Infinite (Strange and Beautiful, Book 1) (6 page)

“Oh,” he nodded. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” I replied just as Skylar entered the room, carrying a
glass in each hand, with Scott trailing behind her, nursing his own drink.

“Hey Silly,” Scott said.

“Hi,” I replied as Skylar looked me over before turning to
Jackson and handing him a drink.

“I hope my sister wasn’t bothering you,” she commented as she
sat down on the loveseat next to Scott.

Jackson shook his head. “Nah, not at all. Actually, I was
probably the one bothering her.”

“Oh.” Skylar seemed surprised by that statement, but her eyes
landed on me, and they held a hint of annoyance—probably because Jackson hadn’t
given her a reason to bitch at me later, but she shrugged, as if to say, “Well,
okay then,” as she snuggled up to Scott.

I rolled my eyes as I backed out of the living room without
another word. I felt sincerely sorry for Jackson if he had to sit there and
watch my sister and Scott cuddle.

I hated public displays of affection. I mean, handholding and a
peck or two on the lips wasn’t so bad, but getting all cuddly in front of
people like that just seemed rude. I thought it was especially wrong to do it
in front of your family. Of course, there was worse. Seeing a tongue down my
sister’s throat or my brother’s hand inching up a girl’s shirt was beyond
disturbing. I suspected I would probably need a lot of therapy when I was
older.

After making a quick exit, I went back upstairs and grabbed a
hoodie from my room. Even though the sun was shining, I was sure it was a
little chilly outside. Then I went back downstairs and snuck past the entrance
to the living room and made my exit through the back door, which was through
the utility room. I considered the utility room Mom’s favorite room of the
house. Oddly, she seems to enjoy doing laundry. She actually smiled while she
matched socks. And, again,
I’m
supposed to be the weird one?

I crossed the yard and smiled as the cool breeze rushed over my
face, causing my hair to blow behind me in the wind. I loved fall. It was just
such a pretty season. The leaves turned colors and started to fall from the
trees, and they littered the ground with their rich hues. It just made me feel
all warm and fuzzy inside.

When I was little I used to love to play in the leaves. I could
stay outside for hours, throwing leaves and jumping in them. I would wear
myself out before I came inside. Mom usually made me go take a bath because I’d
be filthy, but then she’d make me a steaming cup of hot chocolate. I believed
hot chocolate was, aside from super yummy, good for the soul.

Unfortunately, it was still so early in the fall that the leaves
were still on the trees. Only a few had fallen and they crunched under my feet
as I made my way to the oak tree. I liked to call it my reading tree. As long
as I had a good book (or two), I could spend hours beneath it. Once, when I was
younger, I snuck out in the middle of the night with a flashlight, my book and
a blanket and curled up at the base of the tree and tried to read. It didn’t
work out so well. I wound up with a cramp in my wrist from holding the
flashlight, and I got kind of scared out there all alone. I never tried that
again, but it was still a fun adventure. The best part, though, was that I
didn’t get caught.

I noticed a long time ago that a clump of roots that had come up
from beneath the surface looked like a little seat. I’d sat down, and it was a
perfect fit. It had been my reading seat ever since. I sat there now, but the
fit wasn’t quite so perfect these days. My butt was starting to get a little
big for it, but I didn’t mind too much. A pillow to sit on probably would have
helped, but I hadn’t thought to bring one. Besides, sneaking it past Mom
wouldn’t be easy. She could be a little touchy about her linens getting dirty,
and she was sure to notice dirt or grass stains when she washed them.

Before I could shut out the thought I wondered what Mom must
think about Luke making a mess on his sheets when he was trying to rid himself
of the pent up sexual frustration Skylar accused him of having. I felt
nauseated for a moment as I tried to banish the disturbing notion from my mind.

Clearing all thoughts—and nausea—from my head, I smoothed my
hand over the cover before opening the book. I basked in the scent of the
paper. I found it soothing. Opening a book felt like entering the doorway to a
new world, which was why I was so fond of my books.

Even though my room was somewhat a mess, I tried to take great
care of my books. The bookshelf in my room was starting to look stuffed and
overgrown, but they were all placed carefully, so as not to cause any damage to
any of them. Mom had suggested I get rid of some of them to remove some of the
clutter, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I had a special bond with each
book. Not only did they hold great adventures and new worlds, I felt like each
book held different memories. Every time I’d open a book, I could not only
remember things that were going on in my life the last time I read it, I also
added new memories each time I came back to read it.

I knew the next time I read
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
,
I would remember making an idiot out of myself in front of Jackson. Of course,
that wasn’t much of a surprise because I always seemed to spaz out when it came
to the opposite sex. It was even worse when the guy was particularly good
looking, as was the case with Jackson. I thought it was unfortunate that
Jackson wasn’t ugly because then I probably could have talked his ear off about
the book.

I didn’t necessarily consider myself shy around guys. I just had
the awful tendency to stick my foot in my mouth and say all the wrong things. I
was convinced that Skylar took all of the genes that pertained to dealing with
the opposite sex. It was because of this, and my Foot In Mouth Syndrome, that
I’d never had a boyfriend. Heck, I’d never even had a friend that was a boy.

It wasn’t something I fret over that much. I just kept telling
myself that I’d meet someone eventually. Mostly likely after I finally got some
breasts. Assuming God decided to give them to me.

According to Tegan, though, the whole “going out” thing was
totally overrated anyway. Of course she would say that since she’d actually had
a boyfriend, and probably because she wouldn’t want me to feel like I was
missing out.

She’d had two boyfriends, Craig and Alex, to be more accurate.
They were both very good looking, but they were also jerks, in my opinion. They
both liked to talk about themselves a lot, or they’d make rude comments or
would act all bossy. When she was with each of them, I asked Tegan why she
didn’t dump them. Her answer was that they were really good kissers. I was of
the opinion that, if it were I, their kisses would have to be orgasmic in order
for me to put up with any of their macho bullshit. Even then, I wasn’t so sure.
After all, as Cosmo often pointed out, a guy wasn’t necessary to an orgasm.

Tegan broke things off with Alex when he tried to stick his hand
down her pants, and she found out that Craig got a blowjob from a slutty girl
in our class named Tara. Once Tegan got over the initial distress of being
cheated on, she and I started referring to Tara as Blow Job Betty, or, if we’re
in the company of others, just Betty for short.

Apparently, there were a lot of Betties in our class, though.
I’d heard stories about things that went on at parties, and, frankly, it was
kind of scary. I’d never even kissed a guy, and I was also a little leery about
letting a guy put his tongue in my mouth, so the idea of putting other parts of
his anatomy in my mouth just grossed me out.

Tierney had claimed it wasn’t that bad, but before I could ask
any more questions Tegan had put her hands over her ears and started saying,
“la la la I don’t want to hear this.”

I couldn’t really blame her. I’d probably have reacted the same
if it were Skylar talking about a blowjob. After all, I got grossed out seeing
my sister kiss a guy, but I wasn’t as bad as Mom and Dad, who looked
uncomfortable when Skylar or Luke would hold hands with their boyfriend or
girlfriend.

But Dad always said, “It always starts with just holding hands.”

Talk about uptight. But, hey, I was just three weeks away from
turning fifteen. I had no boobs. And I couldn’t talk to guys. What did I know
anyway?

That’s right. Absolutely nothing.

Mark
Moses.

Even
before I attended Jefferson High School, his was a name I was already familiar
with. Luke, Skylar and Tierney had all retold stories of the legendary resident
bully. According to Tierney, all future bullies would most likely take a page
from Mark Moses’ book when torturing his or her classmates.

At
first I thought they were all just exaggerating. After all, wouldn’t teachers
notice a guy shoving kids into lockers, taking lunch money or shoving someone’s
head down a toilet? Surely someone would notice a kid dangling upside down from
a restroom stall, right?

These
were just some of the more tame stories of how Mark Moses had managed to bully
half of the senior class while he was just a freshman. It was said that Mark
Moses would corner anyone he could find and steal his or her money on a daily
basis. He’d also humiliate them in any way he could in the process. As if being
robbed by a classmate wouldn’t be bad enough.

Luke
told the story of how, after cleaning out Kyle Michaelson’s wallet and taking
his clothes, Mark Moses then forced him to walk through the cafeteria stark
naked. Kyle, one of the few boys actually comparable to Mark in size, was so
scared of Mark Moses that when he was reprimanded by the principal, he cried
and stuttered his way through explaining that it was all just a stupid joke. He
wound up suspended from school for a week.

“No
doubt best seven days of his life,” Luke proclaimed, “because he was free from
Mark Moses.”

Skylar
thought it was hilarious when Mark Moses set his sights on Samantha Bower, who
Skylar despised on the grounds that one of Skylar’s previous boyfriends had
allegedly cheated on her with Samantha. She was the second in command on the
cheerleading squad and, consequently, part of the popular crowd.

It
was claimed that when Mark, for reasons unfathomable to Skylar, asked Samantha
out she gave him a flat out “no” and proceeded to laugh in his face. As soon as
Skylar had said this, I’d known that the story wouldn’t end well.

“Big
mistake,” Skylar said, rolling her eyes as if to say, “She should have known
better.”

I’d
been unable to stop myself from asking, “What happened?”

“He
decided to make her life a living hell, of course,” Skylar explained. “First,
he broke into her locker and filled it with dead leftover frogs he stole from
the science lab. I swear everyone heard her screaming when they fell out of her
locker.”

After
the scream heard ‘round the school, of course the teachers and principal wanted
to know what was going on. Samantha accused Mark of being the culprit. He
didn’t deny it and was suspended from school for two weeks.

“Samantha
thought that would be the end of it,” Skylar said in the tone that implied
Samantha was an idiot, “but on the third day of his suspension, Mark broke into
her
white
car, hotwired it and drove it onto the football field and
spray painted the word “slut” all over the car in red.”

“Couldn’t
they get the police involved?” I wondered. That seemed pretty serious in my
opinion.

“Oh,
they were called, but they couldn’t prove that Mark had anything to do with it.
It’s not like anyone was going to rat him out,” Skylar shrugged. “The best
part, though, was Samantha had to drive this slut covered car home, and then
later that night after the sun went down, the car lit up like a fucking
Christmas tree. Mark Moses had used glow in the dark spray paint
over
the red. Her parents had to cover the thing with a tarp just so people would
stop driving by their house to see it.”

In
the end Samantha didn’t return to Jefferson High. Her parents had opted to home
school her after that.

While
Luke was amused and Skylar was gleeful, Tierney wasn’t nearly as enthused by
Mark Moses’ antics. In fact, she looked downright frightened as she explained
what had happened to Parker McGarvey.

“It
was last year, and Mark set his sights on Parker,” she explained. “He was a
quiet kid. He wasn’t really part of the in crowd, but he wasn’t unpopular
either. He was a pretty smart guy, and his intelligence is what set him in
Mark’s path of destruction.”

“Why?
What happened?” Tegan questioned.

“I
guess one of the teachers called on Mark to answer a question, but he had no
idea what the answer was, which isn’t surprising since he’s a complete imbecile
anyway. When he said he didn’t know, the teacher called on the rest of the
class. Naturally, Parker raised his hand. I’d swear he had all of the books
memorized by heart.”

“He’s
got a little Hermione Granger and Klaus Baudelaire in him, does he?” I smirked.

Tierney
smiled slightly and nodded. “I guess you could say that.” Then her smile fell
and she sighed heavily. “Apparently, after Parker answered the question
correctly, the teacher told Mark that it wouldn’t hurt him to take a few
pointers from Parker.”

“So
that’s what set him off on Parker?” Tegan asked.

Tierney
nodded. “Mark crashed this party he’d overheard Parker talking to friends
about. He showed up completely wasted and started hassling Parker. He was
shoving him around and calling him names. A few of the other people at the
party tried to get Mark to lay off, but it wasn’t much use. The guy is huge, ya
know? So he’s shoving Parker around, and finally Parker shoves back. This
completely pisses Mark off, and he pushes Parker so hard he practically flies
across the room. And he landed on a glass table that shattered from the impact.
He cut his arms and back, and he was bleeding really badly. They had to call an
ambulance and the police, but Mark was long gone by then.”