Somewhere in the Middle

by Linda Palmer

  “Get nailed in the first volley, do you?”

  The smile tugging at the corner of his lip told me I hadn’t fooled him. “Every freakin’ time. Give me a softball, a soccer ball, or a basketball any day of the week. Heck, I’ll even try football.”

  “I’ve seen football. Way too rough for girls.”

  I’ve seen football? Well, who on earth hadn’t? “I’m headed to the Arts building. Pay attention to what Mr. Groves is writing on the board today, will ya?”

  He nodded. “Why don’t you get out the book you need? I’ll take your backpack with me.”

  “No way.” I stepped out of his reach. “I’ll meet you right here. Bye.” I left him.

  In graphic arts, we watched a tutorial about a complicated drawing program we were about to tackle. As interested as I was in the topic, I shouldn’t have had a bit of trouble focusing. But my gaze strayed outside more than once and landed on the row of windows on the east side of the Science and Math building. I knew which room belonged to Mr. Groves and could easily picture Roone sitting at one of the desks, which wouldn’t fit his long legs, meticulously copying more formulas off the white board. I toyed with the idea of tutoring him in physics, but wasn’t sure if I should offer. I was going to be spending way too much time with him as it was.

  After class, we met where promised and made our way to English, with Roone once again carrying my backpack. As impressed by his persistence as I was his manners, I nonetheless hated that he was doing it. My pack plus his meant a lot of extra weight, but he clearly wasn’t bothered by it, so I stifled further protests. There’d be bigger battles to fight. Relationships—even fake ones—invariably meant occasional clashes of wills.

  Having chosen my English seat at the start of the year, I now had no opportunity to change it. That meant we sat on opposite sides of the room. Mrs. Collins, our teacher, had us open our literature books to the section on the Romantic Period. We began with her picking someone to read aloud a poem called “Jenny Kissed Me” by a man named Leigh Hunt. Who’d she choose? Me, of course. So I read what turned out to be very touching lines about a guy who counted a young girl’s kiss as one of the highlights of his life. I almost choked up, which was very unlike stoic me. My voice actually cracked. I refused to look at anyone after I finished and darted from the room without Roone, though I did wait for him just outside the door.

  “You okay?” He tipped his head down to look me in the eye.

  “Yeah, sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “No reason. Lockers?”

  “Yes.” We walked to them together, splitting up so I could stash the backpack he’d just handed to me and get my lunch bag. Then we met up again and walked to the cafeteria. I went straight to the table Dayna and Gavin had already chosen, where I began to unpack my food. Plastic bottle of lemonade, frozen overnight but now thawed to a slush? Check. PBJ? Check. Chips? Check. Brownies? Dang. I’d forgotten to pack the five I’d so carefully wrapped in foil the night before—one each for me, Dayna, Gavin, Sid, and Roone—last of the huge batch I’d made on Friday.

  “What’s wrong?” Roone slapped his tray on the table, but didn’t sit.

  “Geez. Are you psychic or something?” Surely I hadn’t looked that sad. It was only dessert, after all.

  “I am, as a matter of fact.”

  I sputtered a laugh. “Then you tell me what’s wrong.”

  He dubiously eyed my lunch. “You wish you’d brought grownup food?”

  I solidly punched his arm, ignoring my best friend’s hysterical laughter. “Wrong answer.” I next zoned in on her. “Cool it, Day. I had one for you.”

  “Made with real sugar?”

  “Nothing’s more natural than that.”

  She instantly sobered. “Bummer.”

  That’s when Sid joined us. “What’s up?”

  I noticed that he’d noticed Roone’s presence and now smiled at me. “Not much.” I glanced around and then lowered my voice. “Can I assume that everyone sitting at this table knows our real status?” I flicked a finger between me and Roone. Sid, Gavin, and Dayna nodded. “Good.” I caught Roone’s eye. “We can relax.”

  “I’ll bet you’re getting a lot of curious looks,” said Dayna before biting into a bologna sandwich. I cringed, just thinking of all the disgusting body parts she was consuming.

  Sid grinned. “Killer looks would be more like it. Right?”

  “Somewhere in the middle.” And that reminded me… “What does this mean?” I asked Roone, tucking a finger through his rubber wrist bracelet.

  “It’s a family joke.”

  “Ah. You know, I’m thinking we should talk while we have the chance. I’m hopelessly clueless when it comes to you.” I thought for a second. “I’ve met your dad. Tell me about your mom.”

  “She died when I was ten.”

  I slapped my hand over my mouth. “Oh God. I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

  “How could you?”

  Clearly aware on my embarrassment, Dayna picked up the slack. “Any more at home like you?”

  “Jon,” Roone said, a forkful of very healthy salad halfway to his mouth. “My brother. He’s twenty-four.”

  I took over. “He lives with you and your dad?”

  “Yeah. He’s taking classes at the community college.”

  “Do you have a job?” I next asked.

  “Not yet, but I’d like to get one if…well… Um, do you?”

  “Not a real job, though my mom pays me for all the housework, laundry, and cooking I do.” I explained her status. “I also run errands for my Nana since my dad stole her car.”

  Roone gave me a look. “Your father stole your grandmother’s car?”

  I laughed. “Not literally. He retired his mother from driving because she’d had two wrecks in four weeks and her insurance canceled her. Believe me, it was time. She’s almost ninety and can’t half see. We’re lucky she hadn’t killed someone already. But taking away a loved one’s driving privileges is very traumatic for the driver and for the person having to do it, so it took Dad a while to get up the nerve.”

  “Was she upset?” asked Sid, who knew Nana well and apparently hadn’t heard the story.

  I took a long swallow of my icy drink before answering. “Not so much. She knew it was for the best. And besides, she has me to do her running. Ow, ow, ow!” I pressed my fingertips to my forehead, lost in several seconds of excruciating pain resulting from drinking my frozen lemonade too fast.

  “Are you okay?” Roone stared at me in visible alarm.

  “Brain freeze. Whew.” The agony began to recede.

  “What’s that?”

  Four pairs of eyes swiveled to look at him. I did the talking. “You don’t know what brain freeze is?”

  “Noooo.”

  I explained it. “Surely that’s happened to you.”

  “Oh yeah. Lots of times. I’ve just never heard it called that.”

  “Where are you from?” asked Gavin, his mouth full of pizza.

  I mouthed the words as Roone told them. “Nowhere near.”

  Geez.

  Roone changed the topic from our mutual trivial pursuit right after that, and I let him even though I still had a zillion questions. Guess he thought we knew enough to get by. Or maybe he preferred fewer witnesses.

  In study hall, I checked his physics homework once he’d finished and corrected several mistakes. Clearly, he just didn’t get it. When the final bell rang that Thursday, we walked to the parking lot together.

  After I unlocked my car and opened the door, he tossed my backpack into the passenger seat. “We did okay today, don’t you think?”

  “I do.”

  “But we should probably…” He leaned down and brushed his lips lightly over mine. “Just for appearances.”

  “Right,” I said, my voice oddly calm considering that my heart rate had just gone from seventy-something to triple digits.

  Roone stepped aside so I could slide behind my steering wheel. “Meet you here t
omorrow morning?”

  “Yes.” I shut the door, started the engine, and soon left him walking to his own ride. Though things had gone well, I was way relieved day was done.

  That night I typed more of Thorsen’s paper and made significant progress. I didn’t want to take too long with it since he really wanted a NASA job. But I didn’t want to mess it up, either.

  After I went to bed around eleven, I lay there for a while listening to my iPod and thinking about Roone. In little ways he was such a mystery. I had a feeling any quirks resulted from having moved to McAlister from NowhereNear, which had to be in a state very different from Alabama, possibly on the West Coast, based on what I knew of the people there.

  Of course, my knowledge was limited, since our family never traveled far from home, and I was relying on the stereotypes presented in movies and TV. But if that were true, wouldn’t he have some kind of tell-tale accent? Or maybe he was from up north. I knew some of those states had clusters of people from countries like Sweden and Norway, and Thorsen was a name that could’ve originated there.

  Friday was pretty much a repeat of Thursday, though our fellow students seemed more accustomed to seeing Roone and me together. I still got some hard looks. I blew them off. That afternoon before we got to our cars, he asked a question I’d been planning to ask myself.

  “Should we come to school together?”

  “Probably.”

  “Then I’ll pick you up Monday morning. Where do you live?”

  “Actually, everyone in this school knows how I feel about my car.” We were right beside the Trans Am by then. “So why don’t I pick you up? Much more believable.”

  “Only if I pay for the gas.”

  “Deal, but only because she’s a guzzler.” A drawback of classic cars. “What’s your address?” He gave it to me. I gave him mine and then hugged him goodbye instead of kissing him as I’d done before. When I tried to step away, I couldn’t. His arms were that tight around me. And when I looked up at him in surprise, he brushed his lips over mine.

  “Just for appearances.”

  “So you’ve said.” Ahem. Oddly disconcerted I slipped out of his arms. “Have a nice weekend.”

  “You too.”

  We parted.

  I finished up the paper around nine Friday night. Very pleased that I’d managed it so quickly, I slipped on some decent clothes and impulsively drove to Roone’s, using the GPS on my phone. Though McAlister wasn’t exactly huge, there were still areas I wasn’t familiar with, most of them newer housing additions on the good side of town.

  The Thorsen house was located on a much nicer street than the Sayers house was. And it was way bigger. Made of brick and rock, it had two stories, a sloping front lawn, and a wide front porch with a swing just visible in what light spilled from the windows. I could also see evidence of a privacy fence in back.

  Battling second thoughts—a phone call might’ve been wiser—I turned the car into the drive and only then noticed Roone standing on the shadowy porch. His walking down the steps drew my eye to him. I killed my engine, gathered up the papers, and got out of the car just as he reached me in the driveway.

  Was he surprised I was there? I could’ve sworn he wasn’t. “You really are psychic.”

  “Told you.”

  “I thought you were kidding.”

  Roone burst out laughing. “I was…am. I came outside when I heard your car.”

  My jaw dropped.

  “The roar is pretty unmistakable.”

  “And way too loud, apparently. I hope I didn’t wake up the whole neighborhood.”

  “No worries. What’s up?”

  “I finished the paper.” I showed him the freshly-typed pages.

  “Cool. Dad and Jon are inside.” Roone stayed by me as I headed up the walk and then offered me his arm when we got to the stairs.

  “Do you do that because I’m a klutz or because you have perfect manners?”

  “What’s a klutz?”

  I sighed. “You don’t have to help me, okay? I’ve been doing stairs since I was two.”

  “Sorry. Old habit.” Opening the front door, he ushered me inside. “Dad! Everly’s here with your paper.”

  I heard the footrest of a recliner slam down. Bo Thorsen appeared in the wide opening of what looked to be a den, tucked at the back of the house. As he walked down the hall toward us, another guy stepped into view behind him.

  “Everly, this is my brother Jon,” said Roone.

  “Wow.” I couldn’t drag my gaze from Jon, who was even taller than his brother. Why, he had to be six-five, and oh the muscles on him. Though I wasn’t hung up on body shapes as a rule, it was getting harder and harder not to be impressed. Didn’t help that he wore clothing that fit, accentuating his huge shoulders and bulging biceps. “They really grow them big in NowhereNear.”

  “Where?” asked Thorsen, who’d just reached us.

  “Where you lived before here according to Roone.” I waited for the smile that would tell me he got the joke. I also waited for one of them to supply the name of their former hometown. I got nothing, which made me feel like a fool. So I thrust the papers at Thorsen. “All done.”

  He smiled widely as he took them. “That was so quick.”

  “It was interesting stuff. I’m going to do just what my brother’s doing—major in physics and astronomy when I start UA Tuscaloosa next year.” The guys exchanged glances, but no one said anything, a silence that quickly became weird. “Do you want to look it over before I go? Just in case there’s something glaringly wrong.”

  “Of course I’ll read it. Jon, why don’t you take Everly to the den? Roone, you should get her something to drink.” With his hand gripping Roone’s forearm, he turned away and vanished into what I assumed was the kitchen, dragging his youngest son behind him.

  I followed Jon into the den, which had paneled walls and gorgeous leather furniture. The décor was all male, but oddly sterile. I saw no family photos on the walls or even on the various tables. The bookshelves were empty, too. They did have a huge TV, and Jon led me to a couch across from it. I saw he and his dad had been watching Forrest Gump. “Have a seat. I’ll be right back.”

  “Thanks.” I sat in the middle. Just then, raised voices made me glance toward an open door that might’ve led to the kitchen. I felt a stab of chagrin that I’d come over unannounced even though I couldn’t connect an argument between father and son to my bad manners.

  “Would you just lighten up?” That was Roone.

  “I see the attraction. She’s irresistible.” That was Thorsen. “But this can go nowhere, and her knowledge of physics is dangerous.”

  “I explained this to you. I specifically told you what we were doing.”

  “And I had doubts then, which are even bigger now. Be careful, son. We’re not going to be here long, and I’d hate for her to get hurt. “

  “Everly?”

  I started at the sound of Jon’s voice so close by and realized he’d sat down beside me. Noting my distraction, he apparently guessed the reason for it and hopped right up to quietly close the door in question. I could no longer hear Roone or his dad.

  “I just asked why you’re going to UA Tuscaloosa instead of UA Huntington.”

  “Oh. Sorry. My dad is insisting on it. He thinks I need to get a life and won’t do it if I’m on a campus twenty minutes from home.” Damn. Had I really just admitted what a loser I was? I silently cursed my distraction with Roone and his dad. “Sorry. TMI.”

  Jon burst out laughing. That made his blue eyes twinkle, and if I hadn’t already been half in love with Roone, I’d have flipped for his dashing older brother on the spot.

  Half in love with Roone? Thoroughly rattled now, I fumbled for something, anything to say. “What kind of classes are you taking?” I pasted a smile on my face and waited.

  “Computer stuff. Keyboarding for starters.”

  I forgot my forcibly stretched lips, which now formed an Oh! of surprise all on their own. “Yo
u never took that, either?”

  “Wasn’t really necessary before now.”

  In what universe?

  Chapter Five

  Biting back my questions, I glanced at the TV. “I love this movie. The idea of one simple man being part of so many historical events is definitely cool. Too bad it’s just fiction.”

  “Dad’s fascinated by your films.”

  My films?

  “He’d kill me if I knew I was telling you this, but he actually watches ‘Entertainment Tonight’ religiously just to keep up with what’s happening in Hollywood.”

  I couldn’t keep from laughing, amusement that faded when Roone strode into the room, his face flushed and his body tense. “I forgot to ask what you wanted to drink.”

  “Honestly? Nothing. I’m really not thirsty.”

  With a brief nod he sat on the other side of me, resulting in a manwich so delectable that it left me a little breathless. Roone’s visible distress quickly affected my mood and got worse when his dad joined us from the kitchen. Thorsen settled in a nearby recliner seconds later, his attention now on the pages I’d typed.

  Jon broke the awkward silence. “Got your tux, bro. Hall closet.”

  Roone jumped up again and motioned for me to come along, which I did. We walked over to the closet and found a garment bag dangling from a hook inside the door. He unzipped it and pushed aside the edges. “Is this okay?”

  “Perfect,” I said, already imagining how good he’d look in it. “Dayna wants to double tomorrow night.”

  “Double?”

  “She and Gavin want to go with us. Not necessarily in the same car, but just to get there together.”

  “I’m okay with that,” Roone said with a telling glance at his father, who gave him an approving nod.

  “How much do I owe you for the typing, Everly?” Thorsen asked, adding, “Paper’s perfect by the way.”

  I began shaking my head. “Oh, I—”

  “Will this be enough?” He walked over and handed me a crisp hundred dollar bill.

  “I couldn’t possibly—”

  He cut me off. “Great job. I’m sure this is fine. I really appreciate the help.”

  “Anytime.” I reluctantly pocketed the money. He’d definitely overpaid me, but seemed determined, and I didn’t want to be rude. “I should go. You’ll call if there are errors?”