Deceptive Cadence (20 page)

“Get away!”

“Let me see.”

He reached around me but I grabbed his hand. He simply redirected his focus and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me against him. I caught my breath as I felt his on my lips. He stroked my hair, before resting his hand on my neck as his thumb stroked my cheekbone. “You’re so easy. Just one touch and you’re gone.”

“Shut up.”

He smiled and kissed me. I clung onto him as he shifted the kiss into an open mouth motion and our tongues touched. His arm around me pulled me closer.

“Cadence.” I jumped and pulled away at Mum’s warning tone. My cheeks warmed as she shook her head at me. “Aren’t you supposed to be studying?”

“Yeah.” I pushed James off.

“James.”

He cleared his throat, hurried over to my desk, and sat.

We ran through all the bones and major muscle groups. He kept ruffling his hair as he struggled to remember the muscles. “How do
you
remember all this stuff?”

My area of study at university had been Sport Science, so bones and muscles came easily for me.

I shrugged. “I dunno. I just like PE, I guess.”

“PE for you is kicking a ball around, with the occasional sex ed and drugs class. I wish I could do sex ed again.”

I giggled. “Did you even go to those classes?”

He scoffed. “Yeah, we liked to steal the condoms. It was one of the few classes we actually wanted to go to.”

“Condoms, huh?”

We turned to see Dad scowling by the door. I glanced at my clock. Six thirty. “So, you have a collection, do you? I hope you don’t intend on
using
them any time in the near future.”

“Crap.” James sunk his head.

“Yeah, boy, you better watch it.” Dad rested his hands on his hips. “I thought you were supposed to be studying.”

“We are,” I answered, waving James’ textbook in the air. “We’re just talking about the difference between my PE and his PE.”

Dad’s eyes narrowed on James. “Dinner’s ready.”

James shot out the door. Dad waited for me as I packed up.

“Dad, why do you have to make him so uncomfortable?” I asked.

He walked over and kissed my head. “I’m just keeping his boundaries clear.”

I wrapped my arm around his waist and nestled my head onto his chest. “Did you have a good day?”

He touched my hair. “I am now.”

I smiled and squeezed him.

At the table, Dusty sat right beside James, so close he practically sat on his lap. He rambled on and on as James listened patiently. I sat beside James and his hand rested on my knee. I looked into his face and sighed. Things couldn’t be much better. My family was all getting along, and I had an amazing, incredibly attractive boyfriend. If only I’d known the first time around what I was missing out on.

SIXTEEN

I pulled up my hockey socks. Second term had begun, and I’d just tried out for the girls’ field hockey team. I’d get in even though I didn’t play outside of school. The teachers loved having me on their teams because of my aggression on the field.

We used a public hockey field down the road from school, but since the tryouts had been after school hours, I stood waiting for James and Karen to pick me up. I tugged at my black sport shorts, hating how they only came halfway down my thighs. I was glad the dark blue hockey socks came to my knees so I felt a little covered.

I glanced back and saw the teacher still in the team box with some of the younger students. She wasn’t paying attention to much as she made notes on her clipboard.

A car pulled up in front of me. I turned, thinking James had arrived, but several sets of hands grabbed me and pulled me inside. Robbie held me down and covered my mouth.

“Hello, Cadence.”

I struggled against him, but he straddled me to keep me down. Several of the boys sat in the car, glaring at me.

“We’ve decided something,” Robbie said. “We’re going to strike a deal with you. We want James back, and you, well, I’m sure you don’t want that little friend of yours hurt, do you? What’s her name again? Geraldine?”

They snickered as my eyes widened. I struggled again but he shoved me hard into the seat.

“So, Princess, here’s what’s gonna happen. You dump James so I can have my best friend back, and I’ll let you keep
your
best friend. Fair’s fair, right?”

He released my mouth so I could speak. “What are you going to do to her?”

He smirked. “There’s lots we could do to her. We could beat her and her boyfriend, we could follow her home and leave little messages for her―”

“Okay, I get it.”

“So we have a deal, then.” His smirk widened. “Good. I expect James back with us by the end of the week.”

He opened the door and shoved me out.

I hit the edge of the gutter and ripped the skin off my knee. Wincing, I turned to look at it as they drove off. Once they’d gone, I allowed my tears to fall. I didn’t want to break up with James, but I couldn’t let those boys bully Geri.

I pulled my water bottle out of my bag to wash my wound as I sobbed. How could I choose between my two best friends? How could I drive James away and back to that life with those boys? What could I do?

I rubbed my eyes and tried to force my adult sensibility to surface. What would I have done when I was twenty-five? I definitely wouldn’t allow those boys to bully me. Would I tell the cops? No, that was so lame. This was teenage drama.

A car pulled up in front of me. I recoiled, afraid that Robbie had come back for a second round of threats. Instead, James burst out. “Cadence! What happened to you?”

I pulled my knees up and tucked my face away. I didn’t want to look at him knowing I might have to hurt him soon.

He sat beside me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Come on, talk to me.”

He knew I wouldn’t cry over a grazed knee. I’d held back tears over much worse. I shook my head, afraid I’d just blurt out something I’d regret.

He took my arm and helped me into the car. I sat in the back while he drove, staring out the window, my emotions in turmoil. No one would get physically harmed if I chose Geri, but James would be devastated. I couldn’t do that. I pictured the pain in his eyes if I did that to him. He had become more than a boyfriend—he was my best friend too. But so was Geri, and I kept running through every terrible thing they could possibly do to her.

We arrived at James’ house. Karen took me in to clean up and cover my wound. I sat in the family room with her beside me as I stuck a large square Band-Aid over it. She ran her hand over my ponytail as she watched me.

“Cadence, honey, you know you can talk to us if you need to. Especially James, he cares about you very much.”

A sob wrenched from my chest and I started crying all over again.

“Cadence, what happened?”

I shook my head and stood up. “I can’t.”

James walked in from his bedroom. In his eyes, I saw his concern for me, and more than anything, how much he cared about me. I turned away, unable to face him.

He grabbed me by the waist and clasped my chin, forcing me to look up into his eyes.
Oh those eyes
! So intense, so perfect. Tears streamed down my face as I shut my eyes, unable to look into his.

“Cadence, talk to me.” He had so much pain in his voice that my heart tore apart.

I threw my arms around him and sobbed into his chest. “James, I don’t want to end it with you. But if I don’t, they’ll go after Geri and she’ll get hurt and it will be my fault!”

Karen gasped as James’ breath caught. “What are you saying?”

“James, you mean so much to me, but I’m scared. I’m so sorry, but they’ll only leave her alone if I―”

“Who’s
they
, Cadence?”

I swallowed hard and clung onto him. “If you don’t go back to them they’ll hurt Geri.”

He clasped my face and forced me to stare him in the eyes. “Are you talking about Robbie?”

I closed my eyes again, the pain in my heart too strong.

“Mum, call the school,” James said. “Tell them that Geraldine Turner has been threatened by Robbie Cluff and they need to keep an eye on her.”

Karen leaped to her feet and rushed to the phone.

James softly kissed my cheek. “I’ll take care of this. It’s me they want. They’re just blaming you.”

“They told me I had to break up with you.”

“Don’t you even dare.” He held me tightly as he kissed my head. “I promise you, Cadence, I’ll take care of you and Geri. They won’t touch either of you again.”

Geri rested her head on Flynn’s shoulder. They had been together longer than he and I had, probably because she was far more into him than I ever was. I’d broken up with him just before the end of first term, but she was still going strong with him. She even told me she’d had her first kiss with him a few weeks earlier. She’d gone on and on about how perfect it was, while I smiled and forced aside how awkward I remembered it being.

“Cadence.”

I blinked. “Huh?”

“Stop staring at me like that.”

I giggled. “Sorry.”

She smiled, but then her face fell. She straightened and leaned back. “Cay . . .”

A hand wrapped around my braid.

“We had a deal, Princess,” Robbie said with a hiss in my ear.

I whimpered, glancing around for James. Instead, Robbie’s cronies closed in behind Geri and Flynn. One grabbed Geri by the hair and lifted her off the chair, while another shoved Flynn and forced his face onto the table.

“Geri!” I cried as they pulled her away.

“Shut up!” Robbie said. “We gave you fair warning.”

Flynn tried to force himself free, but another guy rushed over to hold him down. Geri screamed. Tears burst out of my eyes.

But then, Robbie’s hand on my hair jolted.

“I told you to leave them alone,” James said in a low voice. “Now let my girlfriend go.”

Robbie’s hand released my hair, but Geri screamed again.

“Tom!” James yelled.

“I’m on it.” James’ new best friend Tom dashed away after Geri.

“Robbie, we’ve talked about this.”

“No, we haven’t,” Robbie responded. “You’re so blinded by this stupid girl you’re not seeing things clearly. You abandoned your best friends for a
girl
, and a stupid little do-gooder at that! We shared everything, we were practically brothers!”

“Cadence is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. But you, all
you
were doing was dragging me down!”

Robbie swore at him and spat out all kinds of foul names for me. In return, James lost it and punched him in the face. Robbie stumbled onto me, pinning me against the table, but James wrenched him off and tossed him into the dirt.

“We’re
done,
Rob! Done! Unless you change your ways, I’ll never go back to you guys!”

Turning, I saw James standing over Robbie with his fists clenched, his ears reddening with rage. Robbie stared up at him, gaping, but then his expression darkened.

“No one does that to me!”

He launched up and grabbed James. I screeched as his fist struck James’ face. Robbie forced him to the ground beneath him, but James matched him in strength and he hit him across the jaw, knocking him to the side.

The sounds of struggling broke out behind me. I swung around to see Flynn hit the guy holding him while Brian and Justin dragged off the other guy. Tom shoved Geri down beside me as he rushed to James’ aid.

“Geri!” I turned her to face me. Her hair was messed up, but apart from that, she looked unharmed, just shaken. “Are you okay?”

She shook her head. “They forced drugs down my throat.”

I gasped. “Geri! Oh my gosh! We have to get you to the nurse!”

Her lip quivered. “I don’t even know what. What if they overdosed me? What if . . . ?” She turned green.

Realizing what was about to happen, I jumped back just in time to avoid having her lunch dumped all over me. Among the vomit lay three little white pills. Cringing, I plucked one up, grabbed her hand, and sprinted her away from the fight.

Geri lay on the bed in the sick bay while I dropped the pill into a Ziploc bag and washed my hands. When I came back to her, she had her hands over her face as tears streamed down her cheeks. I rushed to her side and dabbed at her tears with a tissue. “Geri, I’m so sorry.”

She didn’t pull her hands away, but her lip trembled.

“It’s my fault. I should have warned you after they threatened me. But when James confronted them and his mum called the school, I thought you’d be safe.” I stroked her arm. “Please look at me.”

She parted her fingers and her brown eye, all bloodshot from crying, stared up at me. “Is Flynn okay?”

I nodded.

“Do you know what they gave me?”

I shook my head. “But the first aid lady took it to get looked at.”

Her fingers closed over her eye. “I’m gonna get sick, aren’t I? Or start hallucinating or something.”

“I think you threw them up in time.”

She bit her lip and clenched her face.

“Geri, I feel like this is my fault. If I’d just dumped James like they said, maybe―”

Her hands flew off her face and she shot up beside me. She grabbed my wrists and stared fiercely into my eyes. “No, Cadence! You and James belong together. If you dumped him because of me, I’d hate you!”

I leaned back, startled. We stared into each other’s eyes for several moments, exchanging something, but I wasn’t really sure what. “This wasn’t your fault,” she said softly. “That Robbie is a giant jackass. If he’s really James’ best friend like he says, he would leave you alone and be happy for you like I am. That’s what a
real
best friend does.”

Tears burst from my eyes and I threw my arms around her. “I love you, Geraldine Turner.”

She clung onto me and buried her face in my hair. “I love you too, Cay-Cay.”

A tap on the door brought us out of our moment. We let go and turned to see Flynn, his hair tussled and his shirt half-hanging out. He scratched the back of his neck. “Hey, I just wanted to check on you guys. Your mum’s been called, Geri, and she’s coming to pick you up and take you to the hospital.”

He walked over and kissed my head before softly kissing Geri on the lips. "The fight just got broken up. All of the guys have been dragged into the rooms down the admin hallway. I just got let out with a warning."

“As you should!” Geri folded her arms. “You didn’t do anything other than defend yourself.”

“Yeah, but it’s not looking so good for James. Plenty of people are saying he started it.”

I bit my lip, wanting to go to him, but not wanting to leave Geri.

She sensed it and squeezed my hand. “Go, Cay.”

I looked into her eyes. “No, I should stay with you.”