Fine Line

chapter nine

Unknown Plans

"So how did you get home Friday?" Kat finally asked the question she had been wanting to ask me all day. We hadn't yet had the chance to talk just us two since Friday as she spent the weekend with her father and brother, and today our break had been spent with Austin and his team so there was no chance of her asking me then without someone overhearing us. And now, as we walked from the opposite side of the grounds to the cafeteria, we finally had a chance to discuss it. "You never told me who was taken by you home."

"Jaden did," I shrugged. I hadn't heard from him all weekend, although I wasn't expecting to. Things hadn't ended great, but I wasn't sure where we stood. He had been planning something with Connor, something they wanted to involve me in, albeit it was unlikely that would happen now. But I still knew something, and I was sure that whatever he had picked up on Friday night from Mitch was something to do with it.

It was unlikely that I would ever find out what was in the bag, or what it was to be used for, or what their little plan was.

"I thought he wasn't at school."

"He wasn't. He showed up to detention ten minutes before it ended. And then he took me home. Did you know he had a motorbike?"

"Yes. He rides it to and from school every time he shows up." My friend suddenly stopped walking and leaned against the wall of the corridors. I mimicked her stance, looking at her as she did me. Her eyes looked to be thinking it over, the story replaying in her brain.

"So you're telling me," Kat addressed slowly, "that Jaden showed up at detention even though he wasn't at school and let you ride on his motorbike?"

"Yes?" I questioned, unsure whether there was a certain way I should have answered, or if I was missing something she was implying.

"It's just... my God, this is... This is something. This is big."

"It is?"

"Yes," she breathed as though it were obvious, and maybe it was. Jaden wasn't the person to do things for other people, I knew that, but I wasn't thinking about the reasons behind his actions anymore.

Kat stood up from where she rested against the wall and pulled me up with her, dragging me along the hallway as we moved towards the cafeteria. "Jaden doesn't just do that kind of thing. He doesn't like attending school, yet he appears in detention after skipping the school day so that he can take you home. He has hardly any friends, doesn't do anything for anyone, but he's doing something for you. And his bike? No one had ever been on Jaden's bike, expect perhaps his family, but he let you on it. Why? What have you done to him that changed his act so quickly?"

"You say that like there should be something special about me that attracted his attention and there's actually not."

Kat slapped her hand against her mouth as she realised I was right and quickly added, "I didn't mean it like that, I was just wondering."

"I don't know," I sighed as we sat down at the table. "But I'm not so interested in finding out. Jaden's personality is pretty fucked up. He's nice to me one minute, and the next he wants to get rid of me. I think it's just better if we leave it be. It might be a while before we have any sort of interaction again."

"Well he doesn't even act nice to anyone else, so there has to be something we're missing. And I'm going to find out what it is."

"Kat, you sound like you're in a detective show."

"I could be."

"Just because you watch Criminal Minds and Bones does not mean you are a professional detective."