Part 44 (1/2)

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fict.i.tiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

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Edited by Stephanie T. Lott For: My four sons, without whom, it would have been impossible to write~

Unrequited Death- CHAPTER 1

now KPH graduating cla.s.s of 2029 I adjusted the cap on Jade's head and she ducked away from my nimble fingers, a frown puckering the smooth mocha perfection of her forehead.

”Come on, babe, come here.” I reached to scoop her back to me and she huffed. ”No, Caleb, you're going to wreck my hair!”

Wreck. The. Hair. Uh-huh.

We couldn't have that. I mean, graduation and all. Monumental.

I couldn't have cared less but this was Jade's day, John's day. The prison doors were opening with a whisper and closing with a clank.

We were free.

”It's hanging crooked,” I argued logically. The deep royal blue of the cap contrasted with the naturally black hair that flowed down her back in an artful silken waterfall.

It was a mite distracting as Clyde would say. He had given me a level of vocabulary that even my Grammar-n.a.z.i mom couldn't compete with. I dug that.

Clyde would be here today with Bobbi. He wouldn't miss it.

Jade shrieked as I raced after her, my arms going around her waist and I lifted her as she squealed.

Alex came in and saw the two of us doing a staggering dance of hyperactivity. ”What... is this like a p.o.r.n thing here?”

What? I looked at him, bodily turning around to face him with Jade in my arms.

Her embarra.s.sment was tangible.

I hadn't been thinking that way but now that he mentioned it....

Jade was dying, I noticed, a flush creeping up on her cheeks.

”No man, she won't cooperate with a hat fix,” I said, saving the moment.

Alex's eyes s.h.i.+fted to the crooked graduation cap, the ta.s.sel swinging in Jade's face like a pendulum gone bad and smiled.

”Yeah, that bad cap. I hear that.” Mucho-sarcasm.

I let Jade down and gave a chuckle. Perv-Alex was right on board as usual. Then Randi came up behind him and goosed him in the a.s.s and it was his turn to get embarra.s.sed.

Randi peeked around his big body and looked at Jade. ”See how that works?”

Jade nodded, grinning. ”I do, yes.”

The girls looked at each other smugly and Alex grunted. ”The girls have the power man,” he said, only half-teasing.

”That's smart that ya just figured that out,” I responded and gave him a sly smile, suppressing a girl-worthy eye roll.

”Merranda?” Princ.i.p.al Chen popped her face into the room where many graduates gathered, the talking like a low din of white noise in the background. Her hair was so tightly slicked back from her face she looked like a refugee from a forty MPH wind tunnel.

I blinked and Jade laughed, she'd gotten the full Empath blow by on that. I'd always wondered if she got it like a pulsescreen visual of my thoughts or what? Sometimes I just wanted to own my weirdness with no witnesses.

”You grumpy that I saw that?” Jade whispered, her lips tickling my neck and making me s.h.i.+ft my weight. She knew how she affected me. Jade was a walking s.e.xsicle. She knew it, I knew it and she was being evil now.

I glowered at her. ”Yeah, now let me fix your hat.”

She smiled, giving my neck a soft peck and I turned to capture her lips, giving an internal groan of satisfied bliss.

I completely forgot about Chen. Jade sometimes had that Mind Blanking Effect on me.

”Mr. Hart,” she said in a low voice full of warning.

It cut through my fog like a lighthouse beacon.

I swiveled my head and Alex whispered, ”Busted.”

How could I be busted? I'd be nineteen in a matter of a few months.

Randi made the slicing the neck gesture behind her gestapo mom's back, which clearly said don't blow it, not today, we're this close.

Then something happened that surprised the h.e.l.l of me. Chen gave me a break.

”Don't do the PDA spectacle when we get out there in the auditorium.”

Right. I nodded. ”Hey thanks.” My surprise must have shown because she gave a low laugh.

”I was eighteen once,” she explained.

We all looked at her and she laughed again. ”I was... you'll see.” She turned to her daughter, dwarfed by my friend the Body. A guy so ma.s.sive he was his own zip code. Not defined by name but by area.

”I need you to be in your seat before the other students, Merranda.”

”Okay, Mom,” Randi responded on the barest side of neutral.

I think all of us had about had Enough of Parents.

We filed out, Jade with her crooked hat and perfect hair, me with the I'm-so-glad-this-is-over-I-could-s.h.i.+t-myself look.

I saw that same look on about half the guys and a good number of the girls too. Universal School Scorn.