Burning Hearts (3 page)

Before befriending the Misfits, Jenna had no
idea that they lived so close to each other. The Stuck-Ups were
just over Los Muertos Bridge across Rojo River. They didn’t live in
extravagant homes, but they thought that they were better than
everyone because they were the only families living on the “other
side of the bridge.” Jenna was glad they were still there. She
couldn’t stomach having her former life so close.

Pru tapped Jenna on her arm, and then pointed
with a smile at Riddick. He had his ear buds in, rocking out,
motioning like he was playing the drums. Jenna reached over and
tugged on his black T-shirt.

He stopped rocking out and turned to her.
“What?!” he yelled over his loud music.

Jenna motioned for him to unplug his ears. He
did.

“
What’re you listening to?”
she asked.

“
Scoot over.”

Jenna did and Riddick sat beside her and Pru,
all scrunched up. He offered Jenna a bud, and she put it to her
ear—there was a lot of screaming.

She pulled it away from her ear. “Who is it?”
she asked in a raised voice, still partially deaf.

“‘
Death is My Friend’ by The
Bloody Knuckles.” He took notice of her furrowed brow. “Heavy
metal,” he clarified.

“
Too heavy for me. It’s
loud.” She offered the ear bud back to Riddick; he secured it with
its mate. “Shouldn’t you be deaf by now?” she asked
reasonably.

“
WHAT?!” He smiled, and then
shrugged. “Probably.”

When the bus stopped in
front of Jenna’s modestly-sized red-brick house with a white picket
fence, Riddick and Pru debarked with her. All three of them had
been cast in
Macbeth
by their English teacher, Mrs. Willa Thames. Fortunately, they
were playing the parts of the three witches (or weird sisters); it
was always the most popular feature of Shakespeare’s tragedy to
bored high school students.

Riddick, who seemed antisocial to anyone
other than the Misfits, was actually enthusiastic about being in
the play that was to be shown to the entire school. It all worked
out for Pru, who naturally shy in front of others, got to say her
lines hidden inside a black hood.

“
When will your parents be
home?” asked Riddick, and then proceeded to plop down on Jenna’s
bed; he grabbed the remote and flipped through her basic cable
package of only forty channels.

Pru seated herself quietly on a wicker chair
in the corner of the room; it sat against a white wall decorated
with Jenna’s paintings of roses, her favorite flower.

Jenna slapped Riddick’s dirty black boots
from off her rose-decorated bedspread. “In a few hours. Why every
time you come over, you get on my bed?”

Jenna noticed Pru’s smile, her cheeks
blushing a bit.

Riddick shrugged. “Soft mattress. Mine at
home is like prison-issue.” He shut off the TV, evidently not
finding any program of interest. “Where’s your X-Box?”

“
How many times have I told
you? I don’t have one. Why don’t you get one?”

“
Folks said they couldn’t
afford it. But generous ol’ step mom can get her hair and nails
done every week—not to mention the tanning.”

“
Tanning?” Jenna held out
her hands. “We’re in the desert. Can’t she go outside?”

Riddick shrugged again. “Apparently, the sun
just ain’t radioactive enough.”

Jenna went to laugh, but fell into another
trance…

She’s holding a strange
knife, standing before a girl with fiery eyes. Then she stabs the
girl in the heart, watching as she bursts into flames. The ashes
explode in the air and as the wind stirs, it consumes Jenna’s face,
covering her in death, executed by her own hand.

“
Are you all right?” asked a
voice that was rare to hear.

Jenna blinked and turned to see Pru, wearing
a veil of worry across her face. Riddick’s hands covered Jenna’s;
she was slightly trembling, clutching the bed post.

“
I’m fine,” Jenna said,
removing her hands from the post and Riddick’s warm embrace. She
smiled to allay their worries. “Really, I’m good.” She sighed,
trying to expel her distress. “Who wants vanilla ice cream with
crumpled up Oreos? It’s what all actors eat before
performing.”

Riddick smiled, satisfied with Jenna’s
assertion of happiness and distracted by the mention of sweets. He
rested against her pillow, crossing his arms behind his head.

“
Throw in some vodka while
you’re at it.”

“
Like you could handle
vodka.”

“
I’m a seasoned alcoholic. I
hide it very well. Come here, smell my breath.”

Jenna put her hands on her hips. “I’m not
smelling your breath.”

Riddick shrugged. “Your loss, babe.”

“
Smells like peppermint,”
Pru informed with a shy smile. “He has a whole bunch of them in his
backpack.”

Jenna recalled that Riddick’s breath had been
minty of late. “To cover up the alcohol?” she asked Pru in
disbelief.

Pru shook her head. “He drank rum once. Threw
it up.” She patted her stomach. “The mints are for his acid
reflux.”

“
Shut up, Pru! You hardly
ever speak and when you do, it’s to divulge my secrets to Jenna.”
He threw a pillow at her.

Pru caught it and threw it back at him. She
turned to Jenna. “How about we get some ice cream?” She glanced at
Riddick and smiled. “But no Oreos for Riddick.”

“
What?” He threw out his
hands. “I’m supposed to eat plain vanilla? That’s absolute torture!
Throw in some chocolate syrup or something!” he begged Jenna and
Pru.

Jenna smiled at Pru. “You go ahead in the
kitchen. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Pru seemed hesitant but left the room.

Jenna sat on the bed next to Riddick’s
stretched legs. “Don’t worry. Your stomach problems are safe with
me.” And for added measure, she patted his flat stomach.

Riddick caught her hand before she could pull
it away. His eyelids hung low. “Careful putting your hand on a man,
Jenna Love.”

She gave him a mischievous smile. “I’ll
remember that the next time I see a man.”

He furrowed his brow as if furious, but then
sat up with a grin, and grabbed her sides, tickling her.

“
Stop! Stop!” she urged,
laughing.

He immediately stopped and settled back down
onto the bed. “Now run off to the kitchen and get me my sweets,
sweetie.”

She raised her eyebrow. “I know you just
didn’t order me around.”

“
Oh, I did.” He lightly
pushed her off the bed. “Don’t forget the Oreos.”

She smiled and pinched his cheek. “Ooh, if I
didn’t like you…”

His face fell. She was confused. They both
went to speak, but Pru interrupted them.

“
Jenna!” she shouted from
the kitchen. “I can’t find the Oreos!”

He went back to smiling. “For a mute, she
sure can get loud.”

She returned his smile. “Coming!” she yelled
to Pru.

As Jenna went into the pantry to retrieve the
Oreos, she wondered over Riddick’s expression. He almost
looked…sad? She’d wanted to ask him what was wrong, but was
interrupted by Pru.

She decided to leave it alone. She had four
great friends with Riddick, Pru, Kylie, and Caleb. She didn’t want
any drama. That was the good thing about the Misfits.

But she had her own personal drama.

Like clockwork, every four hours, she’d a
vision of killing. She wasn’t a genius, but she wasn’t dumb either.
Something was going on. She just didn’t know what. There was a
slight urge to confess, to tell her friends. But what would they
think of her? They spoke of acceptance, but would they really be
friends with a crazy person?

“
Where’s that chocolate
sauce?!” Riddick yelled from her bedroom; obviously, he found the
bowl of just plain vanilla ice cream Pru had brought him to be
lonely and in need of even more sugar.

Jenna went back to being
happy and brought him what he wanted. As they lay on her bed with
Jenna in between Riddick and Pru, eating ice cream and watching an
awful, but funny sci-fi movie called
The
Squid Monster from Planet Doom
, a loud
noise interrupted their supposed rehearsal time.

“
What was that?” Riddick
pushed mute on the remote, silencing the screams of a blond girl
being squeezed by a tentacle.

Jenna sat up. “It sounded like something
falling on my floor.”

“
Had a dead body propped up
in your closet and now it’s crashed?”

“
Of course, Riddick,” Jenna
said sarcastically. “You know me so well.”

Pru held up her silver spoon. “Sounded
metallic.”

Jenna slapped her hand to her forehead. “Oh,
it’s that knight’s armor I keep in storage!”

“
Seriously?” asked
Riddick.

Jenna rolled her eyes at him. “Whatever
dropped sounded small.”

“
Like your brain,” Pru said
to Riddick with a smile.

“
You know,” Riddick began,
“you should go back to saying nothing ’cause you’re full of
attitude.” He pointed his spoon at Jenna. “I blame you. She wasn’t
like this ’til you showed up.”

Jenna knew he was joking, but she feigned
sorrow anyway. “Well, I guess we shouldn’t be friends anymore.” She
frowned, adding to the charade.

“
No, no!” Riddick grabbed
her arm. “I was only playing.”

Pru giggled. “For someone who scored the
highest on the SAT’s, you sure are dumb.”

“
Wait.” Jenna furrowed her
brow. “If you’re that smart, then how come you’re barely passing
all your classes?”

“
Don’t do my
homework.”

“
So if you did your homework
in every class, you’d be a straight-A student?”

“
Probably.”

Jenna socked him. “You idiot!”

“
Ow!” Riddick rubbed his
upper arm. “That hurt.”

Jenna started to laugh, but stopped when she
noticed he seemed to really be in pain. “Hey, are you okay?”

He lifted up the sleeve of his black T-shirt.
There was a nasty red mark on his upper arm.

Jenna slapped her hands to her mouth. “Oh, my
goodness! I am so sorry!” she apologized against her fingers,
making her voice sound muffled.

Riddick smiled slightly and shook his head,
pulling his sleeve down to cover the damage. “No, no. It’s okay.
I’m fine.” Then he smiled wider. “Damn Jenna, are you a mutant with
super strength or something?”

Jenna gave him a mischievous grin. “I can
also melt brains just by looking at a guy.” She stared him
down.

“
I think you’ve already
melted his heart,” Pru informed.

Jenna was shocked. “What?”

Riddick jumped off the bed. “Let’s see what
fell. Then we have to rehearse. It’s gonna get dark soon.”

Jenna let it go. She could’ve halted everyone
right there and demanded to know if Riddick liked her, but she
didn’t. She knew Pru wasn’t playing a joke; that wasn’t her style.
But the possibility that Riddick liked her was…well, it was weird.
They got along well, but he was Goth and she was whatever the
opposite of Goth was.

And as much as it was pushed, opposites do
not attract.

“
It sounded close,” Jenna
deduced. She walked to the foot of the bed where there was a cedar
chest bestowed by her late grandpa, Simon Love, in his will when he
died a year ago.

“
It must’ve been that,”
Riddick said, pointing to a large silver lock on the
floor.

Jenna crouched and picked it up. It looked
like a lock from a pirate’s treasure chest. “That’s weird.”

“
How?” asked Pru.

“
Well, ever since this was
handed down to me from my late grandpa’s possessions, I could never
get the lock off. A key was never found. So I just left the chest
here as a reminder of him.”

Riddick and Pru crouched with her. He took
the lock from Jenna, examined it, and then pointed to the chest.
“Wanna look inside?”

Jenna was curious to see what was hidden
within. But as soon as she laid her hand on the lid, the front door
opened.

“
Jenna, we’re home!” yelled
her mom, Rachel, with her dad, Jacob, no doubt following
behind.

She took the lock from Riddick and placed it
on the lid of the chest. “Another time.” She stood up and retrieved
Macbeth from her desk. “Let’s rehearse being witches.”

After several renditions of “Double, double,
toil and trouble,” the soon-to-be Oasis High premiere actors were
done for the day. And after another bowl of ice cream, followed by
leftover lasagna, Riddick’s step mom arrived to pick him and Pru
up.

“
Hurry up, it’s getting
late,” she urged Riddick, standing on the welcome mat at the front
door.

Mrs. Polly Sharpe had just come from the
salon. Her long brown hair was in a fancy bun, streaked with blond
highlights. Her nails were perfectly manicured, painted in hot
pink. She was wearing a tight tank with short shorts and
flip-flops. Apparently, she thought that she was fourteen instead
of forty.

“
Why don’t you stay and have
some lasagna?” asked Jenna’s mom, who had thick and wavy red
hair—without repeated visits to a fixer-upper. She and Jenna could
be twins.

Mrs. Sharpe managed a smile of bleached
whites. “No, thank you. We must be getting on. Pru’s mom’s
waiting.”

Jenna, Riddick, and Pru were sitting at the
dining room table. Pru had already finished her meal, but Riddick
was taking slow bites.