Free Collide by Alyson Kent Page B

I didn’t
think anything about it until he started following me back up the
path through the park.
    I whirled around to face him and asked, “Why
are you following me again?”
    “You clobbered me earlier thinking that I was
trying to scare you,” he said easily and thrust his hands into his
jeans pockets. “I’m not going to take the chance of you clobbering
someone else for the same reason. I would like to get an A on our
project, after all, and that’s kind of hard to do if you’re in jail
for assault with a deadly weapon.”
    “My book bag is not a deadly weapon,” I
huffed at him as we resumed walking. I was actually grateful that
he was walking back to the store with me now that the sun had fully
set, but a whole herd of elephants would never pry that information
out of me.
    “It most certainly is,” he said in all
seriousness and rubbed his arm a little. A small twinge of guilt
settled in my stomach. “It’s heavier than a sledgehammer and twice
as broad, and when you swing it like that you could very easily
take off someone’s head. I don’t know how you walk around with it
all the time like that.”
    “Practice, and it really isn’t that bad,” I
grumbled and shrugged to shift said “deadly weapon” on my shoulders
a little to a more comfortable position.
    “Hmmmm,” he hummed, but I ignored him.
    I peered into the darkness nervously. Even
with Akira’s presence chilly skitters ran up and down my arms and
my jaw tensed and relaxed. Every now and then I thought I heard the
sound of wings flapping, but when I glanced up nothing but darkened
branches met my eyes.
    I kept my silence and Akira didn’t seem to
feel the need to fill up our walk back to the bookstore with
meaningless chatter. He appeared content to just walk along as he
hummed some kind of tune under his breath that I thought I should
recognize, but it seemed to dance just out of the reach of my
understanding.
    We rounded the final turn on our walk and
Baker’s Bookstore’s lights blazed through the darkness. I motioned
for Akira to follow me into the store, and within moments he walked
back out with a grin and the Cherokee book tucked under his arm and
tossed a brief “See you tomorrow” over his shoulder. Mr. Baker bid
me a good evening, and within a few minutes I was once again alone
in the bookstore, surrounded by possibilities.
    The rest of the night was uneventful, and I
closed out the register and locked the store down at 10:30. Count
out was smooth, the deposit was written out and with a happy sigh
for a job well done I walked out and locked the back door behind
me. All Mr. Baker would need to do is run to the bank in the
morning and then he’d be ready to go.
    My phone rang as soon as I got behind the
wheel of my car, and with an internal sigh I answered and informed
my mom that I was on the way home and I would see her in a little
bit. I know that she’s justified in checking up on me, but I
couldn’t help but wonder if Dad were home if she wouldn’t be a
little more lenient.
    The drive home was quiet as I wasn’t really
in the mood for music so I left my radio off, and within a few
minutes I pulled up into our driveway. I sighed, gathered up my
belongings and got out. I had hoped that Mom had gone to sleep, but
my hopes were dashed when she came out of the kitchen wiping her
hands on a towel.
    “What took you so long?” she asked, her tone
sharp.
    “What do you mean?” I asked, confused.
    “I know it doesn’t take thirty minutes to
drive from Baker’s to here. What were you doing?”
    My hands began to tremble
at the heavy suspicion in her voice. I clenched my fingers in an
effort to still the shaking and barely felt my fingernails bite
into my palms. My whole body started to shiver as Mom stared at me
and all I could think was how unfair it was that she was judging me
when she knew I
tried to be a little more careful coming home at night this time of
year because the deer are out in droves and the number of