SOMEWHERE BEHIND BLACK EYES_Part 7

For days now, Claire's life has been getting worse. Will things get better after she runs into her high school crush, Tyler?

Somewhere Behind Black Eyes…

 

It was about three in the afternoon. Any other time in Claire’s life she would be in school and in her eighth period English class. Why was life like this? One day she’s in school and has her cell phone handy. The next day she doesn’t dare go to school for fear her parents will find her. All this after she snuck out to a party, stayed the weekend, because she lost her phone!

 

The weekend was cool. She went to a big party at her friend’s house. She’d slept there for the whole weekend while her friend’s parents were out of town.

It was okay for her to stay there until they were expected back. She mostly, stayed there to help clean up the house with hopes of finding her phone. It wasn’t until she realized it might have been stolen instead of lost. “Just great!” She thought out loud, now she was going to have to not only lie to her parents about where she had been, but also make up a story as to what happened to her phone! The odds she would be successful at pulling off both lies were nil to none!

 

She decided to go to a different friend’s house. Tamara snuck her into her bedroom window and let her stay over Sunday night, then when school started Monday morning, instead of going to school she walked Tamara most of the way and before anyone saw her she slinked off.

 

Now she was sitting in the park on the top of one of the slides and debating what she should do next. If she sat here any longer a cop could come by and take her down to the police station. No way! On top of all the things she had gotten herself into up to this point, her parents coming to pick her up at the police station in handcuffs was not the way she wanted to go home. She had to go home at some point. How she was going to weasel her way back in, she hadn’t figured out yet. There had to be a clever plan on how she could do it without being lectured or punished. Maybe she could sneak in her window? Then she remembered her window was locked. Also, her room was on the second floor. There was no way to climb up there, no rose trellis, nothing to give her even a partial boost.

She thought for a minute she could climb in the kitchen window. She’d have to discount this idea too. The kitchen window was the only one opened. She imagined the sink she had left full of dishes. She was assigned to washing them but snuck out instead. Why couldn’t this get better? The ideas she had weren’t working and all she was doing was envisioning herself getting into more and more trouble, instead of calculating a way on how to get herself out of her state.

She had to get a reprieve from this torturous mind frame.

What was something she always wanted to do in which she was forbidden up to this time? She was always told she couldn’t go to rock concerts, but she could wish upon a star for any band to play and it still wasn’t going to happen since it was Monday afternoon. She really wanted to put soap bubbles in the fountain across the park where the water trickled from the stone carved monument. She didn’t have any bubbles or dish liquid with her.

If she went to the store two blocks from here she could buy some! “Oh crap!” Claire wasn’t carrying any cash and she wasn’t old enough to own a credit card. Besides, with the mode things were going in now, the next thing to happen would be, there would be a cop in the dollar store, or the cashier would tell the manager to call them.

It was autumn, so the slide wasn’t covered in snow, it was littered with colorful leaves, which brightened her mood. She sighed and slid down it then landed into someone. “S**t!” She exclaimed. Claire was going to get mad and cuss someone out, but then she looked up.

It was Tyler! Oh my god, Tyler! She had been crushing on this guy since the tenth grade! Now Claire had to apologize profusely. Instead, he laughed and held out his hand to her to help her up!

“Sorry about the collision!” He smirked. “I saw you up there on the top of the slide. I waited until you decided to come down to jump right in front of you.” Then he snickered again. “You’re the last person I imagined I’d see in the park.” His hand was still out waiting for her to grasp. His hand was huge in comparison to hers. This made her even more nervous, as her teenage hormones made her feel jittery. She didn’t dare speak. What if she said something stupid?

She reached out to him, her hand was so tiny it was engulfed by his. His hand was warm. Much warmer than the chilly fall day she got herself caught up in.

The only thing she could squeak out was, “Where’s Chloe?”

He laughed again. “Chloe and I were never official, but to hear it from her we were. Chloe’s kind of clingy. I don’t fare well with clingy.”

Once Claire was up on her feet she dusted the leave debris from her. She looked up at him and smiled awkwardly.

“You’re the last person I thought I’d see out here.” It came out like a half question.

“Yeah, I don’t even know what I’m doing here. Except I have no place to go right now. I was at Tamara’s last weekend. I lost my phone.” Her voice trailed off from there.

“Ah, no paddle!” Then he laughed.

“What do you mean?” Claire tried not to get defensive.

He smiled at her sweetly, “Up s**t creek without a paddle.”

“Oh yeah. Definitely. I am scared to go home. My parents are going to kill me. I went to a party, stayed the whole weekend looking for my phone and now I’m afraid to go back to school.” She paused. “Is that stupid?”

“Nope! I don’t know your folks, but I can tell you from experience with my folks sometimes going home is not comforting.” He pulled up the sleeve of his left side hoodie and pointed to a rounded, distinct mark. It resembled a burn scar. “This is what I got from my dad when he caught me smoking in the garage. He said if I was going to someday burn the house to the ground I might as well get a little taste of what it would feel like.”

Tyler started walking towards a park bench and Claire followed him. She was pleased she was able to get to know him as a person. Part of her wondered for a few seconds whether this was fate. After all, he was single and so was she! One thing she didn’t need to do was get her hopes up. So, she put a tight rein on those musings and just decided to hang out with him for now.

She was having trouble keeping her thoughts in the fashion in which she had convinced herself just less than two minutes before.

He was beautiful. Tyler stood six feet tall, he was a little stocky, but not fat. He wore black tight jeans, which looked as if they had been painted on. His hair was short, flattened to the left side of his face were his bangs, the back was curly and cut short to his neck. She tried hard not to think about the back of his neck. He reached the park bench and sat down. She sat next to him. Near, but not too close. She didn’t want to appear clingy.

He sighed, then looked around him, returning his gaze back to her. He had high cheekbones. His eyes were dark, so deeply brown, his eyes seemed to appear black. Oh my god, his eyes are so sexy! Her heart jumped a little. She didn’t know what to do, so she shuffled her feet, pushing the leaves around with her Chuck Martins and tried to keep her eyes to the ground.

Then it got quiet, too quiet and he was observing her. She tried to pretend she didn’t notice.

She giggled to break the silence then said, “Do you have any soap bubbles?!”

His penetrating gaze turned to one of confusion and amusement. “What.?! What for?”

She gestured towards the water fountain.

Tyler threw his head back and laughed, slicing through the dismal mood the atmosphere had taken. “Ah, no I don’t! I wish I did! I can see all the bubbles running down the fountain and flying! My god this is brilliant! Of all the times I have been down here, I have never dreamt that up!”

He leaned back against the bench and rested his right arm across it. Almost like he had put his arm about her.

The spell was broken for the moment. She didn’t want to distract him or for him to leave, but her curiosity won her over. “I wonder what time it is?”

Tyler pulled out his cell phone and looked at it. While he had it out Claire noticed he had eight messages waiting to be read. “I think you have some messages.” she stated.

He shook his head and shifted uncomfortably. “If I had to take an educated guess, it would probably be Chloe. I don’t want to be mean to her, but I have explained to her she’s not the girl for me. We got into a gigantic fight last Friday night. She caused a huge scene. She ran out of the party and I didn’t know what else to do, so I followed her outside.”

He rolled his eyes and continued. “When I got out there, she was leaning against someone’s car sobbing. I tried to calm her down, but then she threw her arms around my neck and started kissing me. I’d had a few drinks, so I caved and kissed her back.” He dramatically, palm slapped himself in the head.

 

He paused, then the story took a strange turn. “I stopped her when I heard a car pull up on the road. It didn’t seem like it was someone’s car at the party. The vehicle was black with dark tinted windows. Two men got out of it, they opened the trunk of the car, then boosted someone into it, shut the trunk and then drove away. Whomever it was, was laying in the middle of the road before they pulled up.”

Tyler snickered slightly then said, “I don’t care how pissed my parents would be at me. They would never pick me up off the road and toss me in the trunk of their car. I don’t think I’ve ever been extremely drunk either though.” His forehead crinkled into a pondering and worried expression. “Not only, but it appeared to be two men. I am not making this up! Both were wearing black suits and they had sunglasses on. It was night and they were wearing dark sunglasses!”

Claire felt bad because the story was so bizarre she was unknowing on how to respond to it. There was no explanation for any of it. She offered, “Well, you were drunk, maybe you remembered it wrong?”

He shook his head this time more profusely. “No way! After the fight with Chloe and hearing a car which I thought might be a cop, I know what I saw. My buzz was killed through all of the weirdness.”

Claire giggled again to break the darkness, “The story you just told, truly sounds like something out of a Will Smith movie.”

Tyler laughed along with her. “It does!” Tyler’s facial expression changed, and he quoted from the movie, “Boy, Captain America over here! “Best of the best of the best, sir!”

They both roared with laughter together. When they stopped, Tyler gazed into her eyes, soft look on his face and then said, “Wanna hangout for the rest of the day?”

 

“Sure. What are we going to do?” Then it occurred to Claire what she would be doing if her life had continued its original course. She would be watching her little brother. Did she change her mind and tell him no? Would her showing up at home redeem her to her parents for disappearing on them? She wondered if they had called the police to fill out a missing person’s report. After all, it had been more than twenty-four to forty-eight hours since they had seen her.

 

Just as she was about to tell Tyler she should probably head home, he reached out and grabbed her hand to hold it in his. He looked down to her reassuringly. She hoped, he would never let go.

“Where to first?” Claire asked.

“I was thinking we’d stop by the school since everyone is getting out about now.”

She hesitated. If she went there she might be spotted.

Tyler stopped and turned around to face her. “We don’t have to, but I thought you might want to live a little dangerously. Besides, there will be a lot of people there and we can mix in and they’ll never find you. I can hide you behind me if you see anyone you recognize. What do you say?” Tyler flashed his irresistible smile again. How could she say no to him?

Claire smiled coyly then said, “Alright.”

Two shortcuts and a couple blocks south, Tyler and Claire were at the school yard. All the smoking kids hung out at the metal building behind the gym. Tyler stopped briefly, to talk to his friend, Cody. Cody had invited them to something that was going on out in the woods, but Claire didn’t take note of it because she was too busy being hyper vigilant of the people around her.

Then she spotted Chloe. She tugged on Tyler’s arm. He bent down so she could whisper in his ear and then they took off by the flagpole giggling all the way there while still holding hands. They had to be careful while at the flagpole. Many gang-bangers hung out there had knife, fist and sometimes gun fights. It didn’t seem risky today though. Tyler was positive Chloe would not think to look over here for him.

The excitement was too much for Tyler though. He pulled Claire towards him and held her to him fast. He gazed intensely into her eyes before he kissed her very passionately. He back off a bit as Claire struggled to coolly, catch her breath.

She’d never been kissed like that and she was pretty sure of all the times she imagined how he would kiss it grossly, dimmed in comparison to her fantasies.

The effect of the kiss was broken after Tyler said, “Claire, the cops are here.”

“What?!” She was stunned, her blood raced, and her stomach fell.

“I’ve got the perfect place to go. No one will find you at this place we’re going to.” He assured her.

Claire wanted to go home, but she was indecisive because she wanted to stay with Tyler too. If she did go over there and turn herself in, then this could end up the huge mess she was trying to avoid. Wherever Tyler was going to take her seemed like the much better option. “Okay.” She responded.

After a few miles walking down a back-road Claire never even knew existed. There was a fence with a minimal opening in it. When they both walked through it, there was old rusty things, old toys, litter and dead animals. The dead animals must have been where the stench was coming from. It smelled like dead things, sewage and rotten eggs. They walked through a sparse wooded area and came upon an old shack. It was so old it’s, once sturdy frame was leaning to the side. This house reminded Claire of the little houses her mom use to read to her about in fairy tales. But only the ones trolls and witches lived in.

“Who lives here?” She asked trying not to sound freaked out. She was a bit freaked out though, because she had a fleeting thought that there might be homeless people inside.

“No one lives here. Trust me it’s better looking on the inside. Cleaner, I know because I did the tiding up.” He smirked back at her.

When they walked in directly in front of them was a love seat with a foldout bed. The covers were rumpled, and the bed was unmade, but there were two small pillows. To the left of them was a tiny window, which had been painted over with black paint. It had a semi-rounded hole scraped on it, so someone could peek outside. To the right was a tiny kitchen nook. There was an insignificant stove, a couple of antique chairs and a table big enough to hold a table setting for two.

The bathroom was to the left of the kitchen. Claire walked into the room while Tyler vacantly, stared into the refrigerator. The bathroom was slight all that was in there was a miniature sink, toilet and a stand-up shower. Claire could tell nothing in the bathroom had been tidied up. She groaned when she noticed there was no toilet paper. She wasn’t sure it was safe to sit on the toilet seat anyways. “No toilet paper?” She asked over her shoulder.

“Aw, crap! No.” He paused and then he said, “How about paper towels?”

“Um, okay.” She shrugged.

Minutes later they were back in the living room area, lying on the pull-out bed and talking. Claire’s stomach growled real loud and they both laughed about it. “I guess I should find us some grub.” He said.

With perfect comedic timing, Claire retorted, “Rub a dub dub, can’t live without grub!”

Tyler roared with laughter and then fell backwards off the bed; which was easy to do because of its size.

“Claire trying hard not to continue laughing, but holding her stomach, poked her head over the bed looking down at him on the floor. He was still laughing, “I think I pulled a muscle in my stomach!” She got up off the bed and offered him a hand.

Things got silent. All they could hear over their beating hearts was the crickets and the frogs outside the screen door.

Tyler ran into the kitchen and grabbed his book-bag. “I’ll be back in a jiff.” He swiftly bent down and peck her on the lips. Before she could respond he was gone into the night.

It being so silent outside of the sounds of the night, Claire took in her surroundings more closely. There was no TV, no radio, no board games and she still didn’t have her cell phone. As far as she could tell there wasn’t even a LAN line. She couldn’t call her parents and tell them she was safe. She didn’t even remember the route back into town. She looked everywhere and couldn’t find a map or a flashlight and fumbling around in the pitch blackness with dead animal corpses was completely out of the question.

Laying on her back, staring at the ceiling, Claire started counting the cracks in it. After she got a glimpse of how many cobwebs and spiders were up there the mild entertainment became to make her creeped out. She decided after a few hours she would take a nap and wait for Tyler to return.

The next day he hadn’t come back yet, and she was stressed out and depressed. She slept all day and waited in the darkness for the last three days. Whenever she thought she’d wake up and find her way home she’d awaken to find it was getting dark outside again.

Another thing she noticed was the rotten egg smell was increasingly getting worse. She tried to see if she could track down some air freshener, but the only candle she found had burnt down to nothing.

All the reasons and excuses she could come up with for Tyler being gone for so long came and went, like the passing hours, nights and days. He wouldn’t abandon her out here! Nothing he did or said denoted he was a cruel person. What if his parents grounded him and he couldn’t escape to come back? What if he got hit by a car and was lying in the middle of the road? None of it made sense, except he might be dead.

Claire couldn’t take it any longer. The hunger, depression, worry and feeling of helplessness was too much for her. She broke down in wracking sobs. She cried even harder, angry for feeling sorry for herself. What was worse, was she knew no one would hear her out here and no one would rescue her. She would be considered just another runaway. Her crying took an abrupt halt.

She heard something outside. Whispering. Several voices and they were speaking just below the line of hearing what they were talking about.

“Tyler, is that you?!” She waited to listen again, this time she closed her eyes, so she could concentrate on listening closer. Then there was a shadow on the door. The light of the moon might have reflected on whatever it was.

She heard what she had said out loud mimicked back to her. “Tyler, is that you?” It resonated perfectly like the practiced pronunciation by a child’s voice.

“Who are you?! What do you want?” She heard a popping sound, perhaps it was a tree branch on the ground being stepped on. No, it didn’t sound like a twig breaking.

Claire listened again. She heard something on the roof. A tree branch scratching the roof? No. It resembled footsteps. She turned her head towards the door. There stood a six-foot shadow. “Tyler, is that you?! Come in, I’m scared.” Her voice cracked a bit as it came out.

The screen door opened, and Tyler walked in. She threw her arms around him and held him tightly. He was eerily silent. She looked up at him, his eyes were pitch black. Not like they were before. There was no white in them. His face was pallid, there was no color in his face and he had dark circles around his eyes, which were now voids of nothingness. She was frozen. He mumbled one thing as he wrapped his arms about her tightly. “Don’t worry. This won’t take long.”