by Mina Carter
She’s my first call when I get back to the frat house, even before I take a shower. The phone rings and rings, minutes pass before the answering machine picks up. I glance at the clock. It’s too late for her to still be in class, or at the library.
“Charlotte, it’s Henry. Um, call me when you get this.”
Disappointment fills me, driven by the overwhelming need to hear her voice. I debate forgoing a shower to head to her dorm. My pungent odor overrules my desire to lay eyes on her the first second I can. After a quick shower, dress, and a jog, I find myself at the front desk of her dorm, calling her room again. There is no answer.
I pace around the great room, stopping to sit and read discarded magazines from time to time. The words take no residence in my mind; it’s more of a show, a way to keep from drawing too many eyes. It doesn’t work in the end, since I’m there for hours waiting for her.
Her laugh echoes through the great room, tugging at my heart, and making me nervous. Other than myself, there is only one person who makes her laugh like that. How does their relationship just bounce back? I wonder as I walk over, only to freeze when I see that she is, in fact, not with the boy.
The male by her side gazes down into her eyes, a huge grin on his face. An arm is wrapped around her with a hand resting on her hip.
“Charlotte!” sounds loud, even to my own ears.
Her head snaps around, and she isn’t quick enough to hide the flirty smile she wore for him. “Henry?” she answers, her teeth drawing her bottom lip between them in a nervous fashion. She heads over to me, steps down onto the top step of the two between the lobby and the great room, and kisses me on the cheek, not on the lips. “Where have you been? I’ve been calling.”
“You have?” I ask because there weren’t any missed messages on my answering machine.
“You must be Henry,” the boy inserts himself into our conversation, shoving a hand between us in an offer to shake mine.
What gave it away? I think the retort I want to toss at him. Was it when she called me Henry? “And you are?” I respond, taking his hand in a firm grip.
His grip is just as strong, and he stares me down. I take notice of the heterochromia in his eyes, one blue and one green. “The name’s Spence.”
Spence! What kind of name is Spence?
He slips an arm back around my girlfriend. “Charlotte, we should get that book and get going. Don’t want to keep everyone waiting.”
Going? Waiting? What they hell is going on? And, if you don’t get your arm off my girlfriend, I swear, I’ll fry you where you stand!
Charlotte sees the confused fury swimming on my face and extricates herself from his embrace. “Sounds good, Spence. I’ll go grab the book. Henry, why don’t you accompany me?”
She doesn’t wait for my answer, but spins on her heel and heads towards the front desk to sign me in. I hold Spence’s gaze as I follow her up to the room she shares with Alyssa. She doesn’t say anything, not even when we reach her room.
The silence is suffocating! I can’t take it! “Charlotte,” I say as I grab her bicep and twirl her around. “I’m sorry–”
The way she yanks her arm out of my hold cuts me off. “You’re sorry! I haven’t seen or heard from you in almost thirty-six hours, Henry!” She doesn’t yell at me, but her pain laces her words. “Maybe that’s too much to expect, but considering you looked like hell yesterday morning and we haven’t gone more than a handful of hours without at least talking, I don’t think it’s too much!”
The glassy quality of sorrow fills her eyes, and I pull her into my chest. “My dear,” I whisper and nuzzle my face into her hair, breathing in the scent of her shampoo. “It isn’t too much to ask. Something… Well, something…” What am I going to say? I almost told her the truth! “I just have a lot on my mind and needed to sort some things out.”
Her arms slip around my waist and she holds on for dear life. “Like what, Henry? Talk to me.”
I want to. The urge to sit her down, to show and tell her who and what I truly am, is almost too powerful to control. I bite my tongue for fear of spilling my guts. She whispers my name again, pulling far enough away from me to look up into my eyes. Love sits deep in hers, demanding that I tell her, begging me to trust that she will continue to love me afterward. It’s just so hard to believe when she hasn’t come right out and said the words.
“Charlotte, I lo–”
The ringing phone cuts me off. It startles her and she jumps out of my arms.
“Hello?” she says into the receiver.
“Charlotte, we’re going to be late.” Even I can hear the annoyance in Spence’s tone. “What’s taking so long?”
“Sorry,” she mumbles and snatches the book off the foot of her bed. “I’m on my way down right now.” She brushes past me without another word until she realizes that I haven’t moved to follow her out the door. “Come on, I have a study group.”
“With who, my dear?” I question in the hallway. We’ve always studied together in the past.
“Spence and a few others. We were assigned a group project in Honors yesterday and we only have a few weeks before it’s due.”
That explains his sudden appearance out of nowhere, but not the intimate allowances she grants him. I catch her hand before she passes through the door from the dorm rooms to the lobby.
“Hey, I really am sorry, Charlotte. Let me take you out. We’ll go to Fritzel’s, jazz and dancing. What do you say?”
A small smile toys with the corners of her mouth and puts a tiny sparkle in each eye. “That sounds lovely, but it’ll have to be in celebration of completing this project. I’ll have no free time until then.”
A foreboding pit drops into my stomach. Something isn’t right, but I have no idea what.
Chapter 18
Did I wait too long to commit to you…
I watch them walk across the campus, his arm slung over her shoulders, while she shakes with light laughter. Why does she allow him to do that?
“Trouble in paradise?” Alyssa stands right behind me, infusing her words with a mocking malice.
“Go to hell,” I snap before spinning on my heel and heading back to the frat house. I don’t make it ten feet before she falls into step beside me.
“I’ll see you there.” She pauses, examining me out the corners of her eyes. “I’m surprised you abandoned her so easily.”
A double meaning drifts in the undercurrent of her comment. I pull up short in response and grab her arm, turning us to face each other. “Spit it out, Alyssa!”
She pulls free from my grasp and glares at me. “You’ve lost your touch,” she charges with a cool indifference. “She got into your head and controls your emotions, instead of the other way around. Jealousy and insecurity don’t suit you, Henry.”
Done with the mind games, I demand the information again.
With an exaggerated roll of her bored eyes, she answers, “Your disappearing act yesterday has her confused over your feelings. I had to listen to her prattle on about your interest, whether or not you care. It was sickening,” she huffs out an exaggerated breath before continuing, “and boring.” A disgusted expression curls her nose. “Why doesn’t he call? Am I boring him? Am I taking things too slow? Am I really ready for a relationship of this magnitude? I’m only eighteen.” The sound of Charlotte’s apprehensive and confused voice coming from Alyssa’s lips would have relieved me of my stomach contents, were there any to lose. “She’s an insecure whiner. What do all you boys see in her?”
“What do you mean all us boys?”
Another roll of the eyes emphasizes my ignorance. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice how Spence looked at her.”
“The Honors boy?” I confirm, not continuing until she nods. “Yeah, I saw it. What does it matter? She’s my girlfriend.”
“For how long?”
A stabbing pain pierces my heart at those three little words. “Explain?” is all I can push through my gritted teeth.
“He came onto the scene a few weeks ago, pursuing her in such a way that would put Wesley and you to shame. He’s a regular Don Juan, that one.”
That long? Charlotte didn’t say a thing! “I don’t understand.”
“I guess the reason love makes people do stupid things is because it actually makes them stupid.” The acid in her words burns deep into my soul.
“I am not stupid.”
“You sure? You aren’t the same exile you once were,” she whispers under her breath, insuring that only I can hear her. “You scare the shit out of her, Henry. She’s tied up in knots. Move faster? Move slower? Give her heart away or keep it? She’s spiraling and that guy is saying all the right things to make her feel safe.”
This news shocks me and my jaw drops. While the plan is to hurt her in the end, I have no intention of going through with it. I don’t know who I am anymore without her. “Why would she think she’s not safe with me?” drops like lead from my tongue.
“Don’t worry, I know you haven’t revealed yourself,” Alyssa responds, misunderstanding my fear. “She’s just terrified of what will happen if you break up with her. Now, you need to get her back from this Spence kid,” she continues, glazing right over that last part. “While dating him will keep her from Wesley, he’s not someone who will last and rip them apart. I need you to do that. You need to undo the damage of yesterday.”
I shake my head in confusion. “How did yesterday–”
Alyssa cuts me off. “Look, Henry,” she gives me a shove back towards campus. “Yesterday caused a problem. Did she tell me why? Yes, but I didn’t care enough to listen to the minute details of her insignificant troubles. You disappeared and didn’t confide in her. It hurt her, and now she’s concocted some petty rationale for why. She’s an inexperienced child, while you are a cultured man of history.” She gives me another shove in the back. “Now, go to the Honors College, find your girlfriend,” there’s ice in that last word, “and fix it.”
I stumble a few steps before looking over my shoulder. Alyssa is in the same spot, arms crossed over her chest and a death glare in her fiery green eyes.
With nothing left to argue over, I follow her command and make my way to the Honors College. A quick glance into the eyes of a few of the students milling around in the building tells me where to find her.
Charlotte sits at a round table, piled high with thick books, all on some aspect of Roman history, along with a handful of other children, including Spence. I rub a hand through my hair, trying to figure out how to address her, when he looks up and catches me.
“Er… Um… Henry, wasn’t it?”
Bastard’s acting like he doesn’t remember my name. It doesn’t slip my notice that his arm rests across the back of her chair. They are bent over a laptop, her typing away, him leaning in more than necessary.
Her head snaps up at the sound of my name. “Henry!” Shock widens her eyes while embarrassment colors her cheeks.
Damn it! Why did I listen to Alyssa?
“What are you doing here?”
“Can I have a second?” The plea drenches my words. The entire table looks between us now, all awaiting her answer, though none more so than I.
Her lips thin and she slowly stands. A snail would reach me faster than she does. We make our way outside and walk a short distance to a clearing with few students around.
“What are you doing here, Henry?” is emphasized by her discomfort as she crosses her arms over her chest and refuses to meet my gaze.
“Charlotte,” I whisper and take a step forward. She answers by retreating in kind. “My dear…”
Hard eyes find mine, and I tense under their scrutiny. “I have a research paper due in two weeks. Actually, it’s more like a small novel. Is there a reason you came here?”
“To offer you help,” I lie, and her narrowed brows and disbelieving shake of her head tell me she knows it.
She brushes past me, speed walking back into Honors College. “I don’t have time for this.”
Four quick strides put me in front of her, blocking her path. “I need to see you.”
“You could have seen me yesterday,” she snaps.
I reach out for her again, pulling her against my chest. Thankfully, she doesn’t fight me. “I’m a class A jerk, Charlotte. I should have talked to you. I just didn’t want to add to your stress between school and your mother.”
She relaxes and her arms slip around my waist. “I can squeeze you in tonight, after this study group. Maybe, we can spend some time on the beach.”
I lean back just enough to look down into her now upturned face. My lips graze over hers, giving her a gentle, yet possessive, kiss of true love.
“Get a room!” ends our kiss when Charlotte laughs. Contentment and love ooze from her half-closed eyes. The fading sun makes the rose in her cheeks glow.
“I’ll meet you on the beach, say,” she pauses to look at her watch, “in about two hours?”
“Perfect, my dear.”
Chapter 19
I never should have spied on you…
The storm of my emotions rages inside my body, tensing my muscles until they’re sore. I focus my hearing, listening for her voice.
“What was that about?” Derision colors Spence’s question when she returns to her group, which is spoken so low I can only assume he’s leaning into her ear.
“Just stuff,” Charlotte mumbles. I can imagine the shrugging of her shoulders and her downcast eyes. She’s used this avoidance tone and phrase with me many a time.
“What kind of stuff,” he presses, an enticing quality to his words.
“The kind of stuff I shouldn’t discuss with you.” The words are clipped by her frustration. “Can we please get back to our research?”
He utters a response just above a whisper and coated with intimate implications. “If I was your boyfriend, I would never up and disappear on you for thirty-six hours, especially with everything that is going on with your mother.”
The revelation stuns me. She told him about her mother! Did something happen yesterday? Charlotte talked to me about her, but even that was after a lot of prodding and probing from me. A myriad of emotions–rage, disappointment, confusion, fear–churn inside of me, cinching around my heart and stomach. This nobody is worming his way into her life! I agonize over what to do until I hear another voice say, “Going out for a smoke. I’ll be right back.”
The face of the speaker fills my mind, and I watch for him to come out of the building. He’s a short man, a few inches under Charlotte’s average height. He has sandy-blond colored hair that hangs limply from his head. I study and catalogue his gait and carriage as I tail him under a canopy of grand oaks.
I wait to make my move until he lights up. “Can I bum one of those off of you?” I ask, putting my hand out as though he’s already agreed.
“Sure,” he replies as he digs another cigarette out of his pocket and places it, with the lighter, in the palm of my upturned hand.
We smoke in silence for a few moments, the nicotine doing nothing to calm my nerves. I try to get a good hold on his gaze, but it’s impossible with his focus locked on the canopy of limbs above. The cigarettes are half-gone before I say, “How’s your group for this paper?”
His chin drops and his brow furrows. “You’re in Honors? Charlotte never implied that you were.”
My hopes that he wouldn’t recognize me, given that he only stole a quick glance over his shoulder when I crashed their study group, vanishes. Not that it matters, I own him now. The heat of my jealousy, fear, and anger flares, igniting the source of my true power. I hold his eyes captive and delve into his mind. The webs of his memories crisscross the nerve centers of his brain. Images of the past overlap those of the near present. I dive deeper, searching for all that I need. Faces and names swirl in a messy whirlpool. The details of his posture and the motivations for his thoughts collide before my eyes. I take it all in, pulling and pushing the lines that will seamlessly allow me to take over hi
s life here on campus. It’s rare that I commandeer the existence of someone real, but I need access to the inner circle of Honors, and this boy is my ticket.
With all the information collected, I drop the tenor of my tone and the words flow in a mesmerizing melody. “You’ve decided L.S.U. isn’t for you, Jaime. Tulane is more your style.” I need to remember to make a call in the morning, get him enrolled, and have everything charged to me. “You won’t come back to campus. You won’t contact any of the friends you’ve made here since you started. Don’t even pack up your things. Go home. Tell your family about the switch and new things will be waiting in your dorm room at Tulane. Oh, and I need your shirt.”
The pupils in his eyes shrink to pin points in his blank face, confirming that my message has taken hold in his mind. He pulls his t-shirt over his head and hands it to me. “Tulane is more my style,” his hollow voice repeats as I pull his wallet from his back pocket. He turns and walks a straight line across campus, oblivious to the world around him and nowhere near any dorms.
Is he going to walk to Tulane? “Make sure to get your car and head home first, Jaime!” I holler.
His feet stop moving, and he gives his head a shake. Eyes clearing of the power of my implant gaze over his shoulder at me. “Thanks for the advice, Henry,” he comments before turning and heading off towards a cluster of dormitories.
I take a deep breath in before blowing it out and step further into the shadows. Are you really going to do this? Spy on her? My body tingles as it changes, shrinking a good four inches as I pull my shirt off and put his on. The sandy colored hair tickles my scalp as it grows. I long to scratch along my chin as his goatee fills in. I’m comfortable at a height over six feet, and Henry’s persona left me claustrophobic at times. Jaime’s diminished height is even more restricting, with the walls of his skin feeling tight across my muscles, tissues, and bones.
I consider backing out of this again, when someone taps me on the shoulder.
