Soul Searcher by D.M. Richardson (novel24 .TXT) 📕

He respected my wishes and never asked anything personal. We stuck to safe topics including his friends. He told me how Frank was large, but harmless, and very protective. All of which I already knew. He explained how Will never strayed from the norm, but was loyal to a fault. Something else I already knew. Jacob he said was overly curious. His curiosity got the better of him and often led to him getting hurt. He told me how he couldn’t stand that girl that I always saw hanging on him. I laughed a lot at her expense. I told him about some of the people I had met at my various schools. Most of which he laughed at.

Finally we were interrupted by his dad coming in from work. He greeted us with pleasant surprise and I looked at the time. I was a half hour late getting back. I jumped to my feet and started gathering my things in a hurry.

“What’s wrong?” Zeke asked in surprise.

“I’m late I was supposed to be back by six. I can’t mess up again after last night.” in my hurry I knocked Zeke’s books to the floor. I groaned and bent to pick them up.

“Rayne relax. I’ll call them and let them know your here and that you lost track of time. I’m sure they’ll be okay with it these things happen.” Rob said slowly trying to calm me down.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and walked into the other room. I finished picking up my mess with Zeke’s help. He walked back into the room and I looked up at him.

“It’s okay they knew you were over here so they weren’t worried. They’ve already eaten so they said you can have dinner here tonight if you’d like.” he offered with a smile.

“Yeah you can have the delicious cooking of the nearest Chinese take out .” Zeke said with a smile. I smiled back.

“Chinese sounds wonderful.” Rob laughed and went to go order the food. I stacked all of my things on the table neatly so I wouldn’t have to worry about it later. We all sat in the living room talking until the food arrived. We took it into the dining room. The dinner tasted wonderful and the conversation was pleasant.

It was seven thirty by the time I walked out the door. I walked to the house quickly and apologized for my lateness as soon as I walked in. They assured me that it was fine and I was in no trouble. I went up to my room to relax before I went to bed and Kristi followed me in wanting me to read to her.

The next week followed the same pattern. I went to Zeke’s to study instead of him coming to me. We would work for about a half hour then talk for the rest of the time. I was careful to be home by dinner every night, but I was really beginning to enjoy Zeke’s company. His house was always relaxed and quiet. We had privacy to do or say anything we wanted. We kept the conversations neutral and he was careful not to as me anything about my past. Sometimes we ran out of things to talk about and just sat there in comfortable silence.

One day at lunch I was sitting at my table reading when someone tapped on the table top. I looked up to see Will standing there. I pulled my head phones out and looked at him expectantly. He seemed the most comfortable with my habitual silence than anyone else I’ve known.

“Hey I told them about that girl in choir that sounds like a frog and they don’t believe me. Could you back me up here?” he asked. I looked at the others to see them all staring at me.

“Yeah it’s true.” I said.

“I’m sorry what was that? I couldn’t hear you.” Frank said with a sleigh smile. I repeated myself a little louder.

“What was that?” Zeke answered with a full out grin. I looked up at Will to see him smiling down at me. I was being set up. I sighed and grabbed my things. I slid a chair over to sit between Zeke and Will and joined in on the conversation about the girl that croaked like a frog. By the end of it we were all laughing.

Of course whenever I was in a genuinely good mood something had to happen to dampen it. A girl with long legs and a mini skirt that barely covered the essentials walked up and sat on Zeke’s lap startling him.

“Do I know you?” he asked her in dismay. Unfortunately I did.

“Not yet hot stuff but I’m sure you will.” I watched as she got more comfortable in Zeke’s lap and something foul started to curl around my stomach. Finally she turned to me and her smile widened with venom.

“Rayne! So nice to see you again sweetie.” she said in a tone that was sickeningly sweet.

“Megan. Get kicked out of another boarding school?” I asked with just as much fake sweetness.

“You know her?” Zeke asked incredulously.

“Unfortunately yes. Guys meet Chase’s older sister Megan.” I had an immense sense of pleasure when they all looked at her with as much disgust as I felt. Zeke pushed her off of his lap with more force than was necessary. She pouted for a moment then Chase walked up next to her.

“Now you boys wouldn’t be treating a lady harshly would you?” he asked in a mock stern tone. I snorted not a very lady like notion but I couldn’t control it. He looked at me and his smile widened.

“If that’s a lady then I’m a hag.” I said with as much distaste as I could muster in one sentence.

“Oh only in your looks, but I’m sure you‘ll grow out of it.” Megan said with the same sweetness. I could almost feel my blood sugar rising. I gave her an obvious once over.

“At least I haven’t had to have any medical enhancements.” I answered referring to her obvious boob job. Chase let out a belt of laughter that caught the attention of four or five tables around us. He walked around and put his arm around my shoulder. I looked at his arm in disgust and briefly considered breaking it. He must have seen the idea forming because he removed it quickly.

“Alright girls put the claws away. Come on Meg I’ll show you to our locker. We have a lot of catching up to do.” I glared at their backs as they walked away arm in arm.

“I take it you don’t like her.” Zeke said after a couple minutes of silence. I looked over at him.

“They’re the twins from hell.” I answered in a deadly serious tone.

“Twins?” Will asked obviously referring to the fact that they didn’t really look a lot alike.

“They’re not actual twins. Megan is a year older almost to the day. She’s a senior and Chase is a junior, but they’re inseparable. Like finishing each other’s sentences inseparable. And they are almost exactly alike. Except of course that he ruins any girl he can and she’s ripped out more guy’s hearts than I could count in a year. They have both been kicked out of every boarding school they’re parents can get them into. Every time they’re kicked out it’s for inexplicable circumstances.”

“Why do you hate her so much? I mean besides the reasons you just listed.” Frank asked.

“I’ve never liked her. She treated me scum any chance she could. Luckily it wasn’t often. I only ever saw her when I went to Chase’s house which was maybe once a month.”

“How long did you two date?” Zeke asked.

“About six months. I made him wait a long time.”

The bell rang and I was saved from answering to many more intimate questions. I went through the rest of the day, and sighed with relief when I walked through the front door, and was greeted by Kristi. She through a fit when I walked out again to go over to Zeke’s. Sara offered her some cookies and she was over it.

I knocked on their door and was surprised when Rob answered. He greeted me warmly and ushered me into the living room. Zeke was already sitting on the couch with his book open. I sat down next to him and set up my own things. When he didn’t sit forward to start I gave him a questioning look.

“Oh yeah. My works already done.” he said with a sleigh smile. He handed me his notebook and I looked it over. He was telling the truth. It was all done and it was all accurate.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I didn’t have to come over if you already had it done.”

“Exactly” I shot him another look and he sighed.

“If I had told you it was done you wouldn’t have come over.”

“Yeah and?”

“And I wanted you to come over anyway.”

“Why?” I asked suddenly uneasy.

“Because I thought it would be nice if we could hang out without having to do homework.” I sighed and gathered my things together although I didn’t immediately start to leave like I should have.

“So what did you want to do since we don’t have to do homework?” I asked he looked a guilty.

“Well if you still need to do the work I can wait.” I shook my head.

“I’ve already finished the book.” his eyes widened.

“What do you mean you’ve finished the book?”

“I’ve finished the book. I have all of the chapters done.”

“How? You’ve only been here for like six weeks.”

“I did half of it before I even moved here. We had the same text book at my last school.”

“How do you do that?” he asked incredulously.

“Do what finish the book?” I asked confused.

“No. How are you so good at everything you do? I mean the rest of us have to work and work to be half as good as you, and you just seem to do it with no effort at all.” I got more and more angry with every word that he said. I turned to face him fully and he shrank back a little. Suddenly realizing that he had overstepped the bounds that we had set when we first started our friendship.

“No effort? I am good at what I do because I work three times as hard as anyone else.” He raised his hands in surrender.

“Okay I’m sorry I understand.” Yet again he had said the very worst thing he could think of. I stood and grabbed my things.

“No you really don’t. There is no way you could possibly understand.” He stood and stepped in my way when I turned to leave.

“Okay I’ll give you that. I don’t understand. I don’t understand because you won’t explain it. You won’t explain anything…ever. Maybe if you did I might have a chance. I might be able to. Give me a little credit. I’ve let you set the rules for everything we do and talk about. Give me at least something for trying to be understanding.” He ripped his sunglasses off and I dropped my eyes to the floor. “See that. That is what I’m talking about.”

“What?”

“You are