Taking Risks (2 page)

             
The Lost Ones mainly hung around at the old town square that was conveniently located only about a mile through the woods behind our house. I didn’t realize it would be so chilly that night so all I wore was a thin cardigan and lounge pants with rubber boots for the mud. My long sun streaked hair whipped in the wind and hit my face like a thousand little riding crops. I was shivering from the cold when a young boy ran up beside me.

             
“Do I know you?” He asked with a worrisome look on his face.

             
“No, I don’t think so, but I could use some company if you want to talk for a while.” I said.

             
I approached him slowly like you would a stray cat that you didn’t want to spook. He looked at me with huge brown watering eyes. His face and clothes were covered in, what appeared to be, dirt. I wondered for a small moment why he didn’t clean up or change clothes like Gray did.

             
“I feel like I know you somehow.” He looked confused and on the verge of tears so I quieted my voice and put on my sweetest smile. “You may have seen me around here before. I like to come here and clear my head. I would love it if you would hang out with me for a while." His glossy eyes slowly started to fade and he looked to be relieved. “Okay.” He said, “I can do that!” Just the thought of having a bit of company for a while brightened him up, and it broke my heart. It was something that I could definitely relate to.

             
Gray sat and listened to the boy and I talk about things like school and baseball for a few hours and then we said our goodbyes. Even though I had promised him that we would come back, he still looked lost as he watched us walk away.

             
Every time I went to see the Lost Ones I was so exhausted when we got back that I could barely climb into bed. When we finally got home, Gray and I threw ourselves down on my mattress face first. Gray was even more dramatic about it than me, and he never got tired or slept. He always enjoyed putting on a good show.

             
“Are you really going to school with me tomorrow?” I asked as I tried to keep my eyes open.

             
“Of course! I could never miss meeting the person that passed
you
up on the freak-o-meter!”

             
“Ha-ha.” I said dryly.

             
“Oh shit! Actually Mar, it’s time to get up and get ready for school now.”

             
“
What?!?!
Oh gosh... it’s light outside.”

             
As I dragged myself out of bed, moaning and groaning all the way, I decided to just take my work uniform with me to school so I could go straight from there to Rocktop. With minimal effort on my appearance and Gray skipping at my heels we got into the Delray and started off to school.

             
“I can’t wait to meet the poor bastard that’s captured the hearts of all the mongrels at school!” Gray said, and I had to wonder how old Gray really was since he acted like a total five year old most of the time. By his appearance I could tell that he couldn’t have been any older than twenty when he died. “I’m so glad you’re happy to witness the torture of another living soul.” I smirked at him and he gave me his prize winning half smile while his emerald eyes dazzled. “Just call it jealousy.” He said, and I knew that he
was
sometimes jealous of the living.

             
When we walked into the school I could have barfed right in the hallway. There were campaign posters
everywhere
exclaiming “Vote ME for prom slut!” or something like that. I had no idea we would be coming up on that awful part of my high school career so soon. I made a deal with my mom, while I was a freshman, that no matter how much I hated it would go to my senior prom and I would even try and find a date. The “date” part is where she got me. I had a devious plan to get all dressed up, explain that I was going solo, and dash out of the back door just as fast as I walked in. My mom was the prom queen her senior year, and she wanted so badly to have the debutante daughter that she always thought she would have. So because I could do nothing else for her, I was going to my senior prom, and yes, I was going to try and find a date. Even if I had to invite a sleaze ball from Rocktop, I was going to try.

             
When Gray and I walked into my first period English class, I noticed someone that I hadn’t the day before. A thick head of dark brown bed head and big almond-shaped green eyes smiled at me. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t noticed him before. He was obviously new and completely gorgeous. I had just realized that I was staring at him when Jon Gillman pushed me down into my seat.
I hate that guy.
I tried to steal a glance back at the mystery guy, but as soon as our eyes met I saw that he was looking at me and so I set straight forward for the rest of the class with my cheeks blazing.
At least my interesting morning should wake me up from my total lack of sleep
. When the bell rang to let the class leave I bolted out of the door, accidentally pushing Jon Gillman in the process. When he yelled after me I just flipped him my middle finger and kept running. It may be immature, but little acts of defiance to the mean crowd every now and then helped me remember that they weren’t all that tough.

             
A few classes later into my day, and unfamiliar voice came very close to my ear and said, “I see you managed to keep ahold of your books today. I’m Risk” I spun around and tried my best not to scream or drool, or both.

             
“…..Oh, um……What’s up?” My voice shook and he gave me the bad boy smirk.
Oh God he’s going to melt me with his hotness!
I allowed myself a few minutes to drink him in. He was tall, but not too tall. Just tall enough that I would have to stand on the tips of my toes to kiss him on his perfectly full lips, and stare into those light green eyes, and tangle my fingers into his soft amazing hair….

             
“Is something wrong?” He said, breaking me out of my trance.

             
“Um…What?”
Clever Marlee…

             
“It’s just… You look a little scared, or hungry…or something.”

             
“Oh no, I’m okay. I’m just scared of being hungry…it’s a phobia.”
Oh my Lord Marlee you are such an idiot!!!

             
Gray, who was witnessing my melt down from mere inches away, burst out laughing at me. After one look at him I could hardly contain my own laughter. I decided that I had to make the decision to laugh, or look constipated trying to hold it in, so I laughed.

             
Gray and I laughed until there were tears in our eyes and then it dawned on me that I appeared to be laughing at my own weirdness in front of Risk!
Oh no!
I halted my laughter and was prepping myself to see another person run in fear of me, but instead I noticed something completely unexpected. Risk was laughing at me! As I sat there watching him laugh at me, my cheeks started to heat with embarrassment, and that made me angry.
How dare he come over here and laugh at me as a way to get into the “in crowd!” Who cares about those douche bags anyway?
So before I could make a complete fool of myself, I ran away and ducked into a women’s bathroom. I knew that the rest of the day was going to draaaaaag on.

             
By the time I made it to work I was completely exhausted. I didn’t really have any friends, but if I did than I would consider the girls at work to be my closest ones, besides Gray. After Gray settled into a seat next to the prettiest girl in Rocktop I made my way over to the huddle of the other bar employees. The girls all smiled my way and I realized that it was nice that none of these girls had ever thrown milk or a slushy at me. Slushy’s were the worst because they stained my clothes, but they had become a popular liquid for torture after the show Glee started to air. Apparently it was much funnier than milk or water because it had been done on TV. It didn’t seem very funny at all to me.

             
The curvy blonde waitress, Remi, was my favorite. She had a morbid sense of humor and she had an easy going attitude. No matter what rude comments I heard some of the customers say to her she just let it roll right off of her shoulders and laughed about it. She was Gray’s favorite too, and I could see why. Remi has platinum blonde hair that hangs straight to her waist. She only ever wore a modest amount of makeup, but her face was flawless. Her lips were always a pretty pale pink color and her cheeks had a natural blush to them. She was also curvy in all the right places. Looking at her reminded me of how painfully plain I was.

             
My uniform helped with my curves, but it didn’t keep me from fading into the background. My hair is long too, but only hangs to my bra line, and my face always looked pale. My eyes are big and brown, the color of mud, and seemed to be much too big for my face. Every time I looked into the mirror I thought that my eyes gave me a look of constant surprise, even when I had just rolled out of bed. My lips are almost the same color as my face so that made my eyes my most prominent facial feature. I’m not thin, but I was happy with my figure at least. I’m a size 6, which the models say is plus sized but I think it’s a healthy size, and my boobs are on the larger side. I was actually pretty self-conscious of my chest because my hips (or lack thereof) barely kept my jeans from falling down. Working at a sports bar and not having a good caboose could really hurt your tips, but I guess my boobs made up for it. The thing that I loved the most about my appearance was my hair. I thought that it was a good length and most days it was super shiny, which I thought was strange because it isn’t straight, like Remi’s, but rather wavy, and it is a darker blonde color with hints of brown and red streaks from being in the sun. Yeah Remi definitely blows me out of the water.

             
“Hey Marlee!” Said the bodacious blonde, “Have a good day at school?”

             
Immediately thinking of my encounter with Risk I blushed and muttered, “Don’t even get me started…”

             
“Oh my! Boy trouble isn’t it? I can always tell.” She gave me a devilish grin and sauntered away to wait on the table that Gray was eaves dropping at. When Gray noticed the direction that she was going he looked at me and winked. I chuckled a little and then realized that another girl that I work with, Jane, had seen me laughing, seemingly to myself, and my smile dropped as I scurried back to work.

             
When I finally climbed into bed that night I collapsed. I was going to have to start getting some sleep at night or I was never going to graduate and get the hell out of the town that was so scared of me. Gray actually looked a little beat too and plopped down beside me. I fell asleep listening to Gray hum the song “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” by Chicago.

              The next morning I woke up to the smell of breakfast cooking. Since I had worked the night before I hadn’t had a chance to see my mother and talk to her about what had happened between us yet. I knew from past experiences that making breakfast for me was her way of making the effort to apologize. We had been through all of that many times before. I reluctantly brushed my hair and teeth and threw on my favorite skinny jeans and a bright yellow shirt, the color of my Rocktop shorts. As I was walking down the stairs to start my awkward morning I saw that Gray was waiting for me in the hall with a stupid smirk on his face. He knew I wasn’t a morning person, but he always insisted on giving me a hard time every morning.

             
“Are you ready for fake smiles and heartwarming hugs?” He said and his smile was growing with my annoyance.

             
“I’m so glad that you’re around all the time. I would just hate it if someone weren’t constantly annoying me.” I said and my words were oozing hateful sarcasm.

             
When I turned away from him I noticed that my mom was standing at the bottom of the stairs, once again, witnessing my interaction with thin air. She had that disapproving scowl on her face that I had grown all too familiar with. “We need to talk
Mar.”

             
I flinched at the emphasis on my name and cowered down the rest of the stairs to sit at the kitchen table. Mom’s face softened a little and then she said, “I had no right to hit you like I did the other night. I just want to…
understand
you. I’m so sorry that I put my hands on you, but you have to realize what your episodes look like to me.” I nodded and she went on, “You don’t have any friends Marlee, and you choose to talk to people that aren’t even there. I can’t accept your explanation of it either. It’s just not
possible.”

             
“Would you rather I lie to you about it?” I said, trying to sound like a typical smart ass teenager.

             
“No Marlee, I guess I wouldn’t, but maybe we should get you some help. Maybe you could talk to someone.”

             
“Mom, I’m telling you, I could either take medication that makes me more of a zombie than a person, or I could lie. Either way, this isn’t going away. There’s no sense in anyone being angry about it. Didn’t I prove it to you when I told you the things that Dad asked me to tell you?”