Hector (3 page)

The guy had that same sleepy, somewhat glossy-eyed look her
father got when he smoked the stuff. She forced a faint smile. “It’s Charlee.”

Scrunching up his nose, he turned to his friends then laughed a
little too loudly as he turned back to face her. “Charlie? Ain’t that a guy’s
name?”

“Apparently not,” she said as she began to gather her things.

His friends began laughing now too as if she’d just said
something hilarious. “Okay, okay,” he said a little too amused. “Don’t go. I
haven’t introduced myself. I’m Ross and this must be your first year here,
right? Because I know I would’ve noticed a beautiful thing like you before.”

“Yep,” she said, feeling her face warm from the compliment, “first
year.” She flung her bag over her shoulder just as he lifted his hand toward
her.

“That hair, wow, it’s . . . so bright.”

Charlee cursed her
bright
head. Her entire life, all she wanted was to go unnoticed—blend in with
everything, but this hair had and would always be the bane of her existence. Even
after Drew’s plan to make it less noticeable, she still may as well sit there
screaming, “Look at me! My head’s on fire!”

She smiled faintly and tried making her way around Ross.

“Wait, wait.” He stepped in front of her and stared at her hair
with an almost perverted expression. “Are you red
everywhere
, Charlee?” he whispered but loud enough for his friends
to hear because they burst out laughing and were already falling all over each
other.

Her face was instantly ablaze and she looked away.

“Can I touch it?” he asked.

With a jerk of her neck, she was facing him again. “What?” She
stepped back away from him.

He took a step forward with a sardonic smile that made the hair
on the back of her neck stand. “I meant the hair on your head, not on
your
. . .”

“No, you can’t,” she gasped, glancing around wishing to God she’d
spot Drew’s car in the parking lot somewhere. “I gotta go.”

His friends laughed even more now.
“Burn!”
One of them said, covering his mouth, because her having to go was apparently
side-splitting.

Ross didn’t seem quite as amused as they were now, but he still
managed to smirk. “C’mon, Red,” he lifted his hand toward her again. “I just
wanna see if it feels as soft as it looks.”

“Sorry, I gotta go,” she repeated.

She started to walk around him, beginning to feel a little
nervous about how deserted the campus suddenly felt. This wasn’t unusual for a
late Friday afternoon, and normally she wouldn’t care, but being alone here
with these three obviously high guys was really starting to unnerve her.

His hand touching her made her gasp again. Ross held her arm as
she tried going around him. “I’m asking nicely.” His voice was low and
deliberate now.

Charlee tried to shake his arm off her, but he held it firmly.

“Let her go.”

They all looked up at once, and Ross immediately laughed. A
heavyset boy she recognized quickly as Walter, a guy on both her chess teams,
stood there looking a bit unsure of himself, but he cleared his throat and
spoke even louder the second time. “I said let her go.”

Ross dropped her arm and took a few steps toward Walter. “You’re gonna
tell
me
what to do, fat boy?”

The voice in
Charlee’s
head screamed
for her to get out of there. She was free to run now, but she couldn’t. She
couldn’t just leave Walter there with these three pothead assholes.

“J-just let her be is all I’m saying.” Walter looked about as
scared as Charlee felt.

“Yeah?
Or what?”
Ross asked, taking a few more steps toward Walter. “What are you gonna do, fat
ass?”

“Let’s go, Walter.” Charlee said, walking toward him, but Ross
stopped her, grabbing her arm again.

“I said let her go!” Walter pushed Ross, making him tumble back
off balance for a second, but he recovered quickly and swung, landing his fist
solidly on Walter’s nose.

In the next few seconds, while Walter brought his hands to his
bloodied nose, Ross swung at him again. Charlee screamed at him to stop when
she saw Walter lose his footing and tumble to the ground in pain. Ross began
kicking him in the stomach and chest, and his friends joined him, kicking
Walter mercilessly. Completely panic-stricken now and terrified that they were
going to kill him, especially when she saw one of Ross’s kicks go for Walter’s
head, Charlee begged them to stop. She thought for sure security or someone
would’ve come by now, but unbelievably, there was no one around. That’s when she
saw him.

Out of nowhere, a guy ran up to Ross, and with one swift powerful
punch to the face, he knocked Ross out cold. Charlee was too stunned to move,
even when Ross’s body flopped lifelessly at her feet. He never even knew what
hit him.

“You okay, Walter?” The deep resonate sound of his voice barely
registered as she finally pulled her eyes away from the body lying at her feet.
Looking up, she watched the mystery guy bend over at Walter’s side. Ross’s friends
were long gone, running the moment they saw Ross drop like a sack of rocks. The
guy hadn’t bothered going after them, too concerned about Walter instead.

Mesmerized, she now couldn’t take her eyes off
him
as he lifted Walter’s big body
effortlessly, helping him to his feet.

Charlee hadn’t even noticed that Drew had driven up until she
honked. Coming out of her daze, she turned to Drew, stepping away from Ross’s
body and lifted her hand at Drew to give her a second. “Are you okay, Walter?”

Walter nodded but looked away. He seemed upset or maybe just embarrassed.
“Are you sure? I can ask my friend to take you to the emergency room if you
want. We can also call the cops.” She turned to Ross who was still lying on the
floor but appeared to be coming to. “We can try and keep him here until the
cops come.”

“He ain’t going anywhere.” The guy assured her with a lift of an
eyebrow.

Her eyes met with the guy’s intensely serious eyes for a moment.
She’d never seen such heavy lashes on a guy in her life, and she was having an
awfully hard time keeping her eyes off his big arms. Looking at his face now,
she could see he was probably her age, but he had the body of a man—a full-grown
amazingly
built man. With his toned
arms and shoulders and his more than confident demeanor, he was a complete
contrast to Walter, who stood there still spitting out blood.

“I’m good.” Walter said after wiping the blood away from his nose
again.

Drew honked again. Charlee knew Drew was in a hurry, but she felt
terrible about just leaving Walter there.

“Go ahead.” Walter said, already starting to walk away. “I’m fine,
really.”

She hurried to him before he could get too far and gave him a
quick hug. “Thank you. I’m so sorry this happened.”

Walter nodded and gave her a small smile. “It wasn’t your fault.
Don’t worry about it.”

Of course, Charlee felt entirely to blame, but she wouldn’t argue
with him. She glanced at the guy who’d really saved the day, suddenly
incredibly grateful that he’d showed up when he did, but dared not attempt to
even ask his name much less hug him. Instead, she smiled softly. “Thank you
too.”

He winked at her, the intensity suddenly gone, then flashed one
of the most breathtaking smiles she’d ever seen. In an effort to not become
completely mesmerized again and make a fool of herself, she glanced away from
his lips and his nearly perfect teeth. Instead, she focused on the skin on his big
arms. Being so pasty white her entire life, she’d envied people with skin like
his: so perfectly tanned. She felt almost ashamed that any thoughts about
Walter’s well-being had been completely snuffed by visions of touching this
incredible guy’s skin.

Another honk from Drew yanked her out of said visions, and she
turned to Drew then waved back at Walter one last time. “I’ll see you next week.”

She noticed Ross was attempting to sit up now, holding the side
of his face in pain. Walter and his hero were already walking in the opposite
direction.

“I’m sorry I had to pull you away from that delicious guy, but my
dad’s waiting, and I’m already running really late.” Drew stared at her as she
sat down and started putting on her seatbelt, the
delicious guy
still in her head. “So what happened? Why is that guy
on the ground?”

Charlee glanced one last time at Ross who was now being helped up
by his coward friends. They’d finally come back after they saw Walter and the
other guy walk away, but they kept looking nervously in their direction. Then
her eyes turned to where they really wanted to be. Even from behind and from
this distance, the guy’s body was unbelievable. She took a deep breath, looking
back at Drew as they started out of the parking lot, not even sure where to
begin.

~*~

“Is she gone?” Walter asked, staring straight ahead.

Hector turned to look back just as the car that picked up the
redhead he assumed Walter was talking about drove out of the school’s parking
lot.
“Yeah.”

These were the first words they’d exchanged since they’d walked
away from the scene silently. Other than that, Hector had asked him if he was
sure he was okay to which Walter simply nodded.

Suddenly, Walter flung his backpack against the fence next to him
with a loud grunt.
“
Gadamn
it!
For weeks, I’ve been trying to make a connection with Charlee and then this,”
he pointed forcefully in the direction they’d just come from. “
That
happens? Fuck!” He hunched over for
a second, holding his side in obvious pain.

Hector was still stuck on what Walter had just said.
Charlie?
At a loss for words, he turned
back to the direction they’d come from as Walter continued to pace, cussing and
grunting under his breath, Hector tried to figure it out. He’d heard of stuff
like this. Gay guys coming out to the guys they were into, and it turned out
the guy they were into was not only not gay but homophobic. Was that really
what had happened? Did that guy lose it because Walter tried making a
connection
with him?

Turning back to Walter, who was kicking his own backpack now, he
stared at him for a moment, still not sure what to say. He had no idea Walter
was gay. But it
did
explain a lot of
stuff. Like why he’d been such a loner all those years.

“So he got mad?” Obviously the guy had been mad, but that’s all
Hector could think of to ask. This was so damn awkward.

Walter slowed his pacing to look at Hector, a little confused.
“Well, yeah, that kind of jerk doesn’t like being told what to do.”

Almost afraid to ask, Hector
had
to. “What did you tell him to do?”

“To leave her alone,” Walter said, wincing in pain as he bent
over to pick up his backpack. He unzipped it, pulled out a t-shirt, wiped his
bloody face with it, and started walking again.

“I’m not following, man,” Hector admitted, walking alongside of
Walter.

Walter winced as he dabbed his nose with the t-shirt. “I’d been
watching her sit there for a while. Then these pricks start harassing her, being
stupid and asking if she was red
everywhere
.
I wasn’t gonna say anything until he put his hands on her. So I told him to
leave her alone, and when he didn’t, I pushed him.”

Hector smiled. “Good for you. Was Charlie the one I knocked out?”

Walter’s face soured. “No!
Charlee’s
the girl, and now she probably thinks I’m the biggest wuss ever—no thanks to
you coming in with your one-punch knockout.”

Charlie’s a girl?
Then
it dawned on him. “Wait.” He stopped in front of Walter, forcing him to stop.
“You’re mad at me for helping you out?”

Walter frowned. “I could’ve had that guy. I was getting ready to
make my move.”

Hector’s eyes shot open. He wasn’t sure if he should laugh or
shove Walter. “Are you kidding me? You were on the ground in a fetal position.”

“I had a plan!”

This time Hector did laugh. “And what was that?
To play dead?”

Hector laughed even louder now. Walter shoved past him and
started walking again. Hector followed him, continuing to laugh loudly. He was
glad now that Walter’s response had been so utterly ridiculous; otherwise, he
might be pissed. Here he’d risked getting in trouble, very possibly arrested,
and Walter’s ungrateful ass was mad about it?

“Go ahead; laugh it up.” Walter said, walking a little faster
now. He turned to Hector with that same glare he remembered so vividly from the
last time he’d seen Walter back in high school. “It’s what you’ve always done,
right? Why stop now?”

Okay,
now
Walter was
pissing him off. “Look, don’t be stupid. There was no way you were gonna make a
move back there. You were already down, and there were three of them and one of
you. If I hadn’t showed up when I did,
you’d
be the one lying there unconscious right now, not him. I didn’t have to get
involved, but I did. You’re welcome, asshole!”

Hector stopped then spun around.
Fuck this!
He stalked back in the direction of the parking lot. For
the first time since he’d slugged the guy kicking Walter, he began to feel the
tingling pain in his knuckles. Maybe he should’ve let them beat Walter’s ass.

“Why did you?” He heard Walter ask.

Taking a few more steps before deciding to stop, he turned
around.
“Because it wasn’t fair.”
He shrugged. “Three
on one is how pussies fight. I hate that shit.”

“You didn’t in high school.”

Walter’s words stunned Hector for a second, and then he reacted
to them. “That’s bullshit!” Hector pointed at Walter, stalking back toward him
with a purpose. “They never hurt you. Okay, so they teased you and messed with
you, but they never ganged up on you to physically hurt you. If they had, I would’ve
stepped in.”