His neck turned red, and his face was just starting to get that way too when he decided that the mashed potatoes on his tray were incredibly interesting. Drew gave him a brotherly pat on the back.
“—And this is exactly what I was talking about when I told you that you need to work on your communication skills when it comes to girls.”
I couldn’t help but give a little chuckle as I stood to put my napkin laden tray up and headed to class. Lunch was almost over.
“You still gonna spend the night tonight, Jennifer?”
She didn’t hear me. She was too busy staring at Aiden, who was still staring at his potatoes. I already knew the answer was yes, so I just let it be and headed for the garbage can to toss my bottle of water. Drew grabbed my tray just as I was dumping it and put it in the return slot with his. I glanced up to thank him, and his lips where on mine before I could utter a single word. It wasn’t a long kiss, but it was long enough that I could feel it clear down to my toes. He pulled away slightly, and a smile spread across his face when he looked down at me.
“That good, huh?”
I rolled my eyes and pushed past him playfully and instantly regretted it because it sent a shooting pain up my arm. I was constantly forgetting that my wrist was still recovering from the fight I’d had with Clarissa. Drew’s smile faded into concern.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just my stupid wrist. I need to stop by my locker to get the notebook for my next class.”
We walked down the hall that was still mostly bare because lunch wouldn’t be over for another five minutes. His hand was in mine, and I smiled adoringly up at him. Being with him made me happy in a way I couldn’t explain. Before him, I’d always felt like something was missing, but now—now I felt complete. We stopped by my locker, he twisted the combination to the lock for me and opened the door. When he didn’t step aside but just stood there staring, I got up on tippy-toe to see what had him so riveted. Nothing in there was that interesting. A piece of notebook paper was taped to the back of my locker, and in bright red permanent marker, it said, It won’t be long now. It felt as if the hallway had dropped to below freezing, and the fear crept in like a rolling fog.
“Drew, they’re in the school. What are we going to do?”
“Nothing, we aren’t gonna do a damn thing. They’ll be expecting a reaction. But if we don’t give them one,” Drew said in a whisper as he looked around the hall, “that might confuse them enough to make them do something stupid and expose themselves.”
I tried to shake off the chill, but it followed me from class to class for the rest of the day. Dad knew the minute I got in the car that something was up. I tried to keep quiet, but trying to hide something from Dad was like trying to jump off the empire state building without a parachute and living—Impossible and completely unrealistic.
“Spill it, Eden, what’s eating you?”
“This was in my locker, Drew, and I found it after lunch.”
I handed him the note and watched as he read it without a single emotion other than pissed gracing his features.
“Did you show or tell anyone else about this?”
“No, Drew told me not to because he feels our lack of reaction to this might make whoever is behind this do something stupid and expose themselves.”
“I knew I liked that kid, that’s his Uncle Tony coming out in him.”
“So, what now, Dad?”
“We sit and wait, but keep one eye open at all times. It’s obvious that this person wants you dead, but wants you scared out of your mind before they make their move. Well, that, and they don’t want to be identified. Otherwise, they would have just come on out in the open and shot you rather than thinking up elaborate ways to scare and injure you without being seen.”
He put the car in drive, and we drove the whole way home in silence. Jennifer wouldn’t be long after, so when I got home, I decided to get started with dinner. I knew I could count on her to bring cookies, brownies, or some other sweet creation for us to snack on after we finished eating, so making dessert was not an issue. Since I didn’t have a mom and Dad worked full time we split the household chores and responsibilities. Tonight was my night for dinner and Dad had house cleaning duty. I wasn’t feeling cooking anything extravagant, so I pulled out a boxed lasagna just as Jennifer was walking through the door.
“Did someone order double fudge, walnut brownies?”
Dad didn’t ever feel the need to rush about anything, but as soon as the words “double fudge” rolled out of her mouth, he came bolting into the kitchen.
“Brownies? Did you say brownies?”
“Nope not for you,” she said with a teasing smile and held the brownies as high as she could over her head.
He stepped in front of Jennifer and then peered down at her as he easily removed the tray from her hand.
I laughed, and she pretended to glare at me.
“Jennifer, how is it that you constantly forget that you are only four foot nine, and virtually everyone you know is at least six inches taller than you? Dad has you by more than a foot.”
She stuck her tongue out at me, and I laughed harder. After the lasagna was ready, we did our normal routine of sitting at the table and talking about our day while we ate.
