Gravity, a young adult paranormal romance

by Abigail Boyd

  "Alyssa Chapman was last seen in a blue raincoat and galoshes outside of Three Fire Middle School on Monday," the reporter said.

  Claire paid full attention to every word. "That's your old middle school," she murmured.

  "I haven't forgotten, you know," I said.

  "It's just so sad," she said. "Her mother must be so frightened."

  Hugh picked up the remote and flicked off the TV.

  "Dinner," he said pointedly. "I'm starving."

  We drove to my father's favorite restaurant in town, The Blind Devil. It was always packed on the weekends, but it was Thursday, so it wasn't too full.

  "Since I only have this one dress," I said to Claire as Hugh pulled our car into a parking space, "can we finally go shopping?" I didn't bring up my need for fashionable gym attire.

  Claire seemed to be miles away, absentmindedly tugging on one of her earrings. "Of course." It was the usual "someday" way she always put it.

  "I'm just saying. I can't make new clothes out of notebook paper and tape."

  "Speaking of which, how is art class going?" Hugh asked me, locking eyes with me in the rearview mirror.

  "Just fine."

  "Don't get too excited, Ariel," he muttered.

  I smirked and looked down at my ruffled black skirt. I wondered if Theo had any cast-offs in her closet she would be willing to let me have, even though she was smaller than me. I probably wouldn't have the confidence to wear them, though.

  The Blind Devil took being in Hell as seriously as the next business owner. A full-sized red imp in a waiter's costume was positioned in the front window, holding up a tray. Red chili-pepper shaped lights were strung around the window frame, offering a warning that most of the dishes were spicy. All the waitresses wore little shiny red horns on their heads, and had pointed triangle tails.

  We were seated at a booth and the waitress handed out our menus, which had flames on the cover. As I skimmed down the list, I read off the Halloween-themed titles that were much like the offerings at Hawthorne. Broomstick Bruschetta sounded a little too heavy on the straw.

  "How is school going, other than just art?" Claire asked, flicking her napkin open and laying it daintily on her lap. "I haven't had much of a chance to ask you." She seemed to be back from outer space.

  "It's been alright," I said, eyes still glued to the menu, but mostly to avoid hers.

  "For one thing, you've mastered the skill of the vague answer," Hugh said sardonically behind his own menu.

  "I've heard great things about your new tutor from your father," Claire mentioned. The woman was not subtle.

  "Henry is very helpful," I said.

  "He hasn't tried to make a move, once," Hugh added. "That counts for a lot in a teenage boy."

  "Yes, I would say it does," I said, glaring at him.

  "I want to meet him the next time I get a chance," Claire said. "I'm glad it's working out for you. I hope to see those As coming home." I already had straight As in most of my other classes, but I knew it didn't matter.

  "How is your new friend with the boy's name?" Hugh asked.

  I had told him the basics about Theo, although he hadn't had a chance to meet her. I told them both about how talented she was, and how she wanted to visit Erasmus.

  "That's a good idea," Hugh agreed brightly. "If she's as good as you say I'll definitely take a look at her work."

  They both seemed happy that I wasn't as depressed anymore, and they didn't seem to be tiptoeing around conversation topics like usual.

  The waitress brought our dinners. I had ordered fettuccini alfredo, one of my favorite splurges. Claire hated it due to the high calories. She had basically lived on water and parsley since I was born, and made occasional hints for me to do the same.

  For a strange moment, it was almost as if the pendant on my necklace heated up, right when I had a forkful of food between my fingers. I reached up to my neck without thinking and spilled greasy cream sauce down the front of my dress.

  "Crap," I muttered, dipping my napkin in my water glass and trying to pat it dry. I excused myself to go clean it off in the bathroom. Claire almost stood up to go with me, but I gave her a "no" look.

  "I can handle going to the potty by myself, thank you," I said shortly. She sat back down.

  I walked by a table of popular-wannabe girls, the barnacles that clung to Lainey's fame. I was sort of surprised they would be slumming it at the RD, but maybe they spent all of their money on clothes.

  "Her purse is totally a Vuitton," a red-haired girl said.

  "It looks like a knock-off to me," said another girl, who was wearing huge black sunglasses in the restaurant.

  The redhead scolded her. "Why would she need to buy a knock off? Do you know how much her dad made last year? He owns seven businesses, you know."

  I tried not to pay attention to them, but it was hard as they were talking so loudly. I knew they were talking about Lainey. A cluster of small, sticky-faced children scrambling around in front of me as their parents tried to get out of their booth, so I was stuck.

  "Did you guys hear?" chimed in another girl with an ear-splittingly high, nasal voice. "That new guy Henry Rhodes asked Lainey out."

  Even though the family in front of me had finally cleared off, I stopped where I stood and listened. My heart paused for a moment, waiting with me.

  "That's old news," said the red-haired girl. "He asked her out yesterday. It's not like it's surprising."

  "It was only a matter of time," said the one wearing sunglasses. "They, like, belong together."

  All of a sudden I felt like the time Jenna tried to pierce my navel. Like I was going to pass out and throw up at the same time. I rushed to the restrooms, hearing the awful girls giggling behind me. I pushed open the door with a black cat in a witch's hat and went in.

  Thankfully, the bathroom was empty. I grasped the sides of the sink basin. The nauseated feeling passed, replaced by a wave of sadness that burned me to a crisp at the edges, as fragile as paper. What little hope I had been cultivating was gone. Why didn't he tell me? Wasn't this counter to everything he said the other night? Maybe it was all a game after all, just pulling a prank at my expense.

  I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror over the sink. My cheeks were flushed and I had the heavy feeling in my chest I now associated with sorrow.

  The pendant on my skin warmed up again. I wrapped my hand around it, encasing it in my palm. It definitely wasn't my imagination this time.

  Footsteps passed outside the door. My skin bristled and for a brief second I had the sense of dread I had felt the night in my room when I was sure there was an intruder. For the moment, my Henry drama was forgotten.

  I peeked out into the tubular, murky hall. A shadowy figure rounded the bend at the end of the hall and disappeared. I didn't see the man's face, but something about him struck me as suspicious. Against my better judgment, I found myself walking that way. Around the corner was a narrow hallway, the walls paneled in cherry wood. A door stood at the end. I didn't know what was compelling me to spy, but I felt as though I couldn't help it.

  I crept over to the door and pressed my right ear up against it.

  "Were you followed?" asked a gravelly whisper on the other side. My heart skipped a beat, thinking whoever these people were, they had already found me out.

  "No. I made sure."

  "Are you absolutely certain?"

  I'm not an idiot." I recognized Principal McPherson's voice through the door almost immediately, from the morning announcements he was so fond of giving.

  "That's still up for debate," said another man. It shocked me that anyone would talk to McPherson that way without getting a detention. "Do we have clearance?"

  "As much as I can manage," McPherson said. His voice was louder than the others, though intentionally or not I couldn't tell.

  Another of their voices sounded familiar to me, but I couldn't place it as it was so much quieter. "That's not good enough," the person barked. I couldn't tell i
f it was a man or a woman, as the voice was high and reedy. "It has to be absolutely clean. No tracks."

  They seemed to be talking in code, of a sort.

  "It will be," McPherson said. "No one will know. No one knew before, did they?"

  "Make sure that's the case. Go now."

  I panicked, turning around and tripping over my feet as I ran. I heard the door open behind me the second after I cleared the corner. I hoped that he hadn't seen me.

  I arrived back at my family's table out of breath. I had gotten lucky in not getting caught. I watched out of the corner of my eye as McPherson went out the back exit, a dark trenchcoat hunched up on his shoulders.

  "Are you okay?" Claire asked. "That took an awfully long time."

  "I'm fine," I said, trying to act like I hadn't lost my breath. "It was just a difficult stain to get out."

  I realized I hadn't even bothered with the spot, which stuck out like a snitch on the bodice of my dress.

  My pasta was cold and I could no longer taste the sauce. The rest of dinner was much more somber. I'm sure my parents wondered what had happened, but I no longer felt like talking.

  I avoided Henry at school the next day. Maybe the flighty girls had their gossip wrong. But they were not the only ones saying that about Lainey and Henry. Several times I caught people putting their names and dating together in the same sentence. And I saw them walking together at lunch. This was not so unusual, until she linked her arm in his, and he didn't pull away.

  My mouth went dry. That was all the confirmation I needed.

  "What is that about?" Theo asked, watching them as well.

  "I heard last night that they're" — I swallowed the hard lump that formed in my throat — "together."

  Theo's bottom lip disappeared under her teeth. Trying to think of something to say, perhaps. "Where did you hear that bit of information?"

  "I overheard some girls talking. I definitely think they had their facts checked, unfortunately."

  She plucked at some lint on her rainbow leggings. "Don't be too upset about it," she said gently. "He's not that special. There are plenty of boys in this school who are just as cute. And it could still be a mistake."

  "Thanks," I said, picking my food to pieces. But I didn't think anyone else like Henry really existed. He was the only one of his kind, and true to what she'd said, Lainey had snatched him up. I just wanted to stop thinking about it, hoping the burning sensation in the pit of my stomach would go away. "My parents and I went out to dinner last night, and I saw Principal McPherson."

  "You mean he eats like a normal person?" Theo asked.

  "Ha ha. Not just that. I followed him and he had a meeting of some kind with these other men. They were talking about something that I couldn't exactly understand. About clearances and being clean."

  A scheme had been hatching in the back of my mind all morning. It appeared now as clear as day, a predestined path I had no choice but to take.

  "I knew there was something wrong with him," Theo said, peeling the tomatoes off of her sandwich with her thin fingers. "He creeps me out. No one should get that excited about lunch menus."

  "You like spying on people," I observed. "You said you do it all the time."

  "Yes. I had a spy kit as a kid, magnifying glass and all. Until my mom caught me peeping into other people's windows. What are you getting at?"

  "I want to make use of your talents, let's say." I felt like I should be stroking my chin as I revealed my nefarious scheme.

  "How so?" She looked very suspicious, raising one eyebrow at me.

  "What if we were to follow McPherson's moves, and see what he's up to," I suggested. I knew I sounded like a paranoid nut. "Then we could figure out what was going on. For all we know, it's just a role playing game or something, but it could be more sinister."

  She thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Alright, I'm game. If McPherson's part of a drug smuggling cartel, we could get on the news. So what, we just track him between classes?"

  That's exactly what we did. Between History and English, I found him and stayed several yards behind. I navigated around people getting to class, trying not to take my eyes off of the back of his balding head. He didn't seem to do anything unusual, stopping once to chat with some boys wearing varsity jackets.

  Then, before Art class, I watched him go towards the back of the school. I followed him around the corner.

  "Hello, Ms. Donovan," McPherson said, waiting for me on the other side.

  I let out a little shriek. His smiled his lemon-toothed smile, hands clasped in front of him. I wondered if he had been on to me the whole time, and realized with a start that he probably had. Perhaps he wasn't as stupid as I had assumed.

  "Do you need help with anything?" he asked in a syrupy voice. I knew he had me made, and so did he. He never spoke that nicely to me.

  "No," I said, shaking my head slowly back and forth, my eyes widening as I stepped back.

  "Then how about getting to class," he suggested in the same sickeningly sweet tone.

  I turned and raced to Ms. Vore's room, flying all the way into the seat next to Theo.

  "What just happened?" Theo asked, noting my agitated state. I tried to smooth down my frizzy hair, wrapping it into a ponytail and securing it behind my head to try to reduce the heat on my neck.

  "McPherson caught me following him," I said, breathing hard. "I think he might have been aware of it all along. Did you see anything"

  "Not really," she said, opening her sketchbook. "I even ran an errand during English for Mr. Boone, but McPherson was just in his office, working on paperwork. The only thing I saw was him telling Madison how "spiffy" her skirt looks, but that's hardly news. Gross, but still, not news."

  "Maybe he just keeps a really low profile during school," I suggested. "I wanted to play girl detective; maybe I just didn't get the method right."

  "We were a little obvious," Theo relented. "Do you think you're going to get in trouble?"

  "I hope not," I said, the possibility not even occurring to me before. "What could he really accuse me of, though?"

  "I'm sure you'll be fine," she said. "Forget I said anything. If he was going to punish you he would have done it already."

  Between the McPherson strangeness and the drama with Henry, I was achingly glad when the bell rang and the weekend arrived.

  Chapter 11

  On Tuesday of the next week, Henry caught up to me in between classes. I hadn't spoken to him since I heard about him asking Lainey out. I went back and forth from feeling like an idiot to feeling betrayed. Either I was naïve or I had been tricked. Or both.

  "Why have you been avoiding me?" he asked. I didn't want to bring it up. I was still too hurt, and too vulnerable. I kept my eyes forward, hoping he would get the hint.

  "I've been busy," I said curtly.

  "Are we still on for studying tonight?" he asked. Lockers slammed around us, people chattering loudly, so he'd turned up the volume. "I made sure to clear my empty schedule for you."

  I had completely forgotten we had agreed to continue the tutoring sessions.

  "I don't know," I said, but then a thought occurred to me. I had my first big Geometry test coming up on Friday, and I could not flunk. "I mean, if Lainey says it's alright." I muttered.

  "If Lainey says..." he repeated, frowning. "What does Lainey have to do with it?"

  School was not the place to talk about it. I squeezed my eyes shut, pushing my feelings deep down.

  "You know what? I need to be going," I said. "Just meet up with me after class."

  The last thing I needed was to get upset and then have to sit in class and stew in it. I started walking as quickly as my legs would carry me, away from him. My daily sprint to school had given me more stamina.

  After school, Henry followed me outside. This time it was much more awkward, with neither of us speaking. For once, he couldn't think of a thing to say. He always seemed like such a chatterbox in school. He didn't seem to be trying to get me to
talk anymore, either. Finally, when we turned onto my street, he spoke.

  "You're being distant with me again. Did I do something wrong?"

  I looked at him, unsure of what to say. He seemed wrought with confusion, as though he had no idea why I would want to avoid him. I bent over and picked up a dry red leaf on the sidewalk, twirling it by the stem.

  "If I did, I'll apologize a hundred times until you talk to me. I'm sorry," he said, walking around so he blocked my path and I had to look at him. I tried to concentrate on the space between his eyebrows. Looking into his eyes right now seemed too intense. If I did that, he would know exactly how I felt about him. I didn't even know that myself yet.

  "You didn't do anything to me," I said. I held my breath for a moment. "I just wish you would have told me you were dating Lainey." The words sounded all wrong, like I was attempting a foreign tongue.

  His reaction surprised me. He stared at me like I had grown another head, and then burst out laughing. Doubling over at the waist and clutching his ribs, he couldn't stop himself. I had no idea what he found so uproarious. Irritation filled me.

  When he could finally breathe again, he stood up. His face was flushed, the corners of his full mouth turned up. Like he'd just been running around the block, or having sex. I blushed and looked away, hating my brain for its automatic thoughts. Why did he have to be so attractive?

  "What?" he asked. Where did you hear that Lainey and I were dating? Is that why you've been avoiding me like the plague for days?"

  "A bunch of people have been talking about it in school," I said defensively, holding on to my elbows with both hands for support. "It's common knowledge."

  "It's not common knowledge to me," he protested. He bowed his head, getting me to look straight into his eyes. "I am not dating Lainey," he said. "I don't know if she passed the rumor on or what, but it's not happening. She is...vapid. And phony." He stopped, appraising me for a moment.

  "Why didn't you just ask me?" he asked softly.

  "I don't know," I offered. My eyes kept shifting all over his face, not being able to take him in properly. "It just seemed too good to be true that you would actually want to be...my friend."