«Kyle?» Her eyes followed his gaze, and she saw a dark-colored car turning onto the main drag. At first she thought it looked a little like Alex's car, but it was a totally different make and model. However, in the fading light of sunset, the color did appear close enough for her to make the false assumption.
Looking back to Kyle, she watched as his eyes tracked the car while it drove down the street. At first, an almost imperceptible shudder ran through his body. But, soon enough, he was shaking violently.
«Kyle?» she called to him, but it was like he was miles
away. His eyes seemed to be pleading with the driver to stop, and his body looked like it was about to spring into action and run after the phantom car. His fingers tapped wildly against his own body. «Kyle, you're scaring me!»
But he continued to ignore her as the voices ran through his mind.
Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap.
Slowly, the car made another turn off the street and out of their line of sight. Isabel actually watched Kyle's body make a physical change as he regained his composure. He was breathing heavily as a drop of perspiration rolled down his forehead. He finally blinked.
«Are you okay?» she asked.
«Yeah," he said in a hollow voice.
«That was no daydream," she said.
«I know," he replied. «I get kind of thrown into them whenever something even remotely reminds me of Alex or Tess.»
«Are they always that bad?» she asked.
«That was mild," he said without a trace of sarcasm.
Suddenly Isabel knew that her plans with Jesse were about to be cancelled. As luck would have it, they were already back at the Crashdown Cafe. «Kyle, would you mind waiting in here for a few minutes? I have to run a quick errand.»
«Sure," he said. «I could use a milk shake anyway.»
Isabel remembered how much milk shakes had seemed to be a cure-all for every dark situation when she was a child. Going back to the original theme of good fun and comfort food, she felt the need for a shake herself. «Order me one too. I'll be right back.»
As soon as Kyle went inside the restaurant, Isabel was off down the street. Conveniently, the coffeehouse where she was to meet Jesse was only a few blocks away. Since Roswell wasn't a huge bustling metropolis, they only had a coffeehouse every fourth block instead of every other block as in most major cities.
Seeing the sign for Bean There, Done That, Isabel slowed herself and grabbed the compact from her small pocketbook to do a quick makeup check. She was still in the early stages of her relationship with Jesse and she didn't want him to see her without so much as a hair out of place. After a quick lipstick reapply, she opened the door into the overly air-conditioned coffeehouse. With a shiver, she stepped inside.
Isabel found Jesse immediately, which wasn't difficult because the place only had four small tables-two of which were empty. He had been kind enough to wait for her without ordering, which Isabel couldn't help but notice obviously annoyed the guy behind the counter since Jesse was taking up a seat without having purchased a beverage.
It's a coffeehouse, she thought. People are supposed to loiter.
A perfect gentleman, Jesse was up and pulling out the seat for Isabel before she even reached the table. He gave her a hug with a quick kiss hello as she arrived, and waited for her to take her seat before sitting himself.
She chose to remain standing. «I'm sorry I'm late," she said.
«You're worth the wait," he replied, indicating that she should sit down.
«I hope you still think so when I have to cancel on you," she said with a flirtatious and apologetic smile.
«But you're already here," he said.
The guy at the counter was looking at them expectantly. It was as if they were taking up major table space in the practically empty coffeehouse.
«Would you believe I have to take care of a sick friend?» she asked. «A really sick friend," she added, leaving out the fact that Kyle's illness was more mental than physical.
«Is it serious?» he asked, and she gave him extra points for the fact that he was obviously concerned.
«We don't know," she replied.
«Well, then, you should stay with her," Jesse said, starting to walk her to the door. «We're still on for tomorrow, right?»
«Of course," Isabel replied without correcting the assumed gender of her friend. «Thanks for understanding.»
The guy behind the counter looked rather annoyed as they stepped out of the establishment and back onto the sidewalk. Isabel couldn't help but notice how Jesse had let the door slam behind him, assuming it was done on purpose to let the coffee guy know he hadn't liked being stalked while waiting for his date.
«Until tomorrow," he said, giving her a more serious kiss on the lips. «And remember, you're all mine for the entire day.»
Reluctantly, Isabel broke from his embrace and started to make her way back to the Crashdown, peering over her shoulder every few seconds to keep him in her sight as long as possible. Even though she knew that Kyle needed
her, she couldn't help but feel guilty over the fact that she had to blow off Jesse to be there for her friend, especially considering how understanding Jesse had been about everything.
Once Jesse was finally out of sight, she replayed their conversation in her head and was confused about why she hadn't corrected him and explained that her friend was male. Certainly Jesse would have understood that a sick friend was a sick friend no matter what gender. She just chalked it up to the growing ease at which she had taken to lying about things after having had so much practice. It was not necessarily one of her better personality traits.
One day, she promised herself, I'm going to tell Jesse everything.
5
Baby-sitting is much easier than I thought it would be.» Max was comfortably leaning back into the Lyleses' plush white leather couch, careful to keep his sock-clad feet off the glass coffee table. «Especially considering that we haven't seen Jason since we got here.»
They had been in the Lyleses' home for well over five hours and hadn't even seen their charge. Every now and again, they thought they heard footsteps above them, but whenever either of them called upstairs, they got no response. At least a toilet had flushed once letting them know that Jason was still alive up there.
«He's got to come down for dinner," Liz said as she looked through the take-out menus Aunt Jackie had left on the kitchen counter for her. «How about pizza?»
«Sounds good to me," Max said, distracted by the silence from the second floor.
«Should we see what Jason wants on it?» Liz asked as she pulled the menu for the pizza parlor out of the pile.
«I think we've played his game long enough.» Max got
up from the couch with a determined look on his face. «Order whatever you want. I'll be down with Jason in a minute.»
Liz watched as Max went upstairs, looking more focused than she had ever seen him-and she had seen him in many intense situations. «First lesson in fatherhood coming up," she said softly to herself.
Outside Jason's bedroom door, Max took a deep breath and prepared himself for whatever it was that was about to happen.
«Jason, this is Liz's friend, Max," he reintroduced himself through the closed door as he banged on it. «We're ordering dinner. Open up.»
«Go to Hell!» the kid yelled back.
Not a great start, Max thought. On the bright side, he finally spoke.
«Look, Jason.» Max decided to take the gentle route. «We haven't even met, and I certainly don't know what's going on, but I'm sure Liz and I have nothing to do with it. Why don't you open the door and we can talk about it?»