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“Two people, one is sick or
hurt. I don't know… oh my god! Army crawl, army crawl, army
crawl....” I said as we hustled near the boys who were camouflaged
by the tree line. We crawled as close to the edge as we could when
I saw something shine in the grass for a brief moment. Tori got up
and started running which set the motion light detector off! Nic
and I popped up and were hot on her trail. We ran right into the
boys pushing them into the neighbor’s yard. We were all laughing
running as fast as we could to the car.

What's his face was fumbling
for his keys. “Is this going to be like a horror film where...” The
car started cutting me off mid-sentence. He didn't turn the
headlights on until we got to the end of the block.

Nic said “Back to the bat
cave Boy Wonder.” Everyone let out a little chuckle. I looked back;
no one was following us....

“Oh my gosh, my heart’s
beating a million miles a minute. “ Tori said excitedly.

“Are you kidding me, I have
to pee.” Nic said and everyone burst out laughing.

Gus flipped his arm over the
seat and said “we only saw mail for a Dr. Westman.”

Under my breath I said “I
saw it.”

When we got back to our
neighborhood and the boys reminded us it was there turn to pick the
next adventure. We followed Gus and Boy Wonder into the foliage at
the end of our street, it went right and left but we went straight.
When we finished batting all the weeds out of our way we came to a
secret clubhouse that was camouflaged by all the trees and brush.
There we had our first Big Mouth Mickey’s' beer.

After that we played Frisbee
in the dark and then we all laid in the grass and looked at the
stars. Here I felt I had more of a connection and more fun with
this group than I ever had with Cale. Not that I ever dated someone
seriously before, but if that was dating it wasn't for
me. 

Nic asked me to be a
wrestling manager with her. I hadn't even thought about doing it
for the high school team but then I thought, what the heck, we had
fun doing it last year. Only to find out that “Manager” is just a
glorified name for slave girls – this year we have to
clean the mats before every practice something we didn't
have to do before, plus, we have to keep score and video tape all
the meets, plus, girls aren’t allowed to ride the buses to away
matches. In junior high we only had to go to and keep score at the
home matches and one tournament. It was a lot more work, it had
better be fun.

After a few practices we got
used to the routine, it wasn’t so bad. I really didn't get why they
needed us at practice. What I did like was Nic and I got to catch
up on homework and all our gossip for the day. Today Nic told me
that Mr. Meshko, our Algebra teacher, announced to all his classes
that I have received the highest grade he has ever given out, that
I was the only student to achieve a 100% in his class. I have
gotten all of my homework, quizzes and tests 100% correct. I said
“All his classes, ugh. I can't believe I'm doing so well in school
this year, very unlike me.”

After the second week we
actually started to get to know the wrestlers and we were making
friends and it started to be a lot of fun. I had more guys saying
“Hi” to me in the halls, and more girls talking to me to find out
how I knew this guy or that one. They'd even ask me to put in a
good word for them, in turn; I made more girl and boy friends. My
mom always said you can never have too many friends.

Hump day, Nic and
I were waiting by the gym exit for our rides and were leaning up
against the half wall by the doors, per usual. That’s when he
walked into the lobby. His hair was dark, messy and wet,
he had a reddish-brown leather coat on and no shirt
underneath. His skin was a soft golden brown, a couple shades
darker than mine and smooth, his jeans were a faded shade of blue
and the hems were tattered. His brows were thick and bold but his
eyes were soft and dreamy, a deep caramel. He had wrestling shoes
on that were unlaced and opened sloppily, but he wasn't on the
wrestling team. I think I was staring at him with my mouth open
because when Nic said something to me, she had to nudge
me in the ribs with her elbow to get my attention. “What?” I
had to ask her to repeat. I kept staring at him when
Storm walked up to him and dropped his bag. They
were talking and jabbing each other fooling around, then
Storm's friend laughed. When he laughed his brilliant white teeth
showed and his abs flexed showing every muscle in his washboard
stomach. Most guys have a six pack of muscles but he looked like he
had more of an eight pack, the way his whole stomach rippled all
the way to his jeans. He was beautiful; the rays of heaven must
have been shining down on me, to make me notice him.

Nic said loudly “Don’t
drool!” Jabbing me in the ribs again. 

”What” I replied and started
to laugh. “Holy crap do you know him.” I asked in a
whisper.

“Of course I do, that is one
of Storm’s brothers.”

“His brother!” I was
stunned.

“I didn't even know he
had brothers or that they went to this school. What’s his name? Do
you know him? Can you introduce me?”

“You knew he had brothers
because he told us at the wake. His name is Jett but I don’t really
know him, I just know he's Storm's brother. I think I heard he
broke up with his girlfriend though, Lisa something. He is way
out of your league though, sorry. Plus, you can get in
line behind every other girl in school. Storm said all the
girls like him. Plus, the girl he was dating, they like dated for a
whole year and they were serious so Storm thinks the breakup is
temporary. Lisa is real popular too. Besides you have Cale.” I just
gave her a hum drum look.

“Ha, ha but not for long...
How come I didn’t notice him before?” Nic explained to me
that he was probably in another sport. I was going to have to
figure out which other sport that was.

I was still staring at Jett;
I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. He looked over at me as I was
staring at him and I just couldn’t look away, he actually smiled at
me. Nic nudged me again, I said
loudly enough so others could hear “Oh sorry, I was
star struck” – I hope he knew what I meant. You know how
you stare at something whether you want to or not and you
can’t stop looking, you're in a trance, you want to look away but
you don't. Not sure what it's called but I call it 'star
struck.'

“Nic does he know what I
meant? I don’t want him to think I was staring because I think he’s
gorgeous. Although....he is....”

Nic looked at me
again, “What's wrong with you?” 

I told her “I'm in
love…”

“Well, you need to take care
of Cale first.”

I shook my head, I wanted to
tell her I saw Cale in that house that night but I just
didn't.

“Don’t you think he’s
awesome?” I said and nodded my head toward the new guy.

“So you're in love with all
the brothers” she retorted. 

“I’m sorry, but I don't even
know who the other brother is... How do you know them and I
don't?”

She turned to me and
said “I just know their names but nothing about them. His
older brother's name is Kyle, he is not bad looking either. Don't
fall too deep, you may not be able to...” She tapered off. “What
about Cale?”

“Oh good god, quit
mentioning his name, I can't take it.” I said with humorous
agitation in my voice while rubbing my temples. Nic
laughed.

I had to look again. The top
button to his faded and tattered tight fitting jeans was
unbuttoned. His hair still wet and
disheveled, it looked
good on him
. Storm slapped him in the stomach
and called him fat ass! And Jett laughed, took a swipe at him and
said “Your ass, you’re the one who's fat.”

Storm replied “Get some
pants that fit.” They both laughed and I couldn’t help but giggle
about it myself. Some tall, dark and grumpy guy came out into the
lobby and said “Would you two quit screwin' around, let’s go.” He
held himself like the alpha of the group. It had to be Kyle, he was
attractive in his own way.

None of them had an ounce of
fat on them. They were a very good looking group of
guys, they weren't pretty like Cale, but ruggedly handsome.
Jett had a smile that just made me melt, he didn't have dimples but
had this double crease at both corners of his mouth; it was
adorable. Plus, nice straight white teeth,
his skin looked
soft and tan.
I really wanted to run my fingers
down his chest and stomach!

I turned to look
at Nic, she started “Are you in love with all three
of them? They are all brothers ya know.” 

I looked at her with a
question on my face. “That's one good looking family I tell ya,
they all have different physical charms, but no, not in love with
all three, just in love with Jett.” I said subtly and let
out a breath of air. Just as the last word came out of my
mouth Jett pushed the door open and turned around and glanced in my
direction with his sexy smile showing all his straight perfect
pearly whites.

“Oh ----- my ----- gosh
------! Did he hear me Nic?”

She laughed “I doubt
it, I barely heard you. However the timing in which he
turned around was spooky, like he did.” 

“Nooo.” I said covering my
mouth. “He couldn’t have heard me he was pretty far away.... If he
did hear me, I'm sure it's nothing he hasn’t heard before. I'm sure
lots of girls have said it to him or about him. Just look at him,”
I sighed, yet another incentive to get this Cale thing over with.
All I knew was I’d fallen in love at first sight, I watched him
walk out into the parking lot, and thought about his
sculpted muscles that showed when he flexed.

Nic immediately said
“Snap out of it girl, you need to focus on breaking up with Cale so
you can move on.”

“I know Nic, I tried but it
just wasn't the right time, plus, he makes me nervous now. I'll do
it tomorrow and if I don't tomorrow I'll do it over the phone,
okay?”

“Good.” Nic
agreed.

Tall, dark and handsome. I
couldn’t get his smile out of my head all night. I couldn’t study
and I certainly couldn’t sleep. That night I dreamt that Jett asked
me out. I was hoping that this dream would come
true.

The next night my dream
wasn't as pleasant. I was having a myriad of dreams. I saw the girl
losing her bracelet, the truck rolling, and someone getting cut. I
woke up at the usual time 3:17a.m., and couldn't go back to
sleep.

The night after, I found
myself hoping not to sleep, and it didn't come until after 1:00. It
didn't take long to start the damned dreams again. I saw only
flashes of things, nothing making sense. Someone running through
heavy brush and their face getting whipped by branches, another of
someone hopping into a pickup truck and slamming a door, a tall guy
kisses an older lady, and then a man putting a baseball cap on. Me
running but not being able to run fast enough or scream, that being
typical dream stuff for everyone, I think. Then another flash of
me, I was lost. I wasn't able to find my way in the daytime. Weird,
weird stuff. I woke again at 3:17a.m. That was it for sleeping that
night.

I was exhausted. I got to Art class and Nic
told me I looked horrible. At least it was Friday, maybe I could
catch up on sleep this weekend. Halfway through class I finally
lifted my head off my desk and in walked Cale. He glowered at me
untrustingly, causing my heart to race a million miles a minute. I
swallowed hard and felt the lump go down my throat. I put my hand
on Nic's arm slowly and squeezed it, not taking my eyes off of
Cale, he didn’t look away from me either. “It was him.” I said
steadily to Nic. Cale walked over to Topher and started talking to
him like nothing happened.

“What was him?” she asked.

“That night at the house, the injured guy
inside the house, it was Cale. I wasn’t positive it was him, at
least not at first. I wasn’t sure until now, did you see the look
he just gave me? The only thing I could have done to deserve that
look was spy on him and get caught.... One more thing, when we were
doing the army crawl, I think I saw the bracelet.”

“Why didn't you tell me? We could have gone
back to get it.”

“That's exactly why I didn't tell you. We
can't mess with that, what if Cale's the one who killed Jewel?”

“He's a high school kid, he didn't kill
anyone. Just because you think you saw her killed at that house
doesn't mean Cale killed her, maybe they rent the house and the
owners killed her.”

“Doesn't matter who, you want to go back to a
murderers house to get a bracelet, and then what?

“Right, well we have to do something.”

Cale walked up to my desk slowly and put both
hands on either side. My palms became clammy, my throat tightened
and my heart raced instantly. “So how are you girls doing? Did you
have
fun
last weekend?” he said stiffly giving us a more
serious look than social.

“It was all right, we had fun, we hung out at
Addie's house and stuff… and you?” Nic said cautiously. I just
pressed my lips together and avoided eye contact, it's hard to
avoid when you want to.

“We had some trespassers this weekend, it’s
always disheartening when your trust has been betrayed.”