Free The Haunting of Secrets by Shelley R. Pickens Page B

picks up the pace, suddenly thankful for
the incessant baseball conditioning he endures. He can see her
black hair billowing out behind her; he’s close enough to almost
touch it. Pushing himself to the brink of his speed, he’s finally
close enough to grab her shirt. He pulls her towards him forcefully
and is happy to see that his action momentarily disorients her. She
finally slows down just enough for Logan to tackle her to the
ground. Aware of her aversion to touch, Logan carefully avoids
landing on top of her when they both hit the ground hard. He rolls
to the left, mindful not to let go of her shirt, but quick enough
to be the first on his feet. He turns to face Aimee, ready to run
again if necessary, but he sees that she has stopped. For a girl
who was running like a bat out of hell just a few seconds ago, it’s
eerie to see her lying so still on a pile of leaves. He has his
arms out, palms down in preparation if she decides to bolt again.
Her dark clothes blend in with the brown leaves that surround her.
She’s lying face down in the leaves, but he can hear her breathing
heavily into the earth. As gently as possible Logan turns Aimee
over so that he can see her face and assess any injuries. He’s
careful not to touch anything, but her clothing. When she is fully
on her back, Logan leans in close to her face, fear etched in his
every feature.
    “Aim, can you hear me?” he asks, tentatively
wondering how to proceed. “Please, answer me. You’re really
freaking me out here,” he adds, hoping to somehow get through to
her. But he doesn’t. Logan stares into her sea blue eyes, searching
for some kind of life, but all he sees is her vacant stare, mocking
him. Afraid to touch her, he realizes that he has no idea what to
do next. He toys with the idea of picking her up and carrying her
back to school to find the nurse, but he’s certain she’d be pissed
if he touched her like that. If she’s going be his, he has to
respect it. Besides, he actually likes her. Hell, he more than
likes her. He adores her. Ever since the first day she walked into
his third period freshman English class, she has intrigued him.
    He used to think the reason she shuns all
contact is because she hates other people, but since he’s gotten to
know her better, he has discarded that notion. He has watched her
from afar for years, gauging her potential. As much as she tries to
hide it, Logan sees the small acts of kindness she does every day
for others, who either don’t notice or just don’t care. Once, he
saw her sneak a five-dollar bill into the locker of a fellow
student. Later on in the lunchroom, Logan saw the same girl happily
eating pizza and explaining to her friends how lucky she was to
have found some money at the bottom of her locker. She must have
simply forgotten she put it in there. That’s just how Aimee worked,
under the radar and invisible so no credit could ever be attributed
to her.
    The Aimee the world knows is a girl slumped
down in her desk in class with her arms crossed over her chest,
clearly at odds with the world. She wears all black, including
gloves, to appear contrary. But, Logan sees past all of this. He
sees the heart she hides behind the black. All he has to do is look
into her striking blue eyes that shine like beacons amongst the
darkness she clouds around herself. Logan was drawn in immediately
and would have said, ‘hello’ if he had known how to back then. He’s
since come into his own style of coming onto girls, but back then,
he was just Logan, a newbie freshman who still needed to prove
himself. Luckily, he was pretty good with a bat and a basketball,
which earned him his place within the upper ranks of school
popularity rather quickly. He didn’t have to be clever anymore, he
just had to make baskets and hit the hell out of a baseball. All he
had to do was keep winning state championships. That was easy for
Logan. Dealing with Aimee, that was hard. It didn’t matter how much
confidence he