Rouge (10 page)

Joshua let out a shaky sigh.

“It’s happening,” he
whispered and closed the flap of the file marked ‘Feucotetanus’ with a definite
snap.

“So you start school tomorrow, huh?
Excited?”

Hunter rolled her eyes at
Alex Dempsey and angrily folded the corners of the little white take-out boxes.
The restaurant was completely dead. Kin, the manager, was taking out the
deliveries, so she and Alex were alone in the kitchen setting up for the busy
Friday night ahead.

“I really can’t express how
much I hate the people at school,” said Hunter. “They’re complete dicks. I’m
particularly not looking forward to facing Benny Layman again.”

“Yeah but you know that
girls mature faster than boys. That’s why I gave up on men. Girls are less
complicated.” Alex tucked her bleached blonde fringe being her studded ear and
leant against the sink as she polished the glasses. Her smile was always
crooked and gleaming in that quirky way that made her sexuality so obvious.

“I did meet someone though.”

Alex’s mouth fell open and
she nearly dropped the glass. “You what?”

“Don’t act so surprised! I’m
not a total loner.”

“Oh honey, you are the
definition of loner.”

Hunter whacked her with the
cardboard cut-out and Alex snickered. Being there in the kitchen with Alex
cleaning and waiting for Kin to return and bark orders and curse in Chinese was
Hunter’s favorite part of the day. Sure, working way downtown near the Brooklyn
Bridge wasn’t very classy, but here, no one knew about her. It wasn’t at school
where people whispered and laughed behind her back. She became a different
person at the restaurant, because she could be open and kind. Plus the tips
were great. Each little penny went into the car fund she kept stashed away in
her room.

“So… what’s he like?”

“He’s so nice Alex. I met
him at Joshua’s benefit last week. His father’s pretty high up on the executive
chain.”

“So he’s an aristocrat then?
Oh babe, those kinds of guys are so high maintenance.”

“He’s not like that though.
If I’d met him, say, at school, I’d-”

“He goes to Jackson?”

“Yeah. I’ve seen him a
couple of times but never really noticed him.” She shrugged and checked the
clock on the wall. They had fifteen minutes until the rush started. “You know
how big that place is.”

“Then he knows about you?”

“What’s that supposed to
mean?”

“That you hammered the
Principal’s son?”

Hunter threw the cardboard
cut-out at Alex for the second time and glared at her.

“I didn’t,” she snapped.
“And he knows, but he doesn’t believe it. He kind of keeps to himself.”

“Like you?”

“Yeah. He’s a freedom
fighter and a vegetarian and wears these dorky square glasses.”

“He sounds like a poem.”

“He is. There are no flaws
about him.”

“Honey, everyone has flaws.”

“Not Eli.”

“So what does the Iceman
think about this little love affair?” she asked, referring to her pet-name for
Joshua. Alex had a pet name for everyone. Kin’s was the Firecracker, because
sometimes when things were messy on a busy night, he would explode at them and
start screaming and throwing pans around the kitchen. Any normal person would
be horrified and probably quit, but Hunter and Alex learned to laugh about it.
The head chef Craig – who got by working every night of the week except
Sunday’s because that was ‘God’s day’ – ignored it too. The other two waiters
were only young. They didn’t know any better.

Hunter hadn’t spoken more
than a few words to Joshua in a week. Something about the fire on the stove had
freaked him out, and she grew constantly worried that he was hiding something
from her. Was he just jealous that she’d ditched him at the benefit to be with
Eli, or was it something else, something completely unrelated to her new
friend?

“You know Joshua. He doesn’t
exactly wear his heart on his sleeve.”

“Man,” Alex sighed and flipped
her dish towel over her shoulder. “I remember high school.
Shittest
time of my life. Wait till you get to college,
everyone
is different
there. Honestly, when I became gay in high school, I was shunned and ridiculed
and left alone, like you.”

“Thanks,” Hunter snapped.

“Seriously. Then I went to
college. I swear to Buddha, over eighty percent of people in my lectures are
either gay, bi, or sexually adventurous. There are some weird people out there,
babe.”

“Weirder than you?”

Alex’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh
plenty. You think my outgoing personality and beautiful looks are the fringe of
all things lesbian? I met this chick with – literally, I’m not exaggerating – a
full on beard. She grew it herself.”

Hunter made a face and
suddenly had the irresistible urge to burst out laughing. “That’s revolting.”

“It really was. And she
walked up to me and was like ‘hey-’” Alex nodded her head, looked Hunter up and
down with one eyebrow raised and said in a deeply masculine voice, “‘-you look
like you know how to have a good time. Want to touch my beard?’”

Hunter couldn’t contain it
anymore and cracked up laughing. The giggles fell out of Alex’s mouth as well
as she paraded around the kitchen with a gangster-like swagger, stroking her
jaw lovingly. With her stomach in stitches, Hunter straightened up just in time
for Kin’s arrival.

“What you doing?!” he
screamed, waddling into the kitchen. “I told you, no laugh! Only work! We busy
in half hour!”

Cursing in Chinese at the
two of them as Alex scrambled back to the sink and her pile of glasses, Kin
waved about in the kitchen for a few more minutes and then threw open the back
door again.

“Sorry
Kin!” Hunter shouted and turned back to her friend.

“Jesus,” Alex breathed. “Kin
really needs to get himself some lean cuisine, if you know what I mean.”

Hunter laughed again, shook
her head and went back to folding Chinese takeout boxes.

Joshua slid the car easily beside the
curb and Hunter stepped out before the front gates of her school. Looming,
black iron poles that swirled together swung inward for approaching students,
shielding the giant building behind them. Hunter hitched her shoulder bag
closer to her neck and stared up at the sloping green lawns and crumbling water
feature to the sandstone brick walls of the building set back from the road.
The remainder of the snow storm that ended only a few days ago had melted so
that everything looked soaked and healthy. The students had already gathered in
their cliques across the front yard. Everyone was chirpy, but she knew the mood
would soon die once the familiar routine of torture began. She turned, waved
goodbye to Joshua as he drove away and nearly lost her footing on the slippery
sidewalk. Just when she thought she would fall on her ass and prayed no one was
watching, someone caught her by the elbow.

“I think you need to work on
your balance,” said Eli as he grinned down at her, his gloved hands under her
elbows. He wore a tan coat, gray beanie and old jeans torn at the hem.

Hunter’s lips formed a
smile. To the girls in this school, she was a skank and a loner. To the guys
she was that mysterious hot girl who banged the principal’s son on school
property.

To Eli… she was Hunter.

“I hate ice,” she replied
stubbornly. “It always seems to melt around me.” Her cheeks were flaming and
she let her hair fall over her face to disguise it, or in her case, to blend.

“How was the rest of your
vacation?” he asked. The two of them made their way through the gates into the
building, merging with the crowd. Even though the voices were loud and the
energy buzzed, Hunter felt like she and Eli were the only two people in the
world.

“Fine,” she replied. “A
little lonely, but I managed.”

“You should have called, we
could have hung out.”

She shrugged. “I didn’t
think to get your number.”

“Well, we’ll have to change
that won’t we,” he replied, his eyes warm behind his glasses. Hunter unlocked
her locker amidst the rowdy corridor, and Eli stood by watching as she unpacked
her things, talking to her about his father’s most recent attempt to force him
into the business world. Hunter felt an immediate pang of fury towards Mr.
Akerman, her rage fuelled by the pain and frustration in Eli’s words and
expression. It seemed to Hunter that Eli didn’t have the courage inside him to
tell his father he had no intention of following in his footsteps. That irked
Hunter; she couldn’t stand it when people didn’t defend themselves.

“... And so I just avoided
him. I didn’t go to the office like he asked me to.”

“What did he do then?” she
asked, shoving her bag inside her locker and gathering her books.

Eli laughed bitterly. “I’ve
never seen anyone so angry,” he said with a shiver. “I really believed he would
like… burst into flames or something.”

Hunter paused with her hand
on her locker door, trying to ignore the rush of memories that flooded into her
mind. The stove, her unscathed skin, Joshua’s behavior...

“Hey Mozart!” someone
shouted as they came running through the corridor, and before she could even
move out the way, Eli was thrown into the lockers with a resounding clang. His
bag fell to the floor and spilled books and stationery and little knick-knacks
all over the corridor. Two bulky guys in letterman’s jackets were cackling and
strolling away without so much as a glance back. One of them she recognized as
Benny Layman; the quarterback and school asshole.

Hunter’s fists clenched at
her sides and her blood began to boil. She stooped to help Eli pick up his
books, trying to contain the flood of curses she urged to shout at Benny’s
back. Eli hid his face, but Hunter knew he was blushing.
When will these
people grow up?
Hunter forced a smile, hoping it would make him feel
better.

“Those guys are dicks, Eli,”
she told him as he forced the last book back into his bag. She noticed a group
of badges on the strap encouraging people to ‘Save the Whales’ and ‘Support
Green Peace’.

“Dicks who can’t get enough
of shoving me around. Looks like I really am back to school.” Eli brushed past
her, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. “See you later.”

“Eli-” she began, but the
crowd had already swallowed him.

Hunter stood in the bustling
corridor with clenched muscles all over her body. As she focused on breathing
deeply, the class-A quarterbacks in the letterman jackets came striding back
her way. Hunter found herself glaring at them without even realizing. Their
eyes rolled over her body, making her feel like some sort of prostitute. Benny
winked at her and hoisted his backpack higher on his shoulder.

“Hey Hunter. What’s your number
up to now? Fifty?”

Benny’s mate laughed at the
joke, as did a couple of the girls dressed in cheerleader uniforms staring at
them from across the walkway.

Hunter scowled. If this were
a cartoon, she would be steaming like a kettle right now. It wasn’t anything
she hadn’t heard before, but this time their taunting wasn’t only directed at
her. They tormented Eli as well, and it didn’t seem like the first time.

Benny shook his head slowly
at her. He flashed open his jacket and raised his eyebrows suggestively. “I
know a good desk in the History classroom, if you’re looking for
somethin
’ hard to play with?”

Laughter radiated through
the corridor, mostly from Benny’s minions who were falling over each other.
Benny ran a thick, slippery tongue over his top lip. Time seemed to slow for
only a moment as the same burning fury she felt the other night rose inside
her.

And it was there, in a
corridor filled with people, that it happened again. The strangest sensation of
warmth flooded into her hands. As the football star and his goons made to walk
away, a jet of light exploded in the corridor and the front of Benny’s backpack
burst into flames.

“Benny!” screamed one of the
cheerleaders. “Your bag is on fire!”

Benny dropped his pack as if
it was a bomb and the surrounding students shrieked and fell back. Flames
devoured almost the entire pack, burning so brightly and fiercely that soon
other things began to catch on fire: people’s shoes, trash blowing through the
corridor, even the floor itself. That was when the principal came running. He
snatched the fire extinguisher off the wall and told everyone to stand clear.
The fire was doused in a fierce cloud of white mist. The students chattered
loudly and moved away from the mess.

And all this time, Hunter
stared, horror-struck, as Benny picked up his powder-glazed pack and shot her a
startled look before shoving aside the crowd and vanishing amidst them.

The principal ordered the
janitor to clean up the mess and snapped at everyone to get to class, and
Hunter stood frozen by her locker, feeling as if she were in a very lifelike,
very terrifying dream.