Chapter 12
Tell Me Why
Reed spun his combination into the lock and his locker door quietly squeaked open. He grabbed the ratty baby blue towel stuffed in the corner and ran it over his matted hair. Then he slid it down and swung it around his neck. After a gulp from his Nalgene water bottle, his wiped his top lip of excess water and seated himself on the bench. When he looked up, he wasn't at all surprised to see Suzette Kimberly.
She was leaning against the door frame, fidgeting with a glossy button on her jacket. When she realized he'd seen her, she straighted her back and stepped inside the room. "Champion, huh?" She was standing over him now, like a mother exerting her power over a kindergartner.
"I guess so." Reed shrugged, picking at a fray string on his towel.
"You guess so?" Suzette's eyes were narrowing.
"I fight when I have to fight. I wasn't trying to be a champion. It just happened." Reed stood up so he could be above her. "Why do you seem so upset?"
Suzette shook her head, like she was scolding something. "Why did you give me this address?"
"I didn't think you'd come!" Reed exclaimed. "We don't even know each other! I thought that, by giving you a legitimate address, I'd be able to get you off my back about borrowing the conference room."
"You didn't borrow it, you stole it." Suzette mumbled, looking at the ground.
Reed drew an "x" over his heart. "I'll never do it again, okay? It was a last minute meeting. We'll find somewhere else to rendezvous next time."
Suzette cracked a little bit of a smile. "Sure, whatever. But that's not really why I'm here."
"Yeah, Suzette. Why did you come tonight?" Reed asked.
"I was like Alice when she saw the rabbit. I was curious." Suzette crossed her thin arms over her chest.
"When Alice saw the rabbit?" Reed asked, needing clarification.
"Alice in Wonderland, Reed." She looked at him like he had three eyeballs, completely shocked.
Reed put his hands up in defense. "Sorry."
"Nevermind then." Suzette sat down on the bench and Reed cringed. If she knew how many sweaty men had sat there, she'd die. "I wasn't sure what I was going to walk into tonight, but I never could've imagined something like this." She motioned out the door way, where the crowd was just beginning to pack up and leave. Reed had been in the last fight of the night, after all. "I just have one question, Reed: why?"
Reed walked over to his locker and threw the towel back in. After he'd locked everything back up, he turned around to face her. "I don't know you well enough to tell you that."
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Teen FictionIt all started with curiosity. But as Suzette Kimberly soon learns, curiosity killed the cat. When she bursts into a suspicious after school meeting between four teenage boys, she wants nothing more than to know what they're up to. But when she disc...
