Aira turned off her truck, got out and walked over to them.
“How was your first day back, kiddo?” Barry asked as he started to spray the soapy driveway again.
“Ya, honey, how did it go?”
“Mom, how did you know Barry was the one?” Aira stood there holding her book bag to her chest.
Maddy and Barry just looked at each other.
“Does this have anything to do with that so-called boyfriend of yours?” Barry sounded a bit disgruntled.
“It’s just a question,” Aira replied, holding back a smirk.
“Well, honey… I think I just knew.” Maddy smiled at Barry.
“She was the only thing I could think about since the moment I first laid eyes on her.” Barry gave Maddy a quick wink.
“You guys are really perfect for each other.” Aira smiled at them. She walked over to the front porch and put her things down on a chair.
Barry handed Aira the hose and she finished helping them with the outside work.
As the afternoon turned to night, Barry and Maddy made supper. Barry loved to cook, and it was something they enjoyed doing together.
Aira was in her room, with books and papers laid out all over her bed. Her stereo was on low. She was trying to do homework. She wrote something, then stopped, wrote, then stopped, until finally she pushed all of the books and papers to the side of her bed, and grabbed her laptop off the floor. Aira signed herself into Facebook and began to search for him.
Israel was laying on his bed reading a book he was given in history. His room was simple, medium-sized, the walls dark blue. He had a dark plaid, thick blanket on a queen bed, which had a beautiful dark-wood headboard. There was a smaller solid wooden desk with books and some drawings he had done. They were all of scenery. He also had an antique sitting chair by his dresser across from his bed which he usually threw his sweaters onto.
Israel read a line, put the book down on his chest, pick it up again, put it down, until finally he put it on his night stand. He stared up at his ceiling for a while. Whatever he was thinking made him smile.
He finally got up and walked out of his room.
Aira, frustrated that she couldn’t find him, closed her laptop and went downstairs to see if supper was ready.
Walking into the kitchen, Aira watched as Maddy made up a plate of food while Barry brought the rest of the food to the table. They were having chicken Alfredo with garlic bread and salad.
Aira sat down, grabbed a plate and started to dish up some food.
“Where’s David?” she asked, pulling the salad up with tongs.
“He wants to eat in his room again.” Maddy gave Barry a light smile to reassure him it wasn’t his fault. For three years David had refused to eat with them. It hurt Barry’s feelings.
Maddy took David his plate of food and then she, Barry and Aira all sat down and ate together.
Aira more or less picked at her food, too deep in thought.
“Honey... are you okay? You’re not hungry?” her mother asked.
Aira looked down at her plate and nothing was touched. She had sat there for fifteen minutes moving her food around with a fork. “Ya — no, I am.” Aira answered, and started to eat.
Maddy smiled, used to Aira’s daydreaming.
After dinner, Aira helped Barry do the dishes, then watched a little bit of T.V with her mom and Barry. They always watched the news at night, something Aira didn’t care too much to watch, but she did anyway to pass the time. After a while she said goodnight, went upstairs and had a shower before bed.
After her shower she put on her favorite sleeping T-shirt and crawled under her bed covers. Her phone started to vibrate on her nightstand. She picked it up and answered it.
“Hey babe, it’s late, I’m sorry I didn’t call earlier. I got caught up with something.” Jaidas tried to sound convincing.
“It’s fine,” she answered, pulling the blanket over her head and turning over.
There was silence, and then Jaidas spoke again. “Babe?”
“Yea.” Aira spoke drifting off to sleep.
“I love you… Hello?”
There was no reply, and Jaidas hung up. Aira had fallen asleep.
Sometime through the night, the recurring nightmare Aira had been having for the past few months started.
The same unrecognizable forest was dark. The moon barely lit up anything. The dampness of the ground offered up some comfort. There was very distinctive smell — it had to be fall. She looked down. Her arms and legs were cut up and bleeding, and something started flying towards her that she couldn’t clearly see. Aira moved to try and get away from it, until finally she got knocked to the ground. She sat paralyzed with fear, not knowing what to do.
Footsteps that sounded heavy, more apparent because of her fear started making their way towards her. A raven cawed in the distance.
Her alarm went off and she opened her eyes.
She reached over, irritated, and turned it off. Another night of pointless nightmares that made no sense. This was the eighth time in two months she’s had this same dream.
Aira sat up, moving her hair out of her face. She sat with the exhaustion that was starting to set in, looking around the room. Leaning over, she grabbed her phone. There was a text message from Avery.
Joshua is going to pick me up today, is that okay? I’m so happy!!!!
Of course it’s okay, you deserve to be happy. Aira texted back.
Joshua and Avery finally admitted to their feelings for each other, and had the long overdue conversation that probably wouldn’t have happened if Joshua hadn’t found it in himself to just do it. Israel probably had a lot to do with it. Joshua got brave, and he told Avery how he felt about her. He had been waiting for the day that she would be braver than him. But because she didn’t, because it was the last year of school, and she would probably go off to college, he wasn’t letting her go without at least talking. If there was any chance at all, he wanted it to be now.
Avery might have eventually said something, but she probably would’ve waited til the very last day of school, and the chances were she might have backed out, and then spent months hating herself for being such a chicken shit.
We saw Jaidas last night at The Moose, Kaitlyn was all over him. He’s a jerk Aira. Avery wrote back again.
Kaitlyn had moved to Hope in grade ten and had been eying up Jaidas ever since. She was truly obsessed with him, but she never had the nerve to approach him. Kaitlyn was very jealous of Aira.
Aira put down her phone. She wasn’t surprised, it was bound to happen.
She pulled herself out of bed, walked over to her dresser, pulled out some clothes and went into her bathroom to get ready. Whatever these dreams meant, it didn’t matter anymore. Lack of sleep was the only thing she could be sure of lately. She finished getting dressed, walked back into her room, grabbed her phone and her book bag, and went downstairs.
No one was home.
Barry’s white diesel was in the shop being worked on, so Maddy had to take him to work. Barry worked as a personal trainer at the gym where him and Maddy had met. Maddy had started going to the gym shorty after Aira and David’s father left. She thought the failed marriage had everything to do with her, at least that’s what Frank had made her believe. He had left for a younger woman, and Maddy wanted to feel beautiful and young again, so she started taking yoga classes and working out.
Aira walked into the kitchen, grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl on the table, puttered around the house for a few minutes eating it, then walked out to her truck.
The day was a bit darker and cooler.
She threw in her bag, got in, and drove to school. Coming up to a four way stop just before town, Aira was daydreaming again. After a minute a car honked loudly. Aira, startled, looked in her rear-view mirror and saw the car driver waiting impa
tiently. Pulling her eyes away from the mirror, she looked out the front window and continued to drive to school.
When Aira pulled up into the parking lot she saw Jaidas, all of his groupies, and of course Kaitlyn standing beside him. They all looked as Aira pulled in.
Kaitlyn liked to dye her hair different colors. It was now a tangerine orange, but her dark brown roots had grown out a bit. She was pale, had brown eyes and was quite pretty. Actually, she was really pretty.
Aira parked the truck, opened her door, pulled herself out and shut the truck door. She took a small breath and slowly walked up to them.
“Hey,” Aira spoke in a quieted voice, feeling awkward. She didn’t let off she knew about Jaidas and Kaitlyn. She wanted him to tell her himself.
There was high silent tension, then Jaidas, being loud like he always was, said,“Ya, hey, you’ve been a little too off for me lately. I have too much going on to keep guessing with you. This isn’t going to work, sorry.” He sounded condescending like he expected it to hurt her.
Kaitlyn laughed under her breath.
Aira looked back at her with disgust.
“I’m sure she is more than willing,” Aira smiled back at Jaidas.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kaitlyn asked like a snot, with a mocking smile on her face.
Aira just walked away.
Jaidas was stunned. He moved Kaitlyn out of the way watching Aira walk away.
She wasn’t concerned in any way over Jaidas and his manipulative tactics. She was relieved, and with that relief she walked with confidence into the school with only one person in mind.
She walked down the halls looking around to see if she could see him. She came to her locker, grabbed her books, put her bag in her locker and closed it.
Aira smiled to herself holding her books against her chest and walked into history class. There were only a few people in the classroom, but he wasn’t one of them.
She walked over to her desk and sat down. Looking at the clock she started tapping her pen impatiently on her desk. She was anxious to see him even if she wasn’t brave enough to really say anything to him.
The bell rang and shortly more students started piling into the room. Jaidas walked in with
Logan and Kaitlyn, making a point to not even look at Aira. Aira watched as he played around, pulling at Kaitlyn’s hair in a gentle way before they sat down. Yes, Kaityln was the girl who sat at the desk on the other side of Jaidas.
Aira looked away towards the door, and Israel finally walked in. His presence was massive to her, like it had filled the whole room.
She smiled and looked down — and then he smiled, walked to his desk and sat down.
Jaidas watched. His energy had changed again. He tried to avoid his own tension and reached over to hold Kaitlyn’s hand.
“You look beautiful,” Israel spoke calmly.
Aira felt a burst of excitement, then turned her head the other way and smiled. Israel smiled to himself and started to write.
This had now become the fastest hour of Aira’s life, and the bell rang. It sounded louder, more drawn out. This time, Aira waited for Israel to get up first, then she got up.
Jaidas was at the front of the class talking to the teacher about switching classes. He wanted to switch it so he would do history in the second semester instead of the first. All Aira heard was Jaidas say, “I can’t concentrate like this,” looking at Aira from the corner of his eye. Aira knew now that she wasn’t seeing things. Jaidas didn’t get to change classes.
The rest of the day was drawn out. Her teachers seem to talk forever, every second dragged on, and on, and on.
Distracted by her own thoughts she couldn’t even think. What was happening? How can one person that she didn’t really know have such an effect on her life? She was frustrated with herself. Aira let out a groan and put her head down on her desk.
“Miss Bellen, is there a problem?” Mr. Anderson, her math teacher, spoke up. The whole class was looking at her.
“Ah –” she shook her head trying to think of something to say. “No?”
“If you need help, just ask, okay?” Asking him for help was definitely the farthest thing from her mind.
Aira nodded at him and returned to her work, feeling completely put on the spot. She hated that feeling.
She was thankful it was Friday.
3:00 o’clock and the bell finally rang. Aira got up and walked to her locker. Avery was there with Joshua.
“Hey,” Aira spoke quietly, closing her locker then leaning her back against it.
“Let’s go to The Moose for a while. I overheard Jaidas talking, he’s going camping with his friends this weekend, so you don’t have to worry about running into him.”
“Ya... let’s go.” Aira kept looking at Joshua hoping he would say something about Israel, that maybe he would come. He didn’t, but Israel did walk by and they had a short, walk-by conversation.
Aira listened to every word they spoke, trying not to be obvious that she was eaves-dropping.
“We got that project to do,” Joshua spoke up.
“Ya, I actually gotta go to work right now, but maybe come see me on my break. I’ll see what day I get off, then we’ll start.” Israel was in a rush.
“Cool.” Joshua looked back at the girls.
“You finally got yourself a friend, I see.” Avery smiled at him.
“What’s he like?” Aira quickly spoke up and asked. She could hear how hasty her own words sounded.
Avery knew Aira well. She looked at Aira and smiled, and then she looked back at Joshua.
“Ya, Josh, what’s he like?” Avery said it in an indirect way to let Aira know she knew Aira was completely smitten.
“He’s a good guy, smart as hell.” Joshua was clueless as to what was going on. Aira stood with a quieted, dreamy look in her eyes. Avery smiled at her, grabbed onto Joshua’s hand, and they walked out of the school together.
The day had become warmer. They decided to take Joshua’s car, so he had to clear the back seat for Aira.
Jaidas yelled from his car to his friends about going to pick up things to go camping.
Aira watched while Jaidas opened his car door for Kaitlyn.
“Okay, let’s go,” Avery spoke.
Aira held her bag snuggled against her chest and crawled into the backseat.
Avery got in, shut the door and put on her seat belt. Joshua pulled out and they drove to The Moose. He parked his car across the street, and they went inside and grabbed some cold drinks, coffee, and ordered some food. They decided to sit outside.
After about twenty minutes their food was brought out to them. They ate and enjoyed what sun was left of a long hot summer. Who knew how much longer it would last.
Aira looked up, and across the street saw Israel walking out of a restaurant called The Kettle Valley in a worn white apron. He was dish-washing there part time. He walked over to some benches that were in front of the town hall on the corner by the town clock. He must have been on his break.
Joshua saw him and stood up.
“Hey, I’ll be right back.” He got up and walked across the street to Israel.
As they talked, Aira had no idea Avery was watching her. Aira was now in another world, just watched Israel.
Instead of sitting, Israel stood up on one of the benches. They talked for about five minutes, and for five minutes Avery watched Aira play with her hair at the top of her shoulder, staring over at him. Avery didn’t say anything, not wanting to interfere with whatever Aira was feeling, because she knew. Aira deserved better than Jaidas.
When Israel and Joshua finished talking, Joshua must have told him who he was with because he looked over to Aira and Avery.
Israel jumped off of the bench onto the ground. When he jumped, it felt like a rush of wind through her whole body. Whatev
er she was feeling, it was something undeniable and very apparent.
Israel started walking with Joshua over to The Moose.
“Just breathe,” Avery spoke at Aira. She could tell Aira was freaking out inside.
“Israel wanted to come say hi,” Joshua spoke as they walked up to them.
“I didn’t want to be rude,” Israel smiled, staring right at Aira.
Avery smiled and stood up to shake his hand from across the table.
“I’m Avery.”
“Yes, I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“All good, I hope.”
“Absolutely,” he answered, staring at Aira.
Avery looked over at her.
“And this little mouse…is my best-friend Aira.”
“I know.” He smiled. “How is your tire holding up?”
Aira’s head stayed down while she answered him. To her it felt like she was choking to get her words out. “Um...it’s really good. Barry’s actually going to put new tires on it.” Aira looked up at him, and became completely wrapped in his gaze. Everything around her seemed to fade into the background and all she could see was him. Everything she felt showed in her eyes.
She couldn’t understand how no one seemed to notice his eyes except for her. Was she seeing things?
Avery just looked at them as she had no idea what they were talking about.
“You’re welcome to join us,” Avery offered.
“I’d love to, but I actually gotta get back to work.” Just as he finished answering, his boss walked outside looking for him, Israel looked over. “Ya, I should probably go.” He looked at Aira one more time. She didn’t want him to go, he could feel that from her, and he didn’t want to go either. “Maybe I’ll see you guys later.”
“Ya man, we’re going to the lake on Sunday if this nice weather holds out. You should come,” Joshua offered.
“Ya, I got Saturday off, if it’s not busy I might be able to get Sunday off. Depends on his mood, I guess.” Israel’s boss was very erratic, and acted like he was very businesslike, even though he was scattered and unorganized most of the time. It amused Israel. “I’ll see you later.” Israel walked out to the street.
Forbidden: Book One of Wild Sky Saga Page 4
