I won’t lie, I nearly squeaked like a little girl, but somehow managed to mask it behind a cough as I spun around to face the figure curled up on the other sofa.
Kia squinted sleepily at me as I stared at her, a mixture of surprise and relief playing up inside me. It took a lot of restraint to keep from scooping her up into my arms.
“Hey,” I managed for lack of anything better. “You slept down here?”
Sitting up, she shrugged, yawning widely behind her hand. “I was waiting for you to wake up. I guess I fell asleep, too.”
She pushed back the blanket draped over her legs and a book tumbled out of the folds. It hit the floor with a muffled thud. Sighing, she reached down and scooped it up.
“Kia, what happened yesterday?” I couldn’t wait anymore. I had to know.
She took her time getting to her feet, setting the book on the coffee table next to mine and shaking out her blanket. I knew avoidance when I witnessed it, but I wasn’t giving up.
“Did I hurt you, or—”
“No!” She shook her head as she hurriedly folded the knitted throw and dropped it down on the armrest. “I just…” She shook her head again.
“What?” I moved around the divider separating us and lightly took her shoulders.
She stared at my chest when she answered. “I’m not ready … for that. I mean, I want to, but I don’t … God, I make no sense.”
“Why didn’t you just say so, nena? I would never push you.”
“I know!” With a frustrated growl, she dropped her face into her hands and mashed her eyelids with the heels. “I know, but I led you on and I’m sorry. I should have stopped you and told you sooner. It’s just…” She exhaled loudly. “I really liked what you were doing. A part of me didn’t want to stop you. But you’re the first boy I’ve ever liked and everything is so new and intense. Plus the whole thing with Nessie…”
I squeezed her shoulders lightly when she trailed off.
“And you don’t think I would understand if you just told me?”
She rocked her head slowly from side to side. “I knew you would, but I guess I was a little afraid you would think I was a tease or something.”
I pulled her into my arms and held her to me while peppering her cheek and jaw with kisses. “As much as I want to, I can wait. I’m not in any kind of hurry. It’s not like there’s an expiration date on us being together.”
I knew I’d said the right thing when the tension melted off her. She exhaled and leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder as I stroked her back. The spicy scent of cinnamon and vanilla swirled around us, mingling with the sweet fragrance of strawberries that seemed to cling to her. I closed my eyes and breathed her in.
“Adam,” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
She pulled back just enough so I could peer into her brown eyes. “We should get back to our rooms. Someone will be down soon and…”
I shook my head. “Christmas is over.”
She frowned. “What?”
“I told you I was only waiting until Christmas to talk to Van. Well, it’s done.”
I felt the tempo of her heart accelerating against mine. Her eyes widened, hope and excitement shining behind them.
“You mean…?”
I nodded. “I think it’s time I had a talk with my sister about the meaning of sharing.”
Chapter XI
Kia
It didn’t go as planned. Nessie stayed in bed for most of the morning. Then Adam got called to hang out with his friends at the hotel before everyone went home. And I wanted to scream in frustration. I wanted to run upstairs and drag Nessie awake like she had to me just the morning before.
“I’ll talk to her the second I get back,” Adam promised as he swung on his coat. “I won’t forget.”
I nodded that I understood, and I did, but it didn’t mean I liked it.
“Come with me,” he said.
I looked at him, surprised by the request. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “Come meet my friends.”
It wasn’t hard to comprehend what he was telling me, yet I couldn’t help stare at him like he’d lost his mind. “Why would you do that?”
It was his turn to look surprised. “What do you mean?”
I shrugged. “Won’t they wonder who I am or why you’re introducing me to them?”
His eyebrows only knitted closer together. “Why would they? I would tell them who you are.”
“And what’s that?” I couldn’t help give a weak laugh. “My sister’s BFF? That wouldn’t explain why you dragged me along.”
“No.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I would introduce you as Kia … my Kia.”
My Kia.
My blood rushed through me, not quite making its mind whether to pool at my feet or rush to my head. I was left feeling dizzy and out of place as I fought with the clash of excitement and dread.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” I murmured at last.
“Why?”
How could he ask that? Didn’t he know that would be social suicide? His friends would be horrified and disgusted. Boys like Adam didn’t willingly want girls like me unless it was on a dare, which was what they would immediately think. They would never believe he actually liked me for me. Who would? I was having a hard time believing it myself. Plus, I had a fear that they would talk him out of wanting to be with me, or mock him so badly that he’d willingly dump me. My self-esteem did not liking his idea one bit.
“Why, Kia?” he pushed when I took too long to respond.
“I just … it wouldn’t be,” I finished lamely. “You better hurry. Kenny’s waiting outside—”
He closed the space between us and kissed me. I felt the raw pressure of it punch a hole straight through me. Then he jerked away. His eyes were alight with anger.
“The only reason everyone doesn’t know about us already is because you want Van to know first, which I accepted. Otherwise, I don’t give a shit who knows about us. I’m not ashamed of you, Kia. If anything, I’m pretty smug about you being mine in the first place. My friends, my real friends, won’t care who I’m with so long as I’m happy. They won’t make me choose between them and the person I want in my life.”
I knew a jab when I heard one. I knew he was talking about Nessie.
“That’s not fair,” I whispered.
His gaze burned into mine. “Neither is you never picking us.”
He was out the door before I could think to protest. I heard the cab outside roll out of the driveway and suppressed the urge to kick the door. I lightly touched the outline of the swans etched into the cameo hanging from my throat. I hadn’t taken the thing off once since he’d given it to me. It had some kind of inexplicable magic that calmed me when I touched it, which was something I needed at that moment.
“Kia?”
Turning away from the front door, I faced Mrs. Chaves who sat on the sofa with a crossword puzzle in her lap. I wondered briefly if she’d seen or heard my argument with Adam. Then I realized I just didn’t care. As first fights went, I didn’t like it. I didn’t like him leaving afterwards. It was driving me crazy having to wait until he returned to fix things between us.
“Yes?”
“Could you go wake Vanessa up, please? It’s almost noon.”
Grateful for the distraction, I climbed the stairs to the second floor. I reached our room and slipped into the semi-darkness.
“Nessie?”
The curtains were pulled closed, keeping at bay the soft light of early afternoon. I contemplated flipping the lights on, but opted not to get killed that early in the game. I crossed to the lamp on the nightstand, and stopped.
She was awake. I could just make out her silhouette sitting up on the bed with the sheets over her lap and her back against the headboard. She was holding something in her lap, but I couldn’t make it out.
“Nessie?” I slipped onto the mattress and crawled over to her. “You okay?”
Without a word, the thing in her hand flared to life. The light was a painful contrast to the gloom. The phone was passed to me.
Curious, yet oddly terrified, I took it in my sweaty, shaky fingers. I curled my legs under me and peered down at the screen.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. A part of me had been so sure it would be a picture of me and Adam, or something similar. But it wasn’t us. It was two people I vaguely recognized in a position that left little doubt that they were doing things very inappropriate considering they were outside in a park.
“Is that … Gary?” I squinted harder at the picture. “Who’s the girl?” And why were they contaminating that park bench?
“Read the message.” Her voice was thick, a sure sign she was crying.
Drawing back my arm, I scrolled down to read the two lines, Guess someone got what they wanted. There are still thirty more players on the team. Start making your rounds, whore.
I gasped, horrified. “Who sent this?”
She shrugged, wiping at her cheeks with the corner of the sheets. “Probably someone from school. I don’t know. I don’t care.” She took the phone and tossed it aside before drawing her knees up to her chin. “I knew something had changed since the night we, you know, did it. He started acting weird, like he couldn’t get away from me fast enough. I thought maybe some time apart would make him miss me. Instead…”
“Nessie—”
“He was supposed to come up today.” She cut me off. “He texted me an hour ago to tell me his mom needed the car and he was going to stay home.”
I took the phone and looked the picture over again. “Maybe this is old?”
Leaning over, she took it back from me. “I gave him that scarf before we left. Plus the photo’s time stamped. He’s with her right now. I know he is because he’s not answering my calls and his text messages sound weird.”
“I think you should be more concerned about the text rather than the picture,” I said. “Did you read it?”
“Of course I read it, Kia,” she muttered. “And it’s nothing compared to some of the others I’ve been getting.”
I felt my eyes go wide. “What do you mean others?”
“Exactly what I said.” She sniffed. “I know it’s one of his stupid friends thinking they’re funny.”
I grabbed the phone from her and began sifting through her other messages and was appalled and furious by some of them. A few were from the same number, but there were several that only sent one or two messages, but they were the worst, calling Nessie a whore and a slut and making lewd offers that made me feel dirty just reading. They seemed to have been going on for days, steadily growing more frequent until there were six or seven different messages coming in from several different numbers.
“Vanessa, who are these people?” I demanded, my voice barely concealing the rage blazing inside me. “Why are they saying these things to you?”
“I don’t know!” she said loudly. “I told them I would phone the police but they won’t stop.”
“We have to tell your parents.” I began crawling off the bed. “They’ll know—”
I was tackled from behind and held down by Nessie’s entire weight on my back. “You can’t tell them!” she hissed into my ear. “Swear it, Kia!”
“What? No! You—”
“I won’t ever speak to you if you tell anyone!” The phone was torn from my hand.
I shoved her off me and rolled over. “Why? God, this is serious! You have to—”
“No, I don’t.” She flipped the phone off and tucked it under the pillow before sitting on it. “And neither do you.”
“But your parents—”
“Won’t give a shit, Kia!” she practically screamed. “Have you met my parents? Does it look like they care what happens to me? My dad wants to send me to bum-fuck-Idaho because he can’t stand me anymore. Telling them about this will only prove that I’m a complete waste of space.”
I scrambled up into sitting position. “That isn’t true. They love you—”
“They love Adam. They put up with me. There’s a difference. The only thing they worry about is people finding out what a fuck-up I am and stop going to them to get their teeth polished. I’m an embarrassment, someone they have to keep cleaning up after.”
“Nessie, please, I’ll go down with you. We’ll tell them together.”
“Tell them what exactly, Kia? That I’m getting offers for sex? It won’t come as a shock to them. These are actually pretty tamed compared to the ones I was getting six months ago.”
I frowned. “What happened six months ago?”
There were several minutes of silence where I thought maybe she wouldn’t answer me. Then I heard her snort a sardonic laugh before replying, “Might as well tell you, I guess. You’ll find out soon enough anyway.”
I shifted closer. “Find what out?”
“That I’m the whore of Mayferd, or at least that’s what the majority of the faculty, parents and students of Vina Academy say, which is actually kind of funny.”
“How?” I demanded, not seeing the humor.
“Well, I sleep with one guy and I get labeled for life. Taylor Kahn sleeps with the entire student body and she gets elected valedictorian. But I guess if my daddy was pouring ten grand into the school a month, I’d get my ass licked clean too.”
“What happened, Nessie?” I asked.
“I just told you,” she replied evenly. “I was young and stupid and fell in love. He was my first and I fully believed we would be together forever, and we probably would have been if it hadn’t been for Taylor.” She shifted, pulling the sheets up over her raised knees. “She found out about us and told the Dean, who set out to make an example out of us.”
I frowned. “Why would—”
“Because it was against the rules,” she said. “Students aren’t allowed to have relations with teachers.”
I gasped. “A teacher? Are you kidding me?”
“Will you relax?” she snapped. “He wasn’t a real teacher. He was nineteen and training as a teacher’s aide. It was for extra credit and he was only supposed to be doing it for six months. But there was something in the contract he signed about fraternizing with students and whatever. Anyway, Taylor found out and the next thing I knew, I was sitting in the Dean’s office with my parents, getting expelled. Zach got fired and kicked out as well. It was worse for him because suddenly no one wanted to hire him after that. He got arrested and everything like he was some criminal. He wound up moving out of Mayferd, leaving me here to rot. So, now you know.”
I had always wondered what Nessie had done to get kicked out of Vina. I asked her the first time we met on the bus, but she never said. She always just told me I couldn’t handle it if I knew. I thought it was because of her detention fetish or maybe she hit another girl. Small, stupid things, which I guess thinking about it now was probably stupid of me. People didn’t get expelled for small, stupid things.
“Why would Taylor do that?” I asked finally.
I heard her inhale deeply. “Because of Adam.”
I started. “Adam? What does Adam have to do with this?”
Nessie laughed, the hate in her voice like toxic poison. I could feel the bitterness of it wash over me even from a distance. “Everything. Adam always has everything to do with everything. He is my black cat, my curse. Dramatic? Maybe, but very true. Adam is the bane of my existence.”
“What did he do?” I demanded, irritation creeping through me.
“Taylor wanted Adam and what Taylor wants, Taylor gets. She’s kind of the female version of Adam in that aspect. Anyway, she and Adam hook up and like every girl Adam gets between the sheets, he dumps her. Taylor comes to me and asks me to make Adam take her back, like I have that kind of power or something. I told her I wouldn’t, even if I could. She was supposed to be my best friend after all. That’s when I found out that the only reason she ever befriended me was because she wanted Adam and I was the fastest ticket to him
. Stupid me, I didn’t get that memo so I poured my heart out to her about me and Zach. Next thing I knew, she and Adam were back together and I was waiting for the bus to a new school.”
“Wait, you got her and Adam back together and she still told the Dean on you?”
Nessie laughed. “Oh, Kia, you’re so stupid for someone so smart.” I reminded myself she was upset and didn’t mean it, but I couldn’t help the sharp spike of anger at her words. “I was the means to an end. She got what she wanted. She didn’t need me anymore, nor could she afford to keep me around.”
“But why?” I said, not understanding any of it. “If she got what she wanted, why couldn’t she leave you alone?”
“Because!” Nessie snapped. “Girls like Taylor and Claudia don’t need a reason. They live to make other people miserable. Plus, I did the unthinkable, I said no to Taylor. I told her I wouldn’t help her get into bed with my brother. That was unacceptable. It was unheard of. I needed to go before my illness infected the others.”
It made sense. It was no surprise that Nessie had been part of the popular group in Vina. I knew had she wanted, she could have given Claudia a run for her money when she switched to Margaretson High. It surprised more than one person when she gave that up for me. I’d always wanted to ask her, but I was a coward. I wasn’t sure I would like the answer. So I never did.
“What did Adam say when he found out?”
Nessie snorted. “Found what out? No one listened to me. Mom and Dad went into instant clean up mode, greasing palms to keep it quiet, not sure why. The whole school knew. Taylor made sure of it. As for Adam, he’s still sleeping with her.”
I almost choked on my spite. “What?”
Rather than answer me, Nessie said, “Do you remember that girl he was obsessed over like last week? The one he met at that Halloween party?” She didn’t wait for me to respond as she continued. “He’s already over her. He was with Claudia all of last week at her place and the only reason he came here to go skiing with his friends was because of Taylor. He’s with her right now.”
She was throwing things too fast at me. Each new piece of information slammed into my gut, making me want to double in pain.
Revealing Kia (The Lost Girl Series, Book 2) Page 12
