What Lies Beneath || Chris Chambers

Chapter 2

A week passed.

I've decided that that house was the best house I had ever been in for multiple reasons. I hoped that my stay here would be longer than my previous stays, but I knew didn't have any control over that.

Jane and the kids seemed to like me enough. She immediately treated me as family and the kids thought of me as another sister, asking me to play with them multiple times a day.

After my first weekly visit from Carrie, I could tell that she knew I was happy here. Once she left the house, Jane called me into the kitchen where she was preparing breakfast for us.

"Did you want to go out and explore the town a little more before school starts?" She asked as she mixed a bowl full of different ingredients.

"Sure," I shrugged. She reached into her back pocket and handed me a few dollar bills. "Oh. . . I don't need this."

I attempted to give it back, but she shook her head, refusing for me to get my way. "I want you to take it. If you see anything you like in the shops, go ahead and buy it."

I thanked her before I tugged on my shoes and exited through the front door. The day was like a regular summer day, hot and humid without a cloud in the sky.

The town was small, so there wasn't much to explore besides the large amount of shops. It seemed as though there were too many shops in this town.

I stopped in the record store first. A familiar song was playing in the background as my fingers ran over a box with a few records lined up in its interior. I was never able to listen to a lot of music, but it had always fascinated me that there were billions of songs in world that my ears still haven't had the pleasure of hearing.

After a few minutes of browsing, I left the store after realizing I didn't have enough money to buy a record in the first place.

I entered a book shop next. I figured that until school started, I would be extremely bored, so why not buy something that would keep me busy for a few days?

As I scanned over an assortment of book titles, something outside the window caught my eye. Two older boys stood before two shorter boys. It wasn't until one of the older ones slammed the younger boy to the ground and held a cigarette close to his eye that I decided I should go help him.

"I don't know about you, Eyeball, but I'm not really feeling any better about this," the tall boy said as he stepped toward the second shorter boy, his intentions nothing but horrible.

Without thinking, I ran to stand between them. I guess I had just assumed that this boy wouldn't hit a girl, and my sudden burst of bravery was brought on by that idea.

I had been in this boy's place multiple times, and I knew what was going through his mind. From personal experience, I didn't want what had happened to me to happen to him. I didn't want that to happen to anybody, even if they were a complete stranger.

I gulped as the teenager's raging eyes looked down into mine, an evil glare covering his face.

"Move."

That was all it took to for a shiver of fear to run down my spine. Although I was scared out of my mind, I shook my head and continued to stand firm and tall.

"No."

He tried to move around me, but I moved with him and continued to block his path to the younger boy.

He sighed angrily. "You're lucky this time, Lachance. A little girl won't always be around to save you."

A devious smile grew on his face as he reached forward. For a moment I thought he was going to hit me, but all he did was take the money that was hanging out of my pocket. Although I was enraged, I decided to stay quiet. I didn't want to anger him more than I already had.

I was astounded to see that he had given up so easily, but I was also relieved.

I watched the older boys walk away before I turned around. Once I had met eyes with them, I realized that this was the boy that had ran into me the first day I was in town, and that familiar feeling at the pit of my stomach returned.

They both stared at me in shock.

"What the hell'd you do that for?" The blonde boy exclaimed. He didn't sound angry, just stunned.

"Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't break you in half right there!" The other boy said.

I didn't exactly know what to say or how to respond to that. "I. . . I'm sorry."

"It's just that they could've-" the blonde boy stopped and sighed, his face softening as he spoke. "Thanks."

"Hey, wait. Are you the new girl?" The brown haired boy questioned.

"What?" I asked. How could he possibly know that?

"It's a small town," the blonde boy started with a shrug, "news travels fast around here."

"So what's your name?" He changed the subject.

"Bo."

"Bo?" He said, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "That's a weird name."

I had been working on the 'thinking before I speak' thing. I was going to defend myself, but then I understood that this would probably be my only chance to make a couple friends. Even so, it was a slightly bizarre same, especially for a girl.

"It's short for Bonnie, but I don't really like that, so I just go by Bo," I explained. They nodded.

"I'm Gordie," the brown haired boy introduced himself. He was smaller than the other boy, but he had a softer aura about him. The other boy seemed a bit closed off. He had a tough shell on the outside, but I was able to look past that and figure out that he was a softy on the inside.

"Chris," the first boy stated briefly. Suddenly, a big smile grew on his face as if he had just remembered something hilarious. "Wait, aren't you the girl I ran into last week. I'm sorry about that, really."

I shrugged it off. "It's fine. I wasn't watching where I was going either."

He sent me a grin. "We'll see you around, yeah?"

I nodded my head, an identical smile on my own face. We both turned around and parted ways.

"Bo?" I heard him call out. I spun around and faced the two of them. "Do you want to maybe come with us?"