Connection (Le Garde) (2 page)

I dug my hands into my jacket pockets. “Luckily, you don’t have to know how to play, you’re just watching.”

“
Yeah, but I don’t even know what I’m watching,” Chandler said. He pushed his black-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“
Maybe you can talk a cute lacrosse girl into explaining the rules,” Jordan said with a grin.

We walked into the half-full stadium. Kids ran up and down the aisles. This place could be a madhouse during Homecoming and other big games. The team was already playing, racing across the grass field with their sticks.

We scanned the seats for a place to sit, and Jordan saw one first. He motioned for us to follow him. As we approached the section, I realized Anna was sitting there. I looked at Jordan. I could tell by the determined look he was going for the empty row behind her.

“
Come on, man,” I said, “where are you going?”

“
I’m getting us a seat,” he said, already walking down the row.

I groaned and followed. Maybe I could keep him in check. Not likely. Anna was sitting between her sisters. Ginger’s eyes were glued to her phone as she texted someone, and Allie seemed to be asking about the game. Anna looked up as we approached, no doubt sensing me as I sensed her. She saw Jordan and a look of disgust came to her face. I could feel that same disgust in her mind.

“
Hey, Anna,” Jordan said, sitting down. Chandler took the seat next to him, leaving me on the other side.

“
What do you want?” Anna asked.

“
No need to be so hostile,” Jordan said as he held up his hands.

Allie looked around in curiosity. “Hi, Aaron!” She beamed at me. She stood on the seat, turning to face me. She’d grown taller than the last time I’d seen her, and her curly brown hair was in pigtails.

“
Hey, Allie,” I said, smiling. “How’ve you been?”

“
Fine,” she said with a grin. “Why don’t you ever come over to our house anymore?”

I half-glanced at Anna, but she was watching the game. “I’ve been really busy,” I told Allie.

“
Well, you said I could come to your house!”

I laughed. “You remember that?” I’d made that offer more than a year ago.

“
She bugs me about it all the time,” Anna said, looking over her shoulder at me.

“
All the time,” Ginger repeated, not even looking up from her phone.

Jordan fidgeted, and I wondered how long I could keep up the conversation before he tried to take over. I didn’t want to get between the two of them again. Story of my high school life.

“
My house is really boring,” I told Allie.

“
How old are you?” Jordan asked, leaning toward her and setting his elbows on his knees.

“
Eight,” Allie said. That’s how old I was when I met Anna. I snuck another glance at her; she was watching Jordan, her brown eyes narrowed. Her worry came off in waves. She wanted to avoid a confrontation as much as I did. “How old are you?” Allie asked Jordan.

“
I’m seventeen,” Jordan said. “Same age as Anna.”

“
She’s sixteen,” Allie said before I had the chance to.

Jordan rolled his eyes. “Close enough, right? My name’s Jordan. Has Anna ever talked about me?”

“
No, I don’t think so,” Allie said slowly.

“
Well, that’s too bad. What school do you go to?”

I felt a spike of alarm from Anna. “Allie, let’s watch the game,” Anna said, hitting her sister’s leg. “You’re missing it, Steven almost scored a goal.”

Allie gasped and turned around.

“
Just leave her alone,” Anna told Jordan.

“
I was asking innocent questions,” he said defensively.

We watched the game for while, but Anna and I were on edge. I felt like Jordan was concocting some stupid plan. What had suddenly made him want to start this again? Besides dropping random jabs every now and then, it’d been nearly a year since he’d last bullied her, and then he just got bored. Of course, I hadn’t called it bullying at first. I’d considered it a mixture of Jordan trying to get back together with her and paranoia on Anna’s part.

During halftime, Jordan and Chandler left to go to the concessions. Allie danced around to the music, and Ginger left to talk to some friends.

“
Sorry about Jordan,” I said.

Anna just shrugged. “He hasn’t done anything yet.”

A moment passed, and I said, “Steven’s playing pretty well.”

“
Yeah,” Anna said, pride emanating from her.

“
So, when can I go to your house?” Allie asked as she stood on the seat again to face me.

“
Allie, leave him alone,” Anna said, tugging on Allie’s sleeve. “Aaron’s busy.”

“
Yeah, and you can’t go into just anybody’s house,” I said. I glanced at Anna. “I might just have to come over to your house again.”

“
Really?” Allie said.

I don’t know why she was so excited, I’d seen her maybe a few minutes each time I was at their house. Anna told me it was because her mom didn’t let that many people over, so anybody was a huge event for Allie. I wondered if Steven had been over there, if her mom liked him. I wondered if she asked about me.

“
She doesn’t,” Anna said with the shake of her head.

I stared at her. Wow. That was scarily more specific than what we’d accomplished before.

“
At least, not anymore,” Anna added, and it seemed like she was just as surprised as me.

“
What are you talking about?” Allie asked. “Can Aaron come over?”

“
Not tonight,” Anna said.

“
Tomorrow?”

“
No, not this weekend. Isn’t this one of your favorite songs?”

I saw Jordan and Chandler coming up the steps with nachos and drinks. I tried to give Anna a silent warning. I think it worked, because she looked up at Jordan warily as he approached us. Jordan smiled at her. He stumbled—it was the least convincing stumble I’d ever seen. He dropped his soda on her shoulder first. She shrieked, shying away from him. His nachos fell next, right onto the back of her head.

“
Oh, no,” Jordan said, his smirk barely hidden.

I stood and pushed Jordan hard in the shoulders. He fell back into the seat, and he stared at me in disbelief. “What the hell?” he demanded.

“
What are you, like twelve?” I yelled. I turned to Anna, who was trying to get the chips off of her. Her shock was slowly turning into humiliation. I stepped forward to help, but Jordan pushed me, knocking me off balance.

“
It was an accident,” he snapped.

“
Like hell it was. And don’t touch me.” I pushed him again.

Chandler grabbed Jordan’s sweater, holding him back. “Guys, come on.”

Jordan shoved Chandler off of him. “Shut up, Chandler!”

Members of the audience were around were turning to stare. If they weren’t staring at Jordan and me, they were staring at Anna. Her sweatshirt was soaked with pop, and there was nacho cheese on her neck and in her hair.

Allie stared at her in shock. “Are you okay?” she whispered.

“
Where’s Ginger?” Anna asked, her voice shaking. “We’re leaving.”

“
I’ll go get her,” I told her. “Go clean up, we’ll find you in a second.”

Jordan glared at me, but I ignored him. Anna took Allie’s hand, and they went toward the aisle. Eyes followed them, and I wanted to scream at them to keep watching the game.

“
Sorry,” Jordan called after her. He looked at me. “It was an accident, you know that.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re a dick,” I said as I left.

I found Ginger in the bleachers, talking to a few freshmen. “Ginger?” I said. “Anna wanted me to find you. She’s ready to go.”

Ginger just looked at me. “What do you mean?”

“
Jordan spilled nachos on her, and I told her to go clean up while I found you.”

“
Jordan?” Ginger repeated, and she stood up with a huff. She looked so much like Anna, the same dark hair, brown eyes, smooth skin. “I hate him.”

“
Yeah, he’s a jerk.”

“
Oh, now you stick up for her,” Ginger said.

Ouch.
Not that I didn’t deserve it.

She said goodbye to her friends, and I walked with her to the bathroom. I could feel Anna in there. Her feelings of humiliation flooded me again—humiliation from having to walk all the way to the bathroom, having to deal with Jordan and his cruelty once again.

I should have stopped him or something, should have known he’d do something stupid. And he’d done shit way worse than this back when they first broke up, but I’d just ignored it. No, I’d lied to myself about it all, then just sat back and let it happen.

I paced around the door, and ten minutes later, Anna came out, her sisters behind her. She had her sweatshirt draped over her arm and wore a short-sleeved shirt. She shivered from the breeze. Her hair looked damp and frizzy, like she’d been trying to rinse out the cheese. Her eyes were red, too, and I could tell she’d been crying.

“
Hey,” I said. “I’m sorry. Jordan needs his head flushed.”

“
You’re telling me,” Anna said. “We’re leaving now.”

“
Are you taking the bus home?”

Anna nodded. She was dreading the trip without a sweatshirt.

“
I’ll give you guys a ride,” I said.

“
It’s fine,” Anna said, taking Allie’s hand.

“
Come on, I have Mitch’s car for band practice,” I said. I glanced at the stadium behind her. Chandler would have to give Jordan a ride home. I didn’t want to see him again tonight. “If you want to stay here, I’ll go get the car and—”

“
I don’t want to stay here,” Anna said. She started walking, pulling Allie behind her.

Ginger groaned. “It’s cold, and the bus doesn’t come for half an hour. Let’s just ride with him.”

Anna shivered. I could tell she was torn, not wanting to take any favors from me.

I shrugged off my jacket. “Here.”

Anna shook her head, not even glancing over at me as she pulled Allie down the sidewalk. I think she was trying not to cry again. Shit.

“
Come on, just take it. Chandler’s is still a few blocks away.”

Without a word, Anna exchanged her sweet-smelling sweatshirt for my brown jacket. It looked good on her, actually. A smaller size, and it would have been perfect.

We started walking toward Chandler’s, and my phone went off. It was a text from Jordan saying,
Where are you?
I ignored it, putting my phone back in my pocket.

“
There’s something seriously wrong with him,” Ginger said after a few moments of silence.

“
You think he did it on purpose?” Allie asked, her eyes wide.

“
Yes. He hates Anna for no reason.”

“
Well, he has a reason,” Anna said. “But it’s a really stupid one.”

“
What is it?” Allie asked.

“
It doesn’t matter.” Her voice shook.

I wanted to do something like put my arm around her shoulders, but I knew it would be weird since we’d hardly talked for a year. Since I was still hanging out with Jordan after everything. We walked to Chandler’s quietly and got into my green sedan.

Allie and Ginger pushed fast food trash over to make room, and Anna sat in the front with the broken glove compartment. It was taped in place with masking tape. Technically, the car was my older brother’s, but he let me use it a lot. Unemployed and aimless, he only left the house when he went to the bar or needed to pick up job applications for the week.

I turned on the radio, which was tuned to my regular classic rock station.

“
Mom just texted me and told me she’s home,” Ginger announced.

“
Oh, great,” Anna said with a sigh. She looked at me as I pulled out of Chandler’s driveway. “She’ll probably want to talk to you.”

“
Why?” I asked.

“
She doesn’t like it when I get rides home,” Anna said. She crossed her arms and looked out the window.

A few minutes later, still turned away from me, she asked, “You don’t.
 
.
 
.you don’t think he’s going to start this all over again, do you?”

I shook my head instinctively, but the truth was, I had no idea. Jordan was hard to predict. “I don’t know why he did this tonight, but.
 
.
 
.” I trailed off when I had a sudden realization. “Do you think he found out about you tutoring me?”