He's a She

Chapter Eighteen

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

            Luke sat in his dorm running a shaky hand through his hair.  Charles had kissed him, his roommate, his guy roommate, had kissed him. His mouth felt funny at the thought of it.  And what made matters worse is that he had lost his temper.  Charles had been trying to tell him something, something that meant a lot to him and Luke had interrupted and not allowed him to talk.  He had promised Charles that that wouldn’t happen, and the exact opposite is what did happen.  All in all, Luke felt like one horrible person right now. 

            Luke sighed and looked over at the alarm clock, it was nearly three in the morning and Charles still wasn’t back.  He had expected Charles to come crawling back saying that he had forgotten something, or he had no place to stay, and then he would apologize.  Charles had no phone, no email, heck, the kid didn’t even have facebook.  What teenage boy does not have facebook?  Luke buried his face in his hands.  He just wanted to make it up to Charles somehow, he had broken their promise.

            Brown fur caught his attention.  Luke removed his hand from his face and got down at floor level, laying on his belly.  He reached under Charles’ bed and pulled out a scruffy looking teddy bear.  Pangaea.  Luke’s eyes grew in shock, Charles had forgotten Pangaea, he had to come back for it, he had to, his mom had given it to him after all.

            “Yes.” Luke told himself, holding the bear up in victory.  Then the thought hit him.  Why would Charles want to come back?  If he wasn’t back now, he wouldn’t be back any time soon, and as much as it hurt Luke to say that, it was the truth.  But he couldn’t just keep the bear forever, could he?  No.  He had to find a way to get it back to Charles. 

            A thought spawned in Luke’s head.  It was rough and probably not one hundred percent foolproof, but it was close. 

            “Charles may not face me anytime soon.” Luke told himself out loud, trying to get his thoughts out in the open before they got too entangled with his exhaustion and vanished completely.  “But he couldn’t just leave Payne without any say.” 

            At that moment Luke knew that he was going to get Charles his bear back, and the strange suicidal kid that Charles had befriended was his ticket to paradise.

            I woke up the next morning in a daze.  I wasn’t sure where I was, I wasn’t sure what had happened to me last night.

            “Morning sunshine.” Paul greeted from across the small kitchen.  That was it, I was a Paul’s house.  I was at Paul’s house because Luke and I were no longer friends.  I was at Paul’s house because Luke was going to die hating me.  And I was at Paul’s house and had back pain from sleeping on his couch. 

            Then another thought hit me.  Pangaea.  I groaned, threw a hand dramatically to my forehead and plopped down on my makeshift bed.  When would the nightmare of Paul’s house end?

            “You might want to change before we head out.”

            “What time is it?” I grumbled, gathering up my bedding and folding the blankets.

            “Almost nine.  If you want to be at the school before ten we have to leave at nine thirty or so.” I nodded.  That sounded pretty legitimate. 

            I stole away into Paul’s bathroom along with my suitcase.  I was going to be picked up as myself, as Charlene James. 

            I took a quick shower and ripped a brush through my hair, then blow dried it with Paul’s blow drier.  He had so many hair products that I couldn’t help but laugh.  As I put up my curly blonde hair with a dark blue ribbon, which matched my skirt, a knock pulled me from my thoughts.

            “What?” I called out through a mouth full of bobby pins.  I put two in the back of my head to make sure I didn’t have any strands falling out. 

            “Paul wants to go.  You almost ready?”

            “One sec.” I admired myself in the mirror for a quick minute before stashing the rest of my clothes into my suitcase.

            When I had exited the bathroom Jack told me that Paul was already in the car.  I nodded, thanked him with a hug, and was off.  I flew down the stairs to Paul’s truck like a girl enjoying her stay at a hotel.  Paul had pulled up to the back door so I would see him right away.  I tossed my bags into the back and hopped up into his truck, buckled my seatbelt, and we were off.

            “You look cute today.” He informed me and I blushed.

            “Why thank you Paul.” I looked him up and down.  “Pretty spiffy yourself if I might add.” He smiled and turned up the radio.  He was listening to some kind of orchestra station. 

            “This is it,” he sighed, “Isn’t it?”

            I nodded.  I really didn't want to have to mourn the loss of a friend again.  It had been hard enough dealing with the fact that Paul was going to be leaving me to move to Massachusetts, now I was leaving him and it was even sooner than expected. 

            Paul pulled up to the front of the school and we said our final goodbyes.  At that moment it hadn’t quite sunken in that I would never be seeing my new friend again.  After a short while he pulled away and I was left sitting on a cold iron bench in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the school, moping.  I played with the my shoes a bit and adjusted my bow.  It was tempting to get up and get Pangaea now, but I didn’t want to make Luke hate me even more. 

            I pulled out my ipod and plugged in the ear buds, bobbing my head to Halestorm as the lead's voice blasted through them.  I would need hearing aids one day, that was a given, but right now I was living in the heat of the moment.

            A long black car pulled up and my reflection was caught in its windows.  My eyes were big like a doe’s as I waited for someone to step out, that someone in particular to be my father.  I wasn’t sure if he would be driving a company car to pick me up, but that was what it looked like. 

            I shot to my feet and picked up my bags, my ipod still blaring in my ears and blocking out all other sounds.  The window for the car rolled down and I froze.  All anticipation drained away.  It wasn’t my dad.  It was the man who had dressed like a cop earlier that tried to catch me.  Something rather cold and hard pressed itself against my side and I nearly keeled over.  Why had I been so stupid?  If I hadn’t had the ear buds in I would have heard the man and I could have made my escape.  It was too late for that now.    

            The man with the gun pulled out my ear buds and leaned down to whisper, “Get in,” into my ear.  I nodded, too stricken with fear to respond with actual words.  I started to take slow and calculated steps to the car as the man grabbed me by the arm with his free one.  The driver leaned over and opened the back seat door.

            “Renee?” I stopped walking and the man ran into my back, jabbing the gun into my side.  I looked over my shoulder to see Luke a few paces behind, a look of pure confusion spanning his face.

            “Get in the car.” I looked down at his hands to see he was holding Pangaea. 

            “Renee, what are you doing here?” He took another step towards us and the man threw me into the back of the car.  I slid across the leather seats until the bare skin on my legs caught and I rolled onto the floor.  The man that had pushed me in slammed the door behind him as I scrambled to get back to the door.  I had to get out before he locked-the doors clicked shut and the man drove away.  Luke shrank away into the distance.