A Girl Between (18 page)

As soon as I got home from school, I took a shower and fixed
my hair.  I planned on visiting Ian, and there’s no way I wanted him to view me
in my total slob garb, at least not yet.  It would be sure to scare him off. 
Eve and my aunt weren’t around so I also removed that stupid neck brace thing. 
I got ready quickly because I didn’t want to bump into Aunt Amy or Grandma
before I left.  The minute I was done, I hopped on my bike and took off.

I tried not to feel too nervous on the way over.  I might
run into James and I presume that he hates my guts after what happened.  Not
that I cared about that, but I know he’ll eventually want pay back.  I’ll have
to be extra careful around him.

I was also wondering about Ian.  He was looking out the
window at me the other night and he probably had a few questions for me.  For
example, he may ask me if I caused his brother to be hit by lightning, or, did
I hurt his dear friend Tonya?  He may also ask me how I can roll electricity up
into a ball, or, did I pull lightning out of the sky?  Those are all distinct
possibilities.  Breath in, breath out…. I tried to calm myself down.  This line
of thinking isn’t helping.  Maybe I should turn right around and go home. 
Unfortunately, I’m in Ian’s front yard so that’s no longer possible. 

I made an attempt to smooth out my hair as I walked up the
steps to his house.  Just as I went to ring the bell the door swung open. 
Phew…, it was Mrs. Miller.

“Why, hello, Tess.  How are you?” she said with a kind
smile.

“I’m OK.  How are you, Mrs. Miller?” I responded politely.

“I’m fine.  Sorry to startle you.  I was just leaving.  If
you’re here to see Ian, he’s in the family room playing video games.”  Then,
she added with her eyebrow raised, “It’s good that you came, Tess.  He’s really
going crazy just sitting around.  He’s acting as if he’s been locked in his
bedroom for weeks.”

I smiled. “I was going to ask how he’s doing.  It sounds
like other than extreme boredom, he’s doing OK?”

“Yes, he’s on the mend.  He’s lucky that you’re here to
cheer him up so you can just head on in.  Follow the hallway, go through the
kitchen and turn left.” Mrs. Miller waved at me as she strode off.

I proceeded down the hallway when, suddenly, a door on the
right flew open.  James came out.  I obviously startled him because he looked
surprised for a minute; he just stood there and gaped at me.  He was a shocking
sight because he looked so ridiculous.  He had two black eyes and a bright red
mark, maybe from a burn, right on the tip of his nose.  His hair was completely
gone (fried, perhaps like Tonya’s?) and his head was totally shaved.
Unfortunately for him, he was the kind of guy who was great looking when he was
in full possession of his thick wavy brown hair, but no more.  I’m sure that
was one reason he was so full of himself, he thought he was god’s gift to
women.  It was unfortunate for him that he had an oddly shaped head, because
when it was shaved it looked like a pointed dome.  Needless to say, a cone
shaped bald head is not attractive.  Plus, his eyebrows looked weird.  I think
it was because they were unevenly singed.  If he was wearing polka dots, he’d
look like he was working for the circus.

While we were standing there staring at each other, I could
feel a laugh bubble up in my throat.  Oh, please, God, stop me!  Suddenly, the
laugh burst out and turned into a loud giggle.  Once that started, I knew I was
sunk.  I put my hand over my mouth to try to smother the giggling but it was
hopeless.  It was like trying to stop water from flowing down a mountain.

James reacted with a roar of anger, “How dare you laugh at
me!”

“Ha, ha…, I’m sorry.  I can’t help myself,” I managed to say
before I broke out into full blown laughter.  I realized, too late that it was
a mistake to try to hold in laughter because when it inevitably got out it
would erupt.

James went at me with a look of rage on his clownish face. 
I STILL couldn’t stop laughing.  What the heck is WRONG with me?  I should have
a better sense of self preservation.  I backed up to the wall and cried, “You
stay away from me.  I’m sorry I’m laughing.  I’ll try to stop.”

He grabbed both of my arms and started shaking me. (I
should’ve listened to Eve and worn my brace.  This wasn’t good.)  He then
screamed, “This all is your fault.  I’m gonna break you, girl!”

Oh my, I think I’m in trouble.  I started to scream so he
put his hand over my mouth.  I clamped my teeth over one of his fingers then, I
brought my foot down hard on his instep.  He yelped in pain.  He lifted up his
arm to backhand me.  I turned my face toward the wall so that he wouldn’t smack
me right in the face. 

“What the heck is going on here?”  A voice shouted from the
other door.  James hesitated for a moment.  Could that be Ian?  I couldn’t see
because James was blocking me. Abruptly, James was pulled away.  It WAS Ian,
grabbing James roughly by his shirt.  Then, Ian proceeded to pummel James in
his face, chest and stomach with his fists.  James tried to fight back, but it
was really quite pitiful.  Ian was obviously a much better fighter than James
and he was in better shape, probably from all the construction work.   I knew I
should step in and stop it, and I will … really, I plan on it … soon.  I just
wanted to watch Ian punch him for another minute or two first.  THEN, I’ll stop
him.

Finally, I said, “IAN, you better stop.  You’re going to
hurt him.”

“Yeah, I know,” he replied, but he was pushing James against
the wall.

“I understand, but you have to stop.  Your mom would get
really upset,” I implored.

“Oh, yeah, my mom.  OK, OK, I’ll stop.”  Ian finally stepped
back.  Then, he glared at James who was on the floor and yelled, “What is WRONG
with you?  Why would you beat on a girl, especially on MY girl?  Are you THAT
jealous of me?  Get away from me you TURD!”

James actually crawled out of the hallway.  I stifled
another impulse to laugh.  What am I doing?  This is not a good time to laugh.

Ian came over to me and cradled my head against his chest. 
“Tessie, I’m so sorry.  I know my brother is a nut case, but I never thought
he’d attack you.  You wouldn’t think he was the older one.  I don’t know what’s
wrong with him.  He always wants anything I have and if he can’t have it he
wants to destroy it!” Ian leaned back and examined me closely. “Are you OK? 
Did he hurt you?” 

It was hard for me to concentrate while Ian was staring at
me with his intense blue eyes.  “No, not really.  I am glad that you got here
when you did though.” 

Ian leaned in and held me close for a few seconds.  His chin
was rough from not shaving and he exuded that great man smell, a clean, musky
woods and soap. (Why can’t they bottle that?) He lifted up my chin and put his
warm lips on mine.  He gently backed me up against the wall and held my head
between his hands.  Then, he pulled my head down on his chest and he tenderly
stroked my hair and my neck for a few minutes.  He finally stepped back so he
could look me in the eye, his hands lightly clasping mine.  He was smiling so
sweetly at me.  Oh, my, God!  Was that a rosy hue I see around his head?  It’s
so light I almost can’t tell if it was his aura or not.

Of course, I couldn’t just enjoy the lovely moment with
Ian.  I started thinking about the other night and how he was looking out the
window at me while the lightning was flashing and there were three bodies flat
out on his lawn.  What did he see?  I have to know.

“Ian, what happened to your brother?  He looks terrible.”

“You hadn’t heard about the lightning strike in our front
yard?  It was pretty weird.  I figured you may have heard about it at school.” 
Ian looked at me curiously.

“No, I haven’t heard anything.  Kids at school were talking
mostly about what happened at the Tri Town Fair,” I answered in a level tone.

Ian slowly nodded his head. “Yeah, I guess that would make
sense.  You know how we had ‘The Devil Dance’ going on Sunday night?” 

“What are you talking about?  What’s ‘The Devil Dance’?” I
asked.

“It’s when there’s pouring rain accompanied by extremely
loud and close thunder and lightning.  That picked up right around the time you
left yesterday,” Ian responded.

“Yeah, I remember.  It did start to pour right around then,”
I answered.

“Well, you know how I told you that Tonya and Red helped me
out at the Tri Town Fair?  I guess they were coming here on Sunday night to see
how I was doing.  Anyway, James saw them as he was heading out the door to work
so he talked to them in the front yard for a few minutes.  It’s a little weird
that they stood in the pouring rain during a bad electrical storm to socialize,
but I guess that’s what they did.  Anyway, lightning struck the ground right in
front of them.  I heard something so I looked out the window.  It was pitch
black outside so I couldn’t see a thing,” Ian exclaimed.

I tried to appear shocked.  “That’s so unbelievable!  What
happened to them?”

“They went to the hospital and stayed overnight for
observation.  The doctors were concerned about permanent heart damage but
they’re in the clear.  James, Red and Tonya all lost their hair from the
extreme heat of the electricity.  It burned their skin a little but,
fortunately, the pouring rain mitigated that.  They’ve all experienced some
skin bruising and temporary hearing loss.  Tonya called me today and complained
about her hair loss and constant headaches,” Ian remarked with a grimace.

“Why did your brother act so crazy to me?  Could it be
related?” I asked.

Ian answered in a tired voice, “I don’t think so.  Tonya and
my brother are like this.” He held up two fingers stuck together.  “I know it’s
nothing romantic, not that I care,” he noted, while glancing nervously at me. 
“You probably realize by now that Tonya doesn’t like you.  I presume it’s because
you had the courage to challenge her in front of others.  She’s not used to
being challenged, you know.  She’s used to having things her way.”  Ian looked
over at Tess with a wry smile.

“So you think that your brother doesn’t like me because of
Tonya?” I asked.

“That’s only part of it.  You heard what I said to my
brother earlier about him always wanting what I have.  He’s been like that ever
since I can remember.  Even as a kid, if I had a favorite toy, James would try
to take it from me.  If I stood up for myself and didn’t let him have it, he’d
manage to destroy it.  I’ve learned that if I want to hang onto something that
I like, I have to hide that fact from James.  If I don’t, he’ll eventually find
a way to take it for himself or destroy it.  Unfortunately, he found out about
you from Tonya.  That’s why I lost it with him today.  I don’t want him going
near you, EVER!!”  Ian said that with a quiet fierceness, looking me straight
in the eye.

I stood there, a sense of relief washing over me.  So he didn’t
see me in the front of his house.  It appeared that he didn’t see anything.  I
should’ve realized he couldn’t see me because it was so dark and he was in a
lighted room.  I was too freaked out to think clearly. Ian looked upset.  I
think it’s time to change the subject.

“Hey, can we go out for a little while?  I think you need a
change of scenery.  You’ve been stuck home for a few days.  How about we take a
short walk?” I asked.

“Actually, my mom said that I should leave the house for a
couple of hours today. She knows I’m going stir crazy. Why don’t we go out for
a burger and a coke?  I’m starving.”

“I would like that, Ian.  Can you throw my bike in the back
of your truck?”  I was thinking that it would be so nice to do something as
ordinary as going out for a burger and a coke.  I like ordinary.  I miss
ordinary.

It’s Tuesday and it’s storming again.  I’m so sick of this! 
Even the power at school went off for an hour today.  The teacher said that it
was because the wind blew a tree over some wires.  At the time we were watching
a really boring video in personal finance class on how to set up an individual
budget.  The outage came at the perfect time.  Everyone was starting to nod
off.

I did take note of the number of new students in school. 
Most of them seemed quiet, a good strategy as a new student.  A few were
definitely on the freaky side, though.  One girl came into my biology class
with a black hoodie enclosing much of her face and her body.  At one point she
turned her head and stared directly at me, a challenge in her eye.  I responded
with my stone-face look, giving her nothing.  Her eyes then receded to the
usual façade of teenage apathy.  I did catch a glimpse of dark eyes, pale skin
and weird sparkly flashes which I finally surmised was body jewelry.  She had
several body piercings on her lips, eyebrows and nose.  I have nothing against
body piercings, but there’s a limit.  It’s like she doesn’t want people to
really see her face or see what might be inside her.  Those sharp metal pieces
are saying, “F%# you.  Leave me alone or I’m gonna mess with you.”  At least
that’s how I read it.  Her aura was one of the strangest I have ever seen; dark
purple with black spots around her head.  The spots were shifting around erratically. 
I shivered.  She has a screw loose.  I’m not going near her.

There was another new person in my gym class that drew my
attention when he emerged from the locker room.  His head was shaved and there
were tattoos all over his arms and his neck.  Presumably, they were also
covering his chest and back.  Not very attractive.  I made a point to position
myself near him during the aerobic session so I could check him out more
closely.  Was that a swastika in his swirl of tattoo designs?  It was hard to
tell but it sure looked like it.  I also saw a nasty rat with gleaming eyes
crawling down his arm.  Who has a tattoo of a rat?  One sign that gave me the
creeps was a short cross with an X interspersed over it.  What was that?  I bet
Mercy would know.

Suddenly, he turned and stared at me.  Looking in his eyes
was like staring down a black hole.  I couldn’t see any pupils.  How could that
be?  Doesn’t everyone have pupils?  He turned back and relief flooded through
me.  I preferred that he didn’t take notice of me at all.  As we were jumping
along with the stupid aerobic stuff, I was feeling a headache coming on and it
was getting worse with every bounce.  My head felt like it was in vise.  I
raised my hand to get permission to go to the bathroom and the minute I got
there I splashed cold water on my face.  Phew, I felt so much better.  The
discomfort lifted as soon as I stopped jumping around in the gym.

I went back to the aerobics session (when is it ever going
to end?) near Tattoo Man and started hopping to the music again.  Wham!  That
pain hit my head like a sledge hammer.  This time it was accompanied by that
prickling sensation I get when someone is trying to communicate with me.  Was
that it?  Was Tattoo man messing with my head?  I certainly don’t think he’s
looking for conversation. 

I feel like I have to do something.  The pain’s getting
worse.  It reminded me of what Mercy did to Bully Boy.  I sure don’t want
someone to do that to me.  I had to act fast, so I went ahead with the first
thing that came to mind.  I “tripped” and smashed right on top of Tattoo Man. 
We both went tumbling onto the floor.

He hissed, “Get off of me!”  Then he proceeded to stand up
and brush off.  Surprise, surprise, he never bothered to help me up.

“I’m so sorry.  Sometimes I can be such a klutz!” I
lamented, smiling innocently at him as I scrambled up.  I looked him in the eye
for a few seconds while apologizing.  His eyes were still black, but I did see
pupils.  They were small and very dark, a gray/black. Maybe that’s why I didn’t
see them before.  I sensed nothing from his eyes.  It was like I was looking in
a void.  His aura was shades of gray/dark gray hovering around his head like a
heavy fog.  He was cold, detached, secretive and deceitful.

Mr. Fat head, the gym teacher shouted, “Everything OK over
there?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine,” I yelled back.  That awful aerobic
music finally came to an end.  I also realized that my headache had
disappeared.  Maybe it was the aerobics music that caused the headache.  Deep
down, though, I knew that it was from Tattoo Man.

Right after class I bumped into Mercy.  “Where were you?” I
asked.

“I had a doctor’s appointment and I just got back.  How come
you were in gym?  Couldn’t you get out of it?” She asked me, puzzled.

“Yeah, I guess, but I left my neck brace in my locker so I
just decided to go ahead.  My neck has been feeling fine,” I responded
defensively.

“Tess, you’ve gotta cut that out.  I feel like ratting you
out with your aunt.  She would be so pissed!”

I didn’t want to hear Mercy’s nagging so I immediately
changed the subject.  “So, have you noticed some of the new kids in school?” 

“I have, and that reminds me, there are some people I want
you to meet.  They moved into a farmhouse about a half mile from my place.  I
think you’ll find them quite interesting,” Mercy asserted.

“When do you want to go?  I’m available today and Thursday
after school.  I can’t go on Wednesday because I have a robotics competition at
Rockledge High School.  We’re leaving after fifth period and I won’t be back
till late.”

“You and that robotics stuff.  I can’t believe you’re into
that!” Mercy shook her head.

“You and everyone else.  I like tinkering with things.  What
can I say?” I shrugged. 

Mercy raised her eyebrows.  “It’s part of your unique charm,
Tess.  How about we drive to the Petrov’s place after school today?  I’ll check
with Dika in Spanish class to make sure they’ll be around.  My mom isn’t
working today so she’ll let me take her car.”

“I’ll meet you in the back lot right after school.  Gotta
go,” I added as the bell rang.