The park filled relatively quickly and we got on the stage and set everything up. Preston wasn't allowed to help because everyone else-okay, mainly Lorne-didn't trust him with the instruments. At least, that was Preston's excuse, so who knows how true it really was.
"How are my little divas doing this evening?" Lorne asked.
"We're all kind of nervous, Lorne," I confessed.
"Yeah, this is the first major concert we've done," Bridgette added. We had done some weddings last year, but were never allowed to do our own stuff. This would be the first time we weren't going to be doing covers to love songs all night. The old gigs paid very well, but we wanted to branch out into other venues.
"You'll do just fine, Ladies. Don't worry!" Lorne reassured us. "How about starting with Don't Make Me Dance Alone?"
"This guy reads my mind, I swear," I said, gesturing at Lorne and smiling. The others agreed. "Alright then, let's do it."
"That's the Riley we know!" Faith beamed.
We went onto the stage again. Faith sat at the drum set, Bridgette went to the keyboard and Alice picked up the bass guitar. I went to the microphone and picked up the guitar standing next to it.
"Happy Halloween, everyone. Thanks for coming out tonight. My name's Riley Pratt and we're The Valentinas."
Alice started playing the bass then Faith came in on the drums then Bridgette with the keyboard. I joined in last and began singing our first song. As soon as the chorus picked up, I could tell everyone was enjoying our music. Our music. We were no longer some cover band. We were a legitimate band and everyone liked us.
During the second verse I spotted Landon dancing with Lydia. He was a much better dancer now than he was when we were younger. That much was obvious, as I had never managed to teach him anything, not that I didn't try.
Something else amazed me about Landon. I wondered if it was just coincidence, or if my mom had told him something. Either way, he was, like Bridgette and me, wearing the same costume we wore four years ago. He was Gambit all over again, but, like me and my cousin, he seemed to pull it over now.
When the song was over, people clapped and I heard Bridgette fail to stifle a squeal-she liked being cheered. We did a few more songs and left the stage in a flurry of applause.
"Oh God, is my face red?" I asked Lorne.
"Yes, but it's alright, sweetie," Lorne said. "You did so well and you definitely showed that you are your father's daughter."
"Ahem," Bridgette said. "What about us?"
"All of you girls were magnificent!" Lorne crowed. "Now go and dance, eat some candy, ride the rides."
"In other words, let's have some fun," I suggested.
"Exactly," Lorne concurred.
"Yes!" Faith shouted, still giddy from our well-received show. Then the four of us went out to where everyone was dancing beside the stage, which was now playing Top 40 hits and Halloween-themed songs through the speakers. From there we split up. April went in search for food, Faith disappeared into the dancing crowd and Bridgette went to look for someone to flirt with. I decided to walk around the park for a while.
"In for a scare, little lady?" I glanced quizzically at the person in charge of the haunted house.
"Little lady?" I asked.
"Got your attention, didn't I?" the attendant teased.
"I'll give it a shot," I said. The man ushered me inside the house covered with fake cobwebs and half-melted candles.
I started walking through it, but had to hold my hands out in front of me because I couldn't see anything through the dim candle-light. "How can this be scary when it's pitch-Ahh!" I jumped when something ran right in front of me. I stopped and turned around, but realized I had no clue how to get out of there. I had minor claustrophobia my whole life, but it was shit like this that made me freak out. I turned back around and slowly started walking again, this time straight into a wall. I could hear other footsteps and then there was giggling. "Oh joy, it's the children of the corn!" I said to no one in particular.
I blinked as a beam of light hit my face. "Sorry," said a familiar voice at the other end of the light.
"Landon?" I asked.
"Yep," Landon said, lowering the flashlight and walking over to me. "The guy out front told me that the power shut off in here just after you came in."
"Oh shit!" I said. "Really?"
"Well, the power to the lights, anyway. He's not sure about anything else," Landon said. He shone the flashlight around. "Oh, it's a good thing the lights are off."
"Why?" I asked, turning around. I immediately jumped and screamed as Landon's flashlight spotlighted a giant spider right behind me. I backed up into Landon.
"It's fake, Riley," Landon said.
"So?" I said. I caught my breath. "Where's Lydia?"
"Probably waiting impatiently outside. Or, more likely, on the Ferris Wheel," Landon replied. "She won't come in here because she's terrified of the dark. We should probably get out of here."
"Yeah, I think so, too," I admitted. We started walking back, but after a while it was pretty obvious we were lost. "How in the hell do you get lost in here if it's only supposed to be a single walkway?" I plaintively whined.
"Maybe we went through a hole in the wall or something," Landon answered nervously. He had kept his hand on my shoulders up until now, but had to let go as he looked around. "That damn guy could have given me a bigger fucking flashlight!"
At that point, I lost my composure, what little I had left and started sobbing. Damn it, I hated haunted houses.
"Honey, you'll be fine!" Landon tried vainly to comfort me.
"I'm claustrophobic, remember?"
"Damn...I nearly forgot?"
"I think it's like a kind of psychiatric problem or something."
Landon just laughed. I swung my arm at him, but he grabbed my hand. I could hardly see him, but I could see the white of his eyes and tell that he was staring at me. He inched closer and his face was only inches from mine.
The lights suddenly went on and I nearly jumped through the roof as there were some big, werewolf-type monster right next to us. Landon put his arm around my shoulders to comfort me and we hustled to the nearest exit. Scary things randomly popped out at us all over the place, but now that the lights were on, they didn't seem too bad. Or maybe I was calm because I was with Landon? I shook my head and shrugged his arm off as we got to the exit.
"Thanks, Landon. You saved the day!" I was grateful that he had come to rescue me. He was indeed a caring and selfless guy. I was just hoping that he could my good friend again.
"See you later," Landon said, heading off toward the Ferris wheel.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
"SO, WHAT HAPPENED in the haunted house?" Faith asked. "We heard that the power went off."
I stared at her blankly. We were all sitting in my bedroom at two in the morning. Alice still had a blue tinge to her skin, but for the most part, all of her coloring was gone. Noah, as far as we knew, was still out and Mom and Dad were asleep.
"Oh, come on, Riley. You and Landon Callahan? Alone? In the darkness?" Alice egged me on in hope that I'd reveal something titillating.
"Hey, I'm claustrophobic; just so you know," I reminded them, "which means I wouldn't be doing anything except to try to keep breathing." I took a sip of my water bottle decided to change the subject. "Whatever happened to Preston, by the way?"
"Oh, he left with Paul and Mia," Bridgette informed us. Paul was Preston's best friend and Mia was Paul's younger sister. She and Preston were kind of close. He's told me they used to be like brother and sister. Paul is pretty nice to Mia; so, naturally, I'm envious of her because my brother is the poster boy of asshole brothers everywhere.
"Didn't he tell you?" Faith asked. I shook my head.
"He said he would," Bridgette said. We all frowned. Why would Preston not tell me this?
"He probably couldn't find you," Faith reasoned.
"Most likely," I replied, not really caring anymore.
The weekend pas
sed uneventfully. I went with Mom to get groceries and she let me drive. My driving test was coming up soon. Well, really it was in February, but since it was November, that was only four months away. I definitely needed to practice as much as I could because I wanted to pass the test the first time, like Noah and most of my friends did.
Driving was really the only fun part of my weekend. No one else but Mom and I were home. I spent the whole weekend on my computer, talking to people on instant messenger and working on songs.
"Riley, Preston, focus!" Mrs. Wilson pleaded, snapping me out of the zone I drifted into.
It was Monday after school on what could possibly have been the last beautiful day of the fall and she expected any of us to focus? I was sitting on one side of the stage with Landon and both of us looked over at my boyfriend as the teacher rushed up to him.
"This is the woman you've been pining for." She gestured at me. "Years and years you've wanted her and now you see her with someone you believe should be from a different planet."
I giggled and Landon gave me a mock serious look, making me giggle more as I slapped my hand over my mouth.
"Sorry, Mrs. Wilson," Preston said. "I just don't remember having to spend that much time going after her." He made it sound like a joke, but to me there seemed to be something else in his voice. I noticed Landon suddenly glaring at him with a very intense look in his eyes.
"Well, whatever period of time it was-imagine it lengthened to the extreme," Mrs. Wilson instructed. "Your beloved, in the arms of another man-one whom you have seen degrade and abuse and..."
I stopped listening at that point and looked down at the script. I scanned the lines then I reread the song. I thought about Halloween. I thought about Paul and Mia. I thought about Preston. I thought about our successful concert. I thought about Landon.
"Riley," Landon said quietly. I looked up, startled. Mrs. Wilson was giving me a look. "Line."
"Mine or yours?" I whispered. Then I handed him the script.
We went through some lines and Landon smirked as he stepped closer to Preston. Everyone in class snapped to attention for the fight scene. I watched as they walked towards each other, each saying their different hate-filled lines.
"You weasel!" Preston said.
"Weasel? You're the weasel, you shyster bastard." Landon shot back.
There was so much hate in each of their voices; it seemed almost like the real thing. Either they really loathed each other, or they were some of the best actors to ever come out of Kennewa High School.
They didn't engage in the scripted physical part of the fight. We had only a minute pause in which we were supposed to imagine some kind of fight going on. Landon got down on the ground because his character was supposed to be down. I stood up and walked over at that point, grabbing Preston's hand as he raised it. He spun around and I ducked as his other hand swung out and nearly hit me. That definitely was not in the script. He gave me an apologetic look.
"Riley-the song," Mrs. Wilson said.
I nodded and said my few lines before starting my song. By the time it was through, everyone was nearly in tears. My performance made Mrs. Wilson's day. I did the song just as it was written out. I did everything the script said and she was very pleased. She stopped us there, told us what we should work on, what we would do tomorrow and then sent us home.
"I'm going to kill Noah," I muttered, sitting on the curb. Bridgette, Alice and Faith had all gone home already and as far as I knew, so had everyone else. I cursed myself for the hundredth time for spending too much time at my locker after class. The nice weather had turned crummy and I knew it would start to rain soon. "I am so going to kill him!"
"Kill who?" I looked up to see Landon pop his head out of a car window across the street.
"My brother," I answered. Landon turned off the car and walked across the street to sit next to me on the curb. "I really hate him. He was supposed to be here as soon as I was done. He knows what time we always finish."
"Have you been sitting here since rehearsal finished?" Landon asked. I nodded. "Well, that was twenty minutes ago."
"I don't have bus money," I said. "I didn't bother to get my pass renewed this weekend and I do not want to walk the forty-five minutes home." The rain started to fall now. "Now I really don't."
"Well, how about this," Landon suggested. "I'll drive you to wherever you have to go then we'll go to your place? Because, you know, we're supposed to do some extra practice today and I really don't want to sit with your mom. I like her and all, but she just loves showing pictures of us when we were kids."
"God, I know. I thought we were meeting at your place this time, though? Unless we can't because you lost that CD I made you already."
"I still have it, FYI." He laughed. The rain started to fall harder. "How about we go now?" Landon prompted me.
"Sounds good," I said. We got up and jogged across the street to his car when traffic was clear.
"You were outside a bit longer than I was. You must be freezing," Landon said.
"Yeah, a bit," I said, shivering.
Landon shook his head and cranked up his car. A warm blast of air came barreling out at me. "So, where to first?" he asked.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
I LAUGHED AND flopped down on Landon's bed. It was the first time in years since I had been there. We usually met at my place for practices, but since Noah had to work and our parents were going out for date night, Dad didn't trust me alone in the house with a boy, so we had to practice at Landon's place. Annette, his mom, shrieked when she saw me and wrapped me up in a ginormous hug. I was happy to see her again, too.
"God, is this the same bed you had four years ago?" I asked, bouncing up and on Landon's bed.
"Um, there's a different mattress," Landon said.
I laughed and lay back down, looking around the room. It was a different color, too. Before it had been blue-now it was an olive green color. There were a few posters where, four years ago, there had been pictures of me, Bridgette, Noah, Landon and a few other friends. Landon's dresser was on the other side of the room and no longer had the hamster cage on top of it.
"Joey died, I'm guessing?" I asked.
"Yeah, about two months after you and I stopped hanging out," Landon said, sitting down by my feet.
"Oh, why didn't you tell me?" I asked.
I had bought Joey for Landon's birthday. I was the one who got to name him and I helped Landon take care of him for the first few months. I really was the queen of small animals when we were younger. But then my interest in them dissolved when I discovered a new interest in music. Once my guinea pig, Lacy, died, I decided not to get any more animals.
We sat in silence for a while. It was the first long silence we endured all day outside of class. We had been together since two-thirty and now it was almost eight! I grabbed my bag and opened it.
"Where's the CD player?" I asked. Landon pointed over at his stereo. "You got the words?" I pressed play and Landon began to sing a song of redemption in Freedom. It was gorgeous.
"That's not my best singing," Landon admitted.
"Dude, if that wasn't your best, then your best is fucking amazing!"
"Thanks, Riley," Landon said, smirking. I laughed a bit and nodded.
"Hey, I wanna hear this song," Landon pleaded, pulling out some sheets from the back of my script.
"But it's not in the play," I protested.
"Well duh. Is it for the band?"
"Umm, yeah."
"Can you sing it for me?" Landon asked.
"Not without music I won't." I thought I had him there, but he got up and pulled me out of the room. We went down the stairs and into the recreation room where, low and behold, there was a piano.
"Come on Riley, it's only me here," Landon implored me. "I promise I won't tell anyone."
I sighed. "Alright, Landon, just for you," I said. I grabbed the music sheets from Landon and went to the piano, hitting a few keys before I found my note. Then I began playing the s
ong that secretly was one of my favorites. I wasn't about to tell Landon that, though. It was inspired by him in a way.
I didn't turn around to look at him after I finished. I don't know why I didn't want to face him, but I just didn't.
"Riley," Landon said. I felt his hand on my shoulder and turned as he sat next to me on the piano bench.
"I don't know why I wrote this. I started it when I couldn't sleep on Halloween night and I finished it this morning."
"You don't want to change it?" Landon asked.
"No, should I?" I asked, the old paranoid me coming out again.
"No, I suppose not," Landon said, chuckling. "It's perfect that way." I smiled and looked at my hands as I absently and quietly played some notes on the piano. Landon's hand moved in small circles on my shoulder. "Riley, will you look at me?"
"Why?" I wondered, lifting my head to do as he asked.
"Because I want you to," Landon said, softly.
My hands stopped moving. His own did too. This was so weird, as I had never felt this way towards anyone before. I actually wanted him to kiss me. He sensed my desire, leaned closer to me and pressed his lips against mine softly as I closed my eyes. Then Landon softly ran his tongue against my lips while I, surprisingly willingly, parted them to him.
"We really shouldn't," I muttered, pulling away just a bit.
"No," Landon said, kissing me again. I moaned softly.
"Kids, I'll be back in a little while." We jumped apart as soon as we heard Annette's voice. She came into the room and I kept my eyes glued on the keyboard. "I have to go to the store and grab a few things for dinner. Riley, are you going to stay and eat with us?"
"Thanks for the invitation, Annette, but I must be leaving soon," I said, looking at Landon.
"Well, okay. If you leave before I'm back, it was nice seeing you," Annette said.
If I Never Knew You Trilogy Bundle Page 14
