Read Guardian for Free Online Page B

for the semester.  Our last lab class...ever.  With Kinsler and Pike both near her in the class, I couldn’t avoid it.  She had to be safe and beside me was the only option.  Besides, when she blew stuff up, someone had to be there to pick up the pieces.  Chemistry seemed to be the only class she didn’t excel in.  That frustrated her to no end.   
    The lab teacher told us to share our experiments with each other.  Mike and Jason said Grace’s name a time or two obtusely trying to complete their own lab experiment.  I ignored their disgusting crude behavior as she did following her lead. 
    Grace explained the experiment to the class when it was our turn.  She raised her hand and allowed herself to get called on and get it over with so she could relax.  I had a feeling it was to help silence the jerks behind us.  She started word bashing them in her brain the way she did with big words I’d never heard of.  I’m by far not unintelligent, but she just loved the thrill of words no one else knew and made her able to bash their brains with unidentifiable retorts.  At least, that’s how I rationalized it.  Either way, it caused me to smile at her sweet innocence and know how much I’ve been able to shield her all these years.  Her idea of evil was solely focused on a guy named Kinsler.
    After class, we headed to the parking lot with the droves of other teenagers eager to exit even if it was pouring waterfalls outside.  It was the earth’s music for those who listen.  Few did.
    “Are you riding with me?” she asked in hope while I stared at the rain coming down in sheets before me.  Normally I rode with her and retrieved my bike later on a rainy day, but today I had to keep a close eye on Kinsler to be sure he kept his distance.
    She seemed able to read me on the antsy-ness but said nothing.  She read me better than I liked on some things, but absolutely went crazy about other things.  Like the way her mind described my eyes when she stood too close to me now.  That drove me insane with things I shouldn’t be thinking.  At least not yet. 
    I drove the Honda Shadow that she named Lav after years of tortured reminders that it was purple.  I’d allowed the dealership to send it to me without checking first.  When I had Pike order one for each of us and told him blue, he overly used his mad skills of deception to make sure he’d have the better bike.  I called it the Shadow around Grace just to tease her for naming it a girl name, but Pike I tortured constantly by exchanging his helmet sometimes with a pink one I found in a thrift shop with Grace once.  He deserved it.
    I’d actually filed for a license plate like the other humans deciding that if I was lucky enough to keep Grace in the long term, I would enjoy her riding on the back of it with me when she finally knew she was really mine. 
    I followed Kinsler on his Harley like I’d done for the last two weeks.   He wailed all manner of cursed things in his head at me for keeping a forced distance from Grace all day.  I could care less about the dimwit of a man.  He didn’t deserve her any more than I did.
    I followed after him and trailed for a while until he turned off away from the direction of where Grace was headed.   I meandered back and pulled my bike beside giving her a shock.  Her mind questioned it, but decided I would avoid telling the truth anyway.  She was right. 
    I smiled under the helmet, but my sad eyes were hidden from her that revealed how horrible I always felt at hiding the truth.  In the past few years, it was significantly harder to stretch the truth like I had too. I’d done it for so long I wondered if I’d be able to stop or if I would simply continue fearing her safety always.  I would be glad when it was at an end, an end I preferred. 
    Friday night at the Starmen residence with a bag of chips and a night with the stars with my best girl!  Nothing could take me away from missing it.  Not even