Charity Moon (6 page)

I got the feeling Mrs. Reed was needing a break, thus the stupid assignment, and after only a few short minutes, she slyly slipped out of the room—no doubt heading for the teacher’s lounge.

I concentrated hard on my project, trying to isolate each emotion. As the bell rang, I hurried and wrote the emotion “confusion” under a drawing of my Calculus book. I scrambled to Mrs. Reed’s desk and added my paper to the top of the heap. When I turned around, my backpack swung, sending all of the papers scattering to the floor. I huffed, knelt down, and was in the process of gathering them up when I stared, in disbelief, at the paper in my hand. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but I was looking at my face drawn beautifully five different times with the emotions listed off under each one; anger, fear, depression, confusion, and awe. My eyes quickly scanned to the top of the paper and noted the name neatly scrawled—Levi Drake. My breath caught in my throat as I turned abruptly to find he had already exited the room.

The rest of the month passed without incident. Levi had settled into his newfound popularity with relative ease. I, on the other hand, was miserable, though I hadn’t quite figured out what to do about.

It was Friday night, and my friends and I decided to go to our annual “Football for Charity” event. Every year, in the spring, our school joins E. W. High for a football game for charity. This year all the money raised went to our local orphanage.

Because of the intense rivalry between our two teams, both of which are incredibly good, the game was riveting right up until the end, but unfortunately we lost by two points.

My friends and I were hanging out, people watching, when out of the blue Ashley said, “Look, Charity, there’s Levi and his friends. Let’s go say hi.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me along like a dummy. I knew the real reason she wanted to say hello. She wanted to talk to Josh, Levi’s closest friend, a good-looking boy almost as tall as Levi but slightly more muscular, with dirty-blonde hair and sleepy eyes. She had a huge crush on him, and everyone knew it.

“Hello, Levi,” she said, beaming.

“Oh hello, Ashley. Hello, Charity.” He was polite, though he said my name with less excitement, no surprise there.

I just nodded in response.

“Hello, Josh,” she said sweetly, turning to face him.

“Oh, hey, Ashley,” he responded, his face turning an adorable shade of pink.

They were so cute. In unison, they stepped closer to each other and began talking as Levi made his way over to me.

He was wearing blue jeans that fit nicely and a grey t-shirt tight enough to reveal just a hint of the defined muscles hidden underneath. “How are you, Charity?”

“I’m fine. How are you?”
 I can be polite when I wanna be
.

“I’m good.” Then he smiled at me. It was the first time I’d ever seen him smile. He had dimples, which just added to his charm, not that his charm worked on me, mind you, but I could see how it could work on others
.

It looked as if he was about to ask me something when we were interrupted by a group of five guys approaching. They greeted each other kindly enough, but I sensed tension.

“Hello, Levi,” the first guy said. He was tall with black, spiky hair, and even darker eyes. I assumed he was the leader because of the way he carried himself, with a subtle hint of arrogance.

“Wesley,” Levi responded in a cold tone.

“You look good. How you liking your new turf?”

“It’s good,” he said simply.

The tension between them was strong, and I began to wonder if Ashley and I were in the middle of something we shouldn’t be.

“Who’s the girl? Is something going on I should know about? You’re not breaking any rules—are you?” His tone was taunting. He started to approach me when Levi was suddenly between us.
Funny, I didn’t even see him move.

“Easy, Levi, I just want to talk to her.” He seemed amused by Levi’s unexpected protectiveness, and I couldn’t help but smile inside. He slowly walked around me. “Hello there. What’s your name?”

“Charity Bell,” I answered coldly.

“Charity, what a lovely name. I’m Wesley Windsor. It’s very nice to meet you. Levi and I go back a long way. We’ve been friends since we were eight.”

“That’s funny, because I don’t sense sincere friendship between any of you.”

He laughed. “You’re very observant. Maybe you’re right. We’ve recently had a falling out, wouldn’t you say, Levi?” He threw his arm around Levi’s shoulder, taunting him. Levi seemed to be getting angry, though I couldn’t understand why.

“Well, maybe you can tell me why Levi and his friends transferred to W. W. High, since he doesn’t seem to be willing to tell me the truth.”

“Well, aren’t you the nosey one?”

“No, I just don’t like secrets.”
After I said it I realized how hypocritical the statement was considering I had secrets of my own
.

“Well we’ve got secrets, and you better hope you don’t find out what they are.”

“Oooh, I’m shaking in my boots.”

“You’ll be doing more than that in your boots.”

“Wesley, that’s enough!” Levi demanded.

“I’m just having a little fun with your girlfriend here.”

“I’m
not
his girlfriend.”

“You mean you haven’t claimed this one yet, Levi?” He came closer to me, and it almost looked as if he sniffed at me. “So you haven’t. I’m surprised. Someone as beautiful as this shouldn’t be left alone—that’s good news for me. Unlike you, I don’t mind breaking the rules.”

I had no idea what they were talking about, and I could’ve imagined it, but I thought I heard Levi growl, and it looked as if the two were about to fight. If I didn’t know better I might’ve said that Levi was acting possessive. Good thing I knew better.

“Excuse me boys, but can you tone down the testosterone please? It’s not very attractive.”

“I’ll be glad to, if you’ll go out with me,” Wesley remarked, turning his gaze to me.

“Charity,” Levi snapped, “why don’t you and Ashley go find your other friends and let Wesley and I talk,” he spoke to me, but his eyes never left Wesley.

“With pleasure. This conversation is boring me anyway. Come on, Ashley. It’s been fun boys. Thanks for entertaining us with your irresistible charm.”

“I look forward to seeing you soon, Charity,” Wesley called back to me.

“I’m counting the minutes.”

“Boy, that was tense,” Ashley commented once we were out of ear range. “I hope they won’t fight.”

“Oh, I think a fight is inevitable with those guys. I just hope they wait until we get out of here.”

“I think that Wesley guy has his eye on you. He’s cute, you could definitely do worse.”

“I guess he’s cute, but I got bad vibes from him. It felt like there was some secret meaning in everything he said. It was a little creepy.”

“I know what you mean, and Levi was acting so protective of you. Maybe he’s jealous.”

“Levi—jealous? Hmm.”

Ashley and I were so caught up in our chatter that we didn’t see the danger in time. No sooner had we escaped hostilities from one group of guys than we found ourselves in the middle of another, possibly more hostile one. Only this one was between the rival football players.

At first they were just arguing, so we tried to make our way around them, but then, without warning, punches started flying and Ashley and I were separated. In the frenzy, I was knocked to the ground. I knew at any moment I could be trampled. I screamed, putting my arms up to protect my face, as one boy tripped over me. Out of nowhere, two arms appeared under mine, dragging me from the scene.

“Levi!” I gasped as he set me up right beside the bleachers and out of harms way. He gave me a quick once-over and then, without saying a word to me, ran back to join the fight.

I watched in awe as Levi and his friends tried, without success, to break up the massive fight, which had by that time, doubled in size. Although, they soon found themselves throwing punches as well.

If there were any skeptics left as to which school Levi was loyal to they were soon to be silenced as Levi took some blows for the team—our team.

I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes from the scene before me even as Ashley grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the parking lot, where we discovered our friends waiting for us.

“Did you guys see that fight?” Toby asked with excitement.

“Yeah. Charity and I were right in the middle of it, and she would’ve been trampled if it hadn’t been for Levi pulling her out of the way. He just appeared out of nowhere. It was amazing!”

“Wow! Once again Levi ‘Lava-Hottie’ saved you. I think it’s now safe to say he’s desperately in love with you.” Stacy remarked, taking me by the hand.

I laughed at the absurdity of her comment. “You are totally mistaken. Levi loathes me. And believe me the feeling is mutual. He’s just the kind of guy who would rescue someone in trouble. These days it just happens to be me. That’s all.”

“Okay. Whatever. Did you get hurt?”

“No. I’m fine, but let’s get out of here.” 

I opened my car door and was about to climb in the driver’s seat when Wesley called out to me. I froze in shock as he approached, his expression kind.

“Charity, thanks for waiting. I wanted to apologize for the tension back there. Levi and I don’t get along very well, and I was reacting to that. I’m sorry. I really would like to take you out. What do you say?” He smiled innocently.

“Well, I-I don’t know.”

“Oh, come on. Give me a chance to show you the real me. I promise to behave. I’m really a nice guy once you get to know me.”

I thought about Levi and the way he responded to Wesley’s advances, and before I realized what I was doing I answered, “Um, well I guess that’ll be okay.”

“Great. I’ll call you.”

“Okay, goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

“Did I just agree to go out with weirdo?” I asked once I was inside the car.

“He’s cute. Where did you meet him?” Delaney asked.

“We met him tonight. He’s friends with Levi, or enemies, we couldn’t quite figure that part out.”

“But you didn’t give him your number.”

“Oh well, I guess the date’s off then.”

“Yeah, and you sound so broken-hearted about it too.”

“Well, there’s something about him I don’t trust, so I guess it’s for the best. To be honest, I don’t even know why I said yes.”

“Yes you do,” Ashley smirked.

“You know what? Who’s up for some Happy’s?”

“Me!” they all said.

The next day I was shocked when Wesley called me and asked me out for that evening, so I reluctantly said yes.
What else was I gonna say?

He showed up at my door looking quite handsome, in a dangerous sort of way. I hadn’t remembered thinking he was handsome the night before, cute maybe, but not handsome. He gave me a smirk, and the hairs on my neck instantly stood on end. For some reason I was starting to feel like I had made yet another bad decision, something I found myself doing more frequently since meeting Levi.

He took me to a nice restaurant and then to a movie, a love story of all things. It seemed to me that he was trying a little too hard for a first date, like it was forced or something.

On our way home he quizzed me about Levi. “I’m just curious, but have you and Levi dated before?”

“Um, no. We just have some classes together. He protected me from a fight once—correction—twice, but that’s all. Most of the time we hate each other.”

“Oh, I think the last thing he does is hate you.”

“Why do you say that? Did he say something to you?”