Leech - Chapter 1

“Do you think we'll still be friends?” Laying out beneath the cooling September sky, sprawled across the playground equipment that would in just a few days hold hundreds of children, the two girls pondered their futures as they stared out at the endless sky, full of stars, full of hope. Their hair twined together on the slide they lay upon, a commingling of dark and light. Amy had always been the classic idea of beautiful – blonde, slender, blue eyes with just a hint of mischief. The complete opposite of Christie. Christie was dark. Olive skin, blue black hair, and grey eyes. There was nothing remarkable about her, nothing to accord her any of the attention Amy had ever gotten, except the fact that Christie had hit puberty at about 8 years old, and her body was that of a woman's. A strange, unfamiliar woman's at that.

Amy and Christie were as close as friends could be, and were about to venture from this area, the playground and school they knew so well, to a larger, scarier world—high school. The question lingered in the air between them like the fog rolling in from the river. It wasn't so late at night, a quaint sliver of a moon just barely topped the trees that separated the school from the old stony brook. The question went unanswered – there didn't need to be an answer. They knew their friendship would continue, more or less, as it had for the previous thirteen years. But questions needed to be answered, and the pressing urgency was only furthered by the beeping of Christie's watch, telling her it was time to start the walk home.

“What I mean is...” she hesitated, trying to find the right words to complete the sentence “Do you think the baby will change things between us?” Amy shook her head, the only indication that she had even heard the question. Christie rolled over, and started to get up. “I'm here for you, you know. I always will be.” The words were mumbled, the way a fumbling lover would speak. They were not lovers, nor had they ever experimented, even though so many of their peers had. Amy just nodded, and continued to stare at the stars above. So much had changed that summer, and so much would continue to change.

Christie pulled herself away from the playground equipment with a large shove. It was hard for her to get up. She was overweight, “fatass” as her peers often shouted. But she still maintained a modicum of dignity as she began her walk home. It was a short walk, one she had taken many times. She wasn't worried too much about Amy's safety – Amy lived on a property bordering the playground.

But thoughts crossed her mind as she followed the old stony brook path home. Thoughts of things that happened to girls who stayed out late. She wasn't too concerned – nothing like that happened, at least not in her neighborhood. It had always been a relatively safe place to live. Sure, the older kids got a little rowdy, and occasionally someone would be busted for having a drunken party while their parents were out of town. But Christie felt relatively safe. She kept her eyes forward, and continued to meander along the path that bordered the small residential road. The trees weren't much to look at, but they kept her mind off of more pressing things – the fact that her best friend would, in a few short months, be a teenage mother.

Her attention was caught momentarily as a car skidded to a halt a fifteen yards away. She could hear two voices, one male and one female, arguing intensely with one another. It happened occasionally on this road, two lovers parting ways. Christie wasn't concerned, but pressed herself further against the treeline, trying very much to blend in, to give the quarrelers some privacy. The woman jumped out of the car, slamming the door. She was shouting in a language Christie thought may have been Russian. A fanatic for languages, Christie always found them fascinating, but she couldn't place her finger on this one. Something Slavic in origin, definitely. The woman started tromping in her direction. The man, shouting at his companion in the same language, shortly followed.

Christie froze in her place among the young pine trees. They were headed in her direction, but she didn't think she'd been spotted. Her watch beeped again, inconveniently so. The woman scanned the area, following the sound, and started shouting at her partner in English. “See? You scare everyone! Go away!”. Christie stood still, frozen in time. She didn't know whether to turn and run, or continue on her path. Continuing meant passing right by these two very hassled strangers.

“I didn't mean to scare anyone!” the man shouted back, indicating a nod in Christie's direction. Christie nodded back.
“You do, though! You do!” and the woman stormed off towards one of the houses. Christie, now alone on the street with an unfamiliar man, was beginning to feel uneasy. He shrugged his shoulders in frustration, and headed back to his car. Christie released a breath she didn't know she was holding. The car ahead of her made sputtering noises, and wouldn't start. Christie approached the car, and hesitated, but continued to walk past, turning her back to the stranger and his plight.

“Don't suppose you know anything about cars, do you?” The man sighed and removed his hat, running a finger through his locks as if to relieve tension. Christie turned around, midstep, and wobbled as though on an axis that defied the rules of gravity of the Earth itself. Her balance wasn't always the greatest, and every move she meant to be graceful always turned odd. “Cars?” She asked, as if not comprehending the words.

“Guess not.” The man was standing beneath a streetlight, and Christie took in the full view of him. He was taller, maybe a high school senior. His inky hair was longer than her's was, which was something of an accomplishment, and pulled back into a ponytail low at the base of his neck. His eyes, though she could not discern the color, were glittering in the light. Respectably dressed in a turtleneck and khakis, he looked harmless enough. He was one of many out of a generation trying to emulate the yuppies. Perhaps he was drunk. Christie didn't know, and didn't want to find out.

“My dad's a mechanic. Try hitting the starter.” She mumbled, and turned around, continuing her trek home, her watch beeping incessantly. The instant she turned around, she knew it was a bad idea. Quickly, almost too quickly, she felt him rush behind her, a hand over her mouth. “You're the one I've been looking for,” he mumbled into her ear. It was the last thing she remembered before darkness took over.