Chapter 13
“I know you think that Landon is as much a jerk as Dean is, but I kind of like him.” Malaya was perched on the side of Lily’s bed.
“I figured,” Lily said as she shook half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips into a bowl of cooled popcorn. It was their traditional Saturday movie night, and Lily needed the routine girl time tonight more than ever.
“Really? I didn’t think I was that obvious”
“You’ve never been one to disguise how you feel.”
“Do you think Landon can tell I like him?”
“I don’t think I’m a very good judge of what Landon thinks, but he seems to like us enough to take us to a movie.”
“True. So he at least likes me as a friend,” Malaya said thoughtfully. “Friendship can always turn into love, right? In fact, the best love stories often begin with a solid friendship.”
“It’s happened before,” Lily replied, handing the popcorn bowl to Malaya. She hoped food would distract her friend enough to forget about Landon, at least for a little while. “So what do you want to watch tonight, mystery or romantic comedy?”
“Why not both,” Malaya said smiling. “Hey, does your evil mindreading thing work with movies too?”
“I don’t think so; at least it hasn’t so far. Being homebound for so long I saw plenty of movies, and I didn’t hear a single thing that wasn’t already in the movie,” Lily said shaking her head.
“I guess it would kind of ruin the movie if you knew every move the villain was going to make.”
“Yeah, probably.”
***
“I wish I knew what they were saying.” The agent sat in the parked black sedan debating what his next move would be. He decided he needed to bug the girl’s room, and follow her for a few more days before he could give any definite evidence to his boss. He was sure he would have enough material by Tuesday. In his original plan he was going to watch the boy, but this girl, this gifted girl was taking top priority. He didn’t care what the boss wanted. This girl was the key to his career taking off, and he wasn’t going to pass up this chance to ensure job security for the rest of his life. There wasn’t much more he could do tonight, so he decided to drive to the Turner’s house to check on the boy, and then back to the hotel for the rest of the night.
***
Monday rolled around again and Lily was glad to be back at school. Normally she would never have admitted that to anyone, but having spent so much time away from it, she appreciated it so much more.
“Happy Monday,” she said cheerfully to Malaya who looked like she had just rolled out of bed. Her whole body drooped.
“Seriously? Why can’t we just go back to Sunday, or better yet, fast forward to Friday? That’s what I need! I need a remote for my life. When I get to the school part, I could just whiz by it without really having to go through it,” Malaya said yawning.
“School isn’t that bad.”
“I guess not, but when I’m tired it is.”
“Stayed up too late watching reruns, huh?”
“You know me too well.”
They walked to their lockers and went about the morning as usual. When it was time for lunch, they met at their usual table.
“Do you think he’ll come?” Malaya had woken up significantly since Lily had last seen her. She was wide awake and her usual bubbly self.
“Who?”
“Landon, of course. I invited him, remember?” Lily hadn’t forgotten, but she had hoped Malaya would.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Hello Ladies,” Landon chimed a few minutes later as he rested his lunch tray on their table.
“Is this seat taken?”
“It is actually,” Malaya said playfully. Landon’s face looked startled. “By you,” Malaya said smiling at him. Landon smiled back and took the seat by his tray, which happened to be right next to Lily.
“So how was your weekend?”
“It was good,” Malaya responded taking a tiny bite of a granola bar. “I would say hanging out at the mall would be the highlight.”
“What about you,” he said eyeing Lily.
“Oh, it was good, the mall, I mean, and that night we also had a movie night. We do it every Saturday. I would say that’s usually my favorite part of every weekend.”
“Movie night huh? So how does a person get invited to one of these movie nights?”
“Oh, you’re welcome to come this Saturday if you want,” Malaya offered with a “you can come over every Saturday” smile.
“I would love to come. So what are we watching?” For the remainder of lunch period they bounced around movie ideas for Saturday. Lily and Malaya listed their movie preferences, most of which tended to be on the mushy side.
“Please,” Landon pleaded. “Give a guy a break. Give me at least one action movie between romantic comedies,” he pleaded holding his pointer finger up.
“Okay. That seems fair,” Malaya easily agreed. “What about Star Wars?”
“Malaya, aren’t there six Star War’s movies? There’s no way we can watch them all in one night,” Lily said finishing the last of her lunch.
“Well, we’ll just have to split them up over the next few Saturdays,” Malaya said with a conniving sparkle in her eyes. “I think we can fit in two a night if we start early enough, so it will take us at least three weeks to complete the set. Will that work for you Landon?”
“Sounds good to me,” he said cheerfully. “You can’t go wrong with a classic,” Landon pointed out. “It looks like lunch period is over. I better get going,” he said glancing at the black rimmed clock on the cafeteria wall. He stood and swung his black backpack over his shoulder.
“See you later.”
“See you later,” Malaya replied with a sugary sweet voice.
“Bye,” Lily said not even looking up from the remains of her lunch.
“Really? You had to pick Star Wars,” she said once she was sure Landon was no longer hearing distance.
“What? I happen to like it, and besides, this way we can spend enough time together so you’re compassionate nature will rub off on him. Then he’ll stand up to Dean and the rest of them.”
“I kind of doubt that anything I say or do will make any difference to him, or anybody else in this school.”
***
“Hey man. So what’s with the girls? I mean, it’s not like they’re not pretty, but they’re not the kind of girls we hang with.” Dean swatted at a stray fly buzzing around his head that had somehow made its way into the building.
“It’s nothing. The one with crutches is the girl I knocked down the stairs, so I just wanted to be nice to her for a while. She’s actually kind of cool.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Do you like her?”
“And what if I do? Why does it matter to you,” Landon shot back defensively. He was so tired of Dean calling all the shots. He was always trying to control everything.
“She’s not your type man” Dean said eyeing the fly resting on the beige lockers. “Back away from the chick now while you’re still free. Trust me on this one.”
“What if I don’t want to?” Dean’s attention honed in on the resting fly. He raised his hand and swiftly slammed his hand on the locker squashing the bug to smithereens.
“If you don’t back off, you won’t be much better off than that fly,” Dean said making his meaning clear as glass. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll forget about that girl.”