Protect My Heart by Judy Corry
Arie
I had finishedmy first week on the job and felt good about it. Sure, being in high school again wasn’t great, but it’s not like it mattered what grades I got, since I’d already graduated early from college. Surprisingly enough, I’d enjoyed hanging out with Emma and her friends last night, even if I couldn’t quite figure Emma out. She was cold and distant, almost annoyed with me one minute, but then normal and fun the next. It was like she had a split personality, and I worried I might get whiplash from it.
I figured the nice Emma was her real personality; otherwise, I might have to turn up the charm. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that, though Sophie wanted me to stay close…no matter the methods it took. But the last thing I wanted was to create a fake relationship on top of all the other lies I had to tell to keep my cover.
After I returned from choir rehearsal, I typed up my report for the week and emailed it to Sophie. My mom had called a few times this morning while I was with Emma and Kathryn, so I decided to call her back now before she started to worry. She was famous for freaking out when I didn’t get back to her within an hour.
My mom picked up after the first ring. “Arie!” she gasped like she’d been anxiously waiting for me to call.
“Hey, Mom.” I smiled as I walked up the stairs to the second floor of my new living space and went into my room. My room was pretty basic with the regular bed, desk, and dresser you’d expect a high school student to have. The blue walls were bare, but I liked them that way. I hadn’t brought much with me when I moved here, just a couple of suitcases filled with clothes and other essentials. “I’m alive.” I chuckled, imagining how my mom probably looked right now, hand pressed to her chest as she slumped back into a chair, finally able to relax. She’d been through so much with my dad already, so I knew better than to give her too hard of a time.
“If you’re alive and well, then why didn’t you answer any of my phone calls? I thought you had Saturdays off.”
“Normally, I do, but there was a special rally I had to go to this morning. I would have answered my phone, but my boss doesn’t like me to use it while I’m on the clock.” And so the lying continued. Since my job was top secret, I had to make up a story to tell her. As far as she knew, I was working as an intern for a senator in town.
“This working all the time can’t be healthy. You’re young; you should be having some fun, too. I bet there are plenty of college girls there who’d love to spend time with a handsome young man like you.”
There she went again, still trying to match me up with someone, even though she lived thousands of miles away. “I’m not looking for that kind of fun right now, Mom. I need to focus on my job.” I might only be working at an obscure rent-a-bodyguard-type job. But it was a stepping-stone in the right direction, and I intended to take it seriously.
“And how was your first week?”
“It’s been good. I’m getting the hang of things.” Meaning, it wasn’t quite the thrilling adventure I envisioned when I applied for the internship. Though my presence was only a precaution for now, since the threat was still locked away for the time being, I was itching for more action—something to make my time here seem worthwhile. I didn’t want Emma to be in any real danger, of course, but at the same time, I was getting restless.
“That’s good. I know you were hoping for some exciting protests at those rallies, but this mom will be quite happy if things stay calm over there.”
“I know, Mom.” She’d made that point several times in the past month.
“How are your roommates? Are they nice?” She thought I lived with a couple of college guys; I hadn’t known how to explain why I was living with Jason and Sophie. I thought it might be weird, living with a married couple in their forties, but they were surprisingly cool.
“Yeah, they’re great.” My mom let out an audible sigh of relief.
When I first arrived in Maplebridge, I assumed things would be uptight and serious all the time, but I soon discovered Jason was a goofball when he was off duty. There wasn’t a day that had gone by that Jason hadn’t found an opportunity to tease me about being in high school again. He also thought he needed to constantly remind me I couldn’t date any of the girls I went to school with. Did he assume every guy in their twenties was desperate for some action? Because even if I were, I would never go after someone that young.
Sophie, on the other hand, was the sweet, motherly type. She and Jason were never able to have kids of their own, so I think she enjoyed having a younger person around to mentor. I appreciated having kind people to work with and learn from on my first job fresh out of college.
I talked to my mom for another ten minutes, then hung up before she could remind me, again, that she wanted grandbabies one day and the only way that could happen was if my sister or I took time out of our busy schedules to find someone and get married. Mom was eighteen when she married my father, so she assumed my nineteen-year-old sister and I would want to follow suit and marry young. She seemed to forget all about the fact that the last thing I wanted was the type of marriage my parents had. My sister and I somehow turned out okay despite all the turmoil, but what I’d witnessed had definitely made me question whether true love actually existed. I was convinced that kind of thing only happened in the movies.
To get my thoughts off the past, I decided to go outside and do some yard work. Physical labor had a way of taking my mind off things, and since Jason and Sophie didn’t work much in the backyard, there was plenty to keep me busy for a few hours.
