School Fling Anthology: Class Is in Session

by Jessica Wood

  “What are you waiting for? Aren’t we going?” She grinned at me excitedly.

  “One would think you’d never been in a stolen car before.”

  “One would think you’d never had a girl in a stolen car with you before.”

  “Then one would be thinking incorrectly.”

  “I see.” She turned away from me quickly, and her tone sounded hurt. Good, I didn’t want her to know that she was the first girl I’d had in a stolen car with me, and the first girl I had been on a drop with. It was crazy, and she was the last person I should be taking with me, but I couldn’t help myself. Bad move, Logan, a voice in my head whispered. Bad move. But it wasn’t a bad move if I listened to Jared and his suggestions. Maybe I was doing this because subconsciously I wanted to hurt her. I’d teach her a lesson, and she would be crushed. And then she’d be home and crying and the mayor would be beside himself. But what would that do? The voice whispered again, a little heartbreak wasn’t going to do anything to the mayor. How many times had she cried over a guy before? I’m sure she’d had her share of dalliances and heartbreaks. She certainly wasn’t some innocent little virgin, that was for sure.

  “What are you thinking about?” She leaned towards the radio. “Can I put on some tunes?”

  “Go ahead.” I nodded without looking at her. I could feel my heartbeat racing, and I felt uncomfortable with her in the seat next to me. I didn’t want her to be here with me, yet I felt so alive, so excited, so happy to have her here with me. And it had nothing to do with the fact that I could get revenge on her and avenge my family. The fact was, I didn’t want to hurt her. I took a quick glance at Maddie and watched as her hair blew in the wind coming through her window. Her eyes were alert and happy, and she gave me a quick smile as she noticed my stare. I turned away quickly, as my stomach jumped. I wasn’t sure I would be able to forgive myself if I hurt Maddie on purpose. And what was worse is that I didn’t know if she would ever forgive me either.

  "Do you like Maroon 5?” She bobbed her head to an unfamiliar song.

  “I don’t know them.” I shook my head.

  “You don’t know Maroon 5? What?” Her eyes darted to me. “What about Adam Levine?”

  “Who?” I laughed.

  “From The Voice!”

  “What voice?”

  “The TV show.”

  “I’m sorry, Maddie, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Wow,” she laughed. “Don’t you watch TV?”

  “Not really.” I shook my head. We only had one TV in the house and my father was parked in front of it twenty-four-seven.

  “That’s crazy.”

  “Really?” I raised an eyebrow at her. “Out of everything you know about me, that’s the craziest?”

  “I mean, it’s a surprise. I thought everyone watched TV.”

  “Even those who can’t afford a TV or cable?”

  “Oh, I didn’t think …” Her voice trailed off and she blushed. “I suppose you think I’m just this privileged girl, huh? I guess I’m not helping my cause.”

  “I don’t think you’re a snob.” I smiled at her gently. “But do you act like someone who comes from money? Yeah. But that’s not unreasonable, because that was your upbringing, I’m sure.”

  “You’re sweet to say that,” she sighed, and I could see her twisting her hands. “I suppose I’m an utter bore to someone like you.”

  “You mean the big, bad wolf of River Valley?”

  “No, I mean to someone who has so much excitement in their life.”

  “Excitement?” I laughed. “I think I have the least amount of excitement of anyone I know.” Aside from the night I met you, I thought to myself with a grin.

  “Really? I figured stealing cars would be like a drug.”

  “Not really.” I turned onto the highway and checked the rearview mirror to make sure no cops were following me. “Maybe when I first started, yeah, there was a thrill of excitement, a hint of danger and exhilaration. Now it’s mundane.”

  “Mundane, now there’s a word.” She looked over at me.

  “I learned it when I was studying for the SAT.” I laughed.

  “You took the SAT?” She looked surprised.

  “No.” I shook my head, mad at myself for letting that slip. “I never took it. They made us study for it in school. I may have glanced at the words once or twice out of boredom.”

  “I see.”

  “So you’re studying history?”

  “Yeah.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to bore you though.”

  “You won’t bore me, I like history.”

  “You do?” I could hear the shock in her voice and I laughed.

  “No, not really.” I accelerated and switched to the left-lane of the highway. “I was more of a science guy myself.”

  “Oh, I sucked at all the science subjects.”

  “I doubt you sucked at anything.”

  “You would be surprised. My dad had to get me private tutors. It was awful. I was the only person in my dorm who had two tutors.”

  “Dorm?” I looked at her, puzzled.

  “When I was in boarding school.”

  “Oh, yeah. What was that like?”

  “Fun,” she giggled. “At first it was weird, and I didn’t understand why my parents wanted to send me away to school. But it was a small school, and there were only like fifteen of us who were boarders. We went from form to form together and became really close.”

  “I see. That must have been cool.”

  “It was okay, it was all-girls, so we didn’t really have a chance to get up to anything too bad.”

  “No late night make-out sessions in the dorms?”

  “Well, not really.” Her voice was squeaky and I saw her turn her face to look out the window. Something about her tone piqued my interest, and I decided to press the subject.

  “What do you mean, not really?”

  “Well, we didn’t have real live boys to kiss, but we had posters to practice on.”

  “Oh.” I laughed. “Like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise and stuff?”

  “You could say that.”

  “Who were the actors you guys practiced on?” I asked curiously.

  “I never said we practiced on actors.”

  “Oh, I just assumed. Who then?”

  “You’re going to think I’m a psycho.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to tell you.”

  “Now you have to tell me,” I laughed. “And I already think you’re crazy, so no need to worry about that.”

  “You’re mean.”

  “Ha, ha, tell me, Maddie.”

  “Well, I really don’t want to tell you this, but we used to kiss posters of you. Well, not all of us, but a few of us did.”

  “Posters of me?” I turned towards her. “What posters?”

  “Okay, now I have to go into Fatal Attraction territory, but one summer I was over at Lucy’s place and we were going through Joey’s yearbook, and well, there was a photo of you in there.”

  “My high school pic?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “No, there was a photo of you posing on a motorcycle, I guess it was a candid shot, and you had your shirt off …” Her voice trailed off.

  “Oh, when I was in eleventh grade?” I thought back. “I think I was deciding if I wanted to steal it.” I laughed. “But then someone took a photo and I knew I couldn’t, as that photo would definitely serve as incriminating evidence.”

  “Well, you looked super hot,” she continued. “So I borrowed the yearbook and I took it to Walgreens and got it blown up, and then the girls and I ordered posters.”

  “The girls?”

  “In my dorm, when I got back to school.”

  “Ah, ok. So I was your first kiss?” I grinned at her and winked.

  “I guess,” she laughed. “Though the physical honor goes to Matt Devoir.”

  “I see.” Jealousy churned through me at the thought of Maddie kissing another guy.

  “He was
n’t as good a kisser as you, though.” She reached over and touched my arm. “Who was your first kiss with?”

  “Judy Hamilton,” I answered quickly.

  “Judy Hamilton? No way.” Maddie laughed.

  “Yup.” I grinned over at her. “She was experienced and I was eager.”

  “Isn’t she like five years older than you?”

  “Something like that.” I laughed. “What can I say, I like older women.”

  “I guess that’s why you don’t like me, then.” She sat back in her seat with a wistful tone, and I was jerked back to reality. Maddie wasn’t just some regular girl, and we weren’t on some regular ride. If I took one wrong turn, this whole thing could explode on me.

  “Hey, this is our exit.” I quickly pulled back over to the exit lane and we sat in silence, as I navigated the unfamiliar streets. “So how was your first kiss?”

  “Which one?”

  “With Matt?”

  “Oh, it was okay. Nothing earthshattering. I didn’t tremble with passion or anything.”

  “Because you normally tremble with passion when you kiss?”

  “When you kiss me.” Her voice was sweet and confident and I wanted to shake her for being so forward. Didn’t she know that girls were meant to play coy? Especially with guys they didn’t really know.

  “I suppose the poster knew a couple of tricks, huh?”

  “No, but you do.” Her voice was lower this time, and I glanced at her quickly, wondering if she was trying to seduce me.

  “You’re trouble, Maddie Wright.” I shook my head. “You make me look like a good boy.”

  “What fun would a good Logan Martelli be?”

  “Behave.” I laughed and pulled into the Walmart parking lot where the exchange was meant to take place. I parked and turned to her with a serious expression. “Stay in the car when the guy comes. I don’t want you getting involved with this.”

  “Do you have a gun?” She looked at me, slightly worried, but there was a glint in her eyes.

  “This is not the movies, Maddie. I have no gun, and I don’t want one either.”

  “What happens if the deal goes wrong?”

  “I’ve never had a deal go that wrong. I’m dealing in Japanese imports, not diamonds from South Africa.” Though maybe if I was part of something a bit bigger, my family wouldn’t be so broke.

  “Have you ever thought about getting a real job?”

  “No.” I lied to her, not wanting to get into it with her.

  “I could ask my father if there was anything he could to do help.” She looked at me eagerly. “Maybe he could get you a job at city hall and ….”

  “Enough.” I held my hand up at her abruptly. “I don’t need your dad’s help.”

  “He won’t judge you.” She looked at me anxiously. “Not if I vouch for you.”

  “Would you vouch for me as the guy who fucked you in his bed a week ago?”

  “Of course not.” She made a face at me. “I would just say you were my friend.”

  “Of course, your friend. Don’t you think he would want to know how we met? And would he be cool with us being friends?”

  “My dad doesn’t judge people, Logan. I don’t know why you have something against him, but he’s a good man.”

  “Yeah, he’s a good man.” My voice was harsh.

  “I wish you would talk to me,” she pleaded.

  “What do you want to know, Maddie?” I shouted, frustrated. “Do you really want to know what I think of your dad? Your perfect dad? Do you want to know why I wish I could watch him getting run over by a semi truck?” I watched as her face contorted with pain and she shrunk away from me, but I was too annoyed to stop.

  “I fucking hate his guts.” I hit my fist against the steering wheel. “I am never going like him. I don’t know why you just can’t leave me alone. What don’t you get?”

  “Sorry.” Her eyes flashed. “I thought you’d want to be friends.”

  “Why would I want to be friends?” I looked at her, agitated. I was starting to feel bad for shouting at her, and that was making me even more upset. I didn’t want to care how she felt.

  “I thought that we—”

  “No, no, you haven’t been thinking,” I interrupted her. “I get it, you had a schoolgirl crush on me, but you move on, Maddie. You don’t track me down to seduce me, and then tell me you want to be friends. I’m not going to change. You’re not going to discover the other secret part of me. What you see is what you get. Do you understand that? I’m a car thief. I steal cars for money. I steal cars from people with kids.” I nodded to the baby seat in the back and ignored the twinge of guilt in me. I couldn’t afford to feel guilty in this business. “I’m not misunderstood, I’m not going to get a job in a fucking office, I’m not going to turn into some man who is going to give you the safe life you’ve grown up in. Just because I fucked you, it doesn’t mean I want anything with you. Yeah, you’re hot. And yeah, I had a good time. But that was it. Stop trying to make this into more than it is. And don’t ask me why I’m mean to you or hate you. I don’t hate you. I just don’t fucking care.”

  I took a deep breath and turned away from her. This time she didn’t try to shield me from the tears streaming down her face. She stared at me with wide, hurt eyes, and I was taken back to my childhood when I had told my mother I hated her. The pain that coursed through me right now was the same pain that had coursed through me then. I had been about twelve years old, and my dad had been on his way to steal a car and I was going to accompany him. My mother had been upset that he was using me as his lookout, and she had pulled me aside and told me that I couldn’t go. My father had been slightly drunk and had shouted at her. She stood her ground against him and had whispered that she couldn’t put up with it anymore. She told him that she wasn’t going to let him do this to the kids and that she was going to leave him. I had been incensed at her words and turned on her and shouted that I hated her and that she didn’t understand. The look she had given me at that moment had broken my heart in two. The pain mingled with shock, hurt and disbelief as she stared at me. I could feel how my words had hurt her. The hurt that coursed through her had flushed through me and I hadn’t known what to say. The anger and confusion in my own body had stopped me from apologizing in that moment. I knew that in that moment that my mother realized that the innocent and loving boy she had raised was gone. And as I stared at Maddie, in this instant, I knew I had also shattered her image of me. No matter what she had thought of me before, or what she were to think of me in the future, she would always be reminded of this conversation in this car.

  “He’s here.” She bit her lip and turned away from me.

  “What?” My voice was softer, and I didn’t understand what she was talking about. I wanted her to shout back at me, to scream and call me an asshole.

  “The guy you’re selling this car to? I think he’s here.” She squinted and then doubled down in her seat.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I think I know that guy,” she whispered up at me.

  “Really?” I looked at her in surprise and then at the guy standing in front of the car. He looked somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t place him. “Stay here,” I hissed at Maddie again before I stepped out of the car.

  “Hey.” The guy nodded at me.

  “Hey.” I took in his dirty appearance and nodded. “You called me about the car?”

  “Yeah.” He looked it over. “It runs well?”

  “Yeah, smooth as a Ferrari, only twenty thousand miles as well.”

  “You want five grand?”

  “I want ten grand, but I’ll accept five.” I stared at him, and he stared back at me with a glint of something in his eyes.

  “What about three grand?”

  “No deal.”

  “You got no papers.”

  “So?”

  “Two grand.”

  “I don’t have time for games, five grand or nothing.” My voice rose, and then I noticed hi
s hands were full of grease. “I’m going to go.”

  “I wouldn’t be so quick to leave, Logan.” He stepped towards me with a menacing stare. “Marty’s not happy that you didn’t give him a call.”

  “Marty?” I held my ground as I stared at the man, as I realized where I knew him from. He was one of Marty’s mechanics/henchmen.

  “Yeah.” His voice was menacing. “You get a lot of protection in River Valley because of Marty. I wouldn’t like to think you were disrespecting him.”

  “I don’t need Marty’s help.”

  “Marty wants this car, and he’s willing to give you a grand.”

  “You’ve got to be joking.”

  “You’ll take the grand, and be grateful you’re getting that. Next time, Marty won’t be so nice.”

  “Forget about it.” I turned away from him, angry.

  “We don’t want Vincent to get into any trouble now, do we? I’d hate to see his college dreams come crashing down as he sits in a jail cell.”

  “Leave my brother out of this.” I turned around, heart racing. “What do you want?”

  “I want you to give me this car, and Marty wants you to consider this a warning.”

  “Piss off.”

  “You think we’re playing with you?” His voice was full of venom. “We know Jared’s been messing around with Joey Kennedy. I’d hate for him to go down as well. Two brothers in jail? Well, how would that feel, Logan? No one would be surprised. In fact, everyone would just be waiting to see when the third and final Martelli brother made it to jail.”

  I stared at him with my blood boiling. If Maddie hadn’t been in the car, I would have decked him, not caring what would have happened next. But I didn’t want her to see the blood.

  “You want the car, you can have it.” I took a deep breath. I was pissed at myself for caving, but I needed the money.

  “Here.” He pulled out a stack of twenties and handed them to me. “Leave the car in the parking lot, we’ll have it picked up and towed tonight.”