With Jessi away training with Foss in the Grand Canyon, it was time to seduce the sweet Amanda Bloom. He found her at the Rack at the end of her shift and greeted her with a bright, confident smile. "Hi Amanda," he said.
Whenever he smiled, she seemed to return it with her whole heart. Even though he'd told her just yesterday that he needed time to make a choice between his sugar and spice – not that he had put it quite that way to her – she reacted as he had predicted. She had assumed one of two possibilities: she'd been chosen or no choice had yet been made.
"Hi Kyle," she said with her bright smile. When he made no move to her, she tilted her head slightly and squinted. It was her adorable questioning look. "You're not here for a smoothie?"
"I'm here to walk you home."
Her eyes shined with the statement. She moved quickly toward him, "I'd love that!"
He held out his arm in the gentlemanly way girls in the movies Jessi and Amanda both watched – did they not realize they liked many of the same romantic mushy stuff? She hastily and giddily took the proffered arm and squeezed it to her.
He was acutely aware of just where his arm was. Although he'd made his decision late last night, it didn't mean he couldn't be nervous about it. Butterflies were flying all over his insides as she held him terrifically close.
Kyle smiled to Josh when he noticed Josh roll his eyes. He nodded and did something slightly out of the ordinary for him. He stuck out his thumb from his free fist and kept it out of her view but in Josh's and then winked to him.
It had the desired effect: Josh stood stock still with his jaw hanging wide open.
Kyle turned to Amanda and said, "Shall we?"
Without hesitation she whispered, "Yes please." With those words they went out the door and were soon on the sidewalk, walking at a very leisurely pace.
As they passed the park beside the Rack, he heard her sigh as she squeezed herself even closer to him. "This was very sweet of you Kyle," she murmured almost under her breath.
He didn't answer her with words but squeezed her back instead. Besides, she was his sugar, not the other way around. They continued the slow progress to her house and he found himself counting the steps they took. They were already at 253 for him, 331 for her. Now however, he kept his steps in perfect harmony with hers to keep her from bouncing in his grip.
After some hesitation, he started, "When we get to your house, I would like to show you something on the piano."
"Sure," she said quietly. "But only if my mom's not home. She knows we're not dating anymore and wouldn't approve of my bringing you over under those circumstances."
He saw the fish hook she offered. She'd mischievously tried to get him to say that he'd chosen her exclusively. Well, considering his plans, he couldn't say it and stay truthful afterward. He smiled down at her, saying nothing at all.
In any case, he'd made sure Carol Bloom wouldn't be home. Her boss had an emergency that had conveniently reared its ugly head just an hour ago. How bad he'd been to start the problem! It did tweak his conscience to a significant degree, but he needed to get Amanda first, or she'd most certainly never agree to anything even remotely intimate.
They stayed silent again for another 211 steps. He speculated they'd be at her house in another 380 or so. Their steps weren't always the same size and therefore introduced an unknown in an otherwise simple equation.
He sighed but caught it before it had gotten too big.
"What's up?" Amanda asked, straightening and releasing her hold a little more than he liked.
He forced his cheeks to blush by pumping blood into them. He smiled and said, "It's embarrassing and I'd rather not talk about it."
She smiled in a devilishly cute way, "Oh, pray tell kind sir," she said in a forced British accent.
It had taken him a few seconds to get enough blood to the other area to get an exaggerated reaction. He rolled his eyes at her and sighed, "The last time it happened you rescued me from drowning." After a quick, calculated pause, he said, "You'd been rather uncomfortable at the time as I recall my fair lady." He tacked on a British accent at the end.
The hook he'd given her would show him how much effort he'd have to expend to get her in a suitable condition for his experiment. He didn't expect this attempt to work, and even thought he'd have to spend a few days to accomplish this first goal, but he was instantly surprised when she glanced at him, down there.
"Oh my!" she said rather loudly. He felt her blushing now as well. Yet through it all, she squeezed his arm harder.
The excitement inside him was building too quickly he felt – maybe he'd gone a little overboard with the artificial stimulation – so he actively counted the steps they took, still in perfect harmony. "Six hundred," he announced.
"Six hundred what?" she asked.
He'd known very well she'd question such a statement. "Steps we've taken since we left the Rack."
She released her grip on his arm a little more than he'd liked. "You've been counting steps all this time?"
"And a number of other more embarrassing thoughts, I admit." He knew he was still blushing a little from before.
"Good, because I thought that was strange even for you." She said the words smiling broadly.
His smile faltered ever so slightly as he looked into her eyes. "About that, um…" He trailed off, unable or unwilling to continue. His steps even fell out of synch with hers, making her bounce in relation to him. He quickly and effortlessly corrected that.
She surprised him with her next words, "I want you to pick me Kyle. I think," she paused slightly and turned away, "I think I loved you even when I was with Charlie."
"I know I loved you. Josh and Lori teased me about it for weeks if not months." There was no hiding his embarrassment but it also felt good to let the truth out.
They took several steps and she started to snuggle his arm again. "Did you lie to me Kyle?"
"No," he said very quickly. "What do you mean?" he asked when she had turned to him with her questioning look. It was even cuter than usual because it even held a small smile in her mouth and in her eyes. She was certain of something.
Her smile grew as she stared into his eyes. "You lied to me when I asked you if you liked me in the library on your first day of school."
Talk about digging up the past! She may not have his perfect memory, but it was a wonder to him that she would bring this up now. Considering there was nothing to hide or be ashamed of anymore, he welcomed the truth. "Yes I did." He interrupted her with his free hand on her lips. She silenced immediately, and her heart beat a little faster. "I fell for you the day I heard you play on the piano. You were an angel, though I didn't know what an angel was at the time."
It was her turn to be quiet for a time. "I have to be honest Kyle, you've always been remarkable. It took you only a few days to remember how to talk and since then you've been able to do so many wondrous things."
"The prom," he said lightly.
She turned to him with something like fire in her eyes. "Can you even forget things Kyle?"
"It takes effort," he answered instinctively, his guard down.
She stopped walking and pulled him to a stop too. "Jessi's just like you."
He didn't like the direction their conversation was going. It was going all wrong. He thought there was a high probability she would give him up for Jessi. He had to try and change those odds before it was too late. "She's my sister." It was blunt beyond belief, even for him, but sometimes a blunt weapon was necessary.
"That hasn't stopped either of you." Her tone reflected past pain very clearly. She was very good at wielding blunt weapons too.
If he continued the discussion – or argument, he couldn't quite decide at this point – he knew she had him painted into a corner. Check mate was inevitable. Only a parlay or bargain could get him out safely. "I really want to show you something on your piano."
"And I was trying to seduce you," she said.
He was totally confused. One moment she pushed him away, and the next she tried to lure him in. He said the first words that came to him, "But you were just going to give me up to Jessi. You were going to make my decision for me."
She didn't react to his accusations. "Relationships go two ways Kyle. It's not just your decision."
"It's not?"
She sighed noisily before she took his hand in hers and pulled him along toward her house. "If my mom's not home, we'll talk there."
He opened his mouth and almost told her she would be absent but caught himself just in time. How naïve could he be?
At the much quicker pace, it didn't take long to get to her house. She saw the empty driveway and said, "Good, she's not home." She didn't smile though and it worried him.
She dragged him to the front door, closed the door firmly behind them, and even locked it. She said, "Come with me," and pulled him up the stairs, never even glancing at her piano. Upstairs was good though; it meant her bedroom.
The butterflies were buzzing noisily inside him. His knees were weakening and his resolve to tackle the developing scenario with an objective, clinical eye was dissolving rapidly. She opened her bedroom door and shooed him inside. She left him in her bedroom for a moment and went to the bathroom. He didn't have the heart to listen to what she was doing; he was too nervous.
He did notice the bathroom fan being turned on, only because it was loud. The toilet was never flushed but she used the sink, probably to wash her hands. He stared at Amanda's bed, which was certainly large enough for the two of them. He swallowed hard.
She appeared in the doorway and gently pushed him further into her room by placing a delicate hand to his back. She had a towel in her hand and some clothes folded above it. She wore very little, and his eyes were instantly distracted by what her clothes normally hid.
Amanda Bloom definitely had spice. He swallowed hard for the second time.
She stared hard at him as she put the clothes in a pile at the end of her bed and she draped the towel on the corner of the open door. "I'm not doing this to have sex with you."
The word sex burned his ears. "You could have fooled me," he said, his voice suddenly husky.
She turned away from him, a smile on her lips. It wasn't her normal smile though. It was planned, determined. She opened the window and raised the blinds before she turned back to him. "If you hear my mother in the driveway, you have to get dressed and jump out the window before she sees you."
Her words were spoken with steel, with an edge that could cut just about anything. The sweet Amanda Bloom wasn't just spicy, she had an edge; she was dangerous.
She rushed to him and hastily removed his shirt before giving him a big hug. Although their temperatures were very close, she felt like her skin was blazing hot. She pulled away enough to kiss him fiercely while she pushed him toward her bed.
When they landed and her lips weren't still stuck to his, he scrambled his resistance, "What are you doing?"
She sighed and rolled her eyes. She rose onto her knees and displayed the sight that had eluded him for so long. It didn't disappoint – and now he might even revisit it in his memories for as long as he lived! "I'm giving you – us! – a taste of our future."
He finished her statement with a terribly sober thought. "If I pick you."
She smiled sadly at him. "Mood killer!" She giggled nervously and said, "How could you not pick me?" With that her lips found his and her face and golden hair dominated his senses. Her skin, wherever it touched his, seemed to react chemically to his. His breathing quickened, his pulse quickened, and he grew somewhat delirious. All he could think of was Amanda and her body as it squirmed and squiggled atop him.
As he had suspected, there would be more than enough spice in the bedroom if he picked her.
Hadn't he already chosen a path, a course that involved not only Amanda and Jessi, but anyone else who wanted him? Gazing into her eyes, his plans were blatantly destroyed.
When she was done with a fiery trail of kisses on his neck, he muttered, "I'm yours, do as you will!" He was done fighting.
She smiled radiantly. "Can't stop here," she said breathlessly. He relaxed his entire body as she scooted further down his legs. He vaguely knew where she was and what she was doing but he didn't actively pay too much attention. He wanted the memory to be imperfect, so that he might be able to experience the same range of emotions and sensations the next time.
There was no way he'd pick anyone but Amanda, his sugar, his spice, his everything nice!
He felt his entire body contract when he felt her hand touch him, down there. The very next moment, he smelled ozone in her bedroom. Alarmed, he saw his sweet Amanda, blinking rapidly, her face blackened as with soot, and her hair standing straight in all directions.
She somewhat miraculously could speak, "I didn't expect that."
A cruel twist of fate had Carol Bloom's car pull up into the driveway of the home. He doubted he would have heard it even half a minute ago. "Your mom's here," he whispered as he rose to his feet and readjusted his drawers and the rest of his clothes.
She only nodded, and tried valiantly to smooth her hair. "I don't think that was supposed to happen," she said.
"Me neither," he said with a sad smile.
"You'll have to explain."
She said the words will all the authority she could muster, but she was clearly afraid too.
"I will, even if it makes you leave me." He jumped out the window and landed effortlessly onto his head, and died instantly.
***
A parent's most fearsome memories typically involved the death of their child. But finding your teenaged daughter in only her panties screaming at the top of her lungs for an ex boyfriend who seemed to have killed himself by jumping out her bedroom window? Even ignoring her daughter's inexplicable wild hair and her darkened face, which ought to trouble her too, it was insignificant when compared to what happened next.
The girl next door, another adopted child with a dark past, came running butt naked. She briefly and coldly stared at Amanda's open window, into her eyes. The girl was understandably confused when she saw her, Carol Bloom, standing there, staring at the dead ex boyfriend on the ground.
When Jessi crouched beside the dead ex boyfriend, her brother, and somehow knocked out the power for the neighbourhood and revived the boy, it really made the next decision crystal clear. With or without Amanda's help or her consent, they were leaving town that night, and never coming back.
***
Kyle opened his eyes and filled his lungs with air. Returning to life was not a pleasant sensation.
The angel who revived him was angry beyond belief. "What the hell did you just do?" she asked, demanding an answer. "Why did you sleep with Carol Bloom?"