Looking Through Your Eyes
Chapter 3
Lance had limped his way home the previous night. Luckily, by then, his father had already went to bed. But when he went to breakfast the next morning, it was to meet the silence of all three of them in the kitchen: his father, his stepmother and his little half-brother. No doubt Allison had told the little tyke to not talk to him.
"Morning," he mumbled. His cheek was an array of purple and blue, bruises from the previous night. There was dry blood on his temple from when his head scraped the rough ground of the playground.
He was met with silence. Rolling his eyes and making an impatient sound, he silently ate his breakfast. But after a while, without the usual noise of Benedict, he abandoned his meal and went back to his room.
He hadn't been able to sleep right away. So during the time that he was wide awake, he got rid of every Marie related thing in his room, ranging from clothes, to mix CDs and pictures. He would drop it off today and probably get another verbal attack. Nothing he could do about that.
It was at eleven o'clock that he drove down to Marie's house. Allison had sent Benedict to a weekend day care centre while she and Rick were at work. Seeing as how Marie's front door was always unlocked, he walked in without knocking or ringing the doorbell.
He went to her room, carrying the box. When he opened her door, he was met with a plastic bag being thrown at him. He managed to duck at the last minute.
"Take your stuff and leave," she snapped, taking the box from him, mindful to not touch him.
Lance picked up the bag from the floor. "Marie, can we talk about this?"
"Just leave, Lance. I don't want to have anything to do with you ever again," Marie said. There was a hint of sadness in her voice, but there was definitely a lot of scorn.
"I didn't mean to do it, Marie," he said. "I'm sorry." He turned to leave.
"Give me a few days to cool off, Lance," she said. "Maybe then I'll be willing to just be friends."
Lance nodded and left. He got into his jeep and wondered on where to go next. Maybe to the café and maybe apologize to Summers? He blanched at the thought.
He opted to just drive around for the rest of the morning and maybe have lunch somewhere in town. It was about half an hour later when he realized where he was driving to.
Katherine Pryde's neighbourhood.
He stopped in front of her house. Powder blue walls and a nice garden, complete with a white fence around it. It didn't look as though her parents were home. Taking a deep breath, he walked up to her door and rang the doorbell. She answered it a couple of seconds later.
"Can I help you?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Err," Lance started. He must have looked like an idiot, just standing there without a thing to say. "I – uh – I just sort of wanted to see if you were alright."
"Right," she said slowly. Her cheek, which was bruised when Summers had accidentally punched her last night, could be seen clearly. Lance felt himself boil with unexplainable rage. "Look, if you, like, don't have any real purpose, could you kindly leave?"
"I'm sorry," he blurted out.
She raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"I'm sorry. About the fight last night. One of us could have done something to stop it. But we were both being idiots. And blinded by pride. No pun intended," he added hastily.
"Keep talking," she said, ignoring the last comment.
"Look, I'm not good at this kind of stuff, alright?" Lance said angrily, to cover up his embarrassment of apologizing to her.
She smirked at him, leaning against the door frame. "I, like, don't know why you're apologizing to me exactly, but yeah. So I guess apology accepted. That is, unless you screw it up again and we both know you will," she said. She groaned. A red convertible had parked itself behind Lance's jeep. "You should go."
Lance turned around and scowled. Summers, upon seeing him, scowled back.
"Um, I'll see you, I guess," he said. He turned around and walked down the steps, hitting his shoulder against Summers' on purpose.
"What do you want, Scott?" Lance heard her say angrily as he got into his jeep. He smirked. He had gotten his rival's best friend to forgive for something he wasn't quite sure of. For fighting that guy she called a best friend, perhaps? And yet, she couldn't forgive him. An evil glint in his eye, a plan started to form in his head.
"Hey, mom," Lance said. He had decided against lunch in town and had instead called Tatiana, who although was mad at him, asked him to come over anyway.
"I should be mad at you, but it's just so good to see you again," Helen said, hugging her son who was at least six inches taller than you.
"Sorry I haven't been visiting lately," he said, scratching the back of his neck.
"I've heard a lot of stories about what you're doing in school, Lance," Helen said disapprovingly as she went back into the kitchen. "But since I am not your legal parent," she said some obscenities under her breath and caused Lance's eyes to widen in surprise, "I can't do anything. Tatiana, Jules, Amber, Clay, lunch!"
"Get back here, Amber!" Tatiana's unmistakeable voice shouted.
A five-year-old girl with blonde hair shot past Lance and hid behind him just as Tatiana appeared at the doorway.
"Lance," she said coolly.
"Tat," he said, just as coolly.
Tatiana rolled her eyes. "Clay's on the phone with grandma," she informed.
Helen gave an exasperated sigh. She picked up the cordless phone in the kitchen and said, "Hi, mom. Clay has to come to lunch now. Yes, we'll visit next weekend, mother. Yes, I love you, too, mother. Clay come down now. Lance is here."
Every time Lance came to stay with his mom, it was always awkward. Here they were, growing up like any normal family should. Tatiana had accepted Clay Richards with open arms, although she had refused to take his last name so she was Tatiana Petros.
"Just got off the phone with dad," Tatiana said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Don't you have cheerleading practice?" he asked. He was lying down on the guest room bed where it had inevitably turned into his room.
"Cancelled. Jean has to go to Connecticut to visit her grandparents," she said. "Dad and Al not talking to you then?"
"Even Ben won't," he muttered.
"Ouch," she said. She flopped down onto the bed next to him. "I hate this, you know? I could never be mad at you for more than an hour. It sucks." Lance grinned wryly at her. "Remember that time when I was five? You cut off the hair off of all my dolls and I was mad at you but then dad told you to say sorry and you did and then I said that they looked better without hair anyway which was really kinda weird cuz now that I-"
"Shut up, Tat," Lance said. "Geez, could you like take a breath or something?"
"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "Lance? Are you happy?"
Lance thought about it for a moment. "I guess I am. No. That's a fucking lie. I'm not happy living with dad and Allison and Ben. Sure, Ben's alright, but what does it count if you're not happy right? I miss all those times when were younger Tat. You know, me and you, you and me, us against the world. Just the two of us. I'd give anything to go back to that. But unfortunately…"
"Yeah," Tatiana agreed. "I mean, sure, Juliana and Amber Lyn are the absolute sweetest, if not sickeningly sweet, but they're nothing compared to my empty-headed, protective, idiotic brother."
"Yea – hey!"
Tatiana laughed at him and he couldn't help but join in the laughter.
The weekend pretty much passed by uneventfully. Lance had stayed at home while Allison, Rick and Benedict went out for a family picnic. He had watched DVDs and played video games all day.
Monday finally came and unfortunately for him, Geometry was his first class. The results of his test last Friday. And as if having the stepmom on his case wasn't bad enough, Hornberry had spent ten minutes lecturing him in front of the class. He was assigned a tutor with a session to start that same afternoon. He wondered who he would get when the teacher said, "Give this to Katherine Pryde during fourth period. She should be at the Counsellor's office."
Katherine Pryde? Pryde, of all people! But then again, this just happened to make his plan work a lot easier.
"Sure, Mrs Hornberyy," he said and left the classroom, staring dismally at his test paper and the slip. At least his tutor wouldn't be a glasses-wearing, spotty geek.
Fourth period came and he went to the Counsellor's office which just happened to be on the other side of the school. There he found her rearranging folders in one of the file cabinets. He knocked on the door awkwardly and quickly. He didn't want to be late for History again. Too bad he couldn't skip it like he used to do with Marie.
"Can I help you?" she said when she noticed him.
Lance almost felt a sense of déjà vu taking over him. "I hope so. You're my tutor," he said.
"Give me that," she said, snatching the pink slip from his grip. Sure enough, the familiar handwriting of Mrs Hornberry, the Geometry teacher was there. She had gotten about ten slips like these in the past two months or so.
"She wants us to start this afternoon," he said.
"I read it on the slip," she said. She read it over with a hard expression on her face. "Forget it. I'll look for someone else to do it."
Lance watched her go away disbelievingly.
Despite his better judgement, he went to Mrs Summers' café after school to wait for Kitty in hopes that she would change her mind about tutoring him. He knew she had cheering practice after school and was very surprised to find her there, wiping tables.
"Aren't you supposed to be at practice?" he asked.
"Aren't you supposed to be in a hole somewhere?" she asked.
"Okay. Why so hostile? We were fine last Saturday," he said, attempting to follow her to the back.
"First of all," she said sternly, "there is no we. Second of all, what are you doing here?"
"I was gonna wait and pretty much annoy you until you give in and become my tutor when you get back from practice. But since you're here-"
"I already told you, Lance," she said, "I'm not helping you. And I'm sorry about that. I mean, why would you want me to willingly become your tutor? I'm best friends with Scott Summers."
He fidgeted slightly. "Well, we don't have to tell him you're tutoring me."
"Order something," Kitty said quickly, behind the counter.
"What?"
"Order something," she repeated.
"What are you-"
"One mocha? Coming right up," she said, busying herself with the coffee-maker machine. When she finished making the coffee five minutes later, she turned back to him with a smile on her face. "That'll be $2.35. Oh, hey, Scott! Just got back from practice?"
"Hey," he nodded at her. "What're you doing here?" he sneered at Lance.
"Chill. I'm just buying mocha. Heard it's the best in town," he said. He took out some dollar bills and passed them to Kitty who handed him a receipt. He nodded at the pair before leaving the café, turning the piece of paper in his hand over to find that Kitty had written him a message.
Meet me at Meadowhill Park. 6 o'clock. Don't be late. – K. Pryde
He smiled to himself as he made his way to his jeep.
"I'm heading out!" Lance yelled as 6 o'clock steadily neared. It was about a fifteen-minute drive from his house to Meadowhill Park and he was really running late.
"What do you mean you're heading out? Dinner's about to be served," Allison said indignantly. Ever since the fight incident last Friday, she had started acting differently towards him.
Lance rolled his eyes. "I'm not gonna go and fight Scott Summers again, for your info, Al. I have a tutoring session to get to," he said.
"This late?" she asked incredulously.
"Mommy, mommy! Look at the picture I drawed!" Benedict said, holding up a piece of paper. On it were four figures that closely resembled Lance, himself, Allison and Rick. The sun was in the shape of a crooked heart.
"That's really nice, sweetheart," Allison cooed. She fixed a glare on her stepson. "Here's an idea. How about you take Benedict with you," Lance started protesting at this and unfortunately had to refrain from cursing because of Benedict's presence, "so that your father and I can have a romantic dinner?"
"Whatever," he muttered and took a hold of Benedict's tiny hand in his and practically drug him out the door.
"Ben, I'm gonna leave you at Marie's place alright? Will that be okay?" Lance asked. He couldn't explain to himself why he didn't want his half-brother to be there during his first tutoring session with Kitty Pryde.
"Okay, Lance!" he said, smiling and humming a tune that sounded vaguely like 'London bridge is falling down'.
About five minutes later, Lance was holding onto Benedict's hand with the other knocking on the door incessantly. The door opened a couple of seconds later. Marie was wearing a green shirt and a pair of black pants and had a pencil on her ear.
"Can I help you?"
Lance cursed silently. He seemed to be getting that question a lot.
"Um, yeah, I was wondering if you could watch Ben for a couple of hours for me?" he asked quickly.
"Hi, Mawie!" Benedict said.
"Uh, sure, I guess," she said.
"Thanks. I'll be back in about an hour," he said.
"Date?"
"No," he said. "Tutoring."
"Kitty Pryde?"
Lance contemplated the question. How on earth did she find out? He nodded. "Yeah, her."
"You're late," were the first words Lance heard as he walked over to where the wooden benches and tables were located. He had stopped at a fast food joint to buy some food.
"Brought food," he said, ignoring her statement. "And I sorta had to drop Ben off at Marie's." He fidgeted slightly as he mentioned his ex's name.
"I don't eat meat," Kitty said upon noticing the paperbag he had in his hand. "I'm Jew."
"Oh," Lance said, feeling slightly awkward. He had bought her a double cheese burger. "Sorry about that."
"It's alright," she said. "I already ate anyway." She opened up a textbook. "Well? Like, what are you waiting for? Take a seat." Feeling his face become warm, he took a seat across from her. "See this? This is Geometry."
"I kinda figured," he said. He pointed towards the first word on the page. "Says right there, see? Geometry."
"Okay, you know what? If you're not going to be totally serious about this I might as well leave right now. I'm, like, already risking a lot by not working tonight. Scott got suspicious before I left," she said, putting the book and pencil down. He just stared at her. "You know what, forget it. This was a waste of time." She started to pack things up.
"No, Kitty, wait," he said. "Can we try again?"
She just looked at him with a critical eye. "Why? So you can pull your bullshit on me? You know, I'm not gonna fall for that whole rebel, bad boy thing you've got going on. I've known you since pre-K, we've been taking virtually all of the same classes together, and you have never spoken to me, not once. Saturday was pretty much the first time.
"But despite that, I can see the way you treat Scott ever since he moved here. And pretty much every other person in Northbrook. And every time I do, I see spite and arrogance. If you think you can pull some charm on me, like, forget it. 'Cause it's not going to work," she finished. "Can we get started?"
He nodded. "I didn't mean to rile you up."
"Well, you did. But forget about it, alright? We have fifty-four minutes left," she said. "Page 75." She turned the book so that it faced him.
And as the time went by, Lance felt himself warm up to her, despite her cold exterior towards him.
"Do you need a ride home?" Lance asked after the session was over.
"No, it's alright. Scott's picking me up," Kitty said.
"So, tutor, when's the next session?" he asked. He threw his things into the backseat of his jeep.
"How about Wednesday at 5?" she suggested.
"Any time's fine with me," he said. He narrowed his eyes at an incoming car. However, it wasn't the red convertible that belonged to the guy he hated. "Sure you don't want me to drop you off?"
"I'll be fine," she said.
"Well, see you around then," he said and drove off, leaving the pretty brunette to fend for herself.
When he reached Marie's house, it was to find the toddler sleeping against the armrest of the couch as Marie sat at the other end, sketching him. There were a lot of details to it too, to reflect what she thought about him.
"Am I disturbing something?" Lance asked.
Marie jumped slightly and turned around. "No, no you weren't," she said. She reached over and nudged Ben lightly. "Benny, wake up, Lance is here."
"I don't wanna go to day care!" he whined.
Marie smiled softly at him. "Come on, kiddo. Your big brother's here," she said. Benedict finally woke up after about ten minutes of coaxing. "You know," she said as Benedict went to the kitchen to wash his hands, "just for the record, I'm still mad at you, and I'm only doing this because I love Benedict too much."
Lance just shrugged. "Doesn't matter. He already had dinner right?" Marie nodded. "Well, we better get going now. Ben, come on, let's go home."
"Bye, bye, Mawie!" Benedict said, smiling toothily at her.
"Bye, bye, Benny," she said back, pinching his cheek lightly.
During the ride back home, Lance said to Benedict, "This is going to be between me and you, alright, Ben? Don't tell mommy or daddy that you were at Marie's tonight, alright, kiddo?"
"Okay, Lance!" Benedict agreed, although he didn't quite understand why exactly.
Lance smiled. Tomorrow was a brand new day.
A/N: I'm pooped. My cousins' wedding is this Sunday and unfortunately I've got a task to do. Pretty much busy for the next few nights. Anyways, don't forget to review!