Secrets: The Hero Chronicles (Volume 1) (23 page)

For the next couple of hours, we tubed in Matt’s backyard, which was actually part of a golf course. It was far better than any sledding I had ever done. The extreme part was dodging the large pine trees that littered the slope. We stopped and were just sitting on the tubes at the bottom of the hill. The snow had tapered off. The glow of freshly fallen snow lit up everything around us.

“So, Nicholas, are you dating Elle or what?” Matt asked.

“We are just friends,” I said.

“Are you kidding? You are attached at the hip. I even heard Oliver talking about you guys the other day at football conditioning.”

Eric joined the conversation. “Who cares what he thinks? He’s nothing now—just a complete and utter loser.”

“So, Matt, what was he saying?” I asked.

“Who cares what he said? Nicholas, he’s a loser,” Eric insisted, but Matt ignored him.

“He said that he had
made
Elle and that he was ‘done with that trash, anyway.’ You can have his leftovers.”

Elle was not that type of girl, and I wouldn’t let anyone talk about her that way. I became outraged. My body started to become tense. I felt the steam coming off me. My body was on fire. I was ready to fight Oliver
and
those two people who tried to kill me.

“Easy, Nicholas, he’s not worth it,” Eric said. “He’s just jealous of you and Elle. No one would believe that he was with Elle anyway.”

“Yeah, Nicholas, the group he was talking with didn’t seem to pay any attention to him.”

“I know, but I don’t like anyone, especially him, talking that way about Elle.”

Eric and Matt tried to change the subject, but I was furious. All I wanted to do was find Oliver and beat his face in.

**

The smell of Cora’s coffee woke me the next morning. It didn’t make me sick, but it still bothered me. I took my shower and went downstairs. I felt hungry. I grabbed a bagel and cream cheese and sat down at the kitchen table. The news was on and was focused strictly on the snow that covered the city. From the reports, we had about a foot of snow. It was forecasted to snow lightly most of the day with another inch possible. I tore off a small piece of the bagel and ate slowly as I watched the news. I was not as angry as I had been the night before with Oliver. Actually, again I felt pity for him. He was once the most popular guy at school and now had sunk so low that he was spreading rumors.

Driving to Elle’s was surreal. I hadn’t noticed how everything looked in the snow the night before when I was riding with Eric. Everything was covered by a thick blanket of snow, making it look wrapped in heavenly clouds.

Elle’s driveway was not cleared yet. I figured this would be the case, so I had brought my shovel. I parked on the street and began clearing their driveway off. I was just about done when the garage opened up. Elle was standing there all bundled up. She was wearing red snow pants, a large puffy tan jacket and a pair of purple snow boots that matched her scarf and hat. She was adorable. She resembled a little kid whose parents got her ready to go out in the snow, not a typical teenage girl who was worried about her appearance. But then, she was not typical.

She grabbed a shovel and helped me finish clearing the rest of the driveway. I pulled my truck into the cleared driveway. The morning sun disappeared behind snow-filled clouds. The snow began to fall again in very large flakes. We spent the rest of the morning playing in the snow. We made snow angels and snowmen. Every so often when my back was to her, she would sneak up and tackle me. She kept knocking me into the large snow banks that had formed around her house. If it had been anyone else, I would have moved past them with ease, sending them into the banks, but she had no problem tackling me—I made sure of that.

Elle had become such an important part of my life now. I couldn’t imagine being without her. It used to be just Cora and me, but now it was Elle and me.

We went inside to warm up. Her mom brought us some hot chocolate while we curled up on the couch underneath a blanket to get warm. Her dad wasn’t home. He was gone on business, which was normal.

Elle wanted to go back out to play some more. We spent the rest of the time lying in the snow and looking up at the snow-filled clouds. Elle’s head found my stomach. The large flakes were falling onto us. While lying with her in the snow, I remembered something my mom used to say to me: “Nicholas, God makes each snowflake by hand. None of them are ever the same.”

Elle must have been made just for me, my perfect snowflake.

TINA MCBRIDE

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

N
o sooner had the snow arrived than it was gone, bringing spring. The next couple of weeks brought new life all around me. Things began to grow. All of this growth inspired me. I decided that I would try to take my relationship with Elle to the next level. We had been inseparable for a while now, so the next step in my mind was for an actual date, and then hopefully next she would become my girlfriend. I dreamt of holding her so close that I could feel her heartbeat next to mine. My lips would be pressed against hers. Time would melt away around us. Nothing else would matter except for the two of us in that moment.

“So do you want to get some dinner tonight?” I was leaning next to her locker while she got out her book for Coach Hoff’s class.

“Sure, we can get some pizza and watch a movie.”

“No, I was thinking about going to a restaurant.”

“Would this be an official date?” she asked without looking at me. The way she said it made me wonder if her question was a good thing or a bad thing, so I stalled.

“Well, if you don’t want it to be, it doesn’t have to be.”

Her face twisted. She didn’t like what I was saying. “Nicholas, if you want it to be a date, just say so.”

“Okay, then. I am asking you on a date.”

She smiled and shut her locker. She looked right at me with her beautiful, big smile. “Well, great! It will be our first official date.”

Coach Hoff had already started class when we got there.

“So I will pick you up at 6:30,” I whispered to her after we got seated.

“Sounds great.”

In the back of the classroom, Oliver was staring at me, which was unusual. He had been acting like I didn’t exist for a while now. He didn’t look like himself; his perfect blond hair was unkempt, and he was wearing something you would typically wear after football practice. It was not the preppy, pretty-boy clothes that he normally wore.

“So you have a real date finally. Took you long enough,” Eric said while admiring a couple of girls walking by us after school.

“I knew I shouldn’t have told you.”

“Knock it off, Nicholas. It’s not like I am going to announce it to the world.” Then he jumped and skipped around like he was in some sort of musical and started to sing, “NICHOLAS KELLER IS GOING ON A REAL DATE WITH ELLE CANAN. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT IS A
REAL
DATE?”

I tried to catch him, but he was just out of reach. Chasing him would only draw more attention to him, so I scrambled toward the door to get on the bus and away from him.

When I got home, Cora was sitting on our porch swing reading a book.

“Nicholas, how was your day?”

“I have a date tonight.”

“With?”

“Elle.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” she said. “I was afraid that after all the time she has been working on you, you picked one of your groupies instead.” She laughed.

“Groupies? Whatever, Cora.”

“What time is your date?”

“I’m picking her up at 6:30.”

“Do you need the truck?”

“Yes, please. If that’s okay.”

“That’s fine with me.”

I was shocked by Cora’s reaction to the date, but I should have expected that she would do the opposite of how I thought she would react. She had become very unpredictable this year.

I stopped and got a dozen daisies—Elle’s favorite—on the way to her house. I had been planning this date ever since I saw her for the first time. The date seemed like a daydream, but this time it was real.

I walked up to her door and rang the bell. A minute passed, which felt like an eternity, and the door opened. Mr. Canan was standing there. My newfound confidence was quickly erased.

“Good evening, Nick.”

“Oh, good evening, sir. Is Elle home?”

The birds that were singing in the background seemed to stop right when he spoke. “I would like to have a word,” Mr. Canan said.

I was expecting him to invite me in, but instead he walked out the door onto the porch, shutting the door behind him. My stomach started to tense up. I had to fight back the urge to grab my Tic Tacs. I took an invisible deep breath.

“Nicholas, you are taking out my little girl. When you take her out of my house, I expect you to take care of her and treat her like a lady—nothing less than that. Can I count on you to do that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And Nick, if you hurt her, I will hurt you. Do you understand?”

“Of course.”

“Okay, then we have an understanding.” He opened the door and I followed him in.

There, standing at the top of the stairs, was Elle. She was wearing jeans that hugged her figure and a red blouse with a low neckline, which made my heart begin to race. Her silver necklace sparkled. Her hair had large wavy curls in it. She was mesmerizing. This was going to be a night that I would never forget.

I gave her the flowers, which I had completely forgotten about for a brief moment. Her face turned a slight shade of pink. Without words, her mom took the flowers into the kitchen and brought them back in a vase, setting them on the end table closest to us.

“I will put them in your room, dear, when you leave. You two have fun.”

Elle breezed by me. I gripped the door so I would not stagger from the smell of her perfume. I wished I could slow things down whenever I wanted to, because I wanted this night to last forever.

“Elle, you look stunning,” I said once we were in the truck.

Her beautiful eyes fixed upon me. “Why thank you, Nicholas. You look dashing yourself.”

Chills went down my spine. I had missed out on so much over the years, but waiting this long made this date even more special.

“So where are we eating?” she asked.

“We are eating at Wendell’s. It’s a restaurant by the park.”

“I know where it is. It’s over on Erie Street next to Memorial Park in Montgomery.”

I nodded. I forgot that she had lived here her whole life. Then for a brief moment I became nervous that she had been there already.

“So you’ve been there?” I asked.

“No, never. Dad says it’s too expensive and it’s a long drive.” She must have seen the look of concern on my face. “Oh, but I am very excited to eat there. Speaking of my dad, I hope he wasn’t too horrible.”

“No, he just wanted to make sure I got you home at a decent hour.”

She smiled. “Okay, good. I was worried. I tried to get him to not talk to you.”

The long driveway to the restaurant was lined with large, mature dogwoods, which were starting to produce white blossoms. There was a man dressed in black slacks and a jacket next to a sign that said, “Wendell’s Valet Service,” under the canopy-covered entrance. The valet opened Elle’s door and then came around and opened my door, saying, “Welcome to Wendell’s, and please, sir, leave the truck running.” I got out. The valet handed me a ticket and drove off.

Elle was waiting for me by the door, which a doorman was holding open. We walked in together. I puffed out my chest, feeling proud to be with Elle on a date. I could do anything; I was invincible. Before I had a chance to look for the hostess, a short man with slicked-back hair and a full mustache spoke from behind a small podium. It reminded me of Homecoming.

“What name is your reservation under?”

“Keller.”

“Oh, yes. Keller, party of two. Right this way.”

We followed the man through the restaurant. It looked like it was straight out of a ’20s gangster movie. There was a large bar right in the middle of the restaurant, surrounded by tall wooden chairs. Behind the bar there were hundreds of bottles on display in a large, wood-framed glass cabinet. A small crystal chandelier hung above the bar. Off in the corners were lounging areas, complete with red leather couches and dark wooden tables. Dark wood and deep rich colors were everywhere. There were not many booths or tables in the restaurant, making every spot very intimate and quiet. Most of the tables and booths were filled.

The man led us to the back of the restaurant. Our table had two sheer curtains on both sides, creating even more privacy than the low-lit restaurant already provided. The table was covered by a long white tablecloth with matching lace napkins. I could smell the oil burning in the glass lamp centerpiece. Around the lamp was a wreath of simple white flowers. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect setting for our first date.

“Madam,” the man said, pulling out the chair for Elle. “Sir,” he said to me, motioning toward the open chair across from Elle.

On the table were traditional fine dining settings. I was familiar with them because Cora set the table like this every once in a while when she fixed a fancier meal, normally during holidays. It was her way of taking me to a nice restaurant without leaving the house. I wished she were here to enjoy this too. This was part of the reason why we moved to this town, so we could experience these types of things.