Miracle - Chapter 8: Chapter 8

I was so worked up about the phone call with Ezra that I ended up dreaming of him that night.
The peripheral details were kind of fuzzy, but I was back out on that dirt road being chased by a monster truck that had razors for a front grill, and a maniacal demon for a driver. I was on my bike trying to flee, but the tires were slogging like I was pushing through ankle deep mud. The truck was raging closer, ready to swallow me up, when out of nowhere Ezra appeared in his big black hoodie.
He went into an anime-hero lunge and slammed his fist into the side of the truck. It flew into the air and rolled into a ditch.
Then he picked me up off of my bike and cradled me into his chest, just like he had when I was seven years old. I got to cling to his neck, hyperventilating.
"You're okay," he said, petting my hair. "I've got you."
"Why was that guy trying to hurt me?"
"Because you're special, Connor. You're so special. He couldn't help it."
I squeezed his neck harder. "You saved me."
"I will always save you."
I raised my head and he was looking down at me, his dark eyes full of tenderness. His beautiful lips were parted a little, and they looked soft and tempting. Gentle. Totally unlike that bastard Tyler with his hard, cruel, slobbery mouth.
"Tyler Crockett kissed me, you know," I said, somewhat pitifully. "He kissed me and then he gut-punched me."
Ezra inclined his head, thick brows drawing together in empathy. "I know. I'm sorry."
"That was my first kiss." I laid my cheek against his shoulder, feeling tears prick at my eyelids. "Where were you then? How come you didn't save me that time?"
"I wish I could have." Ezra's chest rose and fell a bit unevenly. Then I felt his lips graze my forehead. "But don't worry. I'm going to make sure you have plenty more chances for kisses in your life. Ones that you actually want."
Well, fuck, if you're going to put it like that... This was my dream, after all. That meant I was in charge. I grabbed the edge of his hood in my fist and tipped my face back. Before he could pull away, I stretched up to meet his mouth with mine.
And yeah. Those sensual lips of his were every bit as warm and wonderful as I'd thought. The pulse icon on my watch started flashing a hell of a lot faster, and for a minute I felt weightless. Euphoric. Like everything was going to be okay.
Because it was a dream, he didn't push me away or cuss me out. His arms tightened up around me, and he held very, very still until I backed off. His black eyes searched my face, and it didn't seem like he was breathing. I couldn't tell if he was awed or appalled, probably because I had no clue how the real Ezra would react if I ever tried something that shameless and... well, gay.
"I wanted that one," I said. "It was a lot better."
"Connor..."
Dreaming or not, he was looking at me so intensely that I was embarrassed all of a sudden. My face felt hot. I ducked into his chest and squeezed him some more. His heartbeat thundered against my ear. "I don't care who you are," I mumbled. "Just stay with me. Don't leave anymore, okay? I need you."
He didn't answer. I think I fell into a deeper sleep then, because everything went dark and quiet.
Next thing I knew, Maddy was kicking the bottom of my bunk.
"Yo my bro, you gonna sleep the whole day? Get up. We gotta get to the barbeque."
I groaned and flung an arm over my eyes. It was the Fourth of July, which meant the whole town would be getting together at Carter's Pond for the annual cookout and fireworks show. It was really just an excuse for the good folk of Prickly Pear to get shitfaced in broad daylight and then play with explosives.
There would be a brush fire. Maybe several. Which would give our town's four volunteer firefighters the chance to mess around with their fire truck and be hailed heroes for the night. Some drunk idiot would probably burn themselves, so that they could also whip out the emergency first aid equipment. If we were lucky, we'd get an additional light show from the truck rushing our injured neighbor out to the clinic in Dumas.
The Fourth of July meant people. A lot of people. And my track record with people this week hadn't been going so well. I wasn't looking forward to it.
Maddy sure was, though. She dragged me out of bed and threw me clothes she'd picked out—a pair of navy blue cargo shorts and a t-shirt with an American eagle on the front. She wouldn't let me wear my comfy tennis shoes, so I had to put on rubber clogs instead. As for her, she was in a pair of star-spangled denim short-shorts and a red, white, and blue bikini top, with an artfully shredded red t-shirt over it. She finished off this enthusiastically patriotic ensemble with a pair of worn cowboy boots and a perky red cowboy hat. I just put my hair back in a ponytail like usual.
Mom drove us all to Carter's Pond Reserve, which was the bigger of the town's two public parks. It had a wood chip playground on one end, and I guess the town board had sprung for an update because the play equipment had a shiny new coat of paint for the first time since Maddy and I were in preschool. The playground was situated a dubiously safe distance from what we all called the beach, which wasn't so much a beach as a muddy strip of land that bordered the equally muddy pond.
There were already dozens of families there, setting up their portable grills under pop up gazebos, rolling out massive coolers and kegs of home brew, and planting lawn chairs in strategic viewing spots. Sure enough, there was the fire truck parked on the edge of the field, ready to respond the moment someone's sparkler managed to escape the gravel parking lot.
A few kids from school were stringing up a volleyball net near the water, and as soon as Mom stopped the car Maddy jumped out and went running over there. Mom wandered off to greet friends from work, and it wasn't long before they were passing a surreptitious joint around.
I pulled our cooler out of the back of the car. Pushed the trunk door of our hatchback up as high as it would go, spread a blanket in the back, climbed up into it with a Coke and one of the novels from my backpack. What I really wanted was to study the contract Mrs. Moss had given me yesterday, but I didn't dare bring something like that here. Until I knew what I was dealing with, I had to keep that thing hidden. I had been too shaken by the guy in the truck yesterday afternoon, and ended up going straight home after that. So I hadn't had the chance to look the contract over yet. It would have to wait until tomorrow, because the day's festivities would be going on well past midnight.
I tucked my legs up crisscross in front of me and opened the novel in my lap. The chatter and laughter outside faded into negligible background ambience as I got lost in the book.
This series was one of my favorites, a deep space adventure with an ensemble cast of interesting characters. But the book I was on was about one guy discovering a shocking birth secret about who his father really was. I'd seen it coming since about page nine of the very first book in the series. I kind of just wanted to get through his story so I could move on to another character's arc, and I was having a hard time staying focused.
I kept returning to thoughts of last night's dream instead, grinning to myself like a fool. I must have been crushing on Ezra harder than I'd realized, because that kiss was still so vivid in my memory. I could remember everything about the texture of his lips, the light fuzz above his mouth, the gentle pressure and solidness of him. It had all just felt so real.
Now that I was awake and thinking clearly, though, it occurred to me how naive I was being. This guy had been stalking me my whole life. Now I knew he was working for the same twisted company that had very likely caused Timothy Riker's descent into madness forty years ago. Who knew how many other kids like Timmy were out there? Who knew how many besides me Ezra was following around?
And if I set aside my hero-worship for a second and looked at things objectively, there were so many things about Ezra that simply weren't normal. His improbable size, the way he hadn't really aged in eight years, how he appeared and disappeared at random times, the fact that no one besides me had ever seen him... Was Ezra himself part of the Elioud Biogenesis study?
Maybe this whole thing was some super-secret government project. Maybe they were genetically altering kids before birth so that they'd turn into some kind of superhuman soldiers. Maddy and I weren't big like Ezra was, but I wouldn't take super-soldier off the table for my sister. She was badass to the bone.
Damn, what if that's what what Ezra had meant by his enigmatic 'half-human' comment?
And then, probably because of the book I was reading, I was struck with a truly horrible thought. What if he was our father?
And here I was fantasizing about making out with him.
Oh. Oh god, no. I shook my head quickly. No, ugh, that couldn't possibly be it. I might not know who Ezra was, but there was no way I was the offspring of a guy that big, strong, and well, thoroughly studly. Besides, I was pretty sure he was biracial—maybe Black or Hispanic or Native American—while Maddy and I were the pastiest white people you'd ever see. And anyway, he was way too young. So that didn't seem likely at all. Right?
I really hoped that wasn't it.
Sighing, I closed the book in my lap. I'd had quite enough of it for the time being, and even the prospect of socializing with a bunch of people was more appealing than following that train of thought any farther.
As if she'd read my mind, Maddy popped around the back of the car. "There you are. I figured you'd be hiding back here. You ignoring me too, now? I've been calling you."
"Huh? I didn't hear my phone ring." I felt around in my backpack and pulled it out. It wouldn't turn on. "Crap, I forgot to charge it last night."
"Eh, it's not like this park is all that big." She thrust a half-full Solo cup at me. "Here, try this, Annabeth Whitaker's dad made it and it's somethin' else."
I took the cup, glancing around to make sure no adults were watching before taking a drink. It burned like whiskey on the back of my throat, and I coughed. "Jesus, that's awful."
"I know, right? Drink up, it's guaranteed to make even the shyest wallflower wanna join the party."
I snorted. But as usual, my sister knew what I needed better than I did. A little liquid courage was probably exactly what was going to get me through a day like this. I held my breath and chugged the rest.
"Whoa!" Maddy reached out and caught my arm. For a second I thought she was commenting on how fast I'd polished off that swill, but then I realized she was admiring my watch. "Dude, where did that come from?"
"Huh? Oh. I, uh... won it. In a radio contest."
"What?!" She gave me a wounded look. "And you didn't tell me?"
"I meant to."
"Meant to," she repeated sarcastically, poking the watch face. "What's this 'sauce' button do?"
I grabbed her hand before she could set it off. "That's S. O. S.," I said, pronouncing the separate letters, "and it's only for emergencies."
"So it like, calls the cops if you're in trouble?"
"Something like that."
"Awesome. You should never take that thing off, then."
I made a face at her. Actually, with all these questions surrounding Ezra and his intentions, I probably ought to take it off now. There was every reason to think he was using it to keep an eye on me, and if he and his employer were plotting against me and my sister, keeping the watch on could be hand-delivering them what they wanted. The alcohol had started to work already, though, because I could feel my anxieties getting softer around the edges even as I worked through this line of reasoning in my head.
Maddy pulled at my arm. "Come on, come out of there and let's go play. Yeah?"
I tossed my dead phone back into my backpack and decided to worry about the watch later. Mostly because deep down, I still really didn't want to believe that Ezra was a bad guy. And even if he was spying on me, a day of Prickly Pear town festivities wasn't going to tell him squat.
Whatever had been in that beer was powerful stuff, because I actually let Maddy talk me into playing a volleyball game with her girlfriend squad, Justin, and a couple of his buddies. I ended up on a team with Justin, Hailey, and Pete, one of Justin's friends from the rodeo. And to my very great surprise, it was fun. They didn't mind that I wasn't very good. In fact, when I tripped over my own feet and ended up face planting in the rocky mud of the beach, Pete called a time out, pulled off his own shirt and came jogging over to wipe the mud out of my eyes.
He was smiling at me when I could finally open them again. "That was a gnarly dive," he said, and I actually felt myself blushing. Who even said 'gnarly' anymore? But I wasn't used to people looking at me with admiration, much less giving me compliments.
"Thanks. Sorry about your shirt."
"No problem." He wiped my cheek again, lingering a little longer than he needed to. After a second I realized it was intentional.
He was flirting with me? No way.
"Pete, Connor, you guys done makin' eyes at each other? We got a game to play."
Pete stood up and offered me a hand. "You good, man?"
Well, other than being totally flustered, I was awesome. Pete was nowhere near as good looking as Ezra, but he was being nice to me. Like, really nice. He brought me a bottle of water when the game ended and I caught him stealing glances at me while I was drinking it.
"You and your sister look a lot alike," he said as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
"We're twins, actually." Aw, crap, what am I saying? It's obvious we're twins. "I mean, twins look alike a lot. A lot alike. A lot of the time." Shut up, Connor. Shut up. "And that's what we are. So we do."
Oh god. Someone shoot me.
He chuckled. "Gosh, you're cute." Then he seemed to realize what he'd said, and licked his lips. "You know, the both of you. She's cute, and you look like her, so you're also kinda..." He trailed off, and there was something magical about the fact that he was feeling as awkward as I was. We just stood there grinning shyly at each other.
Oh my god oh my god, is this really happening? He was standing a little too close. Not enough to be creepy like Marvin, but more than what most people would be comfortable with in a casual conversation. I asked him a few hesitant questions, trying to get a feel for whether I was imagining things. Did he live around here? No, he was from Amarillo, but had come along when Justin invited a bunch of the rodeo guys to Prickly Pear for the barbeque. Was he in high school? Gonna be a senior this year. How long had he been riding rodeo? Since he was sixteen, though his older brother had been doing it a lot longer.
I couldn't bring myself to ask the one I wanted to know most: Did he have a girlfriend?
He was hungry, so I offered to make him a burger. We went back to our car together, I got the ingredients out of the cooler, and he led me over to the spot where a bunch of the rodeo guys were hanging out around a charcoal grill that was already going pretty good. Pete bragged so much about the hamburger I made him that all the other guys wanted one too, so I ended up cooking up a huge batch of burgers that disappeared down someone's gullet just as fast as I could pull them off the grill.
I couldn't remember the last time I'd had this much fun in a group of people. And it was kind of surreal, being in the company of all these rough bull riders who were laughing, slinging arms around my shoulders, mussing my hair, plying me with beer, and complimenting my cooking. I was having a great time, right up until the moment that Maddy came storming out from behind one of the tents and grabbed my hand. She looked mad enough to kill.
"Connor. We're going. Come on."
"Huh? Hold on, I've still got three burgers on the— Shit. Pete, here." I barely managed to pass the spatula I was working with into his hand before my sister was forcibly dragging me off across the beach. I mouthed an apology and then turned my attention to Maddy.
"What's going on, sis? Everything okay?"
"No, it's not fucking okay. Fucking Justin and his fucking turtle dick, I hope he chokes on it, the fucking bastard."
"What's a turtle dick?" I asked, flabbergasted.
"You know, when a guy's not trimmed down there and he's not hard yet, it's like a— oh, never mind. I don't care, it's no longer my problem. He can fucking take care of it himself."
"Maddy, what's going on? Did something happen?"
"No. Nothing happened, because I don't perform on demand. I told him I didn't want to and he whipped it out anyway. He's lucky I didn't bite the damn thing off." She finally stopped speed-walking so I could catch my breath.
"Wait, so Justin asked you to—"
"Sure did. Right there out in the open where anybody could walk by, he didn't care. Said he needed it, and that I had to because I was his girlfriend. I told him we could do it later, he wouldn't take later for an answer. So you know what? He's not my boyfriend anymore. He can go find some other girl to suck him off in the middle of a town party. Sure as fuck isn't gonna be me."
"Oh, shit, Maddy. I'm sorry." I was kind of shocked. That didn't sound like the guy I knew.
"I'm not. I was getting tired of him anyway. But we," she flashed her index finger between the two of us, "are not hanging out with those rodeo clowns anymore today."
I didn't argue. Those guys had been really nice to me, but Maddy was my blood. If she said they were the enemy, then I was with her all the way.
Though I kind of wished I'd gotten Pete's phone number. I probably wouldn't get to see him again.
We tracked down Jenna, Hailey and Miranda instead. They were hanging out around a keg that Jenna's older brother had set up on the outskirts of everything. None of the adults were interested in being that far away from the action, so we basically had the whole thing to ourselves. And after a few more Solo cups of vinegary, poorly-fermented home brew, Maddy was no longer thinking about Justin or his untrimmed dick. Instead we were playing a very tipsy game of Never Have I Ever, which I was losing by a landslide because I was the only guy present and they kept picking things like never have I ever peed standing up and never have I ever worn the same underwear three days in a row.
The sun was going down, so the crowds were migrating out to the parking lot to set off their bottle rockets and Roman candles, as a warm up for the fireworks later. The five of us stumbled laughingly down to one of the girls' cars, where we joined a bigger group of folks with fistfuls of sparklers. Someone handed me one and lit it, and Maddy and I went into a totally ungraceful, lurching dance where we waved them around like idiots. Somewhere along the line my ponytail had come undone, so I was tossing my hair around like a stoner. It had to be glaringly obvious we'd been drinking, but nobody really cared.
An iron fist closed around my forearm, immediately dousing the fun. Tyler was leering at me, with his friends Josh and Wayne grinning over his shoulder. I had to blink at him a few times through the beer haze.
"Hey, look what the twink brought us, guys." He twisted my arm to show Josh and Wayne my watch. I was kind of glad for the alcohol in my system, because the pain didn't register as much as it would have if I'd been sober. "Nice toy, Hayes. You find yourself a sugar daddy?"
Maddy grabbed Tyler's arm and tried to pull him off me. "Leave him alone, asshole."
He laughed and jerked my arm. Maddy was tipsy enough that it overrode any self-preservation instincts she might have had, so she kneed him in the groin. Tyler doubled over for a second, which meant I was free of his grip, but that was short lived. Josh grabbed Maddy around the waist, lifting her off the ground, and Wayne took Tyler's place as a human manacle around my wrist. While Tyler cursed in pain, Wayne ripped the watch off my arm and dangled it triumphantly in front of his leader.
"I got it, Tyler, look."
Puffing and red-faced, Tyler straightened up as best he could and snatched it. "Let's see what we got." He tapped the watch face, causing the S.O.S. icon to pop up. It cast a reddish light onto his face in the twilight. His bushy blond eyebrows went up. "Aw, does the widdle faggot need an emergency button? He thinks somebody cares enough to come running to his rescue."
Maddy was thrashing and cussing Josh out, but Josh didn't seem bothered. In fact, both he and Wayne were looking like they were thoroughly enjoying their henchmen responsibilities. They were holding us so tight that under different circumstances we would have been cuddling. Josh even went so far as to pet Maddy's arm, up and down, like she was a damn house cat. Guess how well that went over.
Spy equipment or not, that watch was my connection to Ezra. I wanted to demand it back, but that would just make Tyler extra happy. So I gave him my best glare and tossed the hair out of my eyes. "How about you try it and find out?" I wanted to have a talk with Ezra anyway. If he happened to put Tyler's lights out first, well, that would just be a bonus.
The guys exchanged snickers. Tyler scraped teeth over his bottom lip, unfazed. "Oh, I'm so scared." He held the watch up facing me, and planted his thumb in the middle of the S.O.S. button.
The icon disappeared, and the screen went dark. There was no beeping alarm, no flashing lights. Tyler cocked his head mockingly, as if listening for an approaching emergency vehicle. Then he looked across the dusky parking lot where his father and uncles, still in their police uniforms, were playing a game of glow-in-the-dark hackey-sack with a handful of little kids. "Gee," he said with exaggerated disappointment, wiggling the watch by one of its bands. "Clearly this thing is no use to you, Hayes. I think I'll keep it."
Shocker.
Maddy had managed to wriggle around enough in Josh's arms that she was able to sink her teeth into the back of his hand. He gave a yell and dropped her, and she wasted no time shoving Tyler aside and running to me. All she had to do was bounce her eyebrows in the direction of Wayne's crotch, and he let go of me with his hands up. Maddy took my arm, yanked me behind her, and held a hand out under Tyler's nose. Palm up.
"Give it."
"Give what, Princess?"
"Give back Connor's watch, or I'm gonna crack your nuts so hard your Mama will never see grandbabies."
"Ooh." Tyler and his friends made sarcastic faces of alarm. He laid a hand over his crotch and jerked his hips her direction. Bold move for a guy who my sister had just popped in the balls once already. I guessed he was drunk too. "You know if you're that interested in my cock, honey, all you have to do is ask."
"Maddy, forget it," I said, tugging on her elbow. There was a crowd gathering, mostly curious kids and some inebriated adults looking for pre-fireworks entertainment. I saw Marvin Pemberton, but he made a split second of eye contact and veered the other direction, arm around his wife's shoulders. A shudder ran down my spine.
The more of an audience Tyler had for his crap, the worse it was going to get. All Maddy was going to do at this point was piss him off. We weren't getting that watch back, and I wasn't sure it had actually done anything, anyway. Ezra hadn't come charging out of the bushes to knock Tyler into next week, so... whatever. I was too tipsy myself to reason through it. There was only one important thing right now, and that was getting out of Tyler's crosshairs.
My sister, however, had different priorities. "No way. He's not taking your stuff."
Tyler smirked, held the watch up and the waistband of his jeans out, then dropped the watch down the front of his pants. He thrust his hips again, first at her, then at me. "You want it so bad, one of you can come get it."
Maddy didn't even hesitate. She marched right up to him and stuffed her hand down his pants. Josh and Wayne whooped, as did quite a few onlookers. I cringed. Both for her, and also for Tyler and his incomprehensible stupidity. He had to still be sore down there, yet he'd antagonized my sister, of all people, into getting up close and personal with his junk. He'd better watch what he said next or she would really let him have it... and he'd likely take it out on me later.
"Ooh, go for it, girl!" shouted someone from the sidelines.
Maddy held Tyler's eyes defiantly as she fished around in his pants. He grinned, obviously enjoying himself.
"Careful, darlin'. You might wake up the cobra."
"Cobra?" Maddy snorted, pulling her hand up. A few numbers, glowing green in the dark, told me that she'd gotten the watch back. Tyler wasn't howling in agony, so she'd stayed on task. She strapped the watch to her own wrist while shaking her head. "I wouldn't even call that a garter snake."
The crowd started laughing, and so did Josh and Wayne. Maddy held her arm up in front of Tyler's face to show the watch off, then flipped him the bird. "Asshole."
She came to get me, and we pushed through the circle of onlookers as some folks started clapping. I could hear a few of the guys ribbing Tyler about her snake comment. I glanced nervously over my shoulder as she pulled me away. In the dark Tyler's face was purple with fury.
"Shit, Maddy, he's gonna kill us."
"Pfft. Tyler's a douchebag."
"A really big, strong, mean douchebag," I reminded her, trying not to trip as she hustled us back toward our car.
"Don't worry, bubba. You got me lookin' out for you." We got to the car, and she unhooked the watch from her wrist and stuck it back on mine. "See? There you go. Safe and sound."
The little red heart icon started up again, but the S.O.S. button didn't reappear. I looked down at it and sighed. So much for Ezra's promises to come help me. Or maybe he'd been listening in the whole time and knew I was fine, so he hadn't bothered. Either way, I wasn't going to see him tonight. I glanced over at my backpack, thinking of my phone. The last time I'd been in trouble, Ezra called me. If he'd tried this time, he wouldn't have gotten through since I was out of battery.
I wasn't about to sit here having a one-sided conversation with the watch, though. And I was annoyed with myself for feeling so disappointed. I was really going to have to make up my mind how I felt about the guy.
"Come on!" Maddy pointed to the car roof. "The fireworks are starting."
We shut the back of Mom's station wagon and climbed up top, sitting back to back, braced against each other. It was thoroughly dark now, and the air filled with whistles, shrieks and pops as colored lights shot up into the sky over the pond and exploded. The resulting shower of sparks reflected off the surface of the water, amplifying the effect.
Maddy flapped her fingers next to me, so I joined hands with her. We tipped our heads back on each other's shoulders and cheered along with everyone else. It was awesome.
One not so great thing about fireworks, though?
They were so noisy that when the blankets came down over our heads and we were yanked down off the car, no one heard us yelling for help.