No Place Like Homecoming

by Dallen, Maggie

  “Dorothy?” I echoed, but even as I did, I knew exactly who he was referring to.

  I felt her eyes on me before I turned and spotted her. A laugh caught in my chest at the sight before me. Dorothy. Roman hadn’t been wrong. Isla was all decked out and looking utterly absurd with her old-fashioned dress and ruby slippers.

  But then her gaze clashed with mine, and the urge to laugh straight-up died. For a second there, she wasn’t smiling and she wasn’t sneering. She was just…looking at me. She was looking right at me.

  And I couldn’t breathe.

  “Dude, you all right?” Roman asked.

  He was a year older than me and had graduated the year before. Lucky bastard. Life would be a whole heck of a lot easier if I’d graduated already. If I wasn’t trying to juggle school and work and...for what? So I could drop out in a few weeks?

  I should just quit school now and be done with it. The fact that I hadn’t was just stupid. I was going through the motions as if any of it would do any good. Like some miracle might happen and save my family and my hopes of graduating along with the rest of my class.

  “Are you guys, like...having a staring contest?” Roman sounded confused, and I didn’t blame him.

  I had no idea what was going through Isla’s head, but her stare seemed to be weighing me down. Making me doubt everything I thought I knew. I couldn’t tell if this weight was grounding me or crushing me. All I knew was…

  I had to look away.

  I was the first to break the moment, and I turned to look at Roman, who was eyeing the two of us like we were in the midst of a tennis tournament. “I’ll be back in a sec.”

  “Yeah, sure. Take your time.”

  I was already crossing the alley, heading to the sidewalk where she was standing. I watched her blink a few times. Watched her chest rise and fall as she took a deep breath.

  Something wasn’t right. Her confidence was gone. That crazy bravado that I hated and maybe also kinda loved just a little was nowhere to be found.

  When I got closer, I saw the gleam in her eyes but it wasn’t that normal passion that she seemed to have. Instead it was something that set me on edge on her behalf.

  It was...desperation.

  Crap. What was going on with this girl to make her look like this? As I got even closer, I saw that look in her eyes shift again.

  Everything about her changed in a heartbeat.

  Gone was that brittle desperation and in its place was something...wrong. Off. So false it made my jaw clench.

  “Hey you,” she said, a teasing, flirtatious note in her voice that was so at odds with every other time she’d spoken to me, I immediately was on my guard.

  “What are you doing out here?” I asked.

  She tucked her phone into the pocket of her apron-dress thing and beamed up at me. “Looking for you.”

  My brows came down in a frown. “Why?”

  “Why not?” She moved closer until she was way too close. The scent of her shampoo surrounded me, and the ridiculously wide skirt brushed against my legs.

  “Why were you looking for me?” I asked again.

  Her smile faltered. Good. Something about this smile made my chest tighten and my skull feel like it was being hammered.

  It was wrong.

  I didn’t trust it, but most of all I didn’t like that it made me worry about her.

  I couldn’t take care of anyone else. My hands were full with my mom and little brothers. I took a step back. “Look, whatever you’re up to, I want no part of it.”

  She pouted. “I just wanted to make sure I returned your copy of Catcher in the Rye, that’s all.”

  “Uh huh.” I took another step back. “You can give it to me in school tomorrow.

  Her pout turned to a frown. “Or you could meet me after your shift and I could give it to you then.”

  “I don’t have time for this,” I muttered.

  “Come on, Flynn.” She batted her lashes. Like, legit batted her eyelashes.

  I’d heard that as a saying before, but I knew without a doubt I’d never actually seen anyone do it. And now I knew why. It looked ridiculous.

  She moved forward as I took another step back, and the feel of her palm on my chest had me freezing in place.

  No. Freezing wasn’t the right word for it. I was on fire at that simple touch. And judging by the flicker of triumph in her eyes? She knew it.

  One corner of her lips curved into the hint of a smile, and not even the fact that she was dressed up like Dorothy could hide the fact that this girl was all crazy sex appeal as she wet her lips and moved even closer.

  My heart pounded against my ribcage. My pulse was roaring in my ears.

  It was attraction, plain and simple. I knew that. I didn’t mean anything. But I had to keep reminding myself of that as she kept talking. “Do you think you could give me a ride to the party on Saturday?” Her fingers moved lightly over my chest, up toward my shoulders.

  I was freakin’ trapped. My lungs were filled with the smell of her, and all I could see was the curve of her lips as she talked. All I could hear was the soft low hum of her voice through the pounding of my heart.

  “...and maybe after we could hang out together. Get to know each other…”

  She was still talking, but the lunacy of her words finally filtered through. I took a step back until her hand fell away. I ran a hand over my eyes as if that could shake off this spell she had on me. “What’s going on here, Isla?”

  Her eyes widened slightly in surprise. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  I scoffed and her fake smile faded.

  Good. I’d take an annoyed Isla over whatever this was any day of the week.

  “Look, I’ve got to get back to work,” I said, already backpedaling. I never should have approached her in the first place. I should have ignored that look I'd seen before.

  I turned and bolted before she could stop me with another touch.

  Crap. What was wrong with me that a simple touch had sent me into such a freakin’ frenzy? Whatever it was, I still couldn’t figure it out by the time my shift ended. I also couldn’t shake this nagging sensation or the thoughts of Isla that wouldn’t stop. Memories of the look in her eyes, the way she’d suddenly changed, that hint of desperation, the way she’d thrown herself at me after making it abundantly clear the other day that she wanted nothing to do with me.

  I still couldn’t shake this—concern? Confusion? Fear?

  All of the above.

  “See you at the catering gig on Saturday?” Roman said when I was leaving. He was working in the kitchen at this restaurant and taking on catering shifts was rare for him. Maybe he was just as desperate for extra cash as I was.

  “I’ll be there.”

  He scoffed and shook his head. “How you can stand hanging out at these kids’ parties, I’ll never understand.” He followed me out toward the front of the house, which had emptied out after the dinner rush. He stopped short at the sight of Savannah at the front booth, bent over a textbook. He shot me a wicked grin. “Forget what I just said. I almost forgot you had company at those parties.”

  I opened my mouth to tell him it wasn’t like that with me and Savannah. Not even close. But he smacked me with his rolled-up dish rag and headed toward a table that needed clearing. “See you this weekend, man.”

  “Yeah. See ya.”

  Savannah looked up when I drew close. “Took you long enough,” she said, but her tone was mild. Sometimes I was convinced that Savannah just gave people a hard time out of habit. Underneath it all, she was more of a softie than most people ever realized.

  I knew it because we’d known each other forever. We’d grown up in the same neighborhood and knew more about each other’s home lives and families than either of us would care to admit. I got why she acted the way she did, but Isla…?

  And just like that, I was back to thinking about the new girl. Like Savannah, she had no problem speaking her mind. And like Savannah, she strutted through t
he halls like she owned the school. No whispers bothered her, like she knew without a doubt that she was God’s gift to mankind.

  But unlike Savannah, I had no idea if her act was real or just that...an act.

  And I definitely didn’t have a clue why she’d decided to go from snotty brat to sexy temptress in the blink of an eye.

  “Need a ride, I take it?” I asked as Savannah gathered her stuff.

  “Callie was giving the other girls a lift, and I didn’t want to make her go in the opposite direction.” Savannah winced. “Do you mind?”

  “Of course not.” I grabbed her bookbag and headed for the door.

  “Ever the chivalrous one,” she said behind me, laughter in her voice as I held the door open.

  I rolled my eyes. Chivalrous wasn’t the word for it. More like, my mom beat good manners into me as a kid, as Savannah very well knew.

  “Making any progress on saving up for your big trip next month?” Savannah asked as we climbed into my car.

  I shrugged. “Getting there.”

  “And your plans to come back?” I could feel her eyes on me in the dim light of the car as I shrugged again.

  “Flynn,” she said on a sigh.

  “I don’t want to talk about it, Savannah.”

  I wasn’t in the mood for a lecture on the importance of school, and I didn’t need another reminder of all I’d be leaving behind.

  I didn’t have friends. Not really. But I had a life here. I had people who cared. And for better or worse, this was the only home I’d ever known.

  Savannah let it drop. But I almost asked her to bring up my trip again when she switched the topic to one I was even less interested in pursuing.

  “So what do you think of the new girl?” Savannah asked.

  I shrugged. Eloquent as always. But honestly, if I tried to put my mixed bag of feelings toward that girl into words, we could be in this car all night. And while there was no one at my home waiting up for me, I imagined Savannah couldn’t say the same.

  “I hated her at first,” Savannah said, unprompted. “But...I don’t know. I think she might not be too bad once you get to know her.”

  I stared at her for so long she finally snapped at me to keep my eyes on the road.

  “What?” she said, all defensive.

  “I just didn’t expect you to be her champion, that’s all.”

  She snorted. “Please. I’m not saying I like the girl, but tonight she was cool to Callie.”

  She shrugged, but she didn’t need to say anything more.

  Savannah might not have been overly friendly with her work pals at school, but she was protective of them. Sometimes I was certain she liked her work friends more than her actual friends, but we’d never talked about it.

  “She’s nice to Willow, too,” she continued. “She doesn’t act weird even when Willow is being, you know...Willow.”

  I laughed because, yeah. I knew what she meant. Willow was as straitlaced as they came, which wasn’t exactly a selling point for a teenage girl. She acted more like a little old lady with her rules and her style. Her serious, goody-two-shoes personality didn’t exactly endear her to our classmates, in general.

  So yeah, I knew what Savannah meant, and the thought of Isla being nice to those two made my chest do something...foreign.

  I wasn’t sure if this tight, warm feeling was good or bad, but it was one of many new side effects I seemed to have when it came to Isla.

  The girl was clearly bad for my health.

  “Speaking of Willow,” Savannah said. “Are you going to her party tomorrow night after the Ronski event?”

  I arched a brow. “Party?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

  I did. Willow’s parents were almost never home so her house became home base for the princess troupe—and me, since I was almost always at the same gigs. The word ‘party’ was a stretch, though. Party would suggest that there were kegs and loud music, or something.

  This was not the case.

  Willow had more rules than any parents I’d ever met. Which was fine. We all respected that. “Is Isla coming?”

  The question was out of my mouth before I could stop it. Savannah shot me a funny look, but she didn’t say anything about why I cared.

  And I didn’t care.

  Or, at least, I shouldn’t. I was leaving this town for good in a few weeks’ time. I didn’t have room to care about some new chick, and especially not one who seemed to swing from one extreme emotion to the next like a freakin’ monkey in the jungle.

  “Maybe,” Savannah said. “Willow will probably ask her even though she’s not working the event. She and Callie are all about making the new girl feel included.”

  I nodded. I was catering the engagement party so I knew how small it was. This would just be another glorified babysitting event for the Princess Troupe. They’d been doing more and more of those these past couple years as word had spread that the troupe wasn’t just entertaining, but actually good with kids. So now, any rich person who was hosting a dinner party wanted to have the Princess Troupe on hand to watch the kids.

  “So? You coming?” she asked again, nudging me with her elbow. “You’d better. We want to spend as much time with you as we can before you ditch us.”

  I ignored the searching look that followed.

  I knew where this was heading and I had no desire to go there. Not with Savannah. But she let it drop, thankfully. I was so not in the mood to be grilled about when I’d return—never. And how I planned to finish school—I didn’t.

  “Will Roman be doing the catering with you?” she asked instead.

  I nodded. “They’re training him to take over while I’m gone.”

  She pressed her lips together, and I held my breath as I waited for the questions about when I’d be back. Yet again, she surprised me by not bringing it up. “You should bring him to the party.”

  I glanced over “Wait. Don’t tell me you have a thing for Roman—”

  “Oh please.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t do bad boys.” She shot me a quick sidelong glance. “That’s why I never fell for you.”

  I choked on a laugh. “As someone who’s spent the entirety of my high school years working to support my family, I guess I’d never thought of myself as a ‘bad boy.’ More like a boring old man in a teen’s body,” I said.

  “If the ripped jeans fit,” she said. But then she smiled. “I think maybe the two of us grew up faster than we were supposed to.”

  I couldn’t argue that. “So if you’re not into Roman—”

  “Callie’s into him,” she said.

  My eyes widened.

  “I know, I know.” She held up her hands to stop any protests. “I don’t like it either.”

  “It’s just—” I started and stopped. “Roman’s a good guy and all, but he’s just…”

  “Yeah,” she said when I failed to finish. She got it. He was a good guy, but he lived a very different lifestyle than Callie. He was way more experienced and had a jaded worldliness about him that made the idea of him and sweet, naive, optimistic Callie just seem wrong. He’d only graduated one year before us, but next to Callie it seemed like a lifetime.

  “I’m not saying I’m for it, but she’s not a little kid,” Savannah said.

  I nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

  “I mean she looks twelve,” she added, making me laugh. “But she’s the same age as you and me, and if she thinks she wants some bad news wannabe rocker dude, who are we to judge?”

  My mind instantly flashed back to Isla. Definitely not a wannabe rocker, but bad news nonetheless.

  And yet, that didn’t stop me from wondering what she was up to right now. What she was thinking, and what was going on behind that brilliant smile and those sad eyes.

  “You’re right,” I finally said. “I’m definitely not in a position to judge.”

  Eight

  Isla

  I took in the scene before me with arched brows. “S
o, this is Lindale’s idea of a party, huh?”

  Callie laughed. “No, this is Willow’s idea of a party.”

  Willow lifted one shoulder in a move that said ‘sorry not sorry’ as she stood before the mirror in her family’s living room and swiped at the last of her makeup. She’d been Sleeping Beauty tonight so her makeup wasn’t crazy. It was actually kind of pretty on her, but she was already tying up her hair and doing her darndest to scrub away any hint of color on her face.

  Callie on the other hand… I could totally see why she might want to scrub off the glitter. “I don’t get the obsession with fairies,” she said as she swiped away at her cheeks.

  All her scrubbing seemed to be doing was smearing the glitter.

  “You’d better get used to it,” Savannah said. “You’ve got that Tinkerbell party coming up.”

  “Gah, don’t remind me,” Callie muttered.

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. She just looked so...cute. Especially when she was annoyed and covered in glitter.

  Callie met my gaze in the reflection. “You won’t be laughing when you have to be one of the lost boys.”

  I gave a snort of amusement. “You guys realize how weird your jobs are, right?”

  Savannah patted my head as she walked past. “It’s your job now, too,” she said in a taunting sing-song voice.

  “Not for long,” I sang right back. But I said it under my breath. No need to explain that I had zero plans to stick around this town any longer than necessary.

  And once I was back in New York, I’d be well on my way to staying there for good. My dad might be a hardass, but he would cave when I was right in front of his face. And I’d have my mom back in my corner once I was back on her radar.

  And best of all, I’d be on Logan’s arm, with my crown on my head, and my life back on track.

  I just had to get there, that was all.

  “Is Flynn coming?” I asked.

  All eyes turned to me.

  “What?”

  Savannah’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully but Willow answered. “He said he’d swing by. He’ll be here.”

  “Do you think Roman will come too?” Callie asked.