Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Expiration Date
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
EXPIRATION DATE
First edition: March 31st, 2019
Copyright © 2019 Kristin Coley
Written by Kristin Coley
Expiration Date
Hope Lancaster is a loner by choice. Born with a disturbingly morbid talent, she prefers to keep people at a distance.
Until he shows up.
His presence defies everything she’s ever known and sparks a curiosity she can’t ignore.
When death is inevitable, how far will you go to live?
Chapter One
The rain was relentless. Cold, wet droplets which soaked everything within minutes, and after three days of the nonstop drizzle it seemed like it was never going to go away. I kept my head tucked down in an effort to keep the rain off, but it was useless. My backpack dug into my shoulders as I finally made it inside the building and cursed the teachers who insisted on assigning ridiculous amounts of homework every night. It was like they couldn’t conceive that other teachers might do the same and I would spend my evenings trying to finish it all.
“Did you finish your trig homework? Please, please tell me you did, because I totally didn’t and I can’t afford to miss another homework assignment.” The words gushed forth as she stared at me with pleading eyes. It wasn’t the first time she’d begged for a favor like this and I knew it wouldn’t be the last. Looking at us, people might assume she was using me. Amber was pretty, popular and all around the opposite of me.
She was also a….friend.
Sort of.
She was as close as I allowed anyone in my life and it was a testament to her persistence that I even used the word friend, but I didn’t have a better adjective. I gave her a brief nod, not slowing as I made a beeline for my locker. If my internal clock was right, I had exactly 1 minute and 37 seconds to unload my books and make it to homeroom.
“Oh, thank God. I swear my mother is out for blood this year. Constantly on me about my homework and everything else. Like it isn’t enough that I have cheer practice every day after school?” Amber babbled next to me as I quickly swapped my books out. “She insists schoolwork is more important than cheerleading and I’ll thank her one day. Can you believe her?” Her look made it clear she expected me to agree with her, but I was afraid I was going to have to take her mother’s side on this one. Amber had a long life ahead of her and while looks tended to fade, brains and personality lasted.
“She’s right.” I slapped my trig homework in her hand. “Don’t lose it or I will kill you. Don’t copy them all because no one would believe you got them all right.”
She stood for a second in stunned silence, probably shocked at the amount of words I’d spewed at her and I ducked around her having less than 20 seconds to make it in the classroom before asshole Martin marked me tardy. He had it in for me and it didn’t help that I was perpetually late.
It wasn’t exactly my fault that I had to get my hungover father up every morning and out the door to work so we’d keep the roof over our heads. Or that my beat up car spent more time at the mechanic than it did driving me around. The bus system wasn’t ideal and biking only worked when the tires were aired up. Luckily, I only lived a few blocks from the school and could walk it, but on a morning like today it seemed like miles.
I slid through the door right as the bell rang, but his dirty look was quickly wiped away when he saw Amber behind me. I rolled my eyes as he smoothed his thinning hair, and plopped into my seat.
Score one for Amber.
“I heard there’s a transfer student,” she hissed next to me, covertly tucking my homework in her binder to copy. She knew Martin wouldn’t question her, but obviously she’d rather talk about some new student than copy my work. “A guy.” I glanced at her as she stressed guy, wondering why it mattered. She’d dated every guy in our grade and knowing her she’d date this one too. “Aren’t you the least bit curious?”
I gave her a flat stare and she sighed. It was a never ending thorn in her side that I refused to date and showed zero interest in guys. For a brief period, she’d decided I was lesbian and started pushing girls at me. It hadn’t taken her long to realize I had no interest in them either. There was no point in relationships for me. It was the same reason I kept our friendship to a minimum. My life would soon be over and I had no desire to leave behind grieving loved ones.
The door creaked open and Amber turned eagerly to catch her first glimpse of the new student. It was no surprise he was in our homeroom. Martin was an ass kisser extraordinaire and would accept any task assigned to him by the principal on the off chance it’d improve his standing.
I glanced back down at my notebook, unwilling to watch the new guy walk in. It seemed wrong somehow to have the first thing I learned about him be the time of his death.
I kept my eyes fixed down even as Amber poked me and whispered, “He’s hot!”
The shuffle of papers could be heard even over the low murmur of the other students talking amongst themselves as they checked out the new guy.
“Houston Drake, welcome to South High.”
Amber’s slight sigh made my mouth curve up, but it was instantly demolished with Martin’s next words.
“We assign guides for our new students, Hope will be yours.” My head jerked up involuntarily at his announcement and the sneer he didn’t bother to hide proved he relished my discomfort. It wasn’t like Amber wouldn’t have gladly accepted the task or Blake, the easygoing student council president. But no, he had to pick me, the one person in the room who would never volunteer for such a duty.
“Hope Lancaster will guide you to your classes and answer any questions you may have.” Martin was practically rubbing his hands together in glee, and out of the corner of my eye I could see the satisfied smile on Amber’s face. If she couldn’t be the new guy’s guide I was the second best thing.
I’d ignored him as long as possible, and no doubt longer than polite, when I finally shifted my gaze to him. I wish I could say the first thing I noticed was his sable brown hair, or his above average height. Even his broad shoulders or warm brown eyes would have been noticeable to most, but none of these struck me first or even second.
No, it was what I didn’t see that stunned me.
For the first time in my life, I saw someone who didn’t have an expiration date.
Chapter Two
Time was an obsession of mine. I wasn’t entirely sure why. Maybe because I’d spent my entire life knowing exactly how much time everyone around me had left on this Earth. Or maybe because I knew how much time I had. Maybe it was my own internal clock, the one that was never ever wrong, not even by a millisec
ond.
Any way I looked at it, it didn’t really matter. Time was absolute. It couldn’t be stretched or squeezed, made to linger, or go by in a flash as much as people liked to say it did. Time ticked by in exact intervals. And I had exactly 4 weeks, 2 days, 7 hours, 16 minutes and 49 seconds until I was going to die.
A fact that had ceased to bother me at some point.
Not some point.
A specific point.
The day my mother died and I realized just exactly what the dates I saw meant. That’s when it stopped bothering me to know when I was going to die.
But now, staring at this new guy, I was faced with a new reality. Because if my eyes were to be believed he wasn’t going to die.
And I needed to know why.
“Ms. Lancaster, are you going to spend the rest of homeroom staring at our new student?” His derisive question elicited a few chuckles around the room, but for the most part the other students shifted uncomfortably. No one liked being Martin’s target. I flushed at being caught staring at the new guy. I could only imagine the thoughts rushing through Amber’s head as she wiggled in her seat. The new guy, Houston, I reminded myself.
Houston Drake.
A name I wouldn’t soon forget.
He stood there awkwardly, sympathy in his eyes, as I blinked and glanced away. I kept my head up, unwilling to show any outward sign of my embarrassment besides my already heated cheeks, as he took his schedule from Martin and made his way to the only open seat.
The one directly in front of mine.
It seemed my humiliation might be complete, except for the fact that I was now required to spend my entire day with this new guy. A guy I now had an incredible fascination with.
He sat down with a heavy thud, his large stature effectively blocking my view of Martin, the first positive thing to happen so far today. I pointedly ignored Amber as she nodded her head towards Houston. I knew what she wanted, but it wasn’t happening. Not yet.
I needed to process this new development. This sudden curiosity. He was an anomaly. One I was suddenly desperate to understand. Why couldn’t I see his expiration date? Did it mean he would never die? Had I suddenly lost my ability?
It might seem strange that I never cared about my death, the how or why of it, but I’d always assumed it would be an accident or illness. And there had been a brief time after my own mother’s death that I’d wanted to know, wondered if I’d die like her. But as all the expiration dates of everyone around me registered, I’d stopped caring. I’d had to or it would have driven me insane.
It was one thing to see a date associated with someone, another thing entirely to realize it was the date they would die. Watching my own mother’s countdown had horrified me, even if at the time I hadn’t fully understood it.
I was startled when the bell rang, our 20 minute homeroom over and now I had to somehow converse with this suddenly important stranger.
“Hi! I’m Amber.” Her cheerful voice had me breathing a quick sigh of relief as I shoved my folder in my backpack. Houston took her offered hand and then looked surprised by the strength of her grip. Amber wasn’t a flyer, but one of the bases who held up the pyramid. She was deceptively strong.
“Houston,” he offered, gifting her with an even smile. I could see where Amber would call him hot. He was average looking guy with an oversized build. He didn’t have the same raw gangly look like some teenage guys, and he would only get better looking with age. He glanced down at me then and asked, “Hope, right?”
I nodded, wanting to correct his initial impression of me, but unable to even smile. I despised my name. Naming me Hope had to be the single most unfortunate choice in the history of names.
He cleared his throat as it became clear I wasn’t going to say anything else and once again, Amber came to my rescue.
“She’s shy,” she told him perkily and I winced. I wasn’t actually shy, but it would do as an excuse since I was suddenly struck dumb by this guy’s presence. A fact that was starting to irritate me.
I finally spoke up as the classroom cleared and new students started to drift in.
“Don’t forget my trig homework,” I barked, interrupting Amber’s babble. She rolled her eyes, but nodded and with a wiggle of her fingers to Houston headed out the door. Without thinking, I reached for the schedule crumpled in his hand, and when our fingers brushed I felt a jolt.
Static electricity, I tried to convince myself as I snatched my hand back from the unexpected spark and his own hand jerked. He eyed me carefully as he offered me the paper and I gingerly took it, avoiding even the slightest graze of our skin.
Glancing down at the schedule, I groaned. It seemed God was laughing at me today.
“Let’s go,” I said curtly, shrugging my heavy backpack on my shoulders as I fought my way against the flow of traffic coming into the room. He didn’t say anything as he followed behind me.
I wanted to speak, to make small talk, and attempt to get to know this guy who’d turned my world upside down with nothing more than his presence. But the words wouldn’t come as my mind continually raced with hypothesizes. I had no doubt I was cementing his initial impression of me as some backwards, bashful girl, and the thought actually pained me. Normally I could care less about others’ opinions – knowing exactly how long or short a life could be did that to a person. But he had become the exception.
I wanted him to like me. I needed him to like me. The reason why just wasn’t as clear yet.
I stopped outside our next class without realizing how closely he’d been following.
“Umph,” I grunted as he slammed into my back and I rocked forward. An arm snaked around me and kept me from falling face first in the hallway, but even the sudden movement didn’t disguise the crackle as his skin burned over my own. His arm disappeared as quickly as it had saved me as I heard him mutter, “Sorry,” above my head.
“My fault. I should have warned you,” I managed to say, steeling myself to look up at him again. Part of me thought, no knew, I’d see his expiration date this time. That it was nothing more than some random fluke that I hadn’t known it the first time I looked at him.
But, no.
I sighed as my eyes narrowed on him, searching. It was only when he shifted uncomfortably that I realized how hard I was staring at him. Again.
“This is our next class,” I said in an attempt to distract him from my awkward staring.
“Our?” He questioned, eyeing me and the door.
“Yeah,” I answered, thrusting his schedule back at him. “Lucky us, we have the exact same schedule.”
He nodded, accepting his now crumbled beyond belief schedule and cramming into his pocket. “Guess I don’t need this now.”
A smile flitted across my face before disappearing at his dry comment.
“No, just follow me.”
This class had assigned seats by last name so I was spared from having to sit next to him, but it didn’t stop me from sneaking peeks at him, each time preparing myself for seeing…knowing…the day he’d die.
Each time I was left unanswered.
The day followed the same pattern except for lunch. He had to go by the office and Amber caught me right outside the lunchroom doors.
“OMG, you totally have a crush on him!” She squealed and I winced. Somehow I knew that was where she was going to go with it. I offered her a shrug as I grabbed milk and headed to the salad bar. “Details!”
“I don’t have any,” I informed her, smiling slightly at her crestfallen expression. She rallied as I weaved between the tables to ‘my’ table. The one right by the window so I could stare outside.
“That’s okay. I can help you find out more info. Like what he likes to do, what sports he plays, because you know he plays sports with shoulders like that. What food he likes and movies.” She poked me encouragingly. “We’ll get all the details in no time and you have an in with him. He’ll be asking you out before the week is over.” She sat back with a self-satisfied expressi
on as I watched her in bemusement. I knew I’d never convince her I wasn’t crushing on the guy, not after that long spiel or the fact that she was sitting there eating lunch with me. A fact that had half the lunchroom staring. I sighed and stabbed my fork in a lettuce leaf as Amber scooped up a slice of pizza. Had I forgotten to mention that Amber could also eat anything she wanted and never gain an ounce?
“Hey, you mind?” The low voice wasn’t particularly distinctive but I’d memorized it anyway. I braced myself and glanced up. Warm brown eyes met mine but no date or countdown appeared. To my disappointment? Or relief?
I nodded and he swung his leg over the bench style seat to settle next to me. Amber was widening her eyes dramatically and flicking her gaze between us. I ignored her and dropped my own gaze to my half eaten salad. The weight of a cafeteria full of stares pressed in on me as most of the senior class wondered what alternate planet they’d woken up on. Amber and some hot new guy were sitting with me, Hope Lancaster, resident ghost student.
I snuck a sideways glance at Houston and didn’t miss his tension. He felt their stares as well and was equally uncomfortable. It was an interesting tidbit of information I filed away for future reference.
“Do you have my trig homework?” I asked Amber pointedly as her gaze continued to hop between us. She flinched and hurried to pull out her notebook and copy the answers. I shook my head as Houston chuckled next to me. The soft sound rippled down my spine and I was acutely aware of how close he was. It was like my skin was hyperaware of his skin and unconsciously I rubbed my arm trying to dispel the prickling sensation.
He shifted slightly away from me and I felt the loss, but it didn’t reduce my awareness of him.
“Here,” Amber said, thrusting the paper at me. “Thank you,” she added belatedly with a grateful smile. I tucked my homework back into my bag just as the bell rang. Amber hopped up and Houston attempted to shove the rest of his food in his mouth.
“No rush,” I informed him, shoving my own tray aside. “We have 5 minutes and 24 seconds to get to class.” I smiled at his surprised expression and tilted my head to the exit. “And class happens to be right there.”
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