Chapter 8

The movie they went to see was called “Rush Hour”. Hayden wasn’t really paying attention to the plot. She liked how the movie was paced. She liked the random explosions. She just couldn’t focus. She didn’t really understand why she was having such an issue with focusing. She had always been scatterbrained. This was different. She was struggling to focus on anything other than Rob. He wasn’t paying attention to the movie either. He kept looking over at Hayden and smiling. Halfway through the movie, he grabbed her hand. She couldn’t help but mirror his dorky smile back at him.

She had no idea what they were going to do about Jessica. She was just getting started. She had a twisted mind. Hayden knew that very well. The fire was her warning shot. The way Hayden saw it, she was threatening Rob to not be with Hayden. If they kept seeing each other, Jessica was going to take it to the next level. Hayden was admittedly a bit scared of Jessica. She never wanted to be on the receiving end of one of her temper tantrums. Hayden once saw Jessica hit her own mother for questioning something she said. She had no limitations. Hayden wondered if Rob had thought about it. If he said he cared, his smile would betray him.

After the movie, the pair went to the park behind the theater. It was technically part of the Michele Heights Community Center. They often hung out there for social events. In the summer, the pool was open to everyone. It was somewhere they were both comfortable. They needed somewhere else to hang out now that Jessica had ruined the tree house. As Hayden thought about it, she realized that her parents might have thought someone was inside when it burned. She tapped Rob’s leg.

“I have to go home.” She announced. Rob raised his eyebrow, but he jumped up and started following her. They cut across the closed pool. Hayden walked quickly and Rob struggled to keep up with her. As they got closer to her house, she could see that her parents were standing out front of the house. They were talking with Elizabeth’s parents. Hayden briefly heard something about James and the police as she approached. Her mother walked over and threw her arms around Hayden.

“Where were you?” She screeched. Hayden motioned beside her. Her mother looked at Rob.

“Your mother would like to know where you are as well.” She corrected. They exchanged a look.

“We went to the movies.” Hayden added. Her mother put one of her hands on her hip.

“You should have told me where you were going.” She insisted. Hayden nodded.

“I know. I’m sorry.” She apologized. Her mother let her hand drop, then motioned to the house.

“The tree house burned down. Do you know anything about that?” She asked. Hayden shook her head.

“No.” She lied. Rob kept his eyes glued to the pavement.

“Well come inside. It’s dinner time. Rob, you should get home.” Her mother instructed. He nodded. He gave Hayden a quick smile before he started walking away. Hayden followed her parents into the house. The two kids were already at the table eating spaghetti with their hands. Hayden went into the kitchen and washed her hands before sitting down at the table.

“I’m sorry about the tree house.” Her father offered. Hayden nodded.

“It’s okay. We can always rebuild it.” She sighed. He raised his eyebrow.

“Do you want to do that?” He asked. She was confused. She always hung out in the tree house.

“Yes?” She wasn’t confident in her answer. He nodded.

“I was just thinking that you’re getting to that age, you might want to spend time alone with certain people. Indoors.” He hinted. Hayden raised her eyebrow.

“Who would I want to be alone with? Why would I be inside? I love it out there.” She questioned. Her father laughed, shaking his head.

“Nevermind. I’ll get you some wood from work.” He assured. He worked in the construction industry, so he had easy access to building supplies. If Rob really wanted to rebuild, they could do it properly. The last tree house was haphazardly put together and couldn’t house more than 3 people at a time. Hayden wanted to make a tree house that could hold weight. One that wasn’t unsteady in certain places and missing a floorboard in others. She wanted a real tree house, since she was almost an adult.

Over the next few days, Jessica kept her distance from the two of them. She would stare at them and make faces, but she kept a physical distance. Hayden figured that was better than her being up close and in her face. It wouldn’t be the first time. There was a time when Hayden spilled soda on the floor and Jessica freaked out and started screaming at her. At the time, Hayden thought maybe she was abused at home. Then she realized Jessica was the abuser. She didn’t know where her parents had gone wrong raising her. Hayden was grateful she didn’t act like that. She hoped she never would.

Amy once said that Jessica was hormonal. Hayden didn’t know what that meant. Health class was explaining how the parts worked at school. It was the only class Hayden didn’t have a perfect grade. The class was half textbook and half physical activity. She couldn’t hold up in the physical activity category. She was falling behind. She was slow. She was stiff. She couldn’t warm up her muscles. They were tight and refused to budge. She had already started sitting out instead of participating and it was only the beginning of the school year. She hoped she would be able to make up her grade with the textbook aspect of the class. She wouldn’t know until the grade reports came in.

Hayden’s father collected wood throughout the week so they could start on Friday night or Saturday morning. Anne had taught her boys a collection of skills in the years she home-schooled them. They were only sent to public school in grade 7 so they could learn social skills. Any friends they had before school were from the neighborhood they lived in. They met when Hayden’s mom attempted to home-school her and her sister. It was more work than expected, so Hayden and her sister returned to public school in the second semester. Among the skills Rob had, he was able to build small structures, like bed frames and shelving. They had parental help the last time they built a tree house. Now, Hayden’s parents were letting her figure it out for herself. She suspected it was because they partially blamed her for the fire. It wasn’t her fault, but she couldn’t tell her parents what actually happened. James had already taken the blame. He said it was an accident, that he was smoking inside and dropped the cigarette. Everyone was just grateful no one was hurt. Only her and Rob knew it had been Jessica. Exposing Jessica would expose them. Neither were ready to tell their parents.

Hayden was afraid of her parent’s reaction. She was even more afraid of Anne’s. Anne had always talk about how Hayden should “marry one of the boys” so she’d have her as a daughter in law. Hayden usually laughed it off. She wasn’t sure if Anne would be excited and planning the wedding or ban them from ever seeing each other again. She felt similar about her own parent’s reactions.

They wanted to take it slow, and that meant keeping it between the two of them.

That Saturday morning, they started putting together their plans for a new tree house. Rob and her were in the kitchen when there was a knock at the door. Her mother answered and hollered at her to come see Jessica and her friend. Hayden didn’t know who she was with, so she walked around the corner cautiously. She saw Jessica was standing on the steps with her cousin, TJ. The cousin who had previously tried to drown Hayden. He claimed he was “playing too rough” and didn’t realize she couldn’t breathe. Hayden suspected he was told to do it because Jessica was jealous of how close Hayden and Rob were. This was Jessica’s typical behavior. Threatening people and intimidating them to get what she wanted. If that didn’t work, physical and often brutal violence.

“Hello.” Hayden greeted with the lack of enthusiasm she felt. Jessica motioned for her to come outside with them. Hayden shook her head.

“I’m busy planning a new tree house.” She defended. Jessica raised her eyebrow.

“Aren’t you a little old for a tree house?” She questioned. Hayden shrugged.

“I guess.” She agreed. Jessica nodded.

“Then come hang out with us.” She plead, grabbing Hayden’s arm. Hayden shook her head.

“I can’t.” She repeated. Jessica dropped her arm as Rob started walking up behind Hayden.

“Oh, I get it. You’re rebuilding your little make out palace. Cute.” She groaned, rolling her eyes.

“Can you just leave us alone?” Rob asked, crossing his arms. Jessica laughed.

“Are you kidding me?” She screeched. She grabbed TJ’s arm and pulled him away with her. Hayden faked a smile as TJ made eye contact.

“See you around.” He offered. Hayden raised her eyebrow. TJ had never been nice to her. She had no idea what would have changed since the last time they saw each other. She closed the door and turned around to face Rob.

“There’s no point rebuilding anything.” Hayden motioned towards the back yard. Rob nodded, leaning against the wall.

“What are we going to do with the wood?” He asked. Hayden was quiet for a minute.

“We could build a fort in the basement. We can just take down the mega blocks and put back the slide. They won’t care, and nothing goes to waste.” She theorized. Rob nodded.

“Sounds good. She can’t destroy that.” He mused. Hayden half-laughed.

“She could, but that’s a bit more trouble than she’s willing to get into.”

It was easier to plan a fort because they would be working with solid cement underneath. They didn’t have to worry about a floor. It was like building a shelf that could hold a person. Rob was confident that it would only take a few days of serious work. He didn’t have enough supplies, but he built a frame. Hayden could see where he was going with it. Her father came down and offered his expert advice. There was a plan, moving forward. In the meantime, Hayden’s space away from home had been taken away. She really didn’t know where else they were going to hang out. She whined about this to her parents later that night when they were having dinner. That’s when her parents told her that they discussed it and would allow Rob over, saying they could hang out downstairs in her room or in the rec space. Hayden had only brought Rob into the rec room on a few occasions. She was never really comfortable having other people in her space. He had only been inside her bedroom once because he begged to know what her room looked like. She never understood why, but she humored him. She had been in his room many times. In the basement rec space, there was a black and white TV and a Super Nintendo with Mario in it. Occasionally, they would watch movies on the colored TV upstairs using the VCR. They didn’t have one of those attached to the basement TV. It was mostly for the video games, so the adults could use the “real” TV. Hayden didn’t mind the black and white TV. She learned how to identify the different colors based on their shades of gray.

That night, Hayden couldn’t help but think about having Rob downstairs. In her bedroom. They would be completely alone with almost no chance of interruptions. They would basically have complete freedom in the basement. Even if they were only in the rec room. The kids rarely wanted to be in the basement because they were outside at the park. There were two within walking distance from the house. One between Hayden and Samantha and one between Rob and Hayden. Unfortunately, that was the park that was frequented by Jessica as well. It was the one her siblings spent most of their time in because it wasn’t a public park. It belonged to the apartment buildings that backed onto the space. They allowed the neighborhood kids to play on it if they lived in the townhouses. Otherwise, it was trespassing. It was a fairly safe place for the kids to play. Hayden hoped that Jessica wouldn’t target her siblings. As far as she knew, Jessica was great with children. It was people her own age and people who had authority that she had the problem with. Hayden wondered if Jessica was ever going to let it go and just let them be happy…