01 Untouchable - Untouchable (6 page)

I didn’t sleep well that night. I kept
waking up about every hour and thinking about the events of my day.
I wondered what would have happened if I had accepted Evan’s ride?
Would we have sat outside on the porch swing and enjoyed the
evening together? Would Bev and Matt have said they liked him?
Would I have made it home at all? I closed my eyes and could see
myself as a lifeless corpse lying in a field somewhere. When I
finally did sleep, I dreamed that Kimmy was crying over a coffin. I
expected to see Mom lying inside it, but when I got next to her and
looked down, the body was my own.

CHAPTER THREE

Jewels’ car was in the lot as always,
but she wasn’t there. Evan’s car was there, and I could see that
someone was in the driver’s seat. I parked a little further away
than necessary and did something that I hadn’t done since moving to
Pensacola. I locked my car doors. My hood was locked down, but, as
I recalled Tony’s words, I knew there was plenty that could be done
to a vehicle from the exterior.

I hadn’t taken ten steps when Evan
opened his door and got out. “Leese,” he called my name softly, but
I just kept walking. He caught up to me but kept his distance. “I’m
sorry,” he said as he jammed his hands down into his pockets. “I
was a real jerk toward you yesterday.”

My heart was crumbling at the sincerity
of his words. I looked over at him and realized that he looked
about as rough as I felt. “Tough night last night?” I
questioned.

“
Yeah,” he responded. “I
almost went home.”

That stopped me in my tracks. I
suddenly felt very foolish for believing he could have damaged my
car. “Evan, I’ve got a problem with you.” I watched his eyebrows go
up. “I—I like you, but I don’t want to.”

“
Any particular reason why
you don’t want to like me?” he shrugged.

“
Yeah—because—I’m—I’m a liar
and I absolutely hate it.”

“
You’re
a liar
? About what?” His voice
sounded strained.

“
I wish I could tell you,
but I can’t. All I can say is that I hope we can still be friends
when this is over with because I really do like you.”

His hand slipped out of his pocket and
wrapped around my shoulder in one fluid movement. He gave me a warm
squeeze, saying it was okay. That was all it took for the tears to
pour down my cheeks.

“
I’m sorry,” I muttered as I
fished for a tissue. His other arm wrapped around me and I suddenly
found myself with my face buried against his warm chest. I felt his
hand reach up and stroke my hair over and over. I liked being in
his arms, it felt safe. “I was such a jerk to you. I don’t know how
you can forgive me.”

He pushed me back a little and looked
at me. “I was just as much of a jerk as you were. I guess I can
forgive you because I really like you, too,” he smiled.

We resumed walking and he kept one arm
draped over my shoulders. It felt like heaven, but once again I
figured this was taking a step closer to what I’d been trying to
avoid from the beginning. I stopped and stepped away from him,
turning back toward Jewels’ car. “Hey, have you seen Jewels this
morning? She almost always waits for me.”

His face spread into a wide grin. “I
have bad news for you.”

My heart skipped a beat, yet I was
puzzled by the smile.

“
I’m not the FOTM
anymore.”

It took a second for it to click in my
head. “A new guy?”

“
Yeah, he climbed out of
that ‘78 Trans Am Firebird. She totally lost it. It was like she
didn’t even hear me.”

I started laughing as I told him she
had done the same thing when he appeared a few days ago. “She
almost ripped my arm out of the socket,” I said, faking a still
sore shoulder.

“
Me too,” he chuckled,
rubbing his arm.

I made a point to stay out of arms
reach. Not that I wanted to, but I knew I had to.

I walked into English class and found,
to my surprise, a new guy standing at Mr. Shultz’s desk. Well, I
could certainly see what set Jewels off, besides his cool car. This
guy must have been at least 6’3” with a thin but muscled build. His
hair was jet-black, which left me wondering if it could possibly be
dyed because I’d never seen hair truly that black. He was wearing
an equally black tee-shirt and blue jeans. His left arm had a
barb-wire tattoo around his bicep, a smaller tattoo at his wrist
and, as far as I could see, his right arm had a large colorful
tattoo. My first thought was that when he turned around he would
have piercings all over his face, but to my shock when he turned
around all he had was a diamond stud in one ear and the most
electrifying blue eyes on the planet. Once again, I figured they
couldn’t be natural, they had to be contacts, but they were
gorgeous. I was expecting to see a leather jacket slung over one
arm, because he had this whole tough-guy, James Dean thing going
on.

He looked right at me and flashed an
impressive white smile. I blushed and looked away trying to
remember that it isn’t polite to stare.

Kevin gave a little groan beside me,
“Not you too,” he whispered.

I wondered what he meant until I looked
over at Carlie. She was all googly-eyed and flushed with color as
she stared at the new guy. Poor, Kev.

The new guy walked to the seat behind
me and slid in quietly.

“
Hi,” he said leaning
forward, “I’m Ryan.”

I turned and noticed he had offered his
hand. I took it awkwardly and smiled, “Annalisa,” I tried to say it
quietly enough not to cause Mr. Schultz to look our way. I turned
back around and grabbed my book, hoping to lose myself in a little
Poe.

“
All right,” Mr. Schultz
began, “We left off yesterday with Annalisa’s beautiful reading
of
The Raven
…”

I slid down slightly in my
seat.

“
Today we are going to break
into groups of two or three. I want you to discuss symbolism in the
poem. Don’t be afraid to be daring. I need at least five paragraphs
by the end of class.”

I looked to Kevin and he had already
grabbed Carlie and, even though she was looking toward Ryan, she
settled in beside Kevin. Before I could say, “I’ll work with you
two,” I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“
So Annalisa, you do
a
beautiful
reading of Poe?” He was looking up at me through some wisps of
black hair that had fallen forward.

I rolled my eyes and shrugged, “I was
in a strange mood yesterday; strange works for Poe.”

He swept the hair back with his hand
and gave a little grin, “Really? How’s the mood this morning? If
it’s still strange, you could give me a reading before we
start.”

“
No,” I refused a little too
quickly. “Maybe I’m a little depressed, but nothing strange today.”
All I could think was that there was no way I was going to read
poetry to this guy, especially not with everyone listening to a
personal performance.

“
I think Poe wrote most of
his best works while depressed. Are you sure you don’t want to
read?”

“
Symbolism,” I stated,
ignoring his question. “What did the raven symbolize?”

“
So why are you depressed?
Did you break up with your boyfriend?”

“
Evan’s not my boyfriend,” I
retorted.

“
Who’s Evan?”

“
Ah! That is none of your
business.”

“
You’re the one who
mentioned his name,” he said, clearly enjoying my
frustration.

“
I think the Raven
symbolized his broken heart for Lenore,” answering my own
question.

He didn’t say anything at first; he
just leaned closer to me. I responded by leaning the other
way.

“
One more thing and then we
can study. It’s a simple yes or no question.”

“
Fine.” I crossed my arms
and waited.

He gave me that ‘come closer’ signal
with his index finger as he lowered his head and leaned
forward.

I knew whatever was going to come out
of his mouth would be quiet, so (like an idiot) I bent forward to
hear him.

He spoke so quietly that I couldn’t
understand. “What,” I whispered back. Our faces were now inches
apart.

“
Do—you—have—a—boyfriend?

The partial smile fell off my
face.

“
It’s just a yes or no
question,” he reminded me.

“
Why?” I wasn’t going to
give him the satisfaction of providing an answer.

“
You have a sexy voice, a
beautiful face, I love long hair and—well, you’re kinda funny. Do
you want to go out with me?”

That hit me like a bomb. I wondered if
he could possibly know my financial status, because that sounded
like a Palm Beach pickup line. He was going to make it impossible
to do the Poe assignment. “What are your plans after high school
graduation?”

He seemed to like my odd response.
“I’ll be in the air force academy.”

“
Can you flunk high school
and still get into the academy?”

His mouth closed and opened again.
“Huh?”

“
This is an AP class and we
have an assignment. Got it?”

“
It represents his hopes and
dreams for the future being destroyed.” He caved.

I grabbed my pen and finally found my
smile.

After thirty minutes of
intensely scrutinizing
The
Raven
, I felt we’d done a good job. He had
different opinions about the poem than I did, but that was okay
because Mr. Schultz said he wanted uniqueness not a consensus. The
only problem was that I was mentally exhausted, because keeping
Ryan at bay and on task was like a tough game of chess.

I was looking forward to going to psych
class just so I could relax. The only good thing was that it had
been challenging enough to keep me from thinking about my problems
at home, Evan, or even the mystery of what had happened to my car
yesterday.

The bell rang and I wearily rose from
my seat.

“
Hey,” Ryan said, catching
my arm. “Can you tell me how to get to 3-101?”

I snatched the schedule from his hands
and looked at it in disbelief; he had Psych II next.

I survived psych, but only due to the
fact that the two available seats were nowhere near mine. He had
the nerve to ask a couple people if they would trade seats so he
could sit beside me, but Doctor Moss overheard and informed Ryan
that the seats in her class were assigned; no one would be
moving.

Although we didn’t have our next class
together, I knew we’d have the same lunch period. If I were lucky,
I’d get there before him and our table would be full.

Evan actually met me at the cafeteria
door and asked me if I was doing better. He was being impossibly
sweet today, so different from his attitude yesterday afternoon. I
told him yes, but that I was honestly so tired that I had dozed off
in my economics class. I’m sure he figured my exhaustion was due to
my restless night last night (which was a big reason). But what he
didn’t know was that I’d burned the last of my energy fending my
‘I’m not looking for a boyfriend,’ attitude against Ryan’s
onslaught first period. To tell the truth, I don’t think Ryan was
used to a girl turning him down. They probably all melted like
butter in his hands, so I’m sure I was an oddity.

Evan and I went through the line and
sat at the usual table. Kevin, Carlie, and Natasha were already in
place. Jewels usually flitted around the room, doing her
social-butterfly routine, but not today. It was starting to bother
me that I hadn’t seen her, but I shouldn’t have worried because she
had simply been out Ryan hunting. She came through the doors with
him on her arm like she was showing off a new piece of jewelry. I
started to duck my head behind Evan’s shoulder, which was more than
adequate to hide me, but it was too late, he spotted me. I thought
Jewels would spend most of the period making introductions, but
apparently Ryan had other plans as they reached our table in record
time.

“
Hey everybody,” Jewels
bubbled over. “This is Ryan Faultz. Ryan, this is Natasha Green,
and…”

“
Kevin and Carlie, right?”
Ryan beat Jewels to the intro. “They’re in my English class,” he
added.

“
Oh,” Jewels said, suddenly
making the connection, “Then you must know Leese.”

I watched his lips turn at
the corners in a slow smile, “No, I don’t know
Leese
…”

I thought for a moment he was going to
be cool about the fact that I was sitting beside a guy with twice
his muscle mass and a protective stare, but I should have known
better.

“
But I do know the lovely
Annalisa. We have chemistry…” he paused.

What the crap was he talking about! My
eyes went large as I gave him the ‘I’d really like to slap you’
stare. Everyone, including Jewels, was silent for a split
second.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see
Evan set down his sandwich, brush his palms together once, and push
himself away from the table.