Chapter 25- Sure Didn’t See That One Coming

When I got home from my dad’s, no cars were in the driveway, and there was a note taped to the door. I ripped the note off of the door and read it.

Dear Kieyra,

We’re out to dinner with one of Dave’s relatives. I tried calling you, but you left your cell at home. We’ll be home before nine.

                                                                    Love,

                                                                        Mom

I ripped the note up and threw it out of the open window in the living room. It was just like my mom to go somewhere fancy without me and not tell me. Usually, I would get mad and trash the house, but today I felt like taking this as an invitation to dance around in my room with the music cranked up as loud as it could go.

As I was dancing in my room, I noticed that my calendar had fallen off of the hook on my wall and fallen onto my desk. When I picked it up, I looked at it and wanted to kick myself. Right in the middle of the calendar was the date December 21^st circled in a bright red sharpie marker. Alec’s birthday. Four days ago. How could I have forgotten? I quickly dialed his phone number, and was angry when it went straight to voicemail. I searched my room  for the piece of paper he had written his home phone number on, which took me fifteen minutes to find. There was still no answer. I did a reverse lookup search on his home phone number and found out that he lived in an apartment building a few blocks away from my house. I looked at my clock. It was 7:30, which gave me about an hour to look for Alec.

At first I considered sneaking out my window, but then I decided that there was no point and just went out the front door without even locking the door. It wasn’t hard to find the apartment building; there was only one near where I lived, and it was right down the street from my school. I must have walked past it about fifty times walking to the elementary school down the street to read to the kindergarteners with my class. On the way there, I spotted Mrs. Stewart walking to her car, looking completely exhausted.

The thing about Mrs. Stewart was, well…she wasn’t really our teacher. We had a teacher for English (Mrs. Saunders), a teacher for math and science, (Mr. G), and a teacher for religion, geography, history and all that (Miss. Sanchez), but Mrs. Stewart was our grade seven teacher who just came into our Phys. Ed. Class to teach us sports and went on field trips with us. That was about it. I kind of felt sorry for her, though. She hated working with high schools; she liked teaching my class a lot better. I wished she could teach my class all the time, so she wouldn’t be so sad all of the time… No, Kieyra, I told myself, you can’t afford to feel anyone else’s emotions right now.  I got about five feet down the street before I realized that I had no idea which apartment was Alec’s. I knocked on the first door I saw. An old lady answered the door.

“Why hello, dear. Why is a young girl like you out so late on a night like this?” It was true, it was pretty cold outside, and it was starting to rain a little, but I didn’t mind.

“I’m looking for...er…I’m looking for my boyfriend.” It felt weird saying boyfriend aloud for the first time in the same sentence as the word my. Well, unless I was saying “my friend’s boyfriend”, which, quite frankly, I tended to say more often. I realized that that didn’t give the woman much description of Alec, so I continued.

“His name’s Alec. He’s about four inches taller than me and has dark hair and blue eyes. He told me he lived in one of these apartment buildings.”

“Oh, the boy? He lives in the apartment next to mine. He left a few hours ago to do something though. You can go in, if you want. He never locks the door.” Wow. I wondered what kind of neighborhood this woman grew up in. Probably a very friendly one. I mean, who tells someone that? I started walking towards the next door, but hesitated. If Alec hadn’t invited me in, I couldn’t go in.

“Don’t be afraid, dear. Besides, I own these apartments, so I’m allowed to let you in.” I slowly opened the door.

Alec’s apartment wasn’t at all like I expected. I’d expected…well, I’d expected all expensive furniture and wide-screen TVs, and, well…not what I saw. His walls were a rather ugly shade of beige, and the only thing that was in the front hall was a hook with an ugly brown jacket on it. I went into the next room. There was an old yellowy-brown colored couch that smelled faintly of cigarette smoke. Sitting on a small table across the room from the couch was an old TV with “rabbit ear” antennas. I guess Alec really didn’t need more than a few channels-he didn’t really seem to be the type to entertain himself electronically. Connected to this room was the kitchen, in which was simply a small white dining table with old white chairs that had most of the paint scratched off, a toaster oven that was covered in a layer of dust, and a fridge that was a faded shade of white. I was curious to know exactly what he kept in his fridge, but instead of looking I headed back to the front hallway and went up the old, creaky, wooden staircase. At the top of the stairs, I saw two doors; one was open and one was closed. The open door led to a small bathroom, which, judging by the condition of the rest of the house, I was kind of afraid to see. I reached out to open the second door but stopped. The thought of being in Alec’s house alone without him knowing made me feel uneasy. You’re invading his privacy, Kieyra, I thought. Then again, Alec read my mind all the time before Katherine gave me the bracelet.

“It’s only fair.” I said aloud to myself, as I turned the door knob and pushed open the door. This room was different than the others-and not just because of its surprising cleanliness. It was evidently a bedroom-there was a king sized bed with an elegantly carved chestnut-colored headboard in the far corner of the room. It was-unquestionably-the largest room in the entire house. Bookshelves lined the walls (filled with books, of course) and there was a dresser beside the bed with a picture of me and him on it.

“Ahem.” I froze. Busted. I spun around, my face turning bright red. Alec stood in the doorway, a smug smile on his face.

“I didn’t…I mean…I…you didn’t answer your phone.”

“People’s phones run out of battery sometimes, Kieyra.”

“Well, I know, it’s just…I just …I forgot your birthday.” Alec laughed.

“I’ll have about a million more. It’s okay. And besides, I never said happy birthday to you on your birthday.” That much was true.

“It wasn’t exactly very happy.” I said, remembering my fight with Sylvie.

“True.”

“So…we’re even?” I asked. The reason I was here seemed silly now.

“We’re even.” I glanced at the clock on the wall. 8:17. My mom would surely be home soon.

“I have to be home, like, now. My mom doesn’t know I left, and Dave…well, Dave tends to overreact sometimes.” Alec nodded in agreement and smiled.

“I’ll walk you.”

The moment I saw my mom and Dave’s cars in the driveway, I knew I was in deep trouble. I said a quick goodbye to Alec before walking into my house, passing my mom nonchalantly and starting upstairs.

“Kieyra Mary Lynn Gordon…” uh oh. Full name. That couldn’t be good at all.

“Yes?” I asked coolly

“Where were you?”

“I took a walk.” I said, which was true.

“Where?”

“Near the school. Just around that general area.” I shrugged. I was relieved to find that lying was a lot easier if there was some truth to your lies.

“Do you have any idea how worried I was about you? You could have been dead, for all I knew!”

“I’m sorry mom. I should have left a note. It won’t happen again.” My mom seemed to be considering it for a second. I didn’t do anything wrong, not really. She couldn’t punish me just for getting some healthy exercise. And besides, I was thirteen, definitely old enough to take a short walk around the block after dark.

“Don’t let it happen again.” She said, sighing.

“I won’t.” I could hear Dave and his daughters talking in the kitchen. It was the usual post-dinnertime conversation-stories about weird stuff that happened at school, getting good grades on science projects, sports that were going to be covered in P.E. after the Christmas Break, but I could hear another voice. A woman’s voice. I walked into the kitchen to find Dave, Sarah, Anna, Katie and Nathen sitting around the table, listening to the woman-who I thought must’ve been Dave’s relative-talk about when she spent the summer in Paris, France.

The woman was tall and thin, and though I knew she must have been, she looked no older than 23. She had long, strawberry blonde hair and green eyes like Sarah’s. She could have passed for a supermodel. When the woman saw me, she stopped talking immediately. She had a confused expression on her face, which quickly turned from confusion to understanding to…well…kind of intimidating.

“This is my sister Kieyra.” Nathen said, but none of us were paying attention. The woman just kept staring at me.

“Nice to meet you, Kieyra.” She finally said, but she didn’t sound like she was so happy.

“I’m Mariana, Mariana Wilkins.”