Seeker (The Seeker Series Book 1) (15 page)
Read Seeker (The Seeker Series Book 1) Online
Authors: Amy Reece
“Nobody ever sees truth except in fragments.”
–Henry Ward Beecher,
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
I had never in my life been excited about a basketball game, but I was about this one, the season opener between the Oso Grande High School Bears and the Eldorado Eagles. Hey, I don’t make up these names. The reason I was excited about this one had little to do with sports or cheerleading, although it would be the first game I had ever cheered at. It had everything to do with my boyfriend. That’s right, I said it. I have a boyfriend. He is the handsomest, smartest, best smelling… I’ll stop. I’m so excited to finally be dating Jack. Officially and everything. Last night, when he took me home, he insisted on going in the house and asking my mother and my grandmother if he could date me. If you thought my mother walking in on us kissing was awkward…
It was really sweet, but I sure could have skipped the part where my grandmother laid down a few ground rules, including home by midnight on weekends and asking Jack if he carried condoms at all times. I could have died. Especially when she made it clear that it was not a rhetorical question. I stopped her as she was demanding to look inside his wallet. I’m not sure I was ready to know if he had condoms in his wallet. Oh, and before you get your panties all up in a twist, no, I did not let him get to second base on my front porch. Not that he tried, but I totally would not have let him. I’m nearly positive about that. Apparently, Jack is a true gentleman. Damn it.
Anyway, here I was at the first game of the season, the gym was packed, and my boyfriend and I were going to a party afterward. Well, neither of us really wanted to go to the party, but I was trying to get close to Veronica and find out who was hurting her and who had knocked her up. I’m pretty sure it was one guy who was doing the hurting and the, um, impregnating, and I’m even more certain that it was someone older than her boyfriend, Danny. Maybe it was one of the senior guys or maybe someone’s older brother. Or maybe it was an adult. It was so frustrating to be able to see so much, but never his face. I felt completely useless.
This line of thinking made me remember an episode that had happened earlier in the day. Jack and I had been at my locker, right before lunch, talking and basically enjoying being with each other, when we were interrupted by an argument a few lockers away. It was a couple of the football players, whom I recognized from my ill-fated first attempt to talk to Veronica. They seemed to be in a violent argument and one of them seemed to be very angry with the other about some money that was owed to him. We were trying to ignore them when one of them slammed his fist into the locker, said a very foul word, and walked away.
“Well, that was weird.” Jack looked concerned. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that guy broke his hand.”
Later at the game, I was cheering away on the sidelines and Tara, Jack, Travis, and his boyfriend, Dustin, were all in the bleachers cheering for me. At halftime, the cheerleaders again performed our routine to ‘Move, Shake, Drop’ by Pitbull, with me flying through several stunts in the middle. Jack was waiting for me outside the locker room after the game, which, sadly, Oso Grande lost.
“You were amazing,” he said as I gave him a hug. Much better today in the compliment department, I noticed. It’s amazing the kind of changes a day can bring. He did give Devonne a dirty look as we left, however. “I don’t like that he can touch you in places even I’m not allowed,” he grumbled.
“Well, if you say pretty please,” I teased.
He laughed and pulled me into a dark corner for a kiss. “You’re gonna kill me, girl,” he whispered against my mouth. “You better watch what you ask for. I might not always be such a gentleman.”
“I wish,” I said and kissed him again.
We went out for pizza with Tara, Travis, and Dustin. I was starving after all that cheering and dancing and wolfed down more than my share of slices.
“Are you going to finish that?” I asked Jack, gesturing to a half-eaten slice of cheese pizza on his plate.
“Help yourself.” He offered the plate to me.
“What?” I asked through a full mouth, as he stared at me while I chewed.
“I’m wondering how someone so small can pack away so much food. It’s kind of a turn on, I’m not gonna lie,” he said.
“I actually hate her,” said Tara, who had limited herself to one slice and a small salad. She’s not even slightly chubby, but complains that she packs on the weight way too easily. I personally think her tall, willowy figure could stand a couple more pounds, but what do I know?
“Hey, cheerleading takes a surprising amount of energy. I burned a lot of calories tonight.”
“Yeah, and you need to replenish so you can burn more later, huh?” she said in a suggestive tone of voice.
“God, Tara, crude much?” said Dustin, who was holding hands with Travis under the table. Jeez, at least I hope they were only holding hands.
“What?” she said innocently. “I meant dancing. Why? What did you think I meant, perv?”
“Well,” said Jack. “Ally and I do have plans later…for dancing,” he said after a pregnant pause. We all laughed and I loved him for not being offended by my ridiculous friends.
“Let’s all go back to my house and watch cheesy horror movies,” suggested Tara. “I rented
Thankskilling
about a giant turkey who starts to kill everyone. It’ll get us in the mood for Thanksgiving next week. Come on, it’ll be fun.”
“Oh, man. I would love nothing better. Maniacal turkeys are so much fun, but I’m dragging Jack to Veronica’s party, at least for a little while,” I explained.
“Oh, shit,” said Tara. “I forgot you were torturing yourself like that. Well, do you want us to watch the other movie I rented,
Black Sheep,
first? It’s about a genetic experiment gone bad and crazed sheep start killing people all over New Zealand. We could totally save
Thankskilling
for the late-night feature.”
I looked to Jack for an opinion. He smiled wryly and said, “It really seems like Ally’s got her heart set on the maniacal turkey, so I’m going to have to defer to my lovely lady here and say save
Thankskilling
for when we get there. I can personally guarantee that we will spend as little time at the popular kids’ lame party as possible.”
“That is the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me,” I replied in an over-the-top drama voice. “Oh, Jack, take me now,” I suddenly had a southern accent as I laid myself across his lap, pizza crust still in my hand.
“Why, Miss Scarlett, I think I will,” he said and leaned down to kiss me. Right before his lips were on mine he said, “Take you to the party, that is.” He lifted me up and helped me on with my jacket. “If you can tear yourself away from your pizza, we can get this over with.”
***
“Hey, Ally.” She stopped to rush over and give me a hug. I met Jack’s amused eyes over her shoulder. “You made it.” She let me go and turned to Jack. “And I see you guys made up. Well, if you two want to be um,
private,
I’m sure you can find an empty bedroom upstairs. Food and drinks are right here; help yourself. There’s goodies of all kinds out in the garage.” She raised her eyebrows knowingly. “You want me to get you a beer, Jack?” she purred and sidled up to him.
“No thanks,” Jack said coldly and moved closer to me.
Scratch my earlier comment. This was exactly like an 80’s John Huston movie, only with fewer shoulder pads. I inserted myself between Veronica and my boyfriend, ostensibly to pour a Coke. I got a whiff of Veronica’s breath as she laughed.
“Oh, my God, Veronica! Have you been drinking?” I put my hands on her upper arms and shook her slightly.
“What is your problem?” She tried to shake me off, but I was like a mongoose with a cobra. “It’s a party! Of course I’ve been drinking. That’s what you do at parties, except you guys, apparently.”
“Yeah, but you’re pregnant! You’re not supposed to drink when you’re pregnant! What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Shut up!” she said abruptly. “No, I’m not! God, why would you say that?” Her eyes began darting around nervously, seeing if anyone was close enough to have heard our conversation.
I decided to try a new tactic. I let her go and said softly, “Hey, it’s okay, Veronica. I know. Remember in the nurse’s office? You were asking all sorts of questions about prenatal care? I know about the pregnancy. It’s all right, I won’t tell anyone.”
She looked at me with abject terror in her eyes. “I was talking about a friend. It’s not me. I’m not pregnant. Get the hell away from me!” She turned and stalked out of the kitchen.
I looked at Jack, biting my lip. “Well, that went well.”
He reached past me and finished pouring the Coke. “This party sucks,” he said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Come on, let’s see if we can find Long Duk Dong here somewhere.”
He chuckled, enjoying my
Sixteen Candles
reference. “You can be Molly Ringwald.”
Twenty minutes later, Jack and I were slow dancing in the living room and making plans to blow off the rest of the party as soon as possible, when I suddenly remembered that I wanted to ask him about the crude joke the girls had been laughing about yesterday at the pep rally. “Jack,” I said, looking up at his gorgeous face. “I need you to explain something to me.”
“Sure. What is it?”
“Well, I heard something I didn’t understand. It’s probably dirty, but I felt really stupid not getting it.” I told him about the ‘big man with a really little man’ joke I had overheard.
He smiled and pulled me back into his arms. “Oh, Ally. You are so beautifully innocent, sweetheart. I don’t really want to tell you.”
“Oh, come on, Jack. I don’t want to feel like such a baby around these girls. Please tell me.”
“Fine, but I feel like I’m ruining you or something. They were talking about the size of a guy’s…well, dick. It’s a kind of old wives’ tale that really big guys have small…you know.”
“Really? I’ve never heard that before. Is it true?”
He laughed. “I don’t know. I certainly haven’t asked any of the big guys I know. Nor do I plan to. I have heard that steroids can do that to a guy, though.” We continued dancing quietly for a few minutes. “Does that satisfy your intense curiosity?”
“Yeah. Thanks for telling me. I hope I didn’t embarrass you.”
“Nah. Ally, I want us to be able to talk about anything. Even if it embarrasses us a bit. I want us to have a really strong relationship, querida.” He leaned down to kiss me.
I reveled in his kiss for a moment, the way he caressed my jaw gently while stroking his tongue across my lips and into my mouth, but he soon pulled away and we just danced. As the song changed, I stiffened in his arms, suddenly swept into a vision I was completely unprepared for.
I was leaning against something, no, wait…Veronica was leaning against something. It was so hard to tell…I felt like I was there. She/I was opening a bottle of pills, but her hand was shaking so much she was having difficulty opening it. I tried to tell her no, not to do this, but I couldn’t make a sound. She finally got the bottle open and shook a handful of little orange pills that had x’s on the back. She started popping them into her mouth, washing them down with water as fast as she could. A few spilled onto the floor, but she didn’t seem to notice as she sunk down to the floor.
“We need to find Veronica. Now!” I gasped. I was having a hard time staying on my feet; I needed to sit down but I knew I couldn’t spare the time.
“What?” he asked, holding me by the shoulders, a troubled look on his face. “What did you see, Ally?”
“She took some pills. A lot of pills. We need to find her, fast!” I tried to remember what the room looked like that she was in, but I was in full panic mode and couldn’t think straight. We checked the garage first, thinking that would be the logical place for her to take any drugs. All we found was a group of jocks, including Veronica’s boyfriend, Daniel, who was smoking a joint. Seeing them there, sitting all together, it struck me again how huge they all looked. They were really muscular, with thick necks and bulging biceps. When had that happened? I had been going to school with all of them for years and had classes with some of them up until last year. None of them were in any of my classes this year, and they’re not at all the type of guy I keep tabs on, but you would think I would have noticed these body builders walking around school. Something about this bothered me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Nor did I have the time right now. “Daniel, where’s Veronica?” I asked, waving away the sickly sweet smoke near him.