Dark Veil

by S. L. Naeole

  We drove in Dad’s truck to town, parking near one of the inns and then making the rest of the trip on foot. Dad had been more than happy to see us off, but Mom gave me that look…no one who saw it missed its meaning. Well…no one but Dad, of course. It was the look that was half-lidded and dark, a look that made everything on a once soft face turn hard and mean. It was the look that told me to behave myself or else my ass would be branded with the heel of my mother’s jump boot.

  Of course, that look had been on Mom’s face since this morning. The sofa had been made up for Josh to sleep on, but the minute we’d come inside last night, Mom was there, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes filled with disapproval. It was one thing to talk about Josh – she never let it show just how much she hated what had happened between Josh and me – but with him here, with him right in front of her, everything that I felt as a scared fifteen-year-old girl, she felt ten times more deeply as a mom.

  And like a mama cat protecting her kitten, she hissed at Josh. At least, that’s what it sounded like to me. To him, it was just a warning. “Don’t even think about getting up off of that sofa tonight, Josh. If you’ve gotta hit the head, you grow another bladder until morning. I’ll be listening. If I hear even a squeak of those springs, I’ll be on you like flies on a dead dog’s ass. Do you hear me, boy?”

  Josh had swallowed, the sound unnaturally loud in the quiet house, and then nodded. He went into the bathroom to change, and then laid down on the sofa, his eyes staring straight up at the ceiling. I went in after him, showering off the grease and shampooing it out of my hair.

  When I went to bed, Mom stood there, watching me, waiting for the door to close behind me. Josh told me later that she stood there for an hour before finally heading to her room. Dad was clueless.

  The tourists were out in full force when Josh and I made it to town. Josh blended in, but I realized that I didn’t. I didn’t and it felt strange…and unexpected.

  “Fallon!”

  I turned my head as behind me, Audrey wheeled herself toward us. She was smiling, her teeth bright behind pink lips, and I felt a sense of relief come to me as I smiled back. But then the smile on her face faded as she saw Josh beside me. Her arms stilled and her wheels came to a stop.

  “And Fallon’s friend! You must be Josh…right?”

  Josh looked at me and then at Audrey. A smile broke on his face that made all of the glitter in Audrey’s eyes just explode. “You’re Audrey.”

  Her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink, and she stuttered, her mouth moving up and then across, her smile growing wider and bigger with each passing second. I knew that look. It was the look that existed only when you heard your name said in a voice that made everything inside of you turn to jelly. It was the kind of look you didn’t know existed until it happened.

  I never expected it to happen because of Josh. And I definitely never expected it to happen to Audrey because of Josh.

  But there it was, and Josh’s face didn’t lie: he was just as pleased and surprised.

  “Fallon didn’t tell me that you were coming for a visit,” Audrey managed to squeak out as she stared at him, completely mesmerized.

  “That’s because she didn’t know. It was a surprise.”

  “That’s so…romantic,” was Audrey’s breathy reply. One that made me burst into a fit of laughter.

  “Oh, please. Romantic? I was covered in grease and smelled like the bad end of an oil change.”

  Josh ignored me and grinned. “It was romantic, wasn’t it? But see, Fallon’s never been one for that. I’m completely wasted on her.”

  This time Audrey laughed. “That’s too bad. The only thing romantic that ever happens here comes with a ticket.”

  Puzzled, Josh looked at me and then at Audrey. “Huh?”

  She lifted her arm and pointed down the road, her finger directed toward the movie theater. “Dark Veil; you gotta buy a ticket to see it.”

  “I thought that was a murder-mystery,” I interrupted, but I might have been talking to myself the way they ignored me.

  “Have you seen it?” Josh asked her.

  “Yes, but I don’t mind seeing it again,” she answered quickly.

  “Well then, how about you and I go see the show after lunch?”

  “Okay. I can totally get you a discounted price. I know the girl at the ticket counter.”

  I couldn’t help it. I blinked and felt my mouth grow slack. Right in front of my eyes, in less time than it takes most people to brush their teeth, Josh had asked Audrey out on a date. They knew each other for all of a minute and they had practically forgotten that I was there, standing beside them looking like a human fly trap.

  “Where are you guys going now?” Audrey asked, her eyes locked onto Josh’s.

  “Fallon’s taking me around the island for a tour before I have to leave tonight.”

  “You’re leaving? But I thought you just got here!” The disappointment in Audrey’s voice was like hearing glass shattering on the ground.

  “I have to get back. I’ve got training starting in two days. It took a lot just to get here.”

  They talked for a few more minutes and, as I gaped, I watched them exchange phone numbers and addresses. “I don’t have a computer so I can’t email you, but I still know how to use a pen and paper,” Audrey said wistfully.

  “Hey, I’ll take what I can get. We still have our movie date after lunch…right?” Josh asked, his fingers clutching onto the little scrap of paper he had in his hand as if it were trying to escape.

  “Yes. You can find me over at the Wisteria. Fallon knows where it is.”

  As Audrey wheeled away, I realized that I hadn’t actually apologized to her for what happened yesterday. And then, of course, I grinned. It gave me another reason to see her after her “date” with Josh.

  “She’s nice,” Josh said as we entered a small shop with t-shirts and other items that had the island’s name printed all over them.

  “Uh, yeah…that’s exactly what your face said when you saw her. ‘Nice’. Give me a break, Josh; you’ve got drool hanging off your chin.” I touched his face and grimaced.

  Josh laughed as he grabbed my hand and flung it away before grabbing at his chin. “Shut-up; I do not.”

  “Then why did you wipe it away?” I said, my laughter loud and filling the almost empty store.

  “It’s itchy; I need to shave,” he said gruffly before grinning. “Hey, what do you think? Does this color make me look easy?”

  He held up a hot pink shirt against his chest and I nodded. “Yes.”

  He nodded, and picked up another shirt in white, flicking my ear before heading to the counter with the two shirts. I recognized the girl at the register from the party. She was the one with the silvery hair.

  “Sparky, right?” I said to her as she rung up Josh’s shirts.

  She looked at me and smiled the smile of someone being polite because she was being paid to. Everything in her face said she would rather be picking splinters out of her ass than talk to me. Josh saw it, recognized it just as quickly as I did, and grabbed the shirts off the counter. He turned his back to us and walked to the shelf where he’d picked up the shirts, putting them back carefully before returning.

  “Were they the wrong size; the wrong color?” Sparky asked, looking both confused and irritated.

  “Wrong attitude,” he said stiffly before grabbing my hand and storming out of the store, pulling me until we were well out of Sparky’s hearing. “What the hell was that?”

  “What the hell was what?”

  He pointed behind us, his face glowing red with rage. “That! That…prematurely-gray cow back there with the funk behind her eyes so bad she curled my ass hair?”

  It was impossible to keep a straight face and I wasn’t sure I wanted to try. “I told you. I haven’t exactly been making friends here.”

  “Yeah, but she looks like you just took her boyfriend away. Or her cheeseburger. She definitely looks like she’s missed a few c
alories.”

  “They don’t have those here,” I said, my grin finally dying.

  “What, calories?”

  It came out almost like a whimper. “No. Cheeseburgers.”

  “That’s against the law, isn’t it?” Josh asked, his face crunching up in disgust at the idea of a cheeseburger-less town.

  “I wish! There’s this one place – Audrey’s grandmother actually runs it – where they serve nothing but stuff made out of fish. Even the sausages,” I told him with a shudder.

  “Is that why you’ve lost weight? Fish sausages?”

  We’d stopped outside of Kimble’s and Josh sniffed the air while answered his question. “It’s weird. The grocery store never carries any hamburger meat or steaks. It sells three things: fish, chicken, and pork; lots and lots of pork. Dad and Mom would eat pork chops and sardines for every meal if I wasn’t around.”

  “So what do you eat?”

  I shrugged. “At home, Mom will make chicken or some pulled pork for me to have something for dinner throughout the week. I’ll make egg salad sandwiches for lunch or open a can of soup. When I’m with Audrey, or just by myself, I’ll have a ham sandwich or pancakes. This place right here makes some pretty mean pancakes.”

  Josh eyed the people eating outside on the white tables, watching them eat greedily. “Pancakes and salad and sandwiches. Fallon, if you keep eating like that, you’re gonna end up with gray hair like Bessie back there, slow and dumb.”

  “Her name’s Sparky. And I eat more than that,” I insisted.

  “Yeah, well, you don’t look it,” he countered. “Come on. I’ll buy you an early lunch but you’re not allowed to eat pancakes or anything that’s less than a billion calories. You got me, private?”

  “Private? I should tell my dad what you just said. No. I should tell my mom!”

  Josh’s laugh was clear and crisp in the morning air as he threw his hands in front of him, waving them as he shook his head. “No. Don’t tell your mom. She’d ream me a new one so fast, I’d need to strap a toilet to my ass.”

  “Do you guys need a table?” Lola was standing at the entrance, a smile on her face that seemed genuine stretching from one cheek to the other.

  “For two, please,” Josh replied to her, smiling back.

  “Outside or in?”

  Josh looked at the crowded walkway and then shook his head. “Inside, please. You guys have air conditioning inside, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Great.”

  We sat down at a small table in the center of the café. The smell of syrup and pancakes and fruit was overwhelmingly delicious and I knew immediately what I wanted to order, but Josh shook his head when he heard what I wanted. “Nope. You’re getting an omelet.”

  “Since when do you-” I stopped talking when a crowd of kids walked into the restaurant, their voices loud, their faces marked with smiles. Josh saw me, watched as I lost my ability to speak once again, and then turned around. He stood up, his body rigid with leftover frustration from last night.

  Liam and his friends were standing at the entrance, but only he was looking in our direction. Only his eyes were locked with mine. Only…

  “Hey, bro, you’ve got a lot of nerve coming to Fallon’s house last night and chewing her out like that.”

  I groaned. The last thing I needed was some kind of hero. “Josh, don’t worry about it,” I told him in a low voice.

  “No, let him finish,” Liam said with a snort. “Come on, Captain America. Tell me that it’s okay for your stuck-up girlfriend to treat my sister like crap, to leave her hanging on her freaking birthday and not even call her to apologize after my sister pissed off all of her friends by inviting her. Come on and tell me that that’s oh-freaking-kay…bro.”

  A flicker of anger happened before my eyes – that’s what happens when everything in color turns black and white. I stood up and grabbed Josh’s shoulder. I pushed him back into his seat and walked up to Liam, ignoring the jeers from his friends and his bitch-faced girlfriend who stood protectively by his side with a sneer glued to her mouth.

  I looked into Liam’s face, into his eyes, and saw the anger there, the fire turning the browns and dark greens into golds and grassy hues. “Hold up. How dare you come in here and tell me that I’m being stuck up and that I treat other people like crap. You’re the one who acted like an ass from day one.”

  “I told you to leave my sister alone. That’s all you had to do was leave her alone,” he said in a low rumble.

  “I don’t care what you told me. You don’t get to act like a goddamn bully just because you don’t like me. I’ve never done a damn thing to you – to any of you. I helped fix your truck and you didn’t even have the balls to tell me thank you. I spent a lot of time working on that carburetor for you and you threw it on the ground.”

  “I didn’t throw it on the ground!” It was a shout, shaking the walls around us and causing Josh to stand up again, his chest pressed firmly against my back, itching for a sign – any sign – that I couldn’t handle this.

  I looked at the way Liam’s eyes had widened and at the way his nostrils flared. His eyebrows even seemed to stand on end, he was so angry. If I didn’t watch it, I was going to say something that made him lose what little control he had. But I didn’t have any control left. I’d had enough.

  “Yes you did, you lying son-of-a-bitch! You talk about treating people like crap but who just stood there while your girlfriend over here called me a dyke, huh? And why did she do that? Because I won’t let her paint my goddamn toenails at her stupid salon?

  “Or is it because I’m not stuck like a leech on some guy’s face? You come to my house and you act all superior, talking about how I hurt Audrey when the only person who keeps hurting her is you.”

  I shook my head and laughed, the whole thing just so pathetic now that there wasn’t anything else to do. “God, you know what? I wish I hadn’t come to this stupid island. You know what else? I wish I’d never met your sister because then I’d never have met you and then I-”

  I wanted to finish my sentence. I wanted to finish it and then punch him in the left eye. And then the right. And then I’d punch him in the neck. Twice. Because I like even numbers.

  But I couldn’t.

  I couldn’t even think.

  I couldn’t think or say anything. It’s pretty impossible to say or think or do anything when everything inside of you implodes and the only thing you can do is feel. Feel your face gripped so tightly, your jaw hurts; feel your mouth pressed down on like the world was trying to find your heat through your throat; feel your lips vibrate and tingle so intensely, the sensation travels to your feet and then bounces back up, making everything else irrelevant except for the way your heart is beating so powerfully in your chest it could power a small country.

  Liam.

  Liam Mace.

  Liam Goddamn Mace.

  Liam Asshole Jerkface Mace was kissing me.

  And I didn’t want him to stop.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  LIAM

  If there was ever a reason to run away and never come back to this stupid island, well…I’d just found it.

  Hearing the way Brenda’s voice cracked while she yelled at me was one of the worst things I’ve ever heard. It was like hearing a dam break during a storm.

  “Why would you do that to me? Why would you do that to us?” Her eyes were glassy. I’d never seen her like that before. I didn’t think it was possible for Brenda to cry but it was impossible to ignore the tears that left little silver trails down her face.

  Jameson, bouncing back and forth between being angry and being amused, only made me more confused. “You kissed her, man. That’s like the crown jewel of stupid! What was it like?”

  And Audrey…she’d already had her say, but she made me feel the worst of all.

  “I know that sometimes you’re mean. I know that sometimes you can say and do things to people that are wrong on so many levels, but I never thought
you’d play with someone’s head like that.” The way she looked at me, her eyes dark and empty, her mouth not frowning, not even set in an angry line, just…dead.

  Part of me blamed Brenda and Jameson for that. If they hadn’t dragged me back to Grans’, Audrey wouldn’t have found out until I’d had enough time to think of something to say that didn’t sound half as dumb as the stutter she got when she asked why I’d done it; why I kissed Fallon. I didn’t know how to answer her. I didn’t know what to say to her.

  Brenda wasn’t going to just let me get away with stutters, though.

  “You’ve been acting all kinds of weird since she came here. Defending her, fighting with us, and now you’re kissing her. Why? Is it because you’re curious? Do you want to be with her, see what it’s like to be with a human?”

  Grans, who had been busy in the kitchen, came through and slapped her hand on the table as she glared at us. “You wanna talk about the Timmons girl, go ahead and talk. But she’s just a girl to you – all of you – and that’s exactly what you’ll call her.”

  “Aww, Granny Simon, c’mon! Ain’t nothin’ serious happening here. Don’t worry about it,” Jameson said to her with a toothy grin.

  “If it’s happening in my restaurant with my grandchildren, you better believe I’m gonna worry about it,” she said to him, her bony, wrinkled finger held just an inch away from his nose.

  “Sorry, Grans,” I said remorsefully, although it wasn’t because she was upset. I waited until she had returned to the kitchen to look at Brenda and take her hand. She let me, which was a good start.

  “Bren, I don’t want to be with Fallon.” My voice was low so that the trogs eating around us couldn’t hear. “You saw what was happening. I was angry. If I didn’t do something, I was going to change right there in front of her, in front of all those trogs, and then what do you think would’ve happened?

  “It was either kiss her or eat her. I didn’t know any other way to shut her up and make her stop. I didn’t think; I’m sorry.”

  The doubt in her eyes was clear and her voice crackled with it. “You’re right, you didn’t think. You couldn’t have punched her or-or-or just left? You had to kiss her? In front of everyone, in front of me?”