Outsider (Outsider Series) (6 page)

The last class of the day was woodshop. Woodshop?

I looked at Caeden and the rest of the roomful of boys. It was a small class.
Only fifteen of us where most classes had thirty or more people.

How did I end up in here?
I silently guessed.

“My guess,” said Caeden leaning over. “Is that this was the only class with an empty slot.”

“Did I say that out loud?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, you did.”

I buried my head in my hands. “I may not be a girly-girl but I draw the line at saws.”

“Do
n’t worry I’ll be your partner,” he said reassuringly.

“I won’t be much help,” I said.

“I figured that,” he said with a laugh.

The teacher came in and gave us some basic safety instructions and said that next class we’d watch a safety video and take a test. If we fail the test we can’t work in the woodshop. For a moment I considered throwing the test but looking over at Caeden I couldn’t resist the urge to see those muscles in action.

The teacher, Mr. Collins, was pretty cool. He looked more like a science teacher than a woodshop teacher though. He had thick, black framed, glasses and had a lanky build but he seemed patient. Patience would be golden for me. I had no idea how I would manage to get a good grade in this class. I only hoped Caeden had enough skills for the both of us.

Mr. Collins dismissed us early and I had to practically jog to keep up with Caeden’s long legged stride.

“Hurry,” he said. “This place turns into a mad house once the bell rings. The parking lot is a mess.”

Out in the parking lot Caeden kicked his bike to life. “I’ll see you at Lucinda’s. I have some things I have to do before I come to work.”

“Don’t worry about it. Gram told me that you’re always a little late, that you have to do some things
to do first,” I said with a wave of my hand.

“I’ll see you soon,” he reassured me before putting his helmet on. I smiled as he climbed on the back of his bike. Kids began pouring out of the school and I decided I better get a move on. I saw Bryce and he waved. I waved back before climbing in my car and following Caeden out of the lot.

Gram had been right.
Lucinda’s
was packed. No more than a minute after I had opened the doors there were fifteen people standing at the counter. Gram’s store was tiny and I couldn’t understand how they all squished inside. It reminded me of the circus and all the clowns in the tiny car. Luckily Caeden didn’t take too long in getting there. Within moments we had a system down. I took the orders and called them out to him to fill. It went this way, non-stop, until closing. Exhausted I collapsed into one of the bistro chairs Gram had for customers.

Caeden laughed. “You better get used to it.”

“Is it like this a lot?”
I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “It sucks for us but it’s great for Lucinda.”

“I guess I shouldn’t complain. She was kind enough to let me come live with her. But this place always used to seem so magical. Now, all I feel is stress.”

Caeden grinned and a dimple appeared in his cheek. “I’ve always thought this place was magical too. Like an escape. But… I’ve always had a really bad sweet tooth, so maybe that’s why I thought it was magical?” I laughed and he continued, “But the magic is still here. You just don’t see it because now you’re in the real world. You’re not doing this for fun you’re doing it for your grandma.”

I sighed. “I guess we need to clean up so we can get home.”

Caeden smiled. “I’ve got it.”

“No, you don’t. If we do it together we can get it done in half the time. Toss me that rag,” I said. He did. “Come on, I’m tired, let’s get this done,” I said and turned on the radio cranking the music up.

I started twirling the rag and shaking my hair, which I had fi
nally released from a pony tail
.
I sashayed my hips and Caeden’s cheeks turned pink and he got that strange look on his face again.

“Like what you see?” I asked.

His cheeks turned even redder and he looked away. He started mopping the floor while I wiped off the tables and counters. I was dancing and singing along to a song when my feet hit a particularly slippery spot.

My feet shot out from under me and I landed on my bottom. “Ow,” I said.

Caeden busted out laughing and couldn’t stop.

“Stop laughing at me,” I said but my words didn’t hold much backing because I was laughing too. “Help me up,” I said.

He started over towards me and suddenly his feet were in the air. He landed on the ground with a thud.

“Are you okay?” I asked trying to contain my giggles.

“Yeah,” he said hoarsely. “I think the only thing I bruised was my ego.”

I couldn’t contain my laughter anymore and it bubbled to the surface. Caeden joined in. Tears began running down my face because I was laughing so hard.

Caeden tentatively started to stand. “I think the floor’s dry now,” he said but tiptoed towards me anyway. He held out his hands and I took them.

The floor must have still been wet because suddenly we were falling. Caeden somehow managed to twist his body so that he was the one that hit the concrete floor and not me.
I landed on top of him though
,
with my hands splayed across his muscular chest. His blue eyes met my brown eyes and it
was
like I was stuck there. I couldn’t have moved if I wanted to. My eyes moved to his lips. I wanted him to kiss me. I leaned in closer. He moved towards me and our breaths mingled together. So close, there wasn’t even half an inch in between our lips. I closed my eyes.

But nothing happened. I opened my eyes. “Not yet,” whispered Caeden. His eyes were closed and I felt like his words were meant more for him than me. It stung though. I had never wanted someone to kiss me more than I wanted Caeden to kiss me.

Hurt, I rolled off of his chest onto the floor, and mumbled, “Sorry.”

He sat up. “What are you sorry for?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I snapped standing and brushing off my pants.

“Well, I’m sorry too,” he murmured.

“What are you sorry for?” I repeated his question.

“Sorry, I can’t kiss you,” he whispered.

“Can’t or won’t?” I said with my hands on my hips. He was still on the floor so I stood taller than him and was able to glare down in to his too beautiful blue eyes.

“Can’t,” he sighed. “I want to. Believe me. I have ever since I saw you three days ago but I
can’t.
Not yet.”

“You already said that, ‘not yet’, what does that mean?”
I asked.

“There are some
things you have to know first,” he said.

“So tell me,” I snapped.

“I can’t. I promised I wouldn’t even though everything inside me screams to tell you. Lucinda w
ants to be the one to tell you,” he said, still sprawled on the ground.

“Tell me what?”
I asked in exasperation.

“You’ll
just have to wait and find out,” he said rather sadly.

I sighed. “I don’t see what this has
to do
with not kissing me but I’m going to find out. Mark my
words, Mister. I will find out,” I said and walked out the back door.

four
.

Weeks passed and Gram never spoke of whatever it was that Caeden couldn’t tell me. I quickly got over our almost kiss and things between us returned to normal.
Well, as normal as normal can be when you have a major crush on the person that has become your best friend. I felt like a silly little school girl having a crush on the most unattainable guy and not only was he unattainable he was my friend too. I had thought that day at Gram’s store that he
wanted
to kiss me but the more time passed I was sure that I was wrong. It was already October and he acted as if that day had never happened, so I did too.
But that didn’t change the way I felt.
I saw the way other girls in the school looked at him and it made my blood boil. Thankfully, he seemed completely unaware of their attentions.

I noticed tension arise between Gram and Caeden but I didn’t ask either about it.
I knew that whatever it was Gram would tell me in her own time. That didn’t mean that I wasn’t curious
though, in fact, the curiosity was killing me. When she wasn’t home I had resorted to snooping. But nothing seemed abnormal.

Halloween was fast approaching
, only a week away
. My parents called me every day to discuss the woes of high school life. They both seemed particularly interested in Caeden. When I mentioned Travis
, my dad exploded and like Caeden said to stay far away from him. His defense was that he knew Travis’ dad, Peter Grimm, and that the apple doesn’t far from the tree.

“It looks great,” said Gram, making me jump.

I had been so engrossed in my thoughts I hadn’t heard her approach. “What?” I asked.

“The decorations,” she said. “I haven’t had the energy to decorate in years.”

“Oh,” I said. I had wrapped the front porch in orange and purple lights. A mummy dangled from the tree. I had even found a couple of gravestones and invested in some zombies coming out of the ground. “I’ve never had the chance to decorate for a holiday before. Dad didn’t want to buy any decorations that we’d later have to store whenever we moved again.”

She smiled. “Well, I love it.”

“I didn’t go too overboard?” I asked sheepishly.

“I don’t think so,” she said and hugged me. “Sophie, I’m so glad you came to live here. You’ve done me so much good.”

“Gram,” I said hugging her back. “Don’t make me cry.”

She brushed my hair with her fingers and pulled away. With tears in her eyes she said,
“Sophie, there are some things I have to tell you.”

I took a deep breath. Maybe I was finally going to find out what the big secret was. I had speculated for months.

“You must be cold,” she said. “Come inside and I’ll make you some hot chocolate and I saved you the last peanut butter fudge cupcake,” she said shaking a bag. “Then we’ll talk.”

I took the bag from her. “Gram, are you bribing me with cupcakes?”

She smiled. “I’m just hoping it will soften the blow.”

I followed her inside
and sat at the kitchen table
while she started the hot chocolate. I pulled the cupcake out of the bag and devoured the peanut butter goodness. I hadn’t eaten in hours, I had been
too
consumed by my Halloween decorating.

“This is heaven,” I said to Gram.

“They’re pretty good but red velvet is my favorite.”

“I like that too but the pumpkin cupcake you sell during the fall is pretty good. Although
,
neither of
those
comes
close to peanut butter fudge.”

She laughed. “You always would eat anything if it had peanut butter in it.”

“Peanut butter is a major food group,” I defended with a smile, making her laugh. “While I was at the store I picked up some chocolate for the trick-or-treaters.”

“Oh, thanks,” she said. “I’ll pay you back.”

“Don’t worry about it Gram,” I said.

She set down a steaming cup of hot chocolate in front of me and added a dollop of homemade whipped cream and chocolate
shavings,
she topped it off with one large marshmallow.

“
Mmm
,” I said sipping it. “Mom, always tried to make this for me but she could never get it right.”

“It takes a grandmother’s touch,” she said and sat down in front of me with her own mug.

“So,” I started. “What is it you need to tell me?”

“I don’t know where to start,” she said and stirred her hot chocolate.

I looked into my own mug and said, “Caeden’s in on it isn’t he? He told me the first day of school that he wanted to tell me something but he couldn’t because he promised you he wouldn’t. He said you wanted to be the one to tell me.”

Her eyes darkened. “Caeden’s a good boy but he shouldn’t have said anything.”

“He didn’t. He said that you would t
ell me when the time was right,” I immediately came to his defense.

She took a deep breath. “Sophie, you’re special. We’re special. Me, your parents, you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“We’re… There’s n
o easy way to say this, Sophie,” she said and stared into her own steaming mug of hot chocolate.

“Just say it,” I said. “Like ripping a band aid.
Quick and fast should lessen the blow,
”
I joked.

“We’re not human,” she said.