Jaden Baker (9 page)

“Yes,” he said, and replaced the syrup onto the table. He paused, grabbed his fork and continued with his breakfast.

“You look like you’re trying really hard,” Derek said, smirking. “It’s just breakfast.”

He dripped syrup down onto his pants. He dropped his fork and went to grab a napkin, when the whole napkin tray slid across the table to him.

Trying to act casual, as if this happened every day in dining rooms across America, Jaden picked out a napkin and dabbed at his jeans. His face was hot, and without looking up, he was sure Derek and Jenny stared, mouths gaping.

A thousand curse words, all in different combinations, strung themselves together in his head, vying to escape through his tightly sealed lips. Whatever it was was getting stronger, happening more frequently and out of his control. Actually it only happened when he wasn’t thinking about
not
doing it.

Jaden picked up his fork, though no longer hungry, and continued to eat, chewing the toast mechanically and doing his best to be easy-going. He tried thinking of something he could talk about in the news, but didn’t know what.

In his peripheral vision, Jaden saw Jenny and Derek staring widely at each other, their eyes flicking back and forth to Jaden, to each other, and back again. Derek had his fork midway to his mouth and Jenny clenched her glass of juice so hard her fingers were white.

The phone rang. Saved by the bell. Literally.

Jaden looked up because the Kauffmans jumped in their seats, Jenny sloshing juice on the table, Derek almost stabbing himself with his fork. The three of them stared at each other as the phone rang a second time, no one daring to speak first.

“I’ll get it,” Jenny said. Jaden watched her answer the phone and listened to the conversation.

“Hello? Oh hi, Ed.”

Oh great, Finn’s daddy.

“Yes we’re here.” She looked over at Jaden, who did his best to act casual. Her eyes darted between Derek and Jaden, and they were still wide. “Um, sure. Yeah, that would be fine. No, no, we’re just finishing up breakfast.” Pause. “I think that’s a great idea. We’ll see you soon. Okay, bye now.”

“What did he want?” Jaden asked before she hung up the phone, keeping the subject away from what they were all thinking about.

“Finn wants to come over and apologize,” Jenny said, as she sat at the table.

Jaden doubted that. Finn’s parents were probably forcing him to apologize, especially after Jaden booked it last night. They’d probably rounded on him after Ryan relayed how the whole thing went down, and Finn was revealed to be the instigator.

“Good,” Derek said with feeling. “He started the whole thing. Little jerk.”

“Yes, but Jaden shouldn’t have hit him either, honey,” she said to her husband, putting emphasis on the pet name. “It’s not a good idea to resort to violence.”

“I agree, dear, but it’s what I would’ve done.”

Jenny glared at her husband. “We’re not going to teach him that it’s okay to hit someone, even if they do behave like an animal. Right?”

Derek glanced at Jaden then back to his wife. “Of course not.”

“In fact, I think it would be a good idea if Jaden also apologizes. Don’t you agree, my love?” she asked him.

Jaden bit his lip to keep from smiling.

“Yes, of course I do, my princess. Whatever you think is best.”

“I’m so glad we agree,” she said sweetly. She pushed away from the table. “Now, I’m going to get ready for our morning outing and put on my face. Will you two please clear the table when you finish?”

“Gladly,” said Derek.

Jenny nodded to him then left for her bedroom. As soon as she was out of ear shot, Derek turned to Jaden and whispered: “Remind me to teach you how to box, so next time you can knock out your opponent and won’t need to choke him.”

When the door bell rang, Jenny and, grudgingly, Derek escorted Jaden to the door. Before opening it, Jenny bent over and licked her fingers then wiped at a spot on Jaden’s face. He squirmed and rubbed his own cheek.

“Well you had some crumbies there,” she said.

“It’s an apology, he’s not going for a scholarship,” Derek said.

She ignored him. “Do you know what you’re going to say?” she asked Jaden.

That the next time he talks about my mother I’m going to rip his tongue out, throw it on the frying pan, marinate it with soy sauce, and make him eat it?

“Yes,” he said.

Jenny opened the door.

There stood Ed with Finn. Ed smiled at Jaden, but Jaden did not smile back. Ed patted his son’s shoulders. “Okay, Finn, don’t you have something you’d like to say?”

Finn stared at a spot on his shoes. “I’m sorry about what I said last night. It was insensitive and inappropriate, and mean-spirited. I will not do it again. Please forgive me.”

And if you
do
say that, or anything close to it again, I will shove something up your—

Jenny nudged him and Jaden cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I tried to kill you,” he muttered, crossing his arms.

He and Finn glared at each other.

“Okay, now shake hands,” Jenny said.

Jaden kept his hands crossed and Finn did not move.

Ed picked up his son’s right arm and Finn finished the motion, putting his hand out. Jaden did the same and grabbed his hand, shook it once, then dropped it and crossed his arms again.

The parents regarded each other.

“Okay!” Derek said. “Thanks for coming over.”

The three of them backed out of the doorway and Derek shut the door, turning to his wife. “Better dearest?”

“Yes. Don’t you feel better Jaden?”

“Oh yes, so much better,” he said with the biggest fake smile he could muster. He blinked at her and she grinned, ruffling his hair affectionately.

“All right smarty pants, go get in the car.”

The journey to the bookstore was spent discussing what everyone liked to read, and then Jenny and Derek reminisced about the books they read and enjoyed when they were Jaden’s age. He didn’t have the heart to tell them he preferred different sorts of books. Instead he went along, eager to keep the conversation on something other than him.

But Jaden had a feeling that as soon as both Derek and Jenny had gone upstairs to their bedroom to prepare for the outing, they talked about what had happened at the breakfast table. He imagined Jenny flailing her arms and Derek’s eyes popping so wide they might roll out of his head, bouncing on the floor. Their conversation about books was a distraction, and Jaden tried thinking of a planned response when the inevitable questions would come.

He expected the Kauffmans to be big bookstore patrons, but they parked in front of a building that reminded him of a vet’s office, perhaps because it was across the street from a pet store. Jaden hopped out of the car and waited for a silver suburban to pass before running through the lot. Jenny and Derek came into the store after, holding hands.

Jaden picked up a basket and headed to the young adult section, picking up a few books, reading the backs, and putting them in his basket. The Kauffmans joined him but gave him plenty of space, and examined their own favorites.

A tall and burly man was talking on a cell phone around the corner. Jaden knew this wasn’t a library, but he thought the same rules should apply. He glanced at the man and the man glanced back, nodding and waving a little as he did so, then moved away, speaking softer into his phone.

Jenny rifled through Jaden’s selection, nodding her approval, then added a few of her own to his stash. “You know, us getting you books is not rewarding you for what you did last night,” she said. By the way she said it, Jaden knew it had concerned her all morning. “With Derek going back to work next week and me needing to work myself, you’ll have a lot of free time on your hands. That’s why the books. We’ll get you a library card for our county on the way home as well.”

After getting a library card, the Kauffmans headed home. It was silent in the car. Jaden was already on the second chapter of one of his new books. He didn’t notice the talking adults in the front seats. Only when Derek called him by name did he take interest.

“What?” he asked.

“We wanted to talk about what happened this morning, kiddo,” Derek said, putting extra emphasis on the moniker.

Jaden’s fingers turned to ice, and the book slipped from his hands. This morning. Oh crap. How was he going to wiggle out of this one. Trick of the light? He was learning magic? He spiked their juice with LSD? They were insane?

Jenny faced him. “The napkin tray, remember?”

Kinda hard to forget, thanks.
Think of something quick.

“Napkin tray?” Jaden asked in what he hoped was an innocent and clueless tone. Though he tried thinking of an explanation earlier, he hadn’t been able to come up with anything better than “I’m an alien” or some variation. The books distracted him, dulled his focus. Now he wondered if that was their plan of attack, to throw him off.

“You remember. How it slid to you. By itself.”

Crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. CRAP!

“Oh that,” Jaden said. His hands were no longer icy but slippery with sweat, just like the rest of him.

“Has that ever happened before?” Derek asked, eyeing him through the rearview mirror.

Lie. Lie, lie, lie.

“Nope,” he said. “Kinda weird, huh?”

“You didn’t seem surprised about it,” Derek said. “In fact, you acted like you expected it to happen.”

“I did? Well, I didn’t. How was I supposed to know that would happen?” It dawned on him he was arguing with an attorney. He picked up his book but couldn’t read a word. Both the Kauffmans stared at him. The sweating continued. Their forced calm was obvious. From the backseat Jaden read the tenseness of their postures.

“Jaden?” Jenny said. “Are you being truthful?”

No.

“Yes,” he said, flipping a page carelessly.

“Jaden.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said, meeting her eyes. “It freaked me out.”

“Us too. Let’s discuss it together.”

“Because I don’t want to.”

Jenny shut her eyes and released a large sigh. “We have to talk about some things, you know. We can’t let you shut us out forever. Especially this.”

“I’m not shutting you out, I just don’t want to talk about that thing.”

“Because it has happened before?” Derek asked, wide eyed. Stupid lawyer.

“Okay fine, yes, it’s happened before. Happy now? It’s happened a lot. I don’t know what it is or why it happens; it just does. I know it’s weird, and I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” He crossed his arms and frowned at the back of the chair.

Jenny’s mouth was thin. She stared at him.

“What now?” he snapped.

“Don’t get smart,” she said. “Don’t talk back to me like that.”

Seriously? They corner him about...whatever it is, make him confess, and now he’s the bad guy? They think getting him some books gives them the right to snoop into his privacy? He told, they forced it out of him, the gig was up. He’s a weirdo. They got themselves a strange one. It was all out in the open now, yet he was still going to be tongue lashed?

“Fine,” he grunted. “Sorry.” He stared out the window the rest of the way home, refusing to say another word on the subject. The Kauffmans peeked at each other the entire journey, as if conversing by blinks. He failed ignoring them. When they pulled into the garage, he stayed inside the car while Jenny and Derek went in.

His bag of newly purchased books sat beside him, judging him. It was hot now that the air conditioner was off. The only sound was the tick, tick of the cooling engine.

It wasn’t their business. It was his, whatever it was. It didn’t belong to them, it belonged to him. He wanted to keep it a secret and had tried ever since he arrived here, losing sleep to keep it away from their eyes. Why couldn’t they have ignored it and let it be?

Would you have ignored it?

Okay, it was probably hard to ignore. To be fair, they had waited until after noon to say anything. They also asked nicely rather than assume the worst and lock him in the closet and not feed him or let him use the bathroom for three days.

Maybe he’d jumped to conclusions.

You assumed the worst of them again
.

Jaden picked up his new book and squeezed it in his hands. They were nice people, good people, not mean or cruel, hot tempered or freaks. They were good. The only reason they’d send him back was if he kept acting like they would abuse him. Because that would be hurtful. They’d never threatened him.

He opened the car door, grabbed the book bag, and hopped out. He’d have to apologize for real. Unlike Finn, this wouldn’t be rehearsed. It would still be difficult.