Unbreakable Rules (Too Many Rules Book 3) (10 page)

Looking me over from head to foot, she nodded and opened the door.

Ryan surprised me. He looked good. A button down long sleeved blue flannel shirt exposed a dark blue T-shirt underneath. I smiled to myself. I'd bet anything the T-shirt referenced a superhero or some scientific formula. It wasn't perfect the collared shirt was tucked into stonewashed jeans.  But, he looked good. He'd obviously tried.

My heart relaxed a little. I wasn't going to be embarrassed to be seen in public with him. I know that sounds catty, but I'd had my doubts there.

"Thanks, Mom," I said as I scooted through the door. The last thing I wanted was her grilling Ryan. "We won't be late," I threw over my shoulder.

Ryan rushed ahead and opened the passenger door to an older maroon Honda Civic that looked like it had seen better days.

"Who does this belong to?" I asked him as I slid in. That old car smell wasn't too strong. That faint aroma of ancient McDonald's french fries, fake leather, and the moisture of too many winters in the Northwest.

Things looked neat, though. There wasn't an overflowing ashtray or beer bottles rattling around in the back at least.

"It's mine," Ryan said with a prideful smile on his face. "I bought it today."

"Wow, it's nice," I said, unable to not compare it to Jarret's brand new Mustang. “The one difference,” I told myself, Ryan bought it himself. And, only after he'd helped his mother. There's a difference Hailey. Remember that.

"So I forgot, you look very nice," Ryan said with a shy smile.

I smiled back and said "Thank you. You do, also. I don't know if I've ever seen you wear anything other than a T-shirt."

"Yea, well Amanda made me."

I snorted with surprise. He stared at me for a second, then laughed also. With that simple joint moment, we let the some of the tension escape. Both of us seemed to relax, determined to have a good time.

My heart skipped a little when Ryan parked at the mall. Would we run into anyone we knew? I wondered. If so, how would it go? Would it be limited to dirty looks or grow into something ugly?

"So do you want to eat at the Steak House, The Sushi bar, or maybe that new restaurant? I checked. We don't need reservations."

"Oh," I said in surprise. Can he afford all of this? "Why don't we load up on popcorn at the movies?"

"Ok?" he said with a frown. "If that's what you want." I could tell that he wanted to impress me, but I wasn't going to let him waste his money like that.

"What should we do until the movie starts?" he asked.

"Shopping of course," I said, as I silently laughed to myself when his eyes grew three sizes bigger. I swear beads of sweat threatened to form on his forehead. Did the idea of shopping with a girl scare him that much?

"Don't worry," I said. "I won't make you stand around holding my purse while I try on clothes." Ryan's shoulders relaxed and I knew that had been exactly what he'd feared.

"Come on," I said as I grabbed his hand and pulled him into the mall. "It'll be fun, you'll see."

"Yeah, right," he muttered under his breath. I decided to ignore it.

The mall, my home away from home, greeted us with open arms. The smell of cinnamon buns and perfume counters. The steady hum of people searching for that special item. The thousands of possibilities, combinations, and opportunities. It was enough to make a girl smile. The thought of having Ryan to share it all with made it even more special.

We'd only gone a few feet into the place when I realized we were still holding hands. Shivers ran up my arm and into my stomach. I almost let go, but didn't, deciding I was enjoying it too much to stop.

"Hey, do you trust me?" I asked as I pulled us to a stop, turning to face him. He looked down into my eyes for a moment, then nodded.

I smiled back at him, then grabbed his shirt, and pulled it out from his pants, letting it fall loose. Then, still smiling, I reached up and mussed up his hair. Giving it that quick, natural look. I could have done more with some time, but this would do.

Stepping back, I examined him and nodded. "Yes. Better. Much better," I said.

He looked like I'd just erased his latest computer program. I wondered if the shock would be too much. He started to reach up to fix his hair. I jumped and grabbed his arm.

"No, you look better like that. Believe me. Besides, it's the style."

He turned and looked at himself in a store window. I stood next to him examining what I had created. Yes, definite hot material. A few simple adjustments had turned the King of Nerds into a definite plus.

I smiled as I wrapped both of my arms through his, and said, "Come on, I'll stop torturing you for now."

He laughed and said, "I doubt it, you've been torturing me for years."

Who knew that shopping could be fun? Granted, almost anything we’d have done together would have been fun.

I was still having a hard time believing we were on a date. I honestly believe that holding her hand when we came into the mall had been one of the high points in my life. My heart still hadn't settled down. I'd spent the last hour trying to figure out a way to repeat it again without being obvious about the whole thing.

We stopped at another store. The manikins were all dressed in overpriced clothes that seemed to say, t
his old thing? I just threw it on because it was handy. Don't I look good?
I swear I'll never understand.

Clothes were for wearing, they kept you warm and met social conventions. I'd never understand all of the nuances. I also noticed that none of the male manikins wore their shirts tucked in their belt. How had I never noticed this?

"I've got to ask. Why are we shopping if you're not buying anything?"

"Ideas, possibilities, alternatives," Hailey answered without looking away from the display. Then seeming to remember where she was and who she was with she smiled up at me and said, "Come on, we should probably head towards the movies. We need to get there early enough to get a good seat. What do you prefer? Front row? Far back? What?"

"I really don't go to the movies that much. I guess the only thing is that I like is an aisle seat. It gives me room to stretch out."

She smiled and nodded her head. "Okay, we can make that work. Come on." She grabbed my hand again and all was right with the world.

We'd only gone a few feet when we almost ran right into Jarret McGee and two of his buddies, Randy Oaks and Jon Wheaton. The three of them looked as surprised as I felt.

All of the air was sucked from the mall as everyone froze for a moment. Unsure what to do next. An electrical tension buzzed through the air as Hailey's eyes got as big as coffee cups and Jarret stared back at her with a look of pure hate.

I gently pulled Hailey back and stepped in front of her. I didn't think, I just acted. My body reacted, knowing instinctively that it had to protect her. I didn't feel any fear. There wasn't any of that sick stomach feeling, just anger.

This slime had made everyone's life miserable for so long. The list of outrages could never be resolved nor avenged. But, one thing was for sure. It wouldn't happen again.

Hailey slipped her arm into mine and pulled me to the side. "Come on Ryan, we're going to be late."

I let her pull me away, but made sure to keep an eye on them. All three turned to watch us walk away. Only after I was sure they weren't following did I relax. Hailey sighed, then smiled up at me. I noticed that her hand hadn't left my arm.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"It was like two grizzlies meeting on a forest trail. If I hadn't pulled you away, I think you were going to punch someone. That is not the Ryan Hardy I know."

"Ancient history."

"Come on, tell me."

Now, it was my time to sigh. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to avoid this. She had that look that told me she was going to pester me until she got all the details.

"Jarret has always been a jerk."

"Yeah, it would have been nice if someone had told me that about six months ago."

I laughed. "Anyway. It probably started in third grade when he pushed me into the girl's bathroom."

Hailey laughed, then quickly covered her mouth to try and hide her mirth. "I'm sorry. Go ahead."

"It got worse in fourth grade, the pushing, teasing ..."

"We had fourth grade, together. I don't remember him being such a jerk."

"Oh, he was always sure to do it when nobody else would see. He and his friends could be relentless."

"Why didn't you tell someone?" she asked, her brow narrowing in concern.

"No way. Besides, I don't think anyone would have believed us. Anyway, we got some of our own back."

"What did you do?" she asked.

"Did you know that it is possible to capture honey bees in your hands without getting stung? Mark and I used to do it during the morning recess. One fine spring day we both caught a couple of bees and carried them into the classroom before everyone came back. We snuck them into Jarret's lunch box. I figured they'd fly out when he opened it up. Scare him. Make everyone laugh."

"Oh, no, that was you guys? Didn't one of the bee...."

"Yes, one of them crawled into his peanut butter and Jelly sandwich. I will never forget the scream he let loose when it stung the roof of his mouth."

"Wow, I didn't know you had such a vicious side to you," she said.

"Shocked?" I asked her.

"No. Impressed," Hailey answered.

"Anyway. Jarret knew we did it. He desperately wanted to hurt us, but he couldn't be sure what we'd do to him, next. He backed off for a few years. Until we got to seventh grade, anyway."

"What happened?" Hailey asked.

"Don't you remember what happened to Mark? It was all over the school. I thought for sure everyone had heard."

"I was focused on Steven Puller in seventh grade. If it wasn't about him, then I wasn't interested."

She saw my confused look and said, "He was in eighth grade and probably should have been in ninth. He had the greatest mustache. All I could think about that year was what it would be like to be kissed by him."

"So, you like mustaches. Hum, interesting. Maybe I'll have to grow one."

She gently punched me in the ribs. "No, don't you dare. You look just fine the way you are. Now go on. What happened?"

I smiled down, she thought I was fine the way I was. I could deal with that.

"As you can imagine," I continued, "a seventh grade boy's locker room can be pretty harsh. We had to change into gym clothes each day." She nodded, her frown of understanding all I needed to know. I'm sure the girl's locker room hadn't been any better.

"Anyway," I continued, "Mark refused to change into the gym shorts. Instead he wore sweats every day and would pull the shorts on over the top. Most of us didn't think much about it. Mostly wishing we'd thought of it ourselves."

"Not Jarret. He wouldn't stop teasing Mark about it. He'd found something that got everyone on his side. Why did Mark get to be different? As I am sure you remember. Being different is the kiss of death for a seventh grader."

She looked up at me, her eyes begging me to continue.

"One day. Jarret snuck up behind him and without any warning pulled Mark's pants down. That might not have been so bad except that the back of Mark's legs were covered in welts. Two inch wide ugly red stripes that wrapped around each leg like angry snakes. Several of them had bled and scabbed over."

Hailey gasped and brought her hand to her mouth.

"What's worse, we could see that there were even older bruises and cuts under them. I was his best friend and I didn't have any idea. Not a clue." I could remember the sense of betrayal I'd felt. Why hadn't he told me? What else had he kept from me?

"Everyone froze in shock. It takes a lot to shock a thirteen-year-old boy, but it was so obvious. One of the welts even had the stitch pattern from his dad's belt cut into his skin."

"Oh no, poor Mark," Hailey said.

"Yeah, but even worse was the laughter coming from Jarret. Even his buddies had the decency to be ashamed of themselves. Not Jarret. He laughed and pointed as if it was the funniest thing ever. I'll never forget the pain and shame that crossed Mark’s face. Nobody should ever have to experience that. I swear it was worse than the beating itself. He knew that the rest of his life was ruined. He'd always be remembered as the boy who had been whipped by his dad."

"So that's why he hangs out at your house so much."

"Yeah, my mom and Amanda don't know. They can't know. It would kill him. My house is the closest thing to normal he's ever known. I can't take that away from him. I'm afraid if he thought they knew, he'd stop coming around."

She frowned and nodded. I was sure she'd keep Mark's secret. I probably shouldn't have told her. It wasn't fair to him. My guts tightened into a knot. If he ever found out I'd told her he'd kill me.

I couldn't believe how much I trusted her after such a short time.

The story about Mark put a damper on the night. I wondered what else I didn't know about the people around me. What kind of person did that make me that I could be so oblivious? So caught up in my own little world that I didn't even know a classmate was going through something like that.

The wonderful smell of fresh popcorn and cotton candy greeted us as we stepped into the lobby.

"Do you want your own popcorn or do we share?" Ryan asked as we reached the candy counter.

"Share, most definitely," I said. "That way I can eat half of your portion and not feel guilty about having too much."

He laughed and said, "I hope you like butter then, I drown mine in butter."

"Good, popcorn without butter is like cookies without milk."

We loaded up on supplies and quickly found a seat in the theater. Middle row, aisle. The place was slowly filling up.

It was, at least, fifteen minutes before the movie was to start and an awkward silence fell over us. What did we have in common? I wondered, as I racked my brain trying to think of something we could discuss. Something other than the weather, or the kids at school.

"So, why did you agree to go out with me?" Ryan asked as he grabbed a handful of popcorn.

Wow! Where did that come from? The boy had the conversational skills of a porcupine. My mind raced as I tried to analyze exactly what he meant and why he'd asked the question.

"Come on," he continued "I'm sure you took some grief from your friends when they heard you were going on a date with Ryan Hardy. You had to have known that would happen. So why?"

I glanced at his face and saw his forehead narrowed in concentration. He got that look when he's trying to figure something out. Trying to decipher the inner workings of the world.

Shrugging my shoulders, I stared at the barrel of popcorn on my lap.

"I don't know, it sounded like fun." Okay, even I knew that was a lame answer. Time to switch things around.

"Why'd you ask me?" I asked. There, that should change the subject.

Ryan snorted, "That's easy. You're Hailey Martin."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"Oh come on, you're about as close to perfection as a person could get. But, you've got just enough imperfections to make you perfect."

My stomach fluttered. A girl could bask in that look of his and never come out. "Oh really. So tell me of these imperfections then."

Ryan laughed. "Let's see. You're lousy at Monopoly, but that's because you're way too nice." He held up one finger, indicating this was only the beginning of a long list. "You're smart, but could be smarter if you didn't have such a wide range of interests." Second finger. "Your smile has a habit of making everyone feel good about themselves ..."

"Why is that an imperfection?" I demanded.

"Because, not everyone deserves one of your smiles. They are too valuable and should be reserved for special occasions." A third finger went up and my insides melted a little. "You are not intimately familiar with the inner workings of either the Star Trek or Star Wars universes."

"There's a difference?" I said with an innocent look.

"Oh such sacrilege," he said with a smile. "You can be forgiven such lack of knowledge because you have not been properly mentored in the way of the force. It's not your fault. It was most assuredly your upbringing. Something that will take years of training to erase."

It had to be one of the best Obi-Wan Kenobi imitations ever. I laughed, "Now you're worrying me. I thought I was going out with the King of the Nerds, not the Head Geek. I don't know if I would have accepted if I'd known what I was getting myself into."

"Ah, most of us Nerds go through our geek stage. We usually outgrow it. At least the outward signs. But, it always remains buried deep within us, only to reappear occasionally. Usually around the same time as Comic Con. 

"Hmm, interesting. What else? What other imperfections?"

He stopped smiling and stared into my eyes. A long, lingering look that pulled me in. It felt as if I was falling and I had nothing to slow me down from slipping into his gaze. My stomach began to flutter and I felt myself almost shiver.

"You have a freckle, just one. Here under your left ear lobe. Small, hardly noticeable. It gets a little darker in the summer, but lightens to almost invisible by the dead of winter," he said as he reached up and gently caressed the spot with the tip of his finger.

His touch sent an electric shock through my body and into my very soul. I unconsciously closed my eyes and leaned into his hand. Wanting, no needing, his touch.

"It's as if an angel touched you there to remind us that you are not a goddess," he continued with his deep mesmerizing voice. "Instead, it reminds us that you are a mere mortal, a beautiful, unbelievably beautiful, kind, intelligent mortal girl who just appears to be perfect in every way."