Free The Watchers by Lynnie Purcell Page A

up at the cloudless sky, his eyes
reflecting the dusk. I looked up, too, noticing for the first time
that a person could see more of the sky here without the buildings
getting in the way. It was nice in a ‘secluded,
nothing-is-around-beware-of-banjos’ way. It was funny it took his
glance heavenwards for me to notice.
    “Can I walk you home?” he asked suddenly.
    I looked back down. My feet slowed then
stopped. “I don’t sleep around,” I blurted out.
    His dark eyebrows went into his hair line. I
started playing with the necklace Ellen had given me a long time
ago, feeling agitated and nervous. I really didn’t want him to be
interested in me for the same reasons Mark was. Well, maybe not
entirely.
    “I mean, I know that Mark just wants to know
me because he thinks I’m easy, but I’m not. I’m not like that at
all. I want something more lasting…something permanent. My mom got
pregnant at seventeen, and I know how hard that was on her…I don’t
want that either…” I trailed off realizing I was rambling, and
giving more of my personality away than I’d intended to give to a
stranger.
    His eyes had melted from astonishment to
understanding, to something else I couldn’t place. “I don’t sleep
around either,” he said seriously.
    We started walking again, his words releasing
me from my agitated state.
    There was a moment of silence in which I felt
like an idiot before he added, “I’d be careful of Mark, by the way.
He likes to think of women as a conquest waiting to happen rather
than a person waiting to be understood.”
    I gave him a penetrating look. He didn’t feel
the same way? “Then why are you talking to me? Really?”
    “I’m talking to you, because you’re the first
person to beat me at any sport, ever.” I made a face, wondering if
he was still upset about that. “And because you’re different.”
    “I am that,” I agreed.
    We walked in thoughtful silence then, our
feet headed in a wonderfully purposeless direction.
    “Does this mean you’re letting me walk you
home?” he asked playfully as we roamed the streets, the night
starting to quietly whisper to us.
    “We’ll see,” I said preparing to step off the
curb.
    “Wait,” he commanded.
    The bag in his hand flashed out and caught me
in the gut. I stumbled away from the curb as a sports car blew past
us and squealed around the corner of the next block without heed to
the stop sign it had just run. I held on to my stomach where the
bag had hit and watched the car pass out of sight.
    “How’d you do that?” I asked.
    “Do what?”
    “Know that car was coming!”
    “I heard him, didn’t you?”
    “No,” I said, checking the street in
triplicate before I stepped down again.
    “It’s not my fault you’ve got stone
ears.”
    “What’s in the bag?” I asked not looking at
him, afraid my eyes would give away how much his hit had hurt. I
was certain he hadn’t meant to hit me that hard.
    “Stuff for my parents, for an experiment
they’re doing.”
    “They’re scientists right?”
    He smirked like I had confirmed something.
“You’ve been checking up on me.”
    “Small school,” I shrugged, feeling the heat
in my face. I’d heard that factoid in Mrs. Heart’s thoughts.
    “Yeah, it is. But what do Jennifer’s parents
do for a living?”
    I thought over all the thoughts which had
assaulted my brain today, glad for my “gift” for once.
    “Her mom is a professor at the college. Her
dad is a doctor…internal medicine.” I looked at him innocently.
“Did I pass?”
    He grinned playfully and didn’t answer. I
took that as a ‘yes’.
    My teeth started chattering as we stepped
back on to the sidewalk, and I realized that with the setting sun
the already chilly wind was growing colder. The first chance I got
I would have to buy another jacket, maybe a fleece one. He looked
over at the sound of my teeth knocking together.
    “You’re cold. Do you want my jacket?” He was
already taking it off.
    I laughed