Stone Cold (7 page)

Chapter 6

Daylight streamed through his bedroom window and as it landed on Conall’s face he was stirred awake
from the previous night’s sleep. He lay there for a few minutes contemplating whether to go to school or feign illness so as to prepare for the mission that was to take place later that night.

The decision was made for him as he heard a deliberate knock on his door.

“Conall, mom said it’s time to get up. She’s driving you to school today because you overslept again!” his sister Eden chided him through the door.

“Ok, ok
, I’ll be ready in 5 minutes. Will you grab a few granola bars for me to eat on the way?” Conall knew exactly how to talk to Eden to get what he wanted from her.

“
Oh geez! Ok, I guess. Anything for you lil Con Con,” she teased.

Eden
had been calling him that from birth. She was two years older than Conall and when he was born, she had considered him to be her baby. Not many people were allowed to get very close to him when she was around. And no one, absolutely no one but her was permitted to call him Con Con. She was barely able to enunciate words herself when he arrived and so her nickname for him was born. Even their parents, Evelyn and Darin Stone, were banned from its use.

Conall threw the covers to the foot of the bed, swung his legs over the edge, and came to a standing position. He grabbed the closest shirt and pair of jeans he could find,
did the smell test, put them on, and walked to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Standing there looking in the mirror, his mind wandered to the first memories he had of Eden.

He knew that
she’d always taken care of him in one way or another. She was his protector, his teacher, his friend. For his entire life they’d done almost everything together and he couldn’t imagine what life would’ve been like without her. Still there were times when he wanted her to back off and let him fend for himself. They were no longer children relying on each other for entertainment and companionship. Their first experience of being away from each other for an extended period of time was when Eden started first grade.

She
had a hard time accepting other people into his life and often tried to stave off new friends by creating drama whenever they would come to their house for a visit. Now in high school, this no longer worked and he had successfully acquired a few close male friends to bond with, much to Eden’s dislike. He hoped she’d find a boyfriend soon, or a new hobby to help shift her focus away from the constant preoccupation with his life. Even so, his love for her was like no other person he’d ever known and he could never imagine anything changing that. She was the one person he could always depend on and he would never let anything happen to her or their bond.

The feeling of toothpaste dripping down his chin ended his daydream and after a quick swipe with a towel, he grabbed a jacket and was on his way.

That morning was no different than most mornings in the Stone household. Conall notoriously overslept and Eden was always the one to wake him. She could start setting her alarm so that she’d wake him up in time to walk to school. Instead, she was glad when he overslept because then their mother would give both of them a ride instead of just her. That gave her more time to be with her brother. Their dad always drove their younger sister Kylie to school so she wasn’t part of the equation.

Conall was the only child
in his family who attended public school. Both Eden and Kylie went to private schools. Their father felt it was important to “protect” his girls from the shenanigans that go on in a public school through a good Catholic education, under the tutelage of nuns of course. Those sentiments did not carry over for Conall though, as he was placed in a public high school in order to gain real world experiences and learn to fend for himself. So the girls were driven to school everyday but his school was close enough for him to walk - if he got up in time.

Evelyn gave her son a stern look as he descended the stairs just in time to walk out the door.

“What am I going to do with you Conall? If you’re late one more time the principal said he’d have no choice but to suspend you.”

“
Sorry mom. I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night. I was having a lot of dreams and kept waking up,” Conall lied as he slid into the backseat of the car next to Eden.

“Is there anything I can do?”
Evelyn asked with a concerned tone in her voice.

“Not unless you know how to find this amazing girl I met the other day,” Conall mumbled under his breath as he blankly stared out the window on his side of the car.

“What was that dear, I couldn’t quite hear you.” Evelyn glanced in the rearview mirror with a questioning look toward her son.

Conall met her gaze and then looked at Eden who was looking at him
, her mouth wide open, a slight grin appearing as she spoke.

“You met a girl? Conall just said he met a girl,” she taunted as she repeatedly poked him in the side with her index finger.

“Where did you meet her? What does she look like? What’s her name? Does she go to your school? How old is she? Is she pretty?” Eden was firing off questions faster than he could possibly answer.

“Is that what you said Conall? Did you say you met a girl?” Evelyn contin
ued to glance between him in the rear view mirror and the road.

With a quick look at
Eden that said, “Please shut your mouth now!” Conall hesitated before answering.

“No
oooo mom, I never said that! Eden’s trying to stir things up for some reason. I never said that and no I didn’t meet a girl!”

Eden
continued to poke at Conall who by now had had enough of her yet again annoying intrusion into his life. Although she was smiling as she taunted him, he knew that her true feelings were the opposite of that smile.

This was not the first time
Eden had been upset about girls in Conall’s life. He’d never had a girlfriend yet but he did have some female acquaintances who clearly wanted to have more than a platonic relationship with him. Eden, however, was always there to foil any chance of what may have lead to a potential romance between he and any of these girls. She’d stopped bringing her own female friends to the house because after a certain age they began asking her if her brother was going to be there too. Once at the house, these friends seemed to pay more attention to what Conall was doing than to her. She was jealous that they were there more for Conall than for her. More importantly, she didn’t want to share his affection and attention with any other female. It didn’t take long before she started telling her friends he was gay just so they would stop asking about him. They never really believed her though so she went to their houses instead or anywhere other than where he was going to be.

Evelyn shot him a look in the mirror one more time as she came to a stop double parked
on a busy street in front of his school.

“Well
, if there is a girl I hope you bring her around so we can meet her.” She was nearly frothing at the mouth at the prospect of her son having a girlfriend which until now was never brought up in conversation.

“I said there’s no girl mom!” Conall snapped as he turned to look sharply at his sister.

“Thanks a lot Demon!” he barked at Eden.

That was his nickname for her. Beginni
ng on his first birthday, she’d religiously said her name over and over to him, determined to make “Eden” his first intelligible word. Her diligence paid off and his pronunciation, “Demon” was officially recorded in his baby book as his first word.

To avoid any further questions,
Conall opened his car door to get out. Unfortunately, he did so into passing traffic without looking. A car squealed tires as it swerved to narrowly miss hitting him and the door. It conjured a flashback in his mind to the day Liz Tanner was nearly hit by the cab and everything that had happened since.

“Conall, are you okay? Please be more careful will you? I want to see you get married and give me grandchildren someday!” Evelyn
, wide-eyed, clutched her chest with one hand, the other with a death grip on the steering wheel.

Completely absorbed in thoug
hts of Jack Barnes, Conall walked around the front of the car and never acknowledged his mother’s comment. Eden was behind him trying to catch him as his long strides moved him up the stairs and into the school.

“Conall! Conall!”
Eden finally got his attention and handed him his backpack as he slowly turned around.

“You forgot your backpack you ditzy blonde.” Her snide remark which usually would have gar
nered a response of equal satire lay flat in the air.

“I’ll see you later
Eden.”

Conall
blandly took the backpack from her and with mechanical precision slung it over one shoulder as he walked down the hallway to his homeroom. Eden watched him as he disappeared through the door stunned that she’d been spared from his usual stinging comeback.

Bordering on being late herself, she ran back to the car where her mom was still double parked and waiting impatiently to get a move on.

“Geez Eden, that took way longer than I expected. Did you lose track of him in there or something?”

“
Yeah or something.”

Eden
was determined to find out who the girl was that Conall had met. He was acting too weird for her not to want to know what was so special about someone that could do this to him. She’d never seen him affected like this before.

During
the remaining ride to school she kept replaying his words in her mind. “Not unless you know how to find this amazing girl I met the other day.”

She knew that’s what he said, he could deny it all he wanted to but she heard him loud and clear.

Evelyn pulled up to the front of Eden’s school in time to see two nuns rounding up the last of the student’s straggling into the building.

“
Oh ugh… Thanks a lot Con Con.” Eden chastised her brother as she bolted from the car and tried unsuccessfully to sneak behind the nuns. As if they had eyes in the backs of their heads, both nuns whirled around. As one blocked her movement, the other sternly whacked her backside three times with a wooden ruler that appeared from out of nowhere.

“Now I’ve seen everything! I can’t believe it! They’re actually a tag team!”
Eden hoped she hadn’t said her thoughts aloud.

“
We have our eyes on you Eden Stone! As punishment for being late you have to watch the other students eat lunch today while you scrub the cafeteria floor!”

“But I, this is the first time I, I’ve never been,
Conall overslept,” her words were cut short as the nuns dismissed her feeble attempt to explain her lateness.

“You’d do well to remember that timeliness is next to Godlines
s young lady.” Eden rolled her eyes. The nuns were actually suggesting that except for worshipping God, the most important thing in life is being on time. Ugh.

As she rubbed her backside,
Eden shot a look at her mother who watched the whole thing from her car. “Oh he’s gonna pay for this. Now I really have to find out who this girl is.”

Evelyn returned
her daughter’s glare with an apologetic grin and shoulder shrug as she drove away. “I have a feeling my little boy is in so much trouble but he gets what he deserves.”

*****

Conall was having a hard time staying focused in his classes. His mind kept wandering to the plan in place for that night. Bobby and Shawn were not in school that day but it was probably just as well. He didn’t want to accidentally let anything be overheard by someone who’d be able to inform the police in the event of an investigation.

The final bell rang and once again Conall hastily made hi
s way to the door. He walked home and rehearsed the plan as he waited through dinner for Bobby and Shawn to meet at his house at 7:00 P.M. sharp.

Eden
was there too, watching everything he did. She never let him out of her sight, but Conall was too deep in thought to notice this unusually scrutinous behavior even for her. She planned to keep this up all night or at least until she found out whom the girl was.

The boys arrived right on time.
Eden didn’t know they were coming over. It was more difficult to stay unnoticed with three pairs of eyes to avoid but she was determined to complete her mission.

Minutes after they arrived
, Conall told his parents they were going to a basketball game at their school. Eden asked if she could tag along but of course the boys said no so she decided to follow them.

“This may
be easier than I thought. If this girl goes to Conall’s school maybe she’ll be there tonight.”

There were so many people out and about that
Eden had no problem remaining unseen. She decided to stay at least 30 yards behind them since she knew how to get to his school should she lose sight of them. That distance also allowed her to eavesdrop on their conversation and she hoped they would talk about the girl.