Broken Lantern

Chapter Twenty-Eight

When we get home, we change into shorts and tank tops. I sit on the edge of the bed to slip on my sandals and look over at Kevin who's sitting at the foot of the bed, pulling on his tennis shoes. He hasn't really spoken much since the encounter with Mr. Messer. I know this is messing with his head; I can't imagine the way he's feeling right now. He must feel pulled in every different direction, unsure of what he should do. I know I would.

"Kev?" I speak up, needing to clear my throat from being silent for so long.

"Yeah?" He replies, looking over his shoulder at me.

"What are you thinking about?"

He shrugs but doesn't say a word.

"Kev, it's ok to tell me if you're considering his offer. You won't hurt my feelings." I try to assure him.

He lays back on the bed, flat on his back, reaching his arms out to touch me. "Alley, I'm not considering his offer." He says as he grabs my shorts, pulling me toward him on the bed. When I'm right behind him, he lifts his head and lays it on my lap, looking up into my eyes.

"My place is here, with my family. I'm going to plant pumpkins and Christmas trees and we're going to have our own little patch of paradise right here in Cedar Ridge. Besides, how could I go away to school when I'm gonna have six kids to help raise right here?" He says, winking at me, a grin coming up on his lips.

"Six kids?! Kevin Jones, you've lost your ever-loving mind!" I yell at him, surprised that he just said that. He nods and lifts himself up to kiss my lips.

"Yep, six kids. Maybe more. We'll have to see." He says and sits up, getting off the bed and coming around to grab my hands, lifting me to my feet in front of him. He puts his arms around my back and pulls our bodies together. "I want to marry you and be here with you and Dally every day, Alley. I've never wanted to be away from you, even when I couldn't have you." He kisses me again and then pulls my hand above my head, and spins me around, leading me out of the bedroom.

"Now, let's go have some fun!" He says, excitedly, and we leave the house to go find a party.

The first party is at the house of Greta Filch, a girl that neither of us has really ever spent much time with, but she's very popular, so we knew that more than likely, there would be a few people here we'd want to see and say goodbye to before they leave for college.

When we pull up to her house, there are already quite a few cars parked in the driveway, some even on the front lawn. Every light in her very large house is on and we can see people moving around inside through the sheer curtains on the windows.

When we get inside, the music is loud, and the drinks are everywhere. Neither of us drink alcohol, we've just never really seen a reason to get stupid drunk and throw all caution and sense to the wind, as clearly some of our classmates and lifelong friends have chosen to do tonight.

There are a few others drinking water or lemonade, but for the most part, this house is full of underage drunks, with no clue about the horrible decisions they're making and how they will affect them in the morning.

We walk through every room, looking for people that we want to hang with, but unable to find anyone sober enough to really have a conversation with anyway. So, we leave and look for one of the other parties we heard about.

The second party is at the house of a boy named Roger Tanner. Roger is an audio/visual geek (and I say that as a term of endearment and nothing more), that Kevin has been friends with since the fifth grade. They both draw and love art, but they also share a love and obsession with old movies.

When we pull up to Roger's house, which is much smaller than Greta's, we see that it's also much less crowded. We knock and wait to be invited in. When Roger opens the door, his eyes light up at the sight of Kevin standing there, and he invites us in immediately. We're directed to the livingroom, where a small group of people are sitting on the couch, in the dark, watching an old black and white movie, discussing and analyzing the scenes as they go.

I look at Kevin, trying to make him understand that this is not exactly my cup of tea. He seems to understand, but he shrugs and follows Roger into the livingroom anyway, bringing me with him, he sits on the arm of the couch, pulling me onto his lap as he jumps into the conversation as this is obviously a movie he's seen many times before.

After about thirty minutes of this, I excuse myself to the bathroom and begin looking for something to occupy my mind with along the way; a magazine, a book, a pillow and blanket... anything!

Unable to find anything, I use the bathroom and wash my hands. When I turn off the light and step into the hallway, Mark Grayson is standing in the dark right outside the door. When I walk out, he startles me and I jump, putting my back against the wall beside the door. He comes over, standing in front of me and lifts his arms over my head, bracing himself on the wall behind me as he leans in, looking down at me.

I don't know what to do. I have no clue what he's thinking. He has me trapped as he whispers, "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to talk to you." I can smell the alcohol on his breath. I hadn't even noticed that anyone was drinking. "You know, I always did like you, Alice." He slurs my name, and I realize that he's three sheets to the wind. He leans in closer and before I can react, he's trying to kiss me. I try to break free, but he's got his arms around me, holding me still, unable to do much more than squirm, I pull my lips tightly together, refusing to kiss him back or allow him to kiss me.

Suddenly, Mark is no longer standing in front of me. Someone's grabbed him and pulled him away from me. That same someone has him pinned to the ground and is hitting him in the face repeatedly. The deep thud sound that comes with each blow fills my ears, and then it hits me that it's Kevin. I panic and try to pull him off of Mark. I'm not really trying to save Mark as much as I'm trying to keep Kevin out of trouble. The way he's wailing on this poor guy, he could really hurt him.

"Kevin! Stop! Please, stop!" I say and reach for his arm as it flies up between punches. Without looking at me, he swings his arm backward, pushing me and throwing me into the wall behind us.

I hit my head hard and feel the pain radiate through me. He's to his feet, instantly at my side, trying to make sure I'm ok. "Oh my God, Alice, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to push you. I was just in the moment. I didn't realize..." he says, pulling me to my feet and wrapping me in his arms.

He pulls away from me, and looks me in my eyes, remorse all over his face, "I'm really sorry, are you ok?" I nod, rubbing the back of my head, feeling the wince of pain shoot down my neck.

"I think I'm done with graduation parties though. Can we just go home now?" I ask, walking by Mark, who's suddenly sober now, trying to figure out why Kevin just handed him his butt.

"Next time you might want to think twice about trying to molest someone in a dark hallway", I say, pushing his leg out of my way with my foot.

I look over at Kevin, who's now looking at me with pride in his eyes. "Really?" He asks, laughing and

shaking his head. "I just pummeled the poor guy; I think he gets it." He says, waving goodbye to Roger and leading me out the front door.