Betwixt, Before, Beyond (12 page)

"I can just do it on my own. You go to class."

"It'll take you way too long to walk there." He glances at his paper. "And if Nicholas Evans is the guy I'm thinking of, he lives even further away."

He folds away the paper with a sigh and buries it in his pocket. "We don't have time to mess around."

"But you can't play hooky. I don't want you to get in trouble."

A soft smile brushes his lips. "It's okay,
Nicky. I can handle trouble."

"But—
"

"Let's go."

He crouches from his spot and pulls out his keys. I follow him to his car and we duck inside.

We don't say anything as we make our way to Adam's house. I notice Dale's initial speed is wearing off the closer we get to the Hutton home.

"I might park a block or so away," he mumbles. "We can sneak in around the back."

"Okay." I nod and follow his direction once we park.

Shutting the door quietly, he looks to the ground and starts walking. "Let's get this over with."

I want to hold his hand as we walk, but they are jammed tight in his pockets. We weave our way into the
woods and find a small track that winds back up the hill towards the road. I listen to Dale's reluctant steps.

I shouldn't be making him do this. Adam
's his only friend at school...except for Sophie, I guess.

An unsanctioned jealousy rips through me. Squeezing my fingers into fists, I try to block images of Dale holding her hand and kissing her goodnight after youth group. My mind doesn't play fair and the images keep coming back to me. The part I can't take my eyes off is Dale's happy smile. He deserves to be in class right now, acing everything. He deserves a sweet girl like Sophie who will adore him.

What he doesn't deserve is me. If he knew the truth, he wouldn't be doing this.

"Stop."

Dale halts his next step and turns to face me.

"You don't have to do this. You should just go back to school."

"We're here now. I'm not going back."

"But I don't deserve this, Dale."

"Deserve what?"

I open my mouth to tell him, but can't. Instead I feebly utter, "Life."

Dale's face drops with a compassionate frown. I close my eyes against it.

"I don't know what you think you've done to have the right to talk like that, but whether you like it or not, I'm finding you."
He slowly turns back towards Adam's house and keeps walking.

My story rests on the end my tongue, but I can't make myself tell it. Dropping my head, I follow Dale the last few steps of the track and come to rest outside the Hutton's garage.

Chapter Twenty-Three

I morosely gaze at the wooden structure. I almost don't want to know what's inside. The feeling in my gut is pulsing with strength. What if it's true? Will it crush Dale completely?

I reach for his hand and try to squeeze it, but he moves away before I can. Placing his hands on the high window ledge, he pulls himself up to look in the window, but can't quite see.

"Anything?"

He drops down with a huff. "No, there's a sheet blocking the window." He musses his curls and flicks them out of his face.

I follow him around to the back door, which he tries to yank open. The door bangs back and forth against a barrier.
"There must be a bolt across the door."

We walk around to the front and he tries
lifting the garage door, but it's useless.

"There's no way in. We should just go. There's probably no car in there anyway."

"Then why is there a sheet covering the window?" Dale curses softly and shakes his head. His body goes still and he looks at me. "You could go through the wall."

"What?" I step away from him. "No way!"

"Nicole. You have to."

"No, I don't!" My breaths quicken as I pace around him, knowing he's right. "You want me to put my face through a wall."

"Of course I don't want you to, but I can't see any other way. You've walked through other stuff."

"This is different!"

"How?"

"It's like a thick building wall, not some thin partition or piece of glass. What if I get stuck in the middle!
"

Dale shoots me a pitiful frown. "You won't get stuck."

"Yeah, because I'm not doing it."

"Then you have just wasted our morning." He throw
s his hands up. "I'm not willing to accuse my friend without proof."

"I can't do it."

"Yes you can."

"No, I really can't."

"Nicole. Get your ass through that wall. Do it!"

I step back and cross my arms
, firing some pretty decent eye-bolts at him. He's looking straight at me. Man, I wish he could see them.

"For the record," I say quietly as I step towards the garage. "I really don't like you."

"For the record, I really don't care."

"Liar," we both say in unison before breaking into broad smiles.

Dale's expression softens as he moves towards me. "I know you can do this. Just take a breath, close your eyes and walk straight ahead."

"How do
you know I'm facing the garage?"

"Just a hunch." He shrugs.

I pull in a few shaky breaths then let my arms flop to my side.

"You can do it," Dale says one more time as I stretch my hand towards the wall.

My fingers go straight through the wood and instinct pulls them out again.

"Close your eyes," Dale reminds me.

I do as I'm told and start walking forward.

I can't feel anything so open my eyes to see where I'm up to. I gasp as I realize I'm standing inside the wall. With a little wail, I push myself through.

"Gross! Gross! Gross! Gross! Gross!" I jump around the room like I've just walked through a cobweb.

"Are you in?"
Dale calls from outside.

"Yeah." I turn to look behind me and notice a car covered with a huge calico cloth. I'm pretty sure it's Adam's Mustang, but we'd have to pull the sheet off to know for sure.

"Okay, Nicky, now unbolt the door and let me in."

I walk towards it and look at the lock. Thankfully the bolt isn't padlocked. I reach to pull it open, but my air fingers are useless.

"I can't. My fingers go straight through."

"Nicky." Dale is leaning against the outside door. I hear him taking a slow breath, forcing
himself not to lose it with my incompetent self. "If you can flick paper, you can open this lock. Now concentrate."

I close my eyes. "Don't sound so patronising, please."

"What do you want me to say? Open the damn lock?"

I grin. "Yeah, that would be good."

Dale snorts out a laugh. "Man, I..."

My eyes go wide as he swallows back his words. "You what?"

"Nothin'," he whispers. "Just open the damn lock."

"Alright fine, but give me a minute and don't talk." I lift my chin. "I need to concentrate."

A soft thud sounds on the other side of the door, followed by an exasperated sigh. I squash my grin and focus on the lock.

It feels like it takes forever, but bit by bit, I manage to move the bolt until finally it comes free. I stand back from the door.

"Okay, it's unlocked."

Dale turns the latch and pushes it open with his shoulder. Light floods into the room.

Looking at his watch, Dale grins at me. "Ten minutes. Not bad Air Fingers."

"Thanks," I mutter.

Dale's humor vanishes as he notices the car beside us. Lifting the sheet, we spot the midnight blue paint. I gaze at his deep frown lines as he slowly pulls the sheet off. Without saying a word, he squats down by the right bumper, running his hands along it then glancing up at the wing mirror. I don't need to see it to know what it looks like; Dale's face is screaming the truth.

"I'm sorry, Dale."

He shakes his head and stands up, kicking the lower bumper. I move to stand next to him and notice the scratch marks. I run my finger over the slight dent.

"That's where he must have hit me."

"You talking about the dent?"

"Yeah."

I guess I should be feeling happy that we know who it is now. Adam knows where I am, so Dale can now find me. But a quiet sadness settles around us. I don't envy Dale, in fact my heart is breaking for him as I watch his eyebrows bunch together and his brown eyes swirl with disappointment.

"What do you want to do now?"

"Head back to school." He shakes his head. "Kick Adam's butt then make him take me to where you are."

"Okay." I nod. "Should we
—"

A ring tone whistle cuts my sentence short.

"Do you hear that?"

Dale looks at me then stops to listen. "Whistling?"

"Ringtone." Fear clips my word, making it come out short and sharp.

Dale's eyes round with surprise and he scrambles to cover the car as we hear the one voice we never expected.

"Sheriff Hutton speaking."

"What?" I can't believe it. He knew. He knew where I was this whole time.

"Yeah. Can it wait
?.... No, no I understand.... Uh-huh.... Look just give me ten minutes and I'll be there.... Yep.... Yep.... Okay, bye." The sheriff lets out a short curse then I hear him dialling another number.

Dale waves to get my attention then points to the door.

"Shouldn't we cover the car first?"

He shakes his head and mouths, "Too much noise."

"Where are you?" The sheriff sounds pissed. "I told you to meet me there this morning and you took off to school." Footsteps draw near to the garage as his voice gets louder. "This is your mess, son. And I'm helping you out of it. Now I have to head into the station, but as soon as I'm done, you better be outside school waiting for me."

The call ends with a definitive beep.

Dale is just about to step out the back door and make a run for it when Sheriff Hutton appears.

"What the hell?"

Dale steps back. Fear flutters over his features before he pulls his face into a hard glare.

"What are you doing in here?" The sheriff looks over Dale's shoulder and spots Adam's car fully exposed. His face blanches and his eyes grow wide.

Grabbing Dale by the collar he pulls him outside. "You're trespassing son and I won't tolerate that kind of behavior!"

"Let him go!" I try to loosen the sheriff's grip on Dale, but he doesn't even feel me. Throwing Dale against the car, he pulls out his cuffs.

"What are you doing?"

Dale doesn't say anything as his wrists are bound with the cold
metal, he just has this really dark look on his face.

"Looks like you and me are gonna have ourselves a little trip to the station."

Opening the back door of the squad car, Sheriff Hutton shoves Dale inside.

Dale slumps back in his seat and closes his eyes. His scar burns red and he looks like he wants to throw up.

This is all my fault.

Shit! What do I do?

The car starts to pull away from me and I do the only thing I can think of. Picking up my pace, I run straight into the backdoor and land in Dale's lap. If he's going to jail then so am I.

Chapter Twenty-Four

"You've been in one of these before, haven't you?"

I gaze down at Dale. He's sitting on the cold bench of a jail cell with his head in his hands. His curls are covering his face and he hasn't looked up once since he's been thrown in here.

His curls bounce as he nods at my question.

I sit down beside him. "I thought you said you were never caught."

"Yeah, well..." Dale sits up. "Maybe I didn't want you knowing I had a criminal record." He thumps his head against the concrete wall and curses. "My parents are going to get a call asking them to come and collect their son from the police station." Squeezing his nose, he shakes his head. "I promised them it would never happen again."

"This isn't your fault."

"It doesn't matter. I just don't want them to get that call. I can see my mother's expression and hear Dad's disappointed sigh. I used to hate that sound." He thumps his head again. "I should have run as soon as I heard that phone ring."

"He probably still would have caught you."

He ignores my comment and drills the cell bars with his dark glare.

Dale had been like this since the Sheriff yanked him out of the garage by his collar. It was really disconcerting. I
could handle irritated Dale...and thoughtful Dale...I was even getting used to sweet, disarming Dale, but darkly pensive Dale was a little scary.

I think back to the ride in here.

The Sheriff kept looking in the
rearview mirror, making snide remarks.

"I knew you'd slip back into your old ways eventually. I've read your record, boy. I know all about your thievin'."

Dale kept staring out the window, not rising to any of the taunts.

"What were you trying to take from my place, huh?
My son's car? You were going to take the Mustang for a joy ride, weren't you?"

The Sheriff's mocking nastiness was so uncalled for. I couldn't help wondering if he was laying it on so thick, because he wanted to get Dale out of the way.

I gazed into the rearview mirror, trying to catch a decent look at Sheriff Hutton's eyes.

It was only when he started demanding Dale
explain his presence by Adam's car that I noticed a lick of fear in his expression.

"What do you know
?!" His voice started to rise as he sped towards the station. "You better start talking, boy."

He slammed the brakes hard and Dale lurched forward, only just managing to stop his face from slamming into the seat in front of him.
With the dignity of a king, he quietly repositioned himself and continued to glare at the back of Sheriff Hutton's head.

Everyone looked at him as he was dragged into the station. The deputy didn't ask any questions as he watched Dale being hauled towards the cell. The bars slammed, followed by the definitive click of the lock.

The Sheriff's eyes narrowed as he gazed at Dale. "You just sit tight, champ. I'll be back soon."

He hasn't come back. I look at my watch. We have been stuck in here for thirty minutes. Time is ticking away and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I think of the Sheriff collecting Adam from school then driving out to where my body is.

Where will they bury me?

A myriad of possibilities scatter through my brain. They have every chance of getting away with this.

But what about Dale?
I look across at him and wonder what his future holds.

How will the Sheriff silence him?

My imagination explodes with images more torturous than the next... Dale incarcerated for a crime he didn't commit, Dale getting beaten up in prison, Dale having to face his parents' shame and disappointment...or the worst of all, Dale lying next to me in a hidden plot made for two.

I wrap my arms around myself to try and stop the shudders wracking my body.

My eyes well with tears.

"This is my fault. You've only ever been good t
o me and all I've done is ruin your life."

Dale slowly turns in the direction of my voice. His expression is a little broken and I turn away from it.

Tears make my voice tremble. "I'm so sorry for the way I've treated you. I'm sorry for Scarface. I'm sorry for getting you messed up in this."

"It was my choice."

"No it wasn't. A guy with a heart like yours can't walk away from someone in need." I slip off the seat and kneel at his feet. "You are so good, Dale and I'm not." A sob catches in my throat. "I should never have chased you down that hallway and demanded you help me, I should have left you alone." I gulp back my sob. "I wish I'd just died when Adam hit me. It would have been better for everybody."

"Don't say that." I look up to see his aching expression. He reaches out to where he thinks I'm sitting. I want to touch him. I want to wrap my hand in his, but instead I stand and move away.

"I have no right...I'm sorry, Dale. I'm so, so sorry." I sniff and try to rest my head against the bars of the cell. It keeps slipping through so I move back and just stand still.

"Nicky," Dale whispers, "you don't need my forgiveness. You need yours."

I look over at him. He's trying to pinpoint where I'm standing, trying to look into my eyes.

"You think you know me, but you don't. You don't know what I've done. I can't change the past and I can't forgive myself. This is just karma catching up with me."

"Tell me what happened."

I open my mouth then clamp it closed.
"I can't."

"Look, whatever it is, I swear I don't care. It won't change how I feel about you."

I pace to the other side of the cell. "It will... and it should."

"Did my joy riding change your thoughts about me?"

"That's different. You've made something of your life."

"And you'll make something of yours." He stands to join me, but I squish myself into the corner so he can't find me.

"You should forget you ever heard me, Dale."

"I'll never be able to, Nicky, and you know it."
He tucks a curl back from his face. He thinks he's looking at me, but his direction is a little off. I don't want to correct him. If he actually catches me with that gaze of his, I'll crumble.

No, I have made up my mind. This is over.

"You have to tell people the truth. You need to make sure the Sheriff doesn't pin anything dodgy on you."

"Nicole, you have to get me out of here. The only way I can prove my innocence is by finding you."

I hate that he's right.

"I just want this to be over. I should just go and you need to tell everyone the truth. I know they'll think you're crazy, but the truth will set you free, right? I mean isn't that the saying?" My voice is pitching high as I climb towards hysteria.

"Stop talking," Dale orders. "Just shut up for a second."

I close my mouth.

He gives me a moment for my usual rebuttal, but I don't give it. He nods and swallows. "Why do you think I can hear you?"

"I have no idea." I throw my hands in the air. Hysteria dances in my belly, making me giggle. 

Dale steps right up to me and aims pretty well. Placing his arms on the cell walls, he captures me in the corner. He waits until my obnoxious titter dies down, which doesn't take very long with his face so close to mine.

"You're supposed to survive this."

"You don't know that."

"Maybe I do. Maybe this is why G
od kept me alive in that car...for this situation right here."

"I don't believe in God."

Dale's face softens with a smile. "He believes in you."

"You don't get it." I push against him, wanting to break free. My hands whistle through his ribcage and he shivers.

"I don't need to get anything." He leans in so close I can't help looking into his eyes. "I like you."

"No, you don't, you put up with me."

"No," he chuckles. "I really like you." The blush lighting his cheeks, makes me wonder if he's actually telling the truth. "The first time I saw you, you took my breath away. You were one of the reasons I wanted to stop home schooling and go back to high school."

"What?"

He blushes. "I used to see you out my bedroom window sometimes and I wanted to meet you so bad. I was seriously nervous the first time I said hello to you. I thought you were so beautiful, but then you opened your mouth."

"Hey!"

He grins. "Let me finish." He licks his bottom lip. "I wanted to be put off by you. I didn't want you to be worth the effort. You were so irritating."

"You know, you're really not selling this."

"I'm not done. Now shut your mouth." He gently smiles. "In spite of myself, I couldn't stop watching you and I remember this one day near the start of the year. You were really antsy and completely lost it with this guy in the cafeteria. You told him to suck it and threw a glass of orange juice in his face."

I cringe remembering the scene all too clearly.
Amber's crush. The guy I slept with. I couldn't get over my guilt and he wouldn't leave me alone, kept wanting a repeat.

"I found you an hour later crying in one of the music suites. You were hiding behind a drum kit. The second I saw
you, I knew you had a heart and it restored all my faith in you. It was kind of hard not to like you after that. All your snide remarks can be pretty transparent."

I swallow down the lump in my throat.

"I wanted to impress you so bad and when I found your iPod, I thought it was my chance."

Self-loathing swamps me. "I still can't believe I called you Scarface."

"Yeah." Dale shakes his head. "I guess it was kind of the last straw for me. I figured any more chances weren't worth it...but I was wrong."

He tentatively leans forward, reaching out his hand to touch my cheek. The urge to turn away is overruled by the power of his eyes. Before I can stop myself, I lean into his hand and rest my cheek in his palm. Dale's eyes glimmer with a smile. "This is my chance and I'm not going to screw it up. So Nicole, get me
the hell out of this cell so I can find you."