The Bad Boy's Secret (3 page)

“Nope,” Richard replied. “I’m pooped. I’ve got a date with the television and then my pillow. Some of us have work in the morning.”

“Slave,” Chuck replied, putting his jacket back on. “Alright, boys, have fun being boring. I’ll see you around.”

“And I’ll leave the key under the mat,” Richard said, knowing how the night would likely end. The boys hooted their appreciation and were soon out the door, ready to cause trouble in the neighborhood and party until dawn.

He had been looking forward to this party for weeks, and he felt extra happy tonight. He was at a great party, surrounded by friends, and Sas was back in town. Life was awesome.

“And using this formula, the answer is…”

“46,” Cassie called out, her eyes rapidly going over the board.

“Correct,” the teacher said, and scribbled in the answer as the bell rang. “Alright, that’s it for now. Do Chapter 3 tonight and we’ll pick up again tomorrow. See you guys!”

She gathered up her books and reached into her bag, to check her phone. Per usual, as of late, there were about 60 text messages from the boys, ranging from
I’m bored
to
you look like an upper classer.
It was the usual banter of the gang, who seemed to be adopting her just fine, as long as it was outside of the public eye.

“Are you texting your boyfriend?”

She looked up with a start to find Dave standing there. Dave was the cutest junior in school, decided by most of the female population. Cassie hadn’t had much interaction with any of the juniors since jumping a grade up, her New York transcripts proving that she had the capability to handle 11
th
grade work. But she had, just like any girl in the class, spent a lot of time staring at Dave’s toned body and high cheek bones.

“Oh, I don’t have a …boyfriend,” she blushed, putting her phone away. “I’m just texting friends.”

“Now, I can’t believe that a pretty thing like you doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Dave said, and she blushed. She knew it was a pickup line, but she couldn’t bring herself to role her eyes.

“Well, I don’t,” she stood, gathering her books. She had offered to order pizza if the boys agreed to watch a movie with her tonight, and no one was objecting.

Cassie was already feeling the divide between them, although she tried not to show it. They never asked her for money, but she always offered it, since they couldn’t exactly go out and find their own fun. She had reluctantly agreed to be a spy only because she didn’t know what her place in this new town was to begin with. Tonight, she was going to order at least five pizza pies with the weekly allowance that had never stopped coming directly into her account. When she skated, her parents set up a direct deposit of one hundred dollars a week to pay for anything she needed, too busy to take her to buy new outfits or get her skates sharpened. Now, it was burning a hole in her pocket.

“Good,” Dave said, with a grin. “Then no one will object if I ask you to the movies on Friday.”

“Oh,” that startled her, but it made her smile. “No, they won’t.”

“Good. Message me your number on Facebook and it’s a date,” he grinned at her and then shouldered his own bag, sauntering out like he was on top of the word. Cassie blushed, zipping up her back pack and heading out into the sunshine. A date! She had a date!

She had never been on a date in her whole life. There were always official skating engagements with Scott, him in a tux and her in a ball gown, accepting an award and eating a fancy dinner, but that wasn’t a real date.

Those were just part of her life as a skater, which was over.

She felt the familiar sharpness of grief in her chest as she walked to the parking lot, the familiar pressing against her heart. Her legs trembled and she almost fell, had it not been for a railing on the outer stairway. She paused, wiping the tears from her eyes and trying to clear the toxin in her head.

Just keeping walking, she told herself. Just keep walking.

By the Dave she reached the road, she felt a little bit better. Chuck was strict on the rules about being seen with them, and so she always had to walk half a mile around the corner, where whoever had driven that day would pick her up.

Being a spy had proved useful twice already, although she hardly cared for the consequences. She had found out where a big party was, that Chuck went to cause trouble at just last week. At first, she protested that it was cruel, until Chuck sat her down and listed all the things the upper classes had done to their own little gang, forget the rest of the world. It was a war, she saw, between the two, and she hardly thought the way the lower class boys suffered was fair.

But Dave, Dave was different. He didn’t go to rumbles or to parties, and his name had never come up on Chuck’s hate list. He volunteered at the soup kitchen and got good grades, and he went to visit his grandparents in their retirement home twice a week. Dave was different and the thought of him made her smile as she rounded the corner.

“Hey, Snob, you want a ride?” Steve called, sticking his head out the window and teasing her. She forced a smile, and slid into the back sheet.

“You know, if this is all supposed to be a secret, maybe you should not yell so the whole neighborhood can hear you.”

“No one around but the grass,” Peter pointed out and she had to agree. They were in a sleepy neighborhood, full of old money and crumbling brick houses. The houses were large and sprawling, and the boys looked at them with awe as Steve drove past. Cassie didn’t look up, having seen houses like that all her life. She was too engrossed in messaging Dave on face book, triple checking her number before hitting send. When it was completed, she leaned against Peter, closing her eyes.

“What’s up?” he asked, not used to the affection and she shrugged.

“Nothing. Tired. Long day.”

“I’ll say,” Shawn put in from the front seat. “I have a countdown for how many hours until I get out of that joint.”

“Hours?” Cassie asked. “Days?”

“Down to the second. I can’t wait to be free! When you skated, you were home schooled, right?” he asked, turning around. “That must be awesome. Algebra would be better from my bed.”

“Uhhuh,” she said, biting her lip. She didn’t want to think about skating at all, and the boys never seem to get that. They thought it was the coolest thing in the world that they could Google her. But if there was one day she wanted to forget about it, it was today.

By the time they got to the Criter house, the topic had changed several times, and she was glad of it. When the pizza arrived, there was no more talking, and only the sound of chewing mouths as they popped in the movie they had rented.

Cassie glanced at the pizza before choosing a small piece of cheese and curling up on the couch beside Chuck.

“Remember Papa Pizza in New York?” Chuck asked her, already on his forth slice. “That was the best. Can you import it?”

“Uh, I think it’ll be cold by then,” Cassie replied, blotting at the pizza grease with her napkin. She peeled a rogue piece of pepperoni off of it and handed it to Chuck, who ate it without a second thought.

Her stomach was growling but she wasn’t hungry. For years, she had to remain light as a feather, the lifts that she and Scott did often giving them extra points that led to their victory. The thought of the amount of calories in pizza made bile rise in her throat, and so she cast her eyes to the TV screen instead.

“This is the best part,” Steve said, at her feet, as Richard came in, with a proper plate.  “Richard, you’re missing it.”

“I’m right here, quit your yammering,” Richard shoved Steve out of the way so that he could sit on the other end of the couch, Cassie in the middle. There was something comforting about the two of them, sandwiching her between their arms, deep rumbling voices talking low over her head. Peter turned out the lights and the boys were completely engrossed in the cop drama.

Cassie had just placed her uneaten slice on the table and was about to put her feet up when the scene changed.  The lights in the scene dimmed as the lead cop was grabbed from behind. It was hard to tell what was happening, but there were screams, a flash of a gun, a crack, and then the enemy in a pool of blood.

Cassie felt her heart flutter in her chest, and then it felt like it had stopped. She gasped, putting her hand to her breast, but the air that she was suddenly lacking wouldn’t come.

“You scared, Sas?” Chuck asked, reaching for the pizza that she had abandoned. “Hey, did you eat anything?”

She tried to gasp again, but she couldn’t get any air. Her hands shot out, trying to get someone’s attention and spots danced in front of her eyes.

All of sudden, the air came in a rush and she couldn’t stop breathing quickly, her heart rate speeding up as if she was on a marathon track. Her eyes flashed rapidly all around, and she broke out into a sweat.

“Hey, what the hell?” Chuck put the pizza down, turning to her in alarm. She was making so much noise at this point, it was hard to ignore her. Richard sat up rigid, watching the situation with rapidly growing concern. “Sas? You ok? Cassie?”

“I can’t…breathe,” she managed, taking Chuck’s outstretched hand and gasping. She doubled over as bile rose in her throat, but there was nothing in her stomach to throw up. She heard their voices, calling to her, pounding on her back as if she were choking, but she felt like she was floating, watching herself.

The oxygen lack began to affect her limbs, which felt impossibly heavy and began to tingle.

I’m going to die,
Cassie thought.
This is how I’m going to die, surrounded by open pizza boxes and half eaten crusts. This is it.

All of a sudden, she felt a strong pull on her waist and her head shot backwards. The movement was enough to clear it, and she began to regain control of her breathing.

When she was lucid enough to look around, she saw faces staring back at her, eyes wide in shock and mouths open.

“Cassie!” It was Chuck’s chest she was leaning against, listening to the steady thump of his heart. “Are you alright?”

Richard was hovering on her other side, the phone in his hand.

“Do I need to call an ambulance?”

“I don’t know man,” Chuck certainly didn’t know the right answer. “I—she seems ok now. Cassie?”

“I’m fine,” Cassie managed, as her blurred mind began to put the pieces together. “I’m fine.”

“What the hell was that?” Chuck asked. “Jesus, kid, you’re going to be the death of me.”

“It’s nothing…just…it’s nothing,” she tried to sit up but he held her down.

“Call her parents,” Chuck said, at last and Cassie shook her head.

“They are in the Hamptons for the week.”

“Jesus,” the boys exchanged looks.

“You really should see a doctor, sweetie,” Richard sat down beside her. “It’s no trouble, we’ll take you.”

“No, it’s fine,” she wanted to die of embarrassment. Everyone was staring at her, and it wasn’t the kind of attention she was used to. “Really, I’m fine. I just...got caught up in the movie.”

“Uhhuh,” Chuck didn’t believe her for a moment. “Because you weren’t the kid who wanted to watch Robo Cop every day after school.”

“I’m fine,” she repeated, through gritted teeth. This time, she did sit up, and he let her. “It’s just been a long day.”

“You need some fresh air?” Chuck asked, and she nodded. He helped her up, on shaky legs, and slipped on arm around her waist as they headed for the porch.

“Call me if you need me!” Richard called, as they shut the door.

Outside, Cassie sunk into the porch chair, sucking breathfuls of air into her lungs. Chuck gave her a moment before he spoke.

“So?”

“So what?” she asked and he glared at her.

“Four seconds to start talking, kiddo. Since when do we keep secrets from each other?”

“It just…reminded me, of the way Scott died,” she managed at last. “The lights went out light that and all.”

“Oh, Baby,” he crouched down beside her. “You can’t carry that with you your whole life. I know he’s gone, and it sucks, but you’re still here. And you have to keep on living.”

“It’s just…” she looked into his face and she so much wanted to tell him the truth, tell him exactly what had happened. But her tongue caught in her throat, and the words didn’t flow. “I know.”

“Life’s a bitch,” he said, sitting down on the porch steps. “Ain’t nothing you can do about it.”

They sat in silence for awhile, as she felt the weight lift from her chest. Eventually, after listening to the crickets, she spoke.

“I got asked on a date today.”

“What?” his head whirled around. “By who?”

“Dave Herder?” she said. “He’s in my math class.”

Chuck snorted.

“That preppy loser? That’s what you dig?”

She shrugged.

“He seems really nice, is all.”

“Yeah, you would fall for that,” Chuck replied, shaking his head. “Good. You should go with him, wherever he and the upper classers hang out. It’s a new way to the inside.”

“Uh,” she said, carefully. “I wasn’t thinking like that. I kind of like him.”

“Well, you can multitask, can’t you?” he asked, and she nodded, mutely. It was easier to let Chuck think she was going to do that than argue with him.

“But Dave’s never done anything to you guys, right?”

“No,” Chuck snorted, and reached inside his pocket for a cigarette, scooting away from her a bit. “That one, he just likes to show off. His very existence annoys me.”

“Is there anyone you do like, Chuck?” she teased him, curling her legs up under her. He turned around and gave her a devilish grin.

“Well, I like you just fine, kid. Except when you don’t eat dinner.”