Duality: Vol 1, Melancholia (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) (17 page)

Mr. Holder wasn’t taking my hints that I didn’t want to answer him, though.  He was persistent, annoying, and just plain weird.  It made me really glad I didn’t have him for Chemistry.

“We’re almost there,” he said.  “I’ll get you there on time.  Your parents must be really strict.  Are they possessive?”

I was getting ready to say something non-committal, but before I could get a single word out, Malcolm butted in.

“What kind of question is that?”  He sounded offended on my behalf, and it warmed me to my toes.  Rainbows defended me all the time, but they did it with a fanatical fervor that always rang false.  Malcolm sounded more like a regular friend.  I tried not to read too much into it, but it was hard.  It could mean so many things.  I wouldn’t let myself think that he was interested in me, but maybe he was okay with being friends.  I could definitely live with that; it’s more than I could hope for, really.

I wanted to reach over and take Malcolm’s hand and squeeze it, to thank him and let him know how much I appreciated him calling Mr. Holder out on his strange probing questions.  I didn’t, because I didn’t want to creep him out, but even though I kept my hands to myself, I couldn’t help but be thrilled over the fact that it was like he could read my mind or my emotions and wanted to help me.  Rainbows always did everything for themselves, not for me.  Malcolm was definitely not a Rainbow.

The car jerked to a stop.  “Get out.  Get out of my car right now.”  In two seconds flat, Mr. Holder went from being Mister Nice Guy to being Mister Evil Buttbag.

Malcolm sounded as confused as I was feeling.  “What?”

“I said, get out of my car.  Right now, Malcolm.  If you can’t be polite, you can’t ride.  Goodbye.  I’ll see you in school on Monday.”  His tone was like he was discussing homework or something just as mundane and not ordering a kid out onto the street in mid-ride.

I got a terrible feeling in my gut.  Tears leaped to my eyes as I thought about Malcolm leaving me alone in the car that smelled like something had died in it with the guy who asked too many personal questions.

Malcolm looked over at me, and I shook my head, begging him silently not to leave.  I don’t know why I didn’t just say it out loud.  Maybe because my parents had taught me manners, and I’d learned to never cause a fuss, I stayed silent when I wanted to yell.  My lifelong training and adaptions were making it impossible for me to stick up for myself and tell Malcolm what I really wanted him to do.

But it didn’t matter, because apparently, Malcolm can read minds.  He grabbed my wrist.  “Fine.  I’m going.  He pushed the door open and got out, pulling me as he went.  “And I’m taking Rae with me.”

As he pulled on my wrist, I pushed with my legs so I could get out with him, snatching my purse up on the way.  I was hampered slightly by the fact that I didn’t have both hands to push across the seat with.  He was dragging me out as best he could, but the back seat was so long…

The car jumped forward a few feet before I was out of it completely.  “Ahhh!”  I screamed, now half out of the car and staring at the road rolling by very close to my face.  I was quickly coming to the conclusion that a disgusting road rash was in my future, when Malcolm yanked me clear of the car.  I tumbled out and landed against him in the grass on the side of the road.

“What the hell, Mr. Holder!  Jesus!”  Malcolm struggled to get me on my feet.  I was trying to find him with my free hand so I could get the leverage I needed to stand.  I finally grabbed a hold of his stiff arms and pulled myself up.

“I’m sorry!  My foot slipped!” yelled Mr. Holder.  “Rae, please, my apologies.  Please get back into the car and let me take you home.  Your parents will be so worried.”  I looked over my shoulder at him and stared for a moment, horrified at the weird expression on his face.  I’m sure he just meant to be friendly, but he looked more desperate than anything else.  He was like at Rainbow level ten and he’d only just met me.  This was a bad sign.  Now I felt the desperate urge to get the hell away from Mr. Holder that had nothing to do with upset parents and being late or a smelly car. “Let’s go,” I whispered to Malcolm.  The headache that had started during the accident spiked again, and I reached up to rub my temple, trying to make it calm down.  I hissed with the pain.

“Can you run?” Malcolm whispered.

“Yes.  Please.”  I dropped my fingers from my head so I could hold his hand.

Malcolm and I took off running, holding hands as we went.  I had no idea where we were going, so I just followed his lead.  We flew down the sidewalk and around a corner, our feet slapping the pavement in a frantic rhythm.  This was a day I wished I’d avoided boots and gone with sneakers.  My heels were already seriously sore but I tried to ignore it and focus on putting distance between us and Mr. Holder.

At first my headache was pounding so bad I wanted to stop and just rub my temples, but I ignored it, worried about holding Malcolm back.  And then when we made it around the corner and were out of Mr. Holder’s sight, it got better.  With every square of concrete that passed under our feet, the lighter the pain became.

Two blocks down, Malcolm dragged me off the sidewalk and through a sideyard of someone’s house.  We cut through their back yard diagonally and entered the yard of the house behind it.  They were two of the few places that didn’t have fences.  I silently thanked Malcolm for not making me climb during our escape.  I’d had about enough of beating my body up for one day, and I was never one for gymnastics.  We got over onto the street in front of this second house and ran another three blocks north before Malcolm finally stopped.

I bent over, trying to catch my breath, swaying on my feet a little.  My stomach was burning from the exercise I wasn’t used to.  I had a cramp developing in my side, and I squeezed it to try and make it go away.

“Are you okay?” Malcolm asked, taking a step away from me.

“Yeah,” I gasped out.  “I just had a headache and … I don’t know.”  How could I explain all my irrational fears to him?  That I thought the teacher was out to get me?  That he was probably a Rainbow already, and I was going to have to work to avoid him for the rest of the year or I’d have to leave?  I couldn’t say any of that or Malcolm would never want to hang out with me again.  I wasn’t even sure he’d wanted to in the first place.

“Me too.  Bad headache.  But it’s gone now.”

I stood, reaching up to touch my temples, rubbing them in little circles to test it out.  “Mine too.  Like all the way gone.”  I dropped my arms to my sides, wondering what the hell was going on.

“Weird, right?” Malcolm was giving me one of those confused smiles again.

“Today has been a weird day all the way around.”  I sighed heavily, taking my phone out from my back pocket.  A new text was there.

You’re late. 
It was time-stamped two minutes earlier.

“How far are we from the Highlands?” I asked, resigned to the fact that my parents were going to freak and I was going to have to do some fancy footwork to keep names out of the discussion and lecture that would surely follow my arrival.

“Eight blocks.  We could run it in about two minutes.”

I texted my dad back. 
8 blocks away.  Running over.  Battery dead.  C u soon.

I shut my phone off and put it in my back pocket, hoping my response would keep him from driving around to find me.  “Let’s go.  Warn me when we’re a block or two away.”

Malcolm started jogging, and I ran fast for a couple seconds to get even with him.  He kept up a steady pace and said nothing.  On another day it might have been fun and even peaceful to run with him like this.  A day when I didn’t have my crazy parents breathing down my neck and an overly enthusiastic chemistry teacher trying to give me a lift.  A day when I was wearing running shoes and breathable cotton clothes, not boots and my school outfit, my purse banging away on my hip.

“We’re two blocks from the Highlands now.”  Malcolm kept going at the same pace, but I slowed.  When he realized I wasn’t next to him anymore, he stopped, turning around to face me.  “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t show up with you.”  I felt ashamed saying that.  I really didn’t want him to think it was about him personally.

He frowned.  “Okaaay…”

“It’s not you.  It’s my parents.”  I walked fast so I could stand nearer to him.  “They’re really, really overprotective.  If they see me with you, they’ll think you’re the reason I’m late and they’ll make sure I never see you again.”

“Seriously?”

“I know you don’t believe me, I can tell by the look on your face.  But I swear on everything holy that I’m not lying.  And I’m not exaggerating either.”  I stared him in the eyes, begging him silently to believe me.  My heart ached with it. 
Please don’t think I’m a freak.

“What’s going on, Rae?”  He said it so calmly, like he really wanted to know.  Like he wasn’t judging.  And he was no Rainbow, at least not yet.  I’d never met anyone who was so determined to
not
be one.

I wanted nothing more than to tell him.  Tell him everything.  But I couldn’t.  He’d never understand, and he’d think I’m a mental patient.  Then I’d never see him again, and I really, really wanted to see him again.

“Just parents.”  I rolled my eyes and shrugged, trying to act all casual.  “You know how they are.”

“Not really,” he said, pulling out his cell.  “Give me your number.”

A secret thrill ran through me, overriding my sadness for a moment.  Goosebumps actually rose up on my arms.  This was the opposite of what I’d been expecting, the rejection that always came with the introduction to my crazy life.  I had a feeling he didn’t give out his number very often.  Even Kootch didn’t have it, and he appeared to be Malcolm’s only friend.

I took Malcolm’s phone from him and typed my number in, giving the cell back to him when I was done.

“This isn’t a local number,” he said, looking down at it and frowning.

“No.  I got this one about three moves ago.  I’ll be getting a new one this weekend, but this one should work for a few more days.”  I tried to smile, but it wavered with the tears that threatened. 
Don’t cry, don’t cry, whatever you do, don’t cry!

“Why did Mr. Holder ask you that question?  About you moving around?”

My face flamed red.  I so didn’t want to get into the details of my sorry life right then when I knew my dad was itching to come out after me.  I cleared my throat and stared at the ground.  “I have to go.  I’ll see you Monday.”  I turned around, planning to run away.  But then I realized I didn’t even know where I was or where to find my house.

I turned back to Malcolm.  “Which way do I go?”  I sniffed and lifted my chin, determined to get control of my emotions and seem unaffected by everything.

Malcolm stared at me for a few precious seconds before finally answering.  “Go to the end of the street and turn right.  The entrance to the Highlands will be just a block down on your left.”

Just as he finished with his directions, I heard the telltale sound of my father’s engine.  His BMW SUV was impossible to mistake with its high performance whine and occasional roar coming from under the hood.

“Hurry!” I said, desperation heating my voice, my hands flying up and waving around.  “Hide!”

Malcolm looked at me in confusion.  “What?”

The front end of my dad’s car was just pulling up to the corner.  He hadn’t seen me yet, his head turned the other way.

I gestured to the bushes next to us with both hands.  “Hide!  Please!”

Malcolm jumped off the sidewalk without another word and ran behind the wall of bushes on the edge of the yard we were standing in front of.  I quickly lost details of his form among the leaves.  I could just barely make out some flashes of blue from his jeans and the darker green of his shirt.  I prayed my father wouldn’t.

I turned to face the direction of my house and took my phone out, pretending to mess with it as I walked slowly down the sidewalk away from the bushes.  I didn’t look up, even as I heard the car approaching a few seconds later.

Stay calm.  Do not look back at Malcolm.  Act like you were wandering out here all by yourself in no hurry or panic.

The car swerved over to the edge of the street, the driver’s side window going down in a smooth electric motion.

“There you are.  I was about to call the police, you know.”  My father was frowning at me.  This was nothing new for him.  Smiles were only doled out on special occasions, and almost as rare as the dodo bird.  The saddest thing about my father is that being with me makes him overly happy, but he’s too afraid about losing me to enjoy it.

I stopped walking and feigned surprise at seeing him there.  “Oh!  Hi, Dad!  Sorry about that.  You don’t need to do that, you know.  Come out or call the police.  I was just down the street.”  I gestured with my thumb behind me, smiling as innocently as I know how. 
I’m just a happy-go-lucky teenager without a care in the world.  Nothing to see here.  Move along, move along.

He put the car in park.  We were about ten feet away from where I’d left Malcolm, and I prayed he couldn’t hear us.

“You know very well I do.  What are you doing walking home?  Your mother told you we’d pick you up.  Come get in the car.”

“I can walk.  It’s just a block away.”  I smiled, pointing up the street, pretending like we were a normal father and daughter and he’d say,
‘Okay, Rae, go ahead and walk.  The sun and exercise are good for you.  I’ll see you at home.’

“Like hell you’ll walk.  Get in the car.”  He hit the electric door locks to open them and shifted his hand to put it on his door handle.  It was his unspoken threat that if I resisted, he’d get out and
make
me accept the ride.  He never had to get physical with me; he just had to act like he was going to and I’d run.  Touching my parents was never a good idea.

I sighed.  I don’t know why I bothered offering to walk home from here.  I knew better.  Malcolm was probably listening to all of this and thinking we were the most messed up family he’d ever seen.

I could have fought my father on this, threatened him with denial of my presence to get my way, but my first priority needed to be getting him out of here - or at least getting him to put his window up so he wasn’t blabbing his psychosis all over the place anymore.  Fantasizing that we’re normal and hoping he’d have a different answer than he always did was a waste of time.