Senseless Attraction (3 page)

      “He seems okay. We talked about the assignment, and that’s all of it summed up.”

     “You're kidding, right? The first chance you have him away from the evil one and you talk about the assignment?”

      “Jess, there is nothing else I would want to say to him. Now, let’s drop the subject and eat; I’m starved.”

      She harrumphed, but did as I asked.

      “So, plans for the weekend?” Massie asked, since she was the first to finish her lunch.

      “It's only Monday, girl. How can I think that far ahead?” Javis smirked.

      “True, your brain is only capable of one thing at a time.” Jessie laughed. “Well, as you know, Sky and I are going to the fair on Saturday...”

      “Not without me you ain't,” Mitch growled.

      “Keep your knickers on, boy. You can come. And you too, if you want,” Jessie said to Javis.

      “I can't go so early now,” I said, and then shut my mouth quickly.

      “Why-y-y?” Jessie drawled.

      I sighed. “My history partner wants to meet up Monday nights and Saturday mornings to do as much work as we can get done. Because Mr. Big-and-Strong needs a good grade and is worried I won't pull my own weight in this assignment,” I said quickly.

      “Mr. Big-and-Strong, hey?” she teased.

      “Really? That’s all you got out of what I just said?” I complained.

      “Yeah, and that you’ll be spending quiet time alone with him. Oh, oh, oh! You have to let me come. Please say I can come with you.”

      “No,” both Mitch and I said at the same time. Then I added, “For one, we will be doing work while alone together, so we can't have distractions like you panting all over him. And two, come Friday, you'll be busy enough with your own history partner.”

  
   She pouted at me. “Yeah, all right.”

I
didn't know what time Mr Big-Shot was turning up, so I went about my usual afternoon activities. Which included: a snack, a nap, and a lap around the house to see if there was anything incriminating lying about. After doing that, I went and hopped on the family computer, logging in with my password so Momma couldn't check my emails and other stuff. Not that she would really find anything interesting. I ended up receiving an email from Jessie. How could she be home and already sent me an email? She had tennis after school.

Hey Chick, is he there yet?

I laughed and typed back:

No! Talk to you tomorrow.

Before I got the chance to sign off, it dinged back with another email from Jessie. What was she doing, sitting on her computer?

No you don't! You email or call me later about EVERYTHING!!!!!! Or else.

   I didn’t bother replying; instead, I got up from the desk in the lounge and went to my room to flop on the bed. I should have asked what time he was coming around. Too bad, I only thought of it when I was sitting on the bus, and there was no way I was going to the back of the bus to ask him in front of his Barbie doll girlfriend. I even told myself as I was getting off the bus not to look back there. Too bad my head didn't listen; I snuck a quick glance and wished I hadn’t…he was looking at me. I turned away and climbed down the steps.

      My other homework called to me. I needed to get it out of the way anyway, and I knew it would keep me busy for a couple of hours.

      It had, until I heard a car pull into the driveway. My heart started to pound, but as soon as the front door came open and I heard humming, I knew it was just Momma.

      “Skylar, hon, you home?” Momma called from the kitchen. Remembering it had been food-shopping day, I walked out to give her a hand to put away the groceries.

      “Hi’ya, Momma. Did you sleep well today?” 

      “I did indeed. How was your day, sweetheart? God, haven’t you taken that stuff off your face yet?” She complained. Usually, that would be the first thing I did when getting home, unless I was meeting my friends later.

      “Nope. I have someone coming over—” I began, as a knock at the door interrupted me. My stupid heart began pounding again. I quickly stomped to the door and opened it. Kane stood there smiling, with his arms full of books.

      “Hi,” he said. “Hope I'm not too late for you.”

      I looked at the clock over my shoulder that hung in the lounge above our television. It was already half-past five.

      “Suppose it'll have to do,” I muttered. I grabbed some of the books from him because they seemed like a heavy load, and stepped aside to let him in.

      “Sorry, I got caught up with something. Look, if it's going to be a hassle, we can just meet Saturday.”

      I looked over my shoulder to give him a smart-ass smirk; instead, I was caught up ogling him. He did look good wearing dark blue jeans and a lighter-coloured tee. I turned back around and said, “No, we can't have that; you may think I'm not pulling my weight. Don't worry about it, okay? Let’s get something started.” We entered the kitchen where Momma had already started cooking, but she turned once hearing us enter.

      “Momma, this is Kane. Kane, this is Mrs James.”

      “Nice to meet you, Mrs James.” Kane smiled and placed his books on the table so he could hold out his hand.

      To my embarrassment, she stood there in shock, gawking at him.

      “Momma,” I hissed. She came out of her semi-trance, and laughed giddily while she took his hand and shook it vigorously.

      “All right, Momma, let go of the poor guy.”

      She blushed and dropped her hand. “Sorry, dear. Uh, Skylar, what’s going on here?”

      I rolled my eyes. “He's here to study; he’s my assigned history partner.”

      “Oh, well, very good. Skylar, don't just stand there; get the young man a drink.”

      Again, I rolled my eyes and went to the fridge, pouring Kane and myself a drink of Coke. I passed it to him, and he sat at the table under Momma's instructions.

      She nudged me in the side as I sat down next to Kane. “Oh, honey, he is a looker.” She smiled.

      I groaned. “Yeah, well, Momma, don't get your hopes up on grandkiddies just yet. Kane here already has a plastic girlfriend,” I explained.

      Kane frowned at me as he picked up his drink.

      Momma gasped. “You mean a blow-up doll?”

      Kane coughed and spat his drink all over the table. How could I not laugh?

      “No, Momma, one of those Barbie rich-types.”

      “Oh, oh well.” She turned to Kane, who had gotten up to grab the paper towel on the bench to wipe his face, then the table. “That's nice for you, dear.” Momma grinned. “And Skylar, you shouldn't put her down while in his company.”

      At least she didn't say I shouldn't bag her at all. I think Kane caught onto it as well because he smirked.

      “So let’s get started before my Momma can say anything else.”

      “Would you like to stay for tea, Kane?”

      Too late.

      “That would be nice. Thank you, Mrs James.”

      “Call me Jenny, dear. Skylar, why don't you take Kane into your room and study there at your desk while I run around the kitchen?”

      I looked at Kane's surprised expression.

      Normal moms didn't say that kind of stuff. Whose Momma would offer their daughter to take a good-looking guy into their room? Unless, that said momma already knew that their daughter had no chance with that said good-looking guy, or that she could see he wasn't her type. Which he wasn't.

      Of course, I could admire. Who wouldn't? But I found him...too prim and proper.

      “Sure. Come on, Kane.” I grabbed some books and left him to take the rest. He followed the couple of steps it took to get to my room. I didn't care that my room wasn't fancy, and I didn't care that Kane Stanley was about to see it. I was happy with how my room looked, and that was all that counted.

      I should have known Momma had an ulterior motive to get me into my room.

      “Barbra, guess what. Skylar has her history partner here, and my goodness, he is a fine young man,” she said into the phone to her best friend Barbra Keating.

       I groaned, shut my door, and quickly turned on my stereo to muffle the conversation going on in the kitchen.

      I turned back to Kane, who was sitting at my desk, which lay under my window. He was laughing quietly.

      “Yeah, laugh it up, mate. Wait until she starts on your case.”

      He sobered a little, but said, “Come on, it’s a little funny. I’ve never met an adult who would say ‘blow-up doll’ in front of me.”

      “Welcome to my world,” I sighed.

      With that, he glanced around my bedroom, taking in all that surrounded him. While he was busy, I got out my history book, tidied my desk a little so we could both fit, and sat down in the seat I pulled over from the other side of my bed, which I used as a bedside table.

      “I’m guessing you’re a fan of Ruby Gloom.”

      I took on an innocent voice and said, “Oh my, is it that obvious?” Of course it was. I had pictures of her and Skull Boy around everywhere. I even had a Ruby Gloom bed cover for my single bed, and figurines of all the characters from the show on my windowsill.

      “By the way, what do you even know about it? I can't see you watching a show like that,” I asked.

      “My sister, who’s five, loves it and tells me all about what’s going on in Ruby Gloom’s world.”

      “Now, she sounds like a nice girl.”

      “Why, because she watches the show?”

      “Yeah.”
Like, duh.

      “You seem to judge a book by its cover all the time, Sky,” he said, shaking his head at me and starting to go through some books.

      “Hey, I do not.” I glared at him when he looked at me with his eyebrows raised. I rolled my eyes. “Okay, maybe I do. But come on, Kane, it's not hard. You can't tell me that Donna isn't a Barbie-type. She loves to shop. She loves makeup. She loves to talk about herself and to dress in name brands. She loves attention, and she definitely doesn’t have a brain. And you can’t honestly tell me that outside of this assignment, we would have ever talked, or that you would have ever approached me.”

      He sighed loudly. “You’re right on some things—not that I'm saying you’re right with anything you said about Donna. You don't really know her, so it's best not to judge her around me. But it's true; I wouldn't have spoken to you before this, but it's not like I felt I
could
either. You come across as a very standoffish kind of person. Doesn’t mean it can't change now.”

      I made my eyes go wide and put my hand to my heart. “Why, Kane Stanley, do you want to be besties with me?”

      He rolled his eyes and turned back to his book, but he still couldn't hide the lip twitch, like he was trying to hold back laughter. I smiled to myself.

      “I brought a heap of books from our library. I thought we could start from when they were young, and then move on to how they met and so forth. I'm sure one of these books should have most of the information; if not, I'm sure we can Google it. What do you think?”

      “Sounds like you've really thought it through. All right, I'll start with this pile; you take that one, and let’s see what we can find.”

* * * * *

It was about an hour later when Momma called that tea was ready. We seemed to have gotten a heap of notes separately. All we had left to do was share what we had and hope that it wasn't the same.

      It felt strange having Kane in my room working silently by my side. Every now and then, I would glance over and watch him. Sometimes, I’d catch him in the process of doing the same with me; we both just smiled and continued working.

       I thought it would have been awkward having him here, but it wasn't. I felt at ease with him, and that was just weird.

      “Come on,” I said, “before she comes in here and drags us out by the ear.”