Falling: Chapter 1
angel: a typically benevolent celestial being that acts as an intermediary between heaven and earth
It was the last day of school before winter break, and since I’m a Catholic school girl, I get a nice long one. Two weeks, plus we’ll have off on the sixth of January for Epiphany, or Three Kings Day. The only bad thing about today was the fact that Sister Alicia turned the heat off early to save money and the classroom was actually frigid. I wished, for the first time, that I hadn’t talked my sister Lucia into hemming my skirt up three inches, just a little bit shorter than Immaculate Conception regulation allows. I have to make sure I shrug my shoulders up a little bit when it comes time to measure length. As long as my fingertips don’t go past the hem of my skirt, I’m fine. Lucia is always pissed about the fact that my arms are nice and short. My sister’s gorgeous, but she has the arms of an orangutan, so her skirts had always swished down near her knees. Not very cute.
So I was shivering a little in my gray and blue plaid, pulling my navy knee socks a little higher and wishing I had just gone with the tights today, when Sister Juanita announced that we were getting a new student and were expected to make him feel welcome. I smiled at my group of girls and we mouthed the word ’him’ back and forth to each other. The guys rolled their eyes, and I caught the eye of my newly ex-boyfriend Thomas Recchio. He had great blonde hair that he pushed together in the middle in a faux hawk (since an actual mohawk would never, ever fly at ICHS), and he had sexy eyes that were mostly blue, a little green, and always looked like he’d just woken up. He was on the school lacrosse team, and he was nicely muscled, had a nice smile and was overall a really nice guy. Why had I broken up with him? Probably because there was something wrong with me. I guess I just felt like I needed a change. Oh, and I hate the adjective ‘nice.’ The great irony is, Tommy Recchio wound up being anything but nice. But that’s another story entirely.
I had been traveling with the same group of kids since St. Monica’s Church Nursery School. There were actually pictures of Tommy and me in diapers, playing together. My life was claustrophobic. Newcomers were really rare in my world, and it was exciting to break up the monotony. Especially if the breaker-of-monotony was a new guy. Preferably hot. Cadence Erikson, my best friend and co-conspirator leaned over and whispered, “You’re going to get picked to show him around school. You‘re so lucky it‘s disgusting.”
“How would you know?” I hissed, then stuck my tongue out at her. I was December’s Student of the Month, on the High Honor Roll, president of the Student Council and a few other general goody-goody posts. On the outside I look like your ideal do-gooder Polish Catholic girl. Good thing the only one who knows the real me, the me who is about to explode out of my skin, is Cadence.
“Sister Alicia probably said an extra set of devotionals just for you today,” she said lowly. “You’re such a goody two shoes, it makes me sick.” She glared at me, but it was a good natured shot of hate, the kind only the best friend could give. Especially a best friend who knew about all of my bad behavior. Recently very bad.
“Macia Obejrzane?” Sister Juanita called.
“I hope he’s a hotty,” Cadence whispered to my back. Tommy’s handsome face crumpled into a glare. He had overheard us, and he wasn’t happy. I rolled my eyes at his pout. There is nothing in this world less attractive than a pouting guy.
I walked to the front room and used my best pious face, the one that let the world know that I was a good, upstanding, anti-rebel. The one I had to use to trick my parents and teachers and classmates, because our world was tiny, and I couldn’t afford for anyone to know the real me. Way easier to just keep up the pretense. “Yes, Sister?” My voice was all cheery and light, all good and totally untrue.
“Oh, Macia,” Sister Juanita smiled. She had a great smile. I wondered if nuns went to the dentist. Being in a Catholic school afforded me a lot of time to think about nuns and their lives, but didn’t offer many answers. Nuns were not people you just walked up to and asked about teeth cleanings. “Sister Alicia asked that you show our new student around. He’s from England, and so this will be more than just a new school. This will be a whole new culture. And he is going to be staying with his grandfather, Mr. Gledao who owns the deli on Nickel Street. Isn’t that near your house?”
It’s a small world in Lodi, New Jersey. Everyone knows everything about everyone else. But I put on a nice, clean smile and said, “It is. I’m glad to help him out.”
Sister Juanita smiled back that toothpaste commercial smile, then let me go. She didn’t even give me a green pass because Macia Obejrzane didn’t get stopped in the halls. My good record allowed me freedoms that I always appreciated. And totally took advantage of. Before I left the classroom, I noticed Tommy, his arms crossed over his chest, shaking his head with disgust, and I had to stop myself from flipping his books off of his desk when I walked past.
If I had to sum up why we had broken up, I could have done it with that look right there. Who was Tommy Recchio to decide what I did and didn’t do? When I had agreed to date him, which, I’ll admit, I was really happy about at first, I expected it to be fun. But he thought being my boyfriend meant that he got to tell me what to do. And not do. He started to give me this look all of the time, a kind of frowning, holier-than-thou look like he knew better than I did what length my skirt should be or how often I should see Cadence. It was bizarre, because I am not the kind of girl who lets someone tell her what to do, especially not some knucklehead like Tommy Recchio.
Not that we hadn’t had our fun. We did. Tommy wound up being a great at kissing and a few other not-too-naughty things. But even that became something he wanted to dictate. He was a little bit of a control freak, and, in the end, he just wasn’t very interesting. Dating him felt way too closed in, so I broke up with him. My parents thought I’d made a huge mistake. They liked Tommy; he came from a good family, he was a good Catholic boy and they’d known him since he was born. He’d been safe for them. And me, I guess. And then there was Jared.
I shook my head to clear my mind of all the wrong boys, all the mistakes I had been secretly making. Good think only Cadence knew my worst screw ups.
I walked down the cool linoleum halls, under the stations of the Saints. My favorite was Saint Anthony with the baby propped up on his shoulder and the newer Our Lady of Guadalupe, who appeared once the Puerto Rican population in Lodi spiked and new families started to tour the school. Seeing a saint you know and trust is like finding a penny on heads for any good Catholic, and it helped double our school population in just a few years. I trailed my fingers along the brick painted school blue and gray and hopped down the stairs. I glanced out the huge plate glass doors and windows to the harsh, snow speckled front yard. My heart thumped with my approaching freedom. I bit the inside of my lips, ready and waiting to be released.
But not yet.
Now there was a new student, and I had to introduce him to our tiny, rarely changing world.
I turned the corner and went up to Sister Alicia’s door, knocked, tugged my skirt down an inch and put on my best, brightest smile.
It didn’t last.
Looking back now, I could tell he was different the instant I saw him. And it wasn’t just how physically hot he was. It went way beyond hot. It went way beyond physical.
Sister Alicia called me into her room and then put her plump arms up on her desk and smiled. I could only see the back of new guy’s head. The hair he had was dark and cut into a Mohawk. A real one. That didn’t play at being bad. And from the collar of his shirt, there was the curl of a black tattoo. I felt the little quiver of happy excitement that bad boys always give me, no matter how much I try to tell myself they shouldn’t. As hot as he could potentially be, I was still standing in front of my principal. And a nun. So I had to stop drooling and play my part.
“Macia, it’s always nice to see you,” Sister Alicia said in the cardboard way that passed for nice in her book. “This is Elijah Strazar. He’s new to the country, and I’m sure you’ll be able to help him acclimate to the United States and Immaculate Conception.”
I had to smile at that, because in Sister’s eyes, the two were completely equal in importance. She hefted her round form up from her chair and waddled heavily to the file cabinet on the far side and took out some paperwork.
“Elijah, here is your schedule and all of the paperwork your guardian will need to sign.”
He took the papers from her hand with a quiet ‘thank you‘, then he turned his face up at me and smiled. I had an immediate memory of being at the beach as a little kid. All day, the sky had been gray and overcast. I was digging in the sand when the sun burst out, like it had ripped the clouds apart and smiled down on all of the people crowded on the sand who had forgotten there even was a sun. It was so warm and bright and just good that I realized how gloomy and cool it had been before. That was exactly what this boy’s smile did to me.
While I was basking in his strangely powerful light, I noticed that Elijah’s eyes were clear, light blue and they looked like round flames, constantly moving and flickering, framed by lashes too beautiful for a boy’s eyes. He had a nice square jawline and full lips. He looked almost beautiful, except he was so hard and guyish, ‘beautiful’ seemed too feminine a word. And any beauty was toughened by the metal in his face. He had two silver rings in his right eyebrow, a sliver hoop through the center of his bottom lip, and a sliver labret piercing. He flicked his eyes along my body, up and down slowly. I had gotten that look more than once, and it usually made me feel like taking a shower or smashing some smug guy in the mouth. But his look was different, somehow. Like he was trying to learn me instead of just undressing me with his eyes.
Immediately I felt my mind yelling, ‘No!’ Hadn’t I had enough boy trouble lately?
“I’m sure you’ll find us welcoming,” Sister Alicia huffed in a way that wasn’t really all that welcoming as she lowered herself back into her desk chair. “Macie, please take Elijah on a tour of the school before you go to the auditorium. We have some treats planned for the day. Some nice films.” Sister Alicia’s mouth moved up and down a little. It was supposed to be a smile. I knew that from three years of seeing her make that facial spasm at me and other golden students from time to time.
“Thank you, Sister. I’ll see you at Mass,” I said. Immaculate Conception had a special Christmas Eve Mass that every single student was expected to attend, and most of us did. I wondered if Elijah would be there. We left the office and didn’t talk as we moved down the hall to the nurse’s office. But I was a tour guide, so even though I felt strangely shy around this guy, I had to do what was expected.
“Macia?” he asked as he loped along beside me.
“Just Macie,” I said. “And you’re Elijah?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Nice to meet you, Macie.”
“How did you get away with the piercings?” I asked, feeling weirdly awkward. I loved the way he walked. It was kind of lazy and off center, like he couldn’t be bothered to straighten up and walk right.
“She told me that I have to take them out over break,” he said, and smiled a cocky little smile. I liked his accent. “You have any?”
“Just my ears,” I said, reaching a hand up to touch one pierced lobe. “And you have tattoos?”
He nodded, his hands shoved in his pockets. “A few,” he said. He laughed. “Maybe a lot. I don’t know. A few that cover a lot, I guess.” He shrugged.
And I remembered that this was a tour. And I had to unravel my sick mind from its slideshow of a near naked Elijah and all of his possible tattoos and get to the touring. “This is the nurse’s office,” I said, pointing. “She’s super strict, so don’t go see her unless you’re dying, or she’ll just send you back to class after a fifteen minute lecture.”
He smiled at me, and his teeth were so bright white they almost looked icy blue up close. “You’re afraid of the nurse?”
I laughed a little. “No. She’s never been mean to me. But you’re new, so who knows?”
“When we get back,” he said, “I’ll go down and see if I can get her to send me home. If I can, you need to try.” His eyes were glowing, bad sexy boy glowing.
“Why would I do that?” I asked, stopping in the deserted hallway and leaning against the wall. He put one big hand next to me and swung his body close to mine.
“So you can play hooky with me,” he said.
“What makes you think I want to play hooky with you?” I asked. “For your information, I have a boyfriend.”
“You’re lying,” he said, his blue eyes on my face.
“I don’t want to play hooky with you,” I smiled, liking how he smelled clean and kind of cold. Like mint and sharp cologne.
“Lying again,” he said, and now his face had dipped so close, I could have moved forward an inch and kissed him. I could see the heavy silver chain he wore around his neck and the outline of the crucifix under his white button down. I could also see the dark black outlines of more tattoos on his chest.
“Look, I’m not some freshman hoochie, okay? You’ll have plenty of them attacking you in no time,” I added. “If I want to skip school with you, I’ll let you know, Elijah.”
He smiled wider when I said his name and followed me down the flight of stairs that led to the teacher’s lounge and cafeteria. I was going to continue this tour if it killed me. My heart was beating fast. I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted to skip school with him. It was definitely a bad thing how much I wanted to do a lot of potentially very bad things with him.
“Will you be attacking me?” he asked. We walked past the vending machines and stacks of plastic chairs next to the wood laminate tables. All the usual cafeteria props.
My heart thudded at the obvious invitation in his words. He might as well have said, ‘Would you please attack me? Right now?’ “No, I won’t,” I answered breezily, not about to get involved with this hottie‘s games. “I’m no freshman hoochie, and you’re no good.”
I was about to lead him up the next staircase, to the gym and locker rooms, the next logical destination on our tour, but her grabbed my hand and pulled me to the wall of windows on the far end of the cafeteria. His hand was warm and strong, but beyond that I felt a current run directly from his body to mine, linking us together with a wide loop of electric need. I felt a warm rush crush down over me, coating me in something sweet and hot and right. I had never felt this way with anyone else, and it was such a shock, I couldn’t back away. He pulled me close to him and I felt dizzy and hot while his blue eyes raked over me.
“Why not?” Elijah asked and smiled, obviously well aware of what he was doing just holding my hands in his.
“Why not what?” I had lost track of our conversation, my head full of his warm hand on mine and the cold snowflakes dancing down and around the pines, and when I heard my voice, it was little bit like hearing myself talk underwater.
He turned and looked at me, his gaze piercing. “Why won’t you attack me, Macie?” he asked. “And why do you think I’m no good?”
I clawed through the drowning feeling, finally managed to smile and wiggle my hand away. Once we weren’t touching anymore, the relief to my senses was immediate. I was myself again, and I pushed away at the feeling of loneliness and regret that washed over me. “You couldn’t handle it if I did attack you,” I flirted. “And why I think you’re no good? Because I always like bad boys right away.”
“So you like me?” he said, and he ran his tongue over the ring in his lip. I wanted to do the same thing.
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter anyway,” I laughed. “You’re in a Catholic school, and our next stop is junior homeroom. You’re about to get swarmed by a dozen girls who are gonna be all over your tats and piercings and sexy ass accent; you’ll forget me as soon as we get in there.”
He laughed out loud and shook his head. I saw the flash of a silver tongue ring. “I doubt that, Macie.”
“You’ll see,” I sing-songed. I was flirting, but I was being good. I mean, I wasn’t doing what I wanted to, which was jumping him and ripping his shirt off and seeing what that tongue ring would feel like tangled with my tongue. “Locker rooms,” I said and pointed. “You play sports?”
He shrugged. “I can. I don’t much.”
“Well, everyone here plays,” I said. “You should pick a sport.”
“What do you play?” he asked, kicking a nearby soccer ball up into the air. He bounced it on one knee a few times, then the other, then went from his head to knee to knee.
“I play field hockey,” I said. “And sometimes I do softball in the spring.”
“Maybe I’ll try out for field hockey,” he said, bouncing the ball up onto his head and hitting it over and over.
“Girls only,” I said, making sure I did not watch him. Nothing irritated a show off boy like a girl who wouldn’t pay any attention. But Elijah didn’t seem to feel too bad about my ignoring him.
“I don’t know about that,” he said, bouncing the ball from his head to each knee in a complicated triangle. “I think I might be able to worm my way on the team. I look pretty hot in a kilt.”
“Alright,” I said, pulling myself up onto the cubbies outside the trophy display case. “Now you’re just showing off.”
He hit the ball off of his elbow and bounced it off his head then kicked it easily right back into place. “I promise I’m not,” he smiled. “Maybe just a little.”
“You better save it, Elijah. I’m telling you, there’s a room full of sexed up girls waiting to meet you.”
“Maybe I don’t want to meet them,” he shrugged, and pinned me down with those incredible eyes. “Maybe I like you.”
“How many times does a girl have to turn you down?” I said, and I was trying hard to keep the flirty thing going, but Elijah didn’t make it easy.
“I’m persistent when I see something I want,” he said, boxing me in between the wall and the solid muscles of his chest.
I felt a little shiver, and I wanted him. I could have just jumped my chance and spent the rest of the school day tangled up with the very bad, very interesting Elijah Strazar outside the locker rooms. But I didn’t. I used my head and backed away. I know what I like, what I’m attracted to. Trouble. So I shook my head and walked away fast, Elijah at my heels.
He finally did grab my elbow. We were just outside the hall from the weight room, and I was about to say so and shift the conversation in an entirely new direction when he touched my face, gently with his fingertips. All I could think of was sunshine, warm, radiant, sweet sunshine.
“I didn’t mean to offend you,” he said. He smiled at me, his hand on my face. “I like you, Macie. But if you want me to bug off, I will.”
I felt like I was under a spell until he pulled his hand away, and then the sun was gone and I felt like I had been dunked into freezing water. My eyes were wide, and I gasped my breath in. “Don’t bug off,” I said. “But no more hanky panky. This is a school tour, not a ride on the village bicycle. Okay?”
He put his hands up. “I won’t try anything. Promise.”
I gave him a friendly smile. “Thanks. I don’t need your help getting into trouble. I need to get through this vacation without anymore drama, okay?”
“I’ll be an angel,” he said, his smile wicked and sweet. “Friends?”
“Friends,” I agreed. I stuck my hand out and he shook, laughing and shaking his head as he did.
I kept the rest of the tour completely formal and on task. I didn’t want to think much about how Elijah made me feel when he touched me. It was not normal, but just how not normal was up for debate. Elijah seemed like he wanted to say something, but I didn’t encourage him. Frankly, I didn’t need any more irresistible looks or electric touches. Just a few more hours and I could put him completely out of my mind for two weeks.
By the time we got back to the class, Sister Juanita was telling everyone to line up and head to the auditorium (just past the gym) for a ’treat.’ ’Treat’ was a code word at Immaculate Conception, and it usually meant ’old black and white movie no one wants to see.’
Tommy was glaring at Elijah, and he was already talking lowly to his group of IC’s most popular guys. Great. Elijah didn’t have a chance.
“I’m putting my money on The Bells of St. Mary’s,” Cadence whispered when she slid next to me in line. Then she smiled at Elijah. “Hi,” she grinned, raising her eyebrows.
“Oh, Elijah, this is Cadence Erikson,” I said and winked at him. Cadence was already looking at him like he was something really delicious and she wanted a big bite.
Elijah winked back at me, his eyebrow rings glinting, turned on that megawatt smile, and Cadence giggled like the kilted Catholic school girl she was.
“Very nice to meet you,” Elijah said, shaking her hand.
“I like your accent,” Cadence said easily, checking him out from head to toe.
She was definitely interested, but didn’t seem to be mesmerized by him that way I had been. In fact, she was asking him about where his accent was from and he was chatting about life in England and anyone watching would have thought they were old friends. A few times he glanced my way, and I felt the hot rush of wanting something I did not need. At all. Especially with every girl in our radius flipping her hair and preening to get his attention. Especially with my ex growling and grumbling right behind me in line. I was actually looking forward to a long black and white movie.
We were about to sit in the auditorium. Elijah stopped for a minute, looking around as if he were a lost puppy. A lost mohawked, tattooed, pierced puppy. Yeah right. Elijah knew exactly what he wanted, and I wasn’t about to fall for his act. Tommy was making his way over to me, and I literally felt like my head was going to explode when Cadence threw herself into the mess and did what made her amazing; she manipulated the entire situation so it all worked out the way she wanted it to. Apparently she had a soft spot for bad boys with puppy dog eyes.
“Come here, Elijah,” Cadence said, grabbing his hand and mine and weaving us expertly through the growing crowds and away from Tommy. “Sit with us.”
“Macie, where are you going?” Tommy called, and I turned and was about to answer when I felt my hand get yanked.
Cadence glared and jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow.
“I’m sitting by Cadence!” I called robotically, not giving him any encouragement. We were about to sit, me, Cadence, then Elijah, when Cadence did some maneuvering and pretended to see someone she just had to say hi to. The row was filling up, and Cadence kept an eye on it until there was just room to scoot Elijah down one seat and sit on the other side of him. She looked at me pointedly and raised her eyebrows, and I tried to make the saying ’if looks could kill’ become a reality. Even though I was secretly glad to be right next to my too hot new crush.
Sister Alicia stood and began a long speech about the true meaning of Christmas and brotherly love and Christian charity, then sat down and let the movie roll.
“See,” Cadence hissed gleefully as The Bells of St. Mary’s flicked onto the screen. There was a low wave of resigned grumbles. Most of us slid our cellphones out and started texting, playing, surfing the web, or whatever other modern, non-brotherly love, non-Christian charity thing we could manage to do without attracting the attention of any of the nuns. Luckily, this movie was an actual treat if you were a woman of the cloth, so the sisters were pretty sucked in.
“You have one?” Elijah asked, pointing to Cadence’s iPhone. She was playing old school Tetris. Lucky brat.
I shook my head. “My parents are kind of old-school,” I said softly. “They let me get a phone, but it’s just a phone. It doesn’t even have a texting plan.” This was a safe conversation to have. This wasn’t a disturbance to my universe and nervous system. This was fine. “Do you have a cell?”
He shook his head. “I’m what you’d call a ‘po kid’,” he said. “I’m a scholarship student here.”
“Oh,” I said. I knew his grandfather, Mr. Gledao. He owned the deli that everyone I knew shopped at, but I wasn’t sure how much money he had. He lived in the same boring, neat little house down the street from mine ever since I could remember. His wife had been dead for years. I didn’t even know that he had any children, but they would have been my parents’ age, and if they had lived in England, no one would have known much about them.
“You like this movie?” he asked. My arm was on the armrest between us. Every now and then I bumped into his body when I tried to move.
“I actually do like it a lot,” I said, watching the pretty nun (they’re always young and oval faced and clear skinned in movies) ask for help for her convent. “It’s pretty peaceful.”
“It’s about angels, right?” he said.
“I think so,” I said. “Why?”
He looked at me, and it was strange how his eyes looked brighter in the dark. “Just interesting.”
“Angels?” I asked, trying not to sound as judgmental as I felt.
“Yes,” he said clearly, his eyes burning and flickering in his face. “I think angels are…interesting.” He smiled and his lip ring moved a little. I wanted to push my lips against that little sliver of silver. This boy, this rough on the edges bad boy, had a thing for angels?
I’ll admit that he was fascinating. Most guys at Immaculate (and, I imagined, in every other high school on earth) had a range of topics that included hot girls, fast cars, video games, sports and any bodily function or idiot riding his skateboard down an escalator that made them crack up. Tommy had aggravated me to death with endless YouTube videos featuring fat kids dancing and guys lighting their farts on fire. And Jared had only ever had one thing on his mind. The less chance he had of getting it, the more he seemed to obsess. Angels? Not even a remote thought in their minds.
“Like guardian angels?” I asked. I looked at the black and white screen at the front of the auditorium, surrounded by hundreds of flicking phone screens. The sisters sat up front, oblivious.
“Yeah,” he said, shifting in his chair. It was like he was waiting for me to say something else. His arm was close to mine. His cuff was unbuttoned and the sleeve rode up. His forearm was tanned, muscled, and had the telltale lines of more tattoos.
“Um, that’s cool,” I said and looked back at the screen, hoping Elijah would stop watching me with those sexy blue eyes. “You have pretty eyes.”
I closed my eyes as soon as I’d uttered those stupid, stupid words. What was I thinking?
“Are you hitting on me?” he asked, and his smile was so irresistible, I returned it.
“Maybe,” I said. “But most likely it was just a passing remark, Strazar.”
“The tool with too much hair gel? He your boyfriend?“ Elijah asked, his voice laughing around the word.
“He was my boyfriend,“ I said. I closed my mouth, sure that I didn’t want to say more. Then my tongue was wagging without my consent. “He and I dated for a few months after he asked me out. I think I was just flattered he finally asked. And I was curious.” Stop! Stop! Why was I telling him all of this. I mentally told myself to move away from the hot guy.
“Why did you split up?” he asked, his hand so near to mine it looked like it had to be touching. But I knew that it wasn’t because I didn’t feel that crazy spark of heat that went along with Elijah’s touch.
“I felt like he was never going to say anything that would surprise me,” I said, not even realizing what I was confessing. I hadn’t said this outright to anyone, not even Cadence or Lucia. “He was boring and not all that smart.” I paused, and would have stopped, but I figured, why bother? I had gone this far. Might as well tell someone how I really felt. “And the worst thing was, he felt like he had a right to tell me what to do. So even though he’s good looking and he got along with my family and we came from the same place, I dumped him.” I caught sight of Tommy’s head bent over his phone and felt the nagging urge to tell him off. Maybe I would.
Elijah looked at me for a long time. “Good for you,” he said. “There’s no reason to get tied down with a nimrod, especially if you’re smoking hot and smart.”
I laughed. “Are you hitting on me?”
“Definitely,” he said, and this time his pinkie brushed along my knuckles, and I felt those little flutters of heat and electric excitement.
“Thank you,” I said.
“I’m open if you want to ease your pain with me,” he said, and his cheek dimpled a little when he smiled. It was an adorable addition to his otherwise punk ass look. “You know, I don’t mind being your rebound.”
“It’s not likely. But, you have potential. I might just attack you sometime in the future if you play your cards right,” I said and we both laughed enough that the kids in front of us turned around. Not because we were disturbing the movie. Just because they were nosey asses. One of them was Tommy’s lacrosse buddy. I glared at him. Elijah held his finger up and twirled it around.
“Turn around and mind your damn business,” he said. They did and we giggled again.
And then it was like we were on the same team. Elijah let his fingers wander over mine, and before I knew it, we were holding hands. We didn’t look over at each other or even acknowledge it, but my heart was hammering like mad by the time the credits rolled. He pulled his hand away, and I felt a miserable sense of calm come over me.
We got up to leave. School was dismissed and we all filed out, walking back upstairs to get backpacks and coats. My first thought when I stood up was avoiding Tommy, but I also had someone else to keep my distance from now. I darted away from Elijah before he could pull me in with those freakishly beautiful eyes and his encouraging smiles. Talking to him was fun, and holding his hand had been strangely awesome, but it was too overwhelming to keep doing. I needed my freedom more than anything else. More, especially, than I wanted boy trouble!
“Why do I bother to bring a backpack home before any vacation?” Cadence asked, picking up her shiny black hair from under her pink pack. Two guys whistled at her as they walked by, and she didn’t even notice. Cadence is so pretty it’s almost intimidating, but it’s like she’s not even aware of how beautiful she is. “I never, ever do any homework. Why lug it home?”
“Leave it then,” I said, putting my blue one on after I had double checked the zipper. The thing broke on me at least twice a month, spilling books everywhere. But my parents insisted it was a good backpack, and I knew I wouldn’t get a new one until this one fell to shreds. My parents are basically great, but sometimes they’re just so weird I can’t even get a grasp on it.
“Can’t,” Cadence said, shrugging. “I have you as a best friend. I have to at least try to live up to your perfect behavior.”
“You know that’s not that hard,” I said, smiling.
“Well, I know that, but I have to trick the world right along with you,” she sighed dramatically.
“Are you working over break?” Cadence’s parents own this drive in restaurant where you can get food in your car and waiters and waitresses (mostly Cadence and whoever else will fill in) skate it out on rollerskates. I think it’s so cool. Cadence thinks it’s ridiculous and basically hates it. But she makes a ton of money. Enough to pay her monthly fully loaded iPhone bill with plenty to spare.
“No,” she said. “Mom and Dad are closing shop for the month. Everyone’s broke after Christmas anyway.” We started walking down the stairs. “So, Ms. Obejrzane, what’s up with you and the totally smoking hot new guy?”
“Elijah?” I snorted. I looked over my shoulder quickly to see if he might be skulking around. I was a little disappointed to see he wasn’t there. “He’s too hot. I can’t think about him. And he’s weird.”
We were outside now, and I was wishing more than ever that I had worn my navy tights, even if they did make me look like I was in middle school.
“Weird how?” Cadence asked, smoothing on some lip gloss and passing the tube my way.
I smeared some on my lips and gave the tube back to her. “Weird like he just says whatever he wants. Like he doesn’t care what anyone else will think or do. He basically came out and told me that he wanted to get it on and held my hand during the movie. And weird like he brings up weird topics.”
Cadence rolled her eyes. “That’s hot!” she gushed. “You want some phony asshole like Tommy again? You need someone who won’t put up with your crap. Someone who you can actually talk to, Macie. You need to have someone your speed. Tommy was a dunce and Jared was just bad news. This might be a good thing.”
“I don’t want any interest,” I muttered, kicking at some dirt clumps showing through the building layers of snow on the ground.
“That’s a lie,” she said. “Trust me, I would have hit on him in a hot minute, except I saw how you were looking at him. You like him.” She craned her neck to look at me face. “Oh my God! You do like him! Admit it!”
I punched her arm. “Shut up, Cadence!” I looked over my shoulder again. Elijah was supposed to live right by me. Did he know the way home? Where was he? “How could I possibly like him? I’ve talked to him for, like, twenty minutes. Not exactly long enough to fall in love.”
“Oh, it’s long enough,” Cadence said like she knew. Cadence is unbelievably pretty, incredibly funny, totally smart and very hard working, but most of her relationships can be summed up in four words; flings with dirt bags.
“Don’t you have to go home now?” I asked pointedly. We were at her street, two down from mine.
“You don’t want me to come over?” she asked, her hair whipping around her face in the growing wind.
“No.” I shook my head to make my point. “No way. I don’t need you and Lucia ganging up on me. I’ll call you later,” I said.
“Fine!” she called, heading down the street to her house. “Lovergirl!”
I walked a few feet before I got that creepy feeling that means only one thing; someone was following me. It was broad daylight, there were tons of people everywhere, I was almost home, there was nothing to worry about. So why was I so worried? It was probably Tommy. He hadn’t taken our breakup well, and he was being unusually mopey and possessive lately. I really didn’t want to talk to him.
I moved faster, trying to keep ahead of my pursuer, but every few feet I moved forward, he gained on me. Finally I turned to scream in his face and ward him off.
And crashed into the surprisingly hard wall of Elijah’s chest.
