AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll try.” I shrugged, the weight of sadness dragging down my words. “I’ll goddamn try.”
* * *
When we got up for real a few hours later, Jamie leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. A friendly kiss, the way you touched a person who you cared about deeply but didn’t necessarily believe them to be youreternalflame. As Jamie had once put it.
“I need to disappear again. There are… things I need to do,” he said. “But… just so you know… I’m going to come back.”
Before I had the chance to ask him where he was going or why, he vanished.
Leaving me alone to my thoughts once again.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Class
A day later, and Jamie had yet to make his reappearance. I tried not to let it get to me. But, as I sat in Pen & Dagger, waiting for my class to start, I couldn’t get him off my mind.
“And that was totally how they kicked me out of the arcade.” Holly’s hands flew in every direction, animated as fuck as she told me about her latestDance Dance Revolutionescapades. A brownish-yellow bruise covered her right eye.
“Jesus Christ,” I said. Totally aghast at this whole thing. Apparently, according to Holly, some other teen fought her for playing time at the arcade, and they’d gotten into a physical fight over it.
Pfft. Teens these days.
Holly flipped her tri-colored hair over her shoulder, smiling as she high-fived the air, and then spun around in the direction of where the coffee carafe waited just for her.
I leaned back in my chair, surrounded by empty seats in a circle that would be filled with my students in just a few minutes. It’d only been a week since I’d stormed out of Pen & Dagger—one week—yet the time separation felt like an eternity.
I watched Holly dump the sugar into her empty mug.
“Totally epic,” she added. “You should have seen the look on security after that kid punched me! I wish you could see what I did to that kid…”
She poured the coffee so quickly that a little splashed over the top. Then, skipped as she joined me back in the circle. Maybe it was just me, but she seemed to be acting even more hyper than usual. As she slammed the mug onto the table, I caught a glimpse of another bruise on her upper arm.
“Cool, huh?” she asked, pointing to the marks on her skin. “I feel like a warrior.”
“Yeah, pretty damn… epic,” I said. Instantly thinking of Jamie when I used that word. Half expecting that he’d come waltzing in any moment, wearing some odd combination of clothing. But, even if he heard me wherever he was, he didn’t appear when I said it. I let out a sigh.
“Rough morning?” Holly asked, plopping a three-ringed notebook on her lap.
“Why do you ask that?”
“You’resowearing two different colored socks.” She pointed down to my feet, and I let out an embarrassed gasp. Sure enough, I wore one pink sock and one neon green. I suddenly wished that the creepy dude who ran Pen & Dagger didn’t require us to take off our shoes inside his apartment. Otherwise, I would’ve gone back over to hide my feet. Because, well, damn.
“It’s all the new fashion,” I said, trying to think of a quick recovery. “Different colored socks. You should try it sometime.”
I glanced down at her bare feet. Noticing a red mark around her toes and more bruise marks on the top of her foot. I narrowed my eyes.
“That guy who fought you got your feet, too?” I asked.
Her nose dipped down to look at her feet. Then, her eyes widened, and she curled her toes under.
“Oh… uh… yeah.” She let out a little chuckle. “Guess he got me there, too.”
“Damn, Holly. What’d he do, drag you by the feet?” I asked. After all, I’d done a lot of research on ways people could be physically injured for my books. And something just didn’t add up here. “Did you at least get the police involved? Because… this doesn’t seem like some punk at the arcade who should get away with this. How old is he?”
“No, it’s cool. Really.” She waved her hand in the air, totally dodging my question about the dude’s age. “You know how they say… you should see the other guy? Well, uh. You should see the other guy.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, clouded with concern. Holly seemed like the happiest kid… but even the happiest people on the outside sometimes suffered from the most trauma on the inside. My dad, of course, being one of those people. I thought back to my last Softball meet when he was still alive. How he grinned from ear-to-ear as I crossed home plate, scoring another point for our team. As I got back to the bench, I glanced back at the risers where he sat with the other parents, talking with them. Laughing with them. Being my typical, happy dad.
