“Really? Savagely? That was the word they used?” Jimmy asked as he shook his head.
Great, why didn’t these Watsons know enough to just shut up?
Bean stared at Jimmy for a long minute. Long enough for the kid to begin to squirm, then flipping my folder closed, he turned to me.
“I called you in to make sure you know that fighting will not be allowed. We have zero tolerance for such activities.”
Looking down at my lap I tried to hide a smile. They didn’t have a thing. Just rumors. Frick and Frack had kept quiet.
“I understand sir. It was the same policy at my last school.”
“A policy you didn’t always comply with, I see,” he said as he tapped my folder.
Shrugging my shoulders I said, “School can be a learning experience.”
Bean scowled at me, letting me know that I might have just pushed things a little far.
“Mr. Bean,” Elle interrupted. “Just so I’m fully aware of the school policy. What is a student supposed to do when two bigger kids are beating up a little kid? I mean, are they supposed to just stand there and watch it happen and then pick up the pieces when it’s done?”
Bean pulled his stare away from me to look at Elle. I could tell that there were things he wanted to say but was holding back.
“The student should get a teacher, Miss Watson. Let them handle it. Fighting will not be tolerated.”
“But by the time I go and get a teacher. The little kid will be pummeled into the ground.”
Jimmy started to lean forward so I knocked his leg with mine and shook my head. I swear the kid was going to challenge his sister and assure her he could have taken care of himself. Therefore, admitting he had been involved. What was it with these people, didn’t they know anything?
Jimmy saw what I was thinking and leaned back into his chair.
“We have zero tolerance for fighting,” Bean repeated as if he were quoting from a manual.
Elle folded her arms and stared back at the man. She knew it was ridiculous but you couldn’t change bureaucracy.
“Anyway,” he said as he dropped my folder into a desk drawer. “In this case, we don’t have an actual report. Just rumors. Of course, too many rumors about repeated events and I will have to take action.”
“Without evidence?” Elle said. “Shouldn’t the bullies be the ones punished?”
I caught Mr. Bean’s attention and rolled my eyes. He had to hide a laugh as he shook his head.
“Get out,” he said. “And Miss Watson, since I did not send for you, this will have to be a tardy situation for you. A couple more and it will be detention.”
Elle’s eyes grew big, the thought of Elle Watson serving time in detention was absurd. At least to her.
“As for you two,” the vice principal said pointing at Jimmy and myself, then pausing for a long second. “Just go. And remember, zero tolerance for fighting”
I grabbed the two of them and hustled them out the door before they could say something to make him change his mind.
As I was shutting the door I stuck my head back in and said, “What would you have done in the situation? When you were a student.”
He frowned for a moment then said, “I’d have beaten the crap out of them.”
I smiled back.
“But then, as Vice Principal of discipline,” he added. “I’d have suspended my butt.”
I nodded, fair enough.
By the time we dropped Elle off at her class she had calmed down. Not completely, but enough so that I didn’t have to keep looking over my shoulder.
“We’ll talk about this later,” she said when we got to her door. “Try to keep out of trouble until lunch.”
I smiled to myself. Okay, she didn’t hate me. At least not completely.
Chapter Fourteen
Elle
I decided to give them a pass. It took me a couple of classes, but I slowly came to the realization that Nate had done the right thing. I might not like it, but I would have hated Jimmy getting hurt even worse.
That didn’t excuse them keeping secrets from me. But, what was I going to do? He’d saved my brother. Again. I couldn’t exactly stay mad, could I? Especially when he flashed me those silvery blue eyes of his. My insides just seemed to melt and my anger washed away.
A new warm peace was settling over me. Things were going sort of good. They’d stopped hassling Jimmy. The rumors had seen to that. We’d made it through Sunday dinner without any fatal errors. Yes, life was good.
Or it was until I was confronted with a sight that set my nerves on edge. Nate, standing by his locker. And two of the evilest skanks in the world hanging on his every word. Cindy Havers and Julie Chase. My arch-enemies. The two girls who had made mine and Jeanna’s lives miserable for the last eleven years.
Cindy was looking up at Nate like he’d built the pyramids single-handed. Dressed in a tank top and shorts that barely met the school’s dress code. The girl looked like an advertisement for a cheap escort service. She had that dazed, adoring look that I knew guys found irresistible and her rather ample chest thrust forward, just begging him to notice
I swear, I saw red. My world changed, and all I wanted to do was charge in there and stop it before Nate fell to her many charms. A rage began to build up inside of me and not all of it was focused on Cindy. How dare Nate be interested in something like that? Besides, if he wasn’t so hot, she’d have left him alone.
No, some of this was definitely his fault. I didn’t know how, but it was.
I pushed my way through the crowd and turned on the biggest smile I could muster.
Cindy saw me coming and shot me a look of pure hate. That girl look that we reserve for the one person we despise more than any other in the world. I returned the favor.
“Hey Babe,” I said as I reached up, my hand slipping around the back of his neck to pull him down for a quick kiss on the lips.
Nate didn’t miss a beat as his lips brushed mine and for just the slightest moment I forgot about Cindy and the rest of the world.
“There you are, gorgeous,” he said as he slipped an arm around me and pulled me in close. My side next to him. We fit together like we were designed to.
I couldn’t resist shooting Cindy a quick look of victory.
“Do you know Cynthia, and … Julie is it?” he asked. “They were telling me how great the football team was.”
I had to bite my tongue for just a second. She’d announced to the world early last year that she preferred Cynthia to Cindy. And our football team hadn’t been great since the seventies.
“Oh, Cindy and I have known each other for years,” I said as I patted his chest, my fingers running over very hard muscles. Such a large, solid chest. The very chest I had laid my head on only the day before. Closing my eyes I drank in his scent and had to fight to keep myself from moaning in pleasure.
“Yes, … well. We’ve got to get to class,” Cindy said with a frown that made my day. “I hope to see you at the game, Nate,” she said, flashing him a smile.
“Maybe we should go to the game,” I said, “I know you wanted to go to the park and our favorite spot. But we could go after the game.” I said with an adoring look. Making sure Cindy heard every word.
Nate paused for just a moment as he stared back down into my eyes. I swore I saw a dozen different, very steamy, thoughts pass through his brain. The kind of thoughts that could make a girl squirm with a sense of power.
“Who needs football?” he said. “I can think of a lot of other things I’d rather be doing.”
I froze, okay, this might be getting out of hand. What was real and what was pretend? No boy could look that passionate and not mean it. No one was that good an actor.
The two of us stood there staring at each other while Cindy and Julie looked back and forth at us like we were two lovebirds ready to do it right there in the hall. And she might not have been far off in her thinking.
The heat generated between the two of us was like a
dozen suns in August. The kind of heat that could singe a girl’s heart.
“See you later, Nate,” Cindy said with a sad little smile as she grabbed Julie and pulled her into the stream of passing students.
I continued to look up at Nate, he was just so darn tall, I thought.
“Is she gone?” he asked, breaking the spell.
“Um … yes,” I managed to reply as I frantically fought to pull myself back together.
He laughed. “Did you mark your territory well enough,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
I felt my cheeks grow warm as I quickly backed away from him. How did he always know the one thing to say to ruin a perfectly great moment?
“I know we said one of the reasons we were doing this was for you to get a girlfriend,” I said through a clenched jaw. “I understand. But not her. Anyone but her.”
He frowned for a moment and looked at me strangely then nodded his head. “Sure, whatever you say.”
I don’t know why, but I got the feeling that he was upset with me for some reason. I don’t know why. I should be the one pissed off. My supposed boyfriend was flirting with my arch enemy in the middle of the hall. I should be furious. But instead, I felt lost. Like I’d missed something I might never get back.
“I’ll see you at lunch,” he said with a crisp dismissal as he turned and walked away. No goodbye squeeze. Just nothing but a wide back sinking into the stream of students.
.o0o.
Elle
The week progressed as normal as a week in high school could. Justin Turner found out he got early acceptance to the Air Force Academy. Tim Puller broke his leg in football practice. Debbie Hightower got mono and Tina Jarvis found out she was pregnant. Just another normal week.
On Wednesday, Nate and I were sitting across from each other in the cafeteria. The first time we’d been alone together in days. Jimmy was off in the computer lab again and Jeanna had stayed home sick because of a history test she wasn’t ready for.
I looked at him and noticed a faint bruise above his left eye. He caught me staring and smiled as he said, “I should have zigged when I zagged.”
My insides tightened up. His uncle assured me that Nate knew how to take care of himself in the ring. Biting my lip, I stopped myself from saying something mean about his intelligence. The last thing he needed was me criticizing him. For some reason, I was relatively sure that Nate would completely ignore anything I might say on the matter.
So instead, I addressed my real concerns. The coming weekend.
“So, are you doing anything this weekend?” I asked in the most passive-aggressive way I could.
He studied me for a moment and shook his head, “Working both days, but nothing else, why?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know.”
He looked back at me with a raised eyebrow as if he were trying to decipher a long lost ancient code. His examination made my shoulder blades itch as I squirmed just a little.
“It’s just that, I don’t exactly know how this is supposed to work,” I said. “This ‘fool Jimmy’ plan we’ve got going. Am I supposed to sit around and wait for you to call? Or do we not have to do that anymore. Pretend. Do we just wait until he starts doubting and then quickly rush out on a date to keep him in the dark? It’s not like there are instruction manuals or anything.”
He chuckled and continued to look at me with a strange expression that I couldn’t fully understand.
“Are you saying you want me to ask you out?”
God, I just wanted to curl up and blow away. “No. … No, um, … I don’t know. I’m just trying to figure it out.”
He smiled and nodded. “Okay, yeah, you’re right, we probably should.”
I fought hard not to let out a long breath of relief. Instead, I slowly let my lungs deflate back to normal. All the time praying I didn’t come across like a stupid idiot.
“There is something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said as he took another bite of his spaghetti. A double serving I might add. The boy could pack away some food.
“What’s that?” I asked as I took a nibble from my apple, desperately trying to slow my heart rate down to semi-normal.
“The drive-in, I always wanted to go.”
My brow furrowed up into a dozen wrinkles. “You’ve never been to a drive-in movie?”
“We don’t have a lot of them in Seattle,” he said, “Too much rain.” His questioning look made me pause for a minute.
Suddenly it hit me, he was asking me to go out. My stupid plan had worked.
“Um, sure, I guess,” I said as nonchalantly as I could. I even managed to throw in a shoulder shrug as if it was no big deal.
He smiled and said, “Good, Seven-thirty on Saturday. Okay?”
All I could do was nod my head as my heart kicked back up to super speed. He’d asked me out and hadn’t mentioned it was because of Jimmy. Yes, a slight improvement over normal.
We continued to eat in silence for a moment when he suddenly reached over and took my hand in his. I froze solid as his thumb began to draw small circles across the back of my wrist.
Could he feel my racing pulse? Should I pull my hand away? But it felt so good. So natural. I glanced up at him only to find him looking across the cafeteria.
“Your friend Cynthia was watching,” he said as he released my hand.
I clenched my jaw shut and held my breath. Ignore him, I thought. Just pretend. It’s all just pretend.
Chapter Fifteen
Elle
Saturday could not get there soon enough. Then of course, as it got closer to Seven-Thirty, I began to desperately pray for the clock to slow down. Nothing seemed to look right. Every top I tried was either too tight, too baggy, or the absolutely wrong color. My jeans made my butt look big, too big. Either I’d put on some pounds or they were shrinking in the wash. I was banking on the latter.
I couldn’t figure out my hair, everything just lay there like a dead squirrel sitting on my head. And I swear I saw the beginning of a pimple threatening to erupt right in the center of my forehead. Life was just not fair.
After screaming to myself for the third time, Nana stuck her head into my room and gave me a reassuring smile. The woman always knew when I needed help and was always there. Mom was useless, what she knew about guys could fit in a thimble.
“How’s it going?” Nana asked with that carefree smile of hers. No problem was ever too big. No crisis ever too dire.
“I can’t figure out what to wear,” I blurted out as I looked at the pile of clothes now covering my bed.
She didn’t laugh, she just stepped in, picking up tops and examining them before tossing them back onto the bed.
“What is your favorite color?” she asked as she looked at a yellow shirt with a shudder.
“Forest green,” I said. “But I don’t have anything in the right shade.”
“Forest green, just like your aura,” she said as she held up a cobalt blue top.
Smiling at me, she stood there until it sank in. Yes, Nate’s aura, maybe that shade of blue was his favorite color. I mean, I couldn’t see this supposed aura of his. But anything was worth a try.
“Thanks, Nana,” I said as I gave her a quick hug. “You are the greatest.”
“I know,” she said with a smile as she turned to leave. “And those jeans are perfect,” she added. “They make you look more like a woman and less like a girl.”
Like I said, my Nana is the greatest.
As the clock approached Seven-thirty I was pacing just inside the front door. This was sort of our third date after all. No way did he have to come inside and meet mom. No need for social pleasantries. Right? At least that was the excuse I was telling myself so I could avoid the entire situation.
The ringing of the doorbell made me jump.
“I’m going,” I yelled out to anyone who might be listening and then quickly opened the door and slipped outside before anyone could stop me.
Nate smiled at me and my hear
t fluttered. He was dressed in Levi’s, a button-down shirt. Not tucked in. Sleeve rolled up, exposing those strong forearm muscles of his that made my insides sort of melt. All I could think of was running my hands up and down his arms to satisfy this burning need inside of me.
“You ready?” he asked as he shot the front door a quick look. Obviously wondering why he hadn’t been invited inside.
“Yes, let’s go,” I said as I grabbed his hand and started for his truck parked on the street. We hadn’t gone two yards before the door opened behind me. My stomach fell. So close to freedom.
“Elle,” my mom called, like she’d caught me sneaking into the cookie jar and ruining my dinner.
“Hi Ms. Watson,” Nate said, pulling me to a stop.
“Hello Nate,” Mom said without taking her eyes off of me. “Not too late, remember, you’re going with me to the farmer’s market in the morning.”
“I know Mom,” I said with an exasperated tone that I could see irritated her to no end.
“I’ll have her back by her curfew, I promise. Midnight, right?” Nate asked.
Mom nodded. I could see she wanted to say something else but thankfully she held off.
“Have fun,” she said instead, but I could tell she really didn’t mean it. The last thing in the world she wanted was me having fun. The funny thing was. If she had known the truth. If she had known this was all just pretend. She wouldn’t have worried nearly as much.
Nate held the truck door for me and helped me up. “You look great,” he said. “I really like your shirt.”
I almost stumbled for a second but pulled myself together as I silently thanked my Nana.
Nate got in behind the wheel and shot me a quick smile. Nothing more, but it was enough to settle my nerves. This is Nate, I reminded myself. Don’t overthink things. Just let it happen. And remember, it’s all pretend.
We drove to the drive-in in relative silence. He told me what was playing, I assured him it sounded great. By the time Nate had pulled into a spot – middle, middle – I was a basket of raw nerves.
My Brother's Bodyguard (Hometown Heros #1) Page 11
