Broken (3 page)

I'd expected the shallow, narcissistic eyes
of a runway model. Instead, the eyes that connected with mine
somehow hinted at depths I'd never even imagined existed.

My lips, acting of their own volition,
started to pull back in a tentative smile, but before they could
complete the action, the heart wrenching eyes narrowed. The
emotions swooping across the surreal face were too quick to
identify, but the way he turned slightly away as he passed all but
proved they'd been a close cousin to distaste.

Chapter 3

For a moment I was too busy mentally flogging
myself to hear Britney's question.

"Have you been to Vegas yet?"

"No, we just got here last night." And I've
been too busy making doe eyes at gorgeous boys who are completely
out of my league to do anything like take a shopping trip.

Britney perked up at my
answer. "We 
so
 have to go down there soon. It's the only place within
an hour and a half where you can do any decent
shopping."

Normally the prospect of driving for hours to
watch someone else spend money I didn't have, sounded roughly as
appealing as laying out naked at the pool until I had second degree
burns on my whole body. Then again, maybe burns wouldn't be so bad
if they let me disappear into the anonymity of a large crowd in an
actual city rather than dealing with hick hostility.

"That sounds great; I can't wait to get out
of this stupid town."

A couple of people started a bit, and I heard
a locker slam shut with surprising force. The eavesdroppers were
predictably pissed I was dissing their home, but I didn't care. It
served them right. Don't listen in if you aren't prepared to hear
something you won't like. As long as my comments hadn't offended my
new pseudo friend, I was just fine.

Britney laughed, "You said
it. There is 
so
 nothing to do here. You can't even go hiking
anymore..."

I'd already realized Britney wasn't the type
to think twice before words actually left her mouth. Curious.

"What do you mean we can't go hiking?"

She was looking around at the other students.
"Nothing, come on. We're going to be late for class."

I followed without a word, even more
intrigued now. 'Cool' people don't sweat tardiness and Britney
really wanted to be cool.

A slender, frumpy-looking woman looked up
from her desk as Britney and I walked in. I held up my form, which
she took without reading it. "No doubt something to ensure I know
you're my newest student. Sit over there where you won't distract
Britney from just how poorly she's doing in my class. There's an
extra book on the shelves in the back."

Britney rolled her eyes as she went to her
assigned desk, but I suspected she was actually relieved we'd been
split up. Mrs. Campbell didn't seem like the kind of teacher you
could get away with ignoring, so I retrieved an algebra book from
the back of the room and sat at my desk.

Any thoughts about finding out why hiking was
off limits quickly melted away once class started. Math had never
been my favorite subject. I'd always managed to pull A's or at
least A-'s, but hated all of the little nit-picky rules.

Unfortunately, after missing a whole month of
classes, I was at least as bad off in Algebra as I was in Biology.
Mrs. Campbell was solving problems with so many variables in them
it was like watching alphabet soup spontaneously re-arrange itself
on her overhead projector. Not only that, things were being squared
and cubed, an operation with which I had only passing
familiarity.

I struggled valiantly to understand what was
going on. I got the sense the operations being applied to the
formulas were being explained very well, I just didn't have the
vocabulary to follow what she was saying.

By the time class finally ended I was
fighting not to become emotional. The fact that Britney looked for
a moment like she was debating whether or not to wait for me before
finally stopping next to the door with her arms crossed, didn't
help.

I threw my book and binder into my backpack
and tromped up to the front of the classroom. Mrs. Campbell looked
up when I reached her desk. "Here's your form, among other
things."

I verified that the top sheet had her
signature on it, and then turned to go. She didn't let me get very
far.

"From your bewildered expression during class
it appears you aren't transferring in from another school. I expect
most of your other teachers are just letting you pick up from where
they are now. I'm afraid this class builds on itself, so I'll be
testing you on everything we've covered in the past month. I'm sure
you've got a full class load, but we haven't gotten into anything
truly difficult yet. The sooner we get you caught up, the better
off you'll be. Shall we say a month from today?"

The prospect of trying to catch up, all the
while needing to master new material and deal with a full schedule
of other classes was too much, I felt tears rising to the surface
even as my heartbeat sped up to near-panic attack levels. That was
the last thing I needed, but I could only fight off so many worries
at once, and I was quickly approaching my limits.

"Now don't come unglued on me. The school has
set aside some discretionary funds for a math tutoring lab after
school every day. We're not fully staffed yet, but if you swing by
we should be able to help clear up any questions you might have.
You'll have to do the majority of the work. I expect you to
actually read your math book, but if you give it an honest effort
I'm sure you'll be just fine."

That helped a little. It was still a daunting
prospect, but knowing I had somewhere to turn for help comforted me
more than I would have expected. I mustered a half-hearted grin and
followed Britney out into the hall.

"She's a complete monster. None of the other
teachers are nearly as strict as Campbell. Making you catch up on
all that homework is ridiculous."

My silence seemed to leave my new friend at a
loss for words. I guess she was used to people agreeing with
everything she said. I didn't like to lie though, so when I didn't
agree with someone I tended not to say anything. I guess I didn't
think my new task was as unreasonable as it'd first appeared?

"On the plus side, at least we'll both be at
the math lab together. I've had to spend an hour there every
evening since Dad found out I had the class low on the first test.
Stupid Internet. I can't believe they give our parents an account
where they can see how we do on every test."

Britney had my sympathy there. Nobody liked
their parents knowing too much about their school life, academic or
otherwise. "Wow, they talked about doing that at my last school,
but I wouldn't have expected a town this small to have something
like that implemented."

We dropped our books off and started towards
the cafeteria. Being back at my locker, back where I'd seen Mr.
Gorgeous, made me wonder about him. Britney had to ask me a
question twice before I realized she'd been talking.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something."

"Hmm, what distracted you?"

I debated dodging the question, but it was
normal to talk about boys. "There was a guy and a girl that walked
by earlier when we were at your locker."

A knowing look flashed across Britney's face.
"Oh, their royal highnesses Alec and Jasmin. They're pretty
distracting alright, but don't waste your time. They'll never waste
a thought on you or me, or pretty much anyone."

The way she said their names implied they
were a couple. Even if they weren't, she was probably right about
not getting my hopes up. Especially considering the way Alec had
looked at me there at the end, but I couldn't stop a question from
slipping out. "They're together then?"

Britney smirked, "You really are masochistic
aren't you? That's the rumor. Nobody really seems to know, at least
nobody that's talking, but they're almost always together. You
really shouldn't go there; he's brutal when it comes to breaking
girls' hearts."

There was a story there, but I wasn't about
to ask now and expose myself to further ridicule.

Britney was oddly quiet as we entered the
lunch room. I was a little hungry, but the pangs were a distant
kind of discomfort. The real suffering for not eating wouldn't come
into play until we hit the tutoring lab. Oh well, when I got home
ravenous and ate a decent sized meal mom would probably be
ecstatic. Or too wrapped up in some project to even notice. It was
hard enough anticipating what I was going to do from day to day.
Trying to figure mom out was truly futile.

Being held up by Mrs. Campbell at least had
one advantage; the line for Britney to get food was nearly
non-existent. Britney was talking again, but it was still the kinds
of things I could respond to with half my attention. I took the
opportunity to get a good look at the cafeteria. It was incredibly
small. It was probably on its second generation of students, but
looked pretty good still. The linoleum floor was faded, but still
relatively clean, and the white paint on the walls was
conspicuously free of tags and gang signs.

The students even seemed to be mingling
fairly easily with each other. I actually kind of missed the feel
of armed camps. My school hadn't been bad compared to some stories
I'd heard from California, but there'd still been some kids beaten
pretty severely for crossing the wrong group of wannabe gang
members.

Britney had a piece of pizza, and looked like
she was eying a piece of cake until she noticed I was trailing
along behind her without a tray of my own. She actually sighed as
she passed the cake. The urge to giggle was so strong I uncapped my
water bottle and turned slightly to the side in an attempt to
disguise my amusement.

It was one of those moments I'd try to
reconstruct in my head again and again. I think I must have heard
the cash register till close, or maybe Britney said something.
Whatever the reason, I took a step in her direction while still
looking away, my bottle half raised, and ran into the biggest
Junior I'd ever seen.

My clumsiness would've been embarrassing
enough all by itself. Unfortunately my mostly-full bottle of water
splashed all over the guy too.

I felt my cheeks go hot. Britney gasped and
giggled. I silently told myself things were as bad as they were
going to get. I was wrong. The boy wasn't as cute as Alec, but he
was so close I could hear those cosmic scales being melted down
into something useless again. Paperweights maybe.

I didn't want to see the mess my water had
made of his shirt, so I started at the top and worked my way down.
I'd seen better hair in a couple of fashion magazines, but not very
many. Casually windswept, straight blond hair had become iconic
sometime in the last few years, and this boy either spent an hour
on his hair each morning, or the wind in Utah was kinder and
gentler than the wind in Minnesota. Kinder, and currently working
on its cosmetology license.

His skin was the perfect shade of tan,
lighter than Jasmin or Alec's, but perfectly suited to his lighter
hair tone. Friendly gray eyes perfectly spaced above some of the
most naturally looking white teeth I'd ever seen. My heart would
have started slowing down if I'd been sure the display of teeth was
a smile, but there was something about the expression that somehow
defied classification.

Gritting my teeth slightly I
let my gaze continue on down to assess the damage, only I couldn't.
I could see the wet spots on the shirt. My mind was classifying it
as a dark green polo with some kind of designer insignia but I
couldn't 
see
anything other than how huge he was. I'd seen linemen on high
school football teams who didn't have as broad of shoulders even
with pads. The shirt was snug enough to see that the rest of him
was built along the same lines. No wonder I'd bounced right off of
him, a small car would've probably done about the same
thing.

My blush deepened slightly as I realized I
was wondering what it would feel like to have those arms wrapped
around me. I jerked my gaze back up to the handsome face just in
time to see the expression settle into a genuine smile.

"I'm so sorry. I should have been
watching..."

He gently cut me off with a gesture. "No,
please. It was entirely my fault. I shouldn't have tried to squeeze
past you like that."

The smile was still there. That had to be a
good sign. Usually when people said something nice and didn't mean
it their smiles only lasted as long as they were speaking. I tried
a tentative smile in return and his widened slightly.

"I'm Brandon."

Feeling more than a little nervous, I allowed
him to capture my right hand in his.

"I'm Adr...Adriana."

Our handshake had ended, but my hand was
tingling slightly. It was a pleasant, if illusionary, reminder of
the contact, one I was hoping would last for about the next three
days.

"You must be the poor soul who's got everyone
buzzing with curiosity."

Brandon reached into the tall, glass-fronted
fridge next to the cashier while he was talking, and pulled out a
bottle of water and one of those aggressively-colored energy
drinks. He slipped some money to the cashier while I was still
trying to come up with a response that didn't sound stupid.

"Um, yeah. We just got into town last
night."

He handed me the bottle of water. "Well I
hope you'll like it here."

"Wait, what's this for?"

The grin was back, and the perfect teeth were
still perfect. "I just made you spill yours, it's only fair."

Brandon nodded at Britney, who stood there
with her mouth slightly open, as he walked away.