“Thanks for saving me a seat.” Chloe dropped her bag on the desk next to mine.
I slammed the book closed and shoved it into my backpack. “Hey, did you get what you needed at the library?”
“Yup.” She picked a book out of her bag and shook it in front of me, then put it back and took her seat. “Did I see you talking to that Seth guy in the hallway?”
I nodded.
“He kind of creeps me out, but you can do what you want, I guess. What did you call it? ‘Free will’ and all?”
The first bell squawked, and the room started to fill with students. The English teacher, Mr. Richter, followed behind with a worn leather shoulder bag and a navy sport coat.
“Seats, students. The challenge to expand your young minds in only an hour is already daunting. Don’t waste an extra minute.”
He dropped the bag onto his desk and smiled at everyone.
“Let’s get down to business, shall we? I’m going to need everybody to grab a partner for this next assignment. You have two minutes,” he flipped his wrist toward his face and tapped the top of his watch with his fingernail, “and go.”
Immediately Chloe and I turned to each other and yelled in unison, “Partners?”
“Of course.” I grinned and watched as everyone else scrambled around the room, searching for the perfect partner, not wanting to be left out. Fortunately, math had blessed them, as the class held an even number of students.
“And time,” Mr. Richter said as he walked across the front of the classroom, tugged the thighs of his pants up slightly, and sat on the edge of his desk. “You are going to be interviewing your partner and turning in the transcript to me next Tuesday. All you kids with your social media—all that snap-chatty-twitter-insta somethings—we have lost the art of true conversation. Plus, it is vitally important that you know how to pose questions and answer them properly for when you interview for the soul-sucking jobs that you will all have one day.”
A girl in the middle of the room shot her hand into the air.
“Yes, Abigail,” Mr. Richter said, waving his hand toward her.
“Do we all have the same questions, or will they be different?”
“Well, that’s where the fun part begins. You will be brainstorming the questions to ask your partner. I understand for some it may be more of a light drizzle than a full storm, but I expect everyone to come up with at least twenty questions that can be answered without a simple yes or no. Grading will be based on the quality of the questions asked as well as the quality of the answers you provide your partner.”
The classroom door opened and clicked quietly shut as Griffin slipped through the door. I slid down in my desk and rubbed my hand over my face.
Griffin’s stealth skills were no match for the hawk-like instructor in charge. “Mr. Carlisle, it is a pleasure for you to join us today.”
He glanced down at the floor, his breath short. “I’m sorry. Coach needed to talk to me.”
“Well, I will be having a chat with Coach Beaufort. His time with you is precious, but so is mine. We have already found partners for our new assignment, Mr. Carlisle, so you will need to catch up as I do not like to repeat myself.”
Alex waved his purple arm in the air for Griffin to take the empty seat next to him and one of the other guys from the team. He nodded in their direction and headed toward that end of the classroom.
“Oh, no, Mr. Carlisle. As you have chosen to be tardy and everyone else has already been paired off successfully, I will be choosing your group for you.” He scanned the classroom and clasped his hands together when he spied the empty chair beside Chloe. “You’ll be joining Ms. Martin and Ms. Fell. Ladies, hopefully you can teach Mr. Carlisle a thing or two.” He looked back at Griffin. “Pray they take mercy on you.”
Griffin collapsed into the empty desk. His eyes traveled from Chloe to me, and a sheepish grin broke across his face. “Hey.”
10
“Chloe, coming here was pure genius.” I took a deep swig of my iced tea and another bite of breadstick. The buttery, garlicky, cheesy taste jumbled in my mouth into a mush of utter joy on my tongue.
“Easy, now. Don’t want you falling into a carb coma before we finish this assignment.” Chloe grabbed the empty bread basket and placed it on the side of the circular booth. “Isn’t it much better doing this here than at our place with my dad standing over us?”
“Or mine,” Griffin added with his eyebrows raised and a nasty snarl.
I swallowed, watching his odd expression. I’d only known him a few days, but I’d never seen him truly angry. Even when he’d stared down Seth near the bleachers, the emotions never reached his deep blue eyes. But tonight, the seas were stormy, bashing ships along the shoreline.
“Okay, who’s turn is it?”
Both Griffin and Chloe shrugged. As a duo, this assignment could have been a simple back-and-forth interview, but as a triad Mr. Richter had insisted we split the questions, each asking our other partners ten, but we kept talking between the answers and always seemed to lose our place.
“Maybe it’s mine?” Griffin took the back of his pen and counted silently down the page, alternating our names until he hit the bottom.
I took the opportunity to watch him. His dark red lips moving slowly as he whispered. The way he clenched his jaw as his mind processed. The slight curl at the tips of his eyelashes as he blinked from staring at his notes. Each piece of him fit together like a stunning puzzle that I wanted to spend hours trying to solve. There was only one missing piece.
I still didn’t understand why he’d been so awkward the other night. He’d barely spoke in class, but now, here, under the cheap stained-glass imitation Tiffanies, he’d opened up again. Been the confident and intoxicating apple boy I’d met at the farmer’s market.
“Ari, it’s your turn to ask Chloe.”
Chloe wrinkled her nose. “Ew. Why do you insist on calling her that?”
“Why not?” He shrugged and turned to me, studying my face. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Not really. But I’ve never had anyone call me anything other than my full name before.”
“Because your full name is beautiful. Don’t let him shorten it just because he’s too lazy to say three full syllables.”
Griffin snickered and shook his head. “Judge much, Chlo.”
Chloe cringed and gripped her pen tight in her fist.
“It’s not ’cause I’m lazy. I give lots of people nicknames. I never call any of my friends by their full first names. Dozer. Ry. Chuckie. Bronx.”
“That sounds like you’re listing dwarves, Snow White. Besides, what about Alex? He’s your best friend, isn’t he?” She crossed her arms and waggled her head with a smug look.
“Alex, short for Alexander.” Griffin picked up a straw wrapper and tossed it into the hoop of her arms like a basketball, then cheered, his arms in the air, when it landed right in the middle.
“So, it’s a compliment then?” I asked, making sure I’d heard correctly. Or maybe just wanting to hear him say it again.
“Yep. Unless you’d rather I didn’t?”
He slid closer to me on the bench, the calm, still water returning to his gaze and holding me there to drift. The heat of his skin rolled off him and landed on my arms. I held my breath for a second, enjoying the sensation and letting the world float away, but then I shook my head and grabbed my notebook.
“Okay, Chloe, what is your greatest weakness?”
She chewed on the top of her pen for a few seconds, staring at the ceiling. “Hmmm, weakness?”
“Well, your insult game is weak.” Griffin snickered at her.
She rolled her eyes and dropped the pen on the table. “I have to say, I take things too personally sometimes.”
“Fair answer. I’d agree.” Griffin nodded.
“I wasn’t telling you.” She looked down at her notes. “Question twenty, what was the real reason you were late for class yesterday, Griffin?”
“Let me see that.” He reached across the table and grabbed her notebook as she smirked in the corner. “You can’t ask me that. You know what Richter would do to me.”
Chloe took a drink, using the straw to hide her mischievous smile. “Maybe not. But I know Coach Beaufort has an early morning Pilates class at the Faraway Community Center on Tuesday mornings, so he was definitely not talking to you.”
Griffin looked away, staring out the window to the street, red creeping up the sides of his face. “I had a fight with my dad, and I was late.”
I caught his lost stare. “Why didn’t you just tell Mr. Richter that?”
“Nobody really needs to know. Plus, I doubt it would’ve mattered. He would have made me twist like a worm on a hook no matter what I said.”
“But maybe he would’ve put you in a different group.”
“What’s the matter? Don’t like your group?”
Chloe stuck out her lower lip and chuckled. “Could be better.”
“All right, Griffin,” I asked, trying to put the evening back in order. “What are your plans after high school?”
“To get as far away from here as possible.”
“Great answer, scholar.”
“There’s more, Chloe. I’m still hoping that I can pull a football scholarship, but I really want to go to school where it’s warm. Florida, California, Texas, something like that. Then I want to get a degree in something helpful, like law or veterinary science.”
I clapped my hands quickly and clasped them together. “Oh. Chloe loves science. She says she wants to be a doctor someday.”
“Really? Where are you applying?”
Chloe glared at me through narrowed eyes, her lips a stern line. “Nowhere. I doubt I’m going to be going to college.”
Griffin and I looked at each other, both our mouths open but with no words flowing out. Like when the television has the sound turned down.
Eventually, Griffin broke the silence. “You’re from L.A., right, Ari?”
I nodded. It sounded like the right place. I really needed to write these things down.
He shifted in the booth, bringing his knee up and his shoulders square to me. “Do you plan on going back there? If I end up at a California school, maybe we can meet up some time and you can show me around? It’d be really great to have someone there who knows the place—”
“Can we please stop talking about college?” Chloe’s sarcastic tone had faded, and this time she wasn’t joking around.
“Why? Everyone is going to be talking about it sooner or later. You might want to stay here, but almost everyone else will be leaving.”
“Yep,” Chloe whispered. “Everybody always leaves.”
“Okay, another question.” Griffin scanned the list of questions, clearly looking for something neutral, skipping over ones I knew he hadn’t asked yet. “Here’s a good one, Ari—”
“I’m done mine, so I think I’m just going to go.” Chloe stood and shoved her books in her bag, her eyes darting back and forth. She put her hand on her forehead. “Where is my pen? Has anyone seen my pen?”
“It’s right here on the table.” I picked up the chewed blue Bic and held it up.
“Thanks.” She shoved it in the bag, glassy tears building as her breathing shortened.
“Are you okay, Chloe?” Griffin asked.
“Yep. I’m fine. You guys stay here, finish your stuff.” She started to walk away, then stopped and clenched her fist in the air. She retreated backward to the table. “Griffin, could you please drive Arianna home?”
He glanced over at me with a questioning stare. “Sure.”
“Great. Perfect.”
Chloe sped out the door, tossing her backpack over her shoulder and nearly taking out the plastic plant near the front door.
I shook my head. “Wait.” I stacked my books in a haphazard pile and tried to stand, the booth keeping my legs partially bent. “I’d better go after her.”
Griffin grabbed my hand. “Are you sure you can’t stay? She said she’d be fine.”
I glanced down at my hand in his, his thumb drawing lines up and down my fingers. I sighed. “I know, but I have a feeling she’s not.”
I slid out of the booth, watching the disappointment creep across his face. He actually wanted me to stay. I stopped, curling my hand into a fist and knocking it on the table, but my eyes kept watching out the window, knowing my feet should be following her out the door. I glanced back at Griffin. Sweet, handsome Griffin. But he’d have to wait.
I pushed open the door as Chloe’s taillights rounded the corner.
Shoot.
I smacked my fist on the stone railing. Why didn’t I just follow my gut in the first place? At least I only had to walk a few blocks.
“Hey.” Seth stood a little way down the sidewalk, leaning against a lamppost. His arms were crossed and one leg was pulled up with his sole flat against the metal—kind of like a flamingo with an attitude. He peeled himself from his perch and walked to the bottom of the restaurant’s steps, holding each of the handrails and blocking my exit.
“Hey.” I raced down the stairs, hoping he would get the hint and move aside, but he simply hung on tighter, swinging back slightly to give me a little more space but not setting me free.
“How’s the study group?”
“Over. But I really need to get going.”
He swung back, releasing his arm, and I bolted for the opening between him and the railing, but he rebounded, closing the gap before I could get through.
“Okay, but I came here to warn you.”
“About what, Seth? I really have to go.”
“I’ve been hearing things. Rumblings that certain groups have figured out that you’re here. Certain groups that would love to get ahold of someone like you to prove a point.”
“Prove a point? To who?”
The playful expression drained from his face, replaced by dark reflections of shade and shadow. His hands gripped the rail tighter, his knuckles glowing white under the streetlamp.
“I don’t think you realize, there is a much bigger game going on here. Good versus evil. Above against below. Each side needs soldiers, and you are standing on middle ground, ripe for recruitment. This war will span the centuries, but every single battle counts.”
“So, what exactly are you trying to say? Who am I running from?” I crossed my arms and leaned against the handrail, knowing I wouldn’t be getting through until Seth had said his piece or I dropped my shoulder and took him out of my way. But something told me it would not be that simple, so I’d have to wait him out.
“I’m not sure, but you should definitely watch your back. And I would suggest that you stop wasting time with the humans. The longer you’re on Earth as an angel, the bigger the threat becomes.”
“Understood. But right now, I really need to get back home.”
“That’s what I’m saying. You need to go home. Let me help you.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. Chloe’s. I need to go to Chloe’s house.”
He pushed off the rails, finally standing back to let me pass. “Maybe I should walk you back, just in case something happens.”
“No, it’s just a few blocks. I’ll be fine. But thank you, Seth.” I rested my hand on his chest for a moment and gave it a quick pat before turning and heading down the sidewalk.
“Remember what I said, Arianna. Be careful.”
11
I burst into the house. The hollow sound of the door closing echoed through the quiet rooms. Quiet, except for Stephen snoring in front of the television. I crept on my tiptoes down the hall. Chloe’s room sat empty, even though I’d seen her car parked in the driveway. I checked my room, the bathroom, the basement, but couldn’t find her.
I headed back into the kitchen and leaned against the counter. My breathing was hard and labored after running all the way from Tony’s and scouring the house. I poured myself a glass of water then noticed a small light glowing on the deck through the patio door
. I set the water down on the counter and peeked through the glass door pane. Chloe sat wrapped in a blanket in a large wooden chair, staring up at the sky.
I slid open the door and sat in the chair across from her. She didn’t bother to look up or even acknowledge my interruption. Glistening streams flowed from her eyes to her chin, but she didn’t seem to be crying anymore. Possibly she’d already cried everything out.
“You ever just sit and look at the stars and wonder if there’s even anything up there?” she asked finally, her voice small and far away.
“Not really. They just seem so tiny—not like they’re supposed to be. Stars are meant to be these huge magnificent things, but from down here all we see are specks.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She let out a heavy sigh and settled farther back in her chair, pulling the blanket tighter around her chest.
“What happened back there?”
“I just . . . I just started thinking about my mom, and I didn’t want to be a downer for you and Griffin.”
“Don’t worry about us. I was worried for you. What happened anyway?” I leaned forward in my chair, bridging the gap between us, but she continued to stare at the sky.
“Cancer. Just over two years now. By the time they found out, it had already taken over most of her body. It was only about six months in and out of the hospital before she was gone.”
“I’m sorry. Is that why you ran off? You miss her?”
“No, I just felt guilty again.”
“Guilty?”
“Yeah. All I remember is that after she died, I was so mad at her. I hated her for leaving me. Hated myself for thinking it.”
“I’m sure she would understand. It isn’t easy when you lose someone. There isn’t a right way to react.”
Kingdom of Salt and Sirens Page 99
