Slow Burn (13 page)

“Yay!” she cheers, and finally let
s go.  I suck oxygen into my deprived lungs.

I walk her over to where the other kids are sitting, then I head back behind the counter to do some filing for a few minutes.

“Hey, Juliet!”

Startled, I look up to
see Brayden, one of the regular basketball players, walking up to the counter.  He’s got a ball under one arm, and he’s holding a long-stemmed rose in his other hand.

He plops the rose down on the desk with a grin.  “This is for you,” he says a little bashfully.

I’m more than a little surprised.  “Uh, thank you.  But what for?”

His smile gets bigger, but he doesn’t say a word.  He turns and walks back out, dribbling the ball with expert ease.

Weird.  I pick up the beautiful red rose, and sniff it appreciatively.  I’m in the middle of a sneeze when another kid I don’t recognize comes sprinting in, carrying another rose.  He drops it in front of me, and runs back out.

This happens again and again, with different kids—now throwing the roses at me—until I’ve got eleven long-stemmed roses on my desk
, and a couple of scratches on my face.  When Jeremy, a skinny boy with braces comes skidding in with another one, I ambush him, grabbing him in a headlock so he can’t run away.

“Okay,” I say.  “What’s going on here?  Where are you guys getting the roses from?”

Jeremy giggles his pre-pubescent head off while trying to wiggle away.  “I don’t know!  It’s from some guy hanging around the courts!  He said he’d give us money.”

Cackling, he jerks
away from me and runs out the door, almost crashing into Kathy, the rec manager, who’s just walked in.

“Oh,
my god, Kathy!”  I rush up to her, eyes wide.  “We’ve got to call the police!  Some weirdo out there is trying to give the kids money!”

Kathy starts laughing.  “Calm down, Juliet!  It’s just Johnny.  He’s outside waiting for you.”

I gape at her, adrenaline still coursing through me.  “Johnny?  What…oh, god, I’m so sorry!  I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing…”

“It’s fine, he cleared it with me before he talked to the boys.”  Kathy’s eyes dance.  “Now why don’t you go out there and than
k him for the beautiful flowers, and the romantic gesture?  I’ve got the counter for a few minutes.”

Great.  I smile weakly at her.  “Thanks.  I won’t be long.”

“I won’t blame you if you are.  That boy is seriously cute.”  She winks at me,

I’m going to kill him.

I stomp out there with murder in mind, but when I spot Johnny standing at the edge of the basketball court, my heart melts just a tiny bit.  He looks so uncertain—and surprisingly sober—as he steps forward to meet me.

“Hi,” he says quietly, keepin
g his hands tucked into the front pockets of his jeans.

“Are you crazy?” I hiss, glaring up at him.  “This is where I work!”

He smiles charmingly.  “Yeah, sorry.  I figured it was the only place you wouldn’t take a swing at me.”

“Well, you thought wrong,” I growl, clenching my fists.

He pisses me off my bursting into laughter.  “Sorry,” he says, seeing my expression.  “But every time you do that—it’s so funny.  It’s like watching a chinchilla get mad.”

“What do you want?”

Johnny sighs and looks down at the paved court.  He’s standing just outside of the glow of the lights, so I can’t really see his expression.  “I wanted to ask you how your day went,” he says finally.

“Oh, it was loads of fun
,” I say, pushing a stray lock of hair behind my ear.  I fold my arms over my chest, and it’s a defensive pose, but I can’t help it.

Johnny immediately steps closer to me, his features hardening.  “Someone give you a hard time?”

“What, you didn’t get a report from your boys?”

“Teeny,” he says warningly.  His cerulean blue eyes are intense, refusing to let me look away.

“It’s nothing,” I say airily.  “I get mistaken for a slut and a bitch all the time.”

“What?”  His jaw clenches and his face darkens as he towers over me.  “Who called you that?”

“Your friends,” I spit out.  “Kara and Arianna.  They’ve been going around saying that
I
was the one who cheated on you.  So now everyone hates me.”

“Shit!”  Johnny rubs a hand over his face.  He is coldly furious.  “I’m so sorry, Teeny.  I’ll take care of it, I promise.  Anyone who says anything bad about you again will have to deal with me.”

I can tell he’s really pissed by the uneven way he’s breathing.  He starts pacing a little, running his hands hands through his wavy blonde hair, and cursing under his breath.  Finally, he stops, and turns to look at me, eyes glinting in the dark.

“I really screwed
up, huh?”

“Yeah,” I snap, refusing to look at him.  You did.”

There is a tension-filled silence.  My body aches with the absence of his.  All of a sudden I want him to crowd me, the way he always does—even when I’m so pissed at him I can’t see straight.  I want him to just grab me, and force me to forgive him.  Yeah, it’s messed up, but at this moment, I can’t think of anything worse than never being in his arms again.

“I swore I’d never be like him.”

Johnny’s voice startles me out of my pitiful thoughts.  I look up at him, my expression wary.  “Who?”

His face
is fierce as he glares up at the darkened sky.  “The asshole drunk who cheated on my mother and treated her like shit.  He made her cry more times than I can count.  He beat her down and broke her spirit, destroyed her confidence so that she thinks a prick like the one’s she’s currently married to is the best she can do.”

Johnny sighs harshly
and closes his eyes for a brief second.  “Hell, I saw firsthand how badly he hurt her.  And here I am, following in his cheating dickhead footsteps.”

I swallow against the lump in my throat.  “You’re n
ot like him,” I say with conviction.

“Aren’t I?”
  His eyes raise bleakly to mine.  “Then why did I push away the one person in this world that I actually give a shit about?”

I stare at him helplessly.  “If you’re looking to me to give you excuses for what you did,
you’re out of luck.”

“There is no excuse for what I did, I know that.”
  He grabs my hand, and pulls me toward him.  “I’m not asking you for your forgiveness, I just—just please don’t ask me to give up on us.”  His expression turns pleading.  “I don’t know how to.”

Emotion clogs the back of
my throat—it taste like angry.  “I can’t do this now,” I say coldly, backing away.  “I have to go…I have to get back to work.”

Johnny reaches for me.  “
Juliet.”  His voice is husky.

“I can’t!”

I half-expect him to grab me from behind and pull me back—because that’s Johnny’s way.  But he doesn’t.  I run away from him, and he lets me.  I don’t know what that means.  I only know it hurts.

I go back in to the rec, and I do the Hokey Pokey like my life depends on shaking it all about.  It gets weird, and I scare the kids a little.  I guess the lesson here is never play angry.

Also, never let them see you cry.  Even though holding back your tears makes you look constipated, and causes concerned kids to ask you if you have to go potty.

Having Johnny back at school makes all the difference in the world.  No one is mean to me, and a few girls even say hi in the hallways.  Does he really hold that much power over the students of Leclare?  I don’t know why I’ m surprised.  Even at Jefferson, they talked about Johnny Parker with awe.  It used to make me feel so smug to be his girlfriend.  I had power by association—and you better believe I used it.

No, I didn’t.  Not really.

I’m putting my Physics book in my locker when I’m accosted by that girl from Biology class.  I wanna say her name is Evil Tree, but I know that can’t be right.

“Juliet!” she greets me in a way that lets me know she’s been looking for me. 

“Oh, hi…you,” I say weakly, slamming my locker shut.  Her scary hair is slicked back and tamed into a ponytail today. 

She points an accusing finger at me.  “Why didn’t you tell me you were going out with Johnny Parker?” she demands in an injured tone of voice.

Uh, because I just met you yesterday and we barely exchanged three sentences?

“We’re not together, anymore,” I mutter.  I start walking away, hoping she gets the hint.

She doesn’t.  “I know, everyone’s talking about you guys,” she says eagerly, keeping pace beside me. 

“Everyone?”

“Uh, yeah!  I’m pretty low on the gossip chain, and I heard all about it.”  Cecily!  No—it’s Tanya.  Her dark eyes widen.  “Johnny’s telling everybody that the break up was all his fault, and you’re the one that dumped him.  Is that true?  What happened?”

I close my eyes briefly, ignoring her intrusive questions.  I hate that everyone knows our business!
  “It’s not that big a deal,” I say, trying to keep the anger out of my voice.

Tanya bumps into me as she hitches her backpack up on one shoulder.  She’s willfully oblivious to my darkening mood.  “He’s also spreading the word that you aren’t to be messed with, and any guy who tries to ask you out will end up in the hospital.”

I stop so abruptly that the two guys walking behind me ram right into me, causing me to stagger forward.

“Sorry, sorry,” they apologize.

“He said what?!” I roar.

Tanya sighs enviously.  “It’s so romantic!”

Romantic?  That’s like saying pain is sexy.  If that’s true, I’m about to rock Johnny’s world.

I already know Johnny looks hot in the preppy school uniform.  It’s kind of like a wolf in sheep’s clothing
.  The crisp shirt and charcoal slacks only seem to emphasize that bad boy vibe.  Maybe it’s the way he wears it, the material clinging to the muscles in his chest and shoulders—and when he moves, his shirt lifts up a little, revealing a tantalizing strip of his tanned six pack abs.  Or is it his hair—slightly tousled and stubbornly long, so he has to occasionally brush it out of his eyes in a familiar impatient gesture?

A better question would be, why am I checking out my ex-boyfriend while he’s
talking and laughing with the girl he cheated on me with—Miss Spin Cycle, herself?

I take in the scene before me in disbelief.  The tall blonde girl
has her back pressed against the locker next to Johnny’s, looking worshipfully up at him.  He’s got one hand braced on the wall above her head, leaning over her in an intimate pose.  Could have been worse, I suppose.  He could have been grinding against her, with his tongue down her throat.

I hate how good they look together.

I stomp right up to them.  Johnny finally notices me, quickly straightening.  His blue eyes widen in—what?  Worry, guilt, embarrassment?

“I need to talk to you,” I grind out.

I turn on my heel, and start walking away, not bothering to see if he’ll follow.

He does.
  I can sense his big warm body right behind me.

“It’s not what you think,” he says immediately, catching up to me.  “I was just apologizing to her.”

I stop short, and stare at him incredulously.  “For what?!”

Johnny fidgets uncomfortably, looking at the ground.  “For leading her on
at that party.  I only…I made out with her because I was pissed about you.”

“Are you serious?” I snap at him.  “First off, Miss…
Thing
knew you had a girlfriend, and tried to hook up with you, anyway—you said so yourself.  Bitch knew what she was doing.  Secondly…ugh!  Never mind!  Did you really tell all the guys in school that they can’t date me?”

Instead of the guilty look I expect, Johnny’
s grin is both stunning and violent.  “They can try.”

“I hate you.”

He sobers quickly.  “I know you do.  And I’m going to do everything I can to change that.”

I’m quiet in contemplation for a few moments.  “You know what?” I say suddenly.  “I’m almost glad this happened.  I’m just now starting to realize you are a seriously disturbed individual.”

Johnny pisses me off by crossing his eyes, then smacking at the side of his own head to make them normal again.  The grin is back.

“You’re going to love me again, Teeny,” he says, now utterly confident.

I sigh in exasperation.  “Johnny, I may have to kill you.”

Then I leave before I can strangle him with my own hair.

I’m grouchy in Government, and Nick laughs at me, knowing why.  I’m glad he thinks it’s so funny.  On the plus side, I get to know Sara a little better.  With her surprisingly kooky sense of humor, I can see us becoming friends.  Through a strangely titled headline
about a string of car thefts in L.A., I discover that she, too, is a fan of eighties music.  I wonder where she sits at lunch, and if it would be too weird if I asked to sit with her.

Another plus?  Kara and Arianna completely ignore me now.  Oh, they still send vicious looks in my direction—just to let me k
now I’m still despised, in case I forget.  But they don’t say a word.  Kara tries to trip me in Spanish, though.  I walk past her desk to throw something away, and she deliberately sticks her foot out.  It’s not even stealthy, and when I laugh at her, she snarls like a rabid hyena.