Broken (4 page)

After a second or two of both of us staring
blankly after Brandon, Britney grabbed me by the hand, the one
holding the new, unopened water bottle, and pulled me over to a
table in the corner.

"Oh my gosh, you just poured
water all over Brandon Worthingfield the Third. And then he talked
to you. This is 
so
 incredible."

I more or less fell into my seat, staring at
my new bottle of water as Britney's chatter poured over me. It was
pointless to try and pay attention to anything she was saying. It
was all I could do to remember to nod when she paused and looked at
me expectantly.

Lunch passed all too quickly. Before I knew
it we were back at Britney's locker and she was promising to give
me a ride home from school after Spanish.

History was about as dry as I'd expected,
which was really too bad. I'd had a good history teacher in junior
high, and it was an incredibly interesting subject when taught
right. Unfortunately Mr. Simms was possibly the worst teacher I'd
ever had. I mentally shrugged when we were told to open our books
and read the chapter to ourselves. At least I wouldn't have any
worries when it came to catching up in this class.

Thoughts of Brandon made it hard to really
get into the chapter. Also, it was hard not to notice the
borderline hostile stares from the other kids. I sighed in relief
when the bell rang, and pulled out my schedule and map to see where
I'd be going next. Physics? I mentally reviewed my conversation
with the secretary, but couldn't remember either of us mentioning
the class. As if trying to catch up in Algebra wasn't going to be
bad enough, I was going to face the same kind of problem in
physics.

Grumbling to myself, I promised to try and
switch into something better first thing tomorrow morning. The
class was in a section of the building I hadn't been to yet, one
apparently older than the rest of the building. The lights were
spaced further apart and the cinder blocks in the walls were a
slightly different size.

Good thing I still had my water. The old part
of the school was just as hot as the rest. You'd think functioning
air-conditioning would be a necessity for a school so far south. At
least it should cool down a little in the coming months. Assuming
of course I lasted that long without losing it from dealing with
all of the crazy small-town people in this school.

I entered the classroom and was immediately
greeted by a portly, white-haired woman. "Hello, hello. My name is
Mrs. Alexander, and you must be Adri. Oh, not Adri? Very good then
Adriana it is."

I watched bemusedly as Mrs. Alexander
searched through her pockets for something to write with for at
least half a minute before realizing she'd placed her pen behind
her ear. The form now signed, the pen went back behind her ear for
safe keeping, and she motioned me to a seat, predictably at the
back of the classroom.

As I negotiated the crooked path between
desks, I found myself looking forward to the class. Right up until
Alec slipped into the classroom a few seconds before the bell
rang.

If there'd been any justice in the universe,
he'd have somehow gotten uglier over the last few hours. That or
I'd have developed some kind of partial immunity to him. Neither
was the case, he was just as unearthly gorgeous as he'd been in the
hall. The sight of him was almost overwhelming.

As he slipped into a desk an aisle away from
me, I tried to breathe deeply and slowly in a futile effort to calm
my racing heart. It helped a little when he slid the desk back a
few feet. As long as I watched Mrs. Alexander I couldn't see Alec
anymore. It seemed like I could still feel him though. The right
side of my body seemed to hum and tingle, almost imperceptibly,
telling me he was there.

I did my best to ignore the sensation,
concentrating on the pictures rapidly forming on the ancient
blackboard as Mrs. Alexander diagrammed the conceptual model of a
wave, and started dissecting the various parts. Crest, trough,
period, amplitude. None of it was hard to understand, not
particularly interesting, but still a welcome distraction.

After what seemed like an eternity, Mrs.
Alexander placed the piece of chalk she was using behind her other
ear and smiled at the class. "Ok, that's your introduction to
light. Form up into your usual groups and take a project summary;
you'll be working on this for the next few days."

I joined the class in filing past the
teacher's desk, and then watched as everyone started moving desks
around. Mrs. Alexander saw me walking hesitantly back to my desk,
and intercepted me before I could get there.

"Miss Paige, you'll have the good luck of
working with Mr. Graves."

It wasn't until Alec looked up, annoyance
clearly evident on his handsome face, that I realized I was
supposed to work with him. It was yet another sign of rejection in
a day that'd been largely filled with everything but acceptance. It
shouldn't have bothered me, not considering how poorly I'd always
fit in; but whether because of his good looks, or for some other
unrelated reason, I found myself wanting Alec's approval. My
breathing started coming faster, exceeded only by the pace of my
heart.

Apparently I wasn't the only one that could
tell working with me wasn't what the school's resident rock star
had in mind. There was a scattered chorus of badly stifled giggles
off to the front of the class. Not the normal kind people use when
they're amused, but the high-pitched ones girls use to embarrass
each other.

Alec's face unexpectedly
softened for a moment, his expression still unwelcoming, but now
mixed with a trace of something else. While I was busy trying to
understand the sudden change, Mrs. Alexander looked at the front of
the class with a frown on her face for a moment. I suddenly
realized that she knew the difference between the two kinds of
giggles. That was unusual in someone so old. The younger teachers
usually kept the girls from being too awful to each other, but the
old guard didn't really catch the subtle differences high school
girls used to emotionally
traumatize
each
other.

Her kindly face taking on a stern cast, Mrs.
Alexander turned back to Alec. "I'm sure you'll enjoy working with
Miss Paige, Alec. After all, you can't really expect to do
everything by yourself. Occasionally a helping hand is exactly
what's called for."

The words seemed to reach inside me pulling
on something that was already bleeding, tearing it further. The
classroom rocked back and forth at the same time my legs lost the
ability to support my weight. Alec lunged toward me, moving
incredibly quickly as my mind spun away back to our kitchen table.
I was fourteen and trying to understand geometry proofs. Mom had
given up trying to help me with homework about the time I turned
twelve, so she kept telling me to just read the book and figure out
what they were doing in the examples.

By the time dad got home from work tears were
streaming down my face and I couldn't even see the diagrams
anymore. "I can't do it, Dad. Missy Jeffrys already did the entire
assignment before we even got out of class, and I can't even figure
out one problem. I'm not good enough; I'm never good enough."

Rough fingers had appeared from outside my
peripheral vision, gently smoothing away tears. "Come on honey, you
really can't expect to do everything by yourself. Let's take a
break for dinner, and then I'll help you."

He'd forestalled my next excuse as if reading
my mind. "There isn't anything wrong with letting someone help you.
Sometimes a helping hand is exactly what's called for."

The memory had a vividness that'd been
lacking lately. It was the same aching realism that'd devoured
nearly a month of my existence before I finally decided I had to
try and go on with my life, for mom's sake if for no other
reason.

I panicked when I realized just how badly I
wanted to slip back into that twilight world where nothing hurt,
where it didn't matter if people liked me or not. The one where I
still had all three of the most important people in my world.

The fear that I'd give in, that I'd end up in
a hospital during the day or two it took mom to realize I hadn't
made it home from school, pulled me back sooner than normal. For a
second my mind inhabited a body that wouldn't obey any of the
normal commands. Fear snaked out from my center when my eyes
wouldn't open, but before my heart could really start accelerating,
my eyelids started functioning again.

The desks on the route between Alec and I
were lying haphazardly on their sides, but there wasn't any sign of
Alec. Mrs. Alexander was looking down at me; concern etched into
her features, and the beginnings of a crowd was starting to form as
the rest of the students came over to look at the freak. Only
something wasn't right. They weren't towering enough. When you pass
out on a regular basis, you get used to finding yourself on the
floor surrounded by concerned-looking people, but none of these
people were looming properly.

Everyone else having somehow gotten too short
suddenly wasn't as important. The room was still swinging around,
only now it wasn't moving, I was. A pair of muscular arms encircled
my tingling waist and legs, holding me tightly to a near rock-hard
chest as Alec deftly weaved through the approaching crowd of
students.

I closed my eyes as a wave of heat started at
my collarbones and rushed up to the tips of my ears. I wanted to
throw up, except that would be even more embarrassing than being
carried out of class by the most popular boy in school.

I opened my eyes and found we were already
out in the hall. Alec's stride was so smooth it was hard to believe
we weren't still back in the classroom.

"Put me down, I mean please put me down."

Those, clear, deep eyes met mine for a
second, seeming to look past the surface and all the way down to
the bleeding mental gash that'd just triggered my most recent
collapse. I was trying to marshal my arguments, but his eyes wiped
my mind clean. I couldn't form another coherent thought until he
shook his head and looked away.

"You need to see the nurse."

My mind hiccupped for a second. There should
be some kind of law requiring him to hide those things. Sunglasses,
or maybe a blindfold.

"I'm fine. That wasn't anything; it didn't
mean anything. Please put me down."

I'd tried to put the right amounts of
sincerity and confidence in my words, but I wasn't a very good
liar. Something changed though because Alec slowed his
ground-eating stride.

"What do you mean you're fine? People don't
just collapse with no warning. You seemed fine and then you were
falling. You s...you seemed hurt."

I shook my head gingerly, surprised when I
didn't feel the twinge I knew was coming. The attack had been more
sudden than usual and nobody had been close enough to catch me. In
those circumstances experience had shown that I led with my
head.

"It was just the heat here.
I'm not used to it. Now 
please
 put me down."

Alec looked at me doubtfully, then took a
deep, no doubt calming breath, and shrugged. The movement seemed
too casual, almost as if he was angry, but trying to hide it. I
wanted to try and make eye contact to test my hypothesis, but was
afraid of what I'd see. The tingling was spreading, no doubt a bad
sign, maybe I hit my head even harder than I thought.

"It's just a game for you wasn't it?"

There was anger behind the voice now, subtle,
like the scent of rain the night before a storm, but definitely
there. I started to bristle; I even took a breath to explain what'd
really happened. Only the truth wasn't any better than the story
he'd fabricated. It was worse even. I'd much rather this cocky,
spoiled, rich boy be mad at me than feel pity. I'd had enough pity
from my mom to last years.

"You bet. Think they bought it?"

I'd tried to inject the proper amount of
blond stupidity into my words, but wasn't sure it worked until I
felt Alec's arms tighten, almost painfully around me. I gasped, and
he set me down so quickly I almost fell over.

Before I'd even regained my balance, he was
walking away, moving so quickly I would've needed to run to keep
up. Even so, he hadn't turned away quick enough to hide the
complete disdain in his expression.

I suddenly found myself wishing I'd told him
the truth rather than making him think I was stupid and
manipulative.

It was too late. He was already out of sight,
and by now his opinion of me was fixed.

Chapter 4

School hadn't gotten any worse after I'd
convinced the hottest boy on the planet that I was a complete waste
of oxygen, but it hadn't gotten any better either. Mrs. Tiggs, my
Spanish teacher, had seemed every bit as mean as my Biology teacher
from earlier in the day, and it had been a relief when Britney had
finally dropped me off at home.

I watched Britney's little white Saturn
disappear down the lane with a complex set of feelings that
included a bit of loneliness and more than a little relief. After a
minute or two spent staring off into space, I finally decided the
discomfort in my stomach was sharp enough to justify the effort of
eating.

Given the ridiculous heat, studying was the
last thing I really wanted to do, but there wasn't really anything
else to do so I changed into cooler clothes and made the best of
it. Three hours later my brain felt like it was going to run out of
my nose, so I wandered upstairs.

It was still too hot for comfort in my room,
but unpacking in the heat was better than facing the math problems
waiting for me downstairs. We'd partially unpacked things to get my
bedspread out, so everything else went pretty quickly. My room
wasn't particularly large, but someone had put a long shelf around
the top of the room, and the closet had more storage space than my
room back home. My meager belongings quickly found new homes.