Impact (6 page)

Mark didn't get home until late. He must have gone out with her after the game. I wondered where they had gone and what they had done. I heard him come up the stairs. He knocked on my door.

“Go away,” I said.

Instead he pushed open the door.

“What's the matter with you, Jordy?” he said. “Didn't you see me at the game? I waved to you. I wanted to introduce you to someone.”

Right. The girl he was with.

“You saw her, right?” Mark said, beaming at me. “She's really something, huh? Her name is Shannon. She just came up to me and asked me to the game, just like that. I couldn't believe it.”

I just lay there on my bed. I didn't say anything.

I was sitting in homeroom the next morning, staring at the back of Shannon's head. Our homeroom teacher was late coming into class, so almost everyone was talking.

One of Shannon's friends said, “I can't believe how lucky you are. Mark Spencer is so hot. Do you have any idea how many girls wish they could go out with him?”

“He's cute,” Shannon agreed. “And he's really nice.”

“Are you going to go out with him again?”

“Saturday night.”

Shannon's friend groaned. “You're so lucky,” she said. “Do you know how many girls are ready to claw your eyes out right now because Mark Spencer asked you out instead of them?”

I felt like someone had punched me right in the gut.

“I'm not even sure how it happened,” Shannon said. “He just came up to me and started talking. He said something about football, and I heard myself asking him if he was going to the game.” She shook her head
as if she couldn't believe it. “He said yes, and I asked him if he'd like to go with me.”

“Shannon,” her friend said, “you are the luckiest girl I know. Tony would go crazy if he knew you were going out with someone else, especially someone like Mark Spencer.”

“If Tony knew, if he ever found out, he'd probably try to beat Mark up,” Shannon said. “That's why I transferred schools. I thought he was a nice guy, but I was wrong. Tony Lofredo is the craziest guy I know. I'm glad I don't have to see him anymore.”

That was the first I ever heard of Tony Lofredo. The first time I saw him was a little over a week later. Mark and Shannon had already gone out a couple of times. I was outside the school, and I saw them come out. Shannon had her arm looped through Mark's arm, and she was laughing at something Mark was saying. Then this guy went up to Shannon. I had never seen him before. He grabbed Shannon by the arm and tried to pull her away from Mark. I heard him yell at her, “Who is that guy? What are you doing with him?”

“Leave me alone, Tony,” Shannon said. That's when I realized who he was.

Mark went up to Tony.

“You heard her,” he said, nice and calm, like it never even occurred to him to be afraid. “Let go of her. Leave her alone.”

Tony turned to Mark. His face was twisted in anger, and I saw his hands curl into fists. I thought he was going to hit Mark, and you know what? I wanted him to. I wanted him to do what I felt like doing every time I saw Mark with Shannon— I wanted him to hurt Mark.

But just then a cop car came down the street. Maybe it was the look on Tony's face that made it slow down. Shannon looked at the cops. Tony turned. When he saw them, he backed down. He looked at Mark, and then he turned and walked away. I wished at the time that he hadn't.

I didn't go straight home after school that day. Instead I went to the park to hang out. I saw Kyle there. He was horsing around with
some guys who didn't go to my school. One of them was Tony.

Kyle saw me and pointed to me. He said something to the guys he was with. After a while they split up, and Kyle walked over to where I was standing.

“Hey, Jordan,” he said.

“Hey, Kyle.”

“How's things?”

I just shrugged. “Are you friends with those guys?”

“Not really,” he said. “I sort of know one of them from around, that's all.” I didn't believe him. “Why?”

“I was just wondering. You look like you know them.”

Kyle studied me for a moment.

“Hey, is Mark at home?” he said. “I promised my mom I'd make an effort at school.”

Right. Like he ever cared what his parents thought.

“I know Mark is good at math,” he said. “I thought maybe he could help me out. So, you think he's home?”

I thought about the way Tony Lofredo had looked at Mark. I thought about Kyle horsing around with him and those other guys. I thought about Kyle pointing at me. And now here he was, asking me where Mark was.

“He might be,” I said. “Unless he's working.”

“Where does he work?”

I thought about Tony again. Then I told Kyle where Mark worked.

“Sometimes he has to work late,” I said. “Until midnight.”

“At a burger joint, huh?” Kyle said. He smiled. “Maybe I should drop by sometime. You think he'd lay out some free food for a neighbor?”

I doubted he would. Mark was totally honest. But I said, “You never know.”

“Yeah, maybe I'll drop by sometime,” Kyle said. “In the meantime, tell Mark I said hi.”

I said I would.

One week later, Mark was dead.

My father read out his victim impact statement. Then my mother read out hers. Then the judge sentenced the guys who killed Mark. Tony and Joey got ten years, but they could be out sooner. Robert got six years. He could also be out sooner.

Kyle got the least amount of time because he didn't actually touch Mark and because he was only fifteen when it happened, although he had been the one to lure Mark into the
parking lot and he had known that Tony wanted to get even with Mark.

Then the judge dropped a real bombshell. He said that because Kyle had spent time in custody before the trial, and since he had shown progress in counseling, had cooperated and had shown remorse, he was going to release Kyle into the community, where he would be on probation.

My parents couldn't believe it when they heard that. My mother cried. Kyle's mother hugged Kyle before they took him away to arrange his release. As he left the courtroom, Kyle looked at me and smiled.

It was late at night a couple of weeks after the end of the trial. I was on my way home from work. I got off the bus and was walking toward my street when someone came out of the shadows toward me. It was Kyle.

“You're not supposed to come near me,” I said.

It was true. One of the conditions of Kyle's supervision in the community was that
he wasn't supposed to have any contact with me or my parents. But here he was.

Kyle looked hurt.

“I'm not going to hurt you,” he said. “I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry about what happened. I didn't know Tony was going to do what he did.”

“You knew he wanted to get back at Mark for going with Shannon,” I said.

Kyle looked at me. “So did you,” he said.

I felt my stomach twist.

“I could have said that in the court,” Kyle said. “But I didn't. I could have told them how I knew where Mark was that night. But I didn't, because I felt bad about what happened, and I knew you did too. I just wanted to tell you that. I just wanted to say I'm sorry.”

He turned and walked away from my street. I watched him go. I wondered who else he had told—or who he might tell sometime in the future.

That night I had a dream. In my dream, I was sitting behind the wheel of my father's
car. It was late at night, when everyone was asleep. I was waiting. I waited until I saw Kyle come out of his house. Then I gunned the engine and steered the car straight for Kyle.

I had that dream a lot.

When I heard that Kyle and his parents had moved out west, clear on the other side of the country, I was glad.

But it didn't change anything. It didn't change what I had done. It didn't change that I couldn't tell anyone. And it didn't change that I was afraid that one day Kyle would say something.

I didn't read out a victim impact statement like my mother and father did. But Mark's death affected me. It affected me more than almost anyone will ever know.

Impact
is James C. Dekker's second novel in the Orca Soundings series, following
Scum
. James lives in Toronto, Ontario, and has little impact on those around him.

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