The kid took off and as
she watched him push past the door, she met a pair of deep brown eyes
staring back at her from the hall.
Her breath stuck in her
throat and her jaw opened slightly.
Noah.
He held her gaze and
her heart hammered in her ears. She couldn’t force herself to
look away. Had he been watching her this whole time? Her cheeks
flushed with warmth.
He took a step toward
her, his eyes glossy and bright. She swallowed, breathless, then
shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
Was he coming to talk
to her? She told herself she could care less what he did. They had
nothing in common, anyway. A guy like Noah would never really get
her. He was too perfect. Too gorgeous.
Still, her pulse raced
and her hand fell to her side, the lollipop forgotten but the cherry
flavor still sticky and sweet on her lips.
He took another step
toward her, but before he could get to the door, high-pitched
laughter shattered the silence between them. Parrish turned to see a
rush of blonde hair sweep down the hall toward Noah. Karmen Hughes
laughed and threw her arms around his neck, nearly toppling him over.
“Noah! Where have
you been, you dork,” she said. “Aaron’s been
looking for you. You’re going to be late for practice.”
Parrish drew a deep,
slow breath into her lungs. Noah wasn’t looking at her anymore
and none of the girls surrounding him now had even noticed her
standing beyond the door.
“Hey,” he
said. “I guess I lost track of time.”
“Well, you better
get going. Tomorrow’s the big game and if you screw it up, the
coach’ll kill you,” Karmen said. The cluster of girls
around her giggled and Parrish wanted to throw up.
She tossed her sucker
into the big trash bin and walked silently into the building. She
scooped her bag off the floor near her locker, then threw one last
glance at Noah before she walked toward the front of the building and
out to her car.
Noah stumbled as Karmen
barreled into him. She was always doing crap like that.
They’d been
friends for years, and even though she was dating his best friend
Aaron, she was always being all flirty with him. It was a little
annoying, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings by telling
her to stop.
“You’re
definitely coming to my party after the game tomorrow, right?”
she asked. She still had her arm looped in his and was pressing her
body against his arm. Her breast rubbed against him and he tried to
pull away, but she had a serious grip on him.
“I’m not
sure,” he said. He tried to look around the other girls to see
if Parrish was still standing there. He’d just worked up the
nerve to go talk to her when they’d jumped him in the hall. He
didn’t want to make it too obvious he was looking for her, but
he’d seen what she did for that boy and wanted to talk to her
about it.
Where had she learned
to beat the crap out of guys twice her size?
“No way,”
Karmen said, pouting. “You’re not getting out of it that
easy. You have to come or I’ll seriously be devastated. This is
the first real party of the season. My parents will be gone for three
whole days and we’ll have the house all to ourselves.”
She raised her eyebrows
as if she meant just the two of them. He wondered if Aaron was
planning on spending the night.
“I’ll stop
by for a while, at least,” he said. “You know how my dad
is about those things.”
She rolled her eyes and
some of the other girls giggled. “You worry way too much about
what your dad says. Besides, he’ll probably be working late as
usual and he won’t even know you’re gone.”
Noah cleared his
throat. She was right about that. His dad was gone all the time with
work, leaving Noah alone at the house. Still, he didn’t like to
upset him, and his dad hated parties like this. Everyone would be
drinking and things tended to get way out of hand. Usually, someone
ended up calling the cops around three in the morning before things
settled down again.
Karmen didn’t
care, but she never seemed to care what her parents thought.
He glanced toward the
door again, catching a glimpse of the empty space outside. There was
no sign of Parrish. He turned to look down the hallway and just
caught sight of her braided black hair and combat boots before she
turned the corner toward the main exit.
Crap.
Even though Parrish
lived across the street from him and went to the same school he did,
he never got a chance to talk to her. Whenever he did, she usually
kept the conversation short and bolted as soon as she got the chance.
He didn’t understand her.
But there was something
about her.
“Earth to Noah.”
Noah blinked and turned
his attention back to Karmen. “Sorry, what?”
Karmen followed his
gaze down the hall but there was no one there. “You can be
really weird sometimes, you know that?”
He shrugged and pulled
his arm away from her. “I gotta run,” he said. “I
don’t want to be late for baseball practice.”
“So I’ll
see you tomorrow night at my place, right?” she called after
him. “My friend Star from Bethesda is going to be there and
she’s dying to meet you.”
Noah waved and took off
in a jog toward the field house. He’d only have about two
minutes to get changed into his practice clothes and get out on the
field, but it would have been worth being late if he’d gotten
to talk to Parrish.
What was it about her
that had him so twisted up? He couldn’t quite put his finger on
it, but he’d been drawn to her ever since he first moved to the
D.C. area nearly eight years ago. She was different, for sure. She
had her own style with those boots and funky hair. She also had a
major attitude, but that was all just surface stuff. There was
something more to it.
Something deeper that
drew him in.
He wanted to get to
know her, but they didn’t exactly run in the same circles.
Karmen and her clones always made fun of Parrish, but she didn’t
seem to care. She seemed to like being alone all the time. In fact,
he didn’t think he’d ever seen her with a single friend.
That made most people go running in the opposite direction, but she
was interesting to him. He was tired of always watching her from afar
and never getting anywhere. He hated that he even cared what his
friends thought of her.
Next time he got the
chance, he was just going to go talk to her. Screw what his friends
thought. Why not? You only lived once, right? What was he so afraid
of?
After practice, he
checked for her car in the driveway as he passed by her house, but it
wasn’t there. Disappointed, he pulled into his own driveway and
parked in the garage. His dad’s car was there, but the trunk
was popped and there was a brown leather suitcase stashed inside.
Noah’s shoulders
slumped as he threw the Pontiac into park and got out of the car. A
suitcase could only mean one thing.
“How long will
you be gone?” Noah asked as his father rushed around the
kitchen, throwing loose papers into his briefcase along with a couple
pieces of fruit and a bottle of water.
“I’m not
sure this time,” his dad said. “A couple days? Maybe
longer.”
“What’s
going on?” Noah’s dad worked for the CDC—The Center
for Disease Control and Prevention—researching viruses and
working to come up with vaccines to combat the more serious ones.
Usually, he was only called in to stay if there was some kind of
emergency. Noah had learned a long time ago not to take these things
too seriously. If the American public knew how often the CDC thought
there was a possible emergency, everyone would be walking around in
full hazmat suits all the time.
“A new virus.”
He paused and pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. He
shook his head, his expression full of worry.
Noah sat down on a bar
stool and picked an apple up from the bowl of fruit on top of the
island. “Do they think it’s serious?”
“It’s
deadly. Seven people in Canada already and there are reports coming
in of illness in some of the northwestern states. We’re working
to pinpoint patient zero right now so we can make progress on a
workable vaccine.”
“Some kind of flu
or something?” Noah asked.
His father shook his
head. “I don’t know. It’s not like anything we’ve
seen in a long time. I’ll have to get in and study it more to
help determine what kind of strain it might be. Harrison’s
thinking maybe some mutation of the swine flu, but it’s hard to
tell with what little data we have so far. One of the victims was a
six year old little girl,” he said, shaking his head again.
“They’re sending some tissue samples down from her home
town for us to study and I want to make it to lab and set up before
they come in.”
Noah tossed the apple
from one hand to the other. His dad placed his hand on the apple,
gripping one of the Noah’s hands underneath. Noah looked up and
saw the fear in his father’s eyes. He’d seen it a million
times. Every single time a virus or threat came on the radar, his
father got that look in his eyes. Like he was going to lose Noah to
that virus and it was his personal mission to stop it before it got
to him.
“There aren’t
any reports of it in this area yet, but from early indications, it’s
spreading fast,” he said. “Promise me you’ll stay
home for a few days until we get more information.”
Noah stood and pulled
his hand away, dropping the apple.
“Stay home?
You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said. “We’ve
got the big game tomorrow against Northside. No way am I missing
that.”
His father rubbed his
hand across his forehead and sighed. “Okay, okay. Go to school,
go to the game, but come straight home afterward,” he said.
“Wash your hands. Don’t touch anyone, especially if they
appear sick. Be careful not to—”
“Not to touch my
face or my eyes,” Noah said. “I know the drill.”
His father relaxed his
shoulders and picked his briefcase up from the table. “I know
you think I’m crazy, but this is serious. You never know which
one is going to be the big one,” he said.
“I know, Dad,”
Noah said. “I’ll be okay.”
His father nodded, then
came around the side of the island and gave Noah a one-armed hug.
“Just be careful. I’ll see you in a few days.”
Noah hugged him back
and watched as his dad disappeared into the garage and drove away.
Karmen Hughes gathered
her blonde hair into a ponytail and fanned the back of her neck. It
was so freaking hot out here, even for May. Another thirty minutes
and all her carefully applied makeup would be running down her face
from sweat. Gross.
Her best friend Kate
elbowed her, then started clapping. “Go Aaron, wooo!”
Karmen turned her
attention to the baseball field. Her boyfriend of three years, Aaron
Goldman, was walking toward the plate, swinging his bat around and
looking into the crowd. Karmen stood and cheered, and Aaron smiled
and winked at her.
She was sitting in the
same spot she always was—two rows from the back just behind
home plate. She told everyone she sat here because this was where she
had the best view of Aaron as catcher. Everyone always laughed,
including Karmen, but the truth was that most of the time, she was
much more interested in watching the pitcher.
She glanced toward the
dugout. Noah had slipped his red jacket over his right arm and
shoulder to keep it warm. Her heart skipped a beat. He looked so good
in his baseball cap and tight pants. He stood near the railing,
looking out and cheering for Aaron as he took his place near the
plate.
Karmen stared at him a
little longer than she should have, hoping to catch his eye. He never
looked her way, though, which made absolutely no sense. What was
wrong with him anyway? Did he seriously not even notice that she’d
been trying to get his attention for the past six months?
Or was he just trying
not to hurt his best friend by stealing his girl?
And if that was the
case, how could she convince him otherwise?
She liked Aaron well
enough. He was cute and smart and popular. His parents were crazy
rich and he always bought her anything she wanted, but that didn’t
really impress Karmen. Her parents would buy her anything, too. So
what? Money was just money.
But Noah. He was
different. Reserved. He had a quietness about him that made him seem
like he was always thinking about important things. Like he was deep
and really smart. Karmen didn’t even know why she liked that
about him. She was usually more of the party type, which meant Aaron
was perfect for her. So why was she feeling so drawn to Noah these
days?
The crack of the bat
pulled her attention back to the field. Aaron threw his bat to the
ground and ran toward first base, digging in hard. Karmen jumped up
and Kate grabbed her hand. They screamed his name and cheered him on
as he passed first and slid into second base just before the ball.
“Are you excited
about tonight?” Kate asked when they sat back down. Another
batter headed toward the plate.
Karmen stuck her hand
deep in Kate’s popcorn and pulled out a handful. “Of
course,” she said. “Isn’t everyone?”
She smiled and Kate
rolled her eyes. “Your parties do tend to be epic, I’ll
give you that. How long did you say your parents are gone for?”
“The whole
weekend. The leave around six tonight and aren’t coming back
until late Monday afternoon.”
“You’re so
lucky,” Melody said. She was sitting on the other side of Kate.
For the past five years or so, the three of them had been
inseparable. “I wish my parents would trust me at home alone
for more than an hour at a time, but they treat me like I’m
still eight years old or something.”
“I know, my dad’s
almost never home, but Mom? She never leaves. That woman is seriously
tied to the television twenty-four-seven,” Kate said. She
offered her soda to Karmen and she took a long sip from the red and
white straw.