So I want to thank you all for the reviews and support I got for this story. I will be continuing it until I get a certain amount of reviews advising me not to. Until then, you will get updates whenever I write them, and find the time to post it. Happy Halloween everyone! (Yes I know its tomorrow, but I can't say it to all of you tomorrow)
What was her problem? I mean, no one talked to me like that. Not even my friends. Who was she to slam me against a table? She was nobody. She was a teenage girl, who would probably go and cry to her mommy once she got hurt. This girl… dammit! Stop thinking about her! It's not helping…
"Mister Spencer?" I felt a poke on my shoulder. I jerked up and found Mister Dyke, the history teacher staring at me behind his rimmed classes. Everyone else was snickering and said blonde girl was looking at me curiously.
"Yeah?"
"When did World War two end?" He crossed his arms and glared at me. The rest of the class was waiting for my answer. Usually I said the wrong answer and the class would go up in an uproar. But today, I was going to humor a certain woman. "Nineteen-forty-five," I answered.
"Well, Mister Spencer maybe if you paid attention…" Dyke started. The class was dead silent. A hand shot up and a voice spoke, "Sir? He got it right." It was Juliet. Of course it was.
"What?" Dyke looked back at me. "What did you say?"
"Nineteen-forty-five," I repeated. He slouched against his desk, eyeing me as if I was criminal. My parents are, so I guess that makes me one too. I narrowed my eyes and looked him back. The bell rang and nobody dared to move. "You're dismissed." He said slowly. Everyone jumped out if their seats, including me. I rushed out of the classroom and made my way down the stairs, outside, and to the Shop class.
If you couldn't guess, this was my favorite class. I knew just about everything about cars. Sure we couldn't race them on the property, but I could at least get my hands slippery with grease, and calm my nerves. Working with cars took me out of realty and actually let me think. The sound of metal clanging against each other, the purr of the engines, it was heaven.
I was like my father in that way. We both admired cars for more than what they were. I guess with him, his life depended on his car. Mine… I just could connect to cars. They were always treated bad, left uncared for, and no one respected them. That's how I was. After a little while (I'm not sure how much time passed) the clinging of tools stopped and the only noise was me in the shop. My wrench fixing bolts and the sound echoing around the wall.
"Hey," someone nudged my foot. I sighed and was about to tell them to go away until they continued. "I thought you skipped out on me." I almost jumped up and banged my head on the metal.
"What do you want?" I rolled out from under the car, leaving the Creeper underneath.
"You were supposed to meet me for math." Juliet was holding the math textbook by her side.
"Yeah well." I stood up. My clothes were covered in oil, my hands had grease on them and I smelt like a football player covered in oil.
Her nose wrinkled, "Go wash up then we can get started."
"No." I chuckled walking over and lifting the hood of the car.
"Why not?" I looked at her, she was frowning.
"Because I have big boy work that needs to be done." I reached in and set the battery in the correct place. This was a 1984 Jeep Wagoneer; I wanted to get this baby up and running. I've been working on her for almost four months.
"Yeah? Well if you don't pass your core subjects, they'll take you out of shop and put you into a credit make up." Juliet shot back. I sighed and shut the lid reluctantly.
"Fine you win."
"Good, now go shower. You smell and look disgusting." For effect she covered her nose. I smiled and opened my arms out to her. "No." she started backing away. "No. Don't you dare touch me Spencer!" I crossed over, wrapped my arms around her and spun her around, lifting her off the ground.
"Stop! Put me down!" she cried smacking my shoulder. I kept it up, not putting her down, soon she began to giggle. Wait. Giggle? Girls actually giggled? I thought that was only in the movies. I put her down and she swatted me away. She had a grin on her face but she was looking down at her clothes. I had smeared oil onto her blue sweater. "You're so dead." She smacked me one last time.
"I'm going to wash up," I told her making my way to the shower room. She nodded and I walked into the line of showers. I grabbed my street clothes, a towel and walked over to the line of showers. I turned on the hot tap, and undressed from my work clothes. It felt weird undressing knowing there was a girl less than ten feet from me.
I wasn't shy. God knows I wasn't shy. I just wasn't the guy who didn't mind some girl looking at his junk. I mean… I think you get it. I turned off the water and realized I'd forgotten my towel on the bench outside.
"Shit," I cursed getting ready to grab it quickly. I opened the shower curtain.
"What?" I jumped out of my skin when I heard her voice. I quickly shut the curtain.
"What are you doing in here?" I asked angrily. This was the guy locker room, not the girls, or a peep show.
"You've been in there for almost twenty minutes Spencer." She said tossing me the towel. Twenty minutes? No. It couldn't have been that fast. "What time is it?"
"Um… five past four."
"Dammit!" I wrapped the towel around my waist and hopped out of the shower. My dad was going to be pissed. I quickly dressed, either forgetting that a girl was there or I didn't care. "Hey!" she yelled covering her eyes when I dropped the towel.
"You shouldn't have been in here!" I reminded her pulling on my boxers and pants. "You can look now." She slowly opened her fingers so she could peek through. I pulled my shirt over my head and rustled around, throwing things were they belonged.
"Why are you in a hurry?"
"My dad he… forget it." I slung the pack over my shoulder and made my way outside. Being the natural annoying self she was, she followed me, trailing behind me, babbling a mile a minute. I walked around the main building and I wasn't surprised to see my dad standing by the car glaring at me. Well as best as he could through the mask.
"Look." Juliet grabbed my shoulder before I could walk away. "We both aren't… exactly happy with the whole thing. But if we try hard, and get through with it, the sooner you can return to your macho life and I can stay away from you." She said.
"Fine. I'll see you later," I walked towards my dad.
"Tomorrow?!" she called.
"Maybe!" I yelled back. I looked back and I saw that she had disappeared. I tried to get into the car but I was thrown away from it.
"What part of four do you not understand?" my father demanded to know.
"I just lost track of time, I'm sorry."
"Sorry? Boy I should smack the hell outta you," he raised his hand and I flinched. My dad was two people. He was Henry "Spencer" Kane or he was Frankenstein. When he was Henry, we got along just fine. We fought, but we fought like a normal father and son would. My mom and I found Frankenstein was taking place a lot more.
When he was Frankenstein, he was violent. Protective and demanding at the same time. Things had to be his way or you got a smack in the face. He never hit my mom though, only because she could kick his ass. Me however, I wasn't as big or as strong as I should be. Meaning he could kill me if he wanted to, the only thing stopping him was Mom. She didn't care if I was messed up, disobedient and or a trouble maker. I was her baby, and that's how it was.
"Get in the fucking car before I smash you face in." he demanded in a gruff voice. I nodded and walked around the car, getting into the front seat. I looked at the school one last time and my jaw opened when I saw Juliet.
She was by a green car, her mouth open and her eyes plastered on us. "Seat belt." Dad said, I obeyed and buckled it. Juliet gave a small wave as our car passed hers. I nodded my head in her direction before sinking into my seat. We drove in silence for a little bit. "Who was that girl?"
I played it dumb, "What girl?" he gripped the steering wheel.
"That blonde chick you were with. Were you late because you were with her?"
"No," I scoffed trying to shrink even lower. At times when he tried to be a normal dad it was even more terrifying then him trying to smack me. I wished he would just punish me and get it over with.
"You having sex with this girl?" he asked.
"What?! Hell no, the 'girl' and I just met. No way in hell would I ever sleep with her."
"Watch your mouth." Was all he had to say. We (Thankfully) drove in peace and silence back to the house. He parked the car and he was out, and in the house in seconds. I grabbed my pack and made my own way back inside. Mom was in the kitchen, doing… whatever she was doing. Dad was watching TV (No surprise) even though in a few hours he'd be heading off to work.
"Hey baby, how was school?" I knew Mom was talking to me but I ignored her anyways.
"Your mother's talking to you." Dad said. I ignored him and walked into my room, shutting the door behind him. I dropped the lame old pack onto the ground. I shed my shirt, and I kicked my shoes off of my feet, they flew across the room and slammed into the wall. I had just sat down on the bed when there was a knock at the door.
"Shawn? Is something wrong?" Mom was knocking. It was better than Dad.
"No." I said.
"Can I come in?" she wondered.
"No!" I yelled burying my head into the pillow. The door opened anyways, and was shut softly. Footsteps walked over to me, and the bed bounced slightly under my mother's weight.
"Are you alright?" Mom asked running her fingers through my hair in a soothing way. "I'm fine," I inched my head away from her. She and Dad were the same. One moment they were scary as hell, and then they were all sweet and caring. Bam! The next thing you knew, they were scary again. Of course Mom was usually nice and sweet but she had her moments. And I prayed to god this wasn't one of them. Dad scared me a lot, but Mom made him look like a Bunny. We all knew it.
"No you're not, why won't you tell me the truth?"
"Why don't you go bug your husband?" I shot back. Mom withdrew her hand and I could feel her stiffen.
"Your father loves you, and you know it. I love you too, but this attitude has to stop. No more skipping school, no more street racing, and no more hanging out with that girl." She got off the bed.
"You can't tell me what to do!" I sprang up. She looked at me, her eyebrows up and her mouth in a smirk. "You're not my…"
"Not your mother? Well think again kid, 'cause I have the scars to prove it. Dinner's in five minutes. Clean up and get your ass out here." She slammed my door shut and I could hear Dad chuckling.
Why? Why did those two, out of all the people on the planet have to be my parents? Sure they loved me as Mom said they did, but they never showed it. At least Dad never did. He never gave me hugs, or kisses, he never showed me sympathy. Not even when I was little.
When I was six, and we were in Connecticut, I slipped on the ice and I broke my leg. I remember crying and holding my leg, wishing the pain would just stop. My Dad had heard my crying and had come running out, mask off, with a pistol in his hand. He ran over to me and asked what happened.
"I hurt my leg." I moaned. He looked angry. He stuffed his gun into his pants and yanked me up into a standing position. I screamed as the weight went onto my leg. He snapped, and covered my mouth was his hand.
"You little…" he looked around. "You're going to get us caught. Do you want your mom and I go to jail? Do you want to get put into a foster home and live a miserable life with people who could care less about you?" I shook my head furiously. "Good." He lifted me up (Not very softly) and carried me inside. They'd made a homemade splint for my leg. My Mom who had some nursing training had confirmed that my leg was broken. Since 'we' were on the run, I couldn't go to the hospital. My leg never set right, and sometimes I walk with a slight limp.
Without even realizing it, I was sitting at the table with a warm plate of Spaghetti in front of me. My fork was covered in sauce, and my plate was half empty. My soda was gone, and my Pineapple chunks were missing. "Wha-?" I looked at my mom.
"You were in a daze," she informed me.
"Oh." I looked down at the table.
"Thought you were a Zombie," Dad snorted pulling on his work boots. "I was gonna shoot your brains if you didn't come out soon." He laughed.
"Henry!" Mom scolded giving him a look.
"What? There's nothing wrong with me joking around with my kid." He slapped my back harder than necessary. I gave a small smile and he patted my cheeks. "There we go," he kissed my mom before grabbing the car keys. He jingled them in front me. Making sure I knew he had the car so I couldn't take it out for a ride. He gave a salute, before walking outside. We waited until we heard the purr of the engine getting further and further away.
"So, honestly. Who was that girl?" she stood up and put her plate in the sink.
"She was just a girl," I played with the noodles on the plate.
"Don't lie to me." She sat in front of me and gave me a… a pleading look? She really wanted to know who Juliet was. So I told her. I told her how Juliet was my tutor in math, the little show she put on at lunch, me forgetting to meet her after school.
"Then what?"
"I was in the shower, trying to hurry up so dad wouldn't get angry. I forgot my towel and she was there." I shrugged.
"In the locker room?"
"Mhm," I ate the rest of my food.
"Did she see anything?"
"Not sure. Maybe my chest, if she saw anything else she didn't show it." I stood up and washed my plate off in the sink. "You aren't lying to me are you?" I looked outside. The sky was dark, and the sun had almost completely set.
"No." She nodded and didn't stop me as I made my way to the room. I shut the door and collapsed onto to the bed. One thing I hadn't told my mom, was the fact that I maybe… maybe I liked her. Okay? Yes I liked her. She was gorgeous; any blind person could see that.
She was nice, and her hair reminded me of pure gold. The way it shimmered in the sunlight and matched her skin just perfectly. I loved how when she walked, her hair would bounce around her shoulders. I hadn't noticed till now but I had been watching that girl for weeks. And that stunned me. Most girls chased after me, and I let them. None of them were worth my time, and that sounds mean and sexist but it's true. Juliet was the only girl who wasn't chasing me, and that attracted me to her.
You know how in the movies some popular guy would have dozens of girls around him? He didn't see any of them except the one girl who could care less about him. And he ended up trying to get her attention, sometimes it worked and sometimes he scared her off. It was that 'You always want what you can't have' crap. Juliet didn't want me, and deep down I knew she could never be mine.
But that wasn't going to stop me from trying. I was almost asleep when there was a sharp knock. I looked around. It wasn't coming from the door… but from the window. I got out of bed and opened the window. Marcus, Gus and Cherry were all standing there.
"What are you doing here?" I hissed.
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the track." Marcus said.
"I'm trying to sleep."
"Well come on," Marcus insisted.
"I can't."
"Why not?" Cherry put her hair in a ponytail.
"My dad took the car," I told them. Marcus got an evil look on his face and held up a pair of keys.
"It's alright I swiped my old mans." The silver keys reflected light from the street lamp.
"Come on Shawn," Gus urged. I really want to go, god knows I do. But … I promised mom I wouldn't… wait. No I didn't. Not verbally anyways.
"Fine. Let me get a shirt." I told them turning around.
"You don't need one, you look better without it!" Cherry voiced.
"Eww," Marcus looked at her.
"What?" she demanded. I smiled, pulled on my shirt and hopped right out of the window, without making a single sound.
Please review! I want to know what you all think.
And Some Personal News: My family welcomed a brand new baby girl last night into the world. Her name is Marley. And she's so adorable! And I might be posting a Percy Jackson story soon, so look for it!
