Salvaged (33 page)

"Just answer if you want to. No pressure or anything. Okay, here
goes. What's your favorite thing to do?"

Curt spoke first. "Playing basketball with my friends and kissing."

"Kissing the boys you play basketball with or kissing in general?"
Tammy asked.

"Kissing hot girls. Any hot girl," Curt answered, laughing.
"It's fun."

"I like to mow the yard," Tess added, "and work in the flowerbeds."

"You have got to be kidding?" Tammy asked with a look of disgust on her face.

"Be nice, Tammy," Anne ordered. "Okay, next question. What's
the strangest thing you've ever done?"

"I wear black on the anniversary of Elvis's death," Tess admitted.

"You do or you did once?" Anne asked.

"I do, every year," Tess clarified.

"Good grief. I've never heard of such a thing. He died way before
we were alive. Why would you do that?" I asked.

"My grandmother is a big fan. We listen to him all the time. I
was kind of raised to be obsessed with him."

Tammy leaned up and looked over at her. "So you up and decided
to wear black on the day he died?"

"Uh-huh. It's a respect thing. I like to honor his memory." Tess
nodded. "You wanted something strange about me; you got it."

"Well, that'll do it," Anne admitted. "Attie, can you think of
anything?"

I responded without thinking through my answer. "I ran away to
New York City for two weeks."

"What?" Riley practically screamed. "You ran away? When?"

"In March." I realized I'd opened a can of worms I hadn't
intended. "Watch the road, Riley."

"Where did you stay while you were there?" Tammy asked.

"I slept on some guy's couch. I think he was the big brother of
some girl in one of my classes or something like that. I didn't really
know him; he just let me sleep there."

"You lived with a complete stranger?" Curt yelled from the back
row. "How cool is that?"

Riley looked at him through the rearview mirror. "Not cool at
all." He shook his head in disgust.

"It wasn't a big deal, Riley. I wasn't in any danger."

"What did you do with all of your time?" Tammy asked.

"I mostly wandered around the city. It was a learning experience
if nothing else. Next person, please."

"Who can beat that story?" Matt complained.

"Okay, then here is the next question," Anne said. "Which
do you prefer, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or Velveeta Shells and
Cheese?"

Everyone answered Kraft except for Tess, who preferred Velveeta.

"Okay, Tess, why the Velveeta?" I asked.

"The cheese is creamy in Velveeta, and Kraft is that yucky pow der stuff that you have to stir and stir to dissolve. It's not even real
cheese. I can't believe I even have to explain it to all of you people."

"Velveeta's not real either," Anne added.

"Well, it looks more real than Kraft."

"Okay then, Tess, what's your favorite book?" Anne prodded.

"Any of the Twilight books," she answered.

"Are those the vampire books I've heard so much about?" Tammy
asked.

"Yes, they're awesome!"

"All the girls at school in New York were into them," I said. "At
first I tried to figure out who this Edward guy was that everyone was
talking about. I thought he was a student at the school. Someone
finally told me that Edward was a vampire in the books."

"My mom won't let me read those," Anne said. "She doesn't like
that they're about vampires."

Tess looked stumped. "Oh?"

"Yeah. She's afraid that they glamorize evil or something like
that."

"Um, I guess I can sorta see that," Tess considered. "But these
vampires are good. They don't kill people or anything."

"Are there such things as good vampires?" Anne asked.

"In this story there are," Tess clarified. "But I guess I can see
your mom's point a little bit."

"I'd like to read the books to see what all the excitement is about,"
I added. "I hear they're good."

"I read them to you," Riley informed me.

"When?"

"When you were asleep in the hospital."

"You did? You visited me in the hospital?"

"Yeah, they're pretty good books. I mean, for girls' stuff they're
not bad. You should read them now that you're awake."

"I will. I didn't know you were at the hospital with me. How did
I not know that?" Riley and I were now having a private conversation as the others continued the game.

"You were asleep. How could you have known?"

"Asleep is a funny way of saying `in a coma.' A little less disturbing?"

"Personally, I choose to say you were sleeping." He briefly looked
my direction and gave me a wink. "One of my parents or I were
always there until they moved you to New York. We didn't want you
to be alone."

"I thought I was all alone the entire time."

"Nope."

"Maybe that's where I got accustomed to having you near me
when I slept."

"Maybe." He nodded slightly. "I hadn't thought about it."

"No wonder your voice was so familiar to me."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean, the night of my first nightmare here. Without even
opening my eyes, I knew it was you who was talking to me. I recognized your voice, but I wasn't sure why."

"Well, those books are about five hundred pages each, so you
heard my voice a lot."

"I can't believe you did that. No normal teenage boy would sit in
a hospital room with some dumb girl in a coma and read to her."

"Sure they would." He shrugged. "I didn't mind."

"Other than football practice, we never saw Riley last summer,"
Matt added from the backseat. "He was either heading to or coming
back from the hospital."

Tess sat in a trance. "That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard."

"It's sweet." Anne cried. She was a crier like me.

"Everybody shush," Riley ordered. "It's not a big deal; any of you
would have done the same freakin' thing."

"No," Matt admitted. "I hate to say it, but I don't know that I
would."

"I hope we all would if we were in that situation." Tammy
became serious. "That's a big deal, guys. Here Attie thought she'd
been left all alone, but Riley's family was there the entire time. It's
amazing.

"Oh, Charlie, please don't cry; it isn't that big of a deal."

"It is a big deal. I can't even tell you what it means to me to know you guys were there." I looked out the window trying to hide
my tears. "I wish my dad would have left me here. Whether I was
awake or not, he didn't visit me once." I talked more to myself than
to Riley.

The car grew silent.

"Well, thanks a lot, Debbie Downer," Curt complained.

"I know, I'm sorry." I wiped away my tears and took a deep
breath. "Okay, Anne, next question."

"All right, let's lighten it up a bit. What's your most embarrassing moment?"

Tammy went first. "My freshman year I was on the pom squad
at my old school. We had a huge pep rally, and after our performance
one of the girls on my team came over and asked me why I wasn't
wearing my bloomers."

"Cool, I bet there was extra excitement during that pep rally,"
Matt said.

Tess offered to go next. "Well, mine is sorta like Tammy's."

"Yours isn't a thing like Tammy's," Chase corrected.

"You hush, Chase! It sorta is. I was walking down the hall last
year, and Jason Cleaver slipped on something... "

Chase was already laughing. He'd obviously witnessed the
embarrassing moment live.

She continued. "Anyway, he reached out to grab something to
keep himself from falling, and somehow he got the waist of the back
of my jeans. Instead of keeping himself up, he ripped the back of my
jeans completely off of me. The two halves totally ripped apart, and
I was left standing there with no pants on. It was horrible."

The entire car filled with laughter. Personally, I laughed so hard
I thought I was going to wet my pants.

"Chase just stood there laughing at me. He didn't even try to help."

"I was in shock!" Chase attempted to defend himself. "I didn't
know what to do."

"You could have given me a jacket or something. I ran off to the
bathroom and waited until someone brought me some clothes. It
was the most horrible and frightening experience of my life."

"I guess now we know why our parents tell us to make sure to
always wear clean underwear," Tammy said dryly.

After several minutes of hysterics, everyone calmed down
enough for the next person to share their story.

"I'll give Riley's!" Curt announced.

Riley rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you will."

"When we were in middle school, sixth grade, Riley used to pretend that he was sick all the time so he wouldn't have to go to school.
One day he really was sick, but his parents didn't believe him, so they
made him go to school anyway." Curt's voice grew louder and more
excited as he told the story.

"Close your ears, Charlie," Riley suggested. "You'll never look at
me the same after you hear this."

"Sorry, Riley, I can't wait to hear it." I urged Curt to continue.

"Well, right in the middle of third hour, Riley got diarrhea all
over himself."

"I remember that!" Anne said.

I failed miserably at being sympathetic. "Oh, Riley, that's so
pathetic."

Riley tried to stay focused on driving as he laughed at the memory. "I did; I crapped all over myself. It was completely disgusting."

"No, what made it worse was Sheila Bright," Matt added to the
story. "She was sitting next to him, and she got so grossed out that
she puked all over the floor!"

Curt continued, but he was laughing so hard that he could
barely speak. "Half the class started dry heaving and stuff. It was
nasty. Everyone practically trampled each other trying to get out of
the room."

Riley finished giving the account of events. "Everyone including
the teacher-"

"Mr. Bell," Anne interjected.

"Yeah, Mr. Bell. They all left Sheila and me standing there in
the room all by ourselves. I was standing there with crap running
down my legs, and Sheila had puke all down the front of her clothes
and in her shoes. We both started crying. It was horrible."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I don't remember. I think I was so traumatized that I went into
shock. I honestly don't remember anything else."

I gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Poor Riley."

"I came home and begged my dad to let me change schools.
Of course he said no and made me march back the very next day.
When I got there, someone had taped diapers all over the front of
my locker."

"We never did figure out who did that."

"You shut up, Curt," Riley shouted. "I know for a fact it was you."

Curt laughed. "That's what friends are for, Riley. We're there to
keep you grounded."

After losing and regaining the nerve several times, I decided to wear
the bikini that Marme bought me. I reasoned that it might as well
get some use. Plus, everyone was going to see my scars soon enough
anyway; there would be no hiding them in my cheer uniform.

The girls and I took turns changing clothes in the car. As three
girls held up blankets, the other fumbled around and put her bathing suit on.

After we piled out of the car, I noticed Riley give a double take
in my direction. His shoulders straightened and his chest puffed
out as his mouth hung open in a large smile. Feeling myself begin
to blush, I threw shorts on over my bikini bottoms and then put on
my old sneakers.

Riley joined me on the rear bumper of the car. "Dang, you look
remarkable."

I playfully pushed him away. "Whatever."

"Seriously, your body's amazing."

"Riley," I scolded.

He leaned toward me and spoke softly into my ear. "Surely
you didn't think you'd be able to wear that and it wouldn't get my
attention." His breath was warm on my face, and I could smell his
cologne. My mind blurred.

"It's just a bathing suit; everyone wears them. Besides, your mom
picked it out."

He sat back and looked at me with a devious grin. "My mom?"

"Yes."

"Sweet! Remind me to thank her later." He chuckled, got up, and
walked away, but before he made it too far, I jumped onto his back
and wrapped my legs around his waist. "Keep your eyes to yourself,
Riley Bennett," I teased into his ear.

"You're smoke, Charlie. I'm not gonna be able to keep my eyes
off of you."

I jumped off his back. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

"Flattery?" He turned to face me. "You think I'm trying to flatter
you? I have a hard enough time controlling myself around you when
you're completely clothed."

He grabbed me by the waist, pulled me to him, and for the first
time in my life, a boy's hands were touching my bare back. His warm
touch and fiery gaze caused my heart to race, and I instinctively
pressed my body completely against his as a gentle moan escaped
his lips.