Downcast (18 page)

Chad managed to catch Haley on the mouth with a swing that seemed rubber-armed compared to Haley's perfect strikes. Still, a trickle of blood appeared at the corner of Haley's mouth. He wiped it roughly with the back of his hand, stared at it for a moment, then launched himself at Chad.

"Always a flair for the dramatic," Zack snickered, watching with absolute calm, an almost detached amusement. "That was not necessary."

I barely heard him. I was too busy watching Chad and Haley swinging at each other. Chad's next two punches missed him, and Haley rounded on him, his face locked into a frightening, feral expression. Haley grabbed Chad by the shoulders and slammed his brow into Chad's. There was a sickening crunch, and when Haley let go, Chad fell unconscious to the ground.

Haley swiped at his lip again, slightly smearing the blood across his lip and chin, then swung around just in time to duck Matty's meaty fist. Long, lean Haley and the massive, muscle-bound Matty were such a mismatch that I would have laughed if I hadn't still been petrified by the whole thing.

Matty lunged for Haley with a roar, and Haley took the smallest step to the side and grabbed him, using Matty's own body mass and to throw him into the back of the beat-up Ford F-150 truck. Well, that's what it was supposed to seem like, but I was pretty sure that Haley had barely touched Matty, and that Matty had flown into the truck with far more force than seemed physically possible.

Staggering from the collision, Matty stumbled back toward Haley, swinging blindly, one eye swelling shut already.

"The whole Cyclops thing again?" Zack murmured.

"Excuse me?" I demanded.

"Nothing," he replied quickly, throwing me a reassuring smile. "It's all good."

I wouldn't be reassured. I saw Haley's fist strike like a cobra, biting into Matty's chubby face and sending him crashing to the ground like the fallen statue of Ozymandias.

There was a moment of breathless, stunned silence all around the crowd. How was this possible? How had Haley Smith just single-handedly beaten up three of the nastiest guys in school? He didn’t even look a little bit bothered or relieved by any of it.

Haley looked over at us. Finally, Zack went over to him and clapped him on the shoulder, then murmured something to him. Haley glanced at him and laughed before turning to find me. In half a heartbeat, his eyes were locked on mine, and all I knew was that there was no escape this time.

I stood rooted to the spot, not even really breathing, watching as Haley began to walk slowly and deliberately toward me, a triumphant and possessive smile breaking across his face. In a brief flash of vision, I saw what he was going to do, catching me up in his arms and...maybe kissing me, like a knight staking his claim to the damsel in distress. I could almost feel his lips on mine, the faint salty, iron taste of the blood on his lip, the way his arms would pin me to him.

My brain refused to even consider whether or not I still wanted to run away.

Mesmerized, I watched the slight swagger in his walk, the power, the ruthlessness, the dominance. He was only a few feet away when a tall figure in a suit stepped in and took him roughly by the arm.

"We need to have a talk, Mr. Smith," Mr. Applebee, the principal, announced grimly. The school nurse, coaching assistants, and lone security guard were already arriving on the scene to deal with the casualties.

The spell was broken on me, and I shook my head to clear it. Haley was being led away, but his expression was amused and calm. He gave me one last look back over his shoulder as if he was promising this was not over, and then he and Mr. Applebee disappeared into the crowd.

"C'mon, Steph," Zack murmured in my ear, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "You don't need to hang around here anymore."

"I'd like some water," I said stupidly. "Water. I'm really thirsty. I feel really warm. I feel weird. Warm. Water."

"I'll get you some," he said, though he frowned, anxiety etched into his features. "Let's get you over to Helen's car."

I was vaguely aware of the excited babble of the crowd, the exclamations of "No!" and "Oh my God!" and "No way!" I also heard snippets about "He's so hot!" and "I would totally die!"

I tried to block most of it out. My head was seriously starting to spin. I couldn't decide if I was suffering from a case of sensory overload or a case of way too many questions.

Helen met up with us at the car, her face white as a sheet, clutching her car keys to her chest.

"Hey," Zack said. "Can you open the door? I think she needs to sit down."

Helen ran around the other side of the car and opened the passenger door. Zack gently deposited me on the seat, my feet still hanging over the side of the frame and resting lightly on the ground.

"Thanks," Zack said to Helen, crouching down by me. "She asked for some water a minute ago. Can you go get some?"

"Why don't you?" Helen replied snippily, crouching down herself and trying to shove the brick wall known as Zack Smith out of the way—unsuccessfully. "I don't really want to leave her."

"I'll be with her."

"You're not her best friend. I am. I'm more responsible for her than you are."

"You'll be less noticed if you go get the water. Everybody's gonna be at me about Haley if I try to walk back to the building."

"I really, really don’t like you."

"But, you love my logic."

"Congratulations on being able to think straight. What do you want, a cookie or a medal?"

"How about dinner tomorrow night? As a Homecoming dance warm-up?"

"Um, that's not funny."

"I'm not laughing."

Helen stared at Zack with her best In Your Dreams Buddy look, while Zack turned the blue eyes and million-dollar grin on full blast. They were locked in their own mortal combat.

"Um, hello?" I croaked. "Dying of thirst here."

Helen released a dissatisfied sigh and started walking back to the school.

"Um," I began. “I know this is going to sound weird and everything, but, would you mind not pushing Helen’s buttons so much? She’s a really nice person, and she’s actually really kind underneath her attitude.”

“She’s amazing,” Zack said, still looking in the direction Helen had gone. “I’ve never met anyone like her before, and that’s saying a lot.”

"Driving her nuts won't get you any help in chemistry."

"I don't need help in chemistry."

"Just..." I trailed off, trying to find the right way to meaningfully threaten a gorgeous, popular quarterback. "Just know that Helen's under my protection."

Whoa. How did that come out? That sounded totally weird and completely unlike me. Zack stared at me for a long moment before breaking out a ridiculously happy grin and hugging—also known as squashing—me.

"Dude!" I whined into his chest with my last bit of oxygen.

"Sorry about that, Steph," he laughed. "I don't know my own strength sometimes."

That reminded me of something I had meant to ask him. It was another difficult question, but my track record with difficult questions and hard conversations had been improving lately. So, I put some more steel into my spine and let the inquisition fly.

"How is football season going?" I inquired in a cold, deliberate tone. I tried to pin him with my glare. I wanted to make him squirm then give me some answers.

"Great!" Zack exclaimed. "We're gonna kick some ass at Homecoming."

"It's too bad about Rob's injury," I said, glaring harder. "So funny how it happened, too. He was telling me about it."

Zack's eyes flickered for maybe 1/100th of a second, and I'm not sure I would have caught it if my eyes hadn't been so weird that day.

"Poor guy," Zack replied with such genuine pity that I almost bought it. Almost. “Hey, Steph, you mind turning down the heat from your glare? It’s making me a little uncomfortable.”

I glared harder.

“Seriously. Look I didn’t have anything to do with Rob’s injury if that’s what you’re implying. We were just tossing the ball back and forth. Now, quit with the laser beam eyes”

Staring Zack down, a million little things clicked into place in my brain, and I finally acknowledged that something big was going on, that some great mystery lay tangled between Zack, Haley, and myself. For proof, I had all the lies, and even worse, all the truths.

"What's going on, Zack?" I asked quietly. "Football practice. Whatever you did to the lock on my locker. Whatever Haley did to the metal of your locker with his bare hands. The way Haley fought. The fact that you and Haley can see my eyes are different, but no one else can. I want some answers, and I think you have them."

He paused, clearly considering his answer. Finally, he smiled and said, "I do. But so does Haley. I think it's time you asked him."

I closed my eyes to keep from really shooting angry laser beams out of them and burning Zack to a crisp.

Helen came running back toward us, a water bottle in her hand.

"You okay?" she asked breathlessly, thrusting the water into my hands.

I nodded and focused only on drinking the cold, clear water.

"You should hear what's going on in the school," she said, turning to Zack.

"Like what?"

Did I hear a note of wariness in his voice?

"Applebee is thinking suspension and anger management counseling," Helen replied, shivering as a cold wind whipped across the parking lot.

"They think he needs anger management?" Zack scoffed, acting nonchalant as he draped an arm around Helen's shoulders and tried to rub her arm to “keep her warm.” Naturally, she shook him off with a grimace of annoyance.

"That was a hell of a fight," she said. "It scared me."

"You shouldn’t be afraid of my brother. He is the most serious, responsible, level-headed member of our family. In fact, I probably need anger management more than he does."

"Yeah? How do you think he'll react to suspension?" Helen asked.

Zack frowned and looked right at me, his brilliant blue gaze boring into mine.

"Not well," he replied. "He's running out of time."

NEVER TRUST AFTERMATH GOSSIP.

The next morning, contrary to all expectations, Haley was back in school without any suspension, counseling, or even a single detention. His bottom lip was a little swollen in the corner, and it was obvious that every girl in the school wanted to kiss it and make it better.

I might have wanted to kiss his lip better, too, but that would happen when hell froze over. Right now, getting answers was far more important, especially after what Zack said yesterday. It looked like I might have to wait until next week, though, to get a chance to get close enough just to thank him for helping me yesterday.

He was dripping girls from the moment he walked in the building, and the guys looked at him with a newfound respect. Everyone seemed to have forgotten my role in the fight and ignored me, which suited me just fine. I had to go up on my toes just to get a glance at him through the crowd.

"Oh my God! Haley!"

Jordan's voice was clear and loud as she bounded up to Haley and inserted herself between him and his open locker.

"Oh my God! Your lip! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, his raspy voice deep, and cold.

"You were amazing out there yesterday!"

He didn't answer, just stood there looking down at Jordan. I saw she was wearing a really shiny lip gloss that probably smelled like strawberries. It definitely made her lips look very large and luscious, especially against her starkly white teeth.

Once I’d actually paused to look at her, it was impossible to ignore that Jordan looked really different this morning. She wore a clingy black sweater with skinny jeans and high-heeled black leather boots. She had a little silk scarf around her neck, big hoop earrings, and her hair up in a messy ponytail. If there ever was an outfit that screamed “try for a European look to match Haley,” this was it. Only, whereas he ended up looking simply himself and amazing, she looked all kinds of pretentious Euro douche.

My "new prescription," as I had started calling my weirdly changed vision, was still there. Somehow, though, it felt more normal and almost nice to see the world in such sharp detail, although no one really needed to see Jordan in HD.

"We all thought you had gotten suspended!" she wailed.

“I didn't." That cold voice sent shivers through me for all the right and wrong reasons.

"What happened? What did Mr. Applebee do?"

"We came to an understanding."

The way he spoke was flavored with a dark licorice humor, as if he knew only a few people would get it and have the taste for it. I liked licorice, too, and found myself smiling along with him even though I didn’t actually get the joke.

"So, what's going to happen?" she demanded, posing hard with her hip jutted out and hands on her waist.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Her tone was as incredulous as I felt.

He didn't respond, but she did. She put her hands on his chest and looked up at him in what had to be her best attempt at being beguiling.

"I'm so glad you didn't get hurt," she cooed. "It was so nice of you to help someone like Stephanie, but don't do anything like that again, okay? I was really worried for you."

"I'll see you in class," he replied, stepping back from her touch and shutting his locker. The crowd behind him parted like the Red Sea.

"Where're you going?"

"I have something I need to do in the library."

"I'll come with you! I can help."

"Thank you, but I am meeting someone there."

"Who?"

"I'll see you in class, Jordan."

***

I slumped in relief as I watched them split up and walk away. I thought about what had just happened on top of everything that had happened yesterday after the fight.

After his little bombshell, Zack had walked away. Helen drove me home, coming back to my earlier question about Haley having to move or running out of time. Her practical possibilities were not very heartening, consisting mostly of variations on his moving away or having a terminal illness.

When she dropped me at home, she wished me luck, insulted Zack for good measure, and told me to call her if I needed the smallest thing. I agreed and got out.