by Wendy Knight
“Sounds good. Six at my house? My mom makes spaghetti on Thursdays.” Trey sounded breathless, even to his own ears.
A hint of a smile crossed Scout’s face. “I know. I remember.” And then the smile was gone and her eyes hardened again. “I’ll eat before I come. See you at six thirty.” She spun on her heel and walked away, leaving him alone in the hall.
“How’d it go?” Cole asked as Trey walked up to the truck. Cole leaned against it patiently, and Trey felt bad making him wait so long.
“Sorry, forgot it was my turn to drive today.” He unlocked the truck so Cole could climb in. “She hates me as much as ever.”
“Yeah. I don’t think that’s gonna get any better, Trey.” Cole said as he slid into the passenger seat, fastening his seatbelt.
“No, I don’t think it will.” When Trey tried to sleep at night, he still saw the flashing red and blue lights. He could still hear the sirens. And every time he drove past that stoplight, he saw the whole thing again, heard Scout scream as he spun the wheel, trying to avoid the semi, and then the echoing silence as her scream was cut short.
****
“Hi Scout. How was school?” Lil Bit met Scout at the door and Scout planted a kiss on the top of her head.
“Long. How bout you?”
“Not long enough.” Lil Bit frowned. Scout’s sister was eleven, looked like she was eight, and was treated like she was six. It drove the little girl nuts. Scout refused to do it, which might be why Lil Bit loved her the most.
“They made you take a short day again?” Scout asked, hanging her bags and jacket on the hook in the mudroom.
“Yep. I thought I saw…” Lil Bit froze, her hand clapped over her mouth.
“Hey.” Scout squatted down so they were face to face, peeling Lil Bit’s hand away from her face. “You can tell me. I’m safe, remember?”
Lil Bit peered through the doorway and looked over her shoulder, comically making sure they were alone, although Scout was pretty sure she wasn’t being comical on purpose. “I thought I saw soul stealers.”
Scout sat back on her heels, her eyes widening. Soul stealers were new. She’d never heard Lil Bit talk about them before. Unicorns, yes. All the time. “What are soul stealers?”
Lil Bit’s face paled, making her big brown eyes look like pits of terror in her face. “They’re monsters.”
Scout cracked a smile. “I assumed that, kiddo. What kind of monsters? Where did you see them?”
Lil Bit had been ‘seeing’ things since she was tiny. Their parents put her in a special school and had taken her to all kinds of doctors. For a while, she had quit talking completely. It hadn’t been until Scout spent three months in the hospital that Lil Bit had finally opened up — and that was only because she thought Scout was unconscious and couldn’t hear her.
“I saw them on TV, on the news. But they’re coming here. They’re coming everywhere,” Lil Bit whispered.
Who let her watch the news? Scout wondered furiously, but she didn’t say it. “What do they look like?”
“Like… like black skeleton ghosts. All hunched up. With long claw-y fingers that they use to steal souls.”
“Good grief.” Scout pulled her into a hug, wrapping her arms around Lil Bit, trying to block out all the scary things that assaulted her on a daily basis. “I’m so sorry.”
She stroked Lil Bit’s black silky hair until Lil Bit pushed her away with a grin. “You talked to Trey today.” Lil Bit had been amazing Scout with the things she knew for years, but it still surprised her every time.
“How’d you know?”
Lil Bit had loved Trey. His abandonment hurt her as much as it hurt Scout, almost. But her hurt hadn’t turned to hatred. She still waved every time she saw him outside. Lil Bit turned and skipped from the room. “I just did. What’d he want?”
Scout rose to her feet, groaning as her back shrieked in protest. Right after the accident, the doctors had told her she’d never walk again. She’d proven them wrong, but her back still liked to remind her constantly that the pain was in charge, not her.
Lil Bit paused in the living room, looking back at Scout expectantly. “We are stuck together on a science project,” Scout said as she followed her in, collapsing on the couch to pull off her shoes. Lil Bit said nothing, just continued to stare at her with those big eyes, so Scout continued, “I don’t want to work with him. I don’t want anything to do with him.” It was amazing how one could be simultaneously in love with someone and hate him at the exact same time. Only Lil Bit knew the truth, and she wouldn’t tell.
“Scout? Is that you?” Scout’s mom, Laila, called from the office. She worked from home as an office manager, which meant she could be a workaholic and an active, participating-in-their-lives kind of mom at the same time.
“Yeah Mom. Hi.” Scout waved as Laila’s head popped around the corner, still wearing the headset.
“Dad’s making chicken noodle soup,” Lil Bit whispered, and clapped her hands, bouncing on her toes. “We won’t have to eat Mom’s cooking!”
Scout laughed out loud at that one. Laila tried, she really did, but kitchen fires were more easily produced than actual food when it was her turn to cook.
“Come eat!” Travis yelled, his voice carrying through the entire house, and maybe two houses down. He peered through the doorway, motioning them with his oven mitt. Lil Bit looked just like him — silky black hair and big, round dark eyes. Scout looked like Laila, with the long, honey-brown hair, and sea-foam-green eyes. Those eyes had the ability to make Laila look deceptively mild. Scout was for-real mild, so her eyes fit her personality much better than her mom’s.
Lil Bit grabbed Scout’s hand, dragging her off the couch as she raced for the kitchen, bypassing the dining room that they only used when Grandma and Grandpa came for dinner. Travis was just setting the steaming bowls of deliciousness on the table as Scout slid into her chair.
“How was practice?” Laila asked, sitting next to her.
“Hurt quite a bit. Kamille found some stretches she’s hoping will help.” Scout said, pausing to blow on her soup before she shoved a spoonful into her mouth. Oh so good.
“You remember you have a physical therapy appointment next week, right? You’ll have to miss practice on Tuesday,” Laila said, and Scout could see the gears in her mom’s brain working as she scanned some internal calendar.
“Yep, I remember. I… have to work on a science project with Trey tomorrow at 6:30. Is that okay?” She hesitated, because both her parents disliked Trey, almost more than she did. It wasn’t the accident that upset them so much, but the way he had hurt her after. They had never forgiven him. Her family definitely knew how to hold a good grudge. Except Lil Bit. Scout smiled fondly at her across the table. Lil Bit didn’t hold a grudge. She rarely got angry even. If only we were all like you, Scout thought, and Lil Bit met her eyes across the table, breaking into a smile. Somehow, she had heard Scout. Somehow, she had always been able to.
Scout had to wait until after dinner to be able to talk to her mom alone. “Who let Lil Bit watch the news?” Scout asked, her voice low so that her sister wouldn’t hear her from the TV room.
Laila handed her another dish to dry, her hand shaking slightly. “It was on in the teachers’ lounge. She saw it through the doorway.” Clearly, Laila was upset, but Scout wasn’t sure if it was because of the incident at Lil Bit’s school, or if it was because they had to worry about incidents like this in the first place.
Lil Bit, also known as Veronica to mostly no one, was their golden child. Scout had been a surprise, coming along before Laila and Travis had even decided to get married. Oh yeah, of course they would have gotten married anyway. Or so they said.
Then they had tried for six years to get pregnant again. Doctors said it wasn’t possible. They had done all the fertility treatments, all the procedures. And when they had given up, Lil Bit finally decided to come along. So, knowing that Lil Bit was “special”, as Scout’s parents called it, upset the
m quite a bit. It upset Scout, too, but not for the same reason. She hated to see how being different hurt her adorable little sister. Lil Bit didn’t understand. She only knew whatever she was it was the wrong thing to be. Scout was determined to chase that thought away for good.
Scout went to bed after dinner. She was too tired and in too much pain to do her homework — the thought of sitting in her office chair made her back scream in horror. She was mostly on the sleeping side of asleep when she heard the door creak and seconds later the shuffle of rapid steps across the carpet. She forced an eye open, trying to read the clock in the darkness. It was just after midnight. She felt her bed sag and then bounce. “Are you awake?” Lil Bit asked in a tiny, frightened whisper that made Scout’s heart ache worse than her back ever could.
“Yep.” She tried not to sound like she’d been sleeping.
“Can I sleep with you?”
“Of course. Snuggle on over here, Lil Bit. But keep your cold toes to yourself.” Scout mumbled, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Lil Bit, finally taking shape in the darkness, burrowed into Scout’s side, taking care not to nudge Scout’s back in the process. Scout pulled the covers up to Lil Bit’s chin, tucking them tight. “I’ve got you now. Sleep, little one.” Scout murmured. She knew with Lil Bit in her bed that there would be no more sleeping for her, because she couldn’t lie so still for so long without her back acting up. But Lil Bit had stopped shaking, and Scout liked to believe that the terror was gone from those huge brown eyes. It was worth it.
Lil Bit escaped back to her room when Scout’s alarm went off. Scout dragged herself to her feet and headed for the shower, stopping to tuck Lil Bit back into her own bed on the way. Her parents, thankfully, didn’t get up until Scout was almost ready to leave, so they didn’t know about Lil Bit’s late night visits.
She was half-through with her shower before it finally warmed up. Her teeth were still chattering when she got out, and her pick broke trying to comb through her baby fine curls.
It was going to be a long day.
Chapter Two
Trey fidgeted. Scout had been late to Zoology and had escaped early. She’d been late to dance and left before he’d finished football. If he didn’t know better, and he really didn’t, he would guess she was doing a very fine job of avoiding him. So as soon as practice was over he had raced home, driving too fast, and rushed through dinner so quickly even his mom had noticed. He’d been sitting on the stairs staring out the front door window ever since. She’s not gonna show. She’s not gonna show.
“How long are you planning to sit there? Don’t we have work to do?” Her voice, as always, was colder than he ever remembered it being, even as quiet as she was.
He spun, nearly knocking himself down the stairs. “I didn’t hear you come in.” He gasped, grabbing for the banister in a desperate attempt to regain his balance. She’d come to the back door. Just like she used to. He tried not to let his heart pound out of his chest.
“Your mom let me in.” Her voice was as cold as her eyes. “Should we get started?”
“Yeah.” He pulled himself to his feet, leading the way into the office. He wasn’t allowed to have girls in his room — because of her. They hadn’t been the best examples to his little brothers through the two years they were together. He glanced over his shoulder to see her eyes locked on the first door on the right at the top of the stairs. His door. He hid a hopeful smile and pushed open the office door.
She dropped her bag at her feet by the table and sat in a chair, gingerly, he noticed. She kept her back very straight, and he knew why. The guilt ate at him. I’m sorry, Scout. I’m so sorry.
“What?” she snapped.
He shook his head, embarrassed. “Nothing. Should we just do some brainstorming tonight or did you have an idea already?” He sat down across from her. It brought back a lot of memories having her here — maybe more than he could handle. Before the accident, she wouldn’t have sat across the table from him. She would have sat as close as possible, even on his lap sometimes when she got bored.
She cleared her throat.
“Sorry, what?” Knock it off, you idiot! He mentally yelled at himself.
“I said I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete. Do you?”
“No. Not really.”
The look on her face said she wasn’t surprised. She flipped her notebook open and thumbed through the pages, finally turning the book toward him. “What do you think of this idea?”
He scanned the page, his eyes devouring her handwriting more than the actual words. She used to write him love notes and stick them in his locker every morning. He blinked quickly, trying to pull his mind away from the past, from everything he’d lost.
“It looks complicated,” he said, sitting back and pushing the notebook toward her.
“That’s because it is. And it will get us an ‘A’ and look amazing on college applications.” It was the longest sentence she had spoken to him since she’d broken up with him. We are done. And by the way, I hate you. Yeah, actually, it might be a little longer, if he counted all the words.
“Can you do it? No point making a big complicated plan if you can’t pull it off.” He looked up at her and saw the fury flash through her eyes. She hated it when people doubted her, and he knew it. He hid a triumphant grin.
“Of course I can do it. If you’re afraid to try, you can find another partner.”
He laughed, holding up his hands to ward off her attack, verbal though it was. “I’m not afraid. But,” he pulled the notebook back, grabbing a pencil from the mug on the computer desk, “what if we change this, here,” he drew a circle, “and put this here?” He was aware of Scout leaning closer to him, peering at the paper in interest. She still used the same lotion — lilac scented. If he lived forever, that smell would still remind him of her.
They had always worked very well together. His goal, the one he had begged Mr. Zornes to consider before he assigned science partners, was to show her they still could. “It will make the whole process much easier but should still give us the same results.”
She sat back in her chair, picking up the notebook and scanning the page. Her face lit up, and it appeared she momentarily forgot how much she hated him as she met his eyes. “That’s perfect!”
He could have conquered the entire world right then.
“So we just need to gather the materials and do some test runs to see if the data confirms the hypothesis.” She was nibbling her pencil while she scanned the page, mostly mumbling to herself. He watched her, watched those lips, fighting memories again. She’d been his first kiss. And nothing since had ever felt as good.
She glanced at him briefly before returning to the page. “Okay. So, you probably have plans Saturday. Should we plan for Monday after practice?”
“I don’t have plans Saturday,” he lied. He did have plans, but Kylin would have to understand.
She quirked an eyebrow, and he would swear her bright green eyes were teasing. “You don’t have plans on a Saturday night?”
“No. Why, do you?”
She shook her head, brushing her brown waves away from her face as she leaned over to stuff the notebook back in her bag. She’s leaving already? “No. Lil Bit and I usually watch a movie on Saturday, but she has a birthday party. Assuming my parents will let her go.”
“They’re still hovering?” he asked, realizing as he did that he was breaking the we-do-not-speak-of-the-past rule. But Scout didn’t seem to notice.
“Worse than ever. And her teachers are in on it now, too. They keep sending her home because they say she’s having ‘attacks’,” Scout said sarcastically, doing air quotes.
“Poor kid. Do you need me to threaten anyone for her? ‘Cause I will.”
Scout smiled, the first real smile she’d given him in over a year. His heart stopped in his chest. “Maybe. I’ll keep you posted. For some reason, no one seems to be afraid of me.”
Trey lay in bed that night, listening to his brothers snore through the
walls, knowing he should be sleeping because the game tomorrow was a big one, but all he could do was replay that half-hour he’d had her all to himself. He’d happily lose every football game for the rest of the season if it meant she would smile at him again.
****
“Mom, you have to let Lil Bit go. Every other girl in her class will be at the birthday party. If she doesn’t get to go, she’ll be—” Scout lowered her voice, hissing through her teeth as she checked over her shoulder to make sure Lil Bit wasn’t behind her, “—more of an outcast than she already is.”
Laila flinched. “Maybe other parents will be keeping their kids home because of this spreading pandemic everybody’s talking about.”
Scout had heard about that. People were just randomly falling into some sort of comatose state. It had started in the far north and was spreading slowly south. Last she’d heard, it had hit southern Canada. They didn’t watch the news in this house. The news seemed to be one of Lil Bit’s major triggers for whatever the episodes were her parents believed she was having.
“That’s what scared Lil Bit at school yesterday,” Laila said. Scout wanted to correct her. The disease hadn’t scared her; the things Lil Bit thought were causing the disease scared her. But she didn’t tell Laila that. “Mom, let her go. Please. She needs this. She needs to feel normal. And I’ll be at Trey’s house — it’s only three houses away from the party.”
Laila sighed, throwing dirty laundry a little too vehemently into the washing machine. “I don’t know, Scout. I just… what if she has one of her attacks?”
I’ll tell her to hide it. “She can call me. I can get there in thirty seconds.”
Laila stopped, turning her full attention on Scout. “Are you absolutely sure this is a good idea? Does she even want to go?”
“Yes, she wants to go. And yes, it’s a good idea.” She’s not a freak, Mom, Scout thought.
