The Pact Read Free Page B

sat in her chair with her legs crossed. She didn’t think I saw her checking me out. I smiled, but she didn’t. Instead, she rolled her eyes and looked the other way. I decided to ignore her for the rest of the afternoon. Ignoring a pretty girl was the surest way of getting her attention. It usually worked like a charm.
    “Hi. Are you Marcus?”
    As I pulled myself out of the water, a tall, lanky girl with thick glasses stood at the edge of the pool. She wore a one-piece green and white bathing suit, and when she smiled her silver braces sparkled in the sunshine.
    “Yeah, I’m Marcus.”
    “My mom and your mom are friends. We live right across the hall. I’m Michelle.”
    “Oh, that’s cool. Nice to meet you,” I said.
    “You’re visiting here from Atlanta.” It was more a statement than a question.
    “Yep.”
    “That’s where T.I. and Usher are from. You ever see them around—like at the mall and stuff?”
    “Um, I saw Usher a few times at Lenox Square Mall. And I saw T.I. at a Hawks game once. But that’s about it.”
    She was nice, but I really wasn’t in the mood for all the chitchat. My eyes were set on a particular lifeguard.
    “I’ve lived here for three years…not in Houston, but in this condominium subdivision, that is. I’ve lived in Houston since I was three.” She started answering questions that I hadn’t even asked. “Are you thinking of moving here, Marcus?”
    “I hadn’t really thought about it.”
    “Your mom says that you are. She says you might be going to school here,” she said. “The school is pretty cool. Lots of Hispanics and a few white kids—”
    “I’m probably going back to Atlanta at the end of the summer.” I cut her off before she got carried away telling me about a school that didn’t interest me one bit.
    “Well, if you decide to stay, I’ll show you around, okay?”
    “Cool.”
    “You see the girl over there in the yellow bikini?” she asked.
    I nodded.
    “That’s Veronica. Everyone calls her Ronni. Her father’s a doctor, and she thinks she’s all that…drives a drop-top Pontiac Sunfire.” She scanned the pool area. “Don’t tell her anything that you don’t want repeated.”
    “I’ll remember that.” I plopped down onto a lawn chair. Michelle took one beside me.
    “You see that guy over there in the red trunks, tall guy with the fresh haircut? That’s Aaron. His mother is a counselor at our school. He had to drop out last year because he got arrested for possession of marijuana. Now he goes to an alternative school….”
    Michelle continued to tell me the life stories of all the kids at the pool. Made me wonder what her story was—she wasn’t so quick to share that information.
    “What about the lifeguard over there?” I finally asked the burning question of the day. “Who is she?”
    She glared as she looked in the direction of the lifeguard chair, propped her hands behind her head and made herself comfortable before answering.
    “Oh, that’s Rena.” She frowned. “You think she’s pretty?”
    That was a dumb question. It was as if she was testing me to see what my response would be, sort of like the trick questions that teachers put on tests. Anyone with eyes could see that she was pretty. Even Michelle.
    “Yeah, she’s pretty.”
    “Everyone thinks that about her. She’s not all that, though,” Michelle said, and then dismissed the conversation altogether, moved on with her introductions.
    I stole another glance at Rena while she wasn’t looking, took in her beauty. As hard as she tried not to look my way, her eyes finally met mine. I smiled, and she actually smiled back. It might not be that hard to get her attention after all.

Chapter 3
    Indigo
    I could see the Navy Pier from the highway as my father’s pickup made its way into Chi-town. Chi-town is what we called Daddy’s hometown of Chicago. Whenever he brought me into the city, he felt obligated to give me a grand tour, pointing out the landmarks like Grant