Bayward Street

by Addison Jane

  I skipped up next to him, keeping his stride. “Where are Heath and Bray?”

  “Waiting in the cafeteria.”

  “You guys are pretty close?” I asked curiously.

  Lucas smirked but continued to look straight ahead. “Heath’s my best friend.”

  “Heath doesn’t take me as the kind of guy to have a lot of friends,” I scoffed as we navigated people and the maze of halls.

  Lucas laughed. “Heath is suspicious by nature. He sees the world for what it is. He has power within these walls. Guys want to be him, girls want to be with him and most for all the wrong reasons.”

  “So how did you sneak through his defenses?”

  “We’ve been friends since grade school. I was there for him before he was king. I’ve paid my dues.”

  I nodded. I understood the concept of the untrusting mind all too well.

  We walked into a loud, bustling cafeteria. I ignored the stares and whispers as Lucas handed me a tray and started piling food onto it alongside his.

  “You know, I’m quite capable of doing that myself,” I told him with a frown. He just smiled, not even looking at me as he walked off. I sighed as I assumed once again that I was expected to follow. Lucas led us to a large table in the corner of the room. The first thing I noticed was the boy to girl ratio that sat at it. There were maybe ten or twelve guys and only three girls. I spotted Heath, who sat at the head, just like the king. Even from behind, I could tell why he was respected, and adored the way he was. The way he held himself wasn’t with an arrogant or belittling attitude. He didn’t look down on others or make them feel inferior. He simply demanded respect and offered it in return. And for that reason, people loved him.

  Braydon was situated just to his left, and when he looked up, the smiled that glowed from him could have lit up the entire room in a black out. But it wasn’t just a happy smile, it was mischievous and cocky. He spoke quietly to the guy beside him, who automatically shuffled down the bench seat, Braydon following and opening a space for me between my two new brothers. I sighed before walking over and dropping myself with all the grace of a sumo wrestler onto the seat, my tray clanging loudly on the table and causing the rest of the table to quiet and stare at me.

  “My bad,” I mumbled. Braydon chuckled loudly next to me and several of the faces relaxed and returned to their conversations.

  “You okay?” Heath asked me quietly, drawing my attention to him, concern reflected in his expressive eyes.

  “Sure? Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked casually, stabbing my fork into one of my chicken pieces.

  “Heard you were bailed up in the hall,” he said, not removing his intense gaze.

  I laughed, almost choking on the bite of food I had just taken. “Wow, news travels fast here.”

  “Jay was definitely in fine form today,” Lucas said as he took residence in the seat opposite me.

  “That was her on form?” I scoffed. “Does that usually work for her? Calling people names and shouldering them in the corridor.”

  “Usually…” Lucas answered with a small smirk.

  “Girl needs to learn something about how the real world works then. Bitch points her sparkly pink nails at me again, I’ll break the damn things off.”

  Braydon’s laugh boomed throughout the room, and I caught the slimmest of smiles touch at the corner of Heath’s mouth.

  “So, is it true?” a guy’s voice came from down the table, I recognized his face too.

  “Sam,” Heath scolded, causing him to sit back in his chair again.

  I sipped at my juice. “Is what true?” I asked curiously eyeing the boys. Heath scowled at the rest of the table, and their mouths stayed zipped. “Seriously, is what true?”

  “They wanna know if you really ‘made someone disappear.’” Braydon clarified using his fingers to quote. Heath sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. I started to giggle, and it felt good. It felt good to laugh.

  “I knew it wasn’t true,” Sam spoke again, then he thought for a moment. “It’s not is it?”

  I didn’t answer, I just continued to eat my lunch with a smug smile playing on my lips. I hadn’t even been here for half a day, and already I was pissing off the school’s drama queen, eating lunch with the popular kids, and had become the crazy girl who topped people when they crossed her.

  Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad.

  “Hi, Felicity.” The young girl jumped at the sound of my voice, and her phone flew out of her hand and onto the ground. I cringed, quickly bending over to pick it up. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” I held the phone out checking the screen for cracks. A relieved sigh left my mouth, but my eyes took notice of the text message that was on the screen.

  Unknown: Miss you baby.

  Raising my eyebrow, I smiled softly. “Your brothers know you have a boyfriend?”

  She quickly grabbed the phone from my hand, holding it to her chest as she shook her head back and forth.

  “It’s okay…” reaching out and patting her arm softly I whispered, “…I won’t tell them.”

  Her eyes looked up even as she continued to hang her head. “You won’t?” Her voice was quiet and timid, and I wondered how she ended up so shy when Heath and Bray turned out so confident and strong.

  “Of course not. It’ll be our secret.”

  She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “They’d go crazy if they knew.”

  My head bobbed in agreement. “I’m pretty sure that’s a safe assumption.” She giggled quietly. “Is he nice?”

  Her eyes brightened at my question. “Yes, he’s so sweet.”

  “That’s great, Felicity.”

  She cleared her throat. “Um… you can call me Flick.”

  My heart swelled. I knew only her family and close friends called her that, and I wasn’t sure why but it felt really good to be included.

  “Flick it is.”

  We smiled at each other, a bond starting to form between us.

  A hand pressed against my back, sliding down slowly to rest at my hip. My body buzzed at Heath’s touch. Even though it had become natural for us now, I still got excited every time our bodies made contact. “You girls ready to go, I’ve gotta be back for training in half an hour so I’ll run you home.”

  The car beeped and Flick nodded and smiled at her older brother before climbing in the backseat.

  “She likes you,” he said, directing me around the back of the car to the passenger’s side. I couldn’t help but smile up at him, as he turned my body and pressed my back against the car door.

  “She may be the only one because I have a feeling the other kids around here aren’t going to be as easily persuaded.”

  “Since when do they matter?” he asked, raising his eyebrow.

  “Since I have no idea how long I’ll be here, so it would be nice to be able to walk down the corridor without people staring at me like I have something on my face.” It was true. I didn’t want to make friends with them, I just wanted them to forget I existed. I wasn’t afraid to fight and stand up for myself, I’d never go back to that little girl who let someone walk all over her. But if this was going to happen every day, I was going to get exhausted. I already was.

  “We’ll work on it.” He pulled me away from the car and opened the door, gesturing for me to climb in.

  I eyed him suspiciously. “Heath… Don’t go throwing your weight around. I don’t need you to protect me.”

  He just smirked, giving me a gentle shove toward the car. “Get in.”

  Climbing into the front seat, I continued to watch him as he closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side. He started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

  “Heath, leave it alone,” I warned quietly. He ignored me and continued to drive.

  The last thing I needed was for Heath to be my bodyguard. He got to where he was by demanding respect from his peers. And while I didn’t exactly give a shit what the people here thought of me, I needed to at l
east earn their respect to make life here livable. And I wasn’t going to get it by Heath or Braydon stepping in every time they thought I needed saving.

  Heath dropped us off at the front door with a wave.

  “He’s not going to leave it alone you know,” Flick stated as we walked up the front steps and through the open doors. We stopped at the bottom of the staircase. “It’s not how the boys work. They take care of what they consider theirs, and as far as my oldest brother is concerned, you’re his.”

  My eyes widened. “Heath and I, we aren’t—”

  She began to giggle. “I meant that you’re part of his family and his friends, and he protects the people he loves.”

  “I don’t want protection, I’ve done pretty well looking after myself so far.”

  She shook her head. “You’ll see.” With that, she took off up the staircase and disappeared.

  The rest of the house was quiet as I walked through to the kitchen and dumped my school bag on the floor. The silence wasn’t something I enjoyed. I missed my rowdy laughing friends and the hustle and bustle of people on the city streets. I missed the sound of Layla’s guitar and Daisy’s violin and Eazy’s smart mouth.

  My heart ached as it swelled with sadness and guilt.

  I hadn’t been able to talk to them since the police dragged me away. They didn’t know where I was or if I was okay, and here I was living in this huge house while they were out there still fighting to survive every day.

  But if I went back there to see them, the judge would take me away and put me into the system, and the opportunities that the Carsons held were just too good to throw away. Not just for me, but for my friends. I’d already talked with Helen about doing something to help, and she was onboard saying she already had something in mind.

  I looked around the empty house, everything was sparkling and clean, it felt almost abnormal. It was okay when Heath and Bray were around, they helped to distract me from how uneasy I felt here.

  I spotted my blades sitting against the door outside, and I felt a rush of comfort fill me. Rushing upstairs, I pulled on a pair of black jeans and a hooded gray sweatshirt and poked my head into Flick’s room. She sat on her bed, looking at her phone with a soft smile.

  “Lover boy again?” She jumped, but this time managed to hold her phone securely in her hand. Blushing, she nodded her head.

  “Is there a skate park around this place somewhere?” My hopes were high, but the chances I knew were slim.

  “If you head toward town, there’s a bridge on your left that goes across the railway tracks. It’s just over there, but—”

  I cut her off with a thanks and pulled the door shut, jogging back down the stairs. My body filled with glee as I pulled my blades on and clicked over the buckles. Just that sound was enough to make my body sag with relief.

  It felt so good to have them on.

  Skating down the smooth driveway wasn’t quite the same as rolling along a city street, but it would do for now until I could get to the skate park that Flick was talking about. Wind blew at my face as I flew down the sidewalk and I giggled. I didn’t even have to avoid pedestrians, except for the odd person jogging or walking their dog. They all looked at me strange, I knew I looked out of place, but I didn’t care. I was too happy to care.

  It took me a good thirty minutes to get there, but I finally reached the bridge just as a train passed underneath, the rumbling of the carriages moving over my wheels and vibrating up through my body. When the noise of the train disappeared, the air was filled with sounds I recognized—scraping and sliding of boards against concrete. Laughter of teens and cheers as someone landed a trick.

  Pulling my hood up and tucking my hair inside, I skated toward the noise, my senses buzzing. I just wanted to blend into the crowd, get the fix I needed and leave. There were boys in ripped jeans and worn shoes, a couple of girls sat off to the side watching, but even they looked different than the trust fund beauties I’d spent all day with at school.

  I rolled toward them slowly. A few noticed me, narrowing their eyes as if they were trying to decipher if I was friend or foe. Making my way around the outside of the bowl, more and more eyes fell on me, and the sweet noises I loved came to a halt.

  “You lost, man?” A tall boy with ruffled blond hair stepped out, and I pulled to a sharp stop. He seemed shocked when he got a good look at my face. “Not a man, then.”

  Pulling back my hood, I let my hair fall free. “Not lost, just want to skate then I’ll go.”

  His eyes drifted down to my skates and back up. “We usually use boards.” He smirked.

  Pushing off with my right foot, I rolled in a circle around him. He didn’t turn but watched me with his eyes. “A skate park that discriminates against what type of wheels you have. There’s a new one.”

  He chuckled, folding his arms across his chest. He was well built for a teenager, athletic like Heath and Bray. Still smiling he nodded to the park. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Grinning, my body gravitated to the large skate bowl that resembled an empty swimming pool. Eyes penetrated me, but I didn’t feel any pressure, I was good. Maybe not the best, but I could hold my own.

  Dropping off the edge, my muscles contracted as I held my balance, flying down the steep slope. I tucked my knees up as I lifted off the opposite side, and twirled my body so I was facing back down as my blades once again connected with the slick concrete. Colors flashed by me like a blur of rainbow, the graffiti that stained the ground under me a masterpiece of its own. It wasn’t just street tagging, it was beautiful, creative and intricate.

  Leaping out of the bowl, I hit the slope that led to the rest of the park. There were benches, rails, and ledges. I jumped and hit a rail, slipping down it for a just a few seconds before I leaped off again.

  The adrenaline and anticipation that runs through your body, in that moment when you are waiting for your wheels to hit the ground again, is unlike anything else. It’s a high. A feeling of euphoria when you roll away.

  Skating back around the bowl, I moved slowly, allowing myself to feel the joy that spread throughout my body and mind. I needed this. School had been hard today. I didn’t like to admit it, but it was true. It took me a long time to build up the resilience that I had to the dirty looks and crude comments that I’d received on the streets.

  At first, it had hurt, I didn’t know why people couldn’t just see that I was a kid needing someone’s help. Instead, they looked at me like I was scum, a pest that they couldn’t eradicate. I had to learn to not take in their judgments.

  “You’re pretty good,” the young boy said approaching me again. “My name’s Liam.”

  I gave him a sweet smile before I whipped my sweatshirt over my head and tied it around my waist. “Thanks, Liam. But I’m not looking for approval. I just want to skate.”

  He grinned, showing me a set of white, but not so perfectly set teeth. “I think you’ll fit in here just fine.”

  “Haven’t seen you around before,” Liam mused as he walked beside me over to the park bench.

  “New to the area,” I told him simply, as I sat down and watched the group go back to their business.

  He dropped down next to me. “You go to school here?”

  A completely unladylike snort left me. “Yeah, unfortunately.”

  “Ah, a Diamond Cross Private kid.”

  “Geez, is it that obvious?” I groaned.

  Liam chuckled lightly. “Nah, but the only other school around here is East Street Public and I ain’t seen you there. Seems to me like you’d fit in with us better than those rich kids uptown, though.”

  There was a not so subtle question there. Taking in his clothes, I couldn’t help but think he was right, though. He was dressed in a pair of worn and dirty jean shorts that came to just below his knee, and a casual dark blue T-shirt that wasn’t brand labeled or fancy, but instead had a tear in the bottom and was faded. He still looked good, though, I had to admit that much.

  “It�
��s a long story,” I answered, hoping it would satisfy his curiosity.

  He held his hands up. “Hey, I get it. We all have a story to tell. Mine isn’t all unicorns crapping rainbows either, so no worries.”

  Looking at him out of the corner of my eye, a smile started to form on my mouth. “Unicorns crapping rainbows?”

  He smirked back. “Yeah, isn’t that what people call happiness? Unicorns and rainbows and—

  ”

  “Poop?” I laughed.

  Liam shrugged, reaching over behind the bench and grabbing a skateboard. He placed it on the ground and stood from the bench. “Come on, let’s see what else you’ve got.”

  Pushing myself up, I held my arms out wide as I skated backward, my eyes watching him the whole time. “You doubting my mad skills?”

  He followed me, one foot on his board, the other pushing. His shoes looked like they’d seen one too many days at the skate park, and there were grazes and scabs on his elbows and knees. I guess he wasn’t afraid to get in and take risks.

  “Those are big words for a little girl.”

  I pulled to a stop suddenly. “I’m sorry, what did you just call me?”

  He acted innocent, whistling casually as he drifted by me. “Little girl?” He grinned just before dropping off the side of the bowl and disappearing from sight, only to see him pop up on the other side, flipping his board in the air before making a perfect landing on the flat ground.

  A few people around clapped, including the two girls who I noticed admired him quietly from across the park.

  “Well…” he called, “…we’re running out of daylight here.” His taunting didn’t faze me. It wasn’t said with malice, it was the kind of smart remarks you’d throw at your friends. And I welcomed it.

  I spent an hour or more, trading offhanded comments with the other kids, and even learning some new skills. They welcomed me in, even though I could tell that to start with, they were apprehensive.

  It was beginning to get dark, and people began to say their goodbyes.