Sleight (6 page)

Still staring at me, she said, “And that made her mad enough to track you down, what, years later? And kidnap you? That doesn’t add up Benny.”

“Yeah, well now we have a gap in my story that matches up nicely with a couple of holes in yours.” I shoved a bite of hand pie into my mouth to buy me some time.

She leaned back in her chair and made a wry smile. “Really? That’s your roll? I guess I had that coming, but you’ll tell me eventually just like I’ll tell you.” She took a long sip of her tea.

“Hey it’s you!” said a voice from another table. “Yeah, yeah it’s definitely you. Are you still doing magic?”

I turned in the direction of the voice. I didn’t recognize the young man and the girl sitting at the table to our left, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know me. My lucrative, but secretive career performing street-magic had exposed me to a lot of people, which is one reason why, at Maddy’s suggestion, I had started wearing a small mask that covered my eyes when I performed. Not the best disguise apparently.

“Yeah, no mask but it’s you! Come on do some magic,” he said. The girl with him seemed amused.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, trying not to look at Justine who was staring hard at me.

Turning in his chair so that he could get an even better look at me he frowned. “No, it’s you for sure. Come on man. Just do one of your card tricks.” The girl he was with put her hand on his arm, trying to discourage him from bothering me, but he wasn’t having any of it. Looking at her, then me he said, “Seriously, this kid can do stuff that is completely nuts!”

I knew his type: not a brain surgeon and used to getting what he wanted. The hackles on my neck did an angry dance, he reminded me of a couple of jerks that had harassed me at school.

“Come on Justine, let’s go,” I said as I stood up.

Clearly unsatisfied the guy got up too and took a step toward me. He reached out to stop me and that’s when I screwed up; before his hand made contact with me I pushed it away and shoved him back, adding a little knack-influenced force to it. The result made him fall back into his chair.

“Hey! What the—”

“Don’t touch me. We’re leaving.” I grabbed what was left of my pie in one hand and my latte in the other. The girl was shooting me a dirty look but she was also restraining the guy who looked more than ready to get up and kick my ass. Justine’s bumping into him on her way past was the perfect move to diffuse his embarrassment, and a moment later we were back on the sidewalk, avoiding any further awkwardness.

“Want to tell me what that was all about?” Justine asked as we started walking back to my apartment.

“I have no idea what he was talking about,” I responded, looking back over my shoulder to make sure my overeager fan wasn’t following us.

“That’s not what I meant. The way you pushed him back. That guy outweighs you by fifty pounds and you brushed him off like he was nothing,” she said.

“I wasn’t thinking. I just didn’t want him touching me. He must have been off balance. Just lucky,” I said trying to make light of it.

“Hmm. Yeah, not buying that,” she muttered, adjusting her sunglasses.

I could feel the blood rushing to my face. What gave her the right to pry into my life? Sure I was relieved that she was okay. Well, mostly okay, but that didn’t grant her access to my secrets. And her own unwillingness to fill in the blanks about where she’d been didn’t necessarily encourage me to take her into my confidence.

Stopping, I took her hand and pulled her out of the heavy foot traffic around us and drew her close to a building. “You want to tell me why you came by yesterday? Because that’s what
I
want to know! All this back and forth small talk is making me crazy. I care. I care about you, but if you’re not going to tell me where you’ve been and why you haven’t clued your parents in to the fact that you’re safe then...then I’m gonna just head back home and I’ll see you in school.”

“Easy there cowboy! Easy. Our first fight! Well, actually, second if you count how you burned me by not taking me to Morp. I want to tell you where I’ve been and what I went through but I’m still trying to get it all straight in my head first,
okay
? The big thing I wanted to talk to you about was
us
. Remember? That was the big topic the last time we saw each other. You forget kissing me in front of your apartment? Is little Miss Maddy still around, is that why you’re playing hard to get?” She snarled, nostrils flaring.

For crying out loud,
this
? This is what was so important? I was not taking the Maddy bait. I’d already been forced down that road too many times.

“Okay, let’s try this on then: what’s up with your totally new look? I get the hair, sort of. Growing back, but why white, and what about your eyes? Why are they purple? Are you sick? Do you need my help? Talk to me,” I snapped.

Pulling her hand out of mine she backed up a step. “Wow. Am I
sick
?
Nice
. I don’t know why my eyes turned color unless it’s the same crap I went through last year. My hair? It’s a choice, just like my clothes. I’m tired of looking the way other people expect me to look. I just want to be myself. And I wanted to see you. You know how I feel about you. I wanted to see you, so sue me if that’s a crime!” she balled her hands.

I had definitely managed to jump into the deep end of the pool and ticked her off in the process. Now I was faced with damage control but I was having trouble keeping
my
attitude in check.

“Seriously, how did you expect me to react when we all thought you were...that you wouldn’t be coming back and then you just show up? Like everything should come to a stop just because
you
decide it’s time?”

She stepped up closer to me, tilted her head up and pulled her sunglasses down from her eyes. They were practically glowing. Her lips pulled back as she got ready to say something snippy, and then a weird thing happened, something I’d felt before: my knees got weak as the edges of my vision wavered. Her flashing eyes seemed to float suspended in front of me as I started to fall.

“BENNY? BENNY! OH my God! Are you okay?”

Justine’s face hovered over me as I tried to sit up. I was lying on my back on the sidewalk. Several passersby looked in our direction but no one felt compelled to stop and offer help. Isn’t society wonderful that way? Not that I wanted a scene with me as the focal point.

Justine placed a hand on my chest. “Take it easy. Give yourself a minute. What happened?” she asked, worry lines crinkling her brow.

What happened? I knew exactly what had happened. The same talent-sucking knack Sonja had used on me had just been used on me by Justine, apparently without her knowing what she was doing.

The eye-color change, regardless of what she thought it was, was obviously an indicator of her latent knack becoming active. What had happened to her while she’d been away might have caused the change or it could have been something that had been coming on for a while. According to Mr. Goodturn that particular knack worked like an addiction to the person who possessed and used it. So now, in addition to being more than a little freaked out by Justine’s stalking me, she also posed a serious threat to anyone who had a knack. The only positive was her seeming ignorance of what she possessed.

I got shakily to my feet and steadied myself by putting a hand on the building, waving off her attempt to help me.

“I don’t know, guess I waited too long to eat or something. I’m fine now,” I said.

“Are you sure? You just went kind of limp and your eyes glazed over like you’d been hit over the head,” she gasped, obviously worried.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

She stepped toward me and I instinctively flinched. “What?” she asked. “I’m just worried about you.”

I was having a difficult time remaining calm. I didn’t know how her knack was working. The two times Sonja had tried to use hers on me it seemed like it took a conscious effort, but that didn’t square with what had just taken place.

“I just need to get back to my place. Maybe lay down, besides I need to check in with a friend who’s getting over some stuff.”

I brushed off the seat of my pants and began walking, forcing Justine to hurry to keep pace with me. She put her arm around me again and I decided to let it slide. The walk back was mostly uphill and easier on my bad leg than trudging downhill so we made good time. By mutual silent agreement we didn’t talk much on the way, we knew that most conversations would lead back to subjects neither of us wanted to discuss.

When we got back to my apartment building Justine was still holding onto me. I didn’t want her in the building. In fact, I wanted to get away from her until I could figure out what to do.

She pulled the door open and walked right in which totally blew my plan for keeping her out of the building. I walked in after her and immediately smelled fresh floor wax with a strong lemon scent, Breno’s favorite. The floors gleamed like glass. Breno had been busy while I was out. I marveled at how much he had done in such a short time. While I was admiring his handiwork Justine nudged my elbow.

“I want to make sure you get upstairs okay. If you pass out on the stairs you could really hurt yourself,” she said.

True, I thought, although I
wouldn’t
pass out unless I got some help with that. From
her
.

“I need to check in on my friend. He’s on the first floor here, so I’ll be fine,” I said, hoping she’d take the hint. I didn’t want to risk pissing her off again if that was the trigger for what had happened.

“Fine, so check him out and then we’ll get you upstairs.”

So much for wishful thinking. “My friend, he’s not...he’s challenged in a couple of different ways. He might not react well to someone he hasn’t met before. So—”

“So, why don’t I wait here,” she pointed at the stairs, “Until you’re done?”

It was hard to argue with that. “It might take me a while, Justine. I don’t want to keep you waiting forever.”

She jutted her chin out, and her lip lifted in a half snarl. “Look, I’m not leaving until I make sure you’re home in one piece. So either you check on your friend while I wait, or I’m coming with you. Your choice.”

“Fine. Come with me then.”

“Fine.”

I could feel her irritation as we walked down the hall to Breno’s apartment. Great, I’d need to be careful so as not to turn that into full-fledged anger.

Breno answered at the second knock. He was obviously still wearing what he’d had on while he’d been waxing the floors because he smelled like a giant lemon. It was a nice change from the day before, when he’d smelled like B.O., rotting garbage and smoke. He was still wearing rubber gloves too. The big grin on his face faltered when he saw Justine standing behind me. He ducked his head, and looked at the floor.

“Did you see the floor, Benny? I shined it real good huh?” he said with a little quaver in his voice.

“It looks great Breno. Did you have some lunch?” I asked.

He nodded his head, still checking out the tops of his shoes. Justine’s impatience practically radiated off of her, so I decided to cut it short.

“Okay, well I’m going up to my apartment if you need anything. Okay?”

“I’m ‘kay,” he said, finally looking up.

Smiling in spite of the awkwardness of the situation, I said, “Good.”

“Okay Benny.” He didn’t make eye contact with Justine but said, “Bye Benny’s friend.”

“Ha. Bye Breno,” she said, smiling at him even though he couldn’t see it.

Waving goodbye to us with a rubber-gloved hand, Breno slowly closed the door.

There was an strained moment of silence as I turned to Justine, who was glaring at me with a little pissy-ness in her eyes.

“Yeah, as sweet as it is that you’re looking out for him, that took like a whole minute,” she said.

I shook my head and walked past her toward the stairs. She followed close behind and shadowed me all the way up to my floor. When we were standing in front of my door I tried to come up with an idea of how to get rid of her without starting another argument.

She was one step ahead of me.

“I’m not going to bother to ask if I can come in, I’m not totally clueless,” she spat.

“Justine, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, and we need to talk but I don’t want to start arguing again. I’ll call you,” I responded.

“Uh huh, sure.” She was glaring at me, but I sensed more hurt under the surface than true anger. “I’ve been chasing after you for over a year Benny, but that gets old.” She pulled a pen and a piece of paper out of her purse and scribbled on it.

Shoving the paper into my hand she said, “Kayla told me this was a mistake. I hate it when someone gets to tell me I-told-you-so. That’s my new number. It’s a pay-as-you-go phone and the only other person that has the number is Kayla. Call me, or don’t, it’s up to you.”

She quickly turned away and headed back down the stairs.

Yup, I’m a winner with the ladies.