When I get downstairs, Mom is at the kitchen table having a glass of wine and reading some magazine. She glances up at me and her lips tighten almost imperceptibly.
We haven’t spoken much since our fight the other day.
“Going out with some friends?” she asks in a fake interested voice.
“Yeah.” I walk over to the table, suddenly feeling guilty about how I treated her.
“Probably gonna play some pool at Flat Tops. Actually, Aiden’s going on a date with this new girl. She’s from England.” I laugh. “Can you picture Aid on a blind date?”
“Mmmm….” She licks her finger and flips to a page with a headline that says
“Picking an Inspired Color for Your Master Bedroom.”
“Anyway,” I tell her. “I shouldn’t be home too late.”
“Okay then.” She keeps her eyes on the magazine and doesn’t look at me.
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“Is everything okay?”
She finally stops reading and looks up. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I don’t know. You seem kind of weird.”
“Everything’s fine, Campbell.” She takes another sip of wine.
I sigh and turn around. “Well, see you later.”
I head out to my car and then stop in front of Aiden’s, honking twice.
I catch a glimpse of Aid in his bedroom window. He peers out and for a fleeting second I could swear he presses his face right against the glass. Then a moment later the light goes off.
My phone buzzes. A text from Nat.
U coming soon?
I tell her we’ll be there in a few.
The passenger door flies open. Aiden gets in, and I get a powerful whiff of some kind of cologne. “Dude, what the hell did you do—dump a bottle of Old Spice over your head?”
He grins at me. “How’d you know I use Old Spice?”
“Lucky guess.” I pull out of the driveway and start to head to Nat’s house.
I glance at Aiden as I drive. He’s fidgety, almost hyper. Not all lethargic like he was the other day, so that’s good at least. But the smell of his cologne is almost making me gag. I roll down my window.
Also, it seems like maybe he didn’t do such a hot job of shaving. He’s got a few strands of hair sprouting from his chin and jaw. “Feeling better?” I ask him.
“Oh, definitely.”
“That’s good. How come you weren’t in school again today?”
He laughs. “Figured I might as well milk being sick for all it’s worth, seeing as I got a doctor’s note and all.” He drums his fingers on his legs. “So, you say this chick is really cute?”
“Hadley?” I think about her. She’s definitely cute. Kind of hot, actually. But thinking that makes me feel kind of bad, like I’m somehow cheating on Nat. Which is ridiculous. I have no interest in Hadley. And it’s not like I can’t have opinions about other girls, right?
“Well?” Aiden says.
“Yeah, she’s cute. She’s plenty for you to handle. And she’s from England. Do you know much about England?”
“Oh sure,” he says. “Crumpets, tea, Wimbledon, Parliament, all that stuff.”
“All you did was just randomly list a bunch of topics.”
“That’s all English stuff.”
“And you can like hold a conversation about crumpets I guess?”
“Oh, yeah. You’d be surprised what I can talk about. I’m good like that.”
As the wind blows through my hair, and Aiden continues to babble like a kid who just ate a pound of sugar, I can only hope that I’ve at least aired the car out a little.
Because this could turn into a total nightmare.
**
The car ride to Flat Top Johnny’s has been painful. Pretty much how I’d imagined—only worse.
Conversation has been spotty and awkward at best, and even Natalia and me are barely able to break the long silences in the car. She just grabs my hand and squeezes every so often, and we exchange horrified glances.
Hadley is sitting in the back seat with Aiden, or rather—she’s about as far away as she can get without actually climbing out the window. He seems oblivious to her disgust, and keeps trying to make weird jokes.
“Planning to go to Oxford and study law, Hadley?” he says.
“Why would I do that? Because it’s in England?” She rolls her eyes.
“You love England,” he replies. “I bet you eat tea and crumpets every morning.”
“Oh, of course I do.” She shakes her head.
“You coming to the football game tomorrow afternoon?” I ask Hadley in an effort to break the awkward conversation up a bit.
Nat gives me a look but I’m not sure why.
“I’d love to see a real American football game,” Hadley says.
“Well, consider it an official invitation then,” I say, and feel another strong squeeze of my hand from Natalia. This time she digs her nails into my hand.
“Hey,” I say.
She smiles at me. “Almost there!”
We park and walk into Flat Tops. The place isn’t too crowded for a Friday night, so we grab a high four top table near one of the pool tables.
A waitress comes over and takes our drink orders. We can’t do anything alcoholic obviously, so everyone just gets sodas.
I lean into Natalia and whisper in her ear. “Everything okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“You practically drew blood when you grabbed my hand a second ago.”
“Sorry. It wasn’t intentional.”
“All right, if you say so.”
We look at the menus and decide to order some appetizers. Buffalo wings, mozzarella sticks, and barbeque sliders.
“Wot if I speak in Brittish accent?” Aiden says. “Would that make you like me better, aye?”
“Wow, that’s really impressive,” Hadley says. “You sound like you were born and raised in Leeds.”
“Crikey!” he shouts.
“Umm, I think that’s an Australian thing,” Natalia says.
“Dude, chill,” I laugh.
I can see Hadley’s getting really fed up with him harping on the English stuff, but as usual Aiden’s clueless.
“Want to play a few games of pool while we wait for the food?” I ask.
“Sure,” Hadley says. “How about you and me versus Aiden and Nat?”
“Well…” I hesitate. Nat purses her lips but doesn’t answer.
Aiden claps his hands. “Okay Natalia, we can do this, baby!” He runs over and makes her give him a high five.
“Okay, now we need a special handshake,” Hadley tells me.
“You think?”
“Definitely.”
“Well, I’m not good at coming up with stuff like that.”
“I’ll figure something out.” She taps her chin with a manicured finger.
We head over to a table and grab some sticks. I rack the balls and Aiden gets ready to break.
A table away from us, I notice three guys starting a game too. One of them looks at me—no—stares at me for a long moment.
Kind of weirds me out. Like he knows me from somewhere but I’m pretty sure I’ve never met him before. Unless maybe he’s is from a rival team or something.
I ignore the weird dude and go back to our game.
Aiden pretty much does nothing on the break. I give Natalia a wink and she smiles at me with a look of relief.
I feel bad that we’re playing on opposite teams. This whole double-date thing was a bad idea, but I just wanted to avoid her meeting my mom. As bad as this is, it’s nothing compared to my mom having getting drunk at Natalia’s house.
I shiver just thinking about it.
“Okay, watch how a pro does it,” I say. Then I run off a quick string of balls.
Hadley waggles her hand like it’s hot. “Wow, you can play Campbell!”
“Eh, my dad has a pool table at his house in Maine. I put a lot of hours in over
the years.”
“I didn’t know that,” Natalia says.
“Yeah, summers and stuff.”
“Maybe a bunch of us will go down this summer and have a party,” Hadley says.
“What do you think?”
“Sure, why not.”
I don’t really mean it, just don’t want to seem rude.
We win the first game easily. It’s kind of sad really. When Hadley sinks the eight ball on an easy shot, I give her a quick high-five and she tries to turn it into some goofy handshake.
Natalia comes over and grabs me by the arm. “Food’s here.”
“I have to go to the ladies room,” Hadley announces. “Want to come, Nat?”
“No, I’m fine,” she says.
Hadley heads to the bathroom and Natalia pulls me off away from Aiden, who’s already shoving an entire slider into his mouth.
“You’re really starting to hurt my feelings,” she says.
“What? Why?”
“You keep flirting with her.”
“Hadley?”
She nods, her eyes hurt. “Do you like her?”
“No. Hell, no. Just—“
“Just what?”
“I don’t want to be rude or whatever.”
“Okay.” She bites her lip. “You’re being rude to me, though.”
“Hey. Hey. I’m sorry.”
I kiss her. Her lips are soft and warm.
She smiles at me. “Okay. Sorry if I freaked out.”
“I won’t even speak to her the rest of the night, okay?”
“No. Don’t do that. Besides, someone needs to keep her and Aiden from talking.
They might be the worst couple ever.”
“Yeah. It’s horrible.”
We laugh and go back to the table.
Hadley comes back from the bathroom and sits down. The four of us eat for awhile and then we decide to play another game of pool. Those three guys are still playing across from us, and I swear they keep glancing over at us. Or is it me?
I’m not sure, and maybe I’m just being paranoid.
This game is closer, since it’s boys versus girls. I try not to sink too many shots and Aiden screws up enough to keep it interesting.
Natalia gets a shot on the eight ball. As she leans over the table, Hadley makes a little noise of surprise. “Ohmigod, look at your beautiful butterfly!”
She points at the necklace as Natalia bends down for the shot.
“This?” Nat asks She seems surprised and almost unnerved. “It’s just costume jewelry.”
“I love it. So beautiful the way it catches the light.”
“Thanks.” She misses her shot badly and scratches.
Aiden groans. “This sucks.”
“I think I’m a tired,” Hadley yawns. “Might be time to go home.”
“Okay, I’ll settle up the check,” I say.
By the time I’m done paying, I look over and those guys are gone. At least, they’re not playing pool anymore.
We head outside to the parking lot and it’s even emptier now. “Huh, I thought this place would be packed tonight,” I say, throwing my arm across Nat’s shoulders.
She moves closer to me as a cold wind blows. “It got freezing out,” she shivers.
Aiden is staring at his feet and kicking pebbles. Hadley is falling behind as she checks her phone.
Suddenly Aiden looks up and sniffs the air. It’s funny because for a second he reminds me of a dog. Like, really, a dog. It’s funny because the look on his face somehow puts me on alert.
And then I see them coming.
The three guys from the pool room. And they’re heading for us.
No, for Nat.
“Get it,” the one guy who was staring at me all night, says, loud enough for me to hear.
“Cam!” Nat screams.
The three dudes are all older than me, and two of them are almost as big as me also. But I don’t give a shit. All I do know is they’re trying to hurt Natalia.
I run forward and smash one dude with my shoulder. He makes a low grunt and falls backward onto the pavement. The smallest one throws a punch and it gets me on the jaw, sending a burst of numbness over my face.
I fire a punch back at him and it gets him right on the nose. The guy screams and falls to one knee.
But the last guy But the last guy has gotten past me and is almost on top of Natalia now. Aiden stands in his way and the dude tosses him aside like a bag of leaves.
Aiden hits the pavement and then his head bounces off a car door.
Hadley and Natalia both scream.
“Out of the way, Hadley!” the guy shouts, and sweeps her aside, too.
She stumbles and almost falls.
Nat’s eyes are wide and she shrieks my name. I turn and grab the guy by the back of his shirt as he makes a grab for her necklace.
I throw him and he falls forward. He hits the ground and springs to his feet almost instantly. Looks like he might try and get by me again.
“Just fucking try it. Come on,” I say, meaning it. I want him to give me a reason to hurt him.
He seems to sense this and a grimace spreads over his face, and that turns into a grin as he backs away from us, collecting his slightly wounded buddies. “No problem.
We’ll get you next time. Us or someone else.”
“Bring it, asshole,” Aiden yells from the ground.
When they’re far enough away to be sure, I go to Natalia and she buries her face in my shirt crying.
I look up and see Hadley staring at us, her face a mask.
“How did they know your name?” I ask.
She doesn’t answer…..
Don’t miss Book Nine of The Witches of Santa Anna, coming soon…
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