Stone Cold (12 page)

Before Conall could answer
, Darin added, “Shawn and Bobby will be there as well but that’s to be the only contact you have with them outside of school from this point on.”

He started to protest,
“But dad I…”

“This is not a negotiable point. No contact – end of story,” Darin slapped his palm on the table as he rose and left the room.

“Mom I…”

Evelyn had been listening for most of the conversation. “I’m with your dad on this one Conall. You got off easy this time so no more screw ups.”

She was about to dismiss him when she remembered something else.

“Oh and your dad forgot to tell you this but until we move you’ve lost your internet and phone privileges and
you’ll be in this house by an 8:00 P.M. curfew every evening.

“
Oh my gosh! Could this day get any worse? Why don’t you cut my tongue out and chop off my fingers at the same time!”

Look
ing over her glasses she smiled.

“
And please go find Eden who’s probably not too far out of earshot if I know your sister, and tell her the news.”

Conall couldn’t leave the room fast enough. He wasn’t sure how
Eden was going to take the news about moving but it was of little concern to him now. It was time to start working on figuring out how to meet Hannah despite his most recent impunities. There had to be a way around his lack of electronic devices to still be able to track her down.

Chapter 9

Hannah was feeling very anxious after sending the email.
She kept thinking she should’ve said more – or maybe less – or maybe she shouldn’t have sent it at all.

Biting her lip she thought, “Maybe
Gina would go to the mall with me today or the movies or something, anything to keep my mind off the whole email thing and Conall of course.”

No sooner had she gotten up from the computer than did her phone ring. It was
Gina of all people and she wanted to do something too.

“Hey Gina
, I was just thinking about you. Why don’t we go to the mall for a few hours. I think I may’ve done something really really stupid after the field trip yesterday and I need to talk to you about it.”

Hannah nervously paced from one end of the room to the next.

She stopped for a moment to look at herself in the mirror.

“I can be ready by noon. Let’s meet at the food court for lunch. K bye.”

Hannah hung up the phone and glanced at the clock. She had just enough time to take a quick shower, fix her hair, and put on some makeup before riding her bike to the mall.

The shower felt good. She hadn’t had one since before the field trip yesterday which by now seemed like eons ago. There was so much to tell her best friend
Gina Martin who’d been unable to go with her on the field trip. No one else would appreciate it as much as her or be able to keep Conall a secret like Gina could.

As the water cascaded over her head, Hannah could see Conall’s fa
ce once again. She wished she’d taken a picture of him or better yet one of them together. She knew she’d have trouble describing just how amazing he was no matter how hard she tried. His image was burned into her memory but try as she might her words would never do him justice.

S
he didn’t notice how long she’d been in the shower until her mother knocked on the door.

“Hannah, you’ve been in there for over 20 minutes. I’m going to have to pay the water bill from your allowance this month!”

Biting her lower lip, she mocked, “Hannah, you’ve been in there for over 20 minutes!” 

“I heard that. Out of the shower if you want to live to see your
next birthday young lady.”

She turned the water off and dried herself in record speed. No way was she going to make it to the mall in time if she had to ride her bike. If she was going to make it anywhere on time
any more she’d have to stop letting thoughts of Conall occupy her mind.

Back in her room Hannah
threw on some jeans and a tee shirt. She combed through her wet hair and used a towel to blot as much water from it as possible. If worse came to worse she could let it air dry and put it in a ponytail to save time.

Makeup was another story. Not that she wore very much of it or even very often but she wanted to feel pulled together
as she told her story to Gina. Besides, she knew Gina would be wearing it as usual. She was much more into girly things than Hannah but it was starting to wear off on her more the older she got. She figured she’d be almost like a Barbie doll by the time she turned sixteen.

After careful application of blush,
eye shadow, mascara, and lip gloss there was still a few minutes left to partially dry her hair. She could give it that beachy, windblown look so popular at the time.

With barely enough time for one more glance in the mirror, Hannah grabbed a jacket and headed out the door.

It took every ounce of strength she had but she successfully managed to wine long enough to get her mom to drive her to the mall and not a moment too late. Gina had just arrived herself and after a brief hello hug they were on their way to the food court.

“I’m starving! I haven’t eaten anyt
hing since we had dinner at Serendipity in the city last night,” exclaimed Hannah.

The two girls practically ran to the nearest pizza counter and placed their order. Hannah couldn’t even wait until they found a table to sit at before she started to devour her first slice.

Gina chose an out of the way table and for a few minutes neither of them spoke as they downed their lunch.

By the third slice Gina
figured it was safe to begin the conversation.

“
Okay, tell me everything from the beginning. Don’t leave anything out! I really wish I’d been able to go.”

Hannah was feeling much better since she’d eaten. She slowly chewed her last bite and with a deep breath began telling her story.

“My day started out just like every other day. Everything was routine up until I boarded the ferry. I wasn’t even really very excited about going on this field trip especially since you weren’t going to be there. I had this weird feeling something crazy was going to happen. So anyway, when I walked onto the ferry there were a ton of people all around, pushing and shoving and someone ran into me so hard I fell on my hands and knees.”

Hannah demonstrated how she fell.

“When I looked up I was staring into the eyes of this amazingly gorgeous guy!”

She closed her eyes and clasped her hands together over her heart.

“I was literally unable to look away and the best part was that he was looking at me too, and smiling! I was the one who had to finally look away first. Then when I looked back, he was still looking at me and smiling.” Y

“Oh my gosh
you are so lucky!”

“
I can barely remember how or when but he took me by the hand and helped me up. We somehow managed to introduce ourselves to each other, first names only, and then you won’t believe what happened!”

Hannah stood up and continued her story.

“Someone else barreled into me and I went flying across the deck right to the edge and as I was about to go head first into the water, a miracle happened.”

She was bent over and practically laying on t
he floor while reenacting the scene for Gina.

“My nose was i
n the water, in the water Gina and I had already taken a deep breath because I knew I was going in. That’s when I felt a hand on my arm and another one around my ponytail. Guess who it was?”

“I’m guessing the gorgeous guy?”

“Yes! It was him! Conall had run over and grabbed me just in time!”

Hannah sat down again in the chair to catch her breath.

“Any other time I would’ve been so embarrassed but there was something about him, we had this connection that I’ve never experienced before with anyone. When we held hands I saw things flash in my mind, so many things. I felt an incredible energy between us that I’m certain he felt too.”

Hannah’s energy level
was so contagious she had Gina sitting on the edge of her seat. It was as if she was experiencing it herself and she wanted to know more.

“Keep going, what happened next? Did you get his number? Did he get yours? Did you kiss?”

“Let me finish. After he rescued me we were standing there holding hands again and we started talking. That’s when his teacher came up and said they weren’t supposed to be on the ferry yet so he had to leave right away.”

“Please tell me you kissed him before he left.”

“I wish I could. The teacher was pulling him away from me and we never got to exchange contact information let alone kiss. All we know about each other are our first names.”

Hannah’s shoulders slumped as she remembered how sad she’d been
, not knowing how to get in touch with him.

“To answer your questions, no
, I didn’t get his number, no, he didn’t get mine, and no we didn’t have a chance to kiss even if we had wanted to!”

She managed to hide a
slight smile remembering she did want to kiss him and still did.

“This is so great Hannah, but if you don’t know anything about each other isn’t it kind of a waste to keep thinking about him?
”

“Don’t remind me.”

“I hate to say it but you’ll probably never see him again. I don’t want to see you torturing yourself over a guy you met briefly and don’t know how to find.”

Gina
put her arm around Hannah as they started to walk through the mall.

“I did remember something about him though that may help me find him. It’s a long shot I
know but what do I have to lose?”

Gina
brushed a lock of hair from Hannah’s eyes as she listened to the rest of her story.

“He was wearing a school jacket and it had what I think was his school’s
name on it. I looked it up on the internet and found the school’s email address.”

“That sounds like a good place to start.”

“I already wrote an email to the office staff asking them to pass my information along to Conall if they have him as a student. I included my picture, phone number, and email address.”

Gina sighed and Hannah continued.

“I wasn’t sure I was going to send the email but I kind of did it accidentally when my cell phone rang and startled me. If he goes to that school he definitely will receive the email on Monday, if the office decides to give it to him that is.”

Gina
thought for a minute.

“If he liked you as much as you liked him and he does go to that school
, I think he’d be a fool not to contact you.”

She stopped walking and turned to face Hannah.

“Promise me one thing though. Please try to keep this in perspective and don’t sweat it if you never hear from him. The ball is in his court and you’ve done everything you can do.”

Hannah hel
d up her hand in front of Gina and said, “I will even pinky promise with you that I won’t give him another thought if I don’t hear back from him soon.”

The girls locked pinky fingers and with a laugh kept walking through the mall as they talked about other girl things besides boys.

Three hours later, they were on their way home to Hannah’s house. They decided they were having too much fun to call it a day so a sleepover it was.

Even after confiding in
Eden about Conall, Hannah was still having trouble putting him out of her mind. He was always in her thoughts and try as she might to think of other things, his face kept popping into her head.

T
here was no way she could let Gina know this was happening. After all, she had pinky promised not to dwell on a boy she didn’t know and had no way of getting to know at this point.

“Do you want to play a board game or maybe we could watch a movie.”

Her voice drifted as she climbed into the bean bag chair on the floor.

Gina could tell Hannah’s mind was somewhere else.

“Earth to Hannah, come in Hannah.”

“I’m so sorry Gina. I’m trying really hard not to think about Conall but the more I try not to the more I seem to. I’ve liked boys before and have had crushes before, you know that. But this is different. It’s like we read each others minds or something.”