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Chapter 4
"Let's go, Jeff!" Matt yelled as he gathered book bags and turned off lights on his way out the door. Jeff had been given him a hard time for weeks. "Get up! The bus will be here any minute."
"I'm not going to school today." Jeff turned his back on him and pulled the blanket over his head.
"Fine. Take it up with Dad." Matt didn't have time to deal with Jeff's laziness. "If you're in the same grade next year, don't blame me!" He hurried to get the twins into the truck, making Sloan and Marty get into the back of his truck so he could wait at the end of the long dirt drive way for the bus when Jeff was supposed to wait with them so he could get the twins to daycare. Now he'd have to wait in a long line just to get in the door. This was his routine and it didn't work if just one thing went wrong and sometimes his brothers bucked against him, because he wasn't dad, but dad had to work long hours at the plant to pay the bills.
They had so many bills, the mortgage on the farm, the taxes, the utilities and a whole lot of doctors and hospital bills to pay even though they hadn't been able to save his mother's life. He often wondered if more would have been done if they had had insurance. He remembered how tired his mother had seemed that last summer and then how quickly she had faded after going to the hospital. They'd said she had cancer and that there was no hope. He'd heard of other people getting cancer and they had been treated. They were alive and well. He guessed that was just for people who had money and that made him hate the people around him even more.
Cheyenna was full of rich people or at least middle classed. They didn't struggle like his family did and they often made snide remarks about his family. They believed that poor people where poor because they were lazy. There was no other explanation for it in this day and age. Funny. Matt thought that they were the lazy ones. They didn't have to do as much as he did in a day. They didn't' have to roll out of bed before the sun rose. Hell, some days he didn't even lay his head on his pillow until well after midnight.
He dozed off in study hall, his head propped up on his hand. He was so far gone that he didn't even hear the bell ring, but he did feel the hands that touched his shoulders. It had felt like a gentle massage and made him let out a sigh. But when he opened his eyes, there was no one there. So he guessed he had imagined it.
It was lunch time, so he hurried to the cafeteria and joined the shortest line. Which was always the bagged lunch line. He provided a yellow ticket that he hated. It seemed he was the only kid in school that received free lunch, but he had to eat. So he grabbed the bag that contained the sub of the day, an apple and a bag of chips, then he grabbed a milk from the ice chest nearby and hurried outside to his favorite spot.
All the classrooms had outside doors and they were all recessed into the exterior brick of the building, giving each a small alcove. There was one that was hidden by overgrown hedges and he liked the privacy. It was the only time he had to himself and he looked forward to it every day.
"Leave me alone, Logan."
Matt groaned. Some couple had decided to pause right in front of his spot to have one of their quarrels.
"Don't you ever call me that again!" Logan Mitchell. The mayor's kid. The football captain and quarterback. The privileged rich kid made Matt sick. He hated him. "You embarrassed me in front of all my friends!"
"Owe. That hurts, Logan." The girl screeched.
Matt didn't know what was said before they had stopped in front of him, but the girl must have said something insulting because the next thing Matt knew the girl was shoved through the hedges by the tight grasp Logan had on both her upper arms. He slammed her into the door then struck her cheek with an open palm.
"Hey!" Matt couldn't help it. He was on his feet and in Logan's face before he had time to think.
"It's none of your business, Hardy!"
"You don't put your hands on a woman. Look how much bigger you are than her!" Matt screamed and gave the guy's chest a hard shove. "Why don't you try that shit out on me, Mitchell?"
"She's not worth the time." Logan smirked. "She's nothing but a whore anyway."
It was just one more reason not to like Logan Mitchell. He had always thought the guy was an ass, but it turned out he was abusive to girls too. And the whole town thought he was the greatest just because he could play football. Well, if Matt's life was different, he knew he would be running circles around that fool.
He turned and saw the girl sitting in the corner, hugging her knees and sobbing. He didn't know what hurt her more, the slap or Logan calling her a whore. Her shoulders shook and she gasped for breath.
He knew who she was even though she hid her face. The ankle length dress gave her away.
Randie Parker. Her family had stayed in town after that summer. Her father rented a house in town, but it had been six months before Randie had come to join them. He had never known where she had been all that time, but when she arrived at school, he knew she wasn't the same little girl he had known. She even had to dress like a princess. Wearing nice church dresses when the other girls wore jeans. Yet, she was still one of the prettiest girls in school. Well, her good girl style didn't impress him. She was stuck up. A rich bitch who thought she was too good to associate with him. She's the one who thought she was too above him to even speak to him in public. Even telling him they couldn't be friends when he tried to say hello on her first day.
"Randie?" He knelt beside her and touched her shoulder. She sniffed back tears and turned her head away so he couldn't see her face. Seeing her like that, after another childhood memory of her had plagued his dreams the night before, just softened him.
She answered by throwing her arms around his neck and collapsing against him. He breathed in the scent of her hair. It smelled like a summer rain, but it didn't do anything for him. Neither did her the feel of her long, wavy strawberry blonde locks. Those big blue eyes weren't that amazing. He didn't want to touch that perfect complexion and he didn't want to lay his lips on those full pouty lips.
Geeze, the girl had not been single a day since she'd stepped through the high school doors. She'd been with Logan since day one and he was a senior. He'd heard things about her too. That she gave it up easily to more than just Logan. He had no reason to believe that they weren't true. He'd seen her walking down the hall with Logan's buddies more than a few times and they always seemed to have their hands on her. Especially when she and Logan broke up which was almost a weekly thing. That's probably what their fight had been about.
He tilted her chin and wiped away the runny mascara from her cheeks. Oh, who was he kidding? She was beautiful. He'd always thought so.
"This place is kind of like that old fig tree." She sniffed back her tears and gave a little laugh.
"Yeah, I guess it is." He smiled.
"Sometimes, I wish I could go back." She whispered, then got up and left.
"Me too." Matt whispered and sighed, knowing that could never happen. Growing up brought too much knowledge and too many truths. Things that just couldn't be undone. And the veil of innocence had long been lifted from his eyes. Especially where Randie Parker was concerned.
XXX
Randie was met by brutal shove the moment she got home from school. The force had sent her stumbling and her side landed on the corner of a nearby end table.
"What were you doing with Matt Hardy?" Her father growled. She didn't answer. Only lowered her eyes to the floor. She wasn't allowed to talk to Matt. From the moment he'd brought her back to Cheyenna. Even at school she wasn't safe. Not with Jaycee waiting, watching and hoping she'd give her a reason to run home and tell.
But things were slightly better. He had to be careful because her Aunt Peg stopped in often. She was always sweet to her and always brought her gifts. Clothes and trinkets that Jaycee couldn't claim. The jewelry because her aunt would point it out if she saw it on Jaycee and the clothes because her father insisted that she keep her legs covered by long skirts and she wore a thin sweater at all times to cover the bruises. But she had to make her aunt think it was the style of clothing she preferred. Any altercation would only lead to them packing up and moving again.
Boys at school seemed to like her. They were always asking her out. Always trying to talk to her, but she didn't understand why. She wasn't obese, but she wasn't tiny like Jaycee and she the dresses she wore didn't exactly show off her curves. But she couldn't talk to them. Actually, she had become frightened by men, especially the very tall or very muscular ones. And it was easy to turn them down, because her father didn't allow her to date. Until he found out about Logan's interest. Logan Mitchell had money and her father loved money. Telling her she'd regret it if she screwed it up with him.
That day at school, he'd tried to unbutton her blouse in front of all of his friends. She had brushed him off and the word pig had slipped out of her mouth. She hadn't said it very loud, but it had been enough to anger him. That was the first time he had struck her, just when she had started to think he might protect her. He had been nice up until then, but she had refused him the night before and she guessed he was getting tired of it. He had been mean and disrespectful towards her the entire day.
"I asked you a question!" her father pulled her to her feet by a clump of her hair. "What were you doing with that boy?" She could only sob and shake. Any answer she gave would only make him angrier. He shoved her aside with obvious disgust. "That boy is nothing but trouble. He's lives in dump and comes from trash. He's a lazy bum!"
"He's not." She meekly defended before she had time to think.
"What did you say?" her father was shocked by her insolence.
"He's not lazy." She whispered, her gaze on the floor. "He works hard and he's kind."
"Oh is he now?"
Whap!
She took a hard blow to the face and surely would have gotten more if the doorbell hadn't interrupted. A police officer stood at the door and for the first time in her life, she saw fear in her father's eyes.
