by Stacey Jay
I didn’t know, but at the moment, average still sounded pretty darned wonderful.
CHAPTER 15
There was something wrong with me. Obviously. Something girly within me was broken, or I shouldn’t have been able to resist the charms of Aaron Christian Peterson. Female heads turned to stare at him as we drove down the street, and the nurse behind the desk at the clinic had a lust-induced seizure of some kind when he stepped in the door.
She was scurrying around fetching coffee minutes later, as though nothing gave her more pleasure than catering to the blond god’s every whim.
Her willingness to abandon her post in the name of caffeinating the hottie didn’t give me much time to plan, but the less time I had to think, the better. If I stood around dwelling on what I was about to do, I knew I would chicken out. Therefore, the second Aaron followed the nurse into the break room, I checked to make sure the mom with the sick toddler behind me was distracted; then I vaulted over the desk and dashed toward the rows of files at the back of the room.
We were early enough that there weren’t any other nurses or doctors milling about, but that wouldn’t be the case for long. I knew that they started scheduling appointments at eight fifteen. I had maybe ten minutes before doctors and patients started pouring in and Frisky the desk nurse returned to her post.
Luckily, Pleasant Mountain had a nice and organized filing system. Despite the confusing explosions of numbers on the side of each chart, the patient records were in good ol’ alphabetical order. I found the Berrys easily, and Mom and Dad’s folders soon after.
I had the main compartment of my backpack open and the files halfway inside when footsteps sounded to my right.
“What are you doing?”
Crap! Think fast, Berry!
“Excuse me? Did you hear me?” The voice was female, but I didn’t turn around to see if it was Nurse Frisky or someone else.
Instead, I moaned as if in pain, hunching over my backpack as I shoved the files in and tugged the zipper closed. “Oh . . . oh, no.”
“Are you okay?” she asked, the anger fading from her tone. “How did you get back here?”
“I was looking for the bathroom,” I groaned, amazed at how quickly the lie came into my weary brain. Maybe I’d have to go without sleep more often. It made me think faster on my feet. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
More groaning ensued and the nurse—not Frisky as it turned out, but a shorter, rounder woman wearing that perfume older ladies like that really did make my head explode and my stomach cramp—took my arm and guided me through a little door at the side of the room and back toward the bathroom in the lobby.
“Here you go. Come check in with me at the desk . . . when you’re done.” She slammed the door, not any more interested in watching a stranger vomit than the average person. You’d expect more from a nurse, but I wasn’t going to complain.
Sagging with relief, I kept up my moaning for a second or two before turning on the water. Hopefully that would cover the sound of my not retching. Now I just had to kill a few minutes, find Aaron, and sneak out the front door. The hard part was over, but I was still pretty freaked. I had stolen something. It was a first if you didn’t count the time I filled my pockets with cookies from a salad bar when I was seven.
My hands were shaking as I dampened a paper towel and pressed it to the back of my neck. Some thief I was. My heart raced and I’d broken out in a cold sweat. I faced down rabid Undead with less angst. But then, Settling was in my blood—criminal activity clearly was not.
Which was further evidenced when a soft knock at the door made me scream. “Megan? Are you okay?”
Thank God. It was only Aaron. “Um, yeah. I’m good, I’ll be out in a second.”
“Yeah, a second would be good. Or maybe less?”
Taking the not-so-subtle hint, I shut off the water, grabbed my backpack, and stuck my head out of the door. “We’re good to go? No one’s watching the front door?”
“The nurse who caught you just went into the break room.”
“How did you know she caught me?”
“The entire office knows. You sounded like you were dying of Ebola or something.” He grinned before casting a quick look over his shoulder at the empty hall. “You got the files?”
“Yeah, just barely.”
“You had a chance to look at them?”
“No, not yet, I just put them in my backpack for—”
“Good, let’s go.” He grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the exit. The mom with the sickly little boy was still the only one in the waiting room, and she didn’t spare us a second glance as we scurried to the door.
Aaron waited until we were nearly to his car before beginning to laugh. “God, I thought you were toast.”
“Me too.” I joined him in a slightly hysterical giggle.
“Quick thinking on the barf attack,” he said, opening the car door for me. I started to sit down, but Aaron leveraged his body in front of mine, stepping so close I scrambled back until my butt hit the door behind me. Nice guy or not, the dude really needed to work on the concept of personal space.
“Thanks, I—”
One hand gripped the door next to my shoulder, blocking any escape from the square foot of space he’d trapped me into. “But I hope your stomach recovers fast. I’d still like to take you to breakfast.”
I struggled to maintain eye contact as his face moved uncomfortably closer. He’d been really helpful. I didn’t want to let him know he borderline creeped me out. “We should probably get back to school.”
“We’ve got time. Come on, I’m starving.” His other hand landed possessively on my hip, touching me in a way no one but Ethan had ever done, sending shivers of apprehension up my spine that knotted at the base of my neck. This wasn’t feeling friendly or casual anymore, but what could I really do?
I couldn’t just shove him away after he’d gone out of his way to help me.
“But what if someone sees us skipping class?”
“No one will see us.” Closer and closer, until his strange not-Ethan smell invaded my nose. He smelled like too much cologne and some sort of spicy soap. I didn’t like his smell. Not the least little bit. “I know this little place downtown by the river. Tiny diner. Only businesspeople go there. We won’t see anyone we know.”
I sucked in a breath and fought the urge to engage in self-defense moves. “Please, Aaron. I just need to get back to school.”
He sighed. “Okay, fine, I’ll take you back to school. Just get in the car.”
“Um . . .” God, now I didn’t want to get in the car. Crazy or not, I suddenly didn’t believe that he intended to take me back to Carol. “Maybe I should just catch the bus and you can go grab yourself some breakfast.”
“That’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t think of it.” He smiled and stepped even closer.
Now every inch of us was in far-too-close-for-my-comfort contact. Some feminine instinct within me screamed at me to knee the bastard between the legs, but I fought to keep my cool.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said, grabbing my backpack and pulling it away, even when I made it clear I didn’t want to hand it over.
“Hey, listen—”
“Hurry, or we’re going to be late.” He yanked the backpack away from me and threw it into the backseat before grabbing me by the arm.
I was getting ready to tell him to get his paws off of me—screw worrying about over-reacting—when a hand clamped down on Aaron’s shoulder and tugged. “Hey, what the—”
“Get away from her.” It was the first time I’d seen Cliff in the glaring light of early morning, but he didn’t look any more dead than he had before.
In fact, he looked more alive than ever. His cheeks were flushed with anger and somewhere he’d found a heavy orange and brown sweatshirt and corduroy pants that fit him well enough to show the buff physique beneath his clothes. His greenish-brown eyes practically glowed with purpose behind his glasses, and a muscle jumped in his jaw.
He was a man on a mission, and if I’d been Aaron, I would have been freaked to be on the receiving end of a look like that even if Cliff was a full six inches shorter.
“Um, okay . . . and you are?” Aaron laughed uncomfortably, like Cliff was the crazy one and he hadn’t been going all high-pressure touchy-feely on me a few seconds ago. But thankfully, he moved away a bit. “I’m Aaron, Megan’s friend from school.”
“I don’t care who you are.” Cliff said, and glared at the hand Aaron held toward him, then reached out and took my hand, pulling me over to stand beside him. “Get out of here. Now.”
“What the—Megan, do you know this guy?” Aaron asked, casting a concerned look my way. “Do you really want me to leave?”
“Yeah, Cliff is my . . . cousin. He can give me a ride home.” I tried to smile, but I was starting to shake all over again. The contrast between how safe I felt with my hand in Cliff’s and how anxious I’d been a second ago was messing with my head.
“Okay.” He paused, his brow wrinkling as he gave Cliff another subtle once-over. “As long as you’re going to be okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Thanks for all your help,” I said, praying he would just leave already.
Aaron completely freaked me out. One second I was sure he was a creep, and the next he had me wondering if I was the one who was insane. Maybe I simply had issues. After all, I’d had these panicky moments with my own boyfriend, someone I loved and was definitely attracted to. Maybe I was the freak, and nothing weird had been going on at all. “All right. Well . . . take care.” Aaron smiled before walking around to the driver’s side. “And let me know how things go with your dad.”
“I will.” It was only after his car had disappeared that I realized I was clenching Cliff’s hand in a death grip. “Sorry, I didn’t realize—”
“Don’t worry about it. Are you okay?” He gripped my fingers when I tried to let go and brought his other hand to my face. It was another inappropriate touch from a guy who wasn’t my boyfriend, but Cliff’s touch didn’t make me afraid. It only made me want to touch him more. Need to touch him more.
“Not really.” Before I consciously decided to close the distance between us, I’d pulled Cliff into a hug. But once his arms were wrapped around me, I stopped thinking about whether holding him was smart. The wave of dizziness came, but underneath was the buzzing, wonderful feeling of being right where I was supposed to be. “Glad you were here.”
“I had a feeling you’d come back after last night, so I waited around. Sorry I ran off. I just knew things would go seriously awry if the cops found out I didn’t have a pulse.”
“It’s okay. You were right to run.” I’d been angry last night, but Cliff was one hundred percent right. He couldn’t let people know what he really was. What I’d learned this morning at the SA meeting made me even more sure of that.
He hugged me tighter. “What were you doing with that guy, B?”
“He was giving me a ride, and he knew some nurses here.” I sniffed and buried my nose in Cliff’s neck. He smelled so much better than Aaron, smoky like a campfire and other warm, safe things. “He was helping me.”
“It sure didn’t look like he was ‘helping.’ That dude’s got some seriously disturbing personal energy.” Cliff’s hands smoothed in comforting circles on my back. “Seeing him touch you made me want to cut his hands off.”
I pulled back to look Cliff in the face. “So it was creepy?”
“Are you crazy? Of course it was creepy.” His hand cupped my face again as he gave me that see-straight-through-you look. “You’ve got to trust yourself, trust your instincts.”
“But maybe he didn’t mean to make me uncomfortable. Maybe I wasn’t making it clear that I—”
“You were backing away from him like he had the plague.” Cliff glared at me and his fingers dug a little into my hair. But this time, the firm touch didn’t make me afraid. At least not afraid of Cliff. The fact that I could be thinking more-than-friendly thoughts about him again after vowing never to do so only a few hours ago was another matter entirely. “Why the heck did he think it was okay to keep pushing you? He knows you have a boyfriend, right?”
I didn’t say a word, just stared into Cliff’s face, now only a few inches away from mine. It didn’t take long for him to get the message. He flushed a deeper shade of pink and stepped away, shoving his hands into his pockets. If I needed any confirmation that Cliff’s feelings weren’t purely platonic, I had it.
Holy crap. How did this happen? How did I manage to get an Unsettled crushing on me? More importantly, how did I let a part of myself start crushing right back on him?
I was an awful girlfriend, an unprofessional Settler, and as soon as I got my life back on track, I had to get Cliff back in his grave. Maybe, once I’d figured out what was in those medical records, I—
“Oh no! The medical records. I left them in my backpack.”
“And your backpack is . . . ”
“In Aaron’s car,” I said, kicking at the ground. “He took it and threw it in the backseat.”
“Well then, let’s go get it.” Cliff grabbed my hand, but then thought better of it and let me go. Thankfully the awkward pause only lasted a second. “We can head up to your school and break into his car.”
“Or I could just ask him to let me in, Mr. Delinquent.”
“Fine,” he said, though it was clear he didn’t like the idea of me exchanging two words with Aaron. “You can ask him to let you in and I’ll hide out somewhere close to make sure he behaves himself. Then we can look over the records on the way downtown.”
“Downtown?” I asked, following him toward the bus stop.
“Yeah, we need to take a walk by the river. I’ve . . . realized a few things, and there’s something I want to show you.”
I sighed. “Cliff, I have to go to school.”
“You’re not at school now.”
“But I will be, and if I hurry I won’t miss more than first period, so maybe the principal won’t call my parents. Besides, I’ve told you, I can’t keep Settling you. There are rules about this type of thing, and I have other responsibilities to—”
“What responsibilities? You haven’t had another Unsettled since I showed up by your boyfriend’s car that night,” Cliff said, looking as frustrated as I felt.
He was right, though I hadn’t really thought about how weird that was until just now. “How do you know that?”
“I’ve been keeping an eye on you, Megan. I haven’t made any secret of that, so don’t look at me like I’m some kind of psycho stalker.”
“Oh, right. Wouldn’t want to do that.” I rolled my eyes, angry, though I couldn’t say at exactly who, or what. Cliff was frustrating, yes, but he wasn’t a bad guy, and he’d done nothing but help me. Still, I was just sick of my life being so crazy, sick of things I couldn’t explain, and Cliff was a big one of those things.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing.”
“No, it’s obviously not nothing.” He stopped a few feet away from the awning that covered the bus stop and turned to face me. “Listen, you can try to push me away, but I’m not going anywhere. I’m supposed to be here, and I’m supposed to help you. There’s a reason you haven’t had any other Unsettled and I’m it.”
“You are?”
“There’s something I know, something you need to know that—”
“What? What do you know? Just tell me!”
“I will,” he shouted back. “Just come with me and I—”
“I don’t have time for field trips. I need answers.”
“I’m giving you answers! What about those records? You never would have thought to take them without me.”
“And I still don’t know if whatever is in them will help me or not,” I said, gaining momentum. “All I know is that my life was going okay before you and those other weird zombies showed up. And now a girl is dead and I’m in the biggest trouble I’ve ever been in and nothing is—�
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“What? You think I have something to do—”
“Maybe. It’s an awful big coincidence, isn’t it? I mean, how do I know I can believe anything you say?” The hurt in his eyes made me cringe, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. “So just leave me alone. I don’t need—” My new cell buzzed in the pocket of my coat, making me jump. I fished it out and flipped it open. “Hello?”
“Megan, it’s Ethan, where are you?”
“I’m in Little Rock, but I’m on my way back to Carol, what’s up?” I asked nervously, turning my back on Cliff. I couldn’t look at him, not and hope to conceal my guilty conscience from Ethan. Even over the phone he would be able to tell something was up if I wasn’t careful.
“I think I’ve got a lead, and if we hurry we can check it out and get you back at school before lunch. Stay where you are and I’ll come pick you up.”
I gave him directions to the McDonald’s down the street from the Pleasant Mountain clinic and hung up, not bothering to ask what his lead might be. It had to be something good or he wouldn’t advocate skipping more class. The Enforcement selection board looked closely at school attendance records and conduct reports when they were interviewing new recruits. They didn’t want anyone who couldn’t handle real life infiltrating their ranks, and I knew Ethan wanted me in those ranks with him someday.
Speaking of handling real life, was lashing out at one of the few people trying to help me just because he was a freak of Undead nature and filled me with confusing feelings really “handling” anything?
I turned slowly around. “Listen, Cliff, I . . . ” My words faded away. Cliff was gone, which made me way sadder than I wanted to admit.
CHAPTER 16
“I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but—”
“That’s seriously messed up,” Ethan said as we swung through the drive-through at Micky D’s fifteen minutes later. I hated to admit that Aaron was right, but I did need more than donuts for breakfast. “So the Elders have always known what causes SRUs?”
