Gravity, a young adult paranormal romance (11 page)

"She's not sitting with us," she said,
indicating Theo with a quick flash of her muddy eyes. Off of my
confused look, she continued, "She's a freak. I don't want her
bringing the rest of us down." There was no maybe about it, her
mind was made up. Becky had become the leader of the group when I
wasn't looking. The lipgloss she had been busy applying dangled
from her fingertips.

"If you'll just drop her, we'd be
happy to have you still sit here," she finished. Funny, I remember
her bare faced and only interested in volleyball last year. Now her
freckles were buried under thick foundation and she wore a low-cut
top. I realized I hadn't been paying much attention at all. My
mouth gaped open a little as I pulled back.

I took a second to compose myself.
"You really don't have the hair to act like Lainey," I spat, and
spun around, walking quickly away.  

The word mad didn't cover the emotions
coursing through me. I was revolted. It's not like they owed me
anything, but it still made me furious. Theo stayed close on my
heels, and nearly bumped into me when I stopped.

Surveying the commons for a moment, I
looked for a seat. But as usual, it was completely packed. The
tables were as cliquey as a movie cliché, too, and I didn't see any
empty spots together. I glanced at Theo and she was chewing off all
of her lip balm.

"Come on," I said, and we made a
beeline for the back wall beneath the windows. It was the only
place I could think of. I turned around, and plopped resolutely
down against the wall. She followed suit.

"This is a little unusual," she said,
adjusting her skirt underneath her. She started taking the
cellophane off of her sandwich. "I like it."

"I just don't understand
people sometimes," I said. "Or I guess I
think
I understand them, and then
they morph into different people."

She nodded thoughtfully. "Well, you
told me you didn't have any friends here."

"I suppose I was right," I said,
sighing. "I just didn't realize it at the time."  

We chatted for a bit as we were eating
our bland cafeteria meal. Theo filled me in about moving to Hell,
and about her parents' recent divorce.

"They still love each other," she
explained, twisting the cap off of her water bottle and taking a
drink. "They just can't live together. They tried to resist
divorcing for a long time, but being caught up together just made
them fight, even when they were in separate places. Now that
they're totally disconnected entities, and they each have their own
bank accounts, they get along fine."

"Does your dad still live in Chicago?"
I asked.

"No, that's the funny thing," she
said. "He lives four houses down from us. He moved here about a
year ago. Mom followed him because she thought it would be easier
for me. I think I'm just an excuse. It's not like there was
anything for me here, really. I'm planning to go to the Art
Institute of Chicago."

"Parents like to make excuses," I
said, running my fingernail over the scratches in the tray. They
had switched from Styrofoam to reusable brown plastic this year,
but they were already suffering abuse. "Even when it's more like
lying."

Theo nodded thoughtfully, and we both
surveyed the busy, chattering mass of people in front of us. Even
though we got a few odd stares from some of the tables nearby,
pretty much everyone ignored our odd choice of seating. I was
growing to like it that way.

I had been trying to ignore Henry as
much as possible. I didn't like the effect he had on me, making me
forget about what should be important. It was as if he lived in a
parallel world that occasionally dipped into mine. Despite whatever
promise he had made me give to continue our chat, I had little
interest in picking the conversation back up.

Being the new guy, he got a lot of
attention, especially from the girls, as I was well aware. It had
been my experience that anyone who flirted with one girl, did it
with all the girls. And so I tried to be as cautious as possible.
 

In History, I noticed everyone turning
in their desks as he spoke, although I couldn't hear what he was
saying. For a fleeting moment I wished I could, and tried to read
his lips. His mouth had become an unconscious obsession for me, the
first place I gazed when I saw his face.

 
Ambrose Slaughter,
who was sitting next to him, frowned beneath the golden mass of his
hair. Ambrose had always been as interesting to everyone as Henry
was now, although I had never understood the attraction. He had the
personality of a dripping towel. I turned back around in my seat,
scribbling a tornado in the margin of my History notes.

In Art class, I got around to
apologizing to Theo for Becky and the others at lunch. I hadn't
wanted to mention it in the lunch room, worried it would bring up
hurt feelings. But she didn't seem fazed.   

"It wasn't right for them to act that
way," I said.

 
Theo shrugged,
putting the finishing touches on a feather of a bird in her
book.

"I'm used to being picked on, Ariel,"
she said softly. "It's not a big deal. People leave me alone here,
most of the time. I don't really care what they think of me as long
as they don't say it. I was getting tired of being called
Tinkerbelle every day."

"But Tinkerbelle's basically a fairy
pinup," I said. "That's like a compliment."

She smiled slyly and shook her head.
   

"I was teased some last year," I said,
turning my art gum eraser over in my fingers. "By you don't have to
guess who," I continued, and nodded towards Lainey. "She's actually
being nice to me this year so far in comparison. You know how you
said you weren't Goth enough or normal enough for people? That's
how it is here. I just never realized it before, back
when..."

I trailed off. I hadn't mentioned
Jenna once to Theo, and I preferred to keep it that way. To her
credit, she never asked, although I assumed she had heard something
about it. 

Henry sauntered past our table then,
causing me to straighten. I had gotten to the point where I could
tell it was him just from seeing him walk in my periphery vision.
He started digging in the supply cabinet behind us. Not wanting him
to hear me badmouth his new best friend, I changed the
subject.

"I think I'm going to fail Geometry
this year," I groaned. "This morning Mr. Vanderlip held me after
class to lecture me about my abysmal quiz score."

"That's no good," Theo said
sympathetically. "I'd offer to help, but I don't do that great in
math myself. I usually pull a little over a C."

"He told me I should get a tutor," I
said. "But I don't know where to find one."

"Maybe ask one of the seniors?" she
suggested.  

Suddenly, Henry came around and put
his elbows on the side of the table across from me. He leaned his
face in his hands, his fists squishing up his cheeks. I tried to
ignore how cute it made him look.

"May we help you?" I asked, and I
heard Theo snicker beside me.   

"Geometry is my second favorite
subject, right up there next to physics," Henry said. "If you ever
need any help, I'd be happy to offer my qualified services." He
grinned at me, turning his charm up another notch.

"You want to be my tutor?" I asked,
raising my eyebrows. The day was suddenly veering off into the
bizarre.  

"Sure, why not?" He stood up, and
tapped his knuckles on the table. He had beautiful hands, I
noticed, the rigid veins trailing like rivers beneath his skin.
Really, he had beautiful everything. "If you can handle being
around me for long without wanting to run far away."

"I don't know if that's possible," I
said dryly. Though I was attempting teasing, I could feel my pulse
racing in a peculiar way. Suddenly his attention didn't seem so
unwanted. He lowered his voice to a throaty whisper and gazed into
my eyes.

"Maybe I won't let you run
away."

My throat tightened, my breath
catching. I had no idea what to say. I couldn't look away from him.
  

After a second, his face broke into
his usual smile, his eyes softening. "Okay, that was too big bad
wolf, huh? I try for cool and it comes out corny."

"It was a bit corny," I pretended to
agree. It had not been the least bit corny. "But I'd be grateful
not to flunk." I really did need the help, I reasoned with myself.
So what if it came from someone cute? It didn't make the potential
knowledge any less useful. As long as I could focus enough on the
math to retain it.  

"Good. Here's my number." He flipped
to a blank page in my sketchbook and scribbled the digits upside
down, so that they were right side up for me.

"Text me and tell me when is a good
day and time for you," he said.

He picked up the reference book that
he had gotten out of the supply cabinet and headed back to his
seat. My mind was foggy, as if I'd just been dosed with
tranquilizers. A heady sensation of giddiness was speeding up my
torso.

I ran my index finger over the
penciled numbers, not believing they were real. The graphite
smudged a little. Theo wacked me on the arm, knocking me out of my
reverie.

"Ow."

"He totally wants you, you know that
right?" Her voice was high and excited. "What I just witnessed was
basically verbal foreplay."

"He does not want me!" I said in a
loud whisper. The girls at the next table glared at us; I tried my
best to smile so they would look away.

"Lainey has him tightly ensnared in
her web," I continued, wiggling my fingers like spider legs.
"There's no way to extricate him from that. If I so much as lay one
finger on Henry, that finger is as good as torn off."
 

Henry put one knee on his seat. He
looked back at me and quickly flicked his eyebrows up, smiling
again as he shifted and sat the rest of the way down.
 

"Yeah, you just keep on denying it,"
Theo said, whipping her sketchbook open with a flourish.

The whole walk home, I debated my
interpretation of the scene between Henry and me. With Jenna no
longer around, it was possible that I was gullible. She had always
been my logic for me, offering me advice that was more often than
not very solid. Now that I didn't have a person to bounce ideas off
of (I liked Theo, but I didn't feel completely comfortable talking
to her about that stuff), I didn't trust my own
feelings.

At dinner, both of my parents were
home for once. It had been a while since I'd seen them eat
together. Since my birthday, in fact, if cake could be considered a
meal. I assisted Hugh in making spaghetti. As the garlic bread
baked it made the whole downstairs smell heavenly. I set the plates
and silverware out on the dining room table.

"Use up the party napkins," Claire
suggested, breezing into the room and kissing my dad on the cheek.
She tossed her briefcase and laptop on the counter.

I took the brown
happy birthday
napkins
out of the drawer and nestled them beneath the forks and knives,
glad to get rid of them. And to forget all about that strange day,
and the dream that had given me more questions than answers. 
 

Around the dinner table, I prepared my
proposal, wanting to get it right.

"I got a D on my first Geometry quiz,"
I said. "And I thought I knew the material, too." I never would
have been so open to telling them before.

Claire immediately crinkled her nose,
a common gesture that also occasionally appeared on her sister's
gaunt face. It meant annoyance, a rift in the predictable flow of
her life. But I stopped them before they could start the usual "try
harder" math lecture.

"So would it be okay for me to have a
tutor from school over this week?" I asked. "Mr. Vanderlip, my math
teacher, suggested it."

"Who's the tutor?" Hugh asked with
some suspicion, fork poised in the air.

"Henry Rhodes," I said, trying to
remain calm. Just saying his name made overexcitement appear in my
voice. "He just moved to Hell."

"A boy?" Claire asked, in the tone of
voice she would have used had I suggested a wild animal. Maybe she
thought the two were one in the same.   

"Yes, I believe so," I
said.

"I don't know about that..." Claire
said, leaning back in her chair. I watched the little vein in the
middle of her forehead pulse.  

"I need the help," I
pleaded. "Without it, I'm sure I'll flunk. And Henry is in all of
my Honors classes. He's smart. And he
offered
. It would be totally free,
no strings attached." At least, I hoped so.

Hugh and Claire looked at each other.
It was one of their moves that made me think they communicated by
thoughts.

"All right," Claire said finally,
pushing her plate away. "But I want him to meet one of us, first.
If he's just some grabby-handed little..."

"He's not," I said firmly. "I wouldn't
be asking if he was. I have better judgment than that."  Her
raised eyebrow indicated she wasn't so sure about my
judgment.