Just Between Friends (Prequel to the Forbidden Series)

1

Gibson Alberta, October 15…

Mike Sanchez ran down the halls of the high school trying to get to class before the doors shut. His first day in a new school and as usual he was running late. He couldn’t drag himself out of bed. He had been unpacking all night and gotten to bed fairly late, not that he would have turned in any earlier even if he had not been unpacking, he simply was not a morning person.

He had just moved across the country from Ontario to live with his grandmother in Alberta. He had not been getting along with his parents for a long time and could not handle another minute under their roof. He had always gotten along better with his ageing grandmother despite her strict old country ways. Like Mike, she too did not have a strong relationship with his parents. Ever since her son married his mother, she had refused to be civil to the couple. Besides Mike, she swore nothing good came of the coupling.

So, one night after a huge argument with his father Mike had declared he was leaving to live with his grandmother, and no one tried to stop him. There was no love lost among them. It was for the best; everyone was happier this way anyway. His grandmother had two strict rules for him residing under her roof; he must attend school and no drugs.

At eighteen Mike was a recovering junkie. It had started innocently enough with smoking a joint a party when he was thirteen, but then he started trying other things, and before he knew it, he was a sixteen-year-old heroin addict. He’d dropped out of school and been couch hopping, stealing from friends and family to support his habit. He was arrested at sixteen for possession, and since he was young, the family court judge had ordered Mike into a rehab program instead of locking him up in a cell. It had taken eighteen months, but Mike had kicked the habit and gotten clean.

While he was in the rehab center part of his time was spent in group while part of his time was spent in the education wing of the rehab. Given that everyone at this particular rehab was teens they had a self-taught center where they could study and stay caught up with their education, so they did not fall behind. They worked on their own, but there were tutors there to talk to if they were having trouble with the material. Mike was fairly smart, and he found the work helped to occupy him, so he wasn’t always thinking about how sick he felt and how bad he wanted a fix.

After he got discharged, he went home to his parents but as usual, things were terrible, and he couldn’t live with his folks and stay clean. They literally drove him to drugs. In the interest in staying clean and keeping his sanity, he moved out west to live with his grandmother and work his way to graduation. So here he was attempting to get to a class he could not care less about before the doors locked.

He tore down the hall and rushed down the staircase two steps at a time almost losing his balance at the bottom. He ran past the washrooms and the study hall and made it to the class designated on his schedule just as the teacher was closing the door. “You just made it Mr?” The skinny, balding man nagged.

“Mike Sanchez.” Mike introduced himself

“Mr. Sanchez, let’s not make it a habit.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Take a seat.” The teacher said closing the door behind Mike and returning to the blackboard to begin the lesson.

Mike looked over the class scanning for an empty seat spotting a few. He was about to sit when his eyes caught sight of a girl seated near the back of the class. She sat leaned back in her seat tapping her pen against her blue binder which had been doodled on every inch. Her long legs were stretched out under her desk. She wore simple faded jeans and old runners with an unimpressive t-shirt, but it wasn’t what she wore that had caught his attention. She had long stunning red curls that she wore tied up in a heavy ponytail. She wore no makeup and didn’t need it in his opinion. She was naturally radiant with soft, creamy skin, full lips, and the most intense bright green eyes he had ever seen in his life.

Mike made his way to the back of the class and took the seat in the row next to hers. It was a seat behind hers too but still close enough that he could admire the view. He took his books out and made himself look as if he were paying attention to keep the teacher off his back, but his attentions were focused of the pretty redhead four feet away. After about twenty minutes Mike decided to talk to her. He leaned forward trying to get her attention. “Psst.” Nothing, he tried again. “Psst.”

She turned her head and looked at him. Mike flashed her his most charming smile. “Hi, my name’s Mike.”

She stared at him a moment. “Pay attention.” She scolded and turned her attention forward.

Mike frowned, well that hadn’t gone well at all. “Psst.” He tried again. “Psst.”

“What?” She whispered turning to look at him annoyed.

“Could I borrow a pencil?” He asked with a grin.

She looked at the perfectly good pencil he held in his hand and then back at his grinning face. “You already have a pencil.”

Mike looked down at the pencil he held; she had a point he did. Mike snapped the pencil in half and tossed it to the floor. “It would appear my pencil is broken may I borrow one of yours?”

She frowned again and turned back to the bag on the floor next to her and fished through it for a moment. When she turned back to him, she tossed him a pencil. “Now stop bugging me.” She ordered turning back to face the front of the class. She ignored him the rest of the class. When the bell rang, she was the first one up and out the door.

Mike packed up his things quickly and followed. She walked fast, but he managed to catch up to her when she stopped at her locker. “Are you always so sociable?” He teased.

“Do you always stalk people?” She retorted closing the locker door and locking it.

“Only when they are too stubborn to be polite. The very least you could do is tell me your name.” He argued.

She leaned against the locker and flashed the first smile she’d graced him with. “On the contrary, the very least I could do is ignore you completely, but since that strategy does not see to be detouring you from your grand pursuit; what exactly is it that you want?”

“Just some conversation, how hard is that? I’m new here, I don’t know a soul, and the first person I talk to is a stuck-up prude.” He teased.

She stiffened her back obviously insulted. “I am not. I take my classes seriously and don’t like being distracted.”

“Oh, come on, it’s just class.”

“Maybe to you but it’s my ticket to a better life, and I need to get good grades in them, or I’ll be stuck in this hellhole forever.” She sighed walking away.

Mike followed walking beside her as she navigated the halls. “Small town living is not for you?”

“I have dreams I’m getting out of this town. Is this your idea of a riveting lifestyle?” She asked.

“No, I suppose not. I have bigger plans.” He admitted.

“And they don’t include bio thirty?” She guessed, c*****g her head with a smirk.

“No, they don’t.” He said as they stopped outside the next class.

“I don’t suppose they include chemistry either.” She said with a nod at the nameplate on the door. He was not in this class, but he would transfer if it meant they could spend more time together.

“No, what about lunch?”

“What about lunch?”

“If you don’t have particular plans or some club or something like that how about, we get lunch together, and you can tell me more about your plans for the future.” He asked hoping he had broken through her icy exterior.

She laughed finding his persistence enduring. “Ok Mike, you can join my friends and me for lunch and afterwards I’ll show you around town.” She said moving to enter the class.

“Wait.” Mike said stopping her in her tracks. “You never did tell me your name.”

She smiled. “Chase Collin.” She said disappearing into the class.

Mike chuckled to himself, Chase, how ironic.

***

Chase walked into the cafeteria shortly after the bell rang and found Mike Sanchez already seated with her friends. They were laughing and sharing a big plate of French fries. He was attractive she admitted to herself. With his black as night hair and his tall, lean body. He was not scrawny like the other boys their ages, and she could not help but notice when he walked her to the class that he smelled incredible. It wasn’t just his scent that was intoxicating but his eyes. Those dark, sensuous eyes that seemed to flash with wicked mischief. Then there was that smile, that cocky, self-assured smile that could make a girl’s knees week.

Oh, sure he was tall, dark, and handsome; but he was pushy, overconfident, and annoying. He decides to plant himself firmly in the center of her life, and it would seem he would be harder to get rid of then weeds. Chase walked over and took a seat at the table with her friends. “Oh, Chase this is Mike.” Kim introduced him.

“I know we’ve met.” She announced.

“It appears that we have bio together,” Mike explained.

Chase could not help but notice her female friends making eyes at the newest addition to their little clique. Kim was especially flirtatious. It was obvious Mike was well received by the opposite s*x despite his grungy clothes and poor appearance.

“So where are you from Mike?” She asked trying to redirect the flirty conversation. Stupid teenage hormones. Sometimes she felt like the only sensible person left among them. She certainly was the only one of them that was not obsessed with shopping and dating, which she supposed was strange for a girl her age but unlike her friends she had more important things to think about than the latest boy band and the cool new jeans.

“Ontario.” He answered.

“Toronto?”

“No just outside.”

“A small town like ours?” She asked.

“No actually a trailer park community.” He admitted waiting to see everyone’s response to his station in life. He was dirt poor just like she was; perhaps they had more in common than she had initially thought.

“So, your family moved to Alberta that’s a big move.”

“No just me. My parents still live in the park in Ontario. We don’t get along, so I moved down here to live with my Grandmother instead.” He said. “What about you?”

“What about me?” She asked elusively.

“You seem to be a complete enigma; you don’t like to answer questions about yourself.”

“Enigma, I’m impressed you have a vocabulary to go along with those rugged good looks.” Chase teased.

“And again, she dances right past the question.” He chuckled. “I asked about you. Have you lived in this little town all your life?”

“I’ve lived here long enough.” She answered.

“With your parents?”

“Yes.” Chase simply said offering Mike nothing to build on.

“Do you get along?”

“No more than most children do with their parents I would suppose.”

“Do you have siblings?” Mike asked

“Yes. Do you?”

“No.” They sat across the table staring at each other like worthy opponents sizing each other up over a chess board. Each contemplating their next move and estimating the others. “Your plans, you said earlier that you had plans to get out of here, what are they?”

“I plan to go to medical school.”

“Doctor?”

“RN.”

Mike leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s a big job.”

“And what are your plans for life,” she mocked, “drink beer and eat pizza?”

“No,” he pretended to be offended, “I have plans too.”

Chase leaned over the table. “I’m eager to hear the riveting secret. What are your big plans?”

Mike leaned in close as if to pass on a state secret. His eyes darted around to be sure that no spies were nearby. “I’m gonna play my guitar.”

Chase laughed and sat back. “Are you serious?” She could not believe anyone would be so foolish. “You want to be a rockstar?”

“Doesn’t everyone?” Mike asked as if it happened every day.

“Yeah and about point-five-percent of the millions who try ever actually make it. Statistically, you are more likely to end up flat ass broke playing for change in the subway.” She told him taking her lunch from her bag and placing it on the table.

“Wow, are you always the beaming light of optimism?”

“I’m a realist, with realistic expectations.”

Mike leaned into her. “Did it ever accrue to you that I might have some talent?”

“For your sake, I hope so, or you’ll never make it.” She said taking the only thing from her lunch bag, an apple and juice box.

Mike eyed her meagre meal. “You don’t buy your lunch here like everyone else?” He observed. She suddenly felt self-conscious, she could not afford to buy lunch like the others; her family simply had no disposable income. “I don’t blame you; these places never have anything but greasy garbage. It ain’t healthy I never buy from these places either.” He said giving her a knowing wink.

His attention was suddenly diverted by the group of cheerleaders that strolled by smiling at him. He smiled at a busty blonde named Jenifer who made eyes at him then giggled with her stuck-up friends and wandered off. “She’s out of your league,” Chase said eating her apple.

“You’re just full of encouragement aren’t you.”

“She only dates rich preppy jock types, and I’m willing to bet that you don’t fit into any of those three categories.” She explained

“I see and in your great wisdom who would be in my league?”

Chase looked around the cafeteria at all the other students and staff. Her eyes came to rest on a table of gothic dark witch want-to-be’s. “What about them?”

Mike turned up his nose. “Don’t you think I could do better?”

“I really wouldn’t know, nor do I care.” She said standing up and tossing her bag over her shoulder. “As for me, I need to go study.” She announced and walked away leaving Mike to get to know her friends.

***

Mike turned his smile to Kim. “Is she always this friendly?”

“She’s guarded she doesn’t open up to anyone. She won’t even let anyone come to her house.” Kim informed him.

Interesting, so Chase had something to hide. He wondered what it might be. She may be guarded but lucky for him he was persistent. He was bound and determined to win her over. Usually, Mike had his pick of girls. With little effort, he could have any of the girls in this school, but with Chase, there was a component of excitement. She was resistant to his charms. She was a challenge, and he was eager to conquer. He’d wear her down it was just a matter of time.