The Reaping of Norah Bentley (9 page)

“Probably,” I told him. “Fifth Street runs straight into Lakewood Park; when he saw me he probably assumed that’s where I was heading. He… me and him used to spend a lot of time there. It was sort of our place.”

The part I didn’t tell him was why; how some nights we’d meet up there and stay for as long as we could get away with, for as long as we could put off my going back home to arguing and slamming doors and shattering beer bottles. That was back when my dad and Helen still fought all the time. Now they usually just ignored each other whenever they could, slept in different beds and barely nodded when they passed each other in the hallway. I’m pretty sure the only reason Dad didn’t ask for a divorce was because without Helen around,
he’d
have to raise me, and Lord knows he wasn’t doing that.

I didn’t really want to elaborate on all that out loud, so I was glad when Eli didn’t ask questions, didn’t seem too interested in the hows and whys of me and Luke’s quality time.

“I have a feeling he’s not going to be happy to see me,” he said.

I slowed my march to almost a stop.

“Speaking of which,” I said. “I wanted to talk to you about Luke.”

“What about him?”

“Mostly about why Luke can see you when all those teachers in the hallway couldn’t?” Saying it out loud made the answer seem all the more important all of a sudden, made me wonder why I hadn’t asked it earlier. But Eli just frowned.

“I’m not exactly sure,” he said. Not the answer I’d been hoping for, but he really did look just as confused as I felt, so I didn’t bother repeating the question. I just picked up my earlier pace, and after a minute I said,

“He doesn’t like you very much.”

“I noticed.” He grinned wryly. “I’m incredibly perceptive like that; something about the clenched fists…”

“It’s strange,” I thought aloud as we rounded the corner, now side-by-side. “Luke’s usually really easy to get along with.”

“I can’t imagine what could possibly be making him dislike me so much,” he said, a little too innocently.

I cut my eyes sideways at him, feeling a blush rising in my cheeks.

“It’s nothing like
that
,” I said. I looked away and started messing with the buttons on the cuff of my coat sleeve.

“Of course not.”

“We’re just friends.”

“Uh-huh.”

We both slowed half a step, perfectly synchronized like our walk was part of some choreographed dance, with the buzz of streetlights and barking dogs and the occasional passing car providing our background music.

“And what if we weren’t just friends?” I heard myself ask. Our eyes met for a shy moment, and I quickly forced mine back to the path ahead of me. “Would he have any reason to be jealous?”

“Jealousy is blind; it doesn’t need a reason.”

“You’re really good at dodging questions.”

He smiled. “It’s a skill I’ve developed. It’s helpful in my line of work.”

“Which is what, exactly?”

He just laughed quietly to himself, shaking his head. I sighed.

“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

“It’s complicated,” he said, somewhat apologetically now. “And I feel like I’ve complicated things enough for you tonight.”

I couldn’t argue with that, so we walked on in silence for a minute. I should have been keeping an eye out for Luke, but I was having a hard time keeping my eyes off the clear night sky, off the stars that shone remarkably bright even through the hazy glow of the city lights.

“Jealousy is blind,” I mused, staring at a particularly bright object that I think might have been Venus. “Hm. I’d always heard love was the blind one.”

“Maybe both are blind?” Eli suggested. “And maybe the world is full of blind people, jealous or in love, or maybe both, and they’re all stumbling around and trying to find their way.”

I considered his words, while I tried to remember exactly how you were supposed to find Venus in the sky, whether it was supposed to be in the east or west this time of year. West, I think.

“A world where everyone’s blind…?” I repeated after a minute. “That’s sort of a scary thought.”

“It would explain a lot of the crazy things people do,” he said with a shrug.

“I guess so.” I dropped my gaze slowly back down to the street. “How’d we get on this subject, anyway?”

“We were talking about him,” Eli said, pointing suddenly. I looked out over the length of his arm and saw a tall, unmistakable figure in the lamplight.

“Luke!”

Despite everything I’d been worried about—was still worried about—I still felt the familiar lightness rising in my chest, and then in my step as I hurried over to his side. If his smile, if his being glad to see me was in any way forced, I couldn’t tell. His arms wrapped confidently around me and he pulled me close, planted a quick kiss on the top of my head.

“Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“I tried to call you,” I said. “I saw you’d called earlier, but I…I didn’t get to the phone in time to answer. And then when I called you back,
you
didn’t answer.”

“Left my phone at the house,” he explained, nodding back toward Fifth Street. “Battery was pretty much dead.”

“Oh.”

We stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, neither of us real sure what we were supposed to say next. I was sort of glad to be interrupted by the sound of Eli’s footsteps. Luke pulled away from me as Eli approached, but still kept an arm hooked around my waist.

“Hey,” Luke said. He held out a rigid arm and they shook, letting go of each other’s hands so quick I would’ve missed it if I’d blinked. “I thought that’s who I saw with you,” Luke said flatly, turning back to me but still watching Eli out of the corner of his eye.

“Yeah,” I said. “We…we were just out for a walk. It’s been sort of a rough day, you know? I couldn’t sleep.” Luke dropped his arm from my side.

“You could’ve called me.”

The light feeling in my chest started to deflate, and I mumbled some response that was incoherent even to me.

“I think she wanted to be alone,” Eli offered in my defense. “The only reason I’m here is because I insisted on it, when we happened to pass by each other earlier.”

“Convenient that you guys just happened to pass each other,” Luke said.

“I thought so,” Eli said, a sudden edge in his voice that I’d never heard before. “Since otherwise she would have been wandering around by herself—which doesn’t seem safe for anybody this time of night.”

Luke’s jaw clenched. “She wouldn’t have been by herself if she’d called me,” he said. “I would’ve been right there. I live less than a block from her house.” His voice was quiet. Luke was only quiet when he was pissed. I closed my eyes for a second, willing Eli to just shut up and quit antagonizing him. But when I opened them again, his cold gaze was still locked on Luke’s.

“Well, the important thing is that you’re here now, right?” he said.

Luke’s right hand curled into a loose fist, and I took a deep breath and held it. A street lamp flickered somewhere to our right. A car, missing one headlight and loud as a freight train, drove by us, close enough that the breeze from it rolled over us and threw strands of my hair into my eyes. As I brushed them away, Eli continued in his quiet voice:

“So I guess I’ll be on my way.”

I exhaled as quietly as I could.

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Luke said.

When Eli turned to leave, I didn’t try to stop him. I wanted to, but I was starting to think Luke might actually lose it and start punching him in the face or something. And since I had no desire to referee that particular fight, I just watched him go. I could already feel that familiar fear and panic settling over me though, nested alongside the memory of what had happened when he left me in Miss Brandes’ office.

Almost as if he sensed my uneasiness, Eli stopped after he’d only gotten a few feet away, turned around and walked back to me. He leaned in close, and in a voice low enough that only I could hear, he said,

“I won’t be far away. You’re safe, don’t worry.” The warmth of his breath against my cheek started to spread over my entire face, and the thought of how red my face was getting only made it burn hotter. He took a step back, his hand clasping mine in a quick, light squeeze and his lips just barely brushing my ear. Then he spun around and left without another word, without even another glance toward Luke.

Luke and I stood a few feet apart, silently watching Eli until he disappeared around the corner. My face still felt hot; my throat was so tight I could hardly breathe. It felt like it had been hours before Luke finally spoke.

“What the hell was that about?”

I was still staring at the spot where Eli had disappeared. I still heard his voice in my ear, was still shivering at the thought of his lips against my skin. I took a deep breath. Reached over and took Luke’s arm. He jumped a little at my touch.

“Walk me home?” My voice cracked from the dryness in my mouth.

He pulled away a little at the suggestion, loosening my grip on his arm. But he nodded; a single, slow dip of the head that was barely noticeable.

We left the sidewalk and walked along the side of the street, through the empty parallel parking spots, weaving in and out of parking meters and the occasional empty, crumpled soda can. I focused on avoiding the cracks in the pavement, trying to ignore the thoughts racing through my head and the silence settling outside of it. I could only escape myself for so long, though, and the road ahead seemed endless all of a sudden; it stretched in front of us like a dead, gray river that we navigated without speaking until I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Please say something.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Something. Anything. Maybe that you don’t hate me?”

He sighed. “I don’t hate you, stupid. I could never hate you.”

Somehow his words weren’t as reassuring as they should have been; all they did was wedge their way into the crack that was already splitting between us and force it wider.

“You could never hate me, but—?”

“But what? I don’t know what else you want me to say, Norah.” Silence for a few more feet, and then: “Do you want me to give you guys my blessing?” He stopped, jerking me to a stop with him. “Because that’s not going to happen.”

“No, I don’t want that. We don’t
need
that—because it’s not like that, me and him, I mean I…You… You’ve got it all wrong.”

“Do I look stupid to you?”

“No—”

“Okay then.” Luke turned away and started to walk again.

“You don’t know anything. You don’t…you…” I felt like I should have been defending myself. But I didn’t even know what to say. It was like I’d just landed in some foreign country and I didn’t speak a word of the native language. This new, suddenly violent and accusing Luke was almost more surreal than anything Eli had said in the park; it threw me completely off-balance, made my hands shake and the buildings around me spin until I was so dizzy I could hardly stand. I rushed forward and grabbed Luke’s hand, pulled him to a stop and tried to steady my weight against his strong arm.

“I’m sorry.” I didn’t really know what I was apologizing for. But I’d apologize all day long if it meant we didn’t have to fight, if things could just be normal again and Luke could just be the same comfort he always was, the comfort I needed right now. I took his other hand and stepped closer, rested my forehead in the crook of his neck.

“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I guess I should have called.”

He didn’t answer right away. My head rose and fell with his chest as he took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and wished time would just stop, because with each second that ticked by I felt more and more like things could only get worse from here.

And for that moment time did seem endless, indefinite, as we held our pose on the side of that street, like a single being, a single lifelike statue washed in pale moonlight. Another car drove by, honked its horn at us, the driver hanging halfway out the window and beating on the rusted door panel. Alone and desperate for attention, I guess. Or maybe he was jealous of how close we looked like we were. If only he knew.

We didn’t acknowledge him. We didn’t even move—not for what seemed like forever, until Luke’s stiff hands finally relaxed in mine and he said,

“It’s okay.” His voice was calmer now, but he still didn’t sound like Luke. “I’m just worried about you, that’s all.”

“You don’t need to worry.”

“Thanks,” he said dully, taking a step away from me. He dropped one of his hands from mine, but I tightened my grip on the other before he could pull completely away from me.

“I’m serious,” I said. “Eli is…he’s a little strange, but I don’t think he’s a bad guy.”

“What makes you so sure?” Luke asked. “You just met this kid.”

I frowned at the direction the conversation seemed intent on heading.

“I know,” I said. “But there’s just something…something about him. I can’t explain it.”

“I think you should stay away from him.”

“I can’t.” It was an automatic response, one I didn’t mean to say out loud. Because I knew what Luke’s reply would be before he even said it: