“Isn’t that your friend?”
“Yeah. She’s insane.”
“She’s really good at dancing. Can you dance like that too?” he says.
“Nah, I don’t really dance.”
“Well, what about raving? All you do is just jump around.” He places his hands into his pockets and flops his brown hair to the right of his face.
I smirk at him, noticing that the crowd is dispersing. I call for Dawn, but she doesn’t hear me. I place my book against my chest and start to walk after her. Dawn must’ve had plans with the guy she danced with because they rushed away so quickly. Eric pulls me back.
“You and this grabbing me needs to stop,” I say to Eric, glancing down at his hand.
He releases his grip. “You’re always trying to leave when I’m around. What if I want you to stay?”
“You could’ve just asked.”
“Would you stay?”
I look away, chuckling to myself, and walk toward the building for my SDV class. Eric follows me as I look to my side.
“So what? You’re a stalker too?”
“You can say that.” He grins.
“No, really?”
“Calm down. I’m just playing with you, Liza.”
“It’s E-lee-suh.”
“Sorry. I’m going to my SDV class. I think it’s this way.”
I stop walking to look up at him. The height difference is pretty big. My face becomes red with embarrassment. He’s already this aggressive toward me and we’re not even friends yet. If anything, just acquaintances. I want to not like him, but it doesn’t help that he’s hot and charming, occasionally.
I breathe in slowly and hear a few girls whispering courtesy of my new hearing skills.
“David’s missed school for a week,” a girl mutters to someone.
David? The guy who’s dating Stacy?
I remember what Jared told me to do.
Stay out of the crowd.
I’m going to try and listen to him for once. The girls ahead of me continue to mutter and gossip. There’s a piece of white paper in one of the girl’s hair. I shake my head as the girl squirms around.
“Calm down. Let me get it out.” One of her friend tries to fix her hair. “It wouldn’t be so bad if you went to a salon once in a while.”
“Continue with the story. I’ll fix my hair later.”
“That’s Stacy Meyer’s boyfriend. Skipping school doesn’t sound ethical to me,” she whispers.
“What does it matter to you? We don’t even know the guy.”
“I saw him with another girl yesterday on the strip.”
“Oh, awkward. Time for the slut to get cheated on for once.”
Her friend giggles as they walk down the hallway. Eric taps my shoulder and snaps me back to reality. I look up at him and say, “Right. Well, uhm, cool. I’ll see you in class.”
I pull out my cell phone and walk down the hallway, toward SDV.
Someone bumps into me, making me drop all of my belongings. Eric rushes to my side and helps me pick up my papers. He glances up, catching my gaze, and grins.
The guy who bumped into me comes back and offers me help. Eric stops helping me and stands up. He glares at the guy with his lips pressed together tightly.
“What’s up?” asks the guy who shoved me. “Do you have something to say?”
Eric breathes through his nose, trying to maintain his anger. “You bumped into her. Look at the shit she has to clean up.”
The guy looks at me for a few seconds and then looks back at Eric. “She was in my way. I was going to help her pick her stuff up.”
Eric cranks back his fist and punches the guy in his face. I cover my mouth in shock.
“You’re really going to stand here and lie in my face?” Eric shouts. His eyes are focused and his anger is permeating the area. I stand up, rushing to the guy before Eric hits him again, but he moves me out of the way gently to kick the guy.
“Watch where you’re going next time, dipshit!”
I help the guy up. “Are you okay? I’m sorry about—”
He looks up to me and says, “Don’t worry about it.” Coughing, he places his hand over his stomach and leaves.
“What a joke.” Eric chuckles. “If she wasn’t here, I would knock your face out!” he yells.
“You didn’t have to start a fight over it. Really, something is wrong with you.”
I place my purse’s strap around my shoulder and continue walking. What kind of person allows themselves to become so angry over such a mere situation? It really wasn’t a big deal. So what my papers dropped? Who cares?
“I care,” Eric says as he catches up to me. I glance at him, startled. It’s as if he read my thoughts. He quickly fixes his statement. “I care about you, and anyone who disrespects you disrespects me. I’m like that with everyone I care about. It seems like we’re trying to build a friendship here and I don’t want to lose you just yet.”
I don’t know Eric like that and I really don’t like the idea of having a ‘friend’ who might punch someone for any number of small reasons. I brush off what he said and walk into our SDV class.
We enter silently. Mr. Drude’s legs are on the desk. His thick belly hovers over his tight pants.
Eric and I are the last two to show up for class. Our teacher gets up, closes the door shut, and locks it. He turns around slowly, clamping his hands together.
“You over there.” His onion breath whips across my face. He points to a seat by the window. I sit in my desk, positioning myself comfortably so I can better deal with the long hours ahead.
Across from me, Stacy Meyer crosses her legs. She styles her platinum blonde twirl. She seems to know exactly what she’s doing because even without a mirror, she can make her hair look nice.
She glances at me and then at Eric as he walks past her. Within a second, she flips her hair back and positions her body to follow Eric to his seat. She lowers her shirt, showing as much cleavage as possible. Her eyes flutter in Eric’s direction as he sits down. Eric looks up from messing with his backpack and catches her sultry gaze. He awkwardly looks at me. I shrug my shoulders, holding back my laughter.
“Welcome to hell.” Mr. Drude claps his hands together, creating a thunderous sound that reverberates across the room. The students stop doing whatever they were doing to watch him.
Stacy is the last to turn around. She was checking her cuticles.
“Do not talk to me, do not talk to others, do not move, do not breathe, and do not sleep!” he yells. “Simple.”
Our teacher sits in his chair, tosses his feet over the desk, and slowly dozes off. I thought we were supposed to be learning about success tips for college. I’m not even getting a credit for this class. It’s useless, and all the teacher plans to do is sleep?
Kill me now.
I look at the window next to me. Little droplets of rain begin to form on the clear glass outside. I brush my fingers across the cold window. Hours pass by. My head is buried into my arms on my desk. I feel something poke my back and hear a light splat noise from underneath my desk.
I turn around and see Eric grinning at me, I mouth, “What?”
He points at the floor in front of me. I tilt my neck to the side and see a piece of white crumbled up paper on the ground. He must’ve thrown the paper at me.
I bite my lip and stick my foot out. I drag the crumbled paper toward a reachable spot, almost falling out of my seat trying to grab it.
I open it up and witness girly handwriting. I laugh to myself. Quickly, I cover my mouth. My eyes dart up to Mr. Drude. I hope he didn’t hear me. I don’t think he would care all that much even if he had heard me. Honestly, nothing is going on in this class as it is.
I check to see if he’s actually sleeping. His stomach is moving up and down. When I’m sure the coast is clear, I glance back at Eric, then back to the paper and read.
Addicxion with me? Tomorrow?
Eric
Before I can write back,
Stacy looks at me, an irritated expression on her face, and then smirks at Eric. She pulls some paper out from one of her folders and rips the paper up into little pieces. She sprinkles it all over her and on the floor. Her face suddenly changes into fear as her lips curl up in distraught. Why would she do something like that?
“What the heck, Eliza!” She snarls, waving her arms around her. Now I know why. Mr. Drude wakes up, almost falling out of his seat. He fixes his glasses and his eyes scan around the classroom, focusing on Stacy.
“Mr. Drude, look what she did! She threw all of this on me!” She points straight at me. “Call campus security!”
“Eliza! Stay after class with me,” he shouts.
“Are you serious?” I snap. My mouth drops in disbelief. I can’t believe he actually believed her.
As soon as the class is over, students get up and leave. Stacy, being the first to get up, smirks at me, proud her devious plan worked. I tussle through my purse, putting the papers I doodled on in my handbag.
“I told you to watch it, freak.”
I follow her with my eyes and watch her leave the classroom.
I stay behind, as Mr. Drude instructed, but he doesn’t really do anything to me. He just tells me to clean up the mess Stacy purposely made. I toss the shredded paper into the trashcan and leave the classroom, sighing in relief.
As soon as I walk through the door, I spot Eric in my peripheral vision leaning against a wall with his arms crossed in front of him.
“Took you long enough,” he jokes. “What’s that girl’s problem?”
“I have no idea.” I hold my purse and walk outside, toward the parking lot.
“So, Addicxion? With me?” he says.
“What exactly is that?”
“It’s a rave, like a party.”
Is Eric asking me out on a date? My nerves begin to dance inside of me. I brush the strands of my thick hair out of my face. I’m not sure if I should go with him, mainly because of his anger problems.
I look down at him carefully and mutter, “Sure, I’ll go.” I start to walk away, but then I turn around and add, “Only if Dawn comes with.”
He pumps his fist in the air. “She’s already planning on going.”
Dawn? Since when was she ever into the rave scene? I thought she was more into hip-hop clubs and what not. I’ve always wanted to go to a rave, but I never had the guts to actually go. Plus, I didn’t think anyone would want to go with me.
The fact that she never told me she’s going to a rave kind of hurts my feelings. I manage to shrug it off. Eric interrupts my thoughts.
“Okay, I’ll see you then.”
“Right,” I say.
Eric hops on his motorcycle and zooms out of the parking lot, skidding onto the road. He vanishes.
I guess he isn’t that bad.
Well, at least I hope he isn’t. I smile to myself and get in my car.
Chapter 7
I open the door to my house and see Dawn on the couch with a guy on top of her. Quickly, I close the door and walk into the kitchen.
“Who was that?” The guy whispers.
She gets up from the couch, fixes her hair, and runs into the kitchen where I’m hiding. I walk to the fridge to see if anything to eat is available. I’m hoping to avoid the awkward confrontation that’s approaching.
“Eliza! You’re home early.” Dawn covers her mouth in embarrassment.
“My teacher left class early due to the storm,” I mutter with my head in the freezer.
I find what I was looking for and place the carton of ice cream on the table. A shirtless guy in black basketball shorts walks upstairs, glancing at Dawn and I. Dawn’s wearing an oversized grey sweater that probably belongs to her guest.
“Someone’s happy.”
Dawn grabs a shirt off the ground and walks into the living room. “He’s just a friend.”
“With benefits.”
She rushes upstairs and closes her room’s door. I chuckle to myself. Jared leaps on the table from a window and watches me eat a cookie. He runs to me and bites it out of my hand. I shake my head, feeling a smile developing across my face. I can’t believe I’m going to a rave.
I pick Jare up and dance to my room.
“Okay, this—” I take his paw, interrupting him. “Eliza…This is…Inapropi—” Jared whines, his words choppy because of the movement.
I flip my hair around, letting it flow over my shoulder. Then I throw him on to my bed, and he bounces up in the air.
He claws my sheets to secure himself from flying out of the window. The hairs on his back strike up out of fear.
He sighs. “Good lord.”
I look at myself in the mirror and start dancing again. I can’t believe I’m going out on a date. Well, I’m not sure if he actually asked me on one. The fact that someone else other than Dawn wants to hang out with me fills my stomach with butterflies.
The door to my room creaks open. Dawn is standing in the doorway, her arms crossed with a slight grin across her face.
I toss my phone behind me and throw my back on my bed. I kick my legs in the air in excitement. Dawn walks to the radio to shut Katy Perry up.
“So, did he ask you?” she says.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, did my set up work?” She raises one eyebrow.
Realizing what she’s done, I take a pillow and throw it at her face. She successfully blocks it and dives down on my bed beside me.
“I’m so going to kill you when I get the chance, Dawn.”
“Hey, it’s not like you were going to ask him yourself. Plus, remember what you said? New school, new location, new life, right?”
Jared leaps up at the end of my bed and says, “What about staying out of the crowd?”
“What? Why does she need to do that? If anything she needs to get in the crowd and live a little!”
I glance at Jare. “I promise I’ll stay out of the crowd! And I’ll bring my broomstick!”
“You should always bring your broomstick,” he says, his tone strict.
“I’ll actually use it.”
What am I saying? I don’t even know how to activate the thing.
“All right. Have fun,” he says. He runs downstairs.
I squeal and hug Dawn. She looks up at me as she plays with her thumbs. “I was talking to some friends about the party, and he just jumped into the conversation. I mentioned your name. I didn’t say anything about you coming with.”
“So…”
“It was all him, but I like to think of it as a set up I had no intention of setting up. Plus, girl, he’s fine, so why not accept the offer? And get some buff dude action!”
I cover my mouth. Dawn takes that as me being in shock, but mainly I’m a little freaked out at the idea of any buff dude action with Eric. The guy is weird and overprotective of me even though we’ve only known for a day or two.
“Look, it’s going to be at Virginia Beach, okay? We have to leave early. It’s not like the beach is close to us or anything. Let’s say around two?” She pauses, then blurts, “Oh, your rave outfit! Dang, I forgot about that. Give me a second. I need to kick Brandon out.”
“The guy who’s in your room?” I laugh, moving my hair from my face. “Elaborate.”
“Oh, on campus there was this dance battle and I was battling him in front of everyone. It was so much fun! Were you on campus for club day?”
“Yeah, but you didn’t see me. I was cheering for you!”
“Aww, how sweet of you. But yeah, that’s Brandon.”
“You and him are moving pretty fast, don’tcha think?”
“He’s cute! The way he talks to me is so...ravishing, and I hate to say this, but wicked.”
She flicks her pink hair and leaves the room. From what I know, being wicked isn’t a good thing, especially now that I’m more likely to lure mystics toward where I am. I’m starting to think carrying a knife around with me wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
***
&
nbsp; A couple minutes pass by and Dawn doesn’t return to my room so we can figure out where to get my rave outfit. The house is awfully quiet except for the rain outside thunderously pounding on our roof.
I glance outside of my window to see a lady in a house nearby fixing her flower pots with soil. She glances up at me, then back down to what she was doing.
I walk out of my room to see if Dawn’s okay. Her door is decorated with punk rock bands. I knock about five times, slapping the palm of my hand on the door. A vinegar smell pervades through the cracks of the room. It reeks so much that I cover my nose as the door creaks open.
My heart is beating frantically at what I’m witnessing. A furry figure with long hind legs and a hump back is standing over Dawn, its shadow scattering across Dawn’s room.
I can see the fear in Dawn’s eyes. Her mouth is wrapped up, the creature’s thick drool landing just above her belly button. She looks at me, her screams muffled.
The creature turns to me. He has a long, sharp snout and red eyes. I step back and bump against the wall behind me. Immediately, the creature charges at me.
I fall out of Dawn’s room, but I manage to quickly recollect myself and run downstairs. The creature roars, ravenous for my blood. I’m so afraid, I trip and tumble down the steep stairs.
Jared leaps in front of me, his tail now pointing down without a wag.
“J-Jared, upstairs…” I can’t finish what I planned to say to him. The monster grabs the back of my shirt and throws me against a wall.
“The innocence in this house…” The creature’s rough voice stabs my ears.
This creature must be a mystic who was disguised as Brandon. It walks to me, slowly scratching the walls with his claws. “So, you must be the new witch on the block everyone’s talking about?”
I notice Jared leap into the kitchen. Why leave me at a time like this? I don’t want to die this way. I scoot away from Brandon. He bares his sharp teeth and licks the tips of teeth. A sleek line of slobber is on the side of his tongue.
“To think I was going to kill Dawn…I’d rather taste you instead.”
He races to me on four legs. Jared darts after him, a knife in his mouth. He then jumps into the air, right above Brandon.
Mystical (The Mystical Trilogy Book 1) Page 7
