Always You Will Have My Hand To Hold (Watty Awards 2012)

Chapter 6

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When Kate told Alek what happened in school that morning, he was ready to blow a gasket. He couldn’t believe the nerve of that guy, he must have not known who he was talking to. Alek wanted to rip him to shred, but he was told that some girl had stepped up and made sure that his little sister wasn’t harmed.  He was grateful yet skeptical about the whole thing; girls could do some crazy thing, he had experienced it firsthand. It crossed his mind that the incident could have been arranged by Lia with the guy, but he discarded the idea once he actually met Lia. Lia didn’t look like the kind of person who would stoop so low.

Lia didn’t dress fancy, she didn’t wear makeup or did all the extra that other girls did but if anything, her simplicity made her all the more beautiful. Alek could recall her now, her brown warm eyes, her long slightly curled lashes and hair as black as a raven. She didn’t look like the kind of girl who would do something like hurting someone, in fact she was the complete opposite of what he was used to. She looked so nice that Alek actually wondered how she even got the guy to leave Kate alone. Lia didn’t seem to care about him; she even looked uncomfortable being around him. Lia liked her space and he didn’t want to invade it, but for some reason he felt a pull towards her.

He had a class with her, but she rarely even made eye contact. Alek sure wasn’t about to start forcing his presence on her, when it was obvious she wasn’t comfortable with him around. Alek found himself wondering almost every day about Lia however, like what she was doing when she wasn’t in class, where she lived or if she had a boyfriend. He didn’t want to think of these things, but he told himself that he was only concerned about Lia.

Once he found out from Kate that Lia didn’t even have a phone, or any kind of social network, Alek knew it was a lost cause. How was he supposed to find out anything about her? One time he came up with the idea of giving her a ride, but Lia politely declined, even though he wanted to insist, she didn’t seem like she would budge. There was no one he could talk to who could help him find out more about her. Out of sheer frustration, Alek came up with the brilliant idea that Kate should investigate. She was quite inquisitive, so that shouldn’t be an issue. After a few days, even Kate couldn’t give Alek much to work with. He finally decided that he was going to follow Lia come Wednesday.

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WEDNESDAY

Lia walked out of the school using the back way that she used when she wasn’t working. She trotted down the gravel road, where students were pouring out, some running towards unknown destinations, some standing around, others just taking their time to talk to friends. She thought she saw Kate and Alek get out the same way, but she wasn’t sure, there were just too many people. She walked the ten minutes down the road that would take her to Miss Sallie’s house, where she would collect Attie. She was thinking about how her she hadn’t seen her stepfather since the day before thanksgiving and somehow she had gotten really comfortable. She didn’t realize that she was at Sallie’s until she was actually knocking. Had she paid any attention, Lia would have noticed the car that was discreetly following her around. It was a straight road to the house, and the fact that everyone was getting out of school, it didn’t look so suspicious.

Miss Sallie opened the door and poked her head out, “Oh it’s you Lia” she said before opening the door wider for Lia to get in. Before Lia could take a step inside, Attie had already slipped through the door and was now latched onto her legs. Attie looked up with a smile at her sister, Lia bent down and pocked her nose.

“Someone is excited, how was your day?” Lia said

Attie looked around, she was looking for the “someone” who was excited, but seemed to give up as soon as she started. “I’m fine” she said “Sara came and we played, but her mom picked her early” she added making a disappointed face. “I’m glad you’re here, can we go to the library today?”