by S. E. Akers
Several members of the cheerleading squad stopped Kara when we stepped into the hall. To my surprise, she brushed off her clique’s daily lunchtime invite, telling them she and I had “something important to do”.
What the…?
If that didn’t leave my brain rattled enough, all of her pom-pom waving minions telling me, “hi”, and complimenting my hair and clothes whirled it around like a damn top. I mumbled my, “thank yous”, and skeptically watched them bounce off down the hall.
An alarming thought hit me like a smack across the face. I turned to Kara. “You didn’t tell them—”
“Ugh… I wouldn’t tell THEM! Those gossip-trolls would shout it to the whole school. I know how to keep a secret,” Kara boasted. “Now, come on.”
“Where are we going?” I asked, my feet firmly planted.
Kara shook her head and wrapped her hand around my arm. “To the Caf,” she replied. “It’s a surprise.”
“For whom?” I queried.
“Forrrr…both of us,” Kara hummed with a sneaky grin.
“I sooo don’t like the sound of this,” I whispered to Katie. It didn’t matter that my gait had slowed. Kara was dragging my frame right along with hers.
“For the record,” Katie grumbled, “If you dare replace my pendant with a half of a heart that says ‘best’ or ‘friends’, I’m climbing out of this rock myself and kicking your ass.”
Noted, I thought with a grin.
As soon as we’d burst through the doors of the busy cafeteria, Kara guided me towards a table in the back, where Ty and Mike sat waiting. She even pulled out my chair and waved me into the seat. My rear dropped onto the padded brown cushion, right alongside my sinking feeling.
“What’s this about?” I asked, hoping one of them could shed some light.
“I don’t know,” Ty replied. “Kara said you wanted us to meet here.”
“I didn’t—”
“Does it really matter who called y’all here?” Kara argued.
“Yes,” both Mike and Ty replied flatly.
Kara sharpened her glare. “Well, it was me.”
“Why?” the guys questioned.
“I’ve been thinking about something…about how our trip got cut short and about the prom. Why don’t the four of us go together?” Kara posed. Mike and Ty exchanged a few glances. “As friends,” Kara swiftly clarified. “Mike can get a limo—”
“What?” Mike interrupted.
“I didn’t stutter,” Kara shot back. “It’s the least you can do to show your appreciation to Shiloh,” she argued.
Even with my current defenses on “high-alert”, that innuendo threw me for a loop. “Appreciation for what?” I inquired nervously. The three of them started exchanging several rounds of culpable glances and then finally guided all their gazes back to me. I didn’t have to read their minds to know my ship was sunk. Aw crap!
I turned to Kara. “You weren’t supposed to say anything.”
“I didn’t,” Kara defended.
I tilted my head, unamused.
“Okay, I did,” Kara rephrased, “but only because they already knew.”
“You didn’t know that for sure, Kara,” I grunted. “Not unless you asked them specifically.”
I turned to Ty and Mike next. “And I assumed both of you knew your silence was implied,” I griped. “I guess I should have spelled it out.”
“Why are you getting so upset?” Kara asked. “I’m not going to tell anyone…else,” she clarified. “I should be the one upset. You told Ty first.”
“Did that REALLY just come out of her mouth?” Katie groaned.
“In Kara’s defense,” Mike interjected, “it didn’t take a rocket scientist to see all the crazy shit led straight back to you.”
“Look, y’all can’t say anything to anyone AT ALL…EVER AGAIN,” I pleaded. I shook my head shamefully. “Ugh. I should take care of this…right now.”
“Can we get in a round of Q and A first?” Mike tossed out eagerly.
“Why?” Ty laughed to Mike. “Because you think you’ll remember it this time?”
I kicked Mike’s leg under the table. “No! You’ve had enough.”
Kara placed her hand over mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. “We won’t say anything. Your secret will stay right here. It won’t leave this circle… EVER,” she vowed and then looked around the table.
“Never,” Ty added, sounding just as sincere. Kara and Ty both looked at Mike.
“I’ve got bigger things to worry about,” Mike asserted boldly, showing only the hint of a smile. “It’s not even worth repeating.”
“Please don’t make me forget, Shiloh,” Kara begged. “I want to remember.”
My eyes panned around the table while I slowly delved into each of their minds. They knew what I was doing too, and it felt kind of creepy with them watching me — fully alert. Yet again, my guilt reared its ugly head and made its official judgment call.
“All right,” I replied in a low whisper. “I won’t.” Kara gave me a huge hug on the spot.
“You can trust us,” Kara promised as she ended her embrace with a tight squeeze. “And that’s part of why I think we should all go to the dance together, to show you that…and to thank you.”
“For not scrambling your brains?” I posed.
“No,” Kara replied. “For being a good friend.”
“And for saving our lives,” Ty interjected as he propped his cast on the table. They both turned to Mike.
“Yeah,” Mike added, “even when someone’s being a—”
“Dick?” Kara interjected.
Mike rolled his eyes, but in an agreeable way.
“Look, that’s very nice of you, but—”
“Shi, none of us would be here if it weren’t for you,” Kara insisted.
“And y’all wouldn’t have been in danger if it weren’t for me either,” I added diplomatically.
“Mike arranged the trip. If anyone’s to blame, it’s him,” Kara proclaimed with her finger extended towards the now stunned sandy-blonde jock to her right.
Mike gripped the sides of his chair and shot towards the table. “What!?!”
Ty nudged him with his good arm. “You did throw my hat in the water, dude.”
While the three of them pointed their fingers, I sat uncomfortably squirming in my seat. Granted, they all knew about my supernatural abilities, but they were supposed to keep it to themselves — not compare freakin’ notes! But that only comprised some of my reservations about the prom. The rest of it lay with Katie and knowing what was charted for the lunar cycle that very night. I couldn’t enjoy myself then or any other night.
“Will you do something for me?” Katie whispered mentally.
“Anything,” I replied.
“Go to the prom,” my bosom friend urged.
“I can’t do that. And you know why.”
“Shi, I don’t want you living your life around that one day, every month. That’s crazy! If I ever walk this earth again, it’s inevitably up to fate…not you,” Katie asserted. “I see that now. Why can’t you?”
As I locked my fingers around the diamond pendant, my eyes fell upon Gallia’s bracelet. I’d removed all the other stones and simply kept the fire opal marked for Katie. She must have sensed what I was doing, because her next words flowed from her mouth like they’d been shaped by aware and watchful eyes. “Don’t let that thing be a noose. Please go to the dance…for me?”
“Okay,” I replied aloud, mainly directed to Katie.
Kara stopped fussing at Mike and gave her hands a few vigorous claps. “Now, this is just four friends going to a dance,” she stressed. “We’ll all purchase our own pictures and pick up our own corsages and boutonnières. Except for the limo…and dinner,” Kara added with a stern nod.
“Dinner too?” Mike grumbled under his breath as he glared at Kara. “What if I was planning on calling that chick I met in New Orleans?” He gave Ty a nudge. “Who knows what kind of night I co
uld have if I flew her up here for the weekend?”
Talk about an equally crafty and major kink in the little manipulator’s plan. Strangely, I was pulling for the cunning head cheerleader to let that one side off her pyramid gracefully. I may have fired off a warning shot to her brain, just to give her a little reassurance.
“That’s fine, Mike,” Kara replied, poker-face fully engaged. “But if some guy flew me somewhere for the weekend, I sure wouldn’t do any backflips for a high school dance in the coalfields of West Virginia. But you’re right, who knows? She might be impressed by that sort of thing.”
Ty and I grinned. Good girl. Hit him where it hurts — his ego.
Mike honed his glare. “Fine. We’ll all go as ‘friends’… And I’ll get the limo, and pay for Shi’s dinner, but that’s it!”
Mike and Kara both hopped up from the table, each going their separate ways. Ty and I remained in our seats, both of us too amused to move.
“Well-played,” Ty remarked aloud.
“I agree,” I laughed.
“You seemed hesitant about going,” Ty said. “Is there something wrong?”
“Nothing,” I replied somberly. “I was just thinking about Katie.”
“I still can’t remember the two of you being friends, but I can tell how much you miss her by the sound of your voice.”
“I do. Every day I want her back…here, where she belongs.”
Ty sighed. “Everyone feels that way when they lose someone, but they’re in a better place.”
“Be sure to have him give you directions to where that is…EXACTLY,” Katie cracked.
I had to bite back my laugh. “I’m only going because of her…in spirit,” I explained. “She ended up not going to the last dance because of me, and I don’t want her missing another one.”
“That’s nice,” Ty said. “You know, I don’t know if Katie ever told you this, but…I share a special memory with her too.”
“Really?” I questioned.
“We sure do,” Ty confirmed with a grin. “She was actually my first kiss.”
All I could focus on was the mushroom cloud billowing in my mind. “W—What?” I wasn’t sure if I’d heard him correctly until I made out a faint, one-word verbal confirmation coming from my bosom friend (and I was pretty sure it wasn’t “duck”).
“She was my first kiss,” Ty repeated, “right before Ninth Grade. My mom took us to the movies on our date.”
A date too? “She never told me,” I mumbled aloud, still on my flabbergasted high, but my words weren’t aimed at Ty. Katie was so eerily noiseless that I gave my diamond pendant a flick to make sure she was still there. She tried to muffle her “yelp”, but I could sense my bosom friend felt the annoying vibe, as well as caught the gist behind its intent.
“I’m not surprised she didn’t say anything,” Ty continued. “She called me the next day, thanked me for the movie, and told me that she only liked me as a friend.”
And the plot thickens…
“And in retrospect…I guess she was the first girl to break my heart too,” Ty admitted. “I didn’t ask anyone else out for a whole year after that.”
The bell signaling the end of lunch blared through the lunchroom. Ty rose from his chair. “Oh, and I’m buying your dinner. That’s the least I can do,” he said with a wink and headed for the exit.
I counted off a full minute before my patience had finally caved and then opted for a blatant throat-clearing to kick things off.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” I demanded. “Something that important? That ‘monumental’, to quote someone who ripped me a new one in a hotel bathroom for not telling them that I almost came sort-of-close to possibly kissing a guy on a couch?”
“It was nothing, Shi…I swear,” Katie insisted.
“I don’t think it was. You didn’t go out with him again because of me,” I charged. “Because I had a crush on him.” Katie remained painfully mum. “I’m waiting?” I stated. “Or do I need to give this diamond another flick?”
“Yes,” Katie finally groaned.
“Did you think I would’ve gotten mad at you?” I asked, slightly offended. “Ended our friendship?”
“NO,” Katie insisted. “But you would have been hurt, and you can’t sit there and honestly tell me that you wouldn’t. I felt horrible enough just thinking about that. I couldn’t hurt you! Not ever! And especially not over a boy!”
“So you lied to me…to spare my feelings?”
“I think ‘evaded’ is present company’s preferred term,” Katie blurted.
“When?” I demanded.
“Do I really have to—”
“When?”
“Fine, Ms. Fire Opal,” Katie snapped. “Remember when you came by my house that Sunday, the one when I couldn’t stop crying?”
“Yeah. You told me it was because you saw The Dark Night with your dad and had a bad nightmare.”
“I did… But in the dream, I was the person who blew up in the police station…every freakin’ time I closed my eyes, over and over. I think it was from the guilt. That’s the movie Ty took me to see.”
“Am I going to need a calculator to start tallying your lies?”
“Nope. That’s it. But, it would’ve only been one if he had taken me to see Mamma Mia! instead…like I wanted,” she huffed. “And for the record, my list is still shorter.”
“Mamma Mia!?” I laughed. “Ahhhh… Now I see your fascination.”
“Think whatever you want, Ms. Freud. It doesn’t change how horrible I still feel about it.”
“If you’re still feeling bad, maybe it’s not because of me,” I posed. It sure sounded like some possible pent-up regret to me. “And the count stands at three, that I know of. I seem to remember someone throwing in my face that they had NEVER lied to me right before they had me remove them from around my neck down in a earthy old cave.”
The bell starting fifth period rang. “You need to stop talking about this and get your butt to the gym,” Katie urged. “I’m sure the sight of Coach Hayes will wipe that smug grin right off your face. I can feel it too!”
She was right about the grin, but I wasn’t about to let up — not when I’d just stuck payback gold. I rose from my seat. “You’re right. I should be going. Kara’s probably going crazy waiting on me,” I teased.
“Yeah and that BFF crap is starting to chafe my crack. She can get her own friend. After all, she didn’t step aside for you.”
“She might now?” I contended.
“Ha!” Katie laughed. “Make a move on Mike and watch how fast those green-eyes ignite!”
“I think you would secretly like that,” I giggled.
“What do think I’m having you do for my birthday?” Katie replied doubtlessly.
I’d no sooner stepped into the girls’ locker room when Kara grabbed my arm and pulled me off to the side.
“Shi, I’m worried Mike is going to change his mind and find that girl!” Kara whined. “All that trouble for a strange girl he met in bar? Just for a hook-up?”
“I’m with your BFF on this one, Shi,” Katie interjected. “Why go to all that expense when he can get it from her for free?”
“You can’t let that happen!” Kara cried and gave one of the lockers a swift kick. “Why did I ever give her number back to him? I’m such an IDIOT!”
“To do the right thing?” I posed.
“Can you please fix this for me?” Kara begged.
“Gotta love a friendship with strings attached,” Katie remarked.
“It won’t come to that,” I assured my now best-frantic-friend.
“But what if he changes his mind? What if he does call her, AND SHE COMES?!?” Kara panicked.
“Kara, she won’t,” I insisted. “I don’t have to do a thing.”
“How can you be so sure?” Kara asked.
“Because…someone’s already taken care of that,” I vowed, pursing my lips and holding back an abrupt gag.
Kara didn’t question
my response. The light beaming in her eyes let me know her mind was totally at ease. “All right,” she agreed and held up her bent pinky, waiting for me to do the same.
I raised mine and appeased her insecurities with the sacred and girly pinky-swear, relieved that Katie didn’t have eyes to see it. Kara walked away confident and happy, grinning from ear to ear.
“Is she gone?” Katie huffed.
“Yeah,” I replied with light laugh.
“You’re not actually going to brainwash him out of calling that girl, are you?” Katie griped.
“I don’t have to… She’s dead.”
Katie was oddly quiet, until she shot back, “Even better for Mike. She can’t say no.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s just sick.”
“Easy! I’ve been without my ‘dead body’ for months. That entitles me to a morbid sense of humor.”
I popped open my gym locker. I can’t argue with that.
I raced home after school to rendezvous with Bea. Today’s lesson was being held in the cave under Shiloh Ridge. A meeting there was never a disappointment. Though my muscles were back in tip-top shape, the scored marks on my skin hadn’t healed up completely, and they still packed a grating, sandpaper-like sting rubbing against my clothes. One more good day, I thought as I slammed my car door shut, hoping this outing was more of a “field lecture” than a “hands-on training”. I ran the zipper of my jacket straight up to my neck and pulled the arms down to my wrists. I was good-to-go after a reassuring double-check of my clothes and made a mad dash across the bud-covered, blossoming ridge.
Beatrix was already down inside the earthy torch lit cavern, waiting patiently. She brandished her golden topaz blade with a showy wave. I couldn’t help but take pause after I’d spied the unnerving “extra sparkle” it was casting.
“I’ll be dipping my blade from here on out,” Beatrix stated as firmly as she stood. “I hope you understand the need.”
I nodded compliantly while my insides began mounting their cries for mercy.
Lovely, I thought as extended my wand and dedicated the flip of its blade to dear old karma — that seemed to always be looking out for me.
