by L.A. Jones
Chapter Sixteen
“Well, you're certainly the talk of the town,” Tristan remarked as he, Roy, Roy's brothers, and Aradia sat together at the diner. It had started as just Roy and his brothers. When Aradia came in they eagerly invited her over. Tristan invited himself.
Roy's brothers were both seventeen and juniors at Salem High School. Al, short for Alejandro, was Roy's eldest brother, eldest by twelve minutes. D, for Diego, was Al's fraternal twin.
Like Roy, Al had tanned skin and a wide smile which he flashed freely. Where Roy’s grin was goofy, almost doofy, Al’s was perfectly charming, to which many of Salem High’s female students would attest. He was muscular to the point of being bulky, thanks to a minimum of an hour a day, six days a week at the school gym. He was sexy and he knew it. His penetrating brown eyes were so dark as to appear almost black. In violation of the SHS student codebook, he sported a black goatee. Every couple months he’d serve detention for it.
D bore a strong resemblance to Al. The biggest difference physically was that by comparison, D was positively scrawny. On his own, he looked like a normal teenage guy. Standing next to his brother, though, it was hard to compete on physique. Beyond that, D kept his hair short, had somewhat darker skin, and had a little isosceles triangle of three moles on his right cheekbone.
Even if they’d looked completely identical, though, there would have been no mistaking the two. Their entire demeanors were at opposite ends of the spectrum. Where Al was outgoing and flirtatious, D was withdrawn and quiet. D’s idea of a good time on a Saturday night was sitting by himself and practicing bass guitar.
Where their interests overlapped, they did everything together. When D went out it was with Al, and when Al stayed in he hung with D.
Neither of them had better than a rocky relationship with Roy. Al teased Roy relentlessly while D would quietly look on. Their father couldn’t stand seeing his sons fight, though, so he had a rule. “When you’re at the diner,” he’d say whenever they started acting up, “you get along or you get out.”
He meant it, too. Once they’d made the mistake of getting into a loud bicker match. Their dad physically expelled them from the SilverMoon in front of many of their friends. The experience didn’t help any of their reputations. After that, Al, D, and Roy got along at the diner.
“And how’s that, Tristan,” Aradia asked lackadaisically as she twirled her straw.
"Before you were just the new girl with the weird smell,” he began.
Immediately Aradia was interested, mostly because Tristan seemed like a total freak talking about how she smelled.
“From what my sources tell me, at least. Fae are too civilized to go around sniffing people.”
Al and Roy growled.
Tristan continued. “Now you're the new girl that knows about us, can take apart a wolf form werewolf, and yet no one can determine what type of hidden you are. Yes, everyone has definitely been talking about you.”
Aradia smacked Roy on his arm, hard.
“Roy!” she whisper-yelled. “So the first thing you did was blab about me to the school?”
“It wasn’t me!” Roy protested while Tristan laughed.
Turning to the faerie, he added, “And I didn’t get taken apart!”
“Officer Schaefer says otherwise,” Tristan gloated gleefully. “I am told she actually dragged you into jail by your hind legs?”
Al said, “You know, Tristan, no matter how much you say, nobody values your opinion.”
Tristan scowled.
Al added to his insult, saying, “Wait a minute, that's not true.”
Tristan scowled again when Al went on to say, "I bet the rats in the dumpster out back value your opinion, at least a little."
Sensing an opportunity, Aradia grinned, and said, "Of course the rats value his opinion, Al. He is after all one of them."
Tristan stood up, and without saying a word, he straightened his distressed-look Armani Exchange blazer, cast a dirty look at all four of them, and turned to go.
Determined to have the last laugh, though, before leaving he said, "I think you have the back alley confused with your diner’s kitchen, Al. It's pretty obvious which place would be more infested."
Al shot up from his seat and stalked around the table menacingly. With surprising speed, D was out of his chair with his hand on his brother’s chest. He exerted very little pressure. He couldn’t hold Al back physically if he tried. That’s not what his gesture was about.
Al got the message. “You better hope I don’t see you later,” Al warned. “All the fairy dust in the world won’t help you.”
“Tristan,” Aradia pleaded, “just go, will you?”
His eyes narrowed on Aradia. He seemed about to speak, but then he surprised her. He merely nodded his head, once, sharply, and left.
Roy's face was sullen as he stared at Al and D. He was the one person at the table who hadn’t participated in kicking out Tristan. Does he feel guilty? Aradia wondered.
Then realization struck her. He hadn’t gotten involved because he’d had to have taken his arm off her shoulders. She didn’t even have to read his mind to see it.
He had been acting differently toward her since they’d met in the woods two nights earlier. He took every opportunity to hold her hand and generally wouldn’t take his eyes off her. In short, he was making her very uncomfortable, but she didn’t know what to do about it.
Roy soon noticed Aradia looking at him and turned his head toward hers. He smiled at her, doing his best Al impersonation. She smiled back innocently. Emboldened by the moment, Roy brought his face closer to hers. Aradia panicked and froze. His face came closer still. The air grew hot and heavy, crushing her. What do I do? She had only moments to decide.
Aradia found herself saved by the brothers. When his face was mere inches away, Roy noticed something in his peripheral vision and suddenly turned from her. Al and D were still there, of course, and they were watching the two of them. Al had a cocky grin on his face and was looking completely amused. Aradia’s relief turned back to panic when she realized that they must have seen her distress. She knew Al would mock Roy for that later.
"Don't mind us," Al said holding up his hands in a faux peaceful gesture.
Roy buried his face in his right hand. Aradia shrugged his left one off her shoulders. She didn’t mean to cause him further embarrassment, but she was irritated with his behavior.
"C'mon D," said Al, clapping his twin on the shoulder. "Let's leave the two little love birds alone and go find ourselves some company."
"Ok," D said cheerfully.
"We should follow them," Roy muttered to their retreating backs. “It’d be fun to watch them on the prowl.”
"Why?" Aradia asked him.
"Well, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, Al is the ladies’ man. It’s funny seeing them out together. D wouldn’t recognize an interested girl if she walked right up and flashed him."
Aradia chuckled and said, “Actually, I do think he would recognize a woman if she did that."
"Don't be so sure," Roy warned.
They both burst out laughing.
Roy again put up his best attempt at a seductive smile. "So...now that my brothers are gone, we're all alone. You know what that means, right?"
"There’s actually a lot of people in the diner," Aradia replied, still chuckling, but hoping to dissuade him subtly from his obvious course of action.
"Really?" said Roy softly, as he reached out to cup her chin. “I hadn’t noticed at all."
"Uh...Roy, what are you doing?" Aradia asked him.
His only response was to lick his lips and bring his face forward again. Aradia considered her options. If she pushed Roy away, he would definitely be hurt. If she went along with what he obviously wanted to do, she would give him a false impression.
Yet, as Roy got closer to her and she started to feel the heat from his face and even his lips, Aradia began to wonder if what he wanted would really be wrong at all. Sh
e leaned a fraction of an inch toward him.
The bell hanging from the entry door jangled as someone entered. Aradia could feel the atmosphere change, and she jerked her face toward the sound. Her eyes locked with Dax Dayton’s.
He stopped as soon as he noticed Aradia sitting with Roy and Roy's arm around her shoulders. Dax stared at Aradia who met his gaze with fierceness and intensity equal to his. Everything just seemed to freeze, leaving Dax and Aradia entranced, even as Roy’s arm rested on her shoulders.
After what seemed forever, but was only a few seconds, Dax smiled with charming cockiness and winked before turning to the counter. Aradia gulped and felt blood rush to her face. She imagined that with her red hair and flushed face her head must look like a giant strawberry.
After that, Dax went through his regular routine. He purchased his daily Coca-Cola bottle and left the diner without further interaction.
By then, Roy had finally removed his arm and was sulking. Aradia didn’t notice any of it until after Dax was gone. She turned back to Roy and saw the look on his face.
"What's up, Roy?" she asked.
Roy said nothing and did not make eye contact.
She playfully punched his arm. "C'mon, what’s with the sad face?"
Roy grunted.
"What, you want a belly rub?" said Aradia laughing a bit.
She had meant it as a joke, but Roy did not seem to see the humor.
He looked at her with narrowed eyes and said, "I’m not your puppy, Rai, and I’m certainly not a Twilight fan!"
"What?" Aradia asked, sounding completely confused.
“You know what I mean!” he snapped.
“No, I really don’t,” she stumbled, confused. “I don’t read those kinds of books. Um…”
"Talking to you is either the easiest thing in the world, Aradia, or completely impossible.”
“Just tell me what you mean,” she pleaded.
“I mean I don’t understand the idea of a beautiful, perfectly decent girl falling for a vampire!"
"You think I’m beautiful?" Aradia asked playfully.
"Aradia!" cried Roy.
"Sorry!" Aradia exclaimed. The look Roy gave her was so serious it rivaled even her father’s.
Her own face grew stony. "Roy, I really am sorry that you’re upset, but I don’t know what your deal is."
Roy opened his mouth to argue but Aradia cut him off. "Look, you said you don’t understand? Allow me to explain some things. We’ve been through some stuff the last couple days, but neither of us has talked about there being anything between us other than friendship. Until we do, it’s none of your damn business who I date, or don’t date, or find attractive.”
“So you do find him attractive,” Roy muttered.
“Yeah, I do!” she replied emphatically. “I really do. Listen Roy, I do what I want, when I want, anytime, and anywhere I care. You can’t do a damn thing about it.”
Aradia stood up, shoved her books into her backpack, slammed her hand on the table, and concluded, “So there!” She stomped out of the diner.
