by Kathryn Shay
Suddenly, she was bombarded by memories of last Sunday night, when they’d been pressed against each other in the crowd at The Berries concert. She tried to tell herself it was no big deal. Teenage boys were sexual creatures. They reacted to women. But the whole episode had made her so uncomfortable, she’d pushed away the memory of it all week long. She tried to do so again. “I guess I thought we were...closer than this.”
He stared at her hard. “Yeah, well, things aren’t always what they seem.”
“Oh.” Defensively, she clasped her arms around her waist, the sinking sensation inside her increasing. “I see. Well, I guess you’ll have to deal with the consequences.”
He shrugged.
“Your uncle will be upset.”
“He’ll probably beat the crap outta me.
“What?”
He shook his head. “I was exaggeratin’.”
For some reason, she was struggling with a clear-cut case of skipping. “Luke, I—”
“Look, Ms. Cunningham. Just report me. I told you once before you couldn’t save me.”
“But you’ve been doing so well.”
“I’ll be fine.” He turned; she watched him swagger to the door.
Before he was out of sight, she called to him. “Luke?”
He stopped but didn’t turn around.
“I’m sorry for whatever’s making you do this. I wish I could help.”
His fists clenched, but he didn’t say anything. He walked out the door.
And Kelsey watched him, feeling miserable. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why.
o0o
At the end of the day, Kelsey approached Suzanna’s office. She’d been preoccupied the rest of the afternoon with Luke’s behavior, and needed to talk to someone. Just as when she was sixteen and struggling with prom dresses and boys, there was only one person she wanted to confide in. It was almost five o’clock, and she hoped Suzanna hadn’t left.
Kelsey found her friend in her office, poring over her computer. Suzanna looked sophisticated and chic in a red suit they’d picked out together one day, her blond hair in its usual knot, hammered gold adorning her ears and throat. She wore the glasses she donned only when she was tired. Knocking on the open door, Kelsey said, “Hey, lady, got a minute?”
Suzanna’s head snapped up; she stiffened slightly, then clicked out of whatever website she was reading and smiled. The gesture seemed affected. Suzanna was stressed.
“Are you all right?” Kelsey asked, coming inside. “You seem tense. And you look exhausted.”
“Sit. I’m all right. It’s just been a long couple of weeks.”
“Yeah, spring break can’t come fast enough.”
Leaning back in her chair, Suzanna sighed. “I wish I was going with Josh to Italy.” The Italian Club was sponsoring a trip to Italy, and Josh, president of the club, had helped organize it. Suzanna could have tagged along to chaperone, but she wanted to give her son space. She was the epitome of a good mother, and Kelsey had been lucky to have her in her life.
“Heather going, too?” Kelsey asked.
Suzanna rolled her eyes. “I’m afraid so.” She frowned. “I’m worried about that.”
Kelsey remembered the make-out session she witnessed in the hall. She crossed her legs and fiddled with the nickel-size buttons on her dress. “Does he talk to you about it?”
“He says he can’t. Does he ever talk to you?” Suzanna knew Josh and Kelsey had gotten close again after she’d moved back to Fairholm.
Kelsey said, “Not about that.”
“I’m hoping Joe Stonehouse makes some headway in the Boys’ Concerns group. They had their first session Monday, and Josh says it was mad-cool. The guys were so interested, they’re meeting again tomorrow.”
“I wish Stonehouse could help his nephew. It’s the old cobbler whose kid had no shoes story, isn’t it?”
Suzanna adjusted the paisley silk scarf draped over a beige collarless blouse. Kelsey had given her the accessory for Christmas. “Are you having trouble with Luke?”
“Yes.” Kelsey noticed her foot bouncing, and stopped the nervous gesture.
“I thought you and he had a good relationship.”
“We did. Until this week. He’s turned into Mr. Hyde.”
“Kids are funny, Kel. They run hot and cold.”
“No. It’s something different with Luke.” Kelsey stared at the tulips on Suzanna’s credenza. “It’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“All right.” Suzanna looked...uncomfortable.
Kelsey cocked her head. “Suzanna, don’t you like Luke?”
“What’s not to like?”
She chuckled. “He is a handful.” She watched Suzanna. “You seem a little jumpy when we discuss him.”
“Do I? I don’t mean to.”
An odd answer.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Suzanna coaxed.
Kelsey recounted the boy’s surly attitude all week. The unusual comebacks. Even how he was dressed.
“Did anything happen to precipitate this?”
“Well, I saw him at the concert Sunday night. I was with Mike Wolfe and—”
“You’re seeing Mike Wolfe socially?” Suzanna had a protective streak a mile long.
“Back off, mother hen. I wanted to go to The Berries concert. He asked. No big deal.”
“I hope not. That ego of his needs constant feeding.”
“He’s okay. A little immature.” She remembered why she was here. “Contrary to Mr. Ludzecky, who’s very mature for his age.”
Suzanna folded her hands on the desk and leaned over. “Anything happen at the concert?”
Oh, God, did it. She re-experienced the feel of him up against her, aroused, and she shivered.
“Kelsey?”
“Nothing happened.” She couldn’t articulate this, not even to Suzanna. She was barely able to think about it.
“Then what?”
“He seemed, I don’t know, maybe upset to see me and Mike.”
Suzanna’s eyebrows furrowed. “Kids get crushes,” she said. “You’ve been nice to him. Maybe he was jealous.”
“He’s a student, Suzanna.”
“As you said, he’s a mature guy; and you’re a beautiful young woman.” At Kelsey’s frown, Suzanna said, “Sweetie, you know kids get crushes on teachers. Their positive feelings help them work out their relationships with the opposite sex. Just so long as the teacher handles it well, it’s perfectly healthy.”
Relieved by the simplicity of Suzanna’s response, Kelsey threw back her shoulders. “I know. I guess it just seems like Luke’s too old to have a crush. But he’s only what, eighteen?”
“Nineteen. He failed a grade.”
“Why would he skip my class if he has a crush on me?”
“Trying to get your attention?”
“He has my attention. He’s had it all along.”
“Then it must be a phase. Maybe he broke up with his girlfriend or something.”
“He has a girlfriend?”
Suzanna stared hard at Kelsey. “I don’t know. It was just an example.” When Kelsey said no more, Suzanna asked, “Kel, is there something you’re not telling me?”
“No. Of course not.”
“You can tell me anything, you know.”
Kelsey smiled. “I know. I’m just sad about not being able to trust Luke anymore.” Surely that’s all it was. Because trust was important to her, in all relationships.
With a slight smile, Suzanna shook her head. “You’ve got to toughen up, young lady.”
“So you keep saying.” She stood. “I’d better go.”
“Okay. Want to do lunch this weekend?”
“I’d love to.”
“Saturday after yoga?”
“Yep. Would Brenda want to come?”
“No, she’s going to New York right after class.”
Kelsey left, and headed toward her classroom. She was unnerved, mostly at having withheld something from
Suzanna. Her friend was such a stickler for honesty. She’d be disappointed that Kelsey had concealed what had happened at the concert.
Why hadn’t Kelsey told her?
Was she embarrassed? Or was it something more?
“Oh, Lord,” she muttered and hurried down the hall.
o0o
Luke put his head down on the desk in the in-school suspension room and thought about his “uncle’s” words yesterday...
“Suspended? Because of Duchamp? Terrific.” But there was no sarcasm in Stonehouse’s tone.
Despite his vow not to care, Luke was pleased at the compliment. “It’ll make us tighter.”
“I know. Good work. Tell me about his site.”
“We never got in. Kelsey stopped us before Duchamp got to use the passwords.” Luke had drawn a paper out of his pocket. “Here’s the steps we went through. If he’d typed the passwords, I could’ve gotten them off the computer later. But she interrupted us.”
“Could you have gotten the passwords so easily?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. Sure.”
Stonehouse studied Luke’s notes. When he looked up, he smiled. “You have a good memory.”
“Photographic. It’s why the Secret Service wanted me.”
The older man had watched him carefully. “I’m beginning to think there are more reasons than that. This is substantial progress, Luke. You’ve made strides here.”
Again Luke had basked in Stonehouse’s words, as if he’d gotten praise from the president himself...
Well, at least Stonehouse was happy. Luke wasn’t happy about what he’d done this week to Kelsey. The look in her eyes when she said I guess I thought we were closer than this still made him sick inside. It was the same feeling he got when he did something bad to his mother or yelled at his sisters. His stomach always started to hurt, and stayed that way until he made amends. Donuta Ludzecky told him maybe God was a woman and it was her way of keeping him in line.
“Mr. Ludzecky. It’s not allowed to put your head down during in-school suspension.” The monitor who ran “The Jail” fit every stereotype in the book. She wore thick-soled shoes, drab clothes, and Coke-bottle glasses. He expected her to pull out handcuffs any minute.
From the other side of the room, Max, who was also corralled there, snorted. The monitor sent him the evil eye.
Sluggishly, Luke sat up. He said, “Yes, ma’am,” and saluted.
A chuckle from Duchamp drifted over.
“Do the work that was sent down for you.”
Luke glanced at the pile of assignments teachers were required to provide if a student was in ISS. Geez, how did the staff have time to teach when they had to do all this shit? Listlessly, he picked up the top sheet.
In pretty feminine script were his Psychology and Government assignments. Just seeing Kelsey’s handwriting made him feel bad. The note read, “Luke—Write an essay for Psychology on why people don’t live up to their potential. Why they purposely mess up their lives. Why they do everything possible to make themselves miserable. I want to see it today after school. I’ll be working out with the track team in the weight room from four to five, so come to my classroom either before or after.”
Damn, the woman didn’t let up.
Reluctantly, he picked up the pen to do her freakin’ assignment. Hmm. If he handled this right...oh, God, there went his stomach again. It clenched into Boy Scout knots at the thought of writing something offensive.
“Luke.”
He looked up and scowled at Suzanna, though inside he was grateful she’d come. “Oh, no. The big guns.”
“I’d like to see you.” She nodded to the supervisor. “Marlene, I’m taking Mr. Ludzecky to my office for a bit.”
Slowly, Luke rose; when he passed Marlene the Monitor, he winked at her. He thought he saw Suzanna hide a smile. They said nothing until they were ensconced in her office, a few rooms down from ISS. Door closed, Suzanna took the chair behind her desk. “You can sit, Luke.”
“I’d rather stand, okay? I been sittin’ at that damn desk all day.” He arched his back. “I’m too old for this.”
She smiled, but it was perfunctory.
“Something wrong?”
“Kelsey Cunningham came to see me yesterday. About you.”
His stomach ache intensified. This time jet planes rammed against its walls.
“She’s upset by your actions this week.”
Stalling for time, he blew out a breath. What had Kelsey told her? “I’m sorry about that. But I need a way to get tight with Duchamp.” Luke knew that Joe had outlined for Suzanna which kids they were trying to buddy up with.
“By talking back to Kelsey? By skipping her class and being rude about it?”
“I was worried that Duchamp thought I was too nice to her.”
“Ben Franzi likes her. And Joe said you were getting close to him. He won’t appreciate this.”
“He wasn’t around when I was dissin’ her.”
“Are you sure that’s all it was with Kelsey?”
“Did she say there was more?”
Suzanna’s eyes narrowed. “No, she hasn’t a clue why you’re suddenly being obstreperous.”
He blew out a heavy breath. “I should have been worse right from the beginning. I don’t usually do this back-and-forth thing, but there was more than one group to get in with this time.”
“You’re quite charming when you want to be.”
“Did Kelsey say that?”
“Not in so many words. She did mention you seemed upset at the concert.”
The concert. Uh-oh. “Upset?” His voice was a croak.
“To see her with Mike Wolfe, maybe?”
“You know, you oughta warn her about the guy. The kids say he has a mean rep with women. She shouldn’t be another one of his conquests.”
“She isn’t. But Luke, that’s none of your business.”
“I’m not a student, Suzanna.”
“Kelsey thinks you are.”
Digging his hands in his pockets, he gave her a smile with some of that charm she had mentioned. “What am I saying? You’re right. It must be that Polish gene I got to protect women. Look, I’ll try to play this a little better so she isn’t affected as much by what I have to do. But my main concern now is gettin’ in with Duchamp and Webster and Morton.”
“Does Kelsey have to get hurt in the process?”
Oh, fuck. “For the greater good, maybe.”
“You sound like Joe.”
He narrowed his eyes. “No need to insult me, Suzanna.”
She smiled. “He’s not so bad.”
Luke studied her. There was something about the way she said that...
“You can go now,” she told him. “I wanted your take on this thing with Kelsey.”
“I don’t mean to hurt her. Honest.”
“I know you don’t.” She came around the desk.
When she pulled open the door, he said cockily, “Thanks for springin’ me for a while, Mrs. Q.”
“Remember what I said, Luke. You’re on thin ice.”
“Yeah, sure. See ya.”
He headed out the door, hoping the ice held for just a little while longer.
o0o
The weight room smelled like day-old socks and stale sweat. No matter where Luke went—schools, private gyms., the Secret Service Fitness Center—the odor was the same. He glanced around at the girls who were pumping iron and thought of his sister Lizzie, who was a lifter and on the track team. He hoped he could get to one of her meets.
Where would he be this spring? he wondered as the girls began to file out, calling to Kelsey. Was he going to stay in the Secret Service after his time at Fairholm was up?
“Bye, Ms. C.”
“Thanks.”
“Have a nice weekend.”
From a corner of the room, he heard, “Thanks, ladies. You, too.”
Luke gripped the essay in his hands.
Kelsey was sprawled out on the weight bench doing arm pres
ses. Luke crossed to the corner, his sneakers quiet on the polished hardwood floor. The door slammed as the last girl left, and light from the high windows bathed the area in a mellow glow. When he reached Kelsey, he saw that she had her eyes closed, so she didn’t know he was there.
He seized the opportunity to watch her. She wore short blue gym trunks that revealed a long expanse of toned muscle and silky skin. A gray T-shirt, damp with sweat, hugged her upper body and made his mouth go dry. Her face was crimson with effort as she lifted the bar. When he checked beyond her to the weights, he saw why. “You shouldn’t be doin’ this without a spotter.”
The heavy stack of weights clanked when she let go of the bar. Quickly she sat up. “You, um, don’t need a spotter when you’re using a universal gym.”
“It’s not a good idea to work out alone.”
Reaching over, she grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat from her face. Her damp hair clung to her scalp. “What are you doing here? I said I’d be back in my room by five.”
He glanced at the clock. Foolishly, he hadn’t wanted to be alone with her, and thought if he dropped the essay off in the weight room, they’d have forty girls as chaperones.
“I, um, got a date at five and need to do some stuff before.”
It was just a moment’s hesitation, but she stilled. Then she bent over and fished in a blue duffel on the floor and took out a bottle of water, unscrewed it, and sipped.
The action seemed to calm her. Watching as the water went down her slender throat did not have the same effect on Luke. The bench was still wedged between her legs. He forced his eyes away from the view of her thighs and crotch, wishing like hell she’d put sweat pants on. To distract himself, he scanned the suite. “Nice workout area. Expensive equipment.” God, did his voice sound hoarse?
“Yeah, it’s new.”
“Jocks are important at Fairholm.”
“All kids are. We got a new music suite when this was built.”
“Oh. Good.”
“Are you going to go out for Mr. Wolfe’s baseball team?”
Luke felt his fist curl. He deliberately relaxed it. “Maybe.” He dropped down on the bench across from her. “What’s he like?”
“The kids say he’s a great coach.”
“I heard he has a rep with women.”
