I'll Take A Bullet For You

Chapter 4

        Kallen's new girlfriend came over today. She's here until dinner and I take peeks of her from the stairs. Her name's Marielle. Marielle has hair the perfect shade of brown, glossy and swept behind her ears. She's wearing a beige blouse and skinny jeans, and a nervous smile. She seems nice, and Kallen seems to really like her, too. 

        Kallen doesn't choose to introduce me to her. My parents know about Marielle, but in their place, Ruth talks to her. Marielle loves Ruth; who doesn't? I saw Marielle when I came home from school. She didn't see me, but Kallen pulled me to the side when she used the washroom and told me. He also told me to stay away from her. 

        I still haven't told Kallen about Alistair coming over today. Ruth knows and she's okay with it. I want to tell Kallen too, so he doesn't come to any surprises. He's in a great mood today, so I plan to use it as the perfect chance. When Ruth pulls Marielle aside to the kitchen to talk about some baking stuff, I go downstairs and sit at the dining table where Kallen is.

        "What?" he says when he sees me. "I told you not to come." His brown eyes shadow under the light, making his face darker and look a little scary. Does Marielle notice, too?

        "It's nothing. I just need to tell you, that...uh...I have this math assignment," I begin. Kallen folds his arms, waiting. "And I just want to ask you if--"

        "Look, I don't have time to help you with your work," he interrupts. I shake my head.

        "No, not that. We are assigned partners to work on it and..." I pause. "My partner is Alistair." His eyes darken immediately. "Look, I know what you're thinking but I didn't choose to be his partner. I promise. He's coming to our house. Like now. To work on the assignment." Kallen furrows his brows.

        "Why did you invite him? He's a Black Cat!" he hisses. I try to explain but at that moment, Marielle comes back. Kallen's frown is replaced with a smile when he sees her.

        "Oh, who's this?" Her voice is soft and kind. I smile when Kallen introduces her to his little sister: me. "Oh, wow! Kallen, I didn't know you had a sister." My smile drops. My brother didn't tell his girlfriend that he has a...sister? I always told him when I had a boyfriend and told my boyfriend about my family. Did Kallen forget about me?

        "Don't look so sad, Amy," Kallen says to me. "I wanted to give Marielle a surprise." It doesn't make me feel better. With his false smile on, he says, "And please cancel any invitations you have for your...group mates."

        "Kallen, he's coming," I say stubbornly. Marielle asks who and Kallen say nobody. I say my partner for my math assignment. Kallen says it's a mistake invitation and he doesn't know about it. Kallen says he hates Alistair. 

        Marielle laughs and says let him come, it's for a project after all. Kallen is about to disagree when the bell rings. My stomach leaps and I abruptly stand up from the table.

        "That's him," I say. Marielle tells me to go and says she and Kallen won't disturb us. Kallen doesn't want Alistair in the house, but his lips press together as he consents. I sigh and go to the front door.

        I don't know why I got dressed for this. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail, wore pearl earrings, a new t-shirt I haven't touched before, and black pants. I open the door nervously and see whom I expected standing at the doorway. He brought his backpack with him and I step aside so he can come in. Once I close the door behind us, I don't know what to say. 

        I say the obvious. "My brother has his girlfriend over so he's kind of busy," I tell him as he looks around my house. "And, uh, my parents are at work. Do you need to use the bathroom?" I cringe. Why did I ask him that?

        "Something smells nice," he comments. I tell him my aunt, Ruth, is baking cookies with Kallen's girlfriend. I promise him some cookies before he leaves and he looks satisfied as I take him upstairs. After Matthew and Oren, Alistair is the only boy that has ever been to my room. Kallen doesn't count.

        "This is where we'll do our work," I say once we're in my room. I go to pull out my textbook while observing Alistair. He's looking around, taking everything in. Knots form in my stomach when he sits on the bed. "I'll be there in a sec. Just, lemme get my textbook," I say quickly and join him on the bed. 

        "Is that a goldfish?" He nods towards the fish bowl on my white desk. I say yes. "I have tetras and a betta." My face goes blank. "They're a type of fish." 

        "Oh." I'm curious about his interests. He likes fish? I want to talk with him some more, but I stop myself. We still have the math work to do. I flip to page 240 and bring out a lined piece of paper. "Um, if you need help, just ask me," I tell him.

        We spend some time working on the assignment. I think about the past ten minutes I spent with Alistair in my bedroom. He's not scary at all. Just a little intimidating. I don't know if what he's feeling right now is good or bad. If he regrets coming here, or he is disappointed. I will never know because I can never bring myself to ask him. 

        Does he even know that I live right across from him? He must know, but he doesn't say anything about it. Just him, that strange boy who used to hang out alone on the playground, in my room gives me an odd feeling. It's like an achievement. Alistair yells dark and uncanny, but he's not like that to me. Why is everyone scared? I just don't know. I don't know him. It's unsettling because he's all I think about sometimes. Where is he from? His parents? His friends? Doesn't he like anyone? Is he rude to other people? I want to know. 

        "Tell me how to do this," Alistair says, pointing to one of the questions in part three. He waits while I read the question myself. It is a tough one, but I know how to do it. 

        "Well, you start with writing out the formula," I start while writing on a scrap paper. "First, you simplify--"

        "I can't see that," he says. I dumbly stare at the paper on my text book.

        "Uh," I say, looking around. I shift so I'm kind of sitting beside him. "Okay, so." I cross my legs, my knee touching his. I jerk away as if I touched molten rock. His eyes are on the textbook, and I bite my lip. I put the paper in front of him and explain the steps he has to take to get the answer. "And you multiply this with this," I say. He does the work on his own paper as I show him and I'm careful not to lean too close. "And if you add this you get..."

        "3xy to the power of 7," he replies before I write the answer. I finish writing the answer and straighten. He adds the therefore statement and I make the therefore symbol darker. I get fond of Alistair's writing. It's not like others'. It's not completely neat but in a way you can read and wonder how he makes his threes, S's, sevens, fours, and other symbols. 

        "Not bad," I say, giving him a small smile. His eyes fall and he looks away. 

        We finish cleaning up and organizing the project, taking us around twenty minutes. After we put our textbooks and pencils away, we idly sit on the bed in silence. I want to break that silence but am afraid of messing something up. We're done the assignment, but somewhere in my mind, I don't want Alistair to leave. I want to talk to him.

        "So..." I murmur, bending my knees and wrapping my arms around them. More silence. I can tell Alistair is watching me from my peripheral vision but I don't meet his gaze. I try to think of what to say, things that are good to start conversations about. But I'm with Alistair. I don't know what interests someone like him. "So, are you...going to Leif's party?" I ask. 

        He raises an eyebrow, a bit in surprise if I have to guess. "Are you?" I shrug, placing my chin on my knees. I don't want to go, but...but I might if...Kallen and Ruth agree and if-- "I'm going," Alistair says, his voice clear and...determined? I don't understand this guy one bit. "I don't go to silly parties usually." 

       "Why?" Alistair stands up, walking to the fish bowl and crossing his arms. He's barely two thirds a foot taller than me, making me feel annoyingly short. His body is what every girl wants; strong, athletic, and attractive. He's in my Phys. Ed class, and though they keep their distance, all the girls stare at him as he plays. 

        "People there don't know what they're getting into," Alistair answers after a while. He takes a few long seconds to speak again. "Especially the girls. I don't want them jumping on me and trying to take my clothes off." This description makes me flinch and I suddenly, don't want to talk about the party anymore. "A party in our high school, if you don't know, is the definition of a s*x motel."

        "C-can we change the topic?" I say quickly, feeling my face hot. I never meant for Alistair to explain so thoroughly. He said it like it's a simple thing. Like s*x is normal to him. But I even feel uncomfortable saying the word 's*x'. 

        He looks around at me. "If you're not interested, and quite frankly scared, why are you going?" he asks. I squeeze my legs harder, staring at the ground. 

        "I've never been to one and well, Lena and Hailee are going, too," I say. 

        "Lena and Hailee." He says it like it's a statement, and not a question. Talking about my two friends, I totally forgot to do their homework today. 

        "Shoot!" I mutter, scrambling off the bed and to my backpack. "I forgot to do their homework." Alistair furrows his brows and I have to explain to him. "They give me their homework so I can do it for them. It's a friend thing." Alistair has his brows still furrowed, and I take out the worksheet from my backpack. 

        He says something to himself but I don't hear it. "If you don't mind, I'll do their homework instead." My jaw drops. "What courses are these from?" I tell him bio, astronomy, and poetry. "Shouldn't be hard. I'll use Google," he says. I can't believe my eyes as he pulls out his phone and grabs a pencil from my pencil case. I can't believe he volunteered to do my friends' homework. He's nice. 

        Time passes by quickly and it's time for him to leave. My face falls as we head downstairs, him wearing his backpack. For the first time, something different happened in my house. I enjoyed spending time with Alistair. And we finally talked. Kallen's girlfriend has left just a moment ago and Kallen sees Alistair as I open the front door.

        "You. Stop there," Kallen says and Alistair's foot stops before it steps out. "What's your name?" Like my brother doesn't know. I rub my forehead in impatience.

        "Alistair," he replies. Kallen asks for the full name. "Alistair Carlson." 

        "Kallen," I begin but he stops me. 

        "Nice to meet you and sorry for the brief introduction," Kallen said, more scornfully and less respectfully. He stretches a hand for Alistair to shake. Alistair's eyes turn a little dark, and he doesn't take the offer. Kallen scowls. From behind him, I see Ruth rushing towards us with a plate and plastic wrap around it. It's tied with a red ribbon and has cookies in it.

        "Thank God you haven't left yet," she says out of breath and holds out the cookies to Alistair. "So nice of you to drop by. Amy hardly calls anyone over to her house." Alistair's eyes move to me for a split second before moving back to Ruth. 

        "Thanks," he says, taking the plate with one hand. "I'll return the plate later."

        "Any time you want," Ruth waves a hand. "Come by again." Kallen is about to protest and Ruth holds up a hand to stop him. I hold the door open wider as Alistair steps out with the cookies. 

        "See ya at school," he tells me without looking back. All the bad things that happened a while ago leave my thoughts and I watch him until he disappears into his house. He knows he I live across him, or else he would've asked me for my address. He knows. 

        "We need to talk," Kallen says, walking to the dining room. Ruth and I follow him. I should be afraid, but the feel of happiness is more overpowering. "Amy, you can't bring a stranger like that into the house. Especially him. He isn't even respectful, wouldn't shake hands or greet me as I stand there." Kallen hasn't been very respectful either. He's being a hypocrite. "And you don't know who he is."

        "Do you?" I retort. 

        "He can be dangerous, Amy!" Kallen grits his teeth. "One fine morning, his parents went missing and it's been what, three years and they still haven't come home."

        "That's doesn't tell you anything." I'm stubborn and defensive all of a sudden, and I don't know what in particular I'm defending. And when I do know, I don't regret it. I don't want to stay away from Alistair. 

        "Look, his family are all like a bunch of robots. They are rude and ignorant. You can't hang out with people like that," Kallen says as a final decision. I want to pout but suppress. Ruth tells Kallen to calm down and give Alistair a chance.

        "He's nice, Kallen," I tell my big brother. "I can't look down and pass by like you tell me to, because I won't know if that person is good or bad. I need to be with them to know that, and once I know, I'll decide to keep my distance or not."

        "She has a point, Kallen," Ruth says. Kallen folds his arms on the table, taking a moment to think. He's more convincible than my parents, so I hope he will give Alistair a chance. 

        "My mood is damn messed up," he mutters. He gives me a dead look in the eye. "Tell me something I will like and I'll let this one go." I am on the verge of smiling because I have something to say right away.

        "Marielle is the prettiest girl I've ever seen. And she seems to really like you," I say honestly. Kallen sighs, which is a good sign. 

        "Don't tell mom or dad about this, okay?" He gets up and goes upstairs. Ruth hugs me and returns to the kitchen. Dinner isn't until an hour, but I feel like sleeping already.

        I want to replay what happened today over and over again in my dreams.