Back Talk

Ch9: What happens now?

For sticking with me.

After a mushy-lovey moment with Beck and Irina, Irina checked her silvery watch she had fastened to her right wrist.

"It's past 10, we should probably head back." she took my hand and led me back through the long hallway towards the elevator while Beck was nipping closely at our heels.

She pressed the bright up arrow and leaned against the walls.

"I'm I just going to crash on your couch?" I asked remembering that Irina only had one bed, and there was definatly not enough room for two.

"Uhm, I guess. I think it pulls out a little but if it does it isn't much. I think Beck has a spare bed thought..." She smiled at me.

I glared at her ferociously

"Accually, Jordan gave it to Joey." Beck said completely un-phased at Irina's constant attempts at me and Beck.

"Too bad," She said sliding off her white labcoat she had dawned before we went into the cat scan room. She placed it in a nearby dirty laundry hamper that a maid must've forgotten about.

"I'll call Gloria tomorrow and see if she can get a G. Carpentor to build you something." Beck said facing me.

"OK." I nodded at him and turned back to face Irina. Alothough I felt his gaze linger on me for a few seconds longer.

*Bing*

Thank God the elevator arrived and saved me from this seriously awkward moment. We all stepped into the elevator and Irina pressed 8 & 9.

The elevator slowly rised to the eighth floor and Irina and I stepped out.

"Bye," I waved to beck backing away from him.

"See you tomorrow." he smiled as the doors shut him off from me.

"Oh my God I'm going to freaking kill you!" I yelled at Irina catching up to her and grabbing her wrist.

"Shh!!!" she raised her finger to her lips and hushed me. "People are sleeping! We're already out past curfew!"

I glared at her reluctantly and raced to the apartmant and stood by the door, pressing all my weight into one leg and crossed my arms over my chest like Kari Peterson often did whenever I didn't do as she told me. Which shortly after was followed by calling me Bengi (like the Button).

"God cool your jets! Your going to burn my skin from all that glaring!" she smiled turning the key inside the lock. "Oh! Yeah, remind me to get you a key to our room tomorrow."

"Seriously!" I yell/whispered once we were safely inside our apartment. "What the heck?"

"Dude, calm down" she opened our room and threw her purse and keys on her desk. "I am just trying to help out Beck a little."

"What do you mean 'help him out'?" I asked flopping down on the couch and pulling out my bag. I quickly changed into my PJ's as she explained.

"Look- everyone has a story, and Beck's is perticuarly bad... Worse than mine and yours combined. Don't ask him about it though, he's real touchy about it. Rightfully so."

"On a scale from 1 to 10?"

"Twenty. Long story short. Mom: out of the picture" she said throwing her arm in the air to pull on her pajama shirt.

"So, he has the male equivalent of 'daddy issues'?" I asked

"Not to get into too much detail, yes. He's like you but the opposite. He's always been really shy around girls, and most of the girls here go through intensive therapy to get to the normal- bubbly girl-ish state that most kids are during school."

"What about guys?"

"Martial arts, weight lifting kinda stuff- and then therapy."

"Sounds like a perfect utopia."

"We like to think so." she smiled at me. She tunred on her 50's style alarm clock (You know? The kinds with the 2 bells on top?) and plugged her iPhone into her charger connected to her bed frame, a wire ran all the way down to her computer (I know cool right?). 

"Goodnight!" she called

"'Night." I called back

~*~*~*~

"Amanda, wake up!" I heard a hushed whisper call from next to my ear in the wee hours of the morning.

"Muuuur." I mumbled looking at Irina's clock. It read 4:30. I turned to look back at whoever decided to wake me up.

"Hey" brown eyes turned up and the end as they smiled at me, with their floppy brown hair falling into them.

"Beck?" I whispered now fully awake "What are you doing here?"

"I need to show you something. Get dressed."

"OK, Mr. Bossypants." I jumped off the couch and grabbed a tie-dye, cropped shirt, bleached shorts, and black boots (Outfit 5). I skipped into Irina's bathroom and changed, brushed my teeth and hair and threw my hair up into a tight pony.

When I quietly snuck back out, Beck stood from the spot he was waiting and looked at me with wide, wandering eyes.

"Let's go" I whispered tip-toeing over to the door and opening it slowly. "Come on!" I waved him oven to the door then took his hand and we snuck out the front door. And still without speaking down the purple hallway, and into the elevator with Beck following close behind me.

"OK, what is all this about?" I asked after he pressed the button that read 'L' for 'Lobby'.

"Like I said, I need to show you something." he said with a twinge of playfullness in his eyes.

"Evaluate." I said placing all my weight on one leg again. I guess I do this alot.

"It's a surprise." It was only then that I realized we were still holding hands because he squeezed it. It felt nice but I didn't know exactly what this meant.

It felt so nice I just let him keep holding it.

When the elevator doors opened he let my hand go and placed it on my back. He then pushed me out the big stone doors, keeping me close to his side the whole time. We snuck across the long grass that was moist from the morning California dew.

 We rushed far left of the mansion and he led to the very end of the property lines which was laced with a big black iron fence.

He wiggled with one of the bars untill it fell loose and created a big enough hole for someone to squeeze through. He dropped the bar on the ground and took my hand again. We slipped through the gap which led to a small pathway that revealed a small dirt path leading up a little mini- mountain.

"What is this place?" I asked in wonder, looking up at all the tall green trees that blocked out our only moonlight.

Beck pulled a flashlight out of his back pocket and pointed it up the path.

"I call it 'Secret Mountain'."