Chapter 6: Kelly

Friday, February 16, 2001

School had just started again after the winter break. I was hanging out after lunch with some friends near the south stairwell lockers, with Tilly next to me, when Terry Watson muttered, “Holy shit!” as he looked at something behind me.

I turned around and didn’t see anything unusual, at least not at first. What I did see looked like a bunch of girls hugging. Then I saw one of the girls turn around and come over towards us. She was slim, about my height, with enough curves up top to be very, very interesting. She had wavy coppery-red hair that swept down to the middle of her back framing a beautiful heart-shaped face. She had clear green eyes, a slightly upturned nose, and a misting of freckles on her light skin. She was wearing designer jeans that looked like they had been painted on, a crisp white blouse that was tented out quite nicely, and two-inch black heels. She came up to me and said in a husky contralto, “Hi, Grim, long time no see”

I stared at her for a moment, my mouth moving but no words coming out. After a bit, Terry nudged me and I answered, “Kelly?”

She gave me a shy smile and nodded. “I moved back.”

“Kelly O’Connor?”

She smiled again, beautifully even brilliant white teeth in a slight overbite, and my heart stopped. “It’s good to see you again, Grim. Mom and I moved back, and I wanted to come here and see all the old gang again.”

“Uh, yeah, yeah, we’re all still here,” I rambled out. She was simply too gorgeous for words.

She reached out and wrapped her arms around me, drawing me into a breathtaking hug. “Let’s talk, soon.”

“Yeah, sure.”

She let me go and went back down the hall with the other girls, and I continued to stare, even though Tilly was nudging me from the side. At the end of the hallway, Kelly turned and waved her fingers again, and my heart stopped again.

“Wow!” commented Terry.

“What a stone fox!” added Brax. Bo simply whistled. None of the other guys had a girlfriend in attendance.

“Who was that?” demanded Tilly. Her tone was not one of awe, but more one of severe annoyance.

I glanced over at her. She was a beautiful girl in her own right, but she seemed pale and bland next to Kelly. “Huh?”

“I asked who that was! Well?” she demanded.

I turned to face her. “That was Kelly O’Connor. She used to live down the street from me. She moved away years ago. I guess they moved back.” I glanced back down the hallway, but Kelly had turned the corner and was gone.

Tilly slugged me in the arm. “Well, you can tell her you’re taken!”

I gave my girlfriend an exasperated look. “Tilly, get real. I haven’t seen Kelly in, like, four years! She simply surprised me is all.”

“That better be all!” She stalked off in the direction of her first class.

“Kelly O’Connor!” commented Bo. “Boy, did she grow up!”

Terry had a more apt remark. “Tilly is some kind of pissed at you!”

Terry was more right than he knew. I ran across Kelly again at lunch and sat down with her to discuss her return home, a state of affairs that Tilly discovered and loudly objected to. Up until then I hadn’t really noticed that she had a jealous streak. While she wasn’t my first girlfriend, it wasn’t like I ever had more than one at a time. She dumped me right there in the cafeteria, even though I popped up and chased her back down the hallway protesting my innocence.

After a couple of minutes, I had to return to grab my books. I found Kelly guarding my lunch tray, a wry look on her face. I sat back down, and she said, “I’m sorry about that, Grim. Maybe I should go and explain things to her.”

I sighed. “Maybe, but I think we should let her be for the moment. Tilly blows hot and cold. I think if you talk to her now, she’ll just get even more angry.”

“I’m sorry. I never meant to get you in trouble.” She reached out and laid a hand on mine, and electricity ran up my arm. From there it split, half going to my head, causing me to take a deep breath, and the other half went southward, causing me to be glad Kelly couldn’t see through the table. I don’t think Kelly even noticed, but when she took her hand away, I was able to begin breathing again.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. “The last I remember, your father took a job somewhere else, for the bank. Where was that, Atlanta?”

She sighed wistfully. “Charlotte, actually. About two years later, he got another promotion and was sent to New York, and we had to move again.”

“New York! New York City?” I exclaimed.

She nodded. “Then, this year, he got another promotion, and we had to move to London. Mom told him that enough was enough. Daddy could go to London, but that we were moving back home. She had had enough running around. We just moved back here.”

I stared at her. “Your parents got divorced?”

“No, not really, but they don’t live together anymore. Dad bought us a home back here, and promised he would visit, but I don’t think they got a divorce,” she answered sadly.

“I am really sorry, Kelly. If you need to talk about it, I’m here.”

She gave me a sad smile at that. “Still putting tourniquets on little girls, huh, Grim.”

I shrugged. “I just like to hear the ambulance sirens and see the flashing lights.”

That got her to laughing again, and we promised to talk some more.

Tilly didn’t get over her mad that day, and though she was starting to thaw out by lunch, she saw me talking to Kelly again and that simply cemented it for her. I got my face slapped and she stalked off. Later that day she accepted a ride home from Candy Pants. He just sneered at me and spun his tires, kicking up some gravel as they left the parking lot.

I commented on that to Kelly the next day at lunch. “Listen, do yourself a favor and stay away from Randy Holden.”

“You and he still feuding?” she asked.

I shrugged. “We’ve gotten into it a few times. Look, he’s just trouble. This isn’t about me. This is about you. He’s got a fancy car and money to burn, and the way I hear it, when he takes a girl out or gives her a lift, he’s expecting something in return.”

Kelly’s eyes opened wide at that. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

I nodded solemnly. “I’ve heard a few stories. I’m not sure exactly how much is true, and I am not giving out any names, but I wouldn’t want him seeing my sister, if I had a sister, I mean. Ask around yourself. You still know most of the old Matucket Plains crew. Somebody must have gone out with him. He changes girlfriends like I change my socks.”

The following week Kelly reported back to me on Candy Pants. “You were right about Randy Holden.”

“Hmmm?” I commented.

“About him expecting things,” she told me. “You were right.”

“What’d you hear?” I asked.

“It’s pretty much like you said last week. If he takes a girl out, they’re probably going parking up in the hills over the lake afterwards, and he’d be expecting some payback. I heard that from about three different girls.”

“Anybody I know?” As soon as I said it, I knew I didn’t want to know. “Forget it, don’t tell me.”

Kelly gave me a very serious look. “I think I have to. Your old girlfriend, Tilly Whatshername? She told another girl that Saturday night he took her to a movie, and afterwards they went parking up behind the lake. They got in the back seat, and Tilly thought they were just going to make out, you know...” I nodded in understanding. “ ... and Randy simply unzipped his pants and pulled his ... thing out and made Tilly, you know, put it in her mouth.”

My jaw clenched as I heard this, but Candy Pants wasn’t around for me to beat up. Kelly noticed it, however, and grabbed my arm. “Stop it, whatever you are thinking. It’s not like he raped her. She went out with him again the next week, too.”

I sighed at hearing this. Candy Pants had gotten further with Tilly on one date then I ever had. Was it because he had a car? Was it because she was pissed at me and getting back at me somehow? Either way, Candy Pants was still an asshole. I had to stop thinking about it, though, because Kelly was still talking.

“I heard something like this from at least one other girl. And there was another thing. Did you know a girl named Barb Williams?” she asked.

I frowned at that. “No, I don’t think so. Who was she?” It was a big school, and I didn’t know everybody.

“She was dating Randy last year, and she left school, very suddenly I was told.”

Again, I shrugged. “Maybe her family moved. That happens, you know.”

Kelly grinned at that. “Don’t I ever! No, that’s just it. I knew her back at Matucket Plains, and her family is still here in Matucket. I heard that Barb was sent away to stay with family in Kentucky.” Kelly looked around and lowered her voice. “The rumor is that Randy knocked her up and her parents sent her away.”