The Appeal of Evil (The Road to Salvation) Read Free Page A

only been two, but that was two more than Wes had fulfilled.
    Wes hadn’t noticed them. His gaze focused on something down the hall. Katie slowed her approach. She really didn’t want the two to get into another argument. It was possible it could escalate into a fistfight, and she didn’t want either one of them getting suspended or injured. Well, she kind of wanted Wes to get suspended; then she wouldn’t have to deal with him. But she knew both of them would get in trouble. Josh placed a hand on her arm, stopping her in the middle of the hall. “Wait here. I’ll take care of this.”
    Katie opened her mouth to protest, but Josh had already taken off. Other students moved out of his way as he stomped down the hall, determination on his face. He was half way to the locker when Wes noticed him. With a scowl, he pushed himself away from the door and headed down the hall. Inwardly, Katie sighed. Josh followed him for a moment, probably to make sure he didn’t hide around the corner and wait. Eventually, he turned back to her and jerked his head to the right, indicating it was now safe for her to approach. Katie nodded once before heading toward her locker.
    “Persistent, isn’t he?” Josh placed his back against the lockers and kept his eyes on the hall before him.
    He was so close, Katie’s hand brushed against his arm as she grabbed her backpack and homework out of the locker. She hardly noticed. Her mind focused on Wes and attempted to figure out what he was doing.
    “He never used to be,” Katie said quietly.
    Josh turned his gaze on her. “What do you mean?”
    She placed her backpack strap on her shoulder and closed the locker door, a little more forcefully than she intended. Several of the nearby students jerked their heads upward and stared at her intently, waiting to see what she’d do next. After a few seconds, when nothing happened, they turned back to what they were doing.
    “I mean, I’ve known Wes for a long time. Since kindergarten, and he’s never gone out of his way to hunt me down before.”
    Josh pushed himself away from the locker, and they headed down the hall. “So what exactly happened in gym today? Were you two having a lover’s quarrel?”
    “Absolutely not!” Again, she was louder than she wanted to be and turned several students’ heads. She cleared her throat and lowered her voice. “He has this weird thing, I don’t really know how to explain it, of keeping me on the hook.” She sighed and cocked her head to the right to look at him. “Does that make sense?”
    “Not really.”
    She pursed her lips. She didn’t want to go into too much detail about her and Wes’s relationship, but it looked like she didn’t have a choice. How would Josh react? He had been kind enough to step in and defend her; the least she could do was let him know what he was defending. She took another breath and averted her gaze to the floor.
    “See, I’ve had a crush on Wes since I was six. But he’s never returned those feelings.” The last set of words rushed out of her mouth, as if she was afraid he’d leave before she got the chance to say them. “Every time I try to get over him, he does something that sucks me back in, makes me think he might actually care for me.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, trying to gauge his reaction. “But since this summer, I decided I wasn’t going to let him do that to me anymore. I was done with him. For good. What you saw in the gym was him trying to pull me back in and me fighting against it.”
    Josh nodded. “Makes sense.” He stopped in front of his locker and turned the combo.
    Makes sense? Was that all he was going to say? He wasn’t going to comment on how he felt about it? Was he having regrets? Second thoughts? What was going on in his brain? 
    He finished getting his stuff out of his locker and closed it. He turned and smiled.
    “You ready?”
    Her worries were forgotten. Who cared what he thought? He was still