Brandee's Move Ch. 04

I went to bed that night very confused. Was this the same Jamie that I had been warned to stay away from? Was this the same Jamie who supposedly used girls like he used a tissue? Did that Jamie kiss me so gently and not go any further? The longer I pondered, the more tired I became. I drifted off into a fitful slumber, dreaming about the solutions to my problem. Alex or Jamie?

The loud beeping at six the next morning awoke me with a start. It was still dark out and my body shivered as the piercing Minnesota cold seeped into my room through the microscopic cracks of our home. I slipped out of bed, already naked, the same way I had gone in the night before. My skin prickled and my nipples hardened as my body, warmed by the blankets, was exposed to the cool morning air. In the dark, I found my bathrobe and slipped it on as I crept across the hall to the bathroom. I had it on less than five seconds and as I entered the bathroom, I let it fall from my shoulders. I turned the water on, testing the temperature of the water until it was hot enough. I climbed in, still groggy, and let the water slowly rouse me from my sleep. I exited the shower ten minutes later, warm, fresh, shaved and clean. I brushed my long curly hair and put it up into a ponytail, letting it air dry. I put on a satiny, lavender bra and a black thong. I looked into the mirror. I felt very sexy. I found a pair of wide leg khakis and a pastel pink turtleneck sweater. I donned them quickly and put on my suede loafers. Feeling warm, sexy and cute, I descended the staircase to the living room. It was about six thirty by then. My father and mother were in the next room, at the stove, cooking eggs and bacon together.

“Morning, sweety,” my mother greeted with a smile as I entered the kitchen. I returned it.

“Morning, mom.”

“You want some breakfast? Your father and I don’t have to be to work for another forty-five minutes. We'll make you some if you’d like.” I smiled again.

“Sure, mom, that’d be great. Thanks.” My father put two more strips of bacon into the frying pan.

“So, kiddo, how was your first day?” he asked.

“It was really good, dad. I’m actually going to be performing in the play. It opens in February.”

“You’re performing in the play? Wow, you don’t waste much time getting in on stuff, do you?” I laughed.

“It was by accident that I got the part. Alex was giving me a tour of the school and he brought me into the auditorium to see where they do all of their productions. It was cool. Mr. Kline, the drama teacher, wanted to know if I acted and when I said yes, he had me read lines with Alex. He liked it so much that he gave me the lead.”

“The lead? That’s amazing! So, what play is it?” I thought for a moment.

“To be honest, I just don’t know. I was so excited about getting the part, I forgot to ask. Rehearsals start today, though. I’m sure I’ll find out then.” My parents laughed and shook their heads simultaneously. My mother put a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast in front of me. I ate and talked with them until five minutes of seven. “I have to go,” I mumbled, shoving the last piece of toast into my mouth. I ran upstairs to brush my teeth and then I ran back down to the living room.

I grabbed my coat and purse and went out to my car. The icy wind blew in my face as I opened the door and I was immediately chilled to the bone. I slipped inside my car and tried to turn the engine. It started but died again, and I couldn’t get it to turn over again. I opened the hood quickly and took a look inside. My radiator was cracked. I had forgotten to winterize my car and use straight anti-freeze. It was negative 4 degrees. I let the hood down and hit it hard.

“God damn it!” I yelled. “God-fucking-damn it all.” I kicked the tire.

“Need a ride?” I heard a voice yell from a bit of a distance away. I turned around to see Alex in his jeep, on the road in front of my yard. I nodded quickly, grabbed my things from my car and ran to his. I climbed into the passenger seat, my fingers going numb.

“You put water in your radiator, didn’t you?” he asked with a smirk.

“Yeah,” I replied. “In Boston it rarely gets this cold.” He took a look in his mirrors before driving forward.

“Well,” he said, “this isn’t Boston.” I gave him a sideways glance and rolled my eyes. He reached out with his right hand and grabbed my frozen left one. He rubbed it slowly, returning the circulation and warmth to my fingers. After I regained feeling in my nearly frostbitten fingers, I intertwined my fingers with his. He looked at me and smiled. We said nothing more and drove to school. He cut the engine after we parked and he shook my hand slightly. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I’ve got to go to the office and pick up my schedule.”
“Okay, I just wanted to make sure you knew where to go. I’ll see you after school at the play rehearsal, then.”

“Okay,” I replied. He lifted my chin slightly and leaned in to give me a kiss.

“Bye bye.” He exited the car first and jogged to the furthest entrance. I gathered my belongings and went into the front entrance to the office. I was in the office about fifteen minutes before I was seen. The elderly woman with thick glasses gave me a copy of my classes and schedule and pointed me in the direction of my physiology class. I strolled along the halls until I found room 201. I peeked in the door before I walked in. Everyone was sitting down at the lab benches talking as the teacher finished his final preparations on the computer. I surveyed the room and I was surprised to see that everyone I had met the day before was in that room. The class was small, only 11 people. Ten of them were guys.

The solitary girl I saw was beautiful. She had flawless skin which was framed by long platinum blonde hair, straight and flowing. Her low-cut, long sleeved tee shirt revealed a line of cleavage formed from the push up bra that she was wearing. Her jeans were low rise, exposing the skimpy straps of her pink thong. Pearly white teeth were accentuated by colored lips. They came together to form a perfect smile. To my amazement, Alex was sitting right next to her and he put his hand around her waist. The girl smiled at him and turned. They kissed. My heart sank. I bit my lip and forced myself to walk into the room. I plastered a polite smile on my face.

Jake spotted me first and gave a smile and a wave. Tom and Aaron followed his lead. I smiled and gave a low wave. Jamie, who was next to Alex, looked at me and smiled. I smiled warmly at him. I presented myself to the teacher, who pointed to the vacant seat next to Jamie. I took my seat without saying a word.

“Hey, Brandee,” Jamie greeted. “How’re you?”

“Fine, Jamie, thanks for asking. How about you?”

“Doing great,” he said. At mention of my name, Alex whirled around behind him, breaking the kiss. He looked at me quickly in the eyes, but I diverted my attention to the stray eraser shavings that were scattered across the countertop in front of me. “Listen,” Jamie started quietly, “about last night, I-” he stopped. A lost tear had dropped from my eye onto the black table. “Are you okay?” he asked. I wiped away the remnants of the salty water.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied with an automatic smile. “Just yawning. I’m a little tired.” I glanced in Alex’s direction.

“Well, anyway, about last night. I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s okay,” I told him, patting his hand. “It was nice.”

The teacher rose and did role call.

“Angel Baret?”

“Here.”

“Jared Black?”

“Here.”

“Tom DeLaney?”

“Here.”

“Scott Douglas?”

“Here.”

“Jamie Endrin?”

“Here.”

“Quentin Farrell?”

“Here.”

“Jake Giangregorio?”

“Here.”

“Alex Harrington?”

“Here.”

“Aaron Harris?”

“Here.”

“Ross Merigan?”

“Present.”

“Eric Renault?”

“Here.”

“And, Brandee Santos.”

He said it more as a statement than a question. All eleven faces turned to face me and find out who the new kids was. I gave them my best smile and I waved.

“Thank God it wasn’t another guy,” someone over by Tom remarked. A collective “Yeah!” passed through the group. Angel scoffed and rolled her eyes. I blushed fiercely and turned around to face forward. I knew I was going to have problems with her right off the bat.

“Hey, Brandee!” Aaron called from across the room. “Be my lab partner today? Tom’s getting on my nerves!” Tom punched Aaron in the arm as the rest of the class laughed. I smiled and nodded.

“Well, since you’re spoken for, I’ll have to find another partner,” Jamie joked.

“Next time,” I promised.

He hit Alex’s arm with the back of his hand.

“Work with me, man,” he said. Alex nodded. The rest of the class paired off into partners as the teacher, Mr. Degas, handed out the work packets. The last two people left without partners were a rather goofy-looking kid named Ross and Angel. Her obvious displeasure showed as she whined to the teacher.

“Mr. Degas, you don’t really expect me to work with him, do you? I mean, come on.”

Ross nervously looked at the floor; his face was crimson. I felt terrible. How could she be so mean to him?

“Aaron,” I said apologetically. “I’m sorry, I can’t be your partner.” I walked over to Mr. Degas without another word and asked if I could trade partners with Angel. She looked at me with contempt and walked over to Aaron. She smiled at him. They looked like they could be related. Aaron was about my height but he was much leaner than his friends. He had blonde hair almost as light as that of Angel. His blue eyes were pale, as was his skin.

Ross had gone back to the table during Angel’s hissy fit to set up the materials for the lab. I pulled up a stool and sat next to him.

“Hey!” I said cheerfully, extending my hand to him. He looked up, surprised that he had a new partner. “I’m Brandee.”

“Ross,” he replied with a genuine smile. It quickly faded. “Sorry. I know you were Aaron’s partner. I’m sure you didn’t want to be stuck with me.”

“Oh, no,” I countered. “I asked if I could trade.”

Ross grinned at me and didn’t bother to ask me why I had chosen him as a partner. He was just happy that someonewanted to work with him. We finished our lab without a hitch and ended up hitting it off really well. Ross was a really nice guy.

When the bell rang, I found my way down to calculus; a class with only six students. It was Jamie, Alex, three others and myself. Because it was such a small class, we all sat at one large round table. Alex arrived before everyone else and sat next to me. He put his hand on my knee and gave it a slight squeeze. I pushed it off abruptly and moved my seat. Jamie came in and sat next to me, along with a girl named Sadie. Alex sat across from me, bewildered. I gave him a blank look and, instead, flipped through the pages of my math book. I pretended to be interested on a page of parabolas. The class went much more quickly than most math classes do, for which I was grateful. By the time that my math block was over, it was time for lunch. I discovered that in my lunch period were Aaron, Jake, Jamie, Tom and Alex. Alex’s beau was there as well, with her friends, almost all of who were just as pretty as she was. I went through the line and bought my lunch only to hesitate for a moment, not exactly sure as to where I would sit. Jake approached me first and asked if I wanted to sit with him. Relieved, I accepted and sat down with him at round table. Jamie, Aaron and Tom joined us soon after. Adam, a sandy blonde sat down with us as well. I found out that he, too, was on the ice hockey team. He wasn’t as good looking as the other four, but he was polite and very funny.

“So where’s Alex today?” Adam asked.

“Back there with his girlfriend,” nodded Tom, taking a bite out of his turkey sandwich. All of our heads turned to see Alex sitting amidst a group of girls. He was the only one with food on the table. The others giggled while clutching their diet Cokes and diet Snapples. A few opened their compacts and reapplied concealer.

“They’ve eaten already?” I asked. The guys laughed.

“If by ‘eaten’,” said Aaron, “you mean leaned over and caught a whiff of Alex’s food to supplement their daily calorie intake, then yes, they have eaten already.” They all laughed again.

I looked at my own spread in front of me. A chicken salad sandwich, a bag of potato chips, an apple, a granola bar, a bag of fruit snacks and a can of Dr. Pepper.

“I must be eating twice their body weight right now,” I commented. They all laughed.

“It’s nice to see a girl eat,” said Adam. “At least then you know she’s not worried about whether or not she’s gained three ounces within the last week. It’s healthy.”

“Yeah,” Jamie added. “It lets you know that she’s not worried about her figure, not that you would ever have to. I mean, damn!” Jamie pretended to lick his finger and put it on my shoulder. He hissed loudly. I pushed him playfully. The whole table was laughing now. I caught Alex looking over at our table from his. His face was solemn and he grimaced as the laughter grew.

After lunch, I had two more classes. Jamie was in both. In my last block, English, Jamie told me about the hockey team. He said that they didn’t have a manager yet and they wanted to get someone soon. He asked me if I liked the sport.

“I love ice hockey!” I told him. “My cousin back in Boston used to play. He was awesome. He played in the Bean Pot on the winning team in ’98. I used to watch him all the time.”

“Do you think you’d want to be a manager?” he asked hopefully. “I mean, we could always get someone else if you don’t want to do it. I think Alex said that Angel was interested, or something. So don’t worry. You don’t have to do it.” The mention of Angel having that extra time with Alex made me bristle.

“I’d love to do it. It’s not going to interfere with the play, though, is it?”

“No,” said Jamie. “Practice is at eight every night. The play never gets out later than six.”

“Sounds great,” I told him. “When do I start?”

“Tonight. Be there at seven, okay?”

“I don’t have a ride. My radiator is cracked.”

“You put water in your antifreeze, eh?” I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, I’m a greenhorn, what do you want?” He laughed.

“I’ll pick you up at a quarter ‘til, then.” The bell rang and everyone piled out the door to the exits. I smiled at Jamie as I gathered my books and purse.

“Sounds like a plan.”

The rehearsal was very basic that day. We did ice-breaking exercises and talked about stage presence. Around six o’clock we were dismissed with our scripts and were told that we would begin real rehearsal the next day. Alex came up to me after we were done.

“Need a ride home?” he asked.

“Um, sure,” I replied quietly.

“Something wrong?” he asked. I looked away from him.

“Can we talk about this in the car?”

“Yeah…okay,” he said suspiciously. We walked to his jeep and sat quietly. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong now?” he asked, starting the car.

“I really like you Alex,” I began. “More than just a friend.”

“I like you too, Brandee,” he said, stroking my cheek. I pushed his hand away from my cheek.

“No, Alex. I don’t think you do. I don’t want to get angry, but I guess it kind of hurts.”

Alex had begun driving at this point. As he focused on the road he asked, “What hurts?”

“You do,” I said softly.

“I’m not sure I understand,” he said.

“Neither do I. I thought you liked me. You told me that you had never met anyone like me. I don’t know why I believed it. I mean, we had only known one another for a few hours. I suppose I was a bit daft to think that you would respond like that to someone you had just met. It’s okay that you don’t feel that way about me, Alex, but I would just rather have you come clean about it.”

He glanced at me as if I were crazy.

“Brandee. You’re talking in circles.”

“Alex, I saw you and Angel this morning in anatomy. I saw you kiss her. I know she’s your girlfriend.” He remained silent for a few moments.

“I was going to break up with her soon,” he said.

“Listen, Alex. I don’t want to be a part of that. It’s not my place.”

“Brandee-”

“No, Alex. Please, let’s leave it at that for now. Maybe you can come to me when you’re single, okay?” He made no reply and drove a little bit faster to my house. As we pulled into my driveway, he put his hand on mine.

“I really do like you, Brandee,” he said. “If I were so happy with my girlfriend, why would I risk it by spending so much time with you?”

Maybe so you can get some, I thought.

I turned to face him.

“Sorry, Alex, I just don’t know what to do right now. Can we talk about this later?”

He took my face in his hands and kissed me. I couldn’t help it. I needed to kiss him back. I opened my mouth to him and let his tongue mesh with mine. The intensity grew, as did my need for him. I kissed him harder, moaning softly against his mouth. His hands caressed my cheeks and then my breasts through my sweater. As he reached down to lift my shirt up, I pulled back.

“I’m sorry,” he said immediately. “I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s okay,” I told him. “I should have stopped this earlier.” With that, I seized my belongings and got out of the jeep.

I walked inside quickly and went into the kitchen.

“How was play practice, hon?” my mother asked as she cracked some angel hair pasta and dropped it into a pot of boiling water.

“It was great, mom,” I said without much enthusiasm. “Hey, is it all right with you if I go out tonight?”

“On a school night? Where are you going?”

“Oh, I got an offer to be the new manager for the ice hockey team. I wanted to see how I’d like it before I said yes.” My mother immediately smiled and said yes.

“I had no idea you would adjust so well to this school. If you want to go out and become the new ice hockey manager, go right ahead. What time are you leaving?”

“In about half an hour,” I told her. “Jamie is giving me a ride.”

“Why aren’t you taking your car?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. The radiator is cracked. We have to put straight antifreeze in it, not a mixture of water and antifreeze.”

“Oh damn it, that’s going to be expensive,” she commented. “How did you get to and from school today?”

“Alex brought me. He’s the kid from my play I told you about.”

“Oh, okay,” my mother said, seemingly satisfied with my answers. “Well, dinner won’t be ready until after you leave. So we’ll leave some for you for when you come home.”

“Thanks, mom,” I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. I grabbed my calculus book and jogged up to my room to do the lesson that was due the next day. I hadn’t quite finished the twenty problems when a knock came at my bedroom door. It was my mother.

“Honey, there’s a boy downstairs for you. Said his name was Jamie.” I sprung off my bed, grabbed a pair of mittens and a hat and turned off my bedroom light. “In a rush?” asked my mother, with a grin. “I would be too, if I were you. He’s cute!”

“Mom!” I said, blushing in the dark. “It’s not like that. He’s just here to pick me up so I can go to their hockey practice.” “Mhmm…” she said skeptically. I laughed and went down the stairs. I put on my hat and mittens and my jacket.

“Ready to go?” he asked with a smile.

“Yeah,” I replied making my way through the door.

“I’ll have her back before ten,” Jamie told my mother. She just smiled at Jamie and waved goodbye as he closed the door behind us.

I was dumbfounded when I saw what Jamie drove. It was a brand new, black Cadillac Escalade. It had vanity plates that read J*ME. The interior was cream colored leather with silver trim on the dashboard. I climbed into the passenger seat and snuggled in. He had heated seats.

“Jamie, is this really yours? Or is it your parents?” He smiled.

“It’s mine, but my parents bought it for my eighteenth birthday. Pretty sweet, huh?”