Stone Cold (14 page)

“Yeah, I’ve noticed how much happier and relaxed they’ve been since we moved. Hope you’re right.” Conall tried to sound optimistic.

To keep the wait from killing
him over the next two weeks, he explored his new surroundings, beginning with the high school.

It
was big. Conall was used to being in buildings that had at least several floors and were surrounded by concrete from ground to sky. His new school had quite a different view. It was one floor and spread out over several acres with lush green fields of grass as far as the eye could see. There were hardly any other buildings in sight except for a few scattered houses in the outlying area. The land beyond the fields was wooded with mountains in the background. There were fields for football, soccer, and baseball. A track and stadium with lights surrounded the football field. 

While Conall was sitting on his bike
in the parking lot, taking in the sites, he hadn’t noticed a few cars that were parked near the stadium.

He was about ready to continue on his exploratory journey when he heard voices in the distance.

“I have no idea who he is – must be new. I heard someone bought the Jaffee’s place and they have kids so maybe he lives there.”

Conall spun around looking for who ever was talking. It was obvious they were referring to him.
After years of conditioning from being bullied, he braced himself for the fight or flight response.

Two boys were approaching him from the direction of the stadium. He pulled his fists, sweaty palms and all, from his
pockets. Even though he’d only been in one fight before, Conall was prepared to try to defend himself if it came to that.

He could feel his heart pounding faster and faster in his chest as the boys came closer, 50 feet, 40, 20 feet,
bull’s-eye.

The taller of the two boys extended his hand toward Conall and said, “Hey, I’m Carter
Broden and this is Max Stratton.”

Almost in a sta
te of shock, he shook both boys’ hands.

“
Hey, I’m Conall Stone. Do you guys go to this school?”

Still extremely shy, he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Yeah man – just practicing a little football – getting ready for next season. You play?” Carter asked.

Conall resisted the urge to look down at his feet.

“Sadly no. They didn’t really have sports teams at my old school. I want to though.”

“Where are you from? What scho
ol did you go to?” Max seemed dumbfounded by Conall’s response.

“I grew up in
Manhattan. Went to Central Park East. Just never had much chance to play any sports. What other sports do you play besides football?”

Max and Carter couldn’t stop talking. They told Conall all about their school, from sports, to what classes to take. Rather than stand in the parking lot, they asked him to go with them to one of the local hangouts to grab some food.

Hours had passed before he knew it and Conall had to get back to his house since his dad still had him on house arrest.

The boys asked him to meet them at the football field the next day. Carter and Max wanted to practice and they also wanted to introduce Conall to the game.

“We wanna see what ya got. Meet us at the football field tomorrow around 10:00 A.M. if ya wanna hang out.”

“Don’t get your hopes up too high. I’ll be there but I’m not promising anything.”

Conall had no idea if he could even catch a ball.

“Later.”

“Later.”

Max and Carter drove off and Conall rode his bike home. He was thinking about tomorrow and the mixed emotions began to surface.

On the one hand he couldn’t believe his luck. Two guys who were probably fairly popular in the school had befriended him with ease.

His thoughts began to take over.

“What if I suck at football? What if I suck at sports altogether? Max and Carter seem to be fairly good athletes from the looks of them. If I’m really bad would they decide I’m not worth being friends with?”

There was no point in worrying about it
– he would either be good or not and it’s not like he hadn’t failed at things before. His stomach tightened as he remembered a certain incident from a few years ago at a basketball court in his neighborhood.

Conall had been on his way home from middle school one afternoon when a basketball from a court he was passing bounced out of the court and into his path. He stopped and out of instinct grabbed the ball. The players on the court were encouraging him to th
row the ball back to them over the surrounding fence.

“
Hey man, how bout a little help. Throw the ball back up over the fence.”

Although intimidated by the
athletes who were waiting to get their ball back, Conall set his backpack down and took aim.

The fence was about ten
feet tall and had a lip at the top that bent over toward him so that no one could climb into the court from the street.

With everything he had
, he’d launched the basketball toward the top of the fence as the players waited to catch it. Seconds later, the ball hit the top of the fence near the lip and came back and hit Conall in the head.

There was dead silence for a minute followed by laughter from the players who saw the whole thing.

He was so embarrassed that he grabbed his backpack and ran the rest of the way home. He never passed by that court again from that day on.

Fee
ling even queasier from reliving this memory, Conall was determined to learn how to be a good athlete. He was older and he was certain if he had to throw a basketball over that fence again he would be able to no sweat.

The next day, he met Max and Carter at the field. They started with the basics, from showing him how to hold the football, to how to throw it, to running plays.

Much to their surprise and his, Conall was a natural. By the end of the day, it looked as if he may even be on his way to being a better player than his two new best friends.

He spent the next two weeks hanging out and play
ing football with his Carter and Max. The time flew by and before he knew it, he was on his way to meet Hannah.

Eden
had pulled it off. She knew exactly how to talk to their father to get her way. Conall was a bit jealous of this at times but this wasn’t one of them. He didn’t care how she did it. He was just glad she was able to convince Darin to let him go with her, for protection of course.

She’d been worried about him getting involved with anything that had to do with Jack
. She decided the perfect time to talk to him about it was in the car on their way to NYC.

“Conall, I hope you know what you’re doing. Jack Barnes seems like a really seedy, creepy guy and he has body guards Conall! Body guards!”
Eden’s flesh crawled just thinking about him.

She continued, “I mean why would a person such as himself need body guards? What does he do for a living for gosh sake?”

“All I know is he must have a lot of money because he’d have to in order to live where he lives. He was wearing what looked like some expensive clothes too.” 

Conall had
no intention of telling Eden about what Jack did for a living. She’d pull the plug on this trip immediately if she found out. He knew he was going to have to be careful when he got to the ferry landing. His intuition told him Jack was going to be there. He just hoped the body guards had the day off.

He couldn’t help thinking this wou
ld be a great time to have Bobby and Shawn with him again.

Conall’s anxiety was through the roof. He could see he was going to be about a half hour late to meet Hannah. Traffic had been worse than they thought and there was no way he could get there any faster.

He was praying she would be late herself or that she would at least hang around for awhile thinking he might be late.

“Stop shaking your leg Conall, geez, the whole car is shaking!”

“I can’t help it Eden. I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time and it might be lost because I’m gonna be late! It’s so unfair.”

“There must be an accident or something up ahead. I can see a flashing light. Maybe when we get past whatever it is we can go faster.”

Eden was right. An accident had caused the traffic jam and as soon as they passed it the traffic dissipated.

Conall was able to breath normally again.

“It’s already 1:25 P.M. As soon as you pull up near the landing I’m gonna jump out and run to the benches so if you have anything to say to me say it now.”

He had his hand on the door handle.

“I guess I should tell you I called Bobby and Shawn to meet you here.”

Eden
cowered toward her door and glanced at Conall out of the corner of her eye.

He was speechless.

“Don’t be mad at me, I was just really worried that Jack’s body guards might be with him and no offense but you’re no match for the three of them. I don’t want to see you or anyone else, including Hannah get hurt.”

Conall took a deep breath and said, “Thanks,
Eden. I appreciate your concern. Wish I’d thought of it first though.”

He gave her a half smile, kissed her on the cheek, and he was gone.

Chapter 11

Hannah had waited for several weeks hoping
to hear something from Conall after she sent the email but she never did. Surprisingly, she’d been able to keep her mind occupied with everything that had to be done before the end of the school year. There’d been little time to think about him.

It was the middle of June already and school was officially out for the summer.
She was glad she had some good friends, Gina being the closest. They were able to hang out together almost every day.

She and her mom were getting ready to take their annual trip to NYC and
she couldn’t wait. It was usually a fun time but this year it was going to be even more special.

Hann
ah still had faith that she’d get to see Conall, that he’d meet her at the ferry like she’d asked. There had to be a reason he didn’t respond to her email, the most likely being he never received it and that would be a tragedy.

The thought occurred to her, “
What if he was wearing someone else’s jacket that day and he doesn’t go to CPEHS 555?”

Her heart sank at the thought. If that were the case then any meeting with him would be
left up to chance, to fate. It would only happen if the universe wanted them to be together.

She still hadn’t given up on
the idea of making a trip to his school if worse came to worse.

Hannah’s thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell.

She heard Gina’s voice when her mother answered the door.

“Hi Gina
, how are you? She’s upstairs, just go on up.”

Gina
ran up the stairs, came into her room, and sat on the bed.

“Hannah where were you last night? I was waiting for you to come
to Zero Gravity and I tried calling but you didn’t answer. What’s going on with you?”

Hannah suddenly remembered she was supposed to have gone out last night
with a group of friends.

Zero Gravity
was the underage dance club in town that everyone under twenty one frequented on Friday and Saturday nights. It was an even bigger draw during the summer months.

“I’m really
sorry Gina! I was so tired from staying up late the night before that my mind forgot everything I was supposed to be doing. I fell asleep around 9:00 P.M. and never woke up again until this morning. I guess I even slept through my phone ringing.”

“
It’s okay  but I was so worried about you. It’s not like you to not answer your phone or to miss out on something we planned to do together.”

Gina
continued to tell Hannah about the events of the night before.