Drift (Drift Series) (2 page)

I felt guilty about my silent involvement between the embattled couple. I
’m not supposed to feel this…guilt. I knew what was coming up on Saturday night, maybe these feelings will settle so I can complete my work with Darryl.

I slapped
the hood of my car and took off for home so I could hang out at my spot for the rest of the evening to choke down a little more private time. I needed to figure out what I was going to wear for the weekend’s big festivities.

I pulled up to my place and hopped out of my car. Walking up my driveway, it
’s hard to miss this huge oak tree that has recently been dying, much to my dismay, next to my home. It towers over the lot and it’s my favorite object here. All the branches straggle out here and there, looking like a handful of thick, twisted arms, dangling off the main trunk. There are no leaves whatsoever, being that it’s dying, and I like to perch myself high up in the tree on a particular branch. It’s the thickest of the branches on the oak at almost the highest point. This is where I always sit.

Tonight wouldn’t be any different. I climbed my tree
, got comfortable, and gazed down at town, pondering how to make sure everything went smoothly at Darryl’s party. What I wore and what I looked like were important, but were the least of my worries. If I fail at my real reason for going to the party, Christian would surely seek my demise. Christian is
my
bully. There was no doubt in my mind that he would make sure I was finished.

Below, friendl
y claws scratched the bark of the oak tree. It was my black stray cat climbing up to see me; I have named him Shadow. Shadow’s nightly ritual is to sit next to me on my branch and soak up the views with me. It’s strange; every animal I have ever come across hates my very presence—except for Shadow. I don’t seem to bother him at all and I’m thankful he’s around.

“Hey
, my friend.” I greeted him with a pat.

Shadow is my other
best friend, and that’s where my short line of friends stops. I look forward to his company. To show my appreciation for his acceptance of me, I leave a bowl of food and water up on the branch for him. I think because we are both strays in a sense, we cling to each other for friendship instead of being alone all the time.

In his usual way, he
said hello by rubbing against me before nibbling his food. I petted him as he ate and my thoughts about what to wear to the party, Darryl, Shade, and whatever else hit my brain, turned to worries about Christian. I can see Christian’s damning eyes in my head, constantly belittling me when I have the misfortune to confront him from time to time. His angry, condemning stare pierces through me. Therefore, I do whatever he asks in order to make sure he stays calm. Only Shade’s beautiful face popping in and out of my mind breaks me from my constant worry about him. My fear of him always overshadows everything else on my mind. These thoughts of her give me brief moments of inner peace and hope.

But even th
ese thoughts of her lead to more bothering questions about who I truly am; why do I care about her? More importantly,
how
is it that I can feel an emotion like concern? One question always leads to another, an inner dialogue that I can never escape.

How can I
atone for the sins of my past if I don’t know what I did to begin with? How do I know when I crossed the line between good evil when it has always been invisible? Somewhere there are answers for me, but I fear no one will hear my questions. It is this very condition I have that isolates me from others like myself. These clusters of thoughts are just as confusing to live as they are to think about. I guess what it all comes down to is how much do I really matter in this human world?

CHAPTER 2

OPPORTUNITY

I was so entrenched in thought that hours seemed like minutes, and before I knew it, rays of light were coming over the top of Eagle Peak. The blackness of night was changing to morning. I had stayed up
all night again.

Being tired didn’t even weigh into the equation for me. It was Friday morning, Saturday was coming
, and the events of that evening were all that was on my mind. But before getting to tomorrow, I had to get through today.

I leaped from my perch on the tree limb, pausing for a moment so I could lean down to pet Shadow before I left. He raised his head up to meow at me, as if saying goodbye. I got out of the tree and took off for school.

In first period English, I was disappointed to discover that Shade’s seat was empty. This meant that the only person I had left to pay attention to was Scruffy. Needless to say it was a giant step down in quality for me.

“Damn it
, Scruffy, can’t you wait until lunch to run your mouth?” I spoke firmly after we were again told to keep it down by our frustrated teacher.

“Fine, but we have to finish talking at lunch. I heard something about Shade I wanted to tell you. It may be the reason she isn’t here today.” Scruffy spoke with some urgency.

His words demanded my attention. Not only was I curiously concerned, I was also worried about what may transpire for Saturday night. If anything derailed the carefully laid out plans, it meant my butt. Christian would make sure of that.

“Dude, don’t make me wait. What is going on with Shade?”

“Well, I was talking to Sandra this morning…” Before Scruffy could get out what he wanted to tell me, we were interrupted by a very angry teacher once again.

“Leo Cutler…Mark Spears! If you two can’t adhere to the rules of my classroom today, then neither of you need to take part in it! If you are not quiet this instant, I have two pink pieces of paper here that I will gladly put your names on for the principal to read when I send you both to hand deliver them to him! Get it?”

Giggles from classmates surrounded us as we quickly complied with her request.

“Yes
, ma’am.” We directed our attention back upon the work on our desks.

“We’ll finish this at lunch,”
Scruffy whispered in a tone I could barely hear.

“Okay. Meet me in the cafeteria, not at my car. I
’m staying on campus for lunch today.” I whispered back, trying to stay under the teacher’s radar.

“Cool. Cool
,”
Scruffy replied.

Scruffy must have heard something quite significant from Sandra. Sandra Tipton was Shade
’s best friend. If she took time to tell Scruffy something private, it must have been a big deal she couldn’t wait to get off her chest. It was probably safe to assume Scruffy wasn’t the only person she told. Needless to say, I anxiously awaited the arrival of lunchtime.

Like anything that one can hardly wait to get to, lunch took its sweet time in arriving. Mercifully, the bell rang
, signaling the end of math class, which was right before lunch period. I hurried to put my bag in my locker then raced to the cafeteria to hunt down my friend.

I snagged a place in line so I could pick up the wonderful meatloaf and mashed potatoes they were serving today. I went through the line, received my food, paid for it, and quietly picked a spot to sit down at the end of one of the lengthy lunch tables facing one of the large windows with a great view of the veranda. Out there, students were gathered around the handful of scattered lunch tables. I could also see everyone who came in and out of the lunchroom through the two main doors. I hadn’t seen Scruffy arrive yet and I was losing my patience.

Finally, after I’d eaten half the tasteless meatloaf, he raced through the veranda and into the cafeteria, whipping the two metal entry doors open in great haste.

“Dude, what the hell took you so long?” I shouted as I slung my arms in the air, signaling to him where I was sitting.

“Sorry, man. Mr. Macintosh held me over for talking in class. Let me grab some grub and I’ll join you in a sec.” He hurried to get a place in the lunch line.

“There’s a surprise,” I muttered to myself.

Finally, he scurried over, tossing his food tray down with a bang. “I hate Mr. Macintosh. I feel like he has it out for me.”

“Yeah, you never do anything wrong, Scruff. You
’re always so quiet and obedient.”

“You better shut up, bro, or I won’t fill you in on what I heard about Shade.” He shoved a mouthful of food in his face.

Acting as if I was uninterested, I replied, “Oh yeah, so what is the deal, anyway? What did you hear?”

“Don’t even act casual, Leo. I know
you’re dying to know why she isn’t here today. I know you dig her. Besides you’re like me, you can sense when there’s a disturbance in the force with people. You know Shade never misses school. Anytime someone walks up to one of us, ‘Hey guess what happened to so and so?’ we know we’re about to hear something juicy.”

I hated to admit it, but he was right again. I needed to know what he knew. Plus, if Darryl was a part of this inside information, it may be of major advantage to me. “Okay, you got me, what’s going on?”

After shoveling down another mouthful of food and loudly smacking every last bite, he finally finished what he started. He made sure to squeeze every last bit of anxiety out of me.

“Well, as I was saying earlier, Sandra and I were talking before first period. She and Shade were at her house doing some light studying and deciding what they would wear to Darryl’s party this weekend. Anyway, Darryl kept texting Shade on her phone, asking questions like, why she wasn’t answering him back fast enough, who she was with, what was she doing, and so on. Finally, Shade got annoyed and quit texting him back. It
seemed that no matter what she said, he didn’t believe her. When she quit responding, he began to blow up her phone even more—”

“So what? Sounds like typical overbearing Darryl to me. What’s so new about that?”

Scruffy was a little frustrated that I cut him off mid-sentence. He let me know he was annoyed with a roll of his eyes. “Well, if you would let me finish, Leo.”

“My bad, man,” I replied with a grin and giggle, “continue.”

“Sandra said that about twenty minutes went by this way. Finally, the phone stopped ringing, and just when they thought he gave up, his roaring car was barreling up Sandra’s driveway.”

“I can’t believe that
, dude. What is his problem?” I added.

This story was helping me further in setting the stage for Saturday, but I wasn’t as happy about it
as I should be.

Scruffy was getting more excited about the dramatic conclusion of his hearsay. He wiggled and fidgeted in his seat as he leaned over closer. “It gets worse, man. Shade and Sandra went outside to see what the deal was. Darryl shot out of his Camaro and grabbed Shade by the arm and began pulling her towards his car. Sandra followed
, making sure that Shade was going to be okay. The whole time Shade was pulling herself out of his grasp while Sandra was telling Darryl to let her go.”

“That fool is crazy.”

“Ya think? Anyway, I’m not sure what exactly happened next or what was said, but this is the best I could make out from Sandra.”

“You
’re coming with me to talk, girl! Get in the car!” Darryl ordered.

Shade smelled a scent of alcohol coming off his breath like a pungent cloud
. “Have you been drinking again, Darryl?”

“That’s none of your business! Even if I have been drinking, so what?” Darryl grabbed at her again, tugging her closer to his car.

“Let go of me! I’m not going anywhere with you!”

“You’ll do what I tell you to do
. Now let’s go!”

“The hell I will. What is your problem? What are you doing here, anyway? What are you so mad about?”

“When I call you, answer!”

“I
’m not your property! Just because I’m dating you doesn’t mean I have to report to you on everything I do!” Shade stood her ground against her detractor.

“If you want to stay popular and not get run out of town by me and my friends, you better quit messing around on me!”
Darryl continued.

“Messing around? I haven’t even been with you. Now that I see how much of a jerk you are, I never will be. It’s over between us
. I want nothing more to do with you…or your stupid crew!”

Scruffy bit down on another bite of grub
.
“Sandra said that Darryl’s eyes became saturated with rage, like he was psychotic. She said a look of horror came across Shade’s face. The next thing Sandra saw was Darryl grabbing Shade with both hands by her hair and neck and he tried to pull her into his car.”

“Call it quits with me? You could never do better than me, you’re nothing! I’ll make sure you never disrespect me in any way ever again
. I’ll kill you!”

All the pieces seemed to be in place. One minor ripple effect from this major event may occur—it was possible Shade might not attend t
he school-wide party now. I had to make sure that didn’t happen, for my own well-being.

Scruffy hadn’t stopped speaking as my mind slid back into the conversation. “I guess Sandra ran up and jumped on Darryl’s back, smacking him on his head and shoulders. Darryl let go of Shade and slammed Sandra to the ground. She said the force of the blow knocked the wind out of her. Shade tried to
get away after that, but he caught her from behind by her hair. Sandra heard Shade pleading with him to let her go. Darryl just kept yanking her towards him, turning her face towards his. He told her, ‘I’ll make sure you never matter to anyone else, girl.’”

Scruffy raised h
is eyebrows, a silent gesture about Darryl’s actions. “Then Darryl back-handed Shade across her face, knocking her to the ground. I guess he came to his senses a little and realized he was making quite a scene and needed to leave before someone noticed what he was doing. Sandra said she was grateful that this was at least happening close to her house, near her family and friendly neighbors that live close by. She feared if they had been anywhere else with this confrontation, he may not have stopped at just hitting Shade, or her. After he hit her, he got into his car and peeled out, spitting rocks all over the girls. Classy guy, huh?”

“Man, what a jerk. I wasn’t sure if Darryl could get any lower, now I am.”

I realized that these events were unfolding as close to planned as possible. But I couldn’t help feeling a growing concern for her. Why was this happening? I’m not supposed to be feeling this way about her, or about anyone.

“So be ready
, Leo, my boy, you may be in for a disappointment tonight at BNB’s. If Shade didn’t come to school today, she may not show up to hang out with her friends tonight.”

“Maybe so, but I think she has more strength than that. I think she will show up just to spite Darryl.”

“It’s possible, but I hear she has quite the bruise on the side of her face. I guess that’s the main reason she didn’t show up today.” Scruffy clanked his fork down on his plate, the final sign that he was finished with his meal. “God, school food sucks,”
he added.

“Well…I still think she
’ll show tonight.”

“Sounds to me like you need her to be there. You thinkin
’ this may be your chance at her?”

Trying to figure out
what I was going to say, the school bell rang, signaling we had five minutes to get to our next class, thus saving me from having to answer.

We stood up to put away our dirty trays. “Would you look at that, you
’re saved by the bell, bro. So what time you picking me up tonight for BNB’s?”

“I don’t know, around eight or so. Sound cool?”

“Sounds good, man. Well, I’m gone, see ya tonight.” Scruffy extended his hand to shake mine.

I clasped his hand. “See ya tonight, Scruff. Later.” Scruffy waved at me and darted across the campus to get to his next class.

What happened to Shade was terrible, but it was also necessary. Darryl was getting more and more out of control; he was allowing his emotions to dictate his actions. All his deranged thoughts about his girlfriend were taking him over, not to mention those occasional disembodied whispers that slid into his ear from time to time. Darryl was at a tipping point. All he needed now was a final shove.