Rarity (7 page)

“Grab our drinks and bring them to the table please.  I’m sure you’re hungry but I’m hoping it’s worthy of World Class status too.”  Mom set down the plates of sauteed garlic asparagus, homemade double mashed potatoes, and grilled steak.  “How was your day?  You look good so it must have been positive.”

I shoved a piece of steak in my mouth and chewed and nodded.  She was going to have to wait as I enjoyed this delicious bite.  Once I had it down I answered, “Meg’s awake..”

“Oh, that’s wonderful.  When can she come home?”

Now Mom had to wait while I enjoyed a bite of asparagus.  This made her laugh, maybe I really was super hungry.  “She had her skin graft so she should be out within the week if she keeps healing well.”

“Ugh, I forgot about the skin graft.  Poor kid.”

“Mom, outstanding job on this food.”  Mom chuckled at my remarks and devouring of the food.

“Thanks, it does taste pretty good.”  Mom went in the kitchen for more asparagus.  She returned and asked me how the rest of my day went.  I hadn’t talked about Jay yet, because there hadn’t been anything brewing there, but now seemed like a good time to mention him.

“Pretty good.  Remember when I was attacked by that dog a few months ago?”  Mom nodded.  “Well, that guy that came to my rescue and was attacked, do you remember his name is Jay?”

“Vaguely.  What about him?” she probed.

“Well, I guess he saw the pictures of the crash in the paper and thought I had died.  When he saw me at school the first day back, he was waiting by my locker.”

“Waiting by your locker?”  Ok, Mom thought it strange too.

“And when he saw me he kissed me.”  Mom’s eyebrows raised.  “It wasn’t a romantic kiss, it was a ‘thank God you’re alive’ kiss.”  Mom smiled at me like she didn’t believe me.  “What?  I’m telling you, that’s the message I got from the kiss.”

“Ok, ok, so then what?”

“Well, nothing really, we’ve just talked a little over lunch.  But there’s this other girl that has her eyes on him.  She’s the daughter of Dad’s new girlfriend.”  Mom rolled her eyes.  In that moment I read Mom’s energy - she was worried the story of her and Dad was repeating. “Mom, listen, we just talked.  Anyway, that girl is named Becca.  She confronted me in the girl’s bathroom and I stood up to her.  I can’t believe I was brave enough to do that.  I was sick of her crap and cowering around her and I just let my feelings spill.” 

“Wow, that must have been what I sensed in you.  You seemed so different sitting at the table tonight - stronger.  I’m proud of you,”  she hesitated. “Listen, I’m worried about you and this Jay guy.  He sounds nice, but are you sure you just don’t feel in debt to him for saving you?”  I had to think about that. 

“I don’t know. I know that can happen and there definitely seems to be a bond between us.  Did the bond naturally form or did the dog party create it...I don’t know.”

“Dog party?”  Mom snickered, “That’s what you call that?”  I smiled and nodded.

“Rabid dog party actually.”

“Ah.  Well, why was this Becca coming after you?  Does she and Jay have a relationship together?”  She asked.

“No. Becca and Jay are the new kids and she has her eyes set on him.  That’s it.”

“Sounds like Jay is fair game and he needs to pick for himself who he would rather be with.  Just keep being yourself and keep your distance from that Becca girl. Sometimes girls will get nasty if their prize is taken away.”

“Agreed.  Let me help clean up.”  I cleared the table as Mom began scrubbing the dishes.  The kitchen phone rang and Mom took a break to answer it.  I cleaned off the table and took Mom’s spot at the sink.  Mom’s voice was raising a bit and she was standing with her back to me.

“Yes, she’s fine Philip, couldn’t bother coming by to see her in the hospital, could you?”  Mom was talking to my Dad, her ex.  “No, she has plans this weekend.  I know you want to see her but it will have to wait another week,” she paused listening to whatever my dad was telling her.  “I don’t care.  Until you start paying child support and making an effort for HER benefit, I will NOT jump through hoops to get her back in your life.  You can play house with your Barbie doll girlfriends, keep our daughter out of that mess.”  She slammed the phone down.  And I couldn’t help it, I started clapping.  Mom and I both burst out laughing.

“Good job Mom.  Looks like you grew a pair too.  Why does he want to mend the relationship now?”

“My guess is to impress his latest lady.  I just wish he’d leave you out of it.”  She leaned over and kissed my head.  Mom had raised me with some help from my grandma.  She worked and attended every school function I ever had.  She was all the parent I could ever need.  My dad quit coming to my events when he and my mom divorced.  He quit calling me a month later and never took the time to acknowledge my birthday each year.  He was a selfish man distracted by pretty ladies.

“I’m not interested in changing our relationship.  You’ve been the best Mom and Dad to me Mom.”  She smiled and walked over to wrap me in a big hug.

“I love you baby,” she whispered.

Chapter 10

I guess two good days in a row was asking too much.  I slept through my alarm and Mom had to drive me to school.  When I was walking up the stairs my sweater snagged on a rough spot on the metal railing, tearing a hole into my sleeve.  So irritating!  And
I knew my day would be spent trying to hide the hole and squelching the desire to abandon the sweater even though it was frigid today.  Today was a Meg day.  I could have used my dear friend to balance me and cheer me up.  Soon she would be back to roaming the halls with me. 

I walked down the hall and saw Becca and the Blondesquad snickering nearby.  When I turned toward my locker, the word ‘SLUT’ was written in nail polish on my locker.  No doubt placed there by Becca or one of her minions.  When I opened the locker I heard them laughing hysterically.  Great.  I grabbed my first period folder and headed to the front office without glancing Becca’s way.

“Hi, someone wrote something inappropriate on my locker with nail polish, I wondered if the janitor could try and remove it today.”  The older desk clerk brought me a half slip of paper.

“Put your name, locker number, and description on here and then place the form in this basket,” she advised me.

“Thanks.”  I began to fill out the form.  I heard the office door open and a body bump against me.  I looked up to see Jay smiling at me.

“Whatcha doing here Brogen?”  he asked.  God he looked beautiful.  I felt the butterflies in my stomach take flight.

“Maintenance request.  Someone decided to do their art project on my locker.”  Jay’s eyebrows went up.  Apparently he hadn’t been by my locker to see Becca’s handy work.  “How about you?  What’s your story?”

“Ahh, I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, just giving them, my slip.”  The front office lady came up to take Jay’s note.  She blushed as she approached him.  Did he even know what effect he had on people?

“Just come down during 5th period and sign out,” she told him, avoiding eye contact.

“Thanks.”  Jay turned back toward me, “ Wanna’ walk me to my locker?”

“Sure.  Hey, I saw Meg yesterday and she’s out of the coma!”

“You must be so relieved.  When does she come back to school?”

“We think she might come back next week,” I told him.

“Hmm, one more week to find out all about you during lunch - not sure that’s enough time.”  I rolled my eyes, there was not much to know about me and he’d be disappointed when he found that out.  He walked close enough to me that our upper arms occasionally brushed against each other.

“Oh, you planning on eating with me again?  What about poor Soren?” I teased.

“Soren’s a big boy and has enough friends to never be lonely.  And yes, I plan on eating with you again.  But... not today. My appointment is around lunch so I’ll miss the whole last half of today.”  I was disappointed hearing this, it was nice having someone to talk to at lunch and I looked forward to the easy banter that Jay and I had.  Seeing the disappointment in my face he turned toward me and added, “But the next day, I’m all yours.  I’ll even let you ask me whatever you want.  Maybe even my deepest darkest secret.” 

“What, that you like to wear girl’s panties?”  I teased.

Jay laughed but stopped quickly. His jaw dropped as he looked past me.  “What the…”  I followed his eyes and saw him staring at my locker.

“I’m guessing Becca.  We mixed words in the bathroom yesterday and I think I pissed her off.”  This made him laugh.

“You’re such a scraper!  Good for you!”  He scratched at the letters.” What is that?  Nail polish?” I just shrugged. “Let’s go, we’re already late.”  We got Jay’s first period books from his locker and walked to Algebra.

“There’s the lovey dovey couple now.” Our teacher greeted us as we entered class .  I felt my face blush far worse than when I read my lovely SLUT message from Becca.  The kids in the class did Cat-calls and Jay fist punched a few of his guy friends and let the comment roll off him untouched as he walked to his desk.  I stared at the floor as I found my way to my desk.  During Algebra I glanced over at Jay a few times, he’d always look up and smile, like he sensed me looking his way.  I decided to be brave and not turn away. I was drinking him in because I wouldn’t see him later in the day.  I paid no attention to Becca but she probably tried to kill me with evil glares all period. 

After class Jay actually waited for me outside of the class.  “Hey, good luck with the artwork,” he gave me a side hug.  I was enjoying being around Jay and knew the rest of the day would suck without him.

“Good luck with your doc appointment. Is it a follow up?”

“No, they wanted to tell me my test results and said they do it by appointment only,” he shrugged. 

Just then, something changed inside of me, like someone had flipped a switch.  I felt my heart sink.  I felt like vomiting.  I felt like if I turned on the news there would be a report about a nation being wiped out by a nuclear bomb.  I had never felt like this in my life.  Death, destruction, devastation all around me.  A wave of sorrow washing over me, drowning me.  “Brogen, you ok?”  I nodded, but I wasn’t.  Truthfully, I didn’t know what the hell had happened..  It made no sense.  Maybe my defenses were down and I was picking up someone’s bad energy.  Maybe something was wrong with my mom, or Meg.  Maybe Jay was going to get in a car accident. 

I didn’t know what to say.  I felt like I was going crazy.  There was so much negative emotion in me but anything I might say would sound crazy.  I settled on,  “Just be careful.”  I gave him a hug, a strong and full of emotion hug.  He looked at me puzzled and chuckled at my mercurial mood change.

“I will.  See you tomorrow babe.”

Normally I’d melt from him calling me “babe”, but my mind was racing - trying to figure out why I was experiencing this feeling.  Jay was off to his next class and I kicked myself for not getting his phone number.  How would I check if he was alright? I couldn’t deal with Jay being a car crash?   I made my way to second period.  Each moment I grew more and more nauseous.  I asked the teacher for a restroom pass.  I needed be alone in case tears started to fall.  I must have looked like hell because she didn’t question me.

I sat in the stall doing my breathing/meditation exercise that I practiced every night.  I felt calmer but I couldn’t shake the feeling of sorrow deep within me.  I needed my mom.  Tears filled my eyes and I leaned my head against the cold graffiti filled metal bathroom wall. The bell rang.  I had spent most of 2nd period in a bathroom stall.  I quickly headed toward the classroom to gather my things.  My teacher said, “Sweetie, you don’t look any better - you better see the nurse.  You look like you are about to come undone.”  I nodded and headed toward the nurse’s office.

I never had to visit the nurse in my whole high school career.  I opened the door and smelled the antiseptic that lingered in the air.  The nurse was busy typing at her computer.  “I’ll be with you in a moment.”  she said.  I breathed in and out inflating and deflating my lungs completely.  I counted all the cheap ugly knick knacks the nurse had on her shelf.  Thirty seven ugly porcelain figurines, it reminded me of a garage sale.  “Sorry about your wait.”  She looked up from the computer and her face dropped when she saw me.   “Oh my.  What happened?  she motioned for me to sit on a cot. 

“I don’t know. I don’t feel well.”

The nurse checked my vitals and commented on how I looked panicked. “Sweetheart, we need to slow your breathing down.”  She guided me through some breathing exercises but after a few minutes I wasn’t getting any better.  “I think it’s time to call Mom.” 

I heard her talking quietly to my mom on the phone.  I curled my legs in toward my chest and retreated into my head - drowning in sadness over some unknown reason.  Tears had begun falling by the time my mom arrived.  “Brogen, what happened?”  I just shook my head, I had no answer.  My mom stood and walked over to the nurse,  “I’m gonna’ take her home.”

“Ok. I just need you to sign her out.”  The nurse handed my mom a paper.  My arm began tingling.  I squeezed my fist tightly and released it, but the tingles remained.  I breathed slower and slower and the tingles were less intense.  So weird.

We headed to the car  - I didn’t even stop at my locker to get my stuff.  “Brogen, I want to help you but I don’t know what’s happening.  I need you to talk to me, please.”  Mom sounded worried. 

“I don’t know what’s wrong.” My voice quivered. “I said goodbye to Jay and I had this overwhelming feeling of sadness take over my body.  What the hell is wrong with me?”

“I don’t know for sure,”  Mom said.

“What do you mean?!”

“Well, sometimes people that are empathic can sense when something bad is going to happen.  I’ve had it happen a few times in my life.  But I can’t call it up - the feeling will come on its own and I sit, helpless, and later find out some bad news.  But maybe you just picked up on someone’s energy.  Let’s call Mrs. Taylor to check on Meg just in case.”  Mom dialed her number before we left the school parking lot.  I listened as Mom talked and drove.  Trying to quiet the sobs wanting to escape me and the nausea tickling the back of my throat.  “Are you sure?” - pause -  “Ok, Thanks - that’s great news.”

Mom turned toward me and said, “She’s great, they have her walking around and think she’ll go home in 2 days.”  It wasn’t Meg.  When I thought of Meg, I felt peace and joy.  I thought of Becca and felt her ugliness tainting the air but even Becca’s energy didn’t feel the same as what I felt inside.  I thought of Jay and I in the hall saying goodbye and my stomach turned.

“Pull over, NOW!”  Mom stopped on the shoulder and I pushed out the door and threw up my breakfast.  It was Jay.  Just thinking of him made me feel like death was in front of me.  I began to cry hard.  Mom came over and wrapped me in her arms.  “It’s Jay, something’s gonna’ happen to him Mom.”  I was choking on my sobs.  “He’s so nice. Why?”  Mom rocked and shushed me.

“We don’t know that for sure.  I know it feels like it but we have to wait and see.  Let’s go home. Not much we can do about this right now.  Do you have his phone number?”  I shook my head.  “Address?”,  I nodded. I knew where his aunt and uncle lived because of the rabid dog party.  “Good. Then we’ll go there later to make sure he is ok, then you’ll feel better,”  I nodded. “Right now we need to calm you down.”  If anyone else were my mother, I probably would have been locked up in a mental institute.  It felt crazy to be overwhelmed with emotion when there was nothing happening that I knew of...crazy.  Thankfully my mother was empathic AND a psychologist so she could relate to me and help me through this.  We got back in the car and drove home. 

As soon as we got home, Mom made me go for a “getting to know nature” walk.  Mom wanted me to focus on the sights, sounds, and smells around me.  She wanted to get my mind to focus on something I could see and feel, rather than some invisible energy.  It was probably some strategy from her newest Psychology textbook.  She took me down the street where we cut through a backyard and entered a wooded area.  Many of the leaves had fallen from the wind blowing the lifeless foliage.  The leaves beneath our feet crunched as we tread across them breaking them into little pieces.  There was a little bird chirping from a high branch.  He was watched us cautiously.  As we neared him, he flew off in fear.  Mom asked me to find 30 acorns so she could fill a vase at home, another distraction, but I was up for it.  Once I found an Oak I found as many as I needed and stuffed them in my pockets.  We walked a ways further and told Mom I thought I was feeling better.

“Good, you look a little calmer.”  I knew she was not just looking at my outside but could sense the dread settling inside me as well.  “Think you might try some lunch?” 

“Yeah. I think I could keep some down,”  I answered.  Mom filled the rest of my afternoon with mini-chores and mental distractions.  She never left me alone to stew in my worries.  We planned to visit Meg around four, have a nice dinner out, and then stop by Jay’s house. 

Meg was a sight for sore eyes.  I always felt better around her.  She was sitting up in bed working on homework.  “Man, homework?  They don’t let you wait till you’re out of the hospital?!  What a bunch of losers!”  Meg laughed and gave me a big hug.

“There is no way I am letting this stupid accident hold me back a year.  I don’t want to be a junior while you are a senior...that is all kinds of wrong,”  I chuckled.