He's Just a Kid

Maybe I Was Wrong

Getting a call from Bree the next morning talking about how Leo almost died was not how I pictured my day starting.

"Woah, woah, slow down," I said, trying to cut in between Bree's hurried words and flustered speech. "Tell me exactly what happened."

I could hear her breathing heavily on the other side, obviously getting tired from how fast she was speaking. I was just thankful that she hadn't slipped into her super-speed-talking yet. That would have been an absolute nightmare. I couldn't even begin to imagine how difficult it would be to keep up with her if she did that.

I struggled to listen as I started putting my books into my backpack, making my way toward the dining room and praying that Mom wouldn't start asking questions. She was already difficult enough to deal with in the morning.

"Okay, so basically," Bree continued from the other side of the phone, "we were all at that new ice cream place, we took Mr. Davenport's new car---"

"The sports car?" I asked, my mind jumping back to the ride back to my house with Tasha in the driver's seat and Bree next to me.

"No, let me finish," Bree snapped. "He made this new car that drives itself. Technically we weren't supposed to take it, but whatever." I could almost hear her roll her eyes. "We got there, went to get ice cream, and then we get back to the car and it's completely gone, Leo with it. Marcus said he had no idea where Leo went, but like he wasn't there with us in the ice cream shop when the car left, so I don't know at this point."

Bree continued to explain what went on afterward, but I was frozen. Marcus wasn't there with them when the car went missing with Leo in it and was magically there again when they realized the car was gone? And when they tried to save Leo he was . . . gone again. Not inside the ice cream shop, he was actually gone. When asked about it, Bree confirmed everything I was thinking, that he just appeared and disappeared more than once.

I could still hear Leo's voice in my head, mocking me.

When are you going to realize that Marcus is an evil scumbag?

I didn't want to think that. I knew in my heart that it wasn't true, but in my gut . . . My gut was telling me something completely different.

"Get. Off. Your. Phone."

I jumped. I had almost forgotten I was in the kitchen. Mom was giving me a one of her killer glares and Landon was staring up at me with wide eyes. How much of that had he heard? How much of that had both of them heard?

I forced myself to smile. "Bree, I'll talk to you later, okay?"

A sigh came from the other end. "Okay," she said solemnly. "I'll want to talk to you on the bus, okay?"

"Okay, talk to you then. Bye."

"Bye."

I hung up and deliberately ignored my mother's prying eyes, taking my seat at the table next to Landon and proceeding to wolf down my food. So many thoughts were whirling through my mind that I almost didn't hear my mom speak to me. Great. What does she have to say now?

"Are you going to tell me who that was, or are you just going to keep ignoring me?" she snapped, flopping into her seat across from me.

I sighed, swallowing. "I'm tempted to do the latter," I grumbled, "but I'm feeling nice today." I could feel her gaze light up with anger at my words. "That was Bree. She had some interesting news about stuff that happened yesterday."

"Define 'interesting'."

I sighed and looked straight up at her. "Why does it matter to you all of a sudden?" I asked, pushing my glasses further up my nose in annoyance. "You're never interested in my personal life, except when you decide to isolate me some more and take away my friends."

She slapped the table angrily, making Landon yelp. "Just answer me!"

I glared, but complied, telling her most of what happened. I didn't tell her about Marcus's strange behavior. Come to think of it, I didn't tell her anything about Marcus since the whole ice cream incident. That was good. I liked keeping this information away from her. It actually felt like something belonged to me and I had something important to take care of.

My gut twisted again at the thought of Marcus disappearing. There was no way he could have . . .

Images flashed in my head. The first time I ever saw him smile, him playing guitar in front of the whole school, me hugging him, the way he leaned into me and whispered against my ear on the bus, making my neck hair stand up. The note. Oh gosh, the note. How could I have forgotten about the note? It was still tucked away in my backpack where no one would find it---except for maybe Perry. That woman has no sense of personal space.

As I stepped onto the bus, the doubts continued to plague my mind. It wasn't until I saw him sitting next to my empty seat when my mind decided to focus again.

Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh.

Why did he have to be so pretty?

"Hey, Abby! I saved you a seat."

My heart pounded against my ribs. I shakily took my place next to him and smiled. All the thoughts from earlier just randomly decided to vanish for some bizarre reason. Honestly, that doesn't really surprise me anymore. I see a pretty guy and my brain goes "ooga booga" and decides to shut down because why not?

He nudged me, my skin tingling where his strong arm hit mine. "You ready for tonight?" he whispered, a smile playing at his perfect, soft lips.

He was so close, oh my word he was so close. One small movement from me and our foreheads would have been touching. It was so tempting, so easy to do. I just wanted to touch him in some way again, somehow just make any form of physical contact.

My hand was on his before I thought about anything else. Surprise danced across his face for a moment before it melded back into a relaxed amusement again.

"I'll take that as a yes," he chuckled.

He started to rub my hand with his thumb and I almost collapsed into him right then and there, but I somehow managed to control myself.

Maybe my suspicions were wrong. Maybe he wasn't acting weird at the ice cream shop with Adam, Bree, and Chase and everything was just coincidence or a huge misunderstanding on my part.

I couldn't believe I was thinking it, but for once my overthinking might have been wrong and I was so happy.

You're delusional.

Guess what, Fake Me. I don't care.