Becoming A Butterfly (The Butterfly Chronicles) (6 page)

“
Hey, Lacey,” he said, as if he were bored to death.

“
Hi, Chase,” I said, digging my hands into my hoodie pockets.

“
Meeting your friends for a movie?” We stepped up onto the sidewalk together.

“
Kind of.” He nodded and kept pace with me. We walked to Henry, and he smiled recognition.

“
Hey,” he exclaimed as he and Chase did a fist bump. “What are you guys doing here?”

“
Catching the latest Staten movie; it’s going to kick ass!” Chase answered, more animatedly than I’d ever seen him.

“
Me too. I’m just waiting for my date.” Henry looked at the clock again.

“
About that,” I interjected quietly. They both turned their attention to me as if only just noticing that I was still there. I continued, “Farrah wanted me to tell you she was sorry, but she couldn’t catch a ride up.” I avoided all eye contact.

“
Oh. Why didn’t she just text me?” Henry asked.
That was a good question.

“
I’m not sure. Maybe she was embarrassed; she just asked me to come over here and tell you,” I answered—too fast.

“
Well, since we’re all here, let’s just go in and enjoy the movie,” Chase said, opening the door.

“
I wasn’t going to stay,” I said, looking for my escape to the parking lot. I had only planned to tell Henry and go back home. There was a tub of Ben and Jerry’s late night snack with my name on it. “But you guys enjoy yourselves; do some male bonding or whatever you guys do during action flicks.” I took a step backwards.

“
No, it’s OK. I think company is just what ole’ Henry needs since his girl stood him up,” Chase said, patting him on the shoulder. Henry blushed and looked down at his shuffling feet. Then he looked up at me through his long bangs, which he brushed to the side, only to instantly fall back in his face.

“
Sure.” How could I resist those eyes? He smiled a sad smile, and we followed Chase inside. He walked up to the ticket window and said, “Three tickets for
Stolen Artifact
, eight p.m. showing please.” Henry and I both objected immediately, but he held up his hand, his eyes on me, and said, “I think I’ll get my money’s worth.” We went to the concession stand. I bought a coke and small popcorn, which were huge, and I had a hard time balancing. Chase grabbed my popcorn and led us to the theater. It was a large theater with comfy seats. We followed him up the stairs, and he paused in the middle.

“
This looks about right.” He nodded and walked down the aisle. Henry held his hand out to me, and I reluctantly followed Chase. When we sat down, I realized I was smack dab in the middle.

I turned to Henry and asked, “Do you want to trade me spots?” He looked at me, confused, then simply shook his head. I eyed Chase, contemplating asking him, but there was no way I wasn’t going to sit by Henry, guilty conscious or not. Chase gave me a tight smile, winked at me, and settled in with my popcorn. I slouched back, put my Con’d feet up on the seat in front of me and leaned away from him toward Henry. The lights lowered as the trailers began. Chase passed me my popcorn, and I began nibbling on it. We watched a trailer for a horror movie, and I jumped at the last minute when a buzz saw jetted across the screen. Both Chase and Henry chuckled under their hands, and I shrunk deeper into my seat. Chase leaned over, dug out a handful of popcorn, and said, “It’s supposed to scare you. That thumping in your chest means you’re living.” I just stared at him. He flicked up his eyebrows in amusement, smiled, and leaned back as another action movie trailer began. This was going to be a long night.

I found my mind wandering as the plot was playing out. It was a typical bad guy kills secret agent’s family and frames the secret agent, who seeks revenge. This was along with an ancient artifact, the key to clearing his name. It was a little overacted, but I didn’t mind seeing Jason Staten without a shirt, but I digress. My mind wandered, and I imagined what would have happened if I hadn’t been such a chicken. Chase would probably be sitting where he is now, but Henry and I would be sitting closer to the top. I turned around and looked longingly at the corner seats in the last row against the wall. I might have even been brave enough to hold his hand, but here I was sitting between the two of them—Henry with his arms crossed leaning away from me, and Chase putting his hands in my lap every few minutes. Did this kid know nothing about personal space? I tried to pass him the popcorn; he was clearly enjoying it more than I was, but he held up his hand like he was through. As soon as I put it beside me on my seat, his hand was grabbing from the bottomless bag. After each fight scene, they would reach across me and high five each other, like they had something to do with it. They weren’t the only ones doing that either. Apparently this movie’s only demographic was boys between the ages of thirteen to seventeen. There were maybe three girls in the entire theater counting me, and one of them had managed to distract her boyfriend successfully. The other girl looked as bored as I was. The movie didn’t end soon enough.

The three of us walked casually toward the parking lot. We stopped just a few cars away from my dad’s. With his hands in his pockets, Chase nodded toward another aisle, and said, “I’m over here; I’ll see you guys at school on Monday.” We smiled and waved. Henry ruffled the back of his hair and looked at the ground for a minute.

“
Can I hitch a ride home? Byron dropped me off earlier. I could call him, but I figured that since we were neighbors and all…” I just stared at him a moment. I hadn’t even thought that he might need a ride.

“
Yeah, just wait here a minute; I have to clean out the passenger seat.” He nodded, and I ran to the passenger side of the car. I dropped the wig in my purse and put my shrug on top of it. Luckily, there was an old McDonald’s bag that I grabbed and carried around the car. I dropped it and my purse in the back seat. We drove most of the way in silence.

“
Sorry about Farrah… again,” I said, watching my mirrors too closely.

“
It’s OK. It happens.” He leaned against the door, and stared straight ahead.

“
She likes you, though,” I said softly. It was easier to admit it for someone else than for me.

“
I like her, too.” He slowly grinned.

“
Why? You don’t know her.” His grin faded, and our eyes held each other for a long moment.

“
I’m getting to know her. She’s funny and smart and says what she thinks and what she feels. You could learn something from her,” he said tensely.

“
You don’t know me,” I said, as I pulled up to the red light.

“
Because you put up all these walls and sit in your corner judging everyone.” I just stared at him, and he returned my frosty glare.

“
This is not happening.” I exhaled and looked down at my hands at the bottom of the steering wheel.

“
The light’s green.” I gunned it. I could not get home fast enough.

When I walked through the front door my parents were in the great room watching a romantic comedy. I went up to my room where Jade was on the computer, and Tasha was reading a magazine.

“
Farrah’s been busy,” Jade said, as she scrolled through the news feed.

“
Not busy enough, and it was a misdate if I ever saw one.” I had texted them once it was decided that I would stay for the movie. They went into Farrah mode online, posting and making her busy. I proceeded to tell them about my uncomfortable evening and disturbing conversation with Henry on the ride home, ending with “He hates me.”

“
Reality Bites
then,” Tasha said, rising and going to my media cabinet.

Chapter 8

Henry avoided Farrah the rest of the weekend even though I sent him a long message after Jade, Tasha, and I came up with a plausible excuse for why she couldn’t come up from Columbus. We ended it with Farrah confessing that she felt too much pressure to be this perfect girl that she hardly was and that she just needed a little more time. I didn’t sit around waiting for him either. I had a history report on my favorite decade of American history due the next Friday. I had gone through two rough drafts and had one more round of grammatical edits before I was ready to type up my five-page paper. I spent most of Saturday avoiding it and watching a
Jersey Shore
marathon. Sunday evening, as I was finally ready to begin my edits, my computer dinged. I smiled as I brought up the screen, confident that Henry was ready to talk to me. It wasn’t Henry.

Chase Livingston: Hey Farrah.

What did he want?

Farrah Leevar: Hi.

Chase Livingston: So you go to Columbus East High School?

Farrah Leevar: Yeah.

Chase Livingston: I used to go there. Go Olympians
.

I could almost hear his voice, dry with sarcasm.

Farrah Leevar: I like it. New this year.

Chase Livingston: Do you have Mr. Chestney for English class?

Farrah Leevar: Yeah, he’s all right.

Chase Livingston: Really? Because he teaches earth science at the middle school.

My heart pounded in my ears. I quickly Googled the school, and he was right. I searched through the directory.

Farrah Leevar: Sorry, I thought you meant Mr. Charles.

Chase Livingston: Nice try, Lacey.

If my life were a movie, this would have been when the camera zoomed in closely to my terrified eyes.

Farrah Leevar: What do you want?

Chase Livingston: What makes you think I want something?

Farrah Leevar: If you didn’t, you would have broadcasted it to the school already; and not IMed me.

Chase Livingston: Good point. Meet me behind the bleachers, free period, tomorrow.

I avoided Chase as much as possible at school the next day. If he was coming down the hall one way, I turned and went the other. I hadn’t had a chance to tell Jade or Tasha about our conversation. I just had to find out what he wanted. At lunch I didn’t have an appetite or enjoy the usual banter. Finally, free period came around. I put on my favorite hoodie and zipped it; I pulled the hood up and made my trek to the bleachers. I saw him leaning against one of the posts as I approached.

“
So, I’m here now. What do you want? I don’t have all day.” I put on my best bad-ass attitude.

“
Word on the street is you’re really good with computers.” Chase did not seem like the kind of kid who said “word on the street.” I felt like I was in some old private eye movie.
“Now see here, sonny.”

“
Get on with it?” I rolled my eyes at him, matched his lean, and tried to look bored.

“
I have a band with some friends of mine from Columbus. We recorded a demo, but I want it mixed; and our website needs updated and maintained.”

“
Website I can help you with, but I don’t mix music.”
Who did he think I was? OK, for that matter, who did he think he was?

“
That’s the deal: my silence for our demo mixed and website updated. Or I tell the world who you are,” he countered.

“
I don’t know anything about mixing. It’s not like I don’t want to help you. I can’t.” He ignored me, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a flash drive.

“
This has our music and the program to mix it. There’s also a doc with all the info of how I want the songs ordered and other deets. You’ve got a week.”

“
A week isn’t long enough; I have a history paper due Friday, work, and I do have a life,” I declared.

“
Two lives actually.” He turned and walked away, leaving me staring after him with my mouth hanging wide open. I would have rather paid him off than have to do this for him.

When I got home my mom was rushing for the door, her purse in hand. “Where are you off to?” I asked, surprised to see her home at that time.

“
I have to take Lana to the eye doctor, and we’re late,” she said as she turned to the stairs and called, “Lana, come on.” They were so worried about her vision since mine was so poor. Luckily, she didn’t inherit the same genes of a great-great-great grandfather who was blind as a bat. She stomped down the stairs.

“
You are not wearing that out.” My mom’s eyebrows crinkled as she surveyed Lana’s short skirt and belly shirt. She was wearing stuff like that a lot these days.

“
Why not? I look cute!” she exclaimed.

“
You look like you’re trying to look sixteen, and even at sixteen I don’t think I’d let you wear that.” My mom pointed up the stairs. “Change, now.”