by C. L. Stone
FOLLOWED
Our first stop was a video game store at an outlet mall not far from the school. I stood back with Nathan, while Luke and Gabriel scanned the shelves. The store was empty except for a couple of teenage clerks managing the counter and they looked bored, staring into cell phones.
“Shit,” Gabriel said, shuffling through a pile of Nintendo 3DS systems. “They’ve only got black, blue and red ones.”
“Were you hoping for a pink one like Sang’s?” Luke asked.
Gabriel punched Luke in the arm. “I wanted orange. Or at least something else.”
“Take the black one,” I said. “Paint something on it.”
Gabriel’s eyes lit up. “Ah. Customize it. I can do yours, too.” Gabriel picked up a black one. Luke took a blue one. “Luke, help me find the Animal Crossing game.”
“Are you going to get one?” I asked Nathan.
Nathan’s eyebrows drifted up. “I get one?”
“Then we can all play,” I said.
Nathan smirked. “I don’t know if Animal Crossing is for me.”
I didn’t mean to, but I felt my lip pouting. Not seriously, just teasing. I had this funny idea of all of us playing a game all weekend. Taking time off wouldn’t feel so weird if they were doing things with me.
“Nu-uh,” Gabriel snapped at me. He swung a lean finger at Nathan. “You’re getting one. We’re all playing with her this weekend.”
Luke grinned. “You’re spoiling her.”
“I don’t give a shit. That girl got nothing for sixteen years. We can play a game with her.” Gabriel shoved the three DS units, black for him, blue for Luke, and red for Nathan, along with three Animal Crossing games at Luke. “Go buy these.”
Gabriel and Luke took a spot near the counter. The attendant took one look at the stack and his face tightened skeptically, but started ringing up the order.
I stood behind Nathan. I touched his elbow to get his attention. “If you don’t want to play, you don’t have to. I was only joking before.”
Nathan slipped his arm away, and threaded it around me until his palm was warming the small of my back. “I’ll play with you.”
I gazed away, mostly to hide the smile I couldn’t get off of my face. Should I feel giddy that he was willing to play with me?
The cashier scanned all the boxes and rang up the total. He planted his palms on the counter, looking at us. I got the feeling he thought we were toying with him about our big order. “Total’s $657.”
I ducked behind Nathan to hide my gaping mouth and huge eyes. That much just to play games? Maybe I should have suggested we take someone’s Xbox for the weekend instead of spending so much.
Luke took out his wallet, and started counting off bills. I found myself thinking that maybe they all had credit cards like Victor, but realized that probably wasn’t the case. Luke must have money he earned while working at the diner.
Luke started frowning at the end of counting. “I’ve got four hundred.”
Gabriel groaned and pulled out a wallet. “I’ve got eighty.”
Nathan let go of me, finding his wallet and opened it. “Aw man, I haven’t been by the bank.” He held up a handful of twenties and a couple of ones. “It’s all I’ve got. We’re still thirty dollars short.”
I worried we’d have to put them back, but then remembered the money I stuffed in with my phone. Heat flooded my cheeks as I reached in, pulling out my phone and the cash next to it. I unfolded a couple of twenties and held them up.
“Here’s some,” I said, my voice sounding awfully quiet. It was the first amount of money I’d ever had. I thought it was as good a time as any to spend it.
Gabriel’s crystal eyes lit up. “Aw yeah, hey. There we go.” He reached out, taking the bills from me as casually as if I was passing him a dollar bill he had dropped instead of money I’d had.
Luke and Nathan didn’t flinch. I had been waiting for them to say something. It took me a moment, but then I remembered for Academy boys, whenever someone needed something, they pitched in together, a favor, money, anything.
At least now I was contributing something. We didn’t really need games, but they wanted them. I guess that counted.
The cashier collected the money and we walked out with several brand new 3DS systems.
“Looks like dinner is on Sang,” Luke said, hitting the unlock button on the Jeep.
I reached into my bra again, pulling out the cash I had left. “I’ve got thirty dollars.”
Nathan laughed. “I believe Sang is telling us we’re getting hamburgers tonight.”
♥♥♥
We stopped by a fast food place and took the food to go. Since we had a couple of hours until the game and no one wanted to go home, we took our dinner and headed to the school parking lot.
We mostly ate quietly, with the boys occasionally talking about the upcoming football game and me staring out the window and spacing out.
As they finished, they started opening their new DS systems. Their systems were already powered up all the way right out of the box and they started playing Animal Crossing and naming characters. I took mine out and started fishing just to do something a little mindless.
“Ha,” Luke said, holding up his blue DS. “I’m the mayor of Sang.”
“Nu-uh,” Gabriel said. “I’m the mayor of Sang.”
“We can’t both be mayor.”
“Name your town something else.”
Luke tapped at his game. “I already clicked OK. It won’t let me.”
“Shit.” Gabriel poked at his screen. “I don’t want to start over.”
I was sitting in the back with Nathan. I slid over, leaning against his shoulder while he was tapping away at his game. “What did you name yours?”
“Awesomer Than Sang’s Town.”
I laughed. Nathan beamed.
Gabriel perked up in the front and fished his phone out of his back pocket and answered it. “Oy,” he said. After a moment, he turned around to look at me. “Sang? Did you take your vitamin?”
“Uh...” I’d forgotten all about it.
“I’ve got it,” Nathan said. He found his book bag and shuffled through the pockets.
“You remembered?” I asked.
“I grabbed it last night and just put it in my bag so I could keep track of it.”
“She’s going to take it now,” Gabriel said to the phone. “Yeah, we’re fine. We’re at the school lot.”
“Tell Kota I said hi,” I said.
“It’s Mr. Blackbourne,” Gabriel replied.
My lips parted. He was calling to check up on me? He never called. I wasn’t sure what to say now, as if not saying something might make him feel like I didn’t care. “Tell ... tell him I said hello.”
Gabriel waved me off as if to say Mr. Blackbourne was talking. “Sorry, Sang’s trying to tell me to tell you hi. What do we need?” He made a face. “Yeah. We fed her. We’re taking her to the football game tonight and we’re going home. We even bought her a video game to play with all weekend. What? Yeah, she likes it. She played it today. She’s not going to the party with North and Silas. She’s staying with us.” Gabriel pulled his mouth from the phone, leaning back and blowing out a sigh.
Luke grinned at him. He looked back at me and started moving his hands to sign to me. “Have to check in when someone is on sick leave.”
“I’m not sick,” I said, though quieter.
Nathan and Luke started chuckling. Gabriel smirked but talked into the phone. “Don’t worry. After this game, she’s going home. We’re all taking it easy this weekend. No work.” Gabriel hung up. “Oy, he’s worse than Kota and North combined.”
“He does it to everyone,” Luke said.
“No kidding,” Gabriel said.
“Here,” Nathan said, handing me a big vitamin pill. I had to borrow his drink to swallow the pill down because mine was empty.
Luke clicked at his game. “Sang, open the Wi-Fi on your game. I want to come visit your town
.”
“Hey, we can do that?” Nathan asked.
I turned on the system on my game. “The town of North is open for visitors.”
Luke laughed. “North is going to hate this game.”
I wasn’t sure how long we had to wait for the football game to start, but I found myself leaning against Nathan, trying to get cozy while we played.
After about ten minutes, my stomach started to hurt. I grunted softly, and kept readjusting my body. No matter how I was sitting, the feeling wouldn’t go away.
“What’s wrong?” Nathan asked.
I let go of the game for a second, dropping an arm over my stomach to cover it. “It’s just my stomach.”
“What?” Gabriel asked, whipping his head around so that a couple of blond locks fell across his face. “Like yesterday?”
I nodded. It was the same pang sensation, like I swallowed a baseball and it was sitting in the pit of my stomach.
“Maybe she’s eating too much,” Luke said.
“No,” Gabriel said. “I think it’s the vitamins. Let me see the bottle?” Nathan passed it over and Gabriel read the ingredients. “You’re not allergic to anything?”
“Not that I know of,” I said.
“Hm...” He popped open the cap, took out a pill and then slipped it into his mouth. He stole Luke’s cup and took a sip to wash it down.
“Those are for girls,” Luke said.
“Vitamins are vitamins,” Gabriel said. “One won’t kill me. I just want to see if something’s wrong with them.”
I shifted to my side, trying to ease the pain. “So you’re going to take it to see if your stomach hurts?”
“Experimenting is how you figure shit out.” He tossed the bottle at Nathan. “At any rate, she doesn’t get any more of these. But keep the bottle. We’ll compare ingredients with other brands and see if we can find a different one that doesn’t hurt her.”
I pressed a hand against my ribs, feeling around my baseball stomach and trying to find some way to make it better. “Are vitamins supposed to make your stomach hurt?”
“Come here, Sang,” Nathan said. He picked me up by the hips, turning me around until I was sitting in his lap.
I took my game with me, curling up against his chest. “You’re not going to play?”
He closed his game, tossing it aside. “You play.” He took out his cell phone and started browsing the Internet. “Says here some folks get stomach aches from certain vitamins.”
“Which ones?” Gabriel asked.
“Dunno,” he said. “I think it varies.”
“Different fillers or formulas or something. Everyone’s different,” Gabriel said. He gripped the seat release and got it to lean back. “We’ll have to get a different brand.”
I was getting wrapped up in the game. Nathan made comments about what I was doing, but mostly just watched.
After another fifteen minutes, I’d collected lots of fish, earning money to upgrade my house in the game. I ended up trading lots of items with Luke and Gabriel, and Gabriel drew new clothes for my character so it looked like she had cute butterflies on her skirt.
Luke sat back after a while, taking a break and gazed out the window. After a few moments, he sat up. “What’s the list of cars that are following us?”
“What?” Gabriel asked, focused on the game.
“Mr. Morris has a brown car, doesn’t he? And wasn’t there another gray car? Or was it blue? Remember Mr. McCoy’s car? I mean the other guy that had the look-a-like?”
Nathan picked up his head and stared over me out the window where Luke was looking. I put my game down, trying to figure out what was going on.
The parking lot had a variety of cars close to the edge where the football stadium was, presumably football players and cheerleaders who were getting ready for the game had parked closer.
But on the outskirts of the parking lot, closer to the entrance, was a blue sedan.
“Is it Mr. McCoy?” I breathed out.
“I don’t think so,” Gabriel said, squinting out at the car. “From the shadow, he doesn’t look the same. But it’s hard to tell.”
“He’s been sitting in his car,” Luke said, “I didn’t notice until now someone was inside.”
“We’re hanging around, someone else might be, too,” Gabriel said, but he pulled out his phone and dialed. After a moment, he started talking into it. “Kota? Is your tail outside your house? Well, we might have another one here. Should we do anything?”
“We’re not doing anything too weird,” Nathan said. “We don’t even know who it is. We’re going to the football game. Wouldn’t that be boring enough?”
Gabriel pulled his phone from his ear and then tapped the screen, putting Kota on speaker. “Okay, tell them, Kota,” Gabriel said.
“Let’s see if we can figure out who they’re more interested in following,” Kota said through the phone. “Let’s do a shuffle.”
“Where do you want us to go?” Gabriel asked.
“Sang, do you know where the hallway to the boys’ locker room is? Silas and North should be around there somewhere. I’ll text them to let them know you’re on the way.”
“You’re going to send her in alone?” Nathan asked.
“I want you to go the long way around and meet her there. Gabriel, you and Luke should drive off. If he’s following you, come here. Make sure he crosses paths with Mr. Morris. Let’s make them chase us around town for a few hours.”
“And if he’s after Nathan?” Gabriel asked.
“Circle back around after about ten minutes and meet up with Sang. Then Nathan, go for a ride and let him chase you. That’ll narrow down the list.”
“What if they’re following Sang?” Nathan asked.
“We’ll cross that road when we get there. For now, we need to find out more information. If Mr. Hendricks is increasing the number of people watching us, we want to know who they’re more interested in. Let’s see if these guys know each other.”
Kota hung up. Game systems got turned off and put away. Gabriel took the wheel and started up the car while Luke caught my attention and pointed at the school. “See that, Sang?” He motioned to the edge of the building, closest to the trailers. There was a set of heavy double doors painted the same shade as the brick so it nearly blended in. “You want to go in there. There’s a door in the middle of the hallway. That’s the boys’ locker room.”
“I’ll go in through the front lobby,” Nathan said. “But slowly. If he’s following me, I want to make sure he feels comfortable getting out and walking behind me.”
I clasped my palm over my heart to stop its thundering. Mr. Blackbourne had said to take it easy, but this seemed to be opposite of when he said no Academy business. Maybe it was an exception due to circumstances, and it wasn’t that bad. All I had to do was walk inside and then wait. “What should I do?” I asked.
Nathan reached for my hand and squeezed it. “Look for Silas or North. Talk to them for a minute and then I’ll show up. We’ll wait for word from the others.”
I nodded and he opened the door, stepping back so I could get out. When we stepped away from the Jeep, Gabriel started it up and drove toward the school lot entrance.
I started to watch, but Nathan grabbed my shoulder, turning me until I was facing back toward the school.
“Head for Silas,” he said. “Don’t stop.”
I started walking, keeping my eyes ahead like I had something important to do. I wanted to check back on Nathan, but sensed I should probably focus.
I followed their instructions, finding the sidewalk pathway that led around the school and then toward the double doors. I opened one, stepping inside.
The hallway was noisy but there wasn’t anyone in it. I stilled as the door slammed shut behind me, trying to figure out where to go. Three doors were on the left-hand side, but only one toward the middle was open. It looked similar to the girls’ gym hallway but just opposite. The closer I got to the middle door, the louder the
echoes became.
I hovered just outside the locker room. A brick wall barrier made for a short hallway inside and stopped people from just peeking in. I waited and then reached to touch my phone, wondering if Kota had a chance to text North and Silas and let them know I was out here. I was going to send another text to say I was outside already.
A guy came out of the locker room, turning like he was going to head down the hallway. He stopped short when he almost walked into me. I didn’t know him, but he was built like a truck, so I assumed he was on the team.
“Looking for someone?” he asked. “Are you supposed to be down here?” I was about to answer but he snapped his fingers and pointed at me. “Oh wait, you’re Silas’s girlfriend. Hang on a second.” He stepped back into the locker room door, turning the corner. “Hey, Silas! Your girlfriend’s out here looking for you.” He waved to me, winked and continued on down the hall toward the rest of the school.
There was some hooting inside, and lots of loud comments. After a few moments, Silas appeared. He’d stripped down to a tank shirt, revealing the muscles of his chest and stomach: smooth power. The shirt was untucked from his dark slacks, like he’d been in the middle of getting ready to put on his football uniform and I’d stopped him.
My heart did a little flip. His strong Greek face was radiant, looking like he’d been laughing a lot.
His dark eyebrows lifted, curious. “Sang?” he called to me as he approached. “Something wrong?”
I parted my mouth to tell him the plan when behind him appeared a few more guys. They stood in the entry way and leaned against the wall, watching us.
“Sorry. I was trying to text to let you know I was coming.” Technically it was Kota, but I didn’t want those overhearing to know that detail.
Silas’s face changed like he was asking me if I was okay without asking. “I put it down while I was changing.” His eyes followed where my attention was and spotted the boys. He waved a hand at them. “Fuck off, guys. Come on. Give me a minute.”
Some of the boys rolled their eyes, some laughed. They wandered off, but I had the feeling a few of them lingered just out of sight and would stay there to try and listen in.
Silas caught my hand, tugging at it and guiding me down the hall. “No one’s in trouble, are they?”
