Outcast

by Adrienne Kress

  It turned out that I kind of enjoyed being on a motorbike. At first everything felt different, like we were going twice as fast as a car, but that was just because you could feel the air rushing against your body and hear the motor so loud. Turns were my favorite, when we’d lean a little to the side. It felt so effortless. I also liked that you really couldn’t talk on a bike, so I could just sit there, holding onto Gabe, and look around. We were in town in no time, driving through Main Street. A few people waved. They recognized Gabe and his bike, of course. Some of the older folks gave us looks of disgust, and I couldn’t help but feel awesome that for once I was doing something that grownups didn’t approve of. Well, okay, so my mom thought it was cool, and my dad had helped build the thing, but other grownups.

  I really wished I could take off the helmet, so people could see it was me. Then again, did I really want to be the gossip of the town…I wondered if Lacy would tell anyone. She’d been pretty good not spilling about the army thing. But this was dating, a totally different animal.

  Soon we’d passed through town and were making our way along that tight claustrophobic road that could either lead us into the swamplands or out of the town. It’d been a year since I’d been out, and when we hit the main highway, I felt a wonderful sense of freedom. And also a little bit of terror at being so exposed on a bike passing semis and fast cars.

  Hartwich wasn’t too far from New Adamstead. About twenty minutes. We got into town, and Gabe found his way to the central parking lot. The town was maybe twice the size of ours, but that still made it small compared to any normal city. There were a couple strip malls on the outskirts, but the downtown area was pretty well confined to a dozen or so blocks.

  Gabe turned off the engine, put down the kickstand and got off the bike. He offered to help me down, and I was about to say no when I realized maybe I should just let him. So I did. I removed my helmet and handed it to Gabe who had his hand outstretched to take it.

  “So,” I asked, shaking out my hair, “how much damage? Will Lacy kill me?”

  Gabe was looking at me funny, and I worried for a second that actually the answer was yes. Which kind of was a horrible thought as it meant I was both destined to be killed by a cheerleader and had terrible hair on my first date ever.

  But Gabe finally shook his head no. “No. It looks great. You look great.”

  “Thanks.” I found myself avoiding his eye contact again.

  Gabe noticed because he then said, “Okay, so step one complete. Step two, walk over to the restaurant.”

  I smiled and looked at him again. He locked away my helmet in the small compartment he’d attached to the back of the bike, but he had to carry his with us. As we were walking up the few steps to the main street he grabbed my hand. I pulled away quickly.

  “Oh, sorry,” I said when I realized what I’d done. I let him take it and felt stupid again. “I thought you said step two was walking to the restaurant.”

  “It is. Step two point five is holding hands.”

  “Warn me next time, please.”

  “I think I will.”

  “Thanks.”

  38.

  I didn’t know where we were going, so I just let him lead me along the main street and then up a smaller one. We turned down what I thought was an alley but turned out to be a very pretty courtyard with lanterns hanging across between the buildings. At the far end was a small Creole restaurant with a terrace. It seemed to be a pretty empty place, but it was still early for a Saturday.

  “I guess you like this kind of food,” I said, remembering all the meals Etta Mae had served us.

  “You don’t mind, do you? Thought you did too?”

  “No I don’t mind. How’d you find this place?”

  “Asked your dad.”

  Oh god, that was embarrassing, asking Daddy for dating advice.

  “And look! Steps two and two point five completed!” he said as we approached the door.

  “Look at that,” I replied and we stopped walking.

  “Step three…”

  “I get to eat something?”

  “We both get to eat something.”

  We went inside where a very energetic young man came rushing toward us saying something so fast that it took a moment to realize he was asking us if we wanted to sit inside or outside. We chose outside.

  We sat down at the table and were given some water right away, as well as some bread and crabmeat dip with our menus.

  I was relieved that I got to do something aside from thinking about the date and took a careful look at what was on order.

  “You wanna do something neat?” asked Gabe.

  “Depends on what that is,” I replied. I could only trust so far.

  “Your dad said that we could just ask them to bring us what they thought we’d like. He said it was cool.”

  “Cool?”

  “He actually said ‘cool.’”

  “Well, why not? Sure. Sounds…‘neat.’”

  “Riley…”

  “It does sound neat.”

  “I like ‘neat.’ I’m keeping ‘neat.’”

  “Well, if you’re going to keep ‘neat,’ you should at least make it ‘neat-o.’”

  “Maybe I will.”

  “Fine.”

  He dipped his fingers in the water and flicked some at me.

  “I won’t try to get you back,” I said adjusting my napkin in my lap. “I know how upset splashing makes you.”

  Gabe laughed, and our frantic, but very happy, waiter returned. We asked him to bring whatever he thought we’d like, and that seemed to fill him with even more joy.

  “Look how happy we made him,” I said watching him practically run back into the restaurant.

  “Step three seems to be going pretty well,” replied Gabe.

  “It does.” I turned back to face him, and he reached over and grabbed my hands. This time I didn’t pull away. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do now, exactly, so I just let him hold them for a bit.

  “You’re pretty amazing,” he said.

  “Is step four ‘talk romantic?’ Because I think then I really need a bit more of step three,” I said feeling my heart quicken.

  “Can’t I just say something nice without freaking you out?”

  Probably not. “You said it would just be like us hanging out, and you never grabbed my hands and said stuff like that when we were hanging out.”

  “Well, do you want it to just be like hanging out?”

  “I want it to be as comfortable as hanging out…”

  “It will be. But first dates usually aren’t that comfortable.”

  Now he tells me. “You look comfortable.”

  “I always look comfortable. It’s what I do.”

  “Yeah, it is.”

  “But I’m not.”

  “You’re not?”

  “Nope, you’re making me very nervous.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “But . . . I mean . . . it’s just me.”

  Gabe laughed also. “And it’s just me too.”

  “Okay, okay, go back, try again. You were saying I was amazing . . .”

  Gabe laughed again. “You are. You’re funny and smart, and you have incredible aim, and . . .” He stopped and looked at me in that way that I never understood.

  “And?”

  “And you’ve made me think more about stuff, made me want to not be who I was.”

  “That’s a good thing?”

  “Oh yeah. A very good thing. You never talked to me like I was stupid, even back when you were explaining the time travel thing. Maybe you just thought I was clever ’cause I was an angel, but you’ve been damn swell ever since.”

  “Oh . . .well . . . you know . . .”

  “And you’re beautiful.”

  “Gabe. . .”

  “No, I mean it. I know you don’t dress like the other girls, and you’re not like a movie star . . . you’re
not cute. You’re not obviously hot . . .”

  “Gabe, is this a compliment?”

  “Listen, okay? I’m trying to explain something. You’re beautiful. That’s different. That’s deeper. And it ain’t just your personality, not talking about that. It’s hard to describe. You’re . . .” He seemed really wrapped up with getting this right, was squeezing my hands hard in concentration. “Like tonight. You come downstairs, and you glow. And your body looks amazing . . .”

  “Gabe . . .” and there was the hotness in the face again.

  “And your face,” he corrected himself quickly, “your face is just perfect and . . . I can’t explain it. It’s like, with other girls, yeah they’re pretty, and you see it and you think, ‘That’s hot,’ but then you look at you and then it’s like . . . it’s like when I was little and would just look out into the bayou and just stare and watch, for hours. And my ma would get angry ’cause she thought I was lazy, couldn’t figure out what I was doing. I just wanted to look because it was so beautiful, and I thought if I looked away then I’d forget what it was like.” He stopped speaking and his body seemed to relax. Like he was finally satisfied with his explanation.

  “Gabe.” I didn’t know what to say. Should I say something back? Like I thought he was so hot that every time he came close to me my stomach would get all butterflies? That the first time he’d touched my hand I thought I’d been electrocuted? But he knew he was hot. Did he still want me to tell him that? And besides, it wasn’t like I could say anything half so romantic as the staring out into the swamp thing . . .

  “Step four is a pretty embarrassing step for you, isn’t it?” said Gabe after I’d been silent a little too long.

  “Could have used some warning. Like with step two point five.”

  “I just wanted to say it. So you knew. ’Cause I think you get how clever you are, but sometimes I think you don’t get how you look . . .”

  “Well, to you . . .”

  “To me. Probably to other guys too. But to me matters most, right?” he said with a devilish grin.

  “Yeah, sure.” I offered a shy smile. “And, uh . . .”

  “Yes?”

  “You’re pretty cool too.”

  Gabe laughed again. “Coming from you, that’s a top compliment.”

  Fortunately the waiter returned with our first course at that moment and we could let the subject drop as we enjoyed the food. It was beyond amazing. The chef was clearly a real artist.

  We ate our way through some Oysters Rockefeller and then turtle soup. It was an excellent distraction from the date itself, as all we felt like talking about was how fantastic the food was, which was being delivered to us fast and furious. We’d share bits of what we were eating with each other. I even found him feeding me once and I didn’t think it strange or anything at all. By the third course we were stuffed, but the food was still coming. More customers had arrived at this point, and a band had arrived that started playing a mix of Zydeco and jazz. It was fast and lively, just like our waiter. In fact our waiter had taken to dancing his way out over to us now.

  “You’re very good!” I said as he placed two steaming plates of Jambalya in front of us.

  “Thank you. I’ll show you!” He grabbed my hand, and before I could say anything I was up on my feet.

  “I’m really not a dancer . . .” I said. Also there’s no one else dancing and this is pretty embarrassing.

  “Don’t think, just dance.”

  Easy for you to say. I held onto his hand as he jumped around. I started to move a little and glanced over at Gabe who looked like he was about to die from laughter.

  “I’m . . . I’m really full . . .” I said when the waiter grabbed my other hand to try to get me more into it.

  “Will help the digestion.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that. He turned me around, and now I was facing the musicians and they were all watching me. The guy on the accordion gave me a big wink.

  “She don’t seem to like your moves, Leon,” said the guy playing the guitar.

  “Maybe she’ll like mine.”

  I felt two hands on my waist, and I was spun around and there was Gabe, facing me. He took my right hand in his, and placed the other around my waist. I almost died right there.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing,” I said. “We don’t really dance like this . . . now.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Step five. Show Riley how they did it back in my day . . .”

  He started to move in rhythm to the music, a quick kind of two-step thing. I looked down and watched his feet for a second and tried to copy him. Suddenly he pushed against my waist and I was spinning out beneath his arm without even having to try. He pulled me back in, and I looked up at him with a big smile on my face.

  “See! You’re a natural.”

  “That was fun!”

  “You sound surprised.”

  I was. I’d never been to any of the school dances, and anyway, nobody danced in couples like this. Dancing always seemed, again, like something other people did. But it really wasn’t that tough. It was actually a lot of fun.

  We danced and danced. Song after song. If my hair hadn’t been ruined by the helmet, it must have been a total disaster now, the way I was tossing it around. I didn’t even care that our food was getting cold, and I cared a lot about food usually. Other patrons of the restaurant were up and dancing with us now, and soon we had this big group. It got really tight on the dance floor, and Gabe pulled me close. I didn’t think it had anything to do with saving space.

  Finally I felt my legs start to get tired, and I realized, crazily, that I was actually hungry again, so we went back to our table outside.

  Our food was cool now, and the waiter whisked it away, replacing it with a dessert of pecan pie, which tasted just heavenly after all the exercise.

  “You’re a really good dancer,” I said taking another fork full.

  “Well, I really love music,” he replied.

  “Yeah I know.”

  “You know?”

  “Yeah, you like to sing to yourself sometimes.” It was true, whenever he needed to focus on anything he’d start humming, sometimes even saying the words. “You really like that Cadillac song.”

  Gabe laughed. “Oh, that one. Yeah, that’s a good one. My baby has a bright blue Cadillac . . .” He started to sing.

  Normally the idea of him singing in a crowded restaurant would have totally embarrassed me, but tonight it just seemed right.

  “Wait, how does it go?” I asked.

  “Repeat after me…” He talked me through the chorus and then every time we came back round to it I sang it with him.

  When we finished, a couple of the tables near us applauded. I grinned.

  “They’re being nice. I’m not that good,” I said.

  “Well, I am,” replied Gabe, and I laughed.

  I was feeling totally comfortable now. All the fears and worries had slipped away. We just talked about stuff as we finished dessert. Stupid stuff. We didn’t even once bring up the Taking and that it was just a week away. For this one night, it was like we were a normal couple, eating a normal dessert, having a normal date.

  Couple.

  Date.

  Normal.

  Was there anything weirder?

  39.

  Eventually Gabe signaled for the bill and threw down some cash. I knew he’d wanted it to be his treat, still I did feel bad not being allowed to contribute. Then he looked at me and reached out for my hands. This time I was comfortable with him taking them and smiled.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Hey,” I replied. We just kind of looked at each other, and it was okay. It was okay not to say anything. My mind wasn’t even racing that much.

  Then Gabe sighed and released my hands. “We should probably go,” he said standing up.

  “Really?”

  “Hey, it’s your parents and their rules.”
r />   “Yeah, I guess.” I stood up. “Step six. Go home.”

  “Yup.”

  We waved goodbye to the band as we passed and the waiter grabbed my hand to spin me one last time. Then we walked out of the courtyard, through the now much busier streets, and back to the bike. There were a couple of kids hanging around, looking at it.

  “That your bike?” asked one of them as we approached.

  “Yeah,” replied Gabe opening up the back and pulling out my helmet for me.

  “That’s so cool.”

  “Vintage,” said his friend.

  “You his girlfriend?” asked the first kid, turning to me now.

  Poor kid. Had no idea what a complicated and uncomfortable question that really was. “I guess so, yeah,” I said finally as I took the helmet from Gabe. We made eye contact, and he grinned in the way he always did.

  “Dude, you’re my hero,” said the first kid and held up his hand. Gabe laughed and gave him a high five.

  “Where’d you get the jacket?” asked the second kid.

  “A gift.”

  “So cool,” said the first kid to the second as they went on their way. “Vintage.”

  “Yeah. So cool. Totally Luke Perry.”

  “Yeah.”

  Well, that was two new things I’d learned there. Evidently I made Gabe look like a hero, and Luke Perry was cool again.

  “You’re my girlfriend?” asked Gabe coming up to me with a smile.

  “Hey, I just said it to make you look good,” I replied putting on the helmet before he could interrogate me further.

  We got on the bike, and this time I felt like a pro. This time I felt, well, okay, I felt cool. I knew it shouldn’t matter what anybody else thought, especially not two kids, but as we drove through the crowded streets and turned heads…it felt nice to feel impressive.

  The drive back in the dark was a little spooky, especially once we were off the highway. The only light was from the bike, and we could only see several feet in front of us. For some reason the dark brought back our mission into sharp focus, and I started to feel nervous. About our plan. About the Taking. I didn’t want to think about any of it, not right now. I leaned into Gabe and hugged him tighter.