~Lesia~
I wanted to see how much more I could fluster my Scott but it became obvious pretty quickly that he and his dad were having a serious talk. I hadn't met his folks but given that the older guy across from him was basically his dopelganger, I went with my gut. I kept half an eye on them out of curiousity and because I had difficulty not looking at Scott when he was in the same room. It was like I knew I belonged there, next to him, like a part of my soul needed to be with his. I sighed at my thoughts. I've been reading too many romances again. My eyes flitted to Scott. He hid his inner struggle well but since I was intimately familiar with that kind of thing, I could see it. He didn't like what he was hearing. It scared him? No, worried him.
"Miss?" A voice called to me from the counter. I mentally smacked myself. Pay attention to the job, Lesia! I smiled at the customer in apology.
"How can I help you sir?"
"I'm here to pick up an order for Harridan." I nod at him and check the section of the window separating the counter from the kitchen reserved for take out orders. Finding his, I check it against the ticket, hand it him and ring him up.
"$18.65" He paid me and left. I glanced back to Scott to find him alone and looking shell shocked. We weren't busy for a Sunday morning and Luke seemed to have a handle on things.
"Luke, I'm going to take a short break." I called out to him. He grinned back at me.
"No prob, Lee" I smiled at that. He refused to call me by my first name no matter how hard I protested. I liked him though so I didn't mind. He and my dad would have got along great. Dad had the same kind of laid back, jokey attitude Luke did. My fingers automatically went to the dog tags hanging around my neck as I made my way to where Scott sat.
Sliding in next to him, I ran a hand up his arm to get his attention, "Hey," I didn't include my customary Sexy since he still looked like he was in shock. I heard a sharp intake of breath, and he looked at me, eyes wide. My inner cheerleader did a back handspring. I loved evidence of how I affected him. He blinked a few times, then jerked a bit before slumping, head dropping onto the table. What was going on? I wrapped an arm around him and leaned into him, my other hand stroking his arm softly.
"Are you okay? Did something happen?" he drew in a shaky breath.
"I. I can't be what he wants." His voice was partly muffled by the table but I could make out what he was saying. "He's sending me to..." he cut off abruptly and lifted his head to look at me, his face mere breaths from mine. We hadn't even been this close at the dance last night. A part of me wanted to seize the moment and close the distance, but another part needed him to be the one to initiate our first kiss. He got a wild, semi panicked look in his eyes that I knew meant my boy was about to cut and run.
"I..I...I...I gotta go," He stammered out, pushing against me a little. I slid out of the booth. I didn't want to let him go, he looked like he really needed to talk. You can't force it though, the connection to someone else. He was one of the few people I wanted to try to make a connection to since my dad died and I wasn't about to push my luck. I wanted him off balance not off interested. Still I reached out put a hand on his arm as he stood.
"You can talk to me, you know. I make a pretty good listener." I watched Scott argue with himself in his eyes and it hurt to see him struggle. I wanted to hold him, to make the pain and worry and fear melt away with love but he wasn't ready to let me that close yet. Soon, maybe but not quite yet.
"I can't" It was nearly a whisper and then he was gone. Someday I was going to figure out what all those conflicting emotions I kept seeing in his eyes were about, maybe then I could help him feel less lost.
The rest of my shift flew by. I enjoyed working for the diner. My aunt had got me the job here right after we'd moved. I knew it was only temporary, eventually the council would call me before them to try another team again. It was the reason they'd moved us here after all. I was a bit surprised they hadn't called me in already.
I moved with efficiency, taking and delivering orders, refilling drinks, smiling and chatting and at one point, calling for a baby puke clean up. The mom had been super over apologetic and tipped big for the "inconvenience". With my shift over I untied the small, black apron and hung it on a hook under the counter.
Luke smiled at me, "You heading home, Lee?" I nodded, " You know some day you outta come meet my wife. She'd love you." I just smiled and waved as I left. He was always trying to take me home. I wasn't stupid, I knew who he was. Who his wife was, who Scott was. It was hard not to know when you were part of the Academy. I also figured it was why Blaze was so reluctant to let me come ogle Scott. I tore through the streets, my pride and joy purring under me. I loved the feeling of flying down the streets, the exhilaration, the way it made me feel alive. I wasn't quite crazy enough to speed down busy streets but my aunt was a reclusive, secretive person. The house she'd bought was isolated, sitting on a large plot of land completely surrounded by a ten foot wall and a tall iron gate. The mile long road leading to the gate was the perfect place to open my baby up and I did just that. I wanted to get Scott on the back of my bike. I had a feeling it would help him relax. As I pulled up to the door, a part of me was tempted to leave my bike in the drive just to see if I could actually get my aunt to talk to me but I loved it too much to do that. I pulled it into the garage instead.
The strains of Toby Keith's "American Soldier" shrilled through the air as I headed inside and I grinned as I answered. "Hey Riles," I answered as I grabbed a shiny green apple from a wooden bowl on the kitchen counter when I passed it on my way to the bedroom.
"Hey, how's the prettiest girl in Charleston?"
I snorted, "As soon as I find her, I'll ask." I could practically hear Riley rolling his eyes. "Can't you find some poor lonely soldier girl to practice your lines on so I don't have listen to the horror?"
"Who said I was practicing lines?" There was laughter in his voice but something else too that I couldn't quite figure out. I dismissed it as weariness on his part since he went on and it was gone, "How is it going, Lee-Lee? You settling in?"
"Yeah, I think I might like it here," I told him about Blaze and Lacey and Malory, my job at the diner. I left out the stuff about the Academy, as far as Riley knew my Aunt got a wild hair up her butt and decided to move to Charleston. I had flopped across my pink and silver comforter while I talked, staring at the ceiling. I needed a painting or a poster or something up there. Something swirly, and dark but comforting. I told him about homecoming the night before and texted him a picture of me in my dress since he asked for it. I laughed when he sucked in a sharp breath.
"Jesus fucking christ Lesia! Did you paint that on?" I couldn't help but laugh harder at his shock. I was pretty sure he still thought of me as the sweet little cheerleader he first met. "Thank god you went alone! I hate to think what would have happened if you had a date!" What? Why on earth would he think I went alone? I was a bit annoyed at him for that.
"I didn't go alone! Scott took me and he was a perfect gentleman the whole time." I giggled at the idea of Scott taking advantage of me in my homecoming dress. He would never do anything like that.
"Wait. What? who took you?" Riley sounded upset, but why?
"Well, It wasn't like I gave him much choice. I pretty much told him he was taking me." I sighed and played with my dad's dog tags, wondering idly if he would have liked Scott. Riley was being astonishingly quiet though. I figured he was waiting for me to actually answer his question. "Scott is a guy at school. He's ..." I struggled to figure out how to explain this connection I felt with Scott but gave up and just went with sounding like an infatuated teenage girl, convenient since I am, "Scott is dreamy. He's cute and sweet and he needs me, even if he doesn't know it yet." I swore I heard Riley muttering under his breath.
"Reading too much smut there Lee-Lee." He was laughing at me! "Maybe I'll take some leave soon, come up and check on you. I don't like that you've only got your aunt there. She barely knows you exist." MmHmm...Check out Scott more like, I swear Riley was as bad as a big brother. He might as well have been one, my dad had certainly treated him like the son he hadn't had. Riley had been a freshly turned out soldier the first time dad had brought him home but the three of us quickly grew close. I had a little crush on him at first, this good looking, muscley guy in BDUs. I never confessed that though since I got over it pretty quick the more time he spent at the house and treated me like a little sister. A knock on the door startled me. Had my aunt buzzed someone passed the gate without my hearing it?
"Sure, I'd love to see you Riles, you know that. I gotta go. Someone's at the door."
"Okay, Night Lee-Lee."
"Night." I hung up as the knock repeated and ran to the door that my aunt was apparently ignoring. Swinging it open I was surprised to find Dr. Roberts on the stoop. He had a pass for the gate, so I knew why I hadn't heard the gate being buzzed. He was currently acting as my liaison with the council.
"Hello, Lesia." His gentle voice washed over me. I found his presence comforting as he brushed some of his graying hair off his face. He stepped inside but didn't bother to go past the foyer. He never did. I knew he would get to his reason for being here in good time so I walked over to the kitchen and grabbed him some water.
"Thank you, my dear." He sipped on it for a minute before continuing, "So, instead of calling you in for a meeting the council sent me." I was surprised when he moved toward the dining table to sit and it took me a moment to follow him. "They found a new team for you to try. They're taking a risk, doing something they have been reluctant to do in the past. It's an experiment, mind you. I suppose you have heard of the Blackbourne Team, The Toma Team and The Anderson Team and why they are different than most teams." I nodded and he continued, "That's what they are trying." Color me confused? At least until he started putting pictures down on the table from a file folder I hadn't noticed before. The first three all looked like the same guy, although I knew different, "Micah, Isaiah, and Wesley Henshaw. Children of Brandon and Kayli and Corey of the Toma team." He laid down another one and this morning fell into place. "Scott Lee, Child of Kota and Sang of the Blackbourne team. You'll be joining them at boot camp to see if you can work with them as a team." This was what had been going on at the diner, Scott's dad was telling him that he was going to boot camp. I had a feeling there was more to it than that but apparently I was going to have time to figure it out.
"When do I leave?" I asked, for the first time excited about boot camp and my team. Lacey's brothers and Scott? This was gonna be interesting.