Connection (Le Garde) (8 page)

It’d been more than a year since Aaron had last come over. It was after I’d broken up with Jordan, just days after Jordan and Carmen started spreading rumors about me, a couple weeks before Christmas Break. Aaron and I hadn’t talked about any of it at the time, but it had been on both of our minds, and we started arguing about something else. Our friendship just went downhill from there. Thinking about it made my palms kind of sweaty, and I actually considered changing my mind and asking Aaron to go home. I had to talk myself out of it as we walked up the path to the door. He’d been really nice since finding me in the library. I could tell he was trying to rebuild what we’d once had.

When we walked in, Ginger lay on the ground, talking on the phone. She watched us with a confused look as we passed. Our computer was shoved into the corner of my room. It had been in the dining room for a little while, but my mom got tired of it taking up so much space. She also thought I was being too rude to Ginger and Allie, so now whenever they wanted to use the computer and I was awake, I had to let them in.

My bed was unmade, the covers combined with the clothes I’d sifted through this morning while looking for an outfit. I motioned to the computer desk, which was covered in books and some of my art supplies. I was making Congolese jewelry to sell at the farmer’s market coming up this spring. My mom and I always got a booth and tended it on Saturdays to make extra money.

Aaron dropped his backpack next to the desk and glanced around. “Not too different in here. Other than the computer.”

I shrugged, then noticed a bra on my bed. I covered it with my bag, blushing and hoping he hadn’t noticed. “It should be on already. Ginger usually uses it after she gets home from school.”

Aaron sat down on the office chair, nudging aside Ginger’s sweater. He shuffled the mouse around, and the computer slowly woke up.

I groaned. “That thing is a dinosaur.” I sat down and pulled out my algebra book.

“
Hey, it works, right?” He spun around in the chair and looked at me. “I think I’m going to get a job and save up for a laptop.”

“
That’d be cool.” I kicked off my shoes and brought my feet up on the bed. “Steven has one that I really like.”

Aaron nodded, turning away. I could feel his mood change a little bit. “Yeah.
 
.
 
.he works at that fancy restaurant by the museum, doesn’t he?”

“
Yep.” I tried to turn my concentration to my algebra, biting my lip as Aaron pulled up his paper. “Whatever.
 
.
 
.whatever happened with you and Sam?”

Aaron’s shoulders tensed a bit, and he started to feel confused. Probably wondering why I cared. “I don’t know. We just got bored of each other, I guess.”

“
Oh, whatever. She’s still obsessed with you,” I said, my eyes on my notebook. “You got bored of her.”

“
I guess,” Aaron said again with a shrug. He hesitated; even his mind was trying to figure out what to say. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked at all. Maybe I didn’t want to know the real answer.

He turned his chair a little bit and glanced at me over his shoulder. “She was nice. She still is.” He thought about saying more, but turned back to the computer. That was okay with me.

6. le duo (the duet)

Aaron

Anna and I practiced again on Wednesday and did more homework. The next morning, I dropped a shiny paper comparing
1984
and
Brave New World
on the pile on Mrs. Hart’s desk
.
She raised her eyebrows at me, surprised that yet again I turned in an assignment. “Thanks, Aaron,” she said.

Nodding to her, I sat back down. Kaylie was in the seat next to me; she smiled at me. “Those tutoring lessons are going well, hm?”

“
Yeah,” I said, wondering if Anna had said anything to her about me. That was probably pretty vain, but you have to wonder.

“
Sam’s pretty suspicious,” Kaylie said, grinning.

I nearly rolled my eyes. “That’s weird, considering we broke up four months ago.”

Kaylie laughed. She and I used to be better friends when Anna and I were still talking.  Out of loyalty to Anna, she hadn’t been that friendly with me since Anna and Jordan broke up. I guess now that Anna and I were hanging out again, Kaylie felt like it was okay to like me again. “What are you doing for Spring Break?” she asked.

“
Chandler and I are going to hang out in San Francisco with my sister.”

Kaylie was about to respond when Mrs. Hart called for quiet. Seriously, we had two days left until Spring Break, but she still wanted to fit in some more discussion about Mr. Orwell.

After class, Kaylie threw her books in her bag and said, “Anna and I will be in San Francisco over the weekend.”

“
With Steven?” I asked.

“
Yeah, his cousin who lives there.” Kaylie paused, standing up. “Maybe we could all hang out.”

“
Yeah, maybe.” I shrugged, and we walked to the door. “Might want to ask Anna how she feels about that.”

“
We’ll see. You still have the same number, right?”

“
Yep.”

“
Cool. See you at the concert tonight.” She turned and walked down the hall, disappearing into the crowd. Kaylie could blend in anywhere. It was weird. We’d gone to the same middle school and even had some of the same friends, including Anna and Tyler, but I didn’t even know it until freshman year.

That night, the band met at the school an hour before the concert to rehearse and whatnot. I felt Anna in Mr. Boyd’s room as I walked down the hallway. Tonight wouldn’t be as big as the winter concert before Christmas break or the spring concert at the end of the year—it was just one of those concerts Mr. Boyd liked to torture himself with.

He paced around, barking directions at us. His eyes looked bloodshot. When had he last slept? I rolled my eyes at Anna, and she grinned at me.

Mr. Boyd left to check things with the auditorium, and I asked Anna, “You ready?”

“
Yeah,” she said, “but I’m a little nervous.”

“
We’ll do great.” I almost punched her in the arm lightly, but thought better of it when I realized she was wearing a short-sleeved blouse.

She saw my hand lowering and she glanced away. “Wanna warm up?”

We played through The Entertainer once, and after we started another song, Mr. Boyd came in and broke us up. Grinning, I told Anna, “We’re going to be great.”

“
We are!” Anna said.

Seven o’clock rolled around. I saw my parents in the audience, and a few rows away, Anna’s mom and sisters. The band played three songs, then Anna and I were up. Her anxiety was high, and I tried to give her a reassuring look as we set up our music stands. She was going to be great.

“
This is Anna Beauvais and Aaron Bender,” Mr. Boyd announced. “Melissa Lodge was supposed to play with Miss Beauvais, but she came down with the chicken pox!” He let out a tight laugh. “Aaron was nice enough to take her place. They’ll be playing The Entertainer by Scott Joplin.”

My mom grinned at us and clapped with the rest of the audience. She was probably ecstatic we were hanging out again.

I counted us off, and we started. We played through the song flawlessly. I could feel her in my head, her nerves relaxing, her delight growing as we played. My fingers flew over the saxophone, and my body swayed to the beat. This was where I’d felt the most at ease all day today—playing music and being with Anna. We swelled toward the end and finished perfectly.

The crowd started clapping, and Anna beamed. “You want to play
I’ve Got the World on a String
?” she asked.

I laughed. “And give Mr. Boyd a brain aneurysm?”

Anna started counting off, and I had to join, my smiling lips straining to play the notes. I felt Mr. Boyd’s eyes burning into the back of my head, but we played through the whole song, and we sounded amazing. Even though I had a bigger part than her and she’d previously warned me not to steal the show, I could feel her elation. During her solo, she closed her eyes, and I grinned watching her.

We ended, and another round of applause met us. Standing directly behind me, Mr. Boyd cleared his throat, making me jump.

Laughing, Anna said, “We had to, Mr. Boyd! Didn’t we sound great?”

Mr. Boyd’s lips twitched. “Please sit down.”

We picked up our music stands and walked back to our seats as the applause died down.

“
That was awesome!” I said.

Anna put her hand up, and I high-fived her without thinking. A loud crack sounded through the auditorium, and all the lights went out at once.

“
Oops,” I breathed.

Gasps and murmurs of alarm swept through the auditorium. Mr. Boyd raised his voice over them, yelling for everyone to stay calm.

“
Oh, my gosh,” Anna whispered.

I reached out for her in the darkness and touched her arm. I felt a surge of energy from our touch, and the lights flickered on and off, blinding us and then plunging us into darkness again. Everyone’s voices grew louder, and Mr. Boyd struggled to talk over them.

Anna pushed my hand away. “Don’t touch me!”

Chairs scraped against the ground as students tried to get to their feet. I felt Anna rush past me, and her emotions slowly faded. I left my sax on my chair and went after her. Her presence was like a light in the darkness, and I sought her out. We passed people I couldn’t recognize in the dark as I called Anna’s name.

“
Just leave me alone!” she called back. She sounded farther than I thought. Her emotions of panic and fear were stronger, like she could be standing next to me.

“
Anna, where are you going?” I nearly stumbled down a staircase when we hit the first step. I grabbed onto the railing at the last moment. “Maybe we can fix this.”

I ran into something solid, and Anna cried out and grabbed my arm. That same rush of energy made my arm tingle, and the light above us flashed on, then shattered. Anna let go of me again as the glass fell on us. She rushed down the steps, and I followed, glass crunching under my feet and falling from my hair and shoulders.

We stepped into the hallway between the back of the auditorium and the front, and the only light was from a few high windows along the left side from the setting sun outside. I could just see her outline.

“
Anna, you felt that, right? Maybe we can fix it.”

She turned around, and I nearly ran into her again, but she put her hand on my chest to keep me at a distance. “Don’t come any closer.”

“
Don’t you want to try—”

“
Just be quiet for a minute.” She moved her hand off my chest. She took a deep breath, and her emotions raced over me: panic, fear, anger, curiosity, sadness. “I don’t want to ruin anything.”

She was talking about more than just the lights.

“
We’re not going to ruin anything.”

“
You don’t know that. You don’t know what this is. Neither of us do.” Her breath came out in small pants, and I wanted to touch her, comfort her, hold her. “Will you stop that?” Her voice came out shrill. “I can’t handle this, I just—I mean, a year ago, you hated me—”

“
I never hated you,” I said quickly.

A yell down the hallway made me jump. Someone pushed past us with their phone, a senior, and I turned back to Anna once they turned the corner.

“
Anna, we can do this. Let’s just join hands and.
 
.
 
.try to focus it.”

Anna hesitated before she said, “Okay. But if we make it worse.
 
.
 
.”

“
I guess we’ll have to never touch again.” I hoped it didn’t come to that. I had this recurring dream where we were in a rowboat out on the lake, and I had my hands over her eyes because I was going to give her a present. I never got to see what the present was; I woke up when I started kissing her neck. Just thinking about it made my face warm. I held my hands out. “Let’s just try it.”

Anna’s hands found mine, and there was a shock as our skin touched. Like at the library, the world came alive around us. Another surge of energy rushed through us, and it made my skin tingle. The lights above us flickered on and off like earlier, and down the hall, another one shattered.

Anna started to pull away, but I said, “Come on, we have to focus it.”

“
What?” Anna’s hands went still. “Focus.
 
.
 
.focus.
 
.
 
.”

I closed my eyes, and I felt the lights flaring, I felt where the flow was coming from—us, and we needed to relax. I took deep breaths, trying to soothe Anna, trying to tell her she could trust me, trying to tell her I was sorry about Jordan and the time we’d lost. Her mind slowed, reluctant to believe me but relaxing nonetheless, and the energy between us slowed, as well. Instead of the frenetic electrons surging through us, they eased out of us, searching out the coils and conductors in the lights around us.