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Do I remember? It’s been almost ten years and I still suffer random flashes of intense shame from that event.
It was a late July night, we’d snuck out to drink and smoke and be merry with the big kids. Sticks was eighteen and a mean bastard. He still is. We’re friends now, but back then he was full of aggression and out to prove he was badder and stronger than everyone. I didn’t like the way he was talking to Lily. He didn’t appreciate me getting in his face about it. I still have the scar above my right eyebrow from where my head hit the bottom concrete step. And the vivid memory of Lily dragging him off me, and standing between us, staring him down before he could give me more scars. Sticks backed down. And he never bothered her again.
She doesn’t bring this story up often, but when she does it always has the desired effect of making me relive my embarrassment.
“Yeah, but I’m bigger now,” I say and grin at her. “And I still owe you for that. Maybe tonight’s the night I get to make it up to you.”
She chuckles and shakes her head, her long hair swaying gently as though touched by the breeze. Or my hand, which is where I feel it. “You’ll just go back to lurking if I make you leave, right?”
I nod and don’t bother stating the obvious.
“Alright, fine, stay and make it up to me then,” she says, flashing me another of her intense looks. But this one isn’t meant to chase me away. It’s inviting, and I don’t know what to make of it.
“We did have some fun here, didn’t we?” she says wistfully as she picks up Hunter’s sign from the ground beside her and hands it to me.
As I take it, Josh flashes me a look of pure hate and his hand flinches like he’s about to rip it away from me. But that’s just something I notice in a by the way sort of sense. I’m still captivated by that inviting look in Lily’s eyes. She lets me flirt with her, but she’s like that because she’s gorgeous and striking and most people just naturally flirt with her, men and women both. I didn’t think it was anything more than that.
“We always have fun, don’t we?” I say in answer to her question.
She shrugs, but her smile and her eyes say yes.
Not that she could say anything else. We do. And I think we could have a whole lot more fun.
If only she wasn’t the president’s daughter, and I a complete nobody.
2
LILY
Night has fallen,which means Main Street is sparkling like a string of Christmas lights, as it always does after closing time. Back in the day, when I was a teenager and we’d hang out in town all night sometimes, Main Street was as dark as the forest after the sun set. Now there’s a violet light coming from the yoga studio, a pure white one coming from the closed coffee shop across the street, along with green, yellow, red and blue lighting up the sidewalk from the various other fancy businesses lining Main Street now.
The only dark building around here is the rec center. It’s been closed for months now. But we’re making up for it with car headlights, torches—battery powered and live fire ones—and even a couple of lighters. Together with all the noise we’re making, it might as well be the middle of the day out here.
The rally has swelled. There’s well over a hundred people crowded into the parking lot now, demanding that the rec center stay open, demanding funding, demanding fairness in general.
Eagle seems as into it as any of the rest of us. At first, I was sure he was mocking me with his eagerness to participate. He likes to try and catch me off guard with the things he says and does. So I played along.
But he’s chanting as loudly as I am, a big, stupid grin on his face whenever our eyes meet. On his perfectly proportioned long face, with a chiseled jaw, straight nose and hooded, coal grey eyes, so dark they’re almost black, yet still reflect all the colors around us vividly. He’s Native too, just like me, and that’s what first drew me to him. I was desperate to findmy peoplehere, and he was it. He was shy at first, but that didn’t last long. And to this day, he’s one of the few people who can actually handle me no matter what mood I’m in.
I don’t know when I started liking him as more than a friend, but these days I really wish he’d do more than look at me suggestively, flirt, and always lurk around me just out of reach. I wish he’d grab me with those perfectly shaped arms of his, and kiss me with those perfectly shaped lips, at that.
I’m glad he stopped shaving his hair and is letting it grow long now. It’s nearly as dark as mine, and I’m pretty sure he only did it because I’ve been persuading him to embrace his heritage for ages. I’m certain he’s a lot more pure blood than me, but he knows next to nothing about his heritage, nor wants to.
We’ve always been just friends. Best friends, for a time before he joined the MC for real. Friends who flirt now, I guess. It’s probably for the best since I’m leaving soon. Going back to the reservation I was born on. The people there, my people, exist in horrific poverty and I can do some actual good there, while here, I doubt that will ever be the case. I’ve wanted to go back since I left, and now I’m finally ready to.
By now, I know I don’t really belong in my father’s world, the MC world, the world Eagle is well and truly a part of forever. I used to dream we could go to the reservation together one day, but that was a long time ago and I gave up on it completely after he joined the MC at seventeen. I’ll miss him.
“I think maybe this is working,” he says, leaning down to shout it in my ear, and completely obliterating my mental trip down memory lane. “Look at all these people. They’re not going anywhere.”
“No, we’re not,” I say. “It’s about time to go inside and chain ourselves up.”
The grin disappears off his face as he narrows his eyes at me, for the moment speechless. I haven’t told him about this layer of the plan yet.
“We have to actually stop them from tearing down the building tomorrow,” I explain. “They have to know we’re serious.”
I don’t wait for his reply, just walk to one of the three wooden folding table that holds all our supplies, including the handcuffs and chains, and pick up the megaphone. He was going to tell me it’s a bad idea. I saw it in his eyes. And I don’t need to hear it.
I press the talk button and the sound of static rips right through my brain like a hatchet.
