After sneezing, Delia's shaking hands grabbed her glass of water and brought it to her lips. She took a sip to avoid answering that question.
"And look at you now. You're gorgeous. You have a perfect life."
The food came and Lena dove into her chicken and rice dish. Delia suddenly didn't have much of an appetite. She needed to somehow reach this girl.
"My life didn't get better in college. And Jason James was certainly no prize."
Looking up from her food, Lena said, "What do you mean?"
"College was much the same as high school. I still got no attention from men. That is until the great Jason James pranced into my life." Delia waved her hands theatrically. "His eyes, his physique, everything about him just made me tingle. He swept me off my feet. But, now that I think about it, he really didn't do anything. The simple fact that he remembered my name was enough to make me think that he loved me. He never bought me flowers or surprised me with little gifts." Delia stabbed a shrimp and took a bite as everything slowly became clear to her. How could she have been so blind?
"He never loved me.
Even then.
He never loved me. Even our dates weren't really dates. Every time we were alone somehow I just ended up doing his homework. All he had to do was smile at me or kiss me and I folded like a cheap table."
"Why do you think he married you?"
"I have no idea."
***
C.J. didn't wait long to confront Ian about Delia's attack. Monday afternoon C.J. waited for him by his car in the parking garage after football practice. He leaned on the fender trying to remain calm as Ian approached the car.
Ian stopped in front of C.J. waiting for him to start the conversation and say what he wanted, but C.J. remained silent. "What do you want? Did something go wrong with the tests?" he asked finally. Ian had actually started to feel a little nervous inside at C.J.'s penetratingly cold glare. Even though he was bigger, C.J.'s ability to fly off the handle at the slightest provocation scared Ian. He involuntarily rubbed his throat at the memory of being choked in the bathroom of the Black Cat.
"Don't play dumb, Ian. You do it too well."
"What are you talking about?"
"I told you to stay away from her."
"Who?
Ms. Clark? I didn't
— "
C.J. grabbed Ian's neck and slammed his head into the car several times. "I told you I'd kill you. Do you want to die?”
"I swear, I didn't touch her man, I swear." Ian was on the verge of tears as he felt something in his nose snap. But he refused to cry in public. Especially since any second another player on the team or a cheerleader or something could enter their level of the parking garage and see the situation. He had to save face.
Ian reached behind him and tried to jab at C.J.'s stomach, but C.J. grabbed his wrist and nearly twisted his arm out of its socket. Ian screamed in agony. He couldn't move. The pain was too great. How did C.J. know how to handle himself so well in a fight?
Ian had
a difficult
time breathing as the blood from his possibly broken nose drained into his mouth. He had to think quickly to get out of this situation before C.J. killed him.
"I didn't do it. I was with my sister when Ms. Clark was attacked. Ask her."
"Why should I believe you?"
"Because it's true," he pleaded. "Look, I was
gonna
try to get back at you, but not like that. I was just
gonna
flatten her tires or something."
Chase loosened his grip on Ian as he thought about this. Ian wasn't the most intelligent high school student he knew. In fact, he was pretty dumb. He would have a hard time orchestrating something as complicated as a kidnapping complete with electronic voice disguise.
"I swear I didn't do it, man. But I can help you figure out who did. My dad has connections to the mafia. I can find out any information you could possibly want. I can find out who did it, I promise."
"I don't need your help. I can figure it out myself." C.J. released Ian and stormed toward his own car. And once he figured out who did it, he would make them pay.
Chase lay in bed staring at the ceiling. He had already organized his collection of live Frank Sinatra albums alphabetically by venue and arranged his ties alphabetically by color. He still couldn’t sleep. He knew a phone call from Al would be coming soon.
He wondered how long he could continue being two different people without going completely insane. After meeting Delia, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be C.J. anymore but he didn’t know what else to do with his life. Pursuing a relationship with Delia was probably out of the question. She’d never forgive him for all the lies he’d told her.
So was
he
doomed to be the arrogant self-serving C.J. the rest of his life just because he enjoyed the thrill of it? C.J.’s volatile unpredictability filled a need in his life that he just couldn’t explain. But, on the other hand, Delia filled a need in him so profound that he felt … whole in her presence. It was like he was being torn apart. He sat up in bed and tried to shake his head free of thoughts. He had to get himself together. Just then, his cell phone buzzed. Four o’clock in the morning.
Right on time.
“C.J., you have three tests from George Washington Prep, two from St. Stevens and a test and quiz from
Granderson
that need to be completed by seven,” the disembodied, digitized voice of Al said. “Ian will pick up at the normal site and deliver.”
“Anything else?”
Chase said, turning on his computer to download the assessments Al had no doubt already emailed.
“Yes, I need you to make a delivery to a client.”
“A client?”
Chase pushed away from his computer and stood.
“Yes, when you make the drop-off with Ian, he’ll give you a package and an address.”
“Why can’t Ian make the delivery?”
“Because Ian’s an idiot.”
Chase paced his bedroom trying to calm his excitement. This was good. This was really good. Al trusted him more than Ian. He was moving up in the program quicker than expected.
“Fine.
But I want a bonus.”
“One thousand dollars.
There’s more where that came from if this goes down without incident.”
Chase sat in Delia’s classroom willing the period to end so he could make this delivery before something happened. For some reason, he had a bad feeling when he picked up the package that morning. Ian seemed nervous and fidgety. Chase felt a set up. Looking at the dozen nondescript little pills in the small envelope only furthered his sinking feeling.
He should have just skipped school and gotten rid of the pills right away, but he was coming dangerously close to the absence maximum and couldn’t risk getting kicked out of another private school. Besides, he really wanted to see Delia. She didn’t know it, but her class was the highlight of his day. By sitting in the back of the room and pretending he didn’t care about anything, he could just watch her move.
Chase didn’t have to imagine what she looked like under her conservative clothing. He already knew. And every time she stretched or leaned, or, God forbid, bent over to retrieve a fallen pencil, in his mind’s eye, he saw her in her glorious nudity.
It was a delicious torment that lately had become addicting. He looked forward to his increased heart rate whenever she looked in his direction or the tingle in his loins whenever she brushed past his desk.
Even with the dark shades he wore every day, he had to be careful that his leering didn’t get noticed. He had to remain the cool C.J. Mitchell at all costs. Even though on that day a shred of eraser had landed on Delia’s blouse when she leaned over to help another student with a problem and had remained there for ten full minutes. He so wanted to ask her to his desk under the pretense of not understanding a question so that he could ever so lightly brush it off of her. But he didn’t trust himself to get so close to her amazing breasts.
Thankfully, the bell rang ending his mental dilemma. Shaking off the erotic images running through his head, he left the classroom and remembered his mission for the day. He had to get rid of the drugs before his bad feelings proved true.
“C.J. Mitchell?” A deep voice commanded from behind as soon as he’d left Delia’s classroom.
“Yeah, what —” Before he could finish the sentence, a large police officer slammed him against the wall.
“Damn,
Kojak
. Is that really necessary? I’m just a kid.”
Kojak
didn’t answer. Instead, he started frisking him. He stopped at where Chase had hidden the pills in his left sock.
“We got an anonymous tip these would be on you. You’re under arrest ….
Kid
,” the officer said with a sarcastic grin.
Rolling his eyes he said, “Whatever, go ahead arrest me. Do you know how many times I’ve been arrested on drug charges? I’ll be out before history class.”
Strutting down the hallway amidst rumors and pointed fingers, C.J. Mitchell marveled at what this would do for his reputation. The handcuffs and police escort only added to the image. Idiot Ian probably thought reporting him to the police would somehow get him kicked out of the program. But C.J. knew that this practically solidified him a permanent position. He smiled with anticipation.
***
Amazingly, C.J. was in class the day after his arrest. Somehow, he was right. The drug charges didn’t stick and he was back in school just hours later. Delia wondered what kind of pull this kid had. How could he be arrested and have no repercussions whatsoever? She didn’t even think he had been called into the principal’s office to discuss the matter. Why wasn’t he expelled or something? Wasn’t Saxon Arms concerned that they had a student who was a known drug dealer?
It was obvious to Delia that her attempts to bring out the real Chase had failed. She noticed the smug almost gleeful expression on his face when he was being escorted out of the school by the police. Her Chase would have never responded like that. Her Chase would have been mortified at such a spectacle. Her Chase was lost forever and this C.J. person had to go. She had to figure out a way to get rid of him.
After a test on transformations of trigonometric functions, all the students slowly left their seats and handed in their papers.
All the students except C.J. that is.
He lingered in his seat as Delia arranged the test papers on her desk pretending not to notice he was still there. Her next period was a free period so no other students would be entering her classroom for a while. She didn’t want to be alone with him. It wasn’t that she was afraid of what would he might do. Even though she had told herself time and time again that he was a student, thus off limits, and a criminal, thus even more off limits, she couldn’t control how her body reacted to him. No, she was afraid of what
she
might do.
“You need to go to your next class, C.J.”
“Not until I talk to you.”
Delia pretended she couldn’t feel him staring at her with his penetrating dark blue eyes. She finished organizing her papers and had to find something else to do with her hands. She couldn’t just sit there and she refused to look up and meet his gaze. Every time she did, she didn’t like recognizing the familiar feelings.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” she said as she stood and went to the whiteboard across the room, turning her back to him. She sensed that he’d left his seat and within a few seconds she could feel his presence directly behind her. He moved a mass of dark brown curls from her neck then kissed the exposed flesh. Delia shivered
then let her head fall forward to the whiteboard.
“Don’t do this, Chase.” Deep down she wanted to close her eyes and succumb but instead she kept an eye on the open classroom door that stood just to their left.