students were coming out of the building to witness the coach’s attempt to humiliate the guys.

  The sun was blazing that day. We approached the group and squirmed to the front, there were three guys on the floor slowly doing pushups. Two of them were Ayden’s best friends; James had on his gym shorts and muscle shirt and Ricky had no shirt on at all. Neither did Dean and they were all drenched in sweat. It was as if the coach sprayed them down with a hose. I had to say that Dean was the most impressive out of the three. I had never seen him with his shirt off before, I always looked harder than I’d like to admit at the outlines of his muscles through his shirt. I was in awe at the sight of his near-perfect back. The powerful hills were moving in all directions-back and forth, up and down. Every time he would go down, his muscles would pop out even more. His triceps were so defined it put the guys next to him to shame. Their arms looked scrawny and weak in comparison to Dean’s.

  “I didn’t know Dean had a tatt.” mentioned Tanya.

  “Where?” I asked. I tried bobbing my head around the person in front of me, but I couldn’t get a good enough look at it.

  “Right there. On his arm.” Tanya pointed out.

  “I can’t see,” I whined.

  “Here. Switch me places. But I want it back when you’re done!” Tanya demanded.

  And he did. Time slowed down for me to a halt when I saw what it was. There were two of them, actually. Right next to each other. I couldn’t make out what any of them were, but they looked tribal. And they took up most of his forearm. The inside of them reminded me of those little mazes you have to figure out in children’s books. Only those were much more complex and awesome looking.

  My jaw dropped.

  The one who saved me…he also had two tattoos on the same forearm.

  mpossible…” I mouthed out, thinking Tanya wouldn’t hear me.

  “What is?” Tanya asked.

  I heard her at a distance. Everyone was at a distance it seemed. The only person that existed at the moment was Dean. My heart started pounding uncontrollably. It couldn’t be him. Could it? A coincidence maybe?

  A whistle broke my intense concentration.

  “That’ll do, girls.” the coach shouted to the three sweaty guys.

  Immediately, James and Ricky plopped to the floor in complete exhaustion. Dean, on the other hand, slowly stood up, controlling his breathing. He didn’t look as worn out as the other two, but he was tired. When he stood up completely, he faced my direction, but didn’t notice me just yet. He put his hands on his waist and took in deep breaths while looking up at the sky. With every inhale, his abs contracted-a spectacular washboard. The sweat slowly crept down his body and I found myself following a few of the droplets until they disappeared at his red gym shorts, turning the waistband blood red.

  “Breathe, girl!” Tanya said in the distance.

  I was having trouble peeling my eyes off of him, I was sure the other girls around us were just as in awe. Then, without warning, he dropped his head and jetted his eyes at me.

  That worked.

  I immediately looked the complete opposite direction of him, as if it wasn’t obvious I was ogling.

  “Hello? I’m over here, Mindy! What are you looking at anyways?” Tanya bugged at my side. How I wished she’d receive a text message right about now.

  I felt a familiar heat flowing in my direction-Dean’s eyes were boring into me. Waves of shock washed through me and a frantic giggle was trying to burst out of my mouth.

  “We better head back. The bell’s going to ring in a few.” Tanya said. “He is so hot!” she added with a shriek.

  “Huh. Oh yeah. He’s alright.” I gulped out, wanting to shriek with her.

  The show was over. All the students started for the building.

  “Whatever! I saw how you were checking him out! You practically stripped him down with your eyes,” she laughed out.

  I wasn’t sure if it was just me, or if she was actually being a little too loud. I eyed some students to see if they heard her, but there were no signs of it. No pointing at me. And no whispers with eyes my way. Nothing.

  “Blah, blah.” I muttered with relief. “Rick and James probably tried to jump Dean again,” I thought out loud.

  “What? What are you talking about again?” Tanya asked with dramatic confusion.

  “Yeah. Ayden threw a soda can at Dean this morning. Then he beat up all three of them like it was nothing.” I sa
id.

  Tanya only stared at me. I could already hear the things rolling around in her head that would soon take a trip through her mouth. Why didn’t you tell me this before? I can’t believe you. Blah blah blah.

  Then Tanya opened her mouth. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me! We’ve been together for the past hour and you didn’t. You didn’t…” she huffed out. “I can’t believe you!”

  “Sorry! I forgot.” I looked at her and hesitated when I said, “Oh, and Markus broke up with Ayden for me.”

  “Well, that’s just great! You know how long I’ve been waiting for you to do that? I wanted to be the one to tell him to ‘F’ off. Thanks! Did anything else happen? Maybe over the weekend?” Tanya asked.

  I thought about that for a moment. I didn’t think I should tell her about the almost rape. Tanya was my friend, but she also had a big mouth and fast texting fingers. I didn’t want to tell her that Markus might have been losing it. Especially not about Dean liking me because she herself had a strong crush on him. Telling her about our confrontation or the fact that he saved me from being raped and that I just figured it out was also out of the question. Crap!

  “Well?” Tanya snapped.

  “I uh-I got a dog.” I said with a slightly shaky voice. “Well, my mom did. I guess it’s mine too. I named him Zeke.”

  “That’s not juicy, Mindy.” We continued walking. “Now, back to Dean.” Tanya perked up.

  “Yeah. He sure is-”

  “HOT!” Tanya interrupted me and dramatically sighed, she looked up at nothing. Probably imagining him.

  It kind of bothered me how she kept talking about him. Strange. I never cared before. She’s had a crush on him for as long as I could remember. So I really should’ve been used to her blabbering.

  The image of the tattoos lingered in my mind. I had to ask him. It had to be him, but how and when could I approach him? Students were always everywhere. But I was determined to find an opportunity. The first bell rang and all of the students began to pour out of their classes. The guys jogged by us in the direction of the gym. Most likely, they had to rush to take showers before the next class started. As they ran by, I felt Dean’s enchanting eyes piercing me from a corner glance. A chill ran through me raising every hair I was aware of. I tried to shake it off so that I could come back to reality but I was much too intoxicated by his look. It was just a simple look. Right? No. It wasn’t. There was something more behind it.