Authors: Joyce Scarbrough
Chapter Twenty-four
D
espite my kiss-happy state when we left, riding in the car with Lew when he drove me home reminded me of how mad at him I’d been earlier, and I had to say something about his conflicting behavior.
“So… am I the only girl you kissed tonight?”
He looked surprised. “Of course. Why would you ask me that?”
“Don’t try to be cute. You only had eyes for Annalee until we took her home. Please tell me that wasn’t some whacked-out plan to make me jealous, because if you hurt her—”
I had to brace myself against the dash with my hands when he braked the car to an abrupt stop. He looked at me without a trace of amusement.
“If you really think I’d ever do that, we have a big problem.”
“Then why did you basically ignore me all night and hang on her every word?”
“Why’d you do her hair and makeup for her?”
“What does that have to do with anything? And how do you know I did it?” When he gave me a patronizing look, I said, “Okay, fine. I just wanted to make her see how pretty she is and give her a little confidence.”
“Same here.”
I shook my head. “What you did is different. Now she thinks you want to be more than just her friend, and when she finds out about you and me—”
“She already knows,” he said. “When I walked her to the door, I told her why I wanted to be alone with you. She said you were the best friend she ever had, and anything that made you happy made her happy too.”
Two embarrassing tears leaked from my eyes before I could stop them. I really didn’t deserve a friend like Annalee. I turned away to hide the tears from Lew, but I wasn’t fast enough. He turned my face toward him with a finger on the side of my chin.
“When I saw the way you let her have the spotlight all night, it just confirmed what I’d already decided—that you’re nothing like any girl I’ve ever known. And I knew I wanted to find out everything there is to know about you.”
He brushed the tears from my cheeks with his thumbs, then he leaned over to kiss me. I almost told him to turn the car around and go back to his house so we could spend all night in the swing.
“You’re not gonna be able to distract me that way forever you know,” I said when he returned to his side of the car. “After the novelty wears off, I’m gonna get the truth out of you,”—I leaned over to do air quotes in front of his face—“nerd boy.”
He laughed and put the car in gear. “We’ll see about that. I didn’t become an international man of mystery by accident.”
He walked me to the door when we got to Karen and Brad’s house. Holding both my hands in his, he looked down at me with a smile. “How about a date by ourselves tomorrow night?”
“What’d you have in mind?”
He shrugged. “A few hours not talking in the swing would be fine with me, but we can go to a movie or something if you want to.”
“I’m not too big on Hollywood,” I said. “Why don’t we just hang out here so I won’t have to pay Nathan back the twenty bucks I borrowed from him?” He laughed a little too loud and I said, “Shh, he’ll be out here in a second if he hears you.”
“Oops, sorry.” He put his arms around my waist. “Okay, I’ll come over and show him a few chess tricks if you promise to go to the swing with me later.”
“Deal,” I said. “Come at six for supper. Karen will be almost as happy as Nathan.”
“What about you? Will you be happy to see me?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about learning chess for a while.”
His eyes lit up. “For real? Because I could teach you easy.”
I laughed louder than he had. “You’re way too gullible, Triple C.”
* * *
A
fter he left, I floated up the stairs and stopped briefly to let Karen and Brad know I was home when I passed their bedroom. I couldn’t wait to get to my room and replay the night in my mind, frame by frame. Pausing and rewinding certain parts over and over and over again.
When I got out of the shower and had relived the best parts for an hour or so, I had to admit I was still confused about a lot of it. There was no question I was happy about Lew’s feelings for me, even though I had no idea how I was supposed to act around him in public now. Cassie and I had barely begun to talk about boys when she got sick, and I’d never talked about things like that with anybody else.
And his surprising confidence in the romance department was another piece of the puzzle surrounding him. I’d finally come to terms with having the hots for a nerd, then I find out he’s not as nerdy as I thought he was and obviously didn’t want anybody to know it. I suspected it had something to do with his brother’s death, but I couldn’t figure out how or why.
And what about Annalee? She had probably been in love with Lew for a long time, so I could just imagine how crushed she must have been when she realized he’d only been paying attention to her all night because he was just so freaking sweet. Yet she’d been happy for me. Too bad neither of us had a cell phone so I could call her or at least text. Maybe I could go to her house in the morning and talk to her in person.
I went to the computer and logged in to Gwen’s FaceSpace account, trying not to be embarrassed at how much I was hoping to see something from Lew and then giggling like a sixth grader when I read his status.
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve looked forward to anything as much as I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.
I “liked” it, then I spent the next five minutes composing my own status and impressed myself with my cleverness.
Miami sure has a lot to offer the taste buds. Never thought I’d find anything yummier than brains, but I did tonight. Looking forward to seconds.
Lewis Mackenzie Stanton likes this
popped up within seconds, making me grin like an idiot. I was just about to send him a private message when Dexter’s theme music alerted me to a new e-mail message from Flo. She said I needed to add another entry to the
Paying it Upward
blog. And she reminded me to change my e-mail address.
A few hours earlier, I’d been planning to spend the night online searching for BOSSMAN, but now I had even less interest in finding him than before. Maybe I could get by with posting the details of what I’d done to Scott and why he’d deserved it. That should qualify as part of my assignment. And I was also making good progress on the emotional addendum part, so that ought to count for something.
I wrote the blog entry about Scott and changed my e-mail address before sending Flo a message to let her know I’d done what she told me.
FROM: [email protected]
SUBJECT: Obedience
Check the blog for the latest installment of my adventures in Zombieland. I didn’t say anything about it on there, but I wanted you to know I’m also getting quite a workout dealing with those emotions you and your buddies seem to think are so important. Thanks a lot for screwing with my head.
Jada
I wasn’t sure if Flo—or somebody higher up—was monitoring everything I did, but no way was I gonna write about my feelings for Lew like some middle school kid mooning over her first crush in the pages of her diary.
After replaying the night in my head again—private mooning was another thing altogether—I spent the next hour trying to decide what to say to Annalee when I talked to her. What if she was mad at me and what she’d said to Lew had just been an act?
The more I thought about it, the more worried I got that my friendship with Annalee was at risk. I decided I couldn’t wait until the next day to see her and made up my mind to go right then, no matter how late it was. I remembered seeing a broken pane in the living room window that I could use to get into the apartment, so I should be able to talk to Annalee without her mom knowing anything about it.
I donned my Zombie Girl outfit minus the mask and makeup, hoping the dark clothes would let me make the trip as inconspicuously as possible. Annalee’s neighborhood wasn’t far from Coconut Grove, typical of Miami’s hodgepodge layout that put mansions back-to-back with high crime areas. I could easily make it there on foot in a half hour or less. I stuffed my hair inside a black ski hat I found in the closet, hoping that anybody who saw me would take me for a skinny guy and leave me alone. Not that I couldn’t handle anybody who bothered me. I just didn’t want any delays.
Thanks to a lift I got from a creepy old man in a Cadillac Escalade who leered at me so much that I ended up getting out after a mile, I made it to Annalee’s in under twenty minutes. Since it was Friday night, there were still quite a few people outside the other apartments, but I managed to make it up to Annalee’s door without drawing anybody’s attention. The scraggly bushes in front of the apartment were half dead, but they gave me enough cover to push my fist through the duct-taped pane and unlock the window to climb inside.
The apartment was completely dark except for a light I saw coming from under a door to my right. I knew the room at the end of the hall belonged to Annalee’s mom, and I remembered that the other door in the hall had been a bathroom, so the one with the light must be Annalee’s.
I started to turn the knob as quietly as possible and stopped when I heard muffled voices. At first I thought they were coming from down the hall, then I realized they were inside Annalee’s room. Maybe her mom had seen that she was upset when she got home and was in there talking to her, trying to soothe her daughter’s broken heart. I put my ear against the door and heard sobs, but they weren’t the kind caused by heartache.
They were the kind caused by abject terror.
The door was locked, but one shove with my shoulder banged it open. In the dim light made even dimmer by the red filter over my vision, I could barely make out Annalee on the bed with Rufus on top of her, his scrawny ass grinding obscenely between her legs and one of his hands covering her mouth. She saw me and her terrified eyes pleaded for help as her muffled scream filled the room.
I grabbed Rufus by his greasy ponytail and threw him against the far wall where he slid to the floor in a crumpled heap. I was both furious and terrified at the same time, but I had to see how bad Annalee was hurt before I finished with him. Her shirt was bunched up around her neck and her jeans were off, but her underwear was only partly pulled down from her hips, making me hope I’d stopped him in time. She was sobbing uncontrollably, and I wrapped my arms around her.
“Shh… it’s okay, you’re safe now. Did he—”
“Hey, I got something for you, bitch!” Rufus yelled behind me. “You fucked with the wrong dude this time!”
I straightened up and turned to see him pointing a small pistol at me, his pants still puddled comically around his ankles.
“What little old lady did you mug to get that thing?” I said. “Or is it a cigarette lighter?”
“It’s big enough to blow your ass away,” he said. “Big enough to put you on your knees in front of me like your little friend was before you got here!”
My vision went blood red.
I tackled him and got both hands around his throat, vaguely registering the sound of the gun going off as we fell to the floor. The astonished look on his face when the shot had no effect on me almost made me laugh while I choked the life out of him, especially with the way his eyes were bugging out in his reddening face. But just before I tightened my grip to finish him off, I felt Annalee pulling on my shoulder.
“Don’t kill him, Gwen! We need to make it look like suicide.”
Her words penetrated my fury and made the red filter recede enough to let me think rationally a moment and realize she was making sense. The gun was pressed into my stomach between Rufus and me, and as soon as I released his throat, he pulled the trigger again, probably thinking he must’ve missed the first time. I sneered at him and grabbed his wrist, then I forced his arm up so the gun was pointed at his temple.
“Annalee, don’t look,” I said. “I’m about to make this maggot blow his brains out.”
“No, not here.” Her voice sounded eerily calm. “I don’t want his disgusting blood in my room. There’s a vacant lot across the street behind the gas station. Let’s take him there.”
I took the gun from Rufus then turned to look at her in amazed admiration. “You were right, girlfriend. We were destined for each other.”
Rufus began babbling incoherently, so I clocked him upside the head with the gun to shut him up. I couldn’t stand his sniveling, plus he’d be easier to transport that way. Annalee got a trash bag from the kitchen and we stuffed him into it, then I hoisted the bag over my shoulder.
“You need to stay here,” I told her. “It’s not gonna be pretty, and we shouldn’t take a chance on connecting you to any of this.”
“No way,” she said. “After what he did to me and the things he’s done to my mom for so long, I can’t wait to watch him die.”
I couldn’t really blame her.
“Speaking of your mom, where is she?”
“Passed out in her room.” She looked at the floor. “She’s been drinking and doing drugs with him all day while I thought she was at work.”