01 Untouchable - Untouchable (21 page)

“
You must have a little
Goth in you—and, do you dye your hair that color?” I’d never have
asked such a question had I been in a better frame of mind. But it
didn’t alter his mood, it only seemed to encourage him because I
was willingly making conversation.

“
Actually, my hair is
black, just not black enough to suit me, so, to answer your
question, yes I do. But my eyes are all me—no contacts; everyone
usually asks me that first.”

“
So are you and Jewels
getting serious at all?” I was hoping he’d say yes and then I’d
have no reason to feel an odd sense of guilt over talking with him.
If Evan were watching, I’d want to be able to tell him that Ryan
and I were discussing her.

“
She is a lot of fun, but I
don’t think she could be loyal to one guy. It may take her a decade
or so before she reaches that level. For instance, I could tell her
today that you and I were going on a date and she’d probably ask if
she could bring someone along and make it a double.”

I tried hard not to laugh
and spoil my rotten mood, but he was absolutely correct, and I
couldn’t stop the smile that covered my face. He gave me a
surprised look as he turned to go to the boys’ locker room. It
didn’t dawn on me until I was slipping on my gym shorts that he may
have taken my smile as having to do with he and I going on a date
instead of the honesty about Jewels.

I left my tank and
over-shirt on for gym because I certainly couldn’t take it off in
the dressing area. I just hoped my deodorant would make it through
the day.

Coach was organizing us for
a soccer match, but I didn’t want to add any more sore spots to my
body, so I opted for the four-laps-around-the-track alternative.
Evan told coach he’d pulled a side muscle over the weekend and he
too would opt to walk the track. A few others did likewise but most
of the class stayed on the field.

He put his arm around me,
but I was too mentally exhausted at this point to care what anyone
thought. I leaned my head against his shoulder and we moved at a
slow pace. I’m sure we looked quite cozy to the onlookers, but he
actually spent most of the period telling me about additional
information he was getting about my step-dad and his business
partners.

“
So you think some of their
business is a front for criminals?” I could hardly believe what he
was telling me that Robert had been dabbling in.

“
It’s not what I think,
it’s what I know. This is how they’ve managed to stay afloat, but
if he doesn’t get some capital back in the company pretty soon, he
might find himself to be the one with the contract.”

“
And this is your best
guess? Robert is the person that’s doing this to me and
Mom?”

“
I got something else late
last night,” he added, glancing around to make sure none of the
others were near us. “My associate found a copy of a pre-nup. Your
parents had agreed to keep all funds completely separate. I think
at the time, he felt his wealth might exceed hers and he didn’t
want your mom to get her hands on it. You were specifically
mentioned as being her only benefactor. It isn’t a will, but the
courts will follow it in lieu of a will. If your mom doesn’t make a
will and include Kimmy in it, your da—I mean, Robert, will be out
of luck. Talk about a back fire.”

My stomach rolled at the
knowledge that there was a very strong chance that he was right;
the man I called ‘Dad’ had a good reason for getting rid of me.
Could he be trying to rattle Mom so bad that she would make out a
will? If she did, she’d leave everything to Kimmy and I. With me
out of the picture, and Kimmy being a minor, he could gain access
to the money.

“
Are you okay?” He asked as
I digested the reality of what he’d told me.

I took a deep breath and
looked up at the sky, shaking my head no, but the tears wouldn’t
come. “I can’t even cry; I feel so empty inside, like it doesn’t
matter to me anymore—nothing matters.”

A look of pain so vivid
crossed his face that I thought he’d done something to his side.
“What’s wrong? Did something just tear open?” I glanced at his
tee-shirt for any signs of bleeding.

“
No,” he said quietly, “I
was just thinking that you sound like me now. I hope I’m not
turning you emotionless.”

“
You have more emotions
than you give yourself credit for,” I told him. “If you didn’t, I
wouldn’t have been able to read that on your face just
now.”

“
This could get ironic; the
hit man gets emotional and the victim goes cold.” He gave a light
laugh, but the seriousness stayed with him.

“
Maybe that’s why God
brought you here,” I sighed.

“
You really believe that,
don’t you? Not the part about God, I know He exists, but about
everything being according to His plan.”

“
Yes, I do. Why? What do
you think about God?”

“
I believe He created us
and put us here, but everything is a simple matter of chance. We
make our own decisions and then, someday, we’ll answer for them.”
He glanced at me and then looked back to the track.

“
But
you
can
change,” I insisted.

Coach’s whistle
blew.

He turned to me, his eyes
getting that void look to them again. “In five weeks, I’m going to
put a bullet in you. I’ve been on a path straight to hell for the
last seven years and even though this feels good to me right now,
I’d rather go back to feeling nothing at all.”

He left me standing there
as he walked away. Within a few moments Jewels and Natasha were
flanking my sides begging to know the scoop between Evan and
me.

I ignored them both and went
inside.

Ryan was waiting for me
outside the locker room. It didn’t totally surprise me, after all
our next class was Chemistry Honors, so I half expected he would
walk with me. What did surprise me was that he was quiet most of
the way. Just before we went through the doors into class he
stopped me. “You know, Leese, if you were dating me you’d at least
be smiling instead of looking suicidal.”

I swallowed, “I don’t look
suicidal.” My argument was weak and I knew it.

I followed him to the lab coat rack,
thrust mine on and then went to stand and fume by my
table.

“
Okay. Today we are going
to pit the boys against the girls,” Mr. Chester began. “I want
everyone to come up and get an empty soda bottle, a nail and a
balloon, then find a partner of the opposite sex.”

I inwardly groaned; I’d had enough of
the opposite sex.

I went forward to get my
supplies. Ryan was waiting at my table when I turned around. “I
want a different partner.” No one paid me any attention and Ryan
only smiled.

The experiment was simple,
the guys stuffed the balloon into their bottle, peeling the top of
the balloon down and over the bottle’s threads and then they were
instructed to try to blow up the balloon. I enjoyed watching Ryan’s
pitiful efforts as his face turned red and then he stopped because
his ears were aching.

The girls were instructed
to fill their bottles first with water, cap it and then take the
nail and pierce a hole near the bottom of the bottle. We emptied
the bottles and then did the same thing as the boys, stuffing our
balloons inside and attempting to blow them up. To my amazement the
balloon inflated easily. What was even cooler was the fact the when
you covered up the nail hole with your finger and took your mouth
away from the top of the bottle, the balloon remained
inflated.

As we were all ooing and
aahing over the results, he told the boys to repeat the same thing
with their bottles. The experiment was completed and we spent the
remainder of the period listening to him explain the principals of
air. He also showed us a large clear vacuum chamber with a rock and
a feather. Once the air was removed and a vacuum created inside the
cylinder, we watched in amazement as both objects fell at the same
rate of speed when he turned the chamber over.

Ryan was still playing with
his bottle and balloon as class was ending. He’d blow it up, put
his finger over the hole and observe the balloon staying inflated,
then move his finger and watch it deflate. I was starting to wonder
just how many times he would do this before getting tired of the
amazing little trick.

“
I wonder,” he whispered as
Mr. Chester continued to speak. He reached in front of me to the
sink in our table and turned the water on very slowly. He had his
balloon inflated and was keeping his finger over the hole as the
water ran inside the balloon.

“
I don’t think that’s a good
idea, R…”

But before I could finish my statement,
Mr. Chester noticed what Ryan was doing.

“
Mr. Faultz!
Don’t…”

It was too late. Being
caught in his own private science experiment, Ryan’s hand slipped
down the bottle, uncovering the nail hole. The water shot up
dousing my head, our table and he even managed to hit Mr. Chester
before the balloon emptied.

“
You stupid ass!” came out
before I could shut my big mouth. The entire class roared with
laughter.

Mr. Chester stood there
staring at the two of us. Finally, he gave a steely smile and went
on to explain how the air rushing into the bottom of the bottle
caused the water to shoot out of the balloon.

The bell rang, but he
stopped us. “Well, you two have a choice. You can both get
referrals…”

“
What did
I do? He’s the one who squirted
both
of us!” I snapped.

“
Miss McKinnis, you are
correct about his experiment, but what came out of your mouth was
inappropriate. So, if you’ll allow me to finish.” He stood there
waiting for me to respond.

“
Fine, I’ll be
quiet.”

“
As I was saying, I know
you both have lunch right now, but in lieu of referrals, I’ll allow
cleaning up the mess to serve as your punishment.
Agreed?”

“
Yes, sir,” Ryan said
moving to where the mop was kept.

I only nodded and went for the stack of
paper towels to dry off the counter.

“
Very good. I’m going to
lunch and when the two of you have cleaned this up, you may go
also.”

As soon as he was out the
classroom door, I went to smack Ryan but he dodged my
hand.

“
Come on Leese, I’m sorry,”
he was backing up with his hands up in the air. “I didn’t know it
was going to do that.”

If I chased him, we would
surely end up with an even bigger mess, so I resigned myself to go
back to drying the table, and my hair, and my face, and the front
of my shirt. I even had a little on my jeans. Fortunately for me
though, my lab coat had taken the brunt of it.

“
Let me help,” Ryan offered
when he saw that I was trying to peel off the wet coat.

He grabbed it by the collar
and pulled it down and off behind me. “What the crap…” I heard him
exclaim.

And that’s when I realized
what he’d done. He had grabbed the collar of my over-shirt with the
lab coat and removed them both. My face flushed with embarrassment
as I jerked my over-shirt out of the coat and away from his
hand.

“
I—I hurt my arm in the
fight Saturday night, that’s all,” I lied.

“
No, no you wait just a
minute.” His voice had become hard and commanding, all the teasing
disappeared. “Annalisa, I saw you hit that woman and you did it
with your left side.”

I was surprised that in all
the commotion he had seen my battle. Then he reached out and
carefully placed his hand around the bruised skin. It was an almost
perfect, large hand print.

“
That son-of-a…”

“
Ryan, stop! It wasn’t his
fault.”

“
He did this to you? I’m
surprised he didn’t break it like he did that guy’s elbow! I’m
gonna kill him!”

At this point I was
trembling all over. I didn’t want him to confront Evan, and I was
afraid that I wouldn’t be able to calm him down if he got out of
the classroom. “Please, please,” I said stepping directly into his
path, pushing my five-foot, eight inch frame into his. “Please,
don’t do this. Let me explain.” I was trying to keep the tears
back, but I could feel them building up on my lower
lashes.

His face was flushed and
his eyes were wide with anger. “I told you he was dangerous! I
didn’t think he was that stupid though.”

“
Please believe me, he
didn’t mean to do this. He feels awful about…”

“
He should!” He
snapped.

The tears had finally
started to fall.

He seemed to calm
immediately. “Hey, it’s okay, I’m sorry. I don’t want you to cry.”
His arm wrapped around me but that only seemed to open the flood
gates wider.

We must have stood there
for two or three minutes as I tried to gain my composure. I
couldn’t tell him all the stress I was under or anything that was
going on—that, I was certain, would put him in danger if he
challenged Evan, but I needed an emotional release.