A Proscriptive Relationship (8 page)

“
I’m hungry,” I complained after we walked a loop around the fair once to see what was there. “I’m going to eat.”

“
I’ll come with you,” Lance offered.

“
Casey, are you coming?” I asked, turning towards her.

She shook her head. “Willis is meeting me by the Ferris wheel and we’re going to go on with Sadie and Sam.”

“
A date on a Ferris wheel, huh?” Lance said, laughing. “Have fun.”

“
I will!” she responded with a wave. “See you guys later.”

“
Bye,” I responded, waving back.

Lance and I headed back towards the food stands, navigating the throngs of people congesting the area. We passed a large line at the fried dough stand, and a considerably smaller one for the fried Oreos.

“
What are you going to get?” Lance asked, narrowly avoiding bumping into a giggling couple.

“
Baked potato,” I responded immediately. “They’re basically the only reason I go to fairs.”

Lance laughed. “Okay, with everything on it?”

“
Yeah,” I responded. “But I’ll buy my own.”

“
Don’t worry about it, I got it,” Lance responded, heading over to the vendor. “Think of it as repayment for lunch money I’ve borrowed from you.”

“
You’re going to have to buy me like fifty potatoes then,” I responded with a laugh.

“
Shut up and go sit down,” Lance ordered, shaking his head and grinning.

Throwing another smile at Lance, I turned and followed his orders. A few minutes later he appeared, sitting down across from me with two baked potatoes. He placed mine in front of me and handed me a fork.

“
Thank you,” I responded, stabbing my fork into it immediately and taking a bite. I exhaled quickly, the potato burning my mouth. “Hot!”

Lance laughed. “Duh.”

Ignoring him, I continued to eat my potato, this time being more wary. After a few moments I glanced back up at Lance and noticed him staring at something. I looked behind me and saw Sarah standing a few feet away with her boyfriend, Erik. I frowned slightly. Then it hit me.

“
Oh!”

Lance blinked and shifted his gaze to me. “What?”

“
You like Sarah?” I questioned, a smirk appearing on my face. It definitely made sense! Lance had said that the person he liked couldn’t like him back—and Sarah had a boyfriend.

“
What? No,” Lance responded sounding confused. “Why do you think that?”

“
Weren’t you just staring at her?”

Lance shook his head. “I was just looking.”

I frowned. “Well tell me who you like,” I ordered, staring at him intently. “Casey’s not around, so it’s okay, right?”

Lance sighed, shaking his head again. “I’m not telling you.”

“
Why not?” I whined. “Aren’t we best friends?”

“
It’s not something I can tell you,” Lance responded, frowning. “And I already told you it doesn’t matter because she won’t like me back or date me.”

“
Everyone likes you,” I responded rolling my eyes. “And I already told you anyone would date you.”

“
Would you date me?” he asked, giving me a sarcastic look.

I laughed through my nose and shook my head. “No way!”

“
See?”

“
But that’s because we are best friends, Lance,” I told him, sighing. “It’s different with other girls.”

“
Nope. I can guarantee you she would never date me.”

I scowled at him. Why was he so pessimistic? “Well fine. If you want to be that way, I hope she never dates you!”

“
Harsh,” Lance responded with a grin.

“
Mhm.”

Lance suddenly stood up, looking around. “I’m going to go get a drink. Want anything?”

“
Pepsi,” I responded, putting my elbow on the table and resting my head on my hand.

Lance nodded and started walking back to the food area. I watched his back until he disappeared from my vision, leaving me to stare blankly at strangers as they walked by. There were a lot of couples out. One couple stopped right in front of me and started making out. Intensely making out. I looked away slightly disgusted and saw a familiar face.

Mr. Heywood was walking with two suspicious-looking men. One of the men had short, cropped blond hair, and the other had longer, brown hair. All three of the men  looked unhappy. The two on either side seemed to be holding onto him, grasping his arms tightly so as not to let him escape. I bit my lip. What were they doing? And where were they going? I stood up and decided to follow them. I looked around for Lance, but couldn’t find him. He was still off getting us drinks. Mr. Heywood was now beginning to leave my field of vision, so I muttered an apology to Lance and hurried after my biology teacher. I dodged people filing around me until I was close enough to keep an eye on them without being noticed. It seemed like they were heading towards the woods.

I followed as they left the tangled madness of the crowded path that led to the rides and  slipped onto a vacant path that led behind the rides, towards the forest. Now that there were no people to hide behind I waited for a few moments before getting any closer.  For some reason, I was getting a forbidding feeling, but I continued anyway.

I followed the three men for quite a while as they marched behind all the attractions. It was hard to keep up at times because of all the cords on the ground that were masked by the darkness, causing me to stumble over them. When the three men in front of me stopped I stopped as well, hiding behind the edge of the Ferris wheel’s support frame.

Voices carried back toward me and I held my breath tightly, trying to distinguish what they were saying. I strained my ears, listening as hard as I could, but I still couldn’t make out a word. They started moving again, into the woods, and for a second, I debated whether or not I should go after them, but I threw caution into the wind and hurried to catch up.

For at least ten minutes I matched my steps in time with theirs, so I could cover the sounds of crunching leaves I made with each footfall. There was this weird feeling in my stomach—just like the kind of anxiety I got before going on a roller coaster. I began to grow uneasy and I kept looking all around me warily. What if I ended up getting lost? Of if some animal came out of nowhere and attacked me? I swallowed, wanting to close the distance between the trio and myself, but knowing I couldn’t afford to do that. If I was caught . . . I didn’t want to think about what would happen. I had no idea who these people were. All I knew was that I was (annoyingly) worried about Mr. Heywood again.

The man with blond hair looked over his shoulder and I froze, staring wide-eyed at him, holding my breath tightly. He showed no sign of alarm, so I figured he hadn’t noticed me. He turned back to the front and shoved Mr. Heywood in front of him roughly. Then the same man put his head near the brunet’s head and I hazarded a guess he was saying something he didn’t want Mr. Heywood to hear.

The brunet nodded to the blond and suddenly started going to the left, leaving Mr. Heywood alone with the blond. The one leaving crashed through the forest, not caring about the amount of noise he was making. My gaze stayed on him until he was out of sight. When he was gone, I returned my attention back to Mr. Heywood and the other guy, realizing they were almost out of sight. I hurried after them, going through the woods as fast as I could without tripping.

Mr. Heywood and the other man entered a large clearing, and I stopped at the edge of it, hiding behind a conveniently placed tree. Its trunk was big enough to cover me and it had Y-shaped branches, so if I stood on the tips of my toes I could just barely see through the small hole it made. My eyes widened when I realized there were now two other men in the clearing, who stood in rigid positions, as if ready to attack. One of the men was completely bald—the same guy from the first night I’d met Mr. Heywood—and the other had long, shaggy red hair.

The blond one led Mr. Heywood over to the other two, both of whom were shooting daggers at Mr. Heywood, who meanwhile looked totally calm, his shoulders relaxed, a bored expression on his face. An idea suddenly hit me. Were these guys his old gang members? I took in a sharp inhale of breath. I thought he was joking when he said he was an ex-gangster! Had he been telling the truth? Had he seriously been in a gang?

“
You can’t leave just like that!” the bald guy suddenly shouted, making me jump in fright.

I held my breath and shut my eyes, straining to hear everything that they were saying. Mr. Heywood’s voice was a lot quieter and harder to make out. Whatever he was saying was incoherent to me.

“
The boss will be here soon, do you really want to deal with him?” the redhead demanded, sounding amused.

I opened my eyes and stared in disbelief. The boss? Did that mean the gang leader? Were they going to attack Mr. Heywood in the woods? Is that why they brought him all the way out here?

Mr. Heywood laughed loudly, the sound echoing slightly in the clearing. “He couldn’t beat me up in his dreams.”

My hands tightened on the tree bark. What was Mr. Heywood doing? Did he want to be killed? I stared at the four men, unable to pull my gaze away. How could Mr. Heywood stay so calm when the other three men were putting up such threatening fronts?

“
I wouldn’t be so cocky,” the other gangster warned, cracking his knuckles threateningly. “We dragged you out here for a reason, you know.”

“
If it was to assault me, I know,” Mr. Heywood responded calmly. “That’s why I came—because I was sure I could handle Twinkies like you.”

Unable to help myself, I snorted. Had he really just used the word Twinkies as an insult? The smile disappeared from my mouth when one of the gangsters swung towards Mr. Heywood without warning, but he took a step back, avoiding it was ease. A breath of relief left my lips.

The blond scowled. “What did I say about being cocky?”

“
I don’t remember,” Mr. Heywood responded mockingly, a fake frown on his face. “I’m sorry.”

Suddenly I felt a hand over my mouth. My eyes almost bulged out of their sockets and I took a sharp inhale of breath through my nose, my heart rate increasing significantly. I struggled in the grasp of whoever had me as an arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer to my captor. I struggled harder, terror filling my veins.

“
What do we have here?” a husky voice whispered in my ear. “A spectator?”

I froze up, my breath shaky. Was this one of the gangsters as well? I looked over my shoulder slightly, recognizing the brunet man from before—the one who had been with Mr. Heywood at first, then went off his own way. I tried to say something, but his strong hand muffled my words. The man yanked me away from the tree. My fingernails scraped against the bark, getting it stuck between the nail and skin as I tried to keep my grasp on the tree. I winced in pain.

“
It would really be bad if I let you loose and you told someone about what was going on here,” the thug commented, resting his chin on my shoulder. “We wouldn’t want that.”

I tried to bite his hand, but only managed to lick it. I made a face as he chuckled. “How did you know I enjoyed that kind of thing?”

I almost gagged. His hand moved to my stomach and my muscles tightened as he rubbed it gently. “You have such a flat stomach. And you’re pretty good looking too,” the thug commented in a thoughtful voice. “I bet we could have some fun with you.”

That’s when I snapped. I brought my head back as hard as I could, smashing it into his. He groaned in pain and I quickly shoved my legs against the ground, throwing us both off balance. The thug toppled over backwards and I fell with him. To save himself from hitting the ground full force, he let go of me, and I quickly rolled to the side and was on my feet in a matter of seconds. Thank god for adrenaline.

The thug flung out his arm, aiming for my feet, but I quickly dodged him. I made to run through the woods and back to the fair, but my eyes roamed to the clearing and I gasped. The bald man was creeping up behind Mr. Heywood, a bat raised high in his hand. The other two men were holding onto Mr. Heywood’s arms, keeping him faced away from the man with the baseball bat.

“
Mr. Heywood!” I screamed.

All four men in the clearing turned to me. My eyes met Mr. Heywood’s. He stared at me, half in horror and half in shock. The bald man moved in again.

“
Behind y—ah!” Something hard slammed into my side, cutting me off, and knocking me to the ground. I fell hard, and my breath was knocked out of me. My head landed on its side, facing towards the clearing. I watched as Mr. Heywood avoided the bat by an inch. I exhaled in relief, but it turned into a grunt as I suddenly felt pressure on my head.

“
Next time you try that, I’ll break your neck,” the brunet whispered. His body sat heavily on top of mine and his hand pressed my head into the ground.

Mr. Heywood looked at me for a split second, his face in a tight line. The thug with the bat raised it again while Mr. Heywood was still focused on me.

“
Mr. Heywood!” I screamed again, half in panic and half in annoyance at how he kept looking away from the enemy. He couldn’t be that stupid.

The pressure on my head increased and a groan escaped my lips. My vision went black for a moment, but before I could panic it returned. Mr. Heywood ripped his arms out of the two gangsters’ grasps, thrusting his elbow into the bald man. The thug dropped the bat and raised his hands to his face, swearing loudly. Mr. Heywood turned and swung his right fist at his head, striking him down.

My head throbbed as I watched Mr. Heywood turn to the other two gangsters, who were in fighting stances. Mr. Heywood swung towards the one on the right, who avoided it with a block and then the one on the left swung at Mr. Heywood, who dodged it, spinning, and sending his fist into the right one’s face. I watched, slightly impressed, slightly awed, and slightly afraid as Mr. Heywood proceeded to pummel the two gangsters.