“Slow down, Baring.”
Molly could feel people stopping to stare as she marched noisily down the hall, maybe it could be considered more of a stomp then a march. Zeke’s low, menacing command seemed to echo off the lockers. Several girls to her left twittered and blinked their besotted flirty gazes in the direction of the man belonging to that irritating voice. She struggled against the impulse to run, throwing in a laugh or two for good gossip material.
“Why?” Molly shot back, yelling over her shoulder. A few of those same giggly girls gasped at her audacity. She didn’t slow down one little bit but neither did she speed up. The halls of high school were too narrow to stop and battle the barrage of students all heading to the exit. And she wouldn’t have, even if the hallway was empty. She could hear his growl in response. Ignoring Zeke Walker was not something one did if they wanted to survive high school.
Out the doors and past the grassy quad Molly again fought the urge to run. Her car and escape were so close. She didn’t want to deal with whatever confrontation he had in mind when he singled her out in the hallway back there. She would rather talk to him when he was smiling. He was much more fun to be around when he wasn’t upset with her for whatever her latest stunt happened to be. Today, however, she had no idea what he was mad for. She hadn’t pulled anything in days.
Somehow he didn’t manage to catch her until she was almost to the parking lot.
“I told you to slow down.” Zeke grabbed her arm, forcing her to halt and turn to face him.
Yanking her arm out of his grip, she took a step back and folded her arms. “Whatever you need to say to me is going to have to wait.” Her calm voice did not betray the seething anger swelling up inside her at his high-handedness. At least they didn’t have an audience anymore.
“No.” He took a menacing step forward. As tall as he was, Molly held her ground and lifted her chin a little.
“Zeke.”
He ignored the warning in her voice.
“Baring. I said I need to talk to you and I am going to talk to you. And you are going to listen.” If he hadn’t sounded so brutalizingly strong he would have sounded like a whiny two year old. Either way she dealt with him the same as she always did.
“Zeke, you are in my face and I don’t appreciate it.” Her voice didn’t waver and she was oddly pleased that she sounded so together.
Apparently he was reduced to growls and the like, because he gave a bellow of frustration before stepping back. Molly watched as his arms shot up behind his head and he took several deep breaths. When he turned back to face her he huffed and let out a little bit of a rumble. While he still looked too angry to talk to, he was not as on edge as he had been before.
Instantly she put her hands up to stop him from crowding her. “I won’t talk to you when you are in bully-mode.”
Instantly he pulled back and deflated. His eyes sparked their annoyance but his arms dropped.
Molly almost felt sorry for calling him out. Almost. He looked a little lost.
The Zeke she knew when he came to hang out with her on weekends in the park was not the Zeke who would stomp around the halls of their high school to keep everyone scared and at a safe distance. And yet his looks kept him high on the popularity list.
A hint of a snarl still echoed in his tone. “I need to talk to you.”
“Why don’t you take a few minutes and cool off? When you no longer sound like you want to beat me into the ground, we’ll talk.”
“Molly.”
“No.” Her answer was soft, like silk wrapped around steel.
She resumed her steady stride to her car with Zeke following a few steps behind. As she threw her backpack into her car Zeke stopped next to her and shot her a semi-chagrined smile. “Molly Baring, you are going to be the end of me.”
“We wouldn’t want that.” She grabbed his hand for a second and squeezed. “See you in a bit.”
He chucked her on the shoulder and shook his head. “Only you.”
Molly didn’t have to wait long after arriving home. Zeke was at her door within the hour with a small grin on his face. As she opened the door further to let him inside he held out a small, slightly rumpled white daisy. “Sorry.”
“For?”
He blinked, drawing his focus up from the floor and onto her face. “My temper, I guess.”
Molly folded her arms and leaned back against the wall. “You guess?”
“No. Yes. No.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry for yelling at you at school today.”
With a slow nod she slid her hand through his arm. “Thank you for apologizing. It hurts when you yell. You don’t have to go all macho on me to get my attention.”
“I needed to talk to you all day and when I saw you leaving I lost my head a bit.” Zeke shrugged, not looking at her.
“What about?”
Without needing to ask, they both began walking over to the park across from her house. It wasn’t more than a bit of grass, trees, and a little bench but since no one else ever went there, it was theirs. It was several minutes before Zeke answered her.
“This morning my parents told me we are moving. Not far. But far enough that I have to change schools.”
“No.” Molly fell back against the bench. “No.”
“I’ll still see you here every weekend. I promise.” Zeke’s head dipped lower trying to catch her gaze. “I promise Molly.”
Molly nodded and tried to smile at him. “How soon?”
His shoulders drooped. “One month.”
Molly flung her arms around him and held on tight. It took a few seconds before he sniffed and hugged her tightly back.
