by C. L. Stone
“Trouble,” he said in a long, drawn out almost-whine. He clamped his hand over mine, to push it back against my mouth. “Don’t do that.”
I flattened my lips as he squished my hand against my mouth. I couldn’t talk, so I just looked at his face, staring him down.
“Fuck, I don’t know,” he said. “It’s making me think a lot, though.” He tugged my hand from my mouth, and his gaze shifted from my eyes to my lips. “And I…like this.”
“Like what?” I said, assuming he meant being able to kiss me.
“We talk,” he said, his eyes lifting again to meet mine. “Sang, we talked before, but now… I don’t know. I love this part. You and me here and we’re talking. But it’s deeper.”
I hadn’t thought about it, but before when we would talk, it was about clothes or goofing off. But maybe he was right. I’d never thought of relationships much before. Now I was thinking about them all the time, and I’d never been as open to talking.
“This isn’t the same as the shit you get in high school romances,” he said. “I don’t ask you out, you say yes, and then we’re just boyfriend and girlfriend.” He paused and then he squinted a little at me. “We are that now, aren’t we?”
I started to nod and then hesitated. “Is that what you want…”
“Fuck yeah,” he said. “Though I probably can’t call you that in front of other people.”
“Oh, that’s the other thing,” I said, squeezing his hand. “Uncle thinks I’m too close to North and wants me to stay away from him.”
“Yeah, see, Pam’s on my ass about you. And I know Erica thinks you and Kota are a thing. What happens if one day Pam and Erica and Uncle are at the grocery store?”
My eyes widened, staring at his face, but picturing Pam and Uncle…maybe Erica and even Charlie, Silas’s dad. If one of them brought up my name… “They might not understand.”
Gabriel growled in frustration and then sighed. He brought my hand to his face, covering his eyes with my palm. “Fuck us both, this is a lot harder than we thought.”
“How did Lily handle it?”
“I don’t know,” he said. He left my hand over his face, talking to me with his eyes covered. “I’ll have to ask Liam. He’s the one I’ve been talking to.”
I was trying to work it out when there was a gentle knock at the door. “Sang?” Kota’s voice drifted in.
“Yeah?” I said quickly. “Need something?” I started pulling my hand back, expecting Kota to ask us to come out.
Instead, the door opened slowly, his head peeking in.
Gabriel rose up on his elbow, looking over his legs toward Kota as I lay next to him, wondering if we looked awkward.
Kota looked at Gabriel and then at me, tilting his head, his glasses flashing a reflection from the overhead light. “You okay?”
“We were just talking…” I said quickly.
“About Luke,” Gabriel finished for me.
Kota’s lips twisted up into a smirk and then he chuckled. He came in toward the bed and sat on it. “There’s a whole half of a bed here you aren’t using. You’re all squished up on top of each other.”
I twisted my lips as I smiled, trying to appear nonchalant about it. “Just sort of happened.”
Gabriel sat up, pushing himself back to sit against the wall. “What’s up?”
“I just came in to ask Sang about Luke,” Kota said, reaching out for my ankle, patting it gently, and then wrapping his hand around it, holding me. “Nathan said you checked all over, and he said he was out at an Academy job?”
“He told me earlier, before we left to go look for him,” I said, feeling awkward lying down on the bed, so I got up and sat cross-legged. “And then he told Nathan when we called him from his house.”
“I’m usually told about those assignments,” Kota said. “Although if it was last minute, Mr. Blackbourne might have asked him to go and not have been able to get back to me yet about it.”
“He used his own cell phone to redirect the call,” I said. “He didn’t take his own.”
“But he usually leaves the emergency phone off, right? I don’t remember him redirecting the calls. And that’s why I’m usually told. So that I don’t try to call him during something dangerous.”
I hadn’t thought of that. I just assumed it could be done and that’s just how it worked somehow. I shook my head without an answer for him.
Kota sighed. He twisted to face me, one knee up on the bed with the other foot still on the floor. “It’s probably nothing. If he said it was Academy work, that’s probably what it is.”
“It’s the Volto masks throwing us off,” Nathan said, coming in with a basket full of crumpled clothes. He dropped it on the corner of the bed near Kota and picked up one of his T-shirts and started folding it. “If it wasn’t for those masks you found, then we wouldn’t think twice about this.”
“I agree,” Kota said, reaching for a pair of jeans in the basket. He folded as he spoke. “I might have to ask him directly if he left the masks on the windows. I wanted to give him a break, given he seems to be upset. He can’t lie, but if he confesses, he might get grounded. We just need to know.”
Gabriel crawled to the edge of the bed and then reached over the basket for the jeans Kota was folding. “Nathan hangs his jeans. Are you folding them at your house?”
Kota gave up the jeans to Gabriel. “He used to fold them.”
“It’s easier to match if I just hang a shirt with pants,” Gabriel said. “If I fold the jeans and leave them on top, he gets them mixed up, even though I tell him left to right, up to down…” He shot a look at Nathan and carried the jeans with him to the closet.
“Yes, Mooooom,” Nathan said in a grumbly whine, and tossed the shirt he’d just folded at him.
Gabriel caught it, snubbed his nose at Nathan and disappeared into the closet.
I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to ground Luke right now. “Maybe…maybe you could ask and then tell him I grounded him?”
Kota touched the corner of his glasses, adjusting them. “You’re grounding him?”
“Tell him…the masks scared me and if he did it, I’m grounding him?” I looked between Nathan and Kota. “Is that how grounding works?”
“Why do you think it’s different coming from you?” Nathan asked. “He’d still be grounded.”
“Can’t we be grounded together? I don’t know. Like I ground him to me?”
Nathan and Kota looked at each other, having a silent conversation between them.
Eventually, Nathan shrugged. “It’s your call.”
“I don’t see a problem with it,” Kota said. “That’s just if he did it. We still don’t know for sure.”
“Do we have them do something if he did? Some sort of retribution?” Nathan asked. “Or do we just keep them here?”
“They could just do some of the work at the diner this week,” Kota said, looking at me. “They’re getting ready for the Thanksgiving rush.”
The diner would get busy around Thanksgiving? How did they know, since the diner hadn’t been around during Thanksgiving before? I nodded to his idea though. A couple of days making pies with Luke after school wasn’t a bad idea. And it might get Uncle off of North’s case about him spending too much time with me. Maybe it would prove to Uncle that I really did like Luke. “I’d do it anyway,” I said.
Kota smiled and shook his head. “I know you would. We’ll all probably be there sometime in the next few days.”
Gabriel stepped out of the closet, tugging the basket of clothes closer as he got to the bed, going through it. “Shit, Nathan.”
“What?” Nathan asked, an eyebrow going up. “I didn’t fold anything.”
“All your T-shirts are stretched out. They won’t even stay on the hangers.”
Nathan pouted. “Are you calling me fat?”
“Fuck, no. You’ve got the shoulders of Batman and I’m putting you in Robin’s clothes.” He shook his head, tossing T-shirts over his shoulders.<
br />
A pink one flew by and Nathan caught it. “Hey, that’s Sang’s.”
“I don’t like it.”
Kota let out a sigh as he looked at me and winked.
I shared a small smile with him, still concerned about Luke, but grateful we’d come up with a solution.
The only trouble now was…when would we get to talk to Luke if he was out on an Academy mission?
RETURN TO CLASS
Gabriel ended up spending the night at Nathan’s. He sent a text to Luke to let him know where we were and inviting him over, but Luke never showed.
Kota eventually went home for dinner. I went to bed early.
By morning, the only news was from Mr. Blackbourne that Luke would be at school. I hoped we wouldn’t have to confront him right before going to class. I didn’t want to upset him before having to do any tests.
Gabriel selected my clothes for the day: a grey skirt, knee length socks and a light pink sweater, a bit nicer than what I normally wore. The plain grey Keds shoes made the outfit casual.
Nathan, Gabriel and I piled into Kota’s car when he arrived. Nathan had brought me a coffee, and I drank it quickly on the way. Gabriel gave me a bite of his heated breakfast sandwich. Kota passed around a bottle of gummy vitamins and everyone took some.
At school, I followed the guys inside, walking behind them. My eyes scanned the other students in the main hallway as we entered. Did they know where I was while I was out? Would anyone say anything about me returning?
Just as we were about to head through the doors to the courtyard, I spotted a couple of familiar faces, and paused.
Wil was headed in our direction, but he was talking to Ms. Johnson, our English teacher. Wil had a look of surprise on his face, and Mr. Johnson looked upset.
There was a gentle tug, and Kota pulled me to him before Wil and Ms. Johnson got close.
We went through the doors, but through the glass, I watched as they walked by, still absorbed in conversation.
“Ms. Johnson looks upset,” I said.
Kota paused, looking in. “And that’s Wil,” he said.
“Is he okay?” I asked. “Mr. Blackbourne seems worried about him.”
“I don’t see him at school much, but I’m supposed to report whenever I do see him.” He watched through the glass as Ms. Johnson and Wil disappeared into the crowd. “I don’t think Wil is her student.”
“Maybe he was a student of hers,” I said. “It still doesn’t explain why she’s upset.”
He shrugged. “Speculation,” he said. He turned to me and smiled. “Let’s not make a mountain out of it. We’ll look in on her.”
I let it go. Maybe it meant nothing.
In the courtyard, I quietly sat next to Gabriel on one of the concrete benches in the courtyard. I scraped the rubber soles of my shoes together, making a flicking sound as I idly waited for Luke to show before classes started. He and North weren’t usually late, so I expected him any moment.
A gentle elbow nudged at my arm, and I looked up to find Victor smiling at me, holding out a glass bottle: A Starbucks Frappuccino.
“Something to wake you up?” Victor said, his face framed by his wavy dark hair. The fire in his eyes were sparking with amusement. He was wearing the full faux uniform all the Academy guys wore, sans the tie, and his collar was open at the neck, revealing the silver medallion. He seemed tanner than the last time I’d seen him. Had he gotten out in the sun? I wondered how since it was November.
I thanked him and took the bottle from him. “I had one earlier, but I could use another. How did you know?”
“Lucky guess,” he said and then winked at Kota.
I shifted my gaze to Kota, who sat on the opposite bench, wearing his uniform, this time including a sweater underneath his jacket that matched the blue and gray of the coat and pants. It was a little cool this morning, but I wondered if it’d get hot later, making him want to take off the sweater. He smiled at me warmly and waved a brief hello with a finger.
I grinned back at him and snapped open the bottle.
“You can’t keep feeding her those,” North said, walking up to us. He had on just the gray slacks and jacket of the uniform. His T-shirt was black, he wore no tie, and had on his black boots. His hair was combed down on either side of his face, lengths of it fell into his eyes, making him appear scarier, if that was possible. “One is enough. She’ll bounce all over the room today. And she’s got tests.”
“If she’s got tests, she’ll need the caffeine,” Victor said. “She’ll need to stay awake for them.”
I stopped listening, looking around North for Luke.
Silas was walking up, and it was only when he turned to sit on the bench near me that I saw Luke, trailing behind them, his head down as he looked at his shoes.
I grinned eagerly, but tried to contain my relief at seeing him.
There was something off with him though. I didn’t realize it until he passed by Silas and saw he wasn’t wearing his school uniform. He was wearing a light blue T-shirt, and jeans, and white Keds shoes, nothing like their uniforms at all. His hair was tied back, but in a sloppy bun at the back of his head held by a black band. It looked like he’d rolled out of bed and simply grabbed what was closest.
I glanced quickly at Kota, but he was looking at Luke, an eyebrow up. “You okay, Luke?”
“All my clothes were dirty,” Luke said, lifting his head as he strolled forward, moving to the ground between the two benches. He sat down heavily, dropping his book bag, and rolled his head back, gazing at the sky for a moment before closing his eyes. “I couldn’t find the jacket.”
“He didn’t get in until four in the morning,” North said, in a tone that started out grumbling, and then surprisingly softened when he added, “Maybe he should take the day off.”
“I can make it,” Luke said, his eyes still closed. “I have tests. I don’t need to go home.”
Kota stood up, and shrugged off his jacket. “Hey, Luke? Come walk with me to the library?”
Luke groaned softly, but then popped up to his feet, keeping his head down. He followed Kota through the courtyard. I wondered what Kota was going to talk to him about.
“Poor Luke,” Victor said, drawing my attention and echoing my thoughts. I turned to him as he watched them leave. “This school schedule has been hard on everyone.”
“No shit,” Gabriel said. He leaned back, stretching his body. “Are we anywhere near ready to get out of here, though? I mean, with Mr. Hendricks…”
“We can’t talk about it here,” North said, cutting him off. He turned his shadowed eyes toward us. I wasn’t so sure he’d slept, either. “After school.”
He was right about that. We’d been gone for a week, and it was easy to forget we were back in school again and had to watch what we said.
I tuned out as the guys started to talk about their upcoming tests and then absently chatted about some of the other students around us.
By the end of the second bottle of coffee, I was buzzing. The bell rang for homeroom, signaling North and I to walk to class, but as we made our way down the hall, my brain wasn’t registering anyone around us.
When we got to the classroom, I sat in my chair, hoping Luke would show up on time. I was on my knees in the seat, leaning over it and waiting.
A firm palm smoothed over my back. “Sit down, Sang ba…please.” North corrected himself as he glanced around the room, making sure no one had heard him.
I sat on my chair just as the bell rang. The door opened and Luke walked in, wearing Kota’s jacket, though it was a little loose in the shoulders on him. He dropped his bag on the top of his desk, and then dropped into his seat, sliding low, folding his arms across his chest.
I hesitated, unsure what to say to him. He looked so tired; did I want to bug him?
I reached out gingerly, toying with his hair, trying to make loops.
He allowed it, but didn’t turn around.
So I continued through the morning announcements
that came in over the speaker, wanting to let him know I was there and that I cared about him. Maybe he didn’t want to talk. Maybe he couldn’t say anything here.
Just after the announcements finished, the speaker crackled and then a voice came over: “Mr. Ferguson, please send Sang Sorenson to the front office immediately.”
“I will,” Mr. Ferguson said. The speaker crackled again, but then silenced. Mr. Ferguson looked at me from where he was sitting at his desk in the front corner of the room, gray eyebrows shifting up his brow. “You’re really popular up there. You don’t seem like a troublemaker.”
North spoke up before I could respond. “She volunteers in the office,” he said. “So they ask her in for some help whenever she’s not busy. Maybe they can’t find something.”
“Oh,” Mr. Ferguson said. “That’s nice of you. Hurry along.”
I forced a smile to help validate North’s lie…or was it one? Technically I did get called up to the office for help, although I wasn’t helpful to Mr. Hendricks, and it’s not like I was even trying to be helpful.
I supposed Mr. Blackbourne would vouch for me if Mr. Ferguson ever asked around the front office. I sighed, and gathered my book bag. I should have figured Mr. Hendricks probably wanted to have a chat. I’d been gone from school for a week while a fake Sang ran around Charleston. They’d prepared me for what I might be asked, telling me to be vague, say I was around town and then try to turn the questions back on him. If Mr. Hendricks got after me about not being in school for a week, I could say I was doing my best to do what he asked, to stick by the boys if they seemed suspicious.
There was a chance that someone following the fake Sang might get notified that I was at school. The big question would be: how would Mr. McCoy or Mr. Hendricks respond when they found out I was here when they thought they were chasing me around town?
It was part of the plan to confuse them and hopefully cause them to mess up.
I glanced at North, who sat still, not making a move to get up. Then I looked at Luke, who had turned around now with interest, but who wasn’t moving, either. Wouldn’t they be following me in the hallway? Maybe they were relying on Mr. Blackbourne or someone else following me with cameras in the school.
