She was sitting in one of the few open seats near the front of the classroom. Her back was to him but he wasn’t able to pay attention to the lesson even remotely. He kept thinking of this morning. The thing that had burst out of that man’s back. Her appearing out of nowhere and fighting it like it was nothing.
The homeless man’s eyes flashed in his mind, the gurgling sound echoing in his ears and his heart skipped a beat. And then the burning red eyes of his dream seared into his mind and he pressed his forehead against the desk. He felt his hands shaking and grabbed his wrist. “Count Dick,” he whispered to himself and did so starting at one and going to twenty.
“Richard, you doing alright?”
He looked up to face the teacher and gave a thumbs up and a weak smile. “Just tired. Sorry.”
“Sorry the sin, cos, and tan aren’t as exciting,” A few people in the class had glanced at him and laughed lightly but he noticed that Samantha was looking his way as well and he looked directly at her. She held a finger to her lips and shook her head slowly.
Dick scowled and forced himself to pay as much attention to the lesson as possible. But his mind kept wandering to what had happened. By the time class had ended he had missed the entire lesson and hastily wrote down the assignment pages for homework. When he looked up he saw that Samantha was already rushing out.
He threw everything into his bag and surged after her. He barely caught a glimpse of her turning a corner. He tried to chase after her around several corners until after another one he lost sight of her entirely.
The hallway was just this side of empty because this was a side of the school that saw more use during the second half of the day. Slightly out of breath he put his hands on his hips when he was grabbed by the back of his jacket and shoved against one of the open doors. Samantha glared at him, holding her arm against his throat.
“What do you want? Why’re you following me?”
Struggling to breathe for a moment he coughed and then looked at her. “This morning. All of that. That was you Sam. It really happened. Didn’t it?”
“First of all. My name is Samantha,” She sighed and took a step back, releasing her hold on his throat. He coughed hard, wheezing as he looked at her. She had a strange look on her face, some mixture of concern and frustration.
She mumbled under her breath, “He remembers what happened?”
He shuddered as he slowly slid down and sat on the floor. Putting his head in his hands he looked up at her. “What was that thing?”
She was quiet and shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“No way. I am not crazy,” he stood up and glared at her. “That happened. I know what I saw. I saw it. And I saw you there.”
She met his gaze and glared at him. “If you reall remember, you’re lucky you’re alive right now. So, stop chasing after this unless you want a repeat of the last time.”
He looked at her dumbstruck but she shoved him back slightly and stepped away. She turned around the corner but gave one last look at him. “Drop this. For your own good. Just live your life.” She left and he stayed there for a long moment thinking.
The rest of his day was pretty uneventful. Lily’s gift to him had been some homemade brownies which she shared with everyone at lunch. Once the last period was over and done with he and the others met up in front of the school. They were taking the main street down to the station, while busses went down the street.
“So, I met the new girl,” Dick said adjusting the bag on his shoulder.
Lisa immediately rounded on him and grinned, shaking his shoulders slightly. “She’s cute right? Come on. Give me the satisfaction of it.”
He rolled his eyes and smiled. “Yeah she’s cute,” pushing her off he laughed. “But I’m pretty sure she’s straight.”
“Don’t do that to me. This school is not helpful when you’re gay and single.”
Gav snorted as he passed. “Speak for yourself.”
“No one understands how you keep finding gay guys,” Dick said with a laugh. “It’s too impressive.”
“How many boyfriends have you had?” Lily asked.
“Boyfriends like two. Flings,” he shrugged.
“Is that supposed to be a good thing?” Lily asked glancing at Dick.
“I can’t judge him. I think I asked one girl out and got rejected.” He pretended to hang his head in defeat and Lisa pat his back with a laugh.
“You know Gav is always going to be there waiting for you to see the light.”
As if to emphasis this Gav grabbed one of his hands with both of his own and held it up. “With your beautiful accent and hair. You’d be perfect.”
“Por favor Gav.”
“Please Richard. I can only take so much rejection in my young life!”
“Oh for Christ’s sake,” he yanked his hand free laughing.
“There he goes pretending he knows Spanish to impress only Gav,” Lily said with a chuckle. “If only you actually committed to learning the entire language instead of words and phrases. I’m sure Keenen or I could teach you.”
“Hush gringa.”
They boarded the train managing to take the four chairs in the back of the train. The majority of the ride was in quiet as they checked their phones and just unwound from the day. Dick pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to his uncle.
Me: Hey tio, I’m bringing everyone home with.
Tio: I guess I can take a bunch of teens in my house.
Me: Thanks, love you.
Three stops later and they were outside his house. Dick was the first one in and He kicked his shoes off in front of the door and then to the living room. There was one long couch and two chairs with a wooden table in the center. There was a mirror above the long couch and a TV on a stand across from the couch. A few lights were in the corners of the room. “You guys know the drill. Shoes off, try not to break anything. Homework.”
“Yeah yeah. Thanks mom,” Lisa shouldered past him with a laugh tossing her bag onto one of the couches and sat down, spreading her arms and legs out.
“Do you have any snacks?” Gav asked walking toward the kitchen.
Lisa snorted and dragged her fingers through her hair. “The real question is do we have more brownies?”
Lily shook her head, “Or we could do our homework and be responsible.”
“This is why you’re the nerd Lily,” Dick said going to sit on the couch as well. He turned and draped his legs over the arms of the couch and lying flat on his back. “No one wants to do homework.”
She sighed digging through her bag slowly, putting her books onto the table. “You’re all going to say that and then it’ll be tonight and you’re going to be tired and not going to want to do it then either.”
Lisa pointed at her. “Just because that’s true doesn’t mean you can trick me into doing it now.”
Lily put her hands on her hips as she sat up slightly and then pulled out a plate of brownies with plastic wrap on them. Lisa immediately reached for them but Lily yanked them out of reach. “Nope. Homework and then more brownies.”
She groaned and turned to lay down near Dick and turned to face the couch. “Why are you like this Lily.”
“Because I care about your education. It’s not even that hard. We can do it together.”
“We do essentially have the same classes,” Gav noted from the chair. “So, we pool our resources and minds together and then boom. All done. I like this plan. I hate history. I’m copying your notes Lily.”
She made a face but handed the notebook over to him which he took graciously.
“Lisa, I know you pay attention in math. Only thing you’re actually great at. Let me see it.” Dick said as he righted himself slowly.
“What do I get out of this?” she asked still facing the couch.
“The satisfaction of helping your friend on his birthday.”
She waved her arm at him. “I’ll do it next year.”
“Oh come on,” he threw a pillow her way and she took it before putting it under her head. “I’m just gonna go through your bag and find it.”
“Good luck finding it in there.”
He got off the couch and did just that, taking at least ten minutes before he found her math notebook. Gav was already copying over notes from Lily’s notebook and finally Lisa joined them all as they worked. Lily also finally took off the plastic wrap and let them indulge in the brownies as they worked.
By the time Dick’s uncle had come home they were all majorly on the ground. He had two pizzas in both hands and raised his eyebrow at the kids. “You’re a strange bunch you know that right?”
“I’ve been called worse. Hey Uncle Keenen.” Lisa said from the ground.
“Welcome home,” Gav said back to the chair as he looked at his phone.
Lily turned and offered the plate which had two more brownies left on it. “Brownie.”
“Simon,” Dick rolled over and looked at his uncle with a grin. “That for us?”
“Yes. Go wash your hands. All of you. And thanks Lily.”
One by one they got off the ground and head to the kitchen taking turns at the counter to wash their hands. Keenen came behind them setting the boxes down on the kitchen table. He did slid them aside and pulled both open. One was full sausage and pepperoni while the other was a mix of half cheese and half supreme with bacon.
Gav and Dick both pounced on the sausage and pepperoni pizza. Lisa went for the supreme and Lily took the cheese. Keenen went to the fridge to get the pop that they had and drinks were shared amongst everyone.
“Gios is always good pizza. Especially for how cheap it is.” Lisa said finishing off her first slice.
“Yeah it is. Plus, they have deals out the ass,” Keenen laughed and turned on the TV cycling through the channels. He dropped it on the news and the anchor was in the middle of a story.
“Another person was found dead late this afternoon near the river. They were reported to being found underneath the bridge. The body showed signs of having been exposed to great heat as well as scavengers getting to it. The time of death is uncertain as of yet but this is the third body to be discovered like this.
“The police believe this is tied to a case of serial arson cases along the river front. The police are still searching but so far there have been no leads on either case. We caution our viewers to be careful especially when moving around at night.”
“Near the river. That’s not far from here,” Lisa noted getting another slice. “They’ve been calling him the Riverside killer. Think they like halfsies? You could be in trouble Dick.”
“I think they like darkies more.”
“Hey remember the one drop rule. You’re right there with me.”
Taking a sip from his drink he rolled his eyes. “Guess I just gotta out run you then.”
Keenen rubbed his forehead slowly as Lisa returned and plopped down on the couch again. “You mijos are something else. I dread to see you guys in college.”
“Don’t worry. I can do my best to keep them together,” Lily said with a smile chewing on the crust of the pizza. “They at least they did their homework before you came home.”
“Wow you managed to make them work too?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I had to bribe them with brownies but it worked.” She shrugged.
“Hey if you keep feeding us we’ll do anything for you,” Gav said sipping from his drink. He stared into the contents and rubbed his jaw slightly. “Hey Uncle. Wanna slip us some of that strong stuff?”
He stared at him and jerked a thumb at Dick. “He’s 16 and I won’t let him drink. You’re barely 15 so you do the math.”
“Come on. One beer wouldn’t be too bad.”
“It’s not going to be my beer.” He said and got up walking to the kitchen. When he returned he had a box in hand. He set it down on the table brushing aside a few plates and set a knife down on the table as well. He pulled off the top revealing a cake with white frosting and blue writing on the center reading, Happy 16th mijo. “Happy birthday to you,” he began to sing. “Happy birthday to you.”
Dick smiled at the ground as the others joined in almost immediately. “Happy birthday dear Richard. Happy birthday to you!” They clapped together and he laughed trying to bask in the attention but he couldn’t help his minor embarrassment.
“Sorry about the no candles mijo.”
“It’s fine tio.” He stuck his finger in and ate some of the frosting with a smirk. “That’s good stuff.”
“Get a plate. Pretend you have some manners.”
One by one Keenen cut them slices until they each had one but he himself refrained. It was a marble cake on the inside and got many sounds of approval especially from Lisa.
“I swear I could eat sweets for the rest of my life.” She said sucking on her spoon and groaned. “If we don’t finish this tonight I’m coming back and eating the rest.”
“You know you’ll get fat like that right?” Gav asked eyeing her accusingly.
“I run track. I’ll be fine.”
“For now. Wait until you get older,” he pointed his spoon at her but unfortunately, he did it too fast and accidently flung a glob of cake at her. It got on her skirt and she scowled darkly at the spot before eating it. Glaring at him she lunged at him and worked to try and choke him. He did manage to save his own slice while his life was choked away.
“I feel like I shouldn’t allow this,” Keenen said as he cut forked himself another piece. “But I’m not inclined to stop it.”
“As long as she doesn’t murder him I think you’re okay.” Lily said with a chuckle.
“Everyone thinks Lisa’s the bad one,” Dick said shaking his head. “But you’re the real evil one. La Diabla Gringa”
The Harlequin Library 