The Paladin Book 1 Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Monday

November 29th

I couldn’t tell if it was the hangover or the news my dad had given me but I had felt a little bit queasy the whole day in school. I coasted through my first few classes, more focused on what I was going to do with what my dad told me than any Physics quiz. By the time lunch had rolled around I was in a tailspin, I was starting my first day at work, plus I was going to be hanging out with Alicia at least once that week, I couldn’t just ignore the situation. I anxiously chewed on my sandwich, spending most of my time looking into blank space rather than consuming my lunch. I felt someone sit next to me and there was Alicia, chipper as the day was long. She gave me a quick peck on the lips which I was too pensive to respond to, prompting her to give me a worried look.

“You okay?” she asked. That snapped me right out of my mood. I couldn’t be sulky around her, not only would she know something was up, but she didn’t deserve it.

“Yeah great, just thinking about my first day,” I assured.

“You must be excited. Now don’t be afraid to be harsh with him, my dad is a genius but sometimes he just needs someone to keep him grounded and point him in the right direction.”

“I’m starting to doubt that I’m cut out for the job.”

“Don’t be, you’re just as clever as he is, plus you’re honest and real, that’s all my dad is looking for. I'm sure this is falling on deaf ears, but try not to stress out about it too much,” she advised. She was right, I had to take it in stride, I wasn’t doing anyone any good by worrying. If Alex was guilty, I didn’t have any way of proving it, and if he wasn’t guilty then I had nothing to worry about. “Let’s take your mind off of it, okay? What are we going to do for our next date? Last night was so much fun I was wondering what else you might have up your sleeve?”

“Oh well, I can’t reveal all my secrets,” I pointed out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a familiar figure glaring at me. Craning around I saw Tyler Deckard across the lunch room with a face that looked like an old blueberry covered in band-aids. As soon as I made eye contact with him he averted his gaze, a look of fear now running through his eyes.

“Must be nice, not having to worry about him anymore,” Alicia figured.

“You have no idea. Your father really saved my ass on that one, I didn’t know Mr. Deckard was his lawyer,” I replied.

“One of like twenty on retainer, that’s how Mr. Deckard knew my dad wasn’t kidding when he threatened to fire him.”

“But he was kidding, right? Like he wasn’t really gonna do that. I mean, I’m what? His secretary -if that- and Mr. Deckard is a multiple degree having, high-end mega-lawyer. Like it's a pretty obvious choice,” I pointed out. Alicia snickered a little at the thought. “He was really gonna do that, wasn’t he?”

“He likes you, Booker, he thinks of you as a young version of him. Smart, creative, passionate, just trying to fight out of the South Side of Tar City. I think you’ve struck a chord with him,” she explained. I didn’t exactly know how to take that, my entire life up until that night I wouldn’t have thought myself even worthy to compare, now I didn’t even know if I wanted to be mentioned in the same breath. “Look if you’re really worried today, I’ll be there pretty much the whole time. Just shoot me a text if he’s too much for you to handle and I’ll save the day,” she offered.

“You’re my hero,” I said with a smile.

“I know, super Alicia to the rescue,” she agreed with a laugh. She went back to her computer and her expression turned stern.

“What?”

“Not again, goddamnit,” she muttered, her fingers flying on the keyboard. “Moriah Morin, as if I didn’t know.”

“You wanna tell me what’s up?” I asked, turning around the screen. Who’s The New Boo? Read the article’s headline, followed by a picture of Alicia and I kissing from the night before. Alicia Romero spotted with a new boy just after spending little more than a week in Tar City.

“I’m so sorry. I should’ve told you that this was going to happen, I didn’t want to scare you off,” she admitted.

“It's fine. I’m not ashamed of kissing you, so who cares?” I assured her. She smiled, touched by the sentiment.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this? I mean it's a lot to get thrust into the spotlight like this, especially without your consent. Do you want my dad’s PR team to have words with her?”

“Like I said, I’m not ashamed of it, let everyone know.”

“You’re right, I’m not ashamed of it either,” she agreed. The bell for class rang and the two of us parted ways with another kiss. “I’ll see you around at the office.”

“Philips head with the green handle,” Alex ordered as he began to disassemble one of his most recent prototype computers. I quickly scoured through his massive custom leather toolbox, dishing him the green handled Philips head as soon as I found it. “Allen wrench.” I searched through his toolkit, handing him the proper fitting one and slid it his way. “Soldering irons, gimme an I and a C tip,” he instructed. I searched through his toolkit once more, handing him his soldering kit along with the corresponding tips. He plugged it in and started tinkering away, raising the brightness on his desk lamp so he could see better. “So Alicia couldn’t stop talking about how much fun you had last night,” Alex brought up.

“Really? I’m glad to hear that,” I replied, hiding a proud grin.

“She said you seem different from other boys she’s met. As much as it pains me to say it, I think she’s right,” he started. I gave him a curious look, wondering where he was going with it. “I was never great with girls when I was your age, but that doesn’t mean I’m a complete idiot when it comes to teenage romance. I know what boys your age are all about, especially when it comes to a pretty girl like Alicia. Compound that problem along with her being rich and famous, and well… you have a perfect recipe for boys asking her out for all the wrong reasons.”

“You know that’s not why I’m going out with her, right?” I insisted.

“I think I do now, Booker. I guess what I’m getting at is that I want to say that I’m sorry for being such a hard ass last night. I’m very protective of my daughter, especially in this town after what happened to Tatiana here. I should have realized that you were going to take good care of her,” he apologized. His words felt like ice, chilling me to the bone. Knowing what I knew, it made my stomach turn when he mentioned his wife.

“No, no, please Alex. I get it, she’s your only daughter and you wanna keep her safe. There’s no need to apologize,” I made clear. He smirked, giving me a pat on the shoulder.

“Pass me the D and the K tips will you?” he asked. I nodded, passing him the steel tips whilst putting away the I and C tips. “I’m glad we had this talk, Booker. I like being on the same page, especially when it comes to Alicia.”

“Same, always good to get another perspective,” I agreed. The two of us went back to work on the computer, spending the rest of the day tinkering with its parts.

I got home at a reasonable hour unlike the night before, coming through the door at eight o’clock sharp to an almost completely empty house. Save for my mom who I could hear working away in the kitchen everyone was out and about. When I walked in I immediately noticed the savory aromas wafting through the house. I peered into the kitchen noticing my mom pulling out a gold and flakey shepherd’s pie from the oven, my favorite. She made a variation of it at the bar she worked at part-time, but at home, she made it with a special spicy peppercorn and bits of bacon, just the way I liked it. I started to get skeptical. It’s not my birthday? Why would she make her special shepherd's pie out of the blue? She said she hated making it. I thought.

“Hi honey, I made your favorite,” she greeted, holding up the glorious looking pie.

“I noticed. What’s the occasion?” I asked.

“Does there have to be an occasion? Your siblings and your father are out seeing a movie and I needed to do some grading on the kid’s Republic essays, so I decided to stay home,” she informed.

“Republic huh? Seems a little dense for sixth grade English class,” I pointed out.

“Wasn’t for you,” she countered. It was true enough, my mom had me read Socrates to Sarte before I hit high school, said it was ‘something all functioning people should read before entering the world’.

“Doesn’t explain the pie.”

“Then when I got done early with the papers I thought you and I could hang out, catch up on what's going on. So I made some food,” she explained. At first, I was skeptical, but after a moment I realized how paranoid I was being. Profiling my mom, analyzing what motivations she could have for making me my favorite meal, I was starting to lose it a little.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” I agreed. She beamed a smile and started grabbing plates and utensils.

“Awesome, here you go,” she replied, serving me up a heaping plate with a tall glass of milk.

“Thanks." I sat down and she followed right behind me with her own plate. For a bit, we stayed quiet as I was too engrossed in the meal to talk. It was only after a couple of moments of silence did my mom realize I wasn’t going to start the conversation.

“So how have things been going lately? Alright?” she asked. Feels like a bit of a loaded question. I felt great about how things were going with Alicia, but Alex still had me feeling pretty conflicted, and the situation with Samantha didn’t help.

“I don’t know, pretty good I guess,” I feigned.

“Well I’m convinced,” my mom sighed.

“What?”

“I love you Book but you wear your heart on your sleeve. For the past couple weeks, something has been bothering you, and I didn’t want to say something because I respect your space. But now something feels different, you're not as strung out but you still seem like you’re hiding something. Now can you talk to your mother or do I have to start making some pecan pie as well?” she joked. It must have been hard on her, I knew I had been distant with her ever since becoming the Paladin, but I hadn’t thought of the ramifications. I was much closer with my mom before the Paladin came along, though I wouldn’t say I blame the alter ego. Things had gotten rough after my brother had died, and they’d never really been smoothed over. We just sort of… moved on.

“I don’t know where to start. My friendship with Samantha went belly up. Dad and I got into a fight last night. I’m currently figuring out my feelings for this girl who I met a week and a half ago. And to make things worse, I’m questioning the morality of her father,” I summarized, making sure to omit the Paladin stuff.

“Let’s start one at a time. What happened with Samantha? Gerry and I have been talking and according to him she’s been pretty sad about whatever happened,” she informed. She’s sad about it? Really?

“I went to hang out with her, Johnny, and Gerry at the football game. Samantha and I ran into Deckard, he started acting like a jerk to me, and she wasn’t putting up with it. Tyler took it too far and she beat the crap out of him during some kinda traumatic flashback, clocked me pretty good too, but she came out of it eventually. When we got to Johnny’s house for Thanksgiving she was all broken up, saying that she was a monster that no one would want to be around. So I confessed that I liked her and she basically told me to take a hike,” I recapped.

“Oh honey, I’m so sorry. I know it can really sting when you put yourself out there like that. But, as much as I like Samantha there are plenty of other fish in the sea and you’ve already caught another.”

“Yeah, much to dad’s chagrin. I’m not trying to be an asshole to him but Alicia is a cool girl and I’m not willing to let her go just because her father might be a bad person. And so far Alex has been nothing but nice to me. Offered me a great job, helped solve things with the Deckard's, I probably would be suspended if not expelled had it not been for Alex,” I admitted. My mom glared in horror.

“What did you do this time?”

“Punched Tyler in the face and knocked him out. Might have seriously broken something, I know Samantha did,” I answered blatantly, knowing there was no use in lying.

“Again? By God Booker, I know that this kid can be a real asshole sometimes, but do you have to punch him every time? Have you tried using your words with him?” she questioned, exasperated by my antics.

“He made fun of Samantha being abused, what was I supposed to do?" That gave my mom a little bit of pause in her judgment.

“You said Mr. Romero took care of it? All of it?”

“The whole ‘threatening to fire Ross Deckard on the spot if Tyler didn’t cut the crap’ managed to shut him up pretty good,” I explained. She let it sink in for a moment, taking in all the information.

“You’ve got a good heart Booker, and I think you should follow it. Whether or not this Mr. Romero is a bad person or not is immaterial, what matters is if you believe Alicia is worth it. You figure that out, and I’ll handle your dad,” she assured, taking my hand in support.

“You know Brandon said something similar before getting shipped off. Course not about girls. He said I needed to stop following him and dad and start making my own path.”

“Your brother did and said a lot of stupid stuff in his life but that wasn’t one of them. I know you think I’m saying this because I’m your mother, but I’m not. You’ve got the gift of a good heart Booker, a rare gift,” she made clear.

“Thanks, Mom, I think I needed a little bit of reassurance,” I sighed.

“Anytime honey,” she promised. The two of us shot the breeze and ate until the rest of the family came home.