She Speaks to Angels (5 page)

I took a breath and my focus went from Mom to the curtained window and back to Mom.

“
I...I feel scared about it I guess. Confused.” Shrugging, I tried to examine my own feelings, emotions that I hadn’t quite figured out since Dameon asked me. “I...no one was expecting this. His death was such a surprise. I guess I’m more shocked than anything. I mean, a football player!”

“
Samuel told me all about it. He was one of the first on the scene after the principal called.”

I curled one leg underneath the other and bit my lip. Samuel. I wanted to make sure to talk to him before he left. Who knew when I’d see him again. I glanced at the clock on the wall; still early enough, 8:05AM. He wouldn’t leave until 9:00AM.

Mom rubbed her fingers over my knuckles, then my wrist. “If anything like that ever happened to you...I would just...I don’t know how I would ever get through it.”

“
You won’t have to, Mom. I’m fine.” I sensed the churning mix of worry and guilt inside her. She carried those heavy emotions everywhere, always questioning what she had done that horrible day my father died. Wondering if she had only done this or that differently if he would still be alive. She didn’t want to have to regret another death in the family.

“
You would tell me if you felt depressed...or...”

“
Mom, don’t worry.” I stood and leaned in for a hug. “I’m fine. I’m not Tommy. I’m not Daddy.” I arched my brows and used my most serious expression. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“
Better not.” Mom ended our hug with a tickle to my ribs and a kiss to my cheek before she finally let me go.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Samuel, already in uniform, skip down the stairs to the living room and head into the kitchen. As I heard the sound of eggs being scraped out of the pan and onto a plate at the small dining table, I let go of Mom, too, but the warmth of her hug lingered with me.

“
I want to talk to Samuel,” I whispered. Rushing away from Mom, I felt her eyes on me the whole way to the kitchen table.

“
Hey, Sam.” I joined him.

“
Hey, sis, what’s up?” Samuel’s big brown puppy-dog eyes looked out from under hairy brows.

As he put a spoonful of eggs into his large mouth, I answered him. “I was just wondering how things went at my school...you know with Tommy’s accident.” I doubted Tommy had jumped. Pushed by Clark? Slipped from fear? But suicide didn’t make sense.

“
Well, we’ve collected all the evidence we found on the ground and on the roof.”

Damn, the roof. I forgot how thorough my brother could be. If I had made a stop at the school roof before leaving Wednesday, maybe I could have found something more to tell me what really happened to Tommy. But now the evidence would be locked away in police quarters. Sealed tight.

“
Find anything?” I fished.

“
Not much. A cigarette butt...” He glanced suspiciously at me before he finished, “You know I’m not really supposed to talk to you about this kind of stuff.”

“
I know...” I sat next to him and rubbed my eyes, bringing tears to the surface, hoping for sympathy, “but we are all shocked, and I just need some answers to help me.”

Samuel put his hand on my shoulder and nodded. “I understand. But there really isn’t much.”

“
Do you think he jumped on purpose?”

“
Why would you think otherwise?” Samuel’s brow arched high.

“
I don’t know...I guess he just didn’t really seem like the type.”

“
Well, we’ve found no evidence of a scuffle, nothing to tell us he struggled with someone, on the roof or on the ground.”

“
But...”

“
But what?”

“
Why would he have done it? He had so much going for him.”

“
We can’t always know why people do things, Ali.” His puppy-dog eyes widened. “Sometimes there just aren’t any clear-cut answers.”

I stared at his plate of half-eaten eggs and a slice of yolk-moistened toast. Maybe Sam was right about no clear-cut answers, but I couldn’t just give up. Journalism needed me. Jennifer needed me. And Tommy deserved to have the truth about his death known.

I pushed my chair away from the table; the screech of wood against the floor hurt my ears. “Sorry.” I stood and flipped open my cell.

As I headed toward Mom, I called Jennifer and then Molly. “Meet me at Cafe Cahlua in ten.”

“
Are you leaving already?” Mom asked from the sofa where she was reading a magazine.

“
Just for a bit. Do you think you could drive me?”

“
Alright, just don’t stay out too late.” Mom warned with concern in her voice.

“
I won’t.”

As we pulled up to the café, I got out, waved goodbye to Mom and met my friends, bundled with coats and mittens, at the front door. The cafe easily became one of my favorites. A few couples sat at tables outside, wrapped in coats and mittens, and drank coffee, but we headed inside the building. Paintings of Van Gogh’s
Starry Night
and Gustav Klimt’s
The Kiss
decorated the walls. Duplicates of course, but refined all the same.

“
Let’s sit at our fav table.” Jennifer pointed to the back, and we noticed three newbies sitting there. Looking at each other we hesitated for a second before Molly marched up to them as brave as a lion. With one hand on her hip she confronted them.

“
OUR spot. You three need to be outtie in like two secs.” Her lowered lids made her stare all the more haunting.

The first guy I noticed wore a cream-colored turtleneck and raked his fingers through his copper-blond hair. Hazel eyes batted up at Molly, reflecting the half smile on his lips. He looked over at me and then back to his two friends.

“
Looked empty to me.” To his left sat a doting porcelain doll with curly blond locks that fell to her waist and crystal blue eyes. Her legs were crossed, and she sat very straight. She tilted her pointy chin away from the center-guy-of-her-affections to meet dagger eyes with Molly. To the guy’s right, a strawberry blond, blue-eyed boy lounged, his back relaxed against the maroon sofa.

Their choice of baggy attire made me feel more comfortable. Maybe they weren’t so bad after all, if I didn’t count the girl to the left. But no one took our spot. Not even strangely attractive guys. When Molly gritted her teeth, I knew I had to step in. Planting my heels beside Molly, I put a hand on my hip. It worked for her.

“
We’ve been sitting here since Freshman year. Everyone knows that,” I huffed. Who did he think he was? How come I didn’t recognize him? Did he even go to our school?

As he stood, I noticed his broad shoulders, tight form, and toned arms. Some kind of athlete? “I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to cause trouble. Maybe you three would like to join us?”

Blondie turned her dagger eyes on him before returning them to Molly. “Together? Maybe we should keep our distance.” She sounded as if she had something against us, against me. But I never met her before today.

“
Maybe we could squeeze over.” The middle man and apparent leader of the pack signaled with his forefinger for the others to move. Molly shrugged and looked back at me with a compromising expression. The guys were cute, in a not quite GQ kind of way.

Just as Molly was about to slide onto the sofa, Jennifer squirmed behind her whispering to both of us, “I’ve heard they’re stoners. I don’t want to hang with stoners.” Her toes tapped the hardwood floors.

“
Oh, get off your high horse. You hang with me, don’t you?” Molly rolled her eyes. Not quite someone who smoked weed, Molly did have a colorful background. At least more than anyone else we knew. She had seemed like the coolest rebel-without-a-cause when we first met in middle school.

Huffing, Jennifer slid onto the other side beside Blondie. Pulling up a chair, I sat across from the main attraction. Not as hot as Dameon, but striking in his own way. Defined lines cornered his eyes as if he thought a lot, and naturally pinked lips brought more color to his face than most guys had. He had clear skin, and an edgy haircut whipped around his ears, deeming him at least a close second to the untouchable-insatiable Dameon. Yes, that is how I thought about the mystery man whose locker stood next to mine. Pathetic, I know, but I had to obsess over something other than school if I would ever survive my next two years.

“
Kian.” His spiky copper-blond bangs rolled over his eyes when he said his name and shook my hand. A soft touch for an athlete. “This is Nathaniel and Krysta.”

“
Hi.” Nathaniel raised his brows at the mention of his name and muttered a greeting that sounded more like a grunt. Krysta kept her hands over her coffee mug and her eyes on Kian. People didn’t seem to be her thing.

“
Ali, Molly, and Jennifer,” Jennifer offered.

“
Do you go to Millennium High?” I blurted. Enough with small talk; I needed to know.

“
Transfers,” Kian answered before any of the others could speak. Nathaniel opened his mouth to say something, but closed it just as quickly.

“
When did you
all
transfer?” Molly beat her stare into Kian.

“
Tuesday.” Kian said, his voice as short as Molly’s.

“
All three of you?” Molly’s face began to roll like what happens when two girls get into a fight with one another and the amount of head rolling will determine the winner. At least that is how things had been handled on most of the streets. “Are you guys like a family or something?”

“
Adopted.”

“
Wow!” Jennifer almost busted something. “So do you all, like, smoke weed?” I glared at her when she made the comment, and she gave me the doe eyed innocent
what-did-I-say
expression.

“
No.” Kian’s answer remained short. At least he spoke. I wasn’t sure Nathaniel could, since every time he opened his mouth

, nothing came out. I didn’t want to hear Krysta. Something told me the minute we got her started she wouldn’t stop. I was right.

Molly straightened her shoulders when the waitress dropped three coffees to our table. She knew what we liked; we came here often enough. “Where did you all come from?” Molly asked.

“
Is this twenty questions or something?” Krysta’s lips twisted and her brows furrowed.

“
No, I just...” Molly tried to bite her tongue and stay polite. She had learned that from me. In middle school the word was that she’d beat you up if you looked at her funny. They were all rumors, as far as I knew.

“
Well, don’t.”

“
Excuse me, little miss I-think-I-died-and-came-back-queen.” Molly stood, pushing the table with her. “We’ve been coming here two years, and I’m not sharing OUR spot with some...some hoochie mama.”

Kian placed his arm over Krysta, whose face fumed red. “Let’s just calm down. There is no reason we can’t all get along.” He looked at Krysta, and her lashes flashed up and down before she took a breath and extended an apology.

“
Sorry I jumped down your throat.” Krysta combed her hair with her fingers, a seemingly soothing task. “I overreacted.”

Holding in a half grin-half growl, Molly met her halfway and sat back down, avoiding eye contact the entire time. “Apology accepted.”

“
Can we just have a civil conversation?” Kian seemed to be addressing his gang more than mine, and I smiled with my eyes. “So, what do you think of the coffee here?” he asked.

“
Good.” I nodded.

“
Nice. “Jennifer had to prove she could be civil too, but Molly glared. If trust broke with her, trust remained broken. She had already decided she didn’t like that girl Krysta at all, and I had to admit I wasn’t too thrilled with her either.

“
So how do you guys like the new school?” I asked, taking a sip of my coffee.

“
We’ll see.” Kian answered. “Haven’t gone yet.”

“
That’s right. Tuesday transfers.” I repeated to myself.

And then everything changed.

“
Did you all hear about the suicide?” Molly blared out at Kian.

“
You mean Tommy.” Kian said. A statement, not a question. Like he knew him, personally. Suddenly, Krysta’s elbow hit him in the side.

Back Alleys

“
I
think we should be going. We have so much more we have to do to get ready for school,” Krysta interrupted and, for the first time, she sounded more sane than irate.

The tension between her and Kian could be cut with a butter knife.

“
Sure. Let’s get going.” His careful stare pulled away from me, and I felt afraid if I might never see him again. Silly, I know. I mean, I hardly knew him.

Standing, he shuffled out behind Krysta rather urgently, and Nathaniel smiled and gave us a nod before exiting. Kian turned back before the front door shut. “Later.”

When they disappeared Jennifer turned to me, “Well, that was interesting.”

“
To say the least,” Molly agreed.

“
You think they’ll try hanging with us? ’Cuz I really don’t want to be seen with stone-heads,” Jennifer declared with a stomp of her right foot.

“
They aren’t smoking anything. Gesh, Jennifer, you can be so judgmental sometimes,” Molly responded, though I knew she couldn’t stand Krysta, but Kian and Nathaniel weren’t too bad on the eyes. “Besides, I’ve smoked a joint or two in my time, and you still hang with me.”