SHIFTED.✔

52

Keean picked me up later the next day. I was disappointed and thought maybe he'd had enough of me already. When we pulled up in the car park he stopped me from getting out.

"What's up?"

I tried to make out everything was fine. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "You seem quiet."

I tilted my head and decided to confess my worry. "You didn't come as early. We haven't had much time to talk."

He pulled me across the seat towards him and grinned. "If I come early it won't be talking I'll want to do. I'm trying to slow things down. I don't want what happened yesterday to happen again. Yet. I thought we agreed."

"I'm sorry." I sighed and nodded. "I'm being a sook. I thought maybe you'd changed your mind about me."

Keean laughed and kissed my mouth. "You sure are one strange girl."

The rest of the week continued pretty much the same. We sat under the same tree by ourselves every morning tea and took turns at asking questions. I brought along an extra apple so he wouldn't go hungry.

"How did you know where I lived?" I asked one day.

Keean grinned. "Your history family tree assignment. The one pinned on the wall."

I screwed up my nose because I had no idea what he meant.

He laughed. "It has your parent's names on it. I looked for a Johnson in white pages that had a B or a J in front of it." He cocked his head to one side. "Johnson must be the most popular surname in the world. I couldn't believe how many there were." Keean grinned again. "I wrote down the addresses of all with either a B or a J. There was only one with both letters. I tried it first and you answered the door. Easy."

"Maybe you should be a detective." I said and took a bite of my apple.

"Yeah sure." Keean chortled. "With my history."

I blushed thinking what a stupid thing for me to say. I quickly changed the subject. "When did you get the tattoo?" I asked as I crunched away.

"Just before we got caught. I used some of the money to pay for it. It's now a reminder of how stupid I was."

"I like it." I said and touched the sleeve of his shirt where I knew his tattoo was.

Keean smiled and asked another question. "What's your favourite food besides apples?"

"I've got more than one answer for that." I laughed.

"Okay...forget it. Do you have brothers and sisters?"

"Yes." I said and quickly added. "What about you?"

Keean shook his head. "None. How many do you have?"

I looked at the ground when I answered him. "I have one sister and two brothers but one died a few years ago."

Keean didn't say anything for a moment then he touched my chin and tilted my face to look at him. "How old was he?"

I sighed and glanced away because I didn't want to feel sad. "Ten."

Keean looked at me sadly. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

"Not now." I shook my head. "Maybe another day."

He knew enough to let it go and moved his hand from my chin to my cheek. Keean leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. "So what are your parents like?"

"They try hard." I screwed up my face to show him this wasn't a subject I wanted to talk about either.

Keean frowned then grinned. "I'm picking great questions hey?"