Adam Last October
Adam
Last October
“Listen to my tale; when you have heard that, abandon or commiserate me, as you shall judge that I deserve. But hear me.”
—Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Adam scanned the list of outside reading novels, his eyes glazing over the titles.
He hated to read and wasn’t interested in anything apart from the sports section of the newspaper—though often enough, the school’s online newspaper featured some flattering articles about his prowess on the football field.
But all the books on this list sounded boring, and worse than that, Mr. Armstrong said they’d have to write a term paper on one of them.
They were to choose a book by the end of the week, only there was no bookstore in Silver Creek.
He could try the school library, but they never kept more than one copy of any title.
It would be cleared out by the time school was over.
Adam considered online shopping, but the delivery drivers never bothered to try the gate at the edge of the Abbott property, which meant they never made it up the hill to the house.
Packages were always left at the bottom of the dirt road and eventually stolen, or soaked and ruined by the automatic sprinklers.
The brothers kept telling their father to fix the issue by getting a PO box in town. The man never listened.
Adam wandered over to the classroom bookshelf. Mr. Armstrong said that they could borrow a book from there if it was on the list.
“Hey, Adam.” Tanya Rockwell gave a shy smile and sidled up next to him. Her eyes were on the books as she asked, “Are you excited about tonight’s game?”
“Uh, sure. Nervous more than excited, I guess.”
“You don’t have anything to be nervous about.” She patted him playfully on the arm. Tanya wasn’t the only girl who kept doing this, trying to talk to him. He knew it was because homecoming was approaching; it happened every year around this time.
“Thanks. Well, I’d better get to it.” He forced a smile and gestured to the bookshelf, effectively dismissing Tanya, whose face fell before she wandered off.
It was slim pickings on the shelf. Adam recognized one of the books on the list, a battered copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and his mind went to the old movie clips he’d seen of the monster with bolts protruding from its neck.
The slow walk and the green skin—or maybe it had been in black and white.
Adam hadn’t watched the entire movie. He had no interest in reading the book either and scanned the shelves again for something slimmer.
But nearly everything had been claimed by Mr. Armstrong’s morning class of juniors. The smart kids.
Adam glanced over to where Bram sat, looking completely unbothered as usual as he watched something on his phone. The reading list was folded up at the corner of his desk.
Bram was much smarter than Adam, but he only ever did the bare minimum in school. That was why they were both in this class. Today, though, even the bare minimum required finding a book. Adam ambled to his brother’s desk. “So what are you going to pick?”
“I’ve already got a book.”
“What is it?”
“None of your business,” Bram answered grimly.
Adam smirked. “You’re embarrassed. Is it Twilight?” He pretended to double-check the list.
“Something like that.” Bram’s eyes remained on his phone, and Adam realized he was watching the video of their last preseason game. So his brother wasn’t as calm and collected as he appeared. Their first game of the season was tonight, and though he hid it well, Bram was obviously jittery.
“You’ll do great tonight.” Adam slapped his brother on the back, harder than necessary, before returning to his seat.
***
In the parking lot, Mariana Sanchez was leaning against the boys’ Mustang. Adam’s heart skipped at the sight.
But he soon spotted Bram in the driver’s seat, and his heart sank again. The two were chatting through the open window, waiting for the others to arrive. Adam had forgotten they were giving Mariana a lift, so she could wait at the house while the brothers finished working on her car.
“Hi, Adam,” Mariana said sweetly. Even dressed as she was in a modest pair of jeans and a turquoise sweater, Adam had trouble keeping his eyes off her.
“I’m driving,” Adam said without returning the salutation. He opened the door and stood there, waiting. Finally, Bram lifted his hands off the wheel and got out of the car, exchanging a look with Mariana that said I have no idea what this is about.
That was the truth, Adam thought. Bram had no idea that Adam didn’t want to sit in a car with Mariana. He had no clue that Adam would rather walk all the way home than share the back seat with that girl.
But Mariana knew. She was the one who had a reason to be sorry.
Fortunately, Adam had a plan. One that would fix everything.
“This thing only seats four,” Adam grumbled. “And we already promised Hayden a ride.”
“We can squeeze,” Bram said, sliding into the back. Mariana followed, pressing in so close, she was practically on his lap. “Problem solved,” he added. In the rearview window, Adam caught the vibrant blush on Mariana’s cheeks.
“Not exactly legal,” Adam said, though that wasn’t what bothered him.
“It’s a five-minute drive,” Bram said.
When Henry and Hayden arrived, Henry took the passenger seat.
Hayden squeezed in the back with the lovebirds, and Adam started the ignition.
Even as he exited the school parking lot, he couldn’t help but glance again at Bram and Mariana in the rearview mirror.
Their fingers were interlocked, and Mariana giggled at something Bram whispered in her ear.
It all made Adam’s stomach curl.
They wove through the residential streets and onto the open country road, soon reaching Hayden’s house, a modest single-story with faded gray wood siding and white trim. Hayden hadn’t even shut the car door behind her when Adam started to pull away.
“Wait!” Henry shouted. He glared at Adam, who braked. “Hayden’s grabbing a book for me.”
“Fine,” Adam murmured, his skin itching to escape the car. “Why does she have your book?”
“It’s not my book,” he said as Hayden raced back down the steps. “She said she had an extra copy.” Hayden reached the passenger side, thrusting a pristine copy of Frankenstein through the open window.
“Thanks,” Henry said.
“No problem. I’ll see you tonight at the—”
Adam stepped on the gas then, pulling away from the house before she finished the sentence.
“What the hell, Adam?” Henry snapped. “That was so rude.”
Adam peeked in the rearview mirror, catching Bram’s disapproving eye before he spotted Hayden standing by the side of the road, her diminishing figure as still as a scarecrow.
“I’ve got homework to do before the game,” Adam barked. “And in case you forgot, we have to finish Mariana’s car. So I don’t have all day.”
“We all have homework and football. Doesn’t mean you can treat people that way.” Henry huffed and started flipping through the pages of the novel.
“We’re reading the same book,” Adam said, trying to lighten the mood he’d single-handedly wrecked.
“Really?”
“Yeah, so now you can write my paper for me.”
Henry whacked him in the arm with the book.
“Hey!” Adam laughed. “You’re going to make me crash.”
“So many hazards on this road,” Bram chimed in from the back. “You could swerve straight into a cornfield, or even plow onto a pillowy soft bed of wildflowers.”
Mariana giggled again. “Or into a man made out of straw.”
At the sound of her voice, Adam darkened.
“Whatever. Something happens to this car, it’ll be one more we have to fix today for free.
” He felt the tension flood the space, as if it had wafted through the open windows, becoming trapped inside with them.
He didn’t dare look into the rearview mirror this time.
They reached the gate at the end of the property, on which hung a sign for Abbott Auto Repair. Henry hopped out to open the gate. Once he’d settled back inside, the car wound up the paved road of their property, veering left at the fork in the direction of the car repair shop.
Tucked away behind the hill, it wasn’t the most optimal location for a business. Despite the sign, out-of-towners often drove right past the massive gate. Fortunately, locals knew the place, as they’d been coming for years for tune-ups, oil changes, and even major repairs.
When Mariana had driven her car up to the shop two days ago with a lit CHECK ENGINE light, Bram tried to convince his brothers to take on the job for free.
Of course, Henry had readily agreed, and Adam was about to, thinking that perhaps it might be the right time to enact his plan.
But then he noticed that Mariana herself wasn’t at the shop. “Where is she?” he’d asked.
“In the Mustang,” Bram had said. “I’m giving her a ride to the library.” After school, Mariana worked at Silver Creek Town Library. It was one of the reasons all the old people knew and loved her.
Adam had a change of heart then. “I’m not going to work for free.”
“She’s my girlfriend,” Bram had pressed.
“Well then, you handle it,” Adam had responded. “I can take Mariana to the library, and you can check the car.”
They both knew that Bram was the worst of the three of them at diagnosing an engine problem. “I’ll take all your chores for the month,” Bram had mumbled broodily, an offer Adam had accepted.
Now, Adam parked the Mustang and took out the key to the shop’s lock.
Instead of following him and Henry to the garage door, Bram tugged on his backpack.
“I’ll be right back,” he said. “Just going to walk Mariana up to the house.” It was a ten-minute walk back up the road, taking the right fork that winded up to the Abbott mansion.
Bram would certainly not be “right back.”
“Wonderful,” Adam muttered under his breath as he watched Bram sling an arm around Mariana’s delicate waist.
Adam’s heart clenched, but he couldn’t look away this time. The grass around him swayed and shivered, and when a bee buzzed too close to his ear, he swatted at it. It settled onto a wildflower, the buzzing sound drifting away.
But Adam kept hearing something. Something like the wind whispering through the tall blades of grass. It spoke to him of that thought, that plan.
The whispers said it had to be today.