Invincible (4 page)

Brad's face turns to a shade of pink. "Do I need to go inside and talk to the principal?"

I immediately shake my head. "No."

"So you've got it under control?"

"Yes."              

Brad sighs, his face returning to its natural color. "Good."

He starts the engine and pulls out of the school, driving onto the road.

"So, you say you’ve met a girl?" asks Brad, smirking at me.

I start to smile as Taylor's face appears in my head for the fourth-hundred and fiftieth time.

"Yeah," I say, my voice quivering with embarrassment.

Brad nods his head. "That’s good. At least, something nice happened. So, what's her name?"

"Really?"
I say, surprised and overwhelmed.

"Okay, okay, don't shoot me," he says, slightly lifting his fingers off the steering wheel in defense, shrugging his shoulder. "You don't have to tell me. That's all right."

I begin to laugh. Not because of Brad’s reluctant attempts to grill me, but because I keep seeing Taylor's beautiful face in my head.

I still couldn’t find the word to express my admiration for her. It felt as though it were a need—a need I didn’t fully understand, one that felt so alien to me. The thought of this realization worries me a little, and it only makes me wonder if perhaps she has this same effect on the other guys in school? Or was it just me?

I see flames. There is nothing else I can see. Nothing but the colors of red and yellow flames, surrounding me in a deep, tight space. I continue to black out, but I try to open my eyes, focusing on exactly where I am. The heat of the fire makes me sweat, and it feels as though I'm inside an oven.

Other than the flickering sounds of the fire were footsteps. I couldn't see anyone, but I could hear someone's feet running in the distance. A small shadow appears in front of me, growing larger and larger within seconds. The shadow of a person that's about to run through the flames...

I snap open my eyes, my lungs gasping for air as I fall onto my bed. I don't know why that is. 

The impact of the landing woke me up now. I turn to look at my clock. Five o' clock in the morning, it read. I sit up and look at myself, noticing that I'm still wearing my tank-top and pajamas, the same thing
s I wore before I went to bed.

So I
was
dreaming
, I think. What a relief. For a second, I thought the house was on fire.

But nevertheless, what happened? Was I in hell or something? And who was the person that was trying to get to me? Satan?

And another thing, why had I fallen on the bed when I woke up, when I was supposedly lying in it the whole time? I check my door. It's locked, just as it was before I went to bed. So Brad hasn't been in here. But I could be wrong. I mean, this is his dead daughter's room. What right do I have to say he can't come in here? Surely I wouldn’t want some boy stepping into my little girl’s room and destroying what image was left of her, the image I’ve tried so hard to preserve.

But really? Sneaking around, in the middle of the night? Would Brad really go this far? I assume he wouldn’t, so as far as I was concerned, Brad was out of the picture. For the time being at least.

I look up at the ceiling, foolishly checking to see if any harnesses were present. Nothing, of course. I check myself again and there were no harnesses on my body either. That's good. But good isn’t going to help me figure out what's going on. Well, this wouldn’t be the first time. Given the circumstances, good hasn't been so great at helping me find out anything, really.

I don't go back to sleep, afraid that I'll eventually wake up plummeting back into my own bed again, or worse. Instead I just lie there, looking out the window. Dawn was approaching. I was hoping to see the stars again, like I did every night before I went to bed, but I can’t expect to see anything now.

I wonder what it looks like in space. I know millions of others have asked that very question, but I don't think they actually mean it. They're not as curious as I am. In fact, I don’t think we’re alike at all. But at least
they
can speak for themselves. That’s what makes me envy them. They know exactly who they are and what they want, and I, on the other hand, don't know either of those things.

When we pull into the school, the streets were already lined up with buses. Brad had no other choice but to park behind them, and make me walk to the front of the building.

"Have a nice day," Brad says before I could exit my seat. "Don't get into any trouble."

"Don’t worry," I say. "I won't."

He laughs. "And say hi to that girl for me, too."

I shake my head in embarrassment. I close the door and he drives away.

It's only a few minutes until the bell rings. I tried to look for Taylor, but she was nowhere to be found. Maybe she
was running late or something.

I do see Jack however, talking to acquaintances. That's all they were. Not friends. Just acquaintances. I wave to him and he notices me, smiling as he waves back. I was beginning to walk over to him until Rick and his crew started walking towards me.

"How’s it going, Newbie?" he says.

Behind him I notice the other guys from yesterday, but there were two more and a girl beside him. Must be someone's girlfriend. I’ve never seen her before, her black hair and tan skin completely unfamiliar to me. She was okay and all, but she was nothing compared to Taylor Morrison.

Before I even realize it, Rick stops and pushes me. I trip over my feet and fall to the ground. Luckily my backpack broke the fall, protecting me from any severe injury. I begin to hear laughter. I choose not to look around; instead I look at Rick and his crew laughing. It seemed pretty stupid because I knew they weren't the only ones.

"You see that, babe?” he says, facing the girl and pointing at me. "He was doing that yesterday
. Nothing. Like a little wuss."

I didn't say anything. And if I wanted, what could I say? I just stayed on the ground while Rick and all the others laughed at me.

The bell rings and I start to get even more upset. Turns out being saved by it didn’t seem to work out in my case.

Rick chuckles with his group once more before putting his arm around his girlfriend, and heading inside.

"See you in class," he says.

Jack runs and helps me up. Very convenient, I think, him always coming around when Rick terrorizes me. It was actually starting to annoy me.

"Thanks," I say.

"No problem," he says.

"Does he do this all the time?" I ask, dusting myself off as we head inside the building.

Jack shrugs. "Yeah, basically. Pretty much every hour."

I laugh, even though I know there is nothing to laugh about. Everybody at school saw me and because of that, I was starting to get worried. Not because of what I think they'll say about me, but because I'm afraid of the news making its way back to Taylor. If she hasn't seen it herself already.

Halfway through History class, Taylor walks in, handing Mr. Martin a late slip.

"Hi," she says, sitting beside me.

My heart begins to pound, my brain going fuzzy again.

"Hey," I say.

I tried to focus on the lesson, but I notice Taylor staring at me. For a moment, it doesn’t seem to bother me, but once it does, I decide to face her.

"What?" I ask, the tone of
my voice harsher than intended.

She doesn’t respond for a moment, her face grimacing as if she was looking for the right thing to
say. It then relaxes and she speaks in a nervous, rushed voice.

"My friend told me about what happened this morning."

"Oh."

I felt like I wanted to die. I try to hide my embarrassment by laughing it off, but it was becoming too obvious, so I stop.

"Yo
u've heard about that," I sigh.

"I did,” says Taylor. “Are you all right?”

I slowly nod my head.

She nods her head for a moment, then stops, and shakes her head, letting out a heavy sigh. “I can’t believe he’d do something like that.”

"Well, he did,” I say.

She doesn’t respond to my comment. Instead she remains silent, pondering her thoughts again before continuing to speak. "I just want you to know that you don't have to be afraid of him. I mean, he's basically a little teddy bear inside.”

A teddy bear? Yeah, right. Maybe one that mauls everything it comes into contact with, sure
, I think.

"How do you know that?" I ask.

"Well…I used to date him."

There were no words for how I was feeling at this moment. I mean, seriously, how worse could this morning get?

I was surprised when she said it, but what really shocked me was the way she said it, as if she were ashamed of it—disgusted by it, even. I guess everyone wasn’t so proud to say they dated the handsome, talented, and famous Rick Evans.

“W
ow," I say, trying my best not to sound upset. "That’s great to know."

I go back to writing my paper,
trying
to end the conversation on a decent note.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what happened exactly?" I ask.

She sighs and looks up at the ceiling, then looks back at me. "Things change. That's all."

And that was where we ended our conversation.

The rest of the morning went okay. No one talked to me after History except for Jack. While we were in class, Rick would turn around to look at me, laughing for no apparent reason. It made me feel weird. Like I wasn't anything in the world except a bug that needed to be stomped on. Not only was this guy starting to make my life his own personal hell, I had find out that he used to go out with Taylor. Just the thought of
them together makes me shiver.

At lunch, I continue to look at Taylor. Jack seems to notice this, as he begins to wave his hands in my face.

"Troy!" he calls.

I turn away from Taylor and face Jack.

"What?" I ask.

He shakes his head and laughs. "What do you keep looking at?"

I nod to Taylor's table. He turns towards my direction, then looks back at me and chuckles.

"Oh," he says. "I see you’ve met the former Mrs. Evans."

I glare at him, letting him know that what he said was not funny in any way.