Destiny (8 page)

“Yeah,
but we’re not usually invited to the parties.”

“Well,
I think we need to do something outside of the house to get seen a little. I’m
new, and I would love to see what the place has to offer. How about we crash
one of these parties?”

“I
don’t think that’s a good idea,” Stan said quickly.

“Trust
me. It is. We’re all in our teens here, and we’re not going to sit in this room
all night with no girls and no possibility of anything unpredictable happening,
are we?”

“We’ve
been to parties before, Eric. We just don’t enjoy them,” Mike said.

“Why
not? If it’s about the alcohol that’s going to be there, we don’t have to
drink. I just want to meet some new people and see how things are done here.”

“It’s
not about alcohol at all. We find that we’re basically invisible when we get
there, so we all end up hanging out together. Eventually, we just decided to
hang out here. Why go somewhere and be unnoticed when you can do it in the
comfort of your own home?”

“All
right, I get it. You just need a way to get noticed. I’m going to help all of
you out. Back in Miami, I used to go to a lot of stuff like this. If there’s one
thing I know how to do,
it’s get
noticed. What do you say?
Will you guys give it another shot?”

They
agreed to go, but I could tell that none of them actually wanted to. With no
enthusiasm, we piled into my car, and Mike directed me to a party that was
supposed to be a lot of fun. The guy who was throwing it was a senior, and his
name was Jason Watt. His parents had plenty of money, and they were the types
that a lot of kids thought of as cool parents. All that really meant was that
they provided alcohol for minors, though. Jason was one of the most popular
kids at that school, but it was only because of what he could provide for
people. Still, I welcomed the idea of free alcohol and meeting some new people.
Who knew? I might even run into Olivia. That would complete the night, as long
as I could stay away from Richard. That was probably going to be a challenge,
though. He seemed like the type of guy who would always be attached at the hip
with his girlfriend.

As
we pulled up to the house, I saw a sea of cars outside and heard music. I just
knew it was going to be fun. Looking back, I don’t know if I would describe it
as fun. It was certainly interesting, though. After that night, a lot changed
for all of us. Four invisible sixteen year olds walked into that house, and
four very noticeable men were going to walk out of it.

Chapter 8

Fight!

When
we went inside, I quickly got the guys involved in a few drinking games. I
figured it would loosen them up a little, and people can’t help but talk to you
when you’re involved in an active thing. It seemed to be working. They were
actually talking to people. Stan might have been enjoying his drink a little
too much, but I wasn’t judging. I was just glad to be there instead of sitting
in Mike’s bedroom.

Time
passed slowly as I sipped my drink and got to know a few new people. Finally,
what I had been hoping for happened. Olivia walked in. There was one minor
problem. Richard was with her. I wanted to approach them, but I didn’t need to
start any trouble. Eventually, I decided to say hello. After all, there
wouldn’t be any harm in that, would there?

“Hey,
Olivia. It’s nice to see you. Let me get you a drink,” I said and grabbed a cup
off the kitchen counter.

“That’s
all right. We were just leaving,” Richard said while glaring at me.

“What
are you talking about? We just got here. I’ll take that drink. Get something
for Richard, too, if you don’t mind,” Olivia said.

I
nodded and got them a couple of drinks. I won’t lie. I was tempted to do
something to Richard’s, but I didn’t. Wasn’t it already enough that I was kind
of in a secret . . . um
something
with his girlfriend? If I were
him
, I probably would
have hated me, too.

“Here
you go,” I said and handed them their drinks.

Olivia
thanked me, and we exchanged pleasantries for a minute. Olivia had heard about
our exchange in the parking lot, and she said that we should try to be friends.
She had done her best to convince Richard that nothing was going on, and he
acted like he believed her. As she went to talk to a friend, he told me exactly
what he thought, though.

“What
part of stay away from Olivia don’t you understand?” he asked.

“What
part of no don’t you get? She’s my friend, and I’m not avoiding her because you
have control issues. Everyone might kiss your ass in this town but not me. If
you’ve got a problem, get over it.”

“I’m
actually a nice guy, Eric. You can do just about anything to me, and I won’t
care. You
don’t
mess with my girl,
though.”

“What
happens if I do?”

“Then
you’ll be lucky if you’re still breathing afterward. I guess I shouldn’t worry
so much, though. It’s not like she would ever be stupid enough to show interest
in a creep like you,” he said and started to walk away. That last comment
bothered me, though. I knew I didn’t need to respond, but I had to.

“Hey,
Richard, I wish you had told me that before because it’s a little too late for
me to
not
mess with your girl.”

“What
is that supposed to mean?”

“For
starters, she was my first kiss a couple of years ago. We shared the best week
of my life back then.”

“She
told me that you dated a long time ago. Do you think that worries me? So what?
She decided to spend some time with you a few winters ago while she had nothing
better to do. Face it. You can want, and you can stare. You can even talk to
her when I’m not around, but she’s never going to see you as more than you
are.”

“And
exactly
what
do you think I am?”

“A
loser. She told me about why you’re in town. You come from trash, and you have
nothing that makes you anything special. Those losers you’ve been hanging out
with tonight . . . you belong with them. You’re no one from nowhere, and that’s
not going to change anytime soon.”

“Okay.
You can have your opinion about that, but let me ask you a question. Do you
always know where Olivia is? Do you know where she was last night after you
dropped her off?”

“I
don’t need to.”

“Yes,
you do. She was with me, and we’re definitely more than friends. I do have one
thing that you don’t, Richard, and that’s the ability to actually give her what
she wants.”

In
that moment, Richard shot me the most hateful look I had ever seen. That’s when
his face started to turn red. I don’t know if he believed me, but I do know
that admitting I had been with Olivia the night before was a big mistake. He
clenched his fist and threw a quick punch that landed to my right eye. The blow
lifted me off the floor, and I fell a few feet away from him. I looked over at
my friends to see if I was going to have any back up in this situation. Mike
and Rusty immediately put their hands up as if to say
you’re on your own
. Stan, however, took a step forward.

“Stay
right where you’re at, fat boy!” Richard spat at him.

In
his drunken state, that only made Stan angry. He was tired of his weight being
a joke to everyone, and Richard had just picked the wrong time to insult him.
Meanwhile, Olivia stepped between us.

“What
are you doing?” she asked Richard.

“Move,
Olivia,” he said.

“No,
I’m not going anywhere. You need to think about . . .” she managed to say
before Richard pushed her out of the way.

Just
as he was about to reach me, Stan walked up behind him and landed a blow to the
back of his head. It obviously hurt Richard, but he was sturdy as an ox, and it
didn’t move him. He turned and exchanged a couple of blows with Stan until Stan
fell backward onto the floor. I knew it was now or never. I had to do something
to turn the tide or Stan was about to get the beating of his life, and then
Richard was going to take care of me. I wouldn’t be graceful in this fight, but
I would get the result I wanted. I stood and grabbed Richard from behind. I
spun him around and did the only thing that could actually bring him down to my
level. I kneed him in the groin. It temporarily stalled him, and I used that
moment to deliver the hardest punch I could to his neck. It took his breath,
and he fell to his knees. He was mine for the next few seconds. I didn’t waste
a moment. I delivered blow after blow until he hit the floor. Once he was on
his back, Stan stood and delivered a few kicks to avenge what was likely a
broken nose. When Richard went limp, he stopped. We had accomplished what we
set out to do, but things could quickly turn ugly once Richard recovered. I
decided that it was time to go. There was
no
sense in not walking away with a win on this one. I motioned for Mike and Rusty
to come with us and pulled Stan to the door. I took one last look back as we
were leaving to see Olivia staring at me with disgust. I didn’t get it. Richard
had attacked first. Why was she mad at me? It didn’t make sense. Then again, I
did
cause the whole thing. She didn’t
know that, though. I sighed as we walked to the car.

The other guys were in a much better
mood. On the way home, Mike explained that he had gotten a girl’s number who he
had liked since he was in the second grade, and Rusty was just happy that he
got to go to a party where he was actually relevant. Then there was Stan. He
was so drunk that he barely even noticed the broken nose he was sporting. He
was just blissfully happy. I should have been, but it seemed like this was the
type of thing that was going to bite me later on.

When we got back to Mike’s house, I let
everyone out, and just as I was starting to pull away, Mike stopped me.

“Hey,
thanks for convincing us to come out tonight. It was actually fun, and boy was
I wrong about you and Richard. You gave him a proper beat down,” he said.

“Yeah,
but I don’t think any of that would have been possible without Stan jumping in.
I was pretty much out for a minute there.”

“I
don’t know what came over him. He’s normally not that brave. Sorry about not
having your back, by the way.”

“No
problem. We haven’t been friends long enough to take beatings for each other,
and that’s how it looked like things were going to turn out.”

“Well,
I’m glad they didn’t. Who knows? Maybe you actually have a shot with Olivia,
too. Go home, and get some ice on your eye. It looks terrible.”

“Not
as bad as his,” I joked as I drove away.

When
I got back to the house, I found that Olivia was waiting on me. She didn’t look
happy. I braced myself for what was probably going to be an incredibly
uncomfortable conversation and got out.

“Before
you even say anything, I’m sorry. I lost my temper after he said some things
about me. Things went out of control from there,” I said.

“You
should be sorry. He told me what started the whole thing. Did you actually tell
him about last night?”

“I
did, but that’s not what started this. He’s been all over me since I met him.
Why do you want to be with a loser like him anyway?”

“First
of all, he’s not a loser. He’s actually a good guy when someone’s not
threatening him. Secondly, I’m not with him anymore. After everything you said,
he broke up with me.”

“I’m
sorry. Wait . . . actually I’m not. You deserve better than some guy who
everyone thinks is right for you. I want you to be with someone you know is
right in your heart. I’m that guy.”

“You’re
so stupid. You know that, right?”

“What
are you talking about?”

“I
was going to choose you. I decided last night, but I needed time to do things
the right way. I had to let him down easy and explain to my mom why I was
dumping my future millionaire boyfriend for you. Why couldn’t you have just
waited a couple of weeks for me to figure out how to do this?”

“I
would have, if I had known you were going to choose me. I don’t know how to
explain it, but it made me crazy to see you with him. When everything happened
tonight, I just lost it. I really am sorry. Can you forgive me?”

“Yeah,
I suppose I can. I mean, option B is gone now, thanks to your conversation with
Richard.”

“Oh,
so there was still a chance of you choosing him?”

“I
said he was option B. What more do you want from me,” she joked and smiled for
the first time that night.

“Well,
I’ve got to go try to explain to my mom why I won’t be seeing Richard anymore.
Will I see you tomorrow?” Olivia asked.

“Definitely.
Maybe we could get some lunch and figure all of this out.”

“That
sounds good because things are going to be really complicated moving forward.
You know he’s going to hate you. I guess he’ll hate me, too, but I’m pretty
sure he’s not going to want to bash my face in. How are you going to deal with
that?”

“I’ll
avoid him as best I can. If things get too bad, I guess we’ll just have a round
two.”

“Promise
me something. Don’t ever punch him again unless you absolutely have to. As a
matter of fact, don’t say a cross word to him. It’s just going to make things
worse, and it could get one of you seriously hurt. It’s already bad enough that
thanks to me, you have a black eye, and he’s missing a tooth.”

“He’s
missing a tooth?” I asked with a hint of a smile.

“Oh,
don’t look so excited. I think your friend probably did that. The most damage
you did was kneeing him in the groin. Did you really have to do that?”

“No,
but I wanted to insure that no one would have to suffer through two minute sex
for a while, so I put him out of commission. See, I did all women a favor
tonight. You should be thanking me.”

“Ugh.
I’m already starting to regret this,” she joked and started to step away, but I
took her hand and pulled her close. Then I gave her a soft goodnight kiss.

“Hey,
I’m really sorry that I wasn’t patient enough. I hope we can put all of this
behind us, though, because I think we’re about to have something really
special,” I said.

“I
do, too. I wouldn’t be so quick to forgive you if I didn’t. I thought a lot
last night after we came home, and I always had this picture in my mind of when
you would come back. We would be a little older, and just when I couldn’t stand
this place any
longer,
you would give me a reason to
leave. I almost didn’t want to pick you because nothing in our situation seemed
right. Then I realized that maybe you’re not supposed to be the person who
rescues me from this place. Maybe you’re supposed to be the one who actually
makes it somewhere I want to be. I have fun when you’re around. You get my
humor, and I feel like I can just be me when we’re talking. That’s a rare
thing. Thanks.”

“No,
I should be thanking you. It’s not every day that you meet a girl who won’t
hold what happened tonight against you.”

“Well,
I was going to really lay into you, but then you apologized right off the bat.
That was pretty selfish, you know. It kind of makes it hard for the person to
yell at you.”

“I’m
glad it worked. Somehow I don’t think I would like to see angry Olivia.”

“Oh,
you wouldn’t,” she said and walked across the street.

I
smiled as I walked into the house. My smile quickly vanished when I noticed
that someone was waiting on me in the kitchen. My uncle was sitting at the
table.

“What
happened to your eye?” he immediately asked.