Connection (Le Garde) (18 page)

We made a plan: Mondays were homework days, and Sundays we’d go to the old house to practice. Anna said Sundays would work because her mom usually dropped her off at the library after her family went to church. She insisted she’d walk to the house, and we made plans to bring appliances to the house, things we could plug in and test.

By Wednesday, I was restless. I wanted to go back to the house already, I wanted to spend more time with Anna, and I didn’t want to wait until Sunday. After I got out of Composition class, I felt Anna nearby. I glanced around and saw her and Steven nearby, walking away from me. I hesitated, then thought,
Screw it. Why can’t I talk to her in the halls?

“
Hey, Anna!” I called.

My voice sent a flurry of emotions through her mind—a thrill of delight followed by apprehension and curiosity about what I wanted. She turned and watched as some jock pushed past me, nearly knocking my backpack off my shoulder.

“
Geez, where’s the fire?” I asked, rolling my eyes. “Hey, Steven. Anna.”

“
Hey,” Steven said, looking me up and down.

I held up the new book in Composition,
The Great Gatsby
. “I, uh, I was wondering if you—if we—if you had a copy of the questions from Comp. I forgot to get a copy.”

I was totally lying, and Anna totally knew it. She smiled, shaking her head. “I do have a copy, but it’s my only one.”

“
Ah, right, well.” I cleared my throat. “Could I just look at it? I was going to read it over lunch and I wanted to know what to watch out for.”

Anna hesitated, but then gave in. Good sign, right? She swung her backpack around to her front and brought out a folder with blue and green designs. She pulled out Mrs. Hart’s questions. This week, the paper was bright blue. I took the paper, our fingers only an inch or so apart.

“
Have you guys read this book?” I asked as I skimmed the paper.

“
Yeah, we read it last year,” Steven said. “It’s all right.”

Anna pushed him in the arm, friendly and affectionate, her palm brushing against his skin. “It’s more than all right. I mean, it’s not my favorite or anything, but it’s a good one.”

“
You like all the books you read,” Steven replied, pushing her back with his elbow. I stared back down at the paper so I didn’t have to see the open admiration on his face.

“
That’s not true,” Anna said. “Well, maybe I like all the books I finish. But that’s because there are so many books out there, why would I keep reading one I didn’t like?”

“
When I start a book, I have to finish it.” Steven shrugged. “I guess it’s an OCD thing.”

He read books? I looked up at him, furrowing my brow. He didn’t strike me as the reading type.

Anna tilted her head toward him. “What have I told you about blaming your weird habits on OCD, Steven?”

Steven opened his mouth, but I said, “It’s not fair to people who have OCD. You used to tell Tyler that all the time.”

Steven’s smile faded just a bit, and I took way too much pleasure in it. There was something wrong with me.

“
Right!” Anna clapped Steven on the back. “I wish you could have met Tyler.”

“
Road trip to Colorado,” I said, holding up my pointer finger.

Anna laughed.

“
Come on, it’d be fun. Us, Sam, Kaylie.” I raised my eyebrows at her.
Or just you and me, you know, I’d be cool with that.

Anna smiled, meeting my eyes, mentally telling me it sounded fun, but she would never seriously consider it. I’d just have to change her mind.

“
Did I hear my name?” Sam popped out of nowhere, looping her arm over Anna’s shoulders.

“
Road trip to Colorado this summer,” Anna said.

“
Colorado?” she repeated. “Why Colorado?”

“
Our friend Tyler lives there,” Anna replied. She looked at Steven. “You got plans this summer?”

He grinned at her. “I’m going on a road trip to Colorado.”

The warning bell rang—two minutes until next period began. I handed Anna her paper back, and she took it. “Thanks,” I told her. “See you around?”

She nodded and took Sam’s arm. Sam on one side, Steven on the other, they walked the opposite direction I was going. Her own personal bodyguards keeping me from getting too close.

Well, I knew a place we could go without Sam or Steven. After school, I texted Anna,
Want to go to the house early?

She responded a couple seconds later,
Yes, I do! Meet you there at four?

I filled a box with meaningless appliances around the house: our second toaster, a desk lamp I never used, an alarm clock that had a broken snooze button, which was the most important part of an alarm clock. I also found battery-charged devices: my Nintendo DS, a flashlight, an old remote control car.

When I got to the house, Anna was already there, trying to hack at the weeds leading up to the front door. She grinned when she saw all the stuff I’d brought from the house. We went into the kitchen and worked at everything. I was pretty sure we broke the lamp with a power surge too high, but we got the alarm clock, the toaster, the flashlight, and the car working. I even brought some pop-tarts for us to munch on.

I decided the DS was too expensive to experiment on, and we played with the car. When we ran it into an old dresser in one of the rooms, a raccoon shot out from behind it. Anna screamed, and we ran in opposite directions as the thing darted for us. He leapt out of the window behind us, and we laughed until Anna cried and my sides ached. We kept relaying our reactions, and it made us start laughing all over again.

When it was five, Anna swore and said she had to go home. I gave her another ride home, and she even did some math homework in the front seat. As I pulled up to her house, she said the next time would have to wait until Sunday because she didn’t like lying to her mom.

“
Why don’t you just tell her?” I asked. “She doesn’t have to know about Joseph, but she can know about us.”

Anna hesitated, putting her books away. “I don’t want her to think that I’m cheating on Steven. I’m already having a hard time with Kaylie.”

“
Oh, right.” I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel. “But, you know, we were friends before you and Steven started going out.”

“
Yeah.
 
.
 
.we were also eight.”

“
And nine and ten and eleven and so on.
 
.
 
.”

“
I know, but come on.
 
.
 
.how would it look to anyone if they knew we were going out to an abandoned house together?”

I held the frustration out of my voice, though I know she felt it. “But it’s just your mom.”

“
I don’t want to tell her, okay?” Anna asked. “Sunday. I’ll text you.” She stepped out of the car, and I waved goodbye.

Maybe she was right. It wasn’t easy keeping this from Jordan, either. This week, Chandler let it slip that Anna was tutoring me, and Jordan kept dropping insulting comments. “Not Anna again. I thought you were done with her.” “The hell is up with Steven and Anna? He follows her around like a puppy.” “As long as we don’t lose you to the dogs, Aaron.”

On Friday, we went to a local diner called Blackie’s for lunch. Their menu consisted of five items: burger, fries, corn-dogs, chips, and soda. The air was thick with the smell of deep-fried foods and the sounds of kids from Pioneer High.

After I ordered my lunch, I sat down next to Chandler, Jordan and his new girlfriend, Vickie, across from me. She was one of Carmen’s old friends. I didn’t really like her, but she had times when she could be okay.

I felt Anna in the parking lot, and a few minutes later she walked in with Steven. She glanced over at my table, shooting me a small smile.

Jordan glanced over his shoulder to see who I was smiling at. He scoffed. “Are you friends with her again?” he asked me.

Yes, Jordan, I am. I can’t stop thinking about her and I have no idea how I’ll ever make up for the mistakes I made with her.
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“
Probably more than friends, huh?” Vickie asked. Her red lips stretched over yellow teeth as she grinned at me. “She sleeps with everybody.”

I glared at her. “Really? Like who?”

“
Jordan. Steven.” Vickie rolled her eyes. “Oh, that Paul guy. Jordan, didn’t you say she put out for Michael, too?”

“
Let’s believe everything Jordan says,” I said. Anger bubbled inside of me, and I saw Anna glance over at our table.

Jordan stared at me. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

I hesitated. I hated fighting with Jordan, but this was ridiculous. “Oh, please, Michael? She hardly even knows him.”

“
That’s not gonna stop her,” Vickie said.

“
How would you know?”

“
Come on, man, everyone knows Anna’s a slut,” Jordan said with a shrug.

“
Don’t call her that,” I said, raising my voice.

Jordan slammed his drink down on the table, soda flying out and hitting Vickie’s shirt. “Why do you care what I call her?”

“
Because it’s not true,” I said. “Just leave her alone.”

“
You didn’t care last year when I called her a slut,” Jordan said. “You didn’t care when Chandler sprayed it on her car.”

“
That wasn’t me,” Chandler said in a small voice.

“
I care now.”

Jordan shook his head. “Just make sure you get tested.”

I flung my burger away from me and jumped to my feet. Anna’s alarm fled to me from across the diner, and I could hear the message in it:
stop it, please.
I clenched my fists and stared down at Jordan, who glared up at me with a mixture of amusement and disbelief.

“
What, Aaron?” he asked, spreading his hands out in front of him.

I thought of all the things I could threaten him with:
Chandler and I will kick you out of the band, we will never be friends again, I will put you in the hospital
. Seething, I walked away without saying anything because I knew what he would do if I did. He’d take it out on Anna, making her life hell again.

I stormed outside and paced around, running my hands through my hair. We’d taken my car, and I couldn’t just leave them behind, much as I wanted to. I sat on the curb, wishing Anna would come out here and talk to me and knowing she wouldn’t, not with both Steven and Jordan watching.

My phone buzzed from my pocket. A text from Anna:
What was that about?

I typed back,
What’s the only thing Jordan and I fight about?
After I sent it, I realized how it might sound, like she was tearing apart our friendship when in reality, I didn’t want another second of it if he was going to be such an asshole. I sent another text that said,
I want to kill him.

She didn’t respond by the time Chandler came out. “Hey, man,” he said, sitting on the curb next to me.

“
Hey. I want to go back. Are they ready?”

“
I don’t know,” Chandler said, glancing over his shoulder at the diner. “You should chill out.”

“
Chill out?” I said incredulously. “We both know he’s making shit up, and he’s been doing that ever since she broke up with him.”

“
Really? You think he made all that up?”

I took a deep breath to fight back the urge to yell at him. “You don’t know Anna like I do. She didn’t sleep with him.”

Chandler tilted his head. “Aaron, I know you guys were friends or whatever, but seriously.
 
.
 
.they were all over each other at Homecoming.
 
.
 
.and you know how she dresses.”

“
What the hell does that have to do with anything?” I shot at him. “Okay, let’s say, for argument’s sake, that she did sleep with Jordan. How the hell does that justify what he did to her? He and Carmen were awful. They’re pathetic excuses for human beings.”

“
Come on, that’s kind of strong,” Chandler said quietly.

“
Vandalizing her mom’s car, giving her condoms, listing her picture and number for a sex ad on craigslist? That’s.
 
.
 
.” I couldn’t think of a word for it. I hadn’t found out about the last one until later, after I realized I should have stuck up for her, and I wanted to kill Jordan then, too.

Chandler didn’t say anything for a few minutes. He finally asked the question I wondered myself: “Then why didn’t you say anything back then?”