Confidential (12 page)

Anna, ever oblivious, took his hand and shook it. "Oh look at how nice you are! What a gentleman."

Marcus, not to be out done, strolled over in her direction and took her hand as well. "Anna, you have such
a
wonderful home." Marcus, although his eyes stayed on Anna, sat back down next to me. "Heidi, you never told me you came from such a beautiful family."

Anna waved a hand dismissively. "You're just saying that. I'm flattered."

Marcus grinned, and watched her as she walked out of the room. "Heidi! Your aunt is a dime piece." He whistled.

"A what?"

Dylan leaned in and whispered, "A ten, he thinks she's hot."

"Your damn right I do. When you told me you lived with your aunt, I thought she would be some old fat woman."

"Cute, Marcus." I rolled my eyes.

Dylan and Marcus had begun coming home from school with me, eating all my food, and then leaving shortly after. Marcus currently had a cast on his arm, because he jumped from the local grocery store's rooftop and landed on it funny. His rebellious adventurous were always entertaining to hear about. He used his new crippled state as sympathy with Anna, and always got a little more friendly when she would come home.

While Marcus kept up his infatuation with my petite bodyguard, Dylan would entertain me involuntarily.

I had begun a campaign to make him more calm and less antsy.

He would rapidly be bouncing his leg, while tapping his fingers or finding something to constantly mess with. We were in my room and I had him sit on my bed for five minutes without moving, although he didn't make it past thirty seconds.

I got a stopwatch and everything.

"Come on Heidi, this is ridiculous." Dylan whined, pulling at the frays of a jean skirt I had lying around. I ripped my skirt from his grasp and shoved it in my over-filled closet.

"More like pointless." Marcus smirked.

Dylan and I both glared at him. I plopped down next to him on my bed, stretching out and clutching a pillow. I let out a long sigh, "I am so tired." I mumbled from inside the pillow.

Dylan laid down next to me, "It might be because you have to run away from Clarissa whenever you see her in the halls."

Marcus laughed. "Is that skank still out to get you?" Marcus shook his head knowingly, "I wouldn't worry about it, she's looking for someone to blame for loosing Camdon."

"How did that happen anyway?"

Dylan smiled, seeing my interest and I shoved him playfully. "They barely dated. Camdon tends to make girls think they are more important than they actually are." My heart sank a little, "He and her became really close I guess, and he was with another girl at the time. He looses interest fast, and never gets personal. I think that was the main problem for her actually."

"What do you mean he never gets personal?" I frowned.

"Everyone knows a little something about everyone in this town, if you catch my drift. But Camdon's managed to stay under the radar." Dylan noticed my confusion and explained, " Camdon's mom had him when she was still in high school. His dad was the mega star of this town, and took a scholarship to college and left, not supporting them at all. Everyone knew that Camdon's mom was a genius, she had a really promising future, but she had to stay back and take care of Camdon. Never even made it to college." Dylan shrugged. "It's a shame, but you never here of him messing up or getting in trouble, people know about his background, and even though everyone pretends to know him so well, no one really does."

Marcus flipped through some of my homework. "He's actually a really cool guy. I always think how great it would be to have his life, then I remember how much pressure he has to face with his mom and all, and then I feel fine with where I'm at." He got up and stretched his arms. "Imagine trying to be perfect to try and make up for being born. That blows."

We sat in silence, each thinking our own thoughts of what Camdon's life really entailed.

Our thoughts were broken when we heard the door swing open and closed. Marcus grinned, "Anna's home!" and bolted out the door, and thundering down the stairs.

I laughed while Dylan groaned. "He's embarrassing, I'm sorry."

"It's not like you can control him."

Dylan's eyes scanned my room. "Did your other friends ever act like this when they met her?"

I froze up a little bit. "No… They never really met her."

"Miss your parents?" He asked kindly, like any friend would or should, but I wish he would stop.

"Yeah. A little. It was a nice break from them at first, but I don't get to talk to them that much, so that makes it worse."

"Why can't you just call them? Where are they anyway?" Dylan asked.

"Europe somewhere." I answered lamely.

"That sucks."

I shrugged. "It's not so bad. I love Anna; she's awesome. She's so happy I even have friends. You should see how worried she gets."

Dylan smiled. "I'm glad you came to our school, who else would help me find my chi?" I laughed, and he laughed with me. "Have you noticed how much better people have been treating you? Besides Clarissa of course; but still. I'm proud of George Washington High School."

That worried me, I had avoided Camdon even more than usual, and I was afraid he had said something. The day after I had been crying, people started warming up to me. Friendly hello's, smiles, offers for help in class. It was too much of a coincidence. Clarissa was as frosty as ever, but I didn't expect that to ever change.

Dylan and I talked about meaningless things, while we heard Anna laughing downstairs at Marcus' attempts to charm her.

"I feel like I need to go down there and protect her." I said.

"That would probably be a good idea." We both went downstairs, where Marcus was telling an elaborate story about how he ordered over twenty pizzas and had them delivered to his annoying neighbor.

"This just proves how mature and ready for a relationship with her he is." Dylan sarcastically said over his shoulder while rummaging through my pantry.

"That's my poptart." I pointed at the last packet of brown sugar cinnamon.

"There's still a cherry left." Dylan said, beginning to open up the silver crinkly wrapper.

"Ew. No, only Anna eats those." I snagged the poptarts from his hands and delightfully stealing one out.

"Hey!" He cried.

"I'm letting you have one!"

"I let you have one!"

"No you didn't! They were mine in the first place!" I squealed and ran away as Dylan chased me into the living room, and for the first time I didn't like the small size of the house, wishing I had a big one with lots of space to run away from. I got myself trapped in the
corner
between the front door wall, and the wall in between the entrance of the kitchen.

Dylan poked me mercilessly, as our doorbell rang, Marcus stepped over us like it was nothing and opened it up.

I continued to squeal and kick while trying to pull myself away from Dylan's harassment. I laughed, and begged him to stop.

"DYLAN!" I yelled. "You are such a man whore." I was shouting anything I could think of. Groaning, as I was poked yet again, "My side hurts…." I burst out laughing. "Seriously. Marcus! Anna! Save me!" I yelled.

Dylan stopped. "Okay, only because you're rolling around on that top. Don't want you to ruin it or anything." He said, mocking me. I stuck my tongue out at him.

Dylan was on the ground next to me, and we both looked up at a surprised Camdon. I could have sworn a twinge of envy passed his face, and I couldn't help but feel a little guilty, but I wasn't sure why.

I stood up. Dylan gave me a pinch and walked past us. "Hi, Camdon."

"Hi Heidi..." He seemed hesitant, like he changed his mind about coming over, and looked like he suddenly wanted to leave. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

I gulped. I wasn't sure what to do. I was attracted to him, and as much as I tried to deny it, it was the truth. I felt a pull, how he looked at me, the way his muscles would contract with simple movements, how he acted like he cared, even though he didn't know me. He never could.

I didn't want to be angry, but I couldn't help it. No matter how much I liked him, or how much I pretended I didn't, he had said something about me. I know he did. I was embarrassed, I didn't need pity, and I didn't want it.

"I'm fine." I gritted my teeth, and took a deep breath. "Why would you tell them?"

He frowned, "What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about, almost the whole school is suddenly nicer to me, right after I… I… got upset." I made myself look him in the eye, I wasn't weak, he just happened to catch me at a low point in my life.

"I didn't
tell
anyone…" He reached out to me but I backed away. "Heidi you can trust me. If something is wrong you can talk to me about it."

I felt the blood rush to my head in anger. "I'm not a head case. I don't need a shrink. And I wish you wouldn't have said anything-"

"Heidi", He pleaded, "I didn't
tell
anyone. I wouldn't do that, it's not who I am. I asked them to lighten up on you, that they were acting ridiculous, that's it. I never realized that moving might be hard for you."

I rolled me eyes and put a hand on my hip. "Moving doesn't bother me. Not knowing-" I immediately shut my mouth.

"Not knowing what?" He asked softly.

I shook my head. "Thank you for you help, but I didn't need it."

He nodded towards my direction. "Alright. I guess I'll just go then."

It pained
me a
little to watch him leave, and I stubbornly shoved those feelings away. I didn't care about people, I didn't get attached, and I most certainly wasn't going to feel bad about yelling at a guy whose trying to hard to be nice to me. Was I?

I barely slept the entire night, struck between feeling guilty about the way I acted towards someone for what felt like the first time in my life, and being stressed out about the case.

I was curious to know why people liked Camdon so much. All he had to do was say it, and suddenly I was treated with kindness. Just one person having that much influence and power over an entire student body was kind of intimidating. And I thought about what Marcus and Dylan said. No one really knew him. No one could ever really know me. I knew what that was like.

I was restless the entire night. I had been here for over two weeks, what was going on? Why had no one contacted us? As soon as the sun came up, I had already laced up my running shoes, and headed out the door. I inhaled deeply, the chill autumn air filling my lungs, then took off. I ran fast and hard, not paying attention to anything, just trying to forget everything that was going on in my head.

After a half and hour, it seemed to work, I was tired from running, and my mind could no longer concentrate on anything else but the smooth rhythm and pounding of my shoes against the gravel. I felt my leg muscles working, and my breathing increase, as I continued to run with no destination in mind.

A little while later I forced myself to stop and turnaround, dreading school the next day. Iowa was the last place I wanted to be, with its cold environment, uninviting people, and middle-of-no-where feel. I was beginning to get cabin fever, stuck in this place, without any information. What was I to the police force? Put me somewhere on a shelf until they needed me, no kind of thought to what I would be doing, or how I would hate sitting in some town like a lame duck?