Deviants

Chapter 5

Johnny

The file seems to taunt me. It's just sitting there with all the information that I have been looking for since I can remember. I spend nearly all my free time trying to find Jenny and now she's staring at me.

With the mouse I move the arrow right above the file with my mother's and Jenny's name on it. What happened to my family? Are they both happy, living life to the fullest? This thought is what makes me want to open the file and find out. But what if that's not the case? What if they are both dead? Or even worse, what if they are drunks? Druggies? What if they hate each other? What if they want nothing to do with me? Is that why they never searched for me?

I shut down the laptop, my heart pounding. AceofSpades1, the emailer who I found a few weeks ago, the person who gave me the information on my mother and little sister, didn't give anything away about what's in the file. They didn't say anything to give me a hint if it's good news or bad news.

I roll up my sleeves and push my eyeglasses up the bridge of my nose before pushing myself away from my desk. My dorm door opens and Jim, my roommate, walks in. Amee appears in the doorway with another woman behind her. And I suddenly remember that Clarity planned breakfast this Wednesday.

The woman's light brown hair is in a ponytail and her face is a bright one. She smiles at me behind those eyeglasses. I've seen her around a few times; what was her name again? The thing that's most noticeable about her is her stance. For someone smaller and happier, she stands with her chest out and shoulders back. The tall way she stands makes her seem nearly as tall as Amee.

"Hey, we were just on our way to meet the others for breakfast. You coming?" Amee asks.

"Yeah," I say. "Jim, did you want to join?" I ask my roommate.

"Thanks, but I've got a lot of schoolwork to catch up on before school starts. Maybe next time," he says, and I walk out of my room.

"May Eve, you've met Johnny, right?" Amee asks.

"Don't believe I have," she says. I hold out my hand and greet her. I can't help but smile.

"It'll be nice to hang out with another person with glasses," I say. May Eve smiles at me. "Maybe Shad will stop calling me four eyes." Amee and May Eve laugh.

"No, he already came up with a nickname for me and it's way worse than four eyes," she says.

"Where do you come from?" I ask her as we begin walking out of Building One.

"I come from Wyoming. I got out of there and started studying journalism," she says.

"No way, me too," I say. Amee and I laugh. "After my dad died, I moved here with my aunt."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," May Eve says. I wave her off.

"Not your fault, besides it was a long time ago. I wanted to go to college and study computer programming before I move back to Wyoming."

"Oh," May Eve says before she quickly looks me up and down. Amee's snort is the thing that makes me feel awkward. She covers her mouth and gives me a teasing look while May Eve raises her eyes innocently. "Are you sharing an inside joke?" She asks. I shake my head and smile. Amee chuckles.

"Uh, no. Johnny's a mechanic after school," she says to May Eve.

"Oh!" May Eve says out of realization. Amee laughs.

"That's why he doesn't look like such a nerd," she says, and punches my arm. I gently shove her away. We exit the building and head towards the Bakery Shop that we always go to whenever we have breakfast- since Kate works there.

"So, where's your mom?" May Eve asks. Amee and I look at each other, a little bit more serious. I can see her playing with her rock necklace again.

"Uh, she left my Dad when I was two and he got full custody of me. I haven't heard from her since," I say. A sad look washes over May Eve's face.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she says.

"You don't have to keep doing that," I tease her, and she giggles.

"Ugh, I know, I'm sorry- I mean-" she says, and we start laughing. We reach the Bakery Shop and when we enter Amee pulls me aside.

"I didn't want to ask you in front of May Eve, but did it come?" She whispers.

"What?" I ask her.

"Did that spades person-"

"AceofSspades?" I say.

"Yeah, did he send you the information of your mom and sister?"

"Uh," I start. Most all my friends know that I'm out searching for my sister and the closest ones know about Ace, but for once I don't really feel like confiding in my friends about this. I just want to open the file when I'm ready to see what's inside. "No. They didn't send it yet," I say to her.

"It will come," she assures me before we walk to the rest of our friends that sit at a table outside. Jesse and Clint- along with a few other people I know where invited- aren't here. Irene only stays for a moment, leaning over her textbook and frowning while rubbing both sides of her temple. Eventually she packs up her things and excuses herself, a new boyfriend following her.

"What happened to Irene and Matthew?" I wonder.

"They broke up like a week ago," Amee says.

"Didn't Kate say that she met Cody in their business class?" Clarity asks.

"Why isn't Kate here?" I try to ask as casually as I can. Shad and Amee give me a sly look that I shake my head to, annoyed.

"She had an early shift at the bakery," Amee says, smiling at me.

"I got to go to class," May Eve says with a mouth full of bagel. She stands and Shad follows her. Amee and I glance at Clarity to watch her roll her eyes and follow them.

"So much for this breakfast. It's like we can't even hang out unless it's during a party," Amee says, taking her stuff out of her school bag. "I don't know about you, but I have a lot of homework to do."

"Yeah," I say, glancing at the Bakery Shop. I stand and walk in, partly because I can feel Amee betting with herself that I won't, and the other part: why the hell not?

I enter the shop and head towards the clerk at the front desk. As I build the nerve up to ask if I can see Kate, I peer into the bakery's kitchen and see her kneading some dough on a countertop. She looks burned out with her hair pinned back in a loose messy bun and flour specks on her face and covered on her apron. I push up my shirt sleeve, then realize that they are already up, and push my glasses up on my nose. What am I even doing? I don't even have anything to say. I sigh and turn to walk out.

"Johnny!" I hear behind me and I turn around to see Kate standing at the entrance of the kitchen. We walk around the front counter and stand before each other. Her face is bright red and she gives me a shy smile. I don't know what to do with myself, so I stuff my hands in my pocket. Even coming from a kitchen with ingredients all over her, she still looks gorgeous.

"Hi," I say. She runs her hand through her hair, messing up her bun even more and leaving a white trail of flour in her hair. Since it's black I can see every speck.

"Hi, what are you doing here?" She asks, still blushing.

"Um, you just..."

"What?"

"You just got flour all in your hair," I say, reaching up to touch a strain of her hair to get the flour out. I quickly put my hands back down as she looks at her hands and gasps.

"Oh my- I'm such a mess," she says, covering her face. I stand before her, still not knowing what to do with myself. She puts her hands down and looks at me. "I should get back to work," she says.

"Yeah... Okay. I got to get to class anyway," I say. We wave to each other before I walk out, disappointed in myself.

A/N:

Johnny's first POV! What do you guys think?

What are your theories on what he will find in the file?