The Challenge (8 page)

"Oh that was fun!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, loads!" Henry agreed. We made our way, still laughing, back to the table.

"It was getting hot up there!" Darla observed. I just smiled and leaned back against Henry, looking at everyone. Again, Lena had that weird look. She had been asking me if I was sure this was all fake. I kept saying yes, but I wasn't so sure anymore.

"I have an idea," I said, suddenly thinking of something.

"What?" Lukas asked.

"A band," I said. "It wouldn't be too hard. Henry knows how to play guitar, James can play bass, Curtis plays drums, Amanda is a killer on keyboard and Lukas and Mark-you guys are awesome with the sound stuff that none of us know anything about."

"And you are super-singer girl," Sam said. "Oh! The rest of us can be groupies!" I laughed. It was easy to get them hyped about something.

"And the 'music room' at your place has all the instruments! Plus, you're uncle only uses half the garage." Lena said, looking at me.

"Yeah and Uncle Ethan just leaves the other side empty," I observed.

"So, we're going to become a garage band?" Henry asked.

"Sure...why not?" I replied.

"Oh...and we can make the side we use look great too," Erin suggested.

Darla nodded. Those two were so obsessed with decorating. It started in Third Grade when we got to decorate shoe boxes for Valentine's Day cards. They covered theirs with so much stuff that it was almost impossible to get the cards into the boxes.

Our garage band started up the next day. The guys carried everything down from the music room to the garage. Curtis started playing a beat, and soon James was joining him. Henry joined in after a while. I knew the song they were playing, but just couldn't say where it was from. Besides, I was too busy helping set up the microphone. I took the cord from Mark, and hooked it into the microphone, before looking at Darla, Erin, Sam and Lena, who were all dancing.

"Wait a minute... stop!" I shouted. Everyone stopped playing and looked at me. "How do you guys do that so well without having practiced it earlier?"

"Dunno," Henry said, playing around with the strings on the guitar. "Curtis just started playing a song I knew well and I joined in at the right time, I guess."

"Same," James said.

Damn, those guys were good. "That was awesome!" I said. "Do it again!" Everyone looked at one another, then Curtis started drumming again, and Henry joined in at the right moment. I went to the microphone and started singing
Heartbreaker
by Pat Benatar.

Then it was Curtis and Henry's little solo part. I danced a bit, before realizing we actually had a little crowd forming outside my garage.

I went over to the girls and joined them in dancing. Damn! I knew Henry could play, but I didn't know he could play like that! I went over to him at the end, and waved my hand over the guitar. The applause made our entire band jump. I guess they hadn't really noticed the size of the crowd forming.

"Bloody hell! Where'd they come from?" Henry asked.

"My neighbors," I said.

"Kristina, when did this start?" one of my neighbors, Mrs. Baker, asked. She was a lady who lived across the street that gave my friends and me cookies when we were younger.

"Just today, actually," I answered.

"Oh, I love Pat Benatar!" Mrs. Baker said. "In fact, I'll be right back." She left, and soon the rest of the crowd did too. Then Mrs. Baker came back with some papers. I looked at the sheet she gave me, which was lyrics.

"
Hell Is For Kids
," I said, smiling. "Nice." I looked at everyone to see them all smiling too. Apparently a lot of people liked Pat Benatar. I asked Mrs. Baker, "Do you have the music and lyrics for all her songs?"

"No, dear," Mrs. Baker said, "just this one and
Heartbreaker
."

"You want us to play this for you, Mrs. Baker?" Amanda asked.

"If you wouldn't mind," Mrs. Baker politely responded.

"Of course not," Curtis said. "Not after all those cookies you gave us." Lukas got a chair for Mrs. Baker and we played the song. Then we wound up playing a few songs from
Grease
as well. That was almost a disaster, but it gave us a few laughs, as well as Mrs. Baker.

"We are going to be playing more songs from the seventies and eighties, right?" Henry asked.

"Yeah," I said. "Just gotta find them. I'll search my room."

Later, as we were bringing everything back upstairs, Henry asked me if I wanted to go to the beach the following weekend. I thought about it for a while and decided I did.

I should have wondered what was going to happen. I should have been curious about whether it was going to be just us, or our group, but I wasn't. All I could think about was seeing Henry in his board shorts.

I really am losing my mind.

I STARED AT Uncle Ethan in disbelief. I knew he liked to plan things at the last minute, so it came as a surprise when he was talking about the weekend and it was only Tuesday night. He had been home when I got home, so I couldn't really spend any time with Henry.

"Wait, so what are we doing this weekend?" I asked.

"We're going to see your grandmother," Uncle Ethan said.

"Your mom or Dad's mom?" Megan asked. Uncle Ethan was Mom's brother, which explains why he had a different last name from us-Rochester.

"Mine," Ethan said.

Megan and I brightened. We love both our grandmas, but Mom's was always our favorite. My smile faded, though, after a few seconds of thought.

"Umm...Uncle Ethan...I have plans," I announced.

"Can you change them?" Ethan asked.

"I guess," I said. I could go to the beach anytime I wanted with Henry, I reasoned. "I could go to the beach some other time. Grandma is more important."

"Ooh...who were you going to the beach with?" Megan asked.

"None of your business."

"It was Henry, wasn't it," Megan said. I kicked her under the table. "Ow! Uncle Ethan!"

"Girls, no fighting at dinner," Ethan said. "Who's Henry?"

"Just a new friend of mine," I said, looking at my dinner.

"Is he in this group of yours?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah," I said, slowly.

"When do I get to meet him?" Ethan asked. There he goes, acting like a father.

"If you're home tomorrow, then you'll probably meet him. We have band practice."

"Alright, then," Ethan said. "Is this the boy who drives you to school now?"

"Yes," I admitted, smiling slightly.

"He has a very nice car," Ethan said. This was good. Uncle Ethan liked cars. He liked David at the beginning because David had a good car, but then he learned faster than I did what a sleaze ball my ex-boyfriend really was.

Thankfully, the rest of dinnertime was silent. Megan had to do dishes, so I was free to go to my room. I picked up my cell phone and dialed up Henry to deliver the bad news.

"Hey, pet," Henry answered.

"How'd you know it was me?" I asked, bemused.

"Caller I.D., love," Henry explained. "So what's up?"

"Oh, yeah," my cheek turned hot against the phone, "I'm sorry, but I can't go to the beach with you this weekend," I said. "My uncle just told me that we are going to my grandma's place."

"Oh..." Henry started. "You like your grandma?"

"Yeah, she's great."

"Then it's fine. It would suck to get blown off because you're going to see someone you don't like. Anything else you need?"

"Well..." I said, caught up in the moment. I don't think it's possible not to play along with him when he's acting like this. "I'm actually not allowed to leave the house tonight..."

"Say no more, love." Henry said. "Hanging up now."

"Wait, what?" I sputtered. There was no answer. "Henry?" I flipped the phone shut, tossed it on my bed and cursed him under my breath. Then I heard Megan and Uncle Ethan laughing downstairs. There were only four or five movies and shows that both of them liked. Since they were probably watching something that would last at least an hour, I would be the only one upstairs that whole time.

I closed my door and locked it. Last week, I had convinced Uncle Ethan to buy a lock for my door so that Megan would quit barging in unannounced. I turned around, leaned against the door and sighed towards the ceiling. Then I noticed something outside the window and jumped. It looked like a foot. It wasn't unusual for Lena to sneak over if she was bored, but that foot was way too big to be Lena's. I grabbed the baseball bat that my uncle made me keep under the bed and crept slowly towards the window, hugging the wall so my stalker wouldn't see me coming. Once there, I took a deep breath, slung the window up and shot my head out to see who had scaled my roof. I jumped again and hit my head on window when I saw Henry sitting next to my window on the roof. He jumped, too, and nearly fell off the roof, but caught himself on the window frame.

I stared down at him, our faces now only a foot away. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" I hissed.

"Give
you
a heart attack?" Henry said, wide-eyed. "You came out swinging with a bloody bat and nearly made me fall ten meters to my death!" Henry gave a whispered yell.

I glared at him. "Exactly how close do you live to me?" I asked, stepping away from my window as Henry calmed down and climbed into my room.

"Maybe a five minute drive," Henry calculated.

Something seemed a little off-his eyes were glazed and tired. "Are you drunk?" I asked.

"Well...maybe a bit," Henry said. I frowned. "What? I'm still capable of doing things. I'm not swaying, am I?"

"Not yet, but you nearly fell off my roof. How much did you drink?"

"Ah...but I was able to climb up here in the first place, wasn't I, pet?" he asked, but then recovered upon my glare, "Two or three...just a few." he said, shrugging. He walked over and sat on my bed. "Did you change your clothes?" Henry wondered.

"Yeah," I responded. I had worn a red t-shirt and jeans to school. Now I was in a mid-thigh length black skirt and silver tank top.

Then I noticed Henry had a weird look in his eyes. I was about to back away, when he suddenly pulled me down on top of him and forced his mouth against mine. Any kind of fight I was thinking of starting instantly faded from my mind. All that mattered was the feel of his lips against mine. I allowed his tongue into my mouth, but it only took him a few seconds to notice something new. He pulled away. I smirked and stuck my tongue out.

"You got it pierced," Henry observed. "You are bloody amazing." He then grabbed the back of my head and kissed me again. He moved us so that I was lying on the bed and he was on top of me. I really shouldn't have let him do this. But what he was doing felt so good. That was, until his hand moved from my hip to my thigh and I remembered that he was drunk. I pushed at his shoulders, managing to get him to stop what he was doing. He looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"You're drunk!" I said.

"No, I'm not." Henry lied. I pushed at his shoulders again.

"Yes...you are." I pushed even harder, which managed to get him off me. Standing up, I looked at him as he propped himself up on his elbows. "I've had enough crap done to me by drunken assholes and I don't need this from you." I realized then that I had said too much. "Uh..."

Henry frowned, got off the bed and grabbed my arms gently. I refused to look at him and focused on not crying.

"Love, look at me," Henry said. I shook my head. "Kris?" I still didn't look at him. "Come on, Kristina, just look at me."

I finally caved and looked into his eyes, which had turned from glazed to sincere. Being called my full name, not just the short form, always made me listen to someone. I suppose I was trained that way growing up. Henry's hands loosened on my arms, but I didn't move.

"I won't hurt you," Henry whispered.

I bit my lip and started looking away again, but Henry shook me slightly and my attention shot back towards him. "Don't make promises you can't keep," I said.

Henry frowned and put a hand on my cheek. I realized that I actually had a few tears running down the one cheek.

"Who did it to you?" Henry asked.

I didn't answer.

"Who hurt you?"

I just dropped my gaze from his face and stared at the floor.

"David?"

I closed my eyes. Why did he have to start doing this? Why couldn't he have just stopped when he saw how uncomfortable this was making me?

A knock on the door startled both of us. I pushed Henry into the bathroom and tip-toed over to my door. Uncle Ethan was standing on the other side.

"Just thought I'd say good night," he said, then frowned. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah...just reading a sad part in my book," I lied and forced a smile.

"Well, alright then," Ethan said. I saw his eyes look in the direction of the bathroom. "Make sure you close your window. It's going to be cold tonight."

"I will. Good night," I said. I closed the door and locked it again, then turned around and watched Henry come out of the bathroom.

"I guess I should be going home," Henry said. I nodded and walked over to the window with him. He put his arms around me and hugged me, which took me by surprise. "I'll see you in the morning, okay?"