Chapter Thirty Six
I almost convinced myself to skip school on Monday because I was so incredibly nervous. My internal fire would have no part of that idea. It blazed hotter than the center of the sun when I just thought about not going. It was inexplicable, but I had to go, regardless of my fear or risk of being burnt to a crisp.
Maybe my internal incinerator is some type of cosmic punishment for dressing in that very provocative outfit…like an over-the-top reminder about the fires of Hades and the price to pay for being easy.
After a few minutes of consideration, I dismissed the idea completely. The Creator certainly knows that I am far from being easy. So no punitive reminder would be required. I would never choose to dress in revealing clothes because I am extremely modest.
I couldn’t even tolerate the thought of any boy looking at me like that – much less a bunch of them. I’m a very private person so I don’t want guys scoping out my curves.
My spirit light can do some serious damage. I still don’t have control over it. And I tend to react emotionally if I feel like my space is being invaded. If boys were checking me out, I knew I would become anxious. Being on edge in relation to my newly discovered ability could lead to disaster.
Also, Tray can be dangerous when it comes to protecting me from the male population. That means a skimpy outfit on my body is like a weapon of mass destruction. I started laughing when I thought about the fact that I would become known as curvy-loaded-Ember and not in a drunk and disorderly kind of way either.
Krista and I spoke on the phone every day while I had been out sick. She hadn’t mentioned anything about a bizarre incident at school or any weird gossip going around. I still couldn’t seem to shake the idea that someone might have seen me half-naked and glowing though. Maybe some unknown person was just waiting to talk to me about it without mentioning it to anyone else.
That didn’t seem likely because teenagers aren’t exactly known for keeping secrets. Then again, most girls don’t have a giant for a brother either. After all, the dark clique guys were too scared to welcome me because they were afraid of Tray.
So although it was unlikely, one of them might corner me tomorrow and inform me of what they saw. My thoughts raced around in useless, paranoid circles as Tray drove us home from the Jansens’ on Sunday evening.
In an effort to somehow occupy my mind, I asked Krista to come over and spend the night. I took a shower while I waited on her to arrive so I wouldn’t drive myself crazy with worry. I figured Krista would talk non-stop about her new love interest until we fell asleep. I need that type of distraction.
My best friend rushed into our house, gave me a hug and then she would terrify me. She stated the fated words I had been dreading.
“Oh my gosh, did you hear what happened at school?” she asked me and my head started to spin.
I braced myself for the worst, but at least I was getting some warning.
“The janitor discovered the boy’s locker room was vandalized. Greg told me that it looked like a bunch of guys used a sledgehammer and had some type of contest or something. He believes they were trying to tunnel into the girl’s locker room. Of all the stupid things to do though, that was totally ridiculous. It’s not like we won’t notice a huge hole in the wall before we get undressed…”
Krista spent another minute or so detailing how silly that stunt was. I managed to somehow stifle the need to sigh in relief. We both agreed the ‘dark hearts’ were the most likely culprits, because property destruction would be right up their alley.
After we solved the not so mysterious, attempted peeking incident, Krista changed the topic to Greg. She recounted every last detail about their budding romance. They “sort of went out on something like a date.” They each paid for their own stuff so she wasn’t sure exactly how to label it. Greg has his driver’s license and an old, beat up car that’s really cute on the inside but makes some funny sounds whenever he pushes the gas pedal and the brake – her description. She even stated, “…it only kind of broke down once, but then it finally started again after he wiggled the key the right way.”
Tray looked apprehensive the entire time Krista was talking. I’m sure he didn’t like the idea of my fifteen-year-old friend dating a boy that had his driver’s license. I suppose he felt like his brotherly duties extended to her as well since she didn’t have a brother of her own to worry about her.
It was either that or he might have been concerned that I would think it was okay for me to do what she does. Whichever the case might be, Tray clearly didn’t approve of their dating situation.
Later that night I would catch him alone and ask him about it. Tray said he was concerned about her dating a guy who could drive because she is way too young for that.
“It sounds like this, Little Driving Boy, is chauffeuring her around in an unsafe car…” my brother stated.
“I’ll invite Greg and Krista over to hang out with us. That way you can take a look at the ‘cute, beat up car’ for yourself,” I replied softly.
“Okay, I’ll borrow some tools from work because I can already tell you that I’m gonna need them. Oh, by the way, don’t go getting any ideas from Krista. You are too young to go out with anyone – period…”
After I smiled and nodded in agreement, he dropped the subject. Well, I did hear him make one last comment under his breath. He declared that I’m not going to date any boy until age 90 if he has anything to do with it.
Can anyone say “…crazy cat lady Ember”?
Krista squealed happily when I extended the invitation to her. I had no idea why she was so excited about it. She is over here almost every night.
“Sure! We’d love to…” Krista accepted without calling Greg to see if he was a willing participant to this plan.
“It’s not that special, for heaven sakes. We’re not gonna be doing anything fantastic. We’ll just hang out and eat junk food. Oh, and Tray wants to take a look under the hood of his cute car too. Maybe Greg could bring over a gaming system of some kind and we could all play. That should be worth a few hundred laughs because I’ve never played a video game in my life…”
“You obviously don’t get it, but your invitation is that special. We can’t go over to his house and hang out because his little brother is a supreme pain. We can’t go to mine either because you know my grandmother. I’ll die of embarrassment if she says something out of the way to Greg. She’s never had a problem voicing her every opinion, as you well know.
“So hanging out here would be heaven compared to either of our houses. And besides I’d love for him to feel more like a part of the crowd instead of the eternal outsider…” Krista explained.
“Why does he still feel like an outsider?” I interrupted and asked her.
Krista has a large circle of friends and I can’t imagine why Greg feels like a stranger among them. I felt like part of their group after the first lunch I had spent with them, and that’s really saying something.
“Well, for some unknown reason, our buddies have gone off the social deep end on me. The guys’ act like Greg’s trying to score and interrupt their dating action. I can’t understand what on earth has suddenly possessed them. I’ve never expressed the slightest bit of interest in dating any of them. Our girlfriends talk incessantly about your brother still – although that’s kind of understandable given our Ember-intrigue. But their constant Tray-loves-Krista-secret-relationship-gossip-fest is making Greg more than a little uncomfortable. He’s MET your gargantuan brother so I can’t blame him.
“Our friends are all being so horrible to Greg that I’m almost ready to commit lunch table mutiny and go to the dark side if you know what I mean. I want him to get to know you and Tray. You, because you’re my best friend and definitely not a snobby loco chick…”
“There’s a real vote of confidence – my best friend thinks I’m not a snobby loco chick…” I interrupted her again because that was hil
arious.
I laughed so hard I started crying. She watched me in wonder, smiling slightly. I tried to get a hold of myself because I could see she was upset by how our friends were acting. I kind of figured she was just being overly sensitive because new romance has a tendency to do that. Well, I made an educated guess that it did at least, because I didn’t have any practical experience to go by.
“You know what I’m saying Ember…I want Greg to see that Tray and I aren’t an item. The girls’ endless secret romance gossip fest used to be funny when it was just you and I enjoying the latest, unfolding drama. Their speculations have become very, very unfunny since I wanna date Greg. So I’ve learned my lesson. From now on, I’ll correct any misinformation even if I have to beat the truth into them,” Krista pledged and placed her hand over her heart for effect.
“Sadly, it might take a beating at this point to get them to stop their speculations,” I admitted truthfully and watched Krista’s facial expression cloud over in disappointment.
Our girlfriends were all about the gossip – both real and fictitious. What Krista and I had originally thought of as nothing more than a harmless inside-joke was quickly turning into real trouble for my best friend. Tray is a handsome guy, in general, but his mere size is intimidating to us lesser earthly creatures – and compared to him, we are all lesser creatures.
Greg is good looking too, but he had met Tray on his first day here. It seems that guys have this rivalry thing that I know very little about and that was a big problem. And to add yet, one more complication to the mix, Tray can’t straighten this mess out for us. First, he didn’t know that all my girlfriends thought he and Krista had a “thing” going. I didn’t know how he would react if he found out about their fictitious romance either. Secondly, I had given him ample reason to be frustrated lately. I didn’t want to add another stressful event to his already drama filled life.
“What are we gonna do?” Krista asked me when she realized my assessment was correct.
My best friend looked at me intently, fully expecting an answer.
“They’ll probably stop as soon as they figure out that Greg’s here to stay and that you two are a couple,” I replied hopefully.
“You’ll see what I’m talking about tomorrow. They’re all getting on my nerves. I’m not over exaggerating the situation either. It’s a different lunch table now,” Krista offered and shrugged her shoulders.
We spent the rest of the night talking about Greg and everything related to him. It was 2:45 before we turned the light off. She went to sleep almost immediately.
I was still awake an hour later as I obsessed about school the next day. Between facing my possible ‘fall out’ situation and worrying about how to get our friends to stop the Tray-Krista gossip fest, I decided that sleep wasn’t going to happen. So I watched the sun come up and felt my insides start to shake.
What would today bring?
Ember Rising Light (Book One) Page 40
