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

She stood near the door and scanned the room. My laughing friends caught her attention and she headed in our direction. I watched to see what she would do. She walked past us to the table behind us. She pulled a chair the couple feet so her back would be to the wall. She propped her feet on another chair and crossed her ankles pulling her book out of her bag that she leaned against her chair.

I watched her for a second then turned my attention to the rest of the room with difficulty. If I kept staring at her then she might not want to talk to me. I listened to my friends talk and laugh at each other’s expense. About ten minutes later someone walked over to her table and sat down in the chair closest to her. It was Sam.

Sam was the token pretty boy of the school, as well as the cruelest. I knew what would happen before she even acknowledged him. He would do what he always did. He would turn on his charm, and convince her to do something with him. She, being the new girl and alone, would be flattered and agree. He would woo her for as long as he needed to until he had her in his bed. He’d use her once, twice, maybe three times if she was lucky. Then he’d throw her away leaving her heart broken and lonely. Then he would trash her to the rest of the school to make sure she stayed lonely.

“Hey I’m Sam.” to my surprise she ignored him. His smile fell a little at the corners. “So there’s a party tonight. I was wondering if you’d like to go with me. Maybe meet some people?” his demeanor never changed but instead of answering she pulled a cell phone out of the side pocket on her bag. She checked the time and slipped her book into her bag. Finally she spoke.

“You know, I’ve been to a lot of schools. I’ve met a lot of people, and every school is typical. After meeting all of those people I’ve learned one thing.” she bent down and picked her bag up standing at the same time.

“Oh and what’s that?” he asked with a flirty smile meant to disarm. She walked around the table opposite him and looked at him for the first time. She didn’t meet his eyes, but looked at his forehead instead.

“That guys like you should be neutered at birth.” she turned and walked away leaving him with his face turning red. She walked till she was about three feet past our table then stopped. She looked at the time again and looked around with a perplexed look. She turned to look at our table and looked at Frank. She walked over to him. He had his head turned and was talking to Jason. She reached over and tapped his shoulder with her index finger. He jumped a little and turned to her.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to startle you.” in her hast to apologize she looked him directly in the eye. She froze and her eyes dilated completely. It only lasted for a moment but a moment was long enough for me to see it. He stood in front of her. Forever the southern gentleman his dad taught him to be. Her head didn’t reach past his shoulder, and when he stood so abruptly it left her looking directly at his chest. Her eyes lifted slowly going from his chest to his shoulder to his chin then finally meeting his eyes again. Her head was tilted back so she could see his face. She wore an expression of slight surprise. No fear, no intimidation, no self consciousness just surprise.

“Umm, hi.” she said apparently at a momentary loss for words.

“Hello” he answered his voice softer than usual.

“I was just wondering if you could tell me where the library is?” she asked.

“Oh yes you go into the hallway and turn right it’s the last door on the left.” she nodded.

“Ok thank you” before she could walk away Frank stuck his hand out.

“My name is Frank.” she looked at his hand the look of surprise returning. She took his hand slowly. For the first time I noticed that she had small hands with slender fingers. It looked like a child’s in his large hand.

“Rayne”

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too.” she gave him a small smile and turned to walk out of the room. I was momentarily stunned. She looked stern and guarded always making her features severe. But when she smiled she looked completely different. All of her features softened and lightened like a light was shining from under her skin. At that moment I would give anything to have that smile directed at me. For the first time in my life I was envious of someone.

Rayne

I parked my car in the shop’s lot and climbed out. I was so nervous my hands were shaking when I pulled my key out of the ignition. I walked through the front door and my mouth fell open.

I had heard a lot of things about Koner’s shop, but this was beyond words. Just as you walk in you see the counter and register. Behind it were shelves of various parts, and to the side were numerous shelves of different types of oil. To the right the room opened up to the garage. There were seven different stations for the mechanics with every piece of machinery someone could possibly need. The amazing part was that it was pristine. Everything was as clean as if it were new.

I could smell the various fluids that were used in and on a vehicle. I loved that smell. The way I loved working with my hands and the thought of taking a broken down vehicle and making it run like new. Oddly I liked the mess that came with it. To me it kind of proved that I worked on something and did my best, and succeeded.

“Rayne”

I turned at the sound of my name to see Koner standing in a doorway. I could see a little behind him and it looked like an office. He motioned me forward and went back into the room. I followed him and closed the door behind me softly.

The office was just as clean as the garage. It reminded me of him. Neat and organized with soft wooden tones, but had the possibility of looking severe if you were being called in to be reprimanded.

He was binding over a small stack of papers and motioned for me to sit in the chair on the opposite side of the desk. I sat and waited quietly for him to finish what he was doing. I sat at the end of my chair, my back straight, and my hands folded in my lap. After a couple minutes he straightened his papers and looked up at me.

“Sorry about that I had to make sure everything was in order for you.”

“What do you mean?” he turned the pages around and pushed them to me.

“These are all of the papers I need you to sign if your going to start tomorrow.” I looked up at him in surprise.

“Start?”

“I have a few friends in some convenient places. I faxed over your licensing test to him this morning. He graded it and sent it back to me. Your mechanic’s license will be in the mail in a couple days. For now I know that your licensed and that’s good enough for me. If you don’t want to work here that’s fine. I know that working for me might make things a little awkward. But you said you wanted a job and I have one available. It’s for after school Monday through Friday with time off for any school function you might have. It will from about three thirty to six. I know it’s not much but it pays twenty five an hour so you’ll still make more than working nights anywhere else. If you ever need a break to catch up on homework or just relax for a couple days just me know. So what do you say? Do you want the job?”

I sat there and stared at him for a moment or two. Twenty five dollars an hour, five days a week and weekends off. This was just too good to be true. I mean a job is a job, but this was different. Not only is it a good job, but because of him I now had a lively hood. If anything went wrong and I couldn’t go to college this was something I could fall back on.

He watched me for a couple moments then started looking worried. Finally I snapped my mouth shut and nodded my head vigorously. Yes I definitely wanted the job. He nodded much more slowly and stood up stretching.

“Ok just go through those papers and sign any that need it. I’ve already filled them out for you since I had the information from the file Mr. Harvest gave us. If you want you can go through them and make sure I got them right, but I need your signature on a few of them so I can put it into the system tonight. When your done you can go ahead and go home.”

He turned and headed for the door leaving me to finish the paperwork for my immediate employment. When he opened the door he took a step, but turned and looked back at me.

“Oh and uh I’d really appreciate it if you went easy on Sara when you got home.”

I must have looked as confused as I felt but he gave an embarrassed shrug and reached up to run his hand through his hair nervously.

“Well you see I kinda already called her and told her that you passed your test, and I was gonna offer you the job here. So she wouldn’t worry if you got home late. She was pretty excited, and she really likes to celebrate any occasion she can. So she’ll probably want to do something for you. I understand that doing things with people makes you uncomfortable, but if you could try to turn her down gently? Please?.” I nodded and he gave me a smile then left closing the door after him.

After a couple minutes of contemplating what Sara could possibly want to do with me I turned back to the paper. I grabbed a pen off the desk and started flipping through trying to find the places I needed to sign.

Ten minutes later I was starting my car. I made it home soon after and gently opened the door. I had just placed my keys in the bowl when Sara pounced.

“Oh my god! I heard the good news congratulations!”

I jumped and turned around to face her. In my surprise I made eye contact. My second slip up in two days. The pressure at the back of my neck burst into my skull and I was transported to a small fenced in yard. There was a little blonde girl in a pink dressed no older than two squatted down digging in the mud with a stick. She was barefoot and she had dirt