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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Unlike the plant cell, the animal cell does not have chloroplast or a cell wall.” I sighed, biology was really just starting to get repetitive. It had been five days since Mr. Kridd had beaten Parker, and four since we had our fight. I hadn’t seen Parker since. We had two classes together, but he didn’t show up to either. I guess I should apologize, I mean, I kind of overreacted, but it was too difficult to pull myself away from my own world and do so.
I looked over to the empty spot next to me and sighed. I really just wanted him back, with Luke practicing there was nothing to do in this school. Maybe I could stop by this weekend with a box of Dots, he always liked those as a kid. Now that I think of it, I always liked those too. Maybe it would make him smell less minty if he ate Dots. I wonder why he does smell so minty all of the time.
“Mr. Hatsfend.”
I bet he has mints somewhere, or maybe mint leaves. Maybe even Altoides, he reminds me of those.
“Mr. Hatsfend.”
Yeah, that’s what it is. I could buy him the container that I thought smelt the most like him. That would be perfect.
“Charles!” I pulled myself away from my thought.
“Yes Mr. Kridd?”
“The answer.” Oh, right, the answer. The answer to what? Had he asked a question?
“I’m sorry, I honestly don’t know.”
“You don’t know the answer or you don’t know the question.”
“Both?” The class started laughing and I blushed in embarrassment.
“Jenna,” Mr. Kridd called on another student and the class continued. Okay, it was decided, I was going to make it up to him…tomorrow. Maybe the next day, I think he should think about what he did first. Yeah, that sounds good.
The bell rang and I gathered my stuff and left. Luke wasn’t in school today due to conference for swimming, which meant Scarlet was gone because she was the team manager, and Rose and Lilly were gone because they were watching the meet. Heck, half of the school was gone to the meet in St. Michael Albertville. I would have to call Paul later, maybe we could hang out. Or maybe even Jaxon.
The rest of the day had been so insanely slow that when it finally ended, I believed that it would start back up again. It was now five o’clock and I was walking the streets with Paul and Jack. I just realized how tall Paul was, and how short Jack was, I was even taller than him. We were walking in a horizontal line that took up the sidewalk. Jack was closest to the street, holding hands with Paul who was in the middle, and me who was closest to the buildings.
“How’s life with your roommate going?” Paul asked. I shrugged.
“He’s at his conference meet today.”
“Oh, and how about your new friend? What ever happened to him?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I looked down at my feet just in time to see a penny. Charlene, today is your lucky day. I picked it up and ran a bit to catch up to Paul and Jack.
“And why don’t you want to talk about it?” I pocketed the penny.
“I don’t think he would like me vocalizing about his emotional problems.” Jack laughed at that, but I didn’t. He had no clue what I was actually referring to.
“So, what do you want to do now that your hot roommate is out of town and your ‘best bud’ is emotionally unstable?”
“I want to dance.” I blurted.
“Uh, okay. That can be arranged.” I laughed at Paul’s awkward reply.
“I’m kidding Paul,” he nodded, “I don’t know what I want to do. My life sucks, that’s official, I just feel…I don’t know…lost?” Paul nodded, he was such an understanding guy, Jack was lucky to have him.
“Well, I for one want to get some chow.” Jack proclaimed. We all nodded in agreement as we turned the corner.
Two police officers were standing across the street. I looked up to them and squinted. One was a big, tall and tan while the other was shrimpy and balding. Did Luke tell me what the officers had looked like? Nope. Great, now I wasn’t sure which ones to avoid. The larger of the officers noticed me staring and looked up at me. He squinted before calling out to us.
“Hey! You guys,” he had a rather deep voice that went perfectly with his stature. Paul stopped and pointed to himself. The officer nodded before jogging across the street to us. “Are you from around here?” Paul nodded. I looked away trying not to meet the man’s eyes. What if these were the guys and they noticed my eyes just as Parker had? “Did you know this woman?” Great, I was so doomed. The officer pulled out a picture of a rather tan and tall lady. I let out a breath. Paul reached out and took the picture.
“Who is she?” Paul asked.
“That is what we are trying to figure out. Her boyfriend had said her name was Katherine Tyler. We looked her up after her murder in an attempt to contact her family and came up with nothing. We were wondering if you may have known her relatives.” Katherine Tyler, why did that name sound so familiar?
“When did she pass?”
“About a month ago. Her boyfriend Matt Lakefield had reported it.” Matt Lakefield…oh my god. That was Heather! I grew rigid with fear. These guys were starting to get on us, even if they weren’t after me, they may reach that topic eventually.
“Paul, I-I think we should go now.”
“Huh? Okay,” Paul handed the picture back and apologized. We turned to leave before the man stopped us again.
“There is also a teenage girl by the name of Renee Andrews that went missing two weeks back. We don’t have a picture on hand, but she has long curly blonde hair and blue eyes. Five nine and weighs one ten.” Paul looked down at me and raised an eyebrow, I shrugged.
“What are you looking for her for?” I asked.
“I am not quite sure actually. There is another unit that needs her and right when they got her scent she vanished. I believe it may be military or something.” I nodded, at least he didn’t know that much.
“I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen her either.” The officer nodded.
“Thank you for your time,” he smiled at us and shook our hands before leaving. Paul didn’t speak again until we reached the restaurant and Jack left for the bathrooms.
“What was that about?” Paul asked in a hushed voice.
“I-I can’t tell you.”
“Are you running from something Renee? Is there something I should know?”
“I’m not running from anything bad, I guess you could say, I didn’t commit a crime or anything.”
“Then why are they looking for you?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you, I just need to know that I can trust you to not tell also.” Paul nodded. Jack came back soon after and so did the waitress with our orders.
Jack started to dig into his breakfast for supper and so did Paul. I, on the other hand, merely picked at my salad. Jack started to strike up a conversation about the zoo, but I wasn’t very interested. My mind was flying free once again on the topic of Parker. What I had done was wrong, and I knew that I had to make it right. Somehow I had to, even if it killed me. Well, probably not that far, but pretty darn close.
We finished our meals, more like Paul and Jack did, and left. We walked back to Paul’s truck and drove Jack to his apartment. I stayed in the cab as they said their goodbyes. After that Paul took me to a gas station where I picked up two big boxes of Dots. I still wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say to Parker, but I felt that the Dots would lessen the impact. Paul then drove me back to school and dropped me off in the boys’ dormitory parking lot.
I sulked up to my dorm and fell onto my bed. Today had been extremely bland, especially compared to the excitement that I had over the course of the last week. I huffed and rolled onto my side. I groped for Pangaea and brought him to me. As I stared at the wall I started to think to myself about random topics. I drifted off to sleep soon after.
Hooting and cheering coming from the bottom floor woke me. I groaned and rolled over. It was eleven forty according to the alarm clock. The loud screams of joy continued and I decided that sleep was no longer an option. Stupid guys with no internal alarm clocks, don’t you know that there is school tomorrow? The cheering was now coming from outside my door. That’s it. I jumped out of my bed and stormed across me room, ready to throw open my door and give those guys a piece of my mind. I reached for the door handle, but the door flew open on its own accord.
Luke was standing in the open doorway, a silly grin plastered on his face. I huffed and turned to go back to my bed. Luke reached out and grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me to him.
“We won!” He practically screamed. I nodded out of exhaustion.
“Won what?”
“The meet of course,” he slid in the room past me and dropped down his swimming bag. I closed the door behind him.
“Good, good…” I trailed off. Luke, I love you, but you have to let me sleep.
“Guess what?”
“What.” I guessed.
“I got the state cut in the hundred back, doesn’t count until section finals but I still got it.”
“Awesome.” I was so tired, I could just pass out. I went over to my bed and fell on it face first. Luke just laughed.
“Why are you sleepy all of a sudden?”
“It’s past my bedtime.”
“Yeah, we wouldn’t want you staying up late and sleeping through another class again now would we?” He asked sarcastically as he unpacked his swim bag. I let out a humorless laugh.
“I would need Payne to do that, and if you haven’t noticed, he still isn’t talking to me.” Luke sighed and came over to me. My bed sank as he sat down and I lifted my head to look at him.
“He won’t talk to you or you refuse to confront him?” He asked. I huffed and dropped my face back into the comfort of my bed.
“Shut up Dr. Phil, no one wants your accurate assumptions.” Luke laughed a deep and rather sexy laugh. Can a laugh be sexy? Sure, why not.
“If I’m Dr. Phil, I declare you Ellen Degenerous.” He he, he declared me a woman. I smiled to myself. Luke got up from my bed and continued to unload his bag.
“Want to do something tomorrow? It’s a teacher work day so we don’t have classes.” I shrugged.
“I don’t know,” I turned over onto my back and grabbed Pangaea. I hugged him to my chest. “I was thinking about talking to Parker tomorrow.”
“Parker?”
“Payne, I meant Payne. Sorry, I’m just tired.” Luke nodded as he set his jammer out on the windowsill to dry.
“I thought you said it was his fault, not yours that you had your argument. I thought you wanted him to apologize to you.” Luke observed as he emptied his water bottle in the sink. “When did you decide to become the bigger person?” I shrugged and he laughed again. I still didn’t get what was so funny.
Luke left the sink and went over to his bed. He stripped off his warm up jacket and pants and was left standing in a tank and his boxers. I kept my face buried in my blankets and he smiled, an evil smile reflecting his oncoming evil thoughts. He chucked his balled up clothes at me and I groaned. He huffed after I didn’t move and sat down on my bed again.
“Charles.”
“What.” I snapped. Let. Me. Sleep!
“Look at me.”
“No.”
“Yes.” I wanted to look up and into his green eyes, but there was no way that I was giving him that satisfaction. He sighed. “Please?” He added and I couldn’t help but look up. Once our eyes met, all of my focus and anger was stolen from me. There was no way that I could stay mad at that beautiful face. He smiled at me and I smiled back sleepily.
“What did you have planned for tomorrow exactly?” He shrugged.
“I dunno, we could just chill or something. Have you ever been to Main Street Pizza?”
“Yes, you saw me there remember?”
“Oh, right, sorry.” He blushed. Ah, red cheeks. “Do you want to go skiing? My cousin’s got this place out on Bell Lake just north of here.”
“I can’t swim.”
“Oh, man…I apologize for that. It’s been a long night.” I nodded. “I guess we could-”
“Go to the lake, that sounded fun.”
“Really?”
“Sure, why not, but I am not going anywhere near the water and no beach balls. We also have to remember to bring my stuff home if I bring any, okay?” Luke nodded, a large grin splitting his face once again.
“What time do you want to leave?”
“I can be ready by ten.”
“Okay!” Luke shot up from my bed and went over his own. He crawled up under his blankets and pulled Pangaea out from under him to use as a pillow substitute. “Night,” he chirped and flicked off his light.
I huffed. What was with that boy and my bear? I turned off my light and our room was consumed by darkness. I was no longer as tired as I was when Luke had first decided to wake me up, but I was still rather dazed.
“Luke.” I said after failing to find a comfortable position in my bed. He didn’t answer. “Luke,” I called out a little louder, “Give me Pangaea back, I can’t sleep without him.” Luke didn’t respond.
I fell silent and listened to his breathing. That was so not fair, he was already asleep! I sighed again. There was no use in waking him just to confiscate a bear that he would probably out muscle me for anyways. I needed to get him his own stuffed animal so he would leave my poor baby alone.
“Goodnight Luke,” I said after finally giving up and in to him. I snuggled up in my blankets a little bit more.
“Goodnight Charles.” Luke chuckled. That little faker.