The Year I Stopped Being Invisible - 40. Chapter 40

"Oh, holy shit! What did you do?" I screamed, looking down at the blood dripping from my arm.

Nathan, in response to my query about the sharpness of his belt-buckle knife, had dragged it across the thin skin of my right wrist, slicing it open. I could see tendons beyond the blood, and was suddenly seized by hysteria and horror. What kind of a maniac was this, and what had he just done to me?

Nathan was laughing at first. Terry wasn't laughing, and quickly made himself scarce. I held up my arm in front of my face, grasping it with my left hand in an attempt to stop the bleeding. I ran inside and found Mr. Salcedo, whose eyes widened as he saw the blood dripping from my arm.

"Rick!" he exclaimed. "What the hell happened?"

"He cut me!" I sputtered, feeling dizzy and panicked. "The son of a bitch cut me!"

Mr. Salcedo hurried to his desk and found a cloth, one of several he kept in his drawer for cleaning the chalkboard, and then returned to tie it tightly around my wrist. By this time, Nathan had appeared in the hallway behind me, looking serious and concerned.

I didn't harbor any illusions that his concern was for my well-being. He was worried about getting in trouble.

"It was an accident," he told Mr. Salcedo. "We were just messing around, and..."

"Nathan, be quiet!"

Mr. Salcedo never yelled, so his angry tone surprised us both. He was trying to think of what to do, and I didn't harbor any illusions about his concern either. Like anytime when something happens to a student, he was seeing his career flashing before his eyes, school board panels, potential lawsuits, and was thinking quickly to avoid getting in trouble himself.

The bell rang signaling the beginning of 2nd period, and Mr. Salcedo looked frantically between his classroom, my bloody arm, and Nathan. Finally, he came to a decision.

"Nathan, take him to the nurse's office. Straight to the nurse's office."

"Yes, sir," Nathan replied with a smirk, taking me by the left elbow and leading me down the hall as Mr. Salcedo returned to his class.

What the fuck???

Had my teacher, my legal guardian during the 2nd period of every school day, entrusted the guy who had just slashed my fucking wrist to get me to the nurse's office safely?

Apparently, he had.

Nathan led me down the hall, through the breezeway, and into the main building. I half expected him to pull me into the boys' restroom and beat the shit out of me, but he didn't. In fact, he was now giggling.

"You were so funny," he laughed, then mocked me in a high-pitched voice. "'He cut me! The son of a bitch cut me!' Oh, shit, that was too good."

I stared at him in shock.

"This isn't funny!" I protested. "You slashed my fucking wrist, you asshole!"

Nathan glowered at me as we rounded the corner to the administrative wing.

"You wanna do something about it? Meet me at the arcade at seven tonight."

"Okay," I seethed. "I'll be there."

"I doubt it," he said, shoving me into the nurse's office. "But I will."

With that, he left me and returned to class. The nurse took good care of me, closed my wound with a butterfly bandage after determining that I wouldn't need stitches, and called Rex to inform him of my mishap.

I assured her that it had just been a careless accident, and I don't know why I did that.

Maybe I just wanted to settle this on my own terms, or maybe something inside me somewhere realized that Nathan would become an important part of my life very soon.

In any event, I didn't turn him in. And before the day was over, I would need him in my life more than I could have ever possibly imagined.

* * * * *

I went to lunch that day consumed with thoughts of my upcoming fight with Nathan, and I couldn't wait to tell Taine about it, but when I made my way to our usual table, Taine wasn't there.

I see a bad moon rising

I see trouble on the way.

That's strange, I thought to myself. I wolfed down the day's lunch offering -- cheeseburger and fried okra with a peach cobbler -- anyway, because I was in training. Nathan would be a formidable opponent.

I see earthquakes and lightnin'

I see bad times today.

I didn't see Taine for the rest of the day, and when I went into my Biology class, Nathan was already sitting in the back of the room, glaring at me with an ominous smirk on his face. He meant business, and for the first time, I started to get more than a little afraid.

Nathan had already shown that he had no compunction about using knives on human flesh, and I resolved -- if outmatched physically, which I clearly was -- to fight the hardest, and with the biggest knife. I would win this fight, I promised myself, even if it killed me.

Don't go around tonight

Well, it's bound to take your life

There's a bad moon on the rise.

After school, I went to meet Linda and Taine in the parking lot, but only Linda was there, leaning on her car hood and making out with Carter.

"Hey," I greeted them. "Have either of you seen Taine?"

Carter and Linda both shrugged, and we decided to wait for him. Eventually, Carter went off to party with Jim and Roger, and Linda and I had decided that Taine was not going to show up.

I hear hurricanes a-blowing

I know the end is coming soon.

"Maybe Blaine picked him up in his black Charger o' Doom," Linda offered with a smile.

"Yeah, maybe," I agreed, but I was starting to worry.

Blaine himself had admitted, as had Sly, that they couldn't be around all the time in the event that Kevin or one of his friends decided to start meting out vengeance. I had to find out if my Babes was safe, if only for my own peace of mind.

"Let's swing by his house," I suggested. "I want to check with him and Blaine about the camping trip this weekend. I don't have any camping stuff, and I need to know what to buy."

I fear rivers over flowing

I hear the voice of rage and ruin.

Linda agreed, and drove us down to the Maxwell home, approaching from the left side of the driveway.

It was a moment which I will never forget as long as I live.

"Doesn't look like anyone's home," said Linda.

Neither the Lambo nor the Charger were in the driveway, but I figured that maybe Taine was home alone, or that he had gone somewhere with Blaine or Sly and was still out.

"Let me go up to the door and see if he's here," I said, turning to Linda.

Suddenly, her face looked as if someone had just died. She looked very sad, and gave me the strangest look of pity and confusion, then looked at something in the front yard, weakly raising her hand to point her finger at it. My eyes followed her gesture, and I looked back over my shoulder to see what it was.

It was a Century 21 Realty sign. As I walked around to look at it, I could see the bay window at the front of the house. The curtains had been removed, and although the living room carpet was still down, there was no furniture. No pictures on the walls. Even the chandelier was gone.

The sign said, "For Sale. Call Anastasia Sarkissian, 210-817-2219."

"Oh..." I said, and then I was starting to fall, and Linda was there to hold me up, as always.

Don't go around tonight

Well, it's bound to take your life

There's a bad moon on the rise.

* * * * *

I went home in a shell-shocked daze, after letting Linda go. First, I stood in front of what used to be the Maxwell home, just staring in the windows. There was nothing there. Just the carpet and memories of what could have been.

By the time I got home, it was just after 4:00. I fed the birds as if I was sleepwalking, then walked past Rex, who didn't say a word, didn't even question me about my "accident" in 2nd period that morning. He must have known, but I didn't even register that at the time.

I walked into my bedroom, closed the door, and laid down quietly on my bed, staring at the ceiling. The full impact of what had just happened finally hit me, and I cried for the next two hours and sixteen minutes.

When my sobs had finally died down, I uncurled from the fetal position I had assumed around one of my pillows, wiped my eyes, and looked at the clock-radio on my nightstand. It read 6:26.

As much as I really wanted to lay there and die at that moment, I realized that I still had a fight to get to. I walked into the kitchen. Tynah was at a Weight Watchers meeting, and Rex had retired to the master bedroom and was taking a shower.

Perfect.

I slowly slid the largest butcher knife from the kitchen drawer and tucked it inside my black leather jacket, zipping it and clutching my arms around my waist to keep the knife from falling out.

Hope you got your things together

Hope you are quite prepared to die

Looks like we're in for nasty weather

One eye is taken for an eye.

I don't even know why I bothered to arm myself, as all I wanted at that moment was for Nathan to kill me and end my misery once and for all.

But I had a fight to get to, and no matter how hopeless, how despairing and how absolutely empty I felt, I would honor the challenge. Steeling myself, I slipped quietly out the garage door and began walking toward the arcade.

Don't go around tonight

Well, it's bound to take your life

There's a bad moon on the rise