The Pandora Project (8 page)

John keeps talking like my parents aren’t around, “Are you OK?
You worried me there a little.”

I finally realize
Dad is holding a scalpel in one hand and tweezers in the other, he moves to hold John down with an elbow against his shoulder. Before doing anything further he shakes his head toward me and I know he wants me to keep talking. “I guess I was just mad. The scream you heard was me taking out aggression on my pillow, childish I know, but I thought I had hung up the phone.”

Dad makes a quick cut on his
shoulder and blood runs down John’s back. I suck in a huge gulp of air, but Mom shakes me once kind of hard and I silence myself. John turns the start of a groan into a chuckle and I am impressed with his restraint. I want to go to him to comfort him, but I notice for the first time that I don’t have my gloves on. To go anywhere near him would be a disaster.

“I’m really sorry, will you let me make it up to you?”

Dad drops the scalpel, grabs the tweezers he has prepositioned on the bench, and starts digging around in John’s back. John clenches both hands into fists and the muscles straining against the skin on his back testifies to the pain he must be in. Dad finally removes a small chip of some sort and I know he has been bugged. Yep, it is official, John is the enemy. Well, the enemy who just let my dad remove the chip without any sort of anesthesia or a fight. I am so far beyond understanding what is going on it is ridiculous.

What is going on?
What am I supposed to do?
I scream to Mom in my head, but she is still deep in conversation. “What did you have in mind?” I ask, trying to stall until someone can answer me.

D
ad places one hand over the cut and it heals instantly. He has never used his power so blatantly on anyone outside of the family, at least not that I am aware of. He hands the chip to John who slides it in the pocket of his jeans. He moves to put his shirt back and I can’t help but let my shoulders fall in disappointment. Dad looks at Mom and gives a shake of his head.

“Would you let me take you out to the mall for ice cream?”

At the same time he is talking to me Mom is speaking directly to my thoughts.

W
e have to move now. Go with John, Paige. We aren’t sure how much you can trust him, but we don’t have any options right now. Keep up the conversation, go get your gloves and your purse. We will meet up again soon. Try to act natural. I can’t begin to tell you how much we love you.

“Momma…”

He is waiting, act natural, go now!
After squeezing me tightly in a quick hug, she pushes me toward the door and John steps up behind me.

“That actually sounds really nice,” I say, trying not to sound as stressed as I feel.
I glance at my hands. At least they aren’t heating up or glowing. John is looking at them also and I know all he sees is perfect skin.

“Great, let’s go.”
He tries to reach for my hand like we are a normal couple and I draw back horrified.

I give him a scathing look but try to sound like a happy teenager when I say, “Just let me grab my purse.”

Running as silently as possible, I rush to my room, throw my gloves on and scrounge around in my backpack for my purse. I make sure my second pair of gloves are still in there, grab the spare cash off my dresser and head back for the door. Noticing my shoes are still pretty wet, I chuck them off and put on my most comfortable pair of New Balance. I’m not exactly a fashion statement, but I want to be ready to run if I have to.

When John sees me returning, he hollers much too loudly to my parents, “It was very nice to meet you, Dr.
Mills. I’ll have her home in no time.”

Dad calls back from the office in a very muffled voice, “Have fun, love you, Paige.”

“Love you,” I call as John guides me out the door.

When the door clicks shut behind us, my throat tightens and a chill creeps slowly down my spine, leaving a wake of goosebumps.
Dread threatens to overwhelm me until I look into John’s eyes. The concern etched on every feature of his beautiful face gives me the courage to walk away from the peace and love my parents and my home offer.

Chapter
9

The only reason I am not overjoyed to be in the front seat of a cherry red Porsche 911 Carrera, with a boy who is probably the most fascinating person I have ever met, is that I am still so stinking confused. “Nice car,” I mutter, thinking what an incredible understatement it is but hoping it fits with the small talk we are continuing to make.

“Yeah, my dad’s way of apologizing for moving me senior year.”

Rubbing my hand along the tan leather and breathing in the scent all luxury vehicles seem to come standard with, I say, “You didn’t mention this in your sob story the other day, you wouldn’t have come out looking quite the victim if you had mentioned an $80,000 car.” His backers must have deep pockets.

“Well, it is an older model and used so we got it cheap.
Besides, my dad thinks it will be easier to keep track of me in a flashy car.” He raises his eyebrows, and cocks his head, confirming he is definitely being tracked…As if I couldn’t figure that out from the chip in his shoulder! The trees buzz by in a blur of green, burnt orange, and cranberry red. It would be hard to miss this car speeding down the highway.

“Do you want to explain about Ashlynn?”
I ask, figuring he might as well answer for his sins if he is going to ruin my life anyway.

“Nothing to explain,” he start
s shaking his head vigorously, letting me know he didn’t really mean what he was saying. “I told you I wanted to see where kids hang out around here. When you weren’t interested, she was more than happy to oblige.”

Somebody start explaining things to me!
Here I am, a mobile Chernobyl, and I feel powerless and completely in the dark. We continue to make small talk, he asks what my favorite kind of ice cream is (Ben and Jerry’s S’mores); I ask his (Chocolate Cookies and Cream); favorite color, food, movie. All the regular things teenagers might talk about while getting to know each other.

Between the car, the conversation, the gorgeous guy and the perfect fall weather it would be a dream date.
Of course the fact I just destroyed a perfectly innocent sink with my shimmering hands of doom and my date had a tracking chip surgically removed from his body has a way of dampening the situation.

We get to Main Street Station, what passes for a mall in Painted Rock, and John bypasses some great parking spaces r
ight up front for a spot midway down a lane slightly off to the right. He gets around and comes over to open my door for me. I guess chivalry isn’t dead. As I lean to get out of the low riding vehicle, he offers his hand. “I’m good,” I say, glaring at him. Yes, I get it, you aren’t afraid to hold my hand. If you only knew!

We enter through the archway that marks the beginning of the “mall.”
Main Street Station is actually a section of old Main Street that is blocked off from traffic with storefronts on both sides. Quite a few of the stores are in original old houses, stores and even a saloon. Newer additions have been added to make one long solid row of stores on each side. The third store down on the right is one of my favorite.

The Ice Cream Shoppe
with its yellow lettering and wooden motif is exactly what its name advertises. Although not as generic as the name, the inside is exactly like an old time ice cream/candy shop. I have always loved it and given that it is a gathering place for high schoolers, it has managed to survive an economy as potentially stagnant as Painted Rock’s. John, not to be dissuaded, puts a hand lightly on my elbow and steers me to The Ice Cream Shoppe.

Struck by the warm wave of waffle cone scented air, I can’t help but take in a deep cleansing breath.
Lexi waves to me from a booth in the back as soon as we walk through the door. I look to John, but he just waves casually back. He doesn’t look surprised, “Did you know they were going to be here?” I ask suspiciously.

“Had no idea,” he deadpans back.
“What great luck, though, it will be great to hang out with them.”

John starts scanning the menu plastered to the wall behind the counter, deciding what to get.
No need for me, my parents and I are regulars here and Gil, the owner, doesn’t even have to ask. “Better make it a double tonight, Gil. I’m starving.”

Gil scoops out his homemade S’mores ice cream and passes it to me with a wink and a smile, “Just don’t overdo it, Sweetheart.”

Smiling at our inside joke, I leave John to deal with the bill.
It is the least the Porsche driving traitor can do! My hand trails down the counter, dropping to the faux leather swivel seats lining it as I head over to Lexi and wiggle my way into the booth. The high back and overstuffed cushions wrap me in a sweet and safe cocoon. Nothing can hurt me here; surrounded by friends and childhood memories.

The feeling passes when
John takes his seat next to Jake. While still unable to comprehend what he is to me and how he figures into my life, I can’t hate him...I don’t want to like him.

“What are you guys doing here?” Lexi asks as soon as we are all seated, but she doesn’t wiggle her eyebrows, wink or any of her normal antics to egg me on.
This is definitely not a coincidence. The light that normally shines so bright from her eyes seems muted and sad.

“
First date,” John answers for me.

“Be careful,” Jake says while punching John in the shoulder, “if you feed Paige her favorite ice cream right off the bat, you aren’t saving much for later!”

Everyone laughs at his attempt at a joke but it all feels forced, rehearsed. Lexi picks up the conversation, “Do you remember when we came here after Kindergarten graduation?”

I moan at the memory
and the source of my joke with Gil, “Let’s not talk about this, I’m eating.”

“No, please, I don’t want to be the only one left out of the story,” John makes a circular motion with his spoon to encourage Lexi, not that she needed it.

“We came here to celebrate. My dad promised us we could have whatever we wanted, but he never would have dreamed Paige would ask for a triple in a waffle cone.”

“I’d never gotten to choose whatever I wanted before, I wanted to make it good,” I interject, trying to justify what I know is coming.

“Paige gets a scoop of bubblegum, a scoop of cotton candy, it was blue, and a scoop of birthday cake. As soon as Gil gave it to her she started chowing down. Everyone told her to slow down, but she ate it like she was afraid someone was going to take it away from her!”

“I was
! Did you see my mom eyeing me the entire time? The only reason she didn’t take it was because she didn’t want to hurt your dad’s feelings.”

Lexi laughs and continues, “As soon as she gets done she starts to turn green.
Her mom tried to get her to the bathroom in time but failed epically!” Paige points to a spot about four feet away from the restroom, “Right there is where our sweet Paige gave Gil everything back.” She starts laughing hysterically and tears appear in her eyes. She laughs for a while longer and wipes at the tears on her face. It could be my imagination, but they don’t appear to be tears of joy.

“I don’t think Gil appreciated my return,” I try to turn the attention away from Lexi so she can compose herself a little bit.

Jake finishes up his ice cream, “I am so glad I wasn’t here for that one. Paige I think that may be the only life event of yours that I actually missed. It has been the three of us forever!”

Why does this feel like good
-bye? “It has, I appreciate you putting up with me…I know it hasn’t been easy as you guys have gotten more…intimate?” Jake turns red and it is John’s turn to punch him in the shoulder.

“Well, if I have my way,” John turns his eyes to me, “It will be the four of us and we can make Paige uncomfortable with some intimate moments, what do you guys think?”

I can’t help but blush, even though I know he doesn’t mean it, and when Lexi bumps my shoulder my heart breaks for the private jokes we won’t be sharing any more. I know things are changing and Lexi does too. Whatever part of John’s master plan gave me these few moments with her I am thankful.

We finish up our ice cream and make our way to John’s car.
Right outside the ice cream shop Lexi jumps on Jake’s back for a piggy back ride. Jake runs her in circles until she begs to be let off. She runs back to me and slides her arm easily through the crook in my elbow. It is her favorite way to walk with me.

As we approach John’s car, Jake lets out a long whistle of appreciation.
“You are kidding me, dude. This is your car?”

“Yep, do you like?”

“No, I love!” Jake runs his fingers lovingly over the rear bumper. “Can I drive it?” he asks hopefully.

“Absolutely, just don’t get pulled over.
My dad will kill me.” John tosses his keys to Jake, who catches them easily. Jake isn’t surprised that John is letting him take his car. In normal circumstances he would be jumping up and down and peeing himself. This is definitely part of the plan.

Lexi passes her keys to John, “You can take mine, I’ll bring Jake back for his later.”
She pulls me in for a tight hug, “I love you,” she whispers in my ear.