Resistance (The Variant Series #2)

by Jena Leigh

  But he also seemed to have recognized Alex’s distraction and her growing concern about the Agency’s test—the one that was now a mere four days away—and was attempting to give her the space she needed to focus.

  At least, she assumed that’s all it was.

  After training with Nathaniel wrapped on Wednesday night, Alex drove home and found Cassie and Kenzie waiting for her on the doorstep.

  She was more taken aback, however, by the collection of brightly colored, helium-filled balloons floating above Cassie’s head.

  The pieces were slow to click into place.

  It was Wednesday.

  Alex’s birthday was tomorrow. She’d been so preoccupied with everything else, that the date completely snuck up on her.

  “Happy early birthday, Lexie!” said Cassie. She placed the group of ribbons into Alex’s hand, before leaning in to give her a hug. “You ready to celebrate?”

  “Celebrate?” she echoed. “But my birthday isn’t until tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, and tomorrow night you’ll be having your annual birthday dinner with Aunt Cil,” said Cassie. “Tonight, however, you have other plans.”

  “Oh, I do, do I?” she said, unlocking the front door and letting the girls inside.

  “Yep,” said Kenzie. “Now go shower, ’cause you kinda smell.”

  Alex shook her head, smiling.

  “And be sure to put on something cute,” said Cassie as Alex made her way up the stairs. “On second thought, you just focus on getting rid of the post-training eau de funk you’re sporting. We’ll pick something out for you while you’re busy.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it. Now… Shower!”

  Forty-five minutes and an argument about high heels later, the sun was setting and Alex was finally parking her jeep out front of McRae’s restaurant.

  On the covered patio, Aiden, Brian, Aaron, Declan and Nathaniel were already seated at a long table overlooking the railing that faced the shore, waiting for them.

  As Alex and the girls stepped onto the patio, the boys got to their feet.

  The next thing Alex knew, a massive sombrero was deposited atop her head and (what she assumed to be) a virgin margarita was placed in her hand, courtesy of the ninja-like waiter who had managed to sneak up behind her while she was distracted.

  Cassie snapped off a picture on her cell phone while Alex mumbled vague threats at her over the sound of the entire patio singing an off-key rendition of Happy Birthday to You.

  Alex sighed… and then smiled in spite of herself.

  If anyone had told her two months earlier that she’d be celebrating her birthday with a noisy crowd of seven close friends—well, six close friends and a newly acquainted weather manipulator, anyhow—she would have politely suggested that person check their meds.

  But this…

  Alex laughed.

  Brian elbowed Declan out of the way so he could be the first to properly greet Alex. The boy wrapped his arms around her midsection, careful to avoid the bare skin of her arms.

  “Happy Birthday, Alex!” he chimed.

  “Aww… Thanks, Bri.” She ruffled his hair. “And to you guys, too,” she said, addressing the rest of the group. “Thanks for this… for remembering.”

  The truth was, she needed this. For weeks now, Alex’s life had been nothing but finals and stress and a myriad of threats coming from every possible direction.

  A night out with her friends? This was the best way she could have hoped to celebrate.

  Brian stepped aside and Declan finally had his chance to greet her.

  After stealing a kiss, he nodded toward her seat at the table where the ninja waiter was now depositing something at her place setting.

  She broke into a grin. A cinnamon roll sundae, complete with crackling sparklers and a lit candle, sat waiting for her.

  “Figured we’d start with dessert first,” Aiden explained.

  “Yeah,” said Kenzie. “And we owed you a sundae, as I recall.”

  As Alex slid into her seat and blew out the candle, her friends began to cheer. And when Declan leaned over to steal a bite of her sundae, she found herself fighting back tears.

  For so long, she’d been the freak. The outcast. The pariah.

  But not anymore.

  No matter what came next, Alex knew she wouldn’t face it alone. She’d been given the greatest gift this life had to offer—Alex had finally found her family.

  — 24 —

  The first time Alex Parker took something from Jessica Huffman, they’d been in the second grade.

  The new girl, Lexie, arrived at Washington Elementary School on a rainy fall day, three months into the new school year.

  Jessica remembered that day quite vividly.

  It was the same day her father walked out the front door of their family’s home in Bay View Heights, never to return again. The same day her father left his old family to start a new one, with a redheaded secretary from his medical practice.

  Jessica’s mom immediately blamed Jessica.

  Too needy. Too obnoxious. Too ordinary.

  She’d driven her father away, her mother insisted. And who could blame him for leaving? Her mother would have left her too, given the choice.

  Jessica, meanwhile, blamed Lexie.

  The moment the dark-haired girl arrived that dreary November day, Jessica’s entire world began falling apart around her. Her mere presence was a curse.

  Her father wasn’t the only person to be taken from her life that day.

  The first person Lexie managed to steal from Jessica, was Jessica’s best friend, Cassandra Harper.

  Jessica and Cassie had been friends since Jessica claimed the girl with the bright blue eyes as her bestie on their first day of kindergarten. For nearly two and a half years, the pair were inseparable.

  Or at least, they were, until Lexie waltzed into the lunch room that first day at Washington Elementary, helped herself to the open seat beside Cassie, and offered Jessica’s bestie half of the sandwich she’d brought for lunch.

  Cassie—who had forgotten her own lunch at home that day—gratefully accepted.

  Jessica would have happily shared half of her own sandwich, had Cassie asked.

  But she hadn’t.

  And so, with one calculated move, Alex Parker managed to buy herself a new best friend for the low, low price of half a soggy PB&J.

  She’d sunk her claws into Cassie, and Lexie—being the conniving brat that she so obviously was—wasn’t about to let her loose again.

  Within a week, Cassie forgot that Jessica even existed.

  Furious and heartbroken, Jessica found new friends.

  Better friends.

  Pretty, empty-headed friends, who were far more easily controlled. Friends whose loyalty couldn’t be bought with a freaking sandwich. By the time they reached high school, Jessica had gathered far too much dirt on her inner-circle for them to ever think of straying.

  But that didn’t stop Alex from stealing other things that should have belonged to Jessica.

  First place in their fourth grade talent show, highest GPA in their class throughout most of high school, fastest swimmer on their team freshman year… Connor.

  Jessica’s grip on the steering wheel turned white-knuckled.

  On the open air patio of McRae’s, Alex’s birthday party appeared to be in full swing. A guy with wavy blond hair—Cassie’s new boy toy—currently had the group’s attention, relating some longwinded story. A funny one, going by the grins on their faces.

  The sounds of their laughter carried across the gravel parking lot to where Jessica sat in the driver’s seat of her white Lexus IS, the windows rolled down.

  When Jessica started at Bay View High as a freshman, she’d had to claw and scrape her way to the top of the school’s social ladder. It was one thing to be the most popular girl in the incoming class—it was another to rule the entire school.

  From day one, that had been Jessica’s goal.
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br />   It took two full years, but, by the time she entered her junior year at Bay View, Jessica had the clout, the crown, and the captain’s position on the Tiger’s varsity cheerleading squad.

  The only thing she still lacked, was Connor.

  Jessica and Connor had dated for a short time during her freshman year, but back then Connor was still a lowly sophomore. So when the opportunity arose for Jessica to accompany a junior-year lacrosse player to prom, she immediately dumped Connor and jumped at the chance.

  She’d always intended to date him again later, obviously, once he became an upperclassman.

  As a football player, Connor was quickly making a name for himself as the star of the team. But at that point, he still had at least another year (and maybe another six inches in height) to go before she could really consider him worthy enough to play the role of her arm candy.

  The only problem with her plan?

  Right around the time Connor became deserving of Jessica’s notice again, he started dating Alex.

  Three months into her junior year the couple was still going strong—a situation that proved surprisingly easy to fix, once Jessica put her mind to it.

  In the darkened cab of her car, Jessica smiled at the memory of what came next.

  Once she’d realized just how easy it was to make the people around her do exactly what she wanted them to, everything else just fell into place.

  Ruining Alex’s life and turning the entire school against her in the process? Well, that was simply a perk.

  Lately, however, Connor had become more and more difficult to control, eventually breaking things off with Jessica for good the month before.

  And—just like every other time something went wrong in Jessica’s life—Alex was the one to blame for the loss.

  Jessica would get Connor back, eventually.

  But for right now, a little payback was most definitely in order.

  Watching Alex on the patio—laughing with her friends, resting happily against Declan’s side—Jessica knew exactly what she needed to do.

  Closing her eyes, the image of Veronica exploding into flames beside her on the dock tore through her thoughts.

  The intense heat, the sight of her friend’s charred remains, the expression on Vee’s face in the instant just before it happened—these were the things that kept Jessica up at night.

  And it was all Alex’s fault.

  Alex brought that man to Bay View.

  Whoever he was and wherever he’d come from, he was there because of Alex. Because of the freakish things she could do.

  There was something wrong with that girl.

  There was something wrong with all of them—Alex and her new friends. They were just as monstrous as Alex herself, Jessica was sure of it.

  Vee was dead because of them. And it was high time that someone made Alex pay for what she’d done.

  On the patio, Alex was gesturing toward the parking lot and pushing back her chair. Declan tugged her gently back into her seat and stood instead, kissing her quickly on the forehead before starting off toward the patio’s steps.

  He was heading toward the gravel lot to get something from Alex’s jeep.

  Jessica climbed out of the Lexus.

  This was exactly the opportunity she’d been waiting for.

  Crossing the darkened lot as silently as she could, she arrived at the jeep a few short moments before Declan.

  She waited until he’d extricated himself from the Wrangler, having found what he was looking for—Alex’s sweater.

  “Hello, Declan,” said Jessica, stepping out from the shadows.

  He closed the Wrangler’s door and turned to face her, surprised and wary.

  “Jessica,” he greeted. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  “Well it is a party, after all,” she said. “And I do love a party.”

  “Funny,” he said. “Don’t remember inviting you.”

  “That is funny,” she said. “And here I’d just assumed my invitation was lost in the mail.”

  “What do you want?”

  Jessica smiled. From where they were standing, they were in clear view of everyone seated on the patio.

  She took a step closer to Declan. “Why, you, of course. Should have thought that was obvious.”

  He started to turn away from her.

  Taking another step closer, Jessica reached out and grabbed hold of him.

  Frowning, Declan glared down at Jessica’s hand where it had latched onto his wrist, then he looked up—and straight into her eyes.

  Oh, you silly, stupid boy, she thought, amused. No getting away from me now.

  Declan’s eyes began to glaze over and Jessica smiled, triumphant.

  “Surely you feel it,” she purred. “This connection between us?”

  “Connection…?” he repeated.

  He was fighting her, even as she redoubled her efforts and strengthened her intentions. Declan wasn’t going to be as easy to sway as Connor had been.

  But she wasn’t about to stop trying.

  “As a matter of fact,” she continued. “You’re just dying to kiss me.”

  In her peripheral vision, Jessica watched as Alex approached the wooden porch railing. She’d seen them.

  Perfect timing.

  “I’m… dying to…”

  “Declan?” Alex’s voice called from the deck, roughly thirty feet away.

  Declan blinked tiredly, working against Jessica’s will and trying desperately to turn his head toward the girl calling out his name.

  She was about to lose him.

  Frustrated, Jessica pulled out all the stops.

  “Kiss me, Declan,” she ordered.

  And so he did. In the next moment, he had Jessica’s back pressed against the door to Alex’s jeep and was kissing her as though his life depended on it.

  As it turned out, this particular flavor of revenge tasted sweetly of cinnamon.

  Once she’d decided enough time had passed, Jessica finally pushed the poor dupe back to arms length.

  Declan wore the dazed expression of a man utterly lost in a fog.

  His soon to be ex-girlfriend, however, looked for all the world as though someone had just ripped her heart right out of her chest.

  Jessica smirked as she locked eyes with Alex.

  I said I’d make you pay, Lexie, she thought.

  Taking Declan by the hand, she guided him back toward her car.

  “Why don’t you give Alex a wave?” she suggested as they walked. “Oh, and don’t forget to smile.”

  He did as she asked. When they reached the car, she gave him one last order.

  “Get in,” she instructed.

  Declan climbed into the passenger side of the Lexus without hesitation.

  Jessica looked back toward the patio. Alex was still watching them with a hollow expression.

  Mission accomplished.

  * * *

  Alex refused to cry.

  She didn’t want to give Jessica the satisfaction.

  Instead, she waited until the girl sauntered back to her car with Declan in tow, climbed behind the driver’s seat and drove away. Only then had Alex pushed off from the railing, walked back to their conspicuously silent table, picked up her purse, and headed back out into the night.

  Alex’s friends called after her as she slowly crossed the gravel lot, but she never turned.

  Reaching the Wrangler, she found her red sweater lying forgotten on the ground beside it. Alex bent to pick up the discarded material and carefully dusted it off.

  For a long moment, Alex stared at the driver’s side door to her jeep.

  The same door Declan had pressed Jessica up against while he… while he…

  Biting down hard on her lower lip, Alex jumped.

  She reappeared on the front porch of her home and sat down heavily on the top step. The motion sensor light attached to the garage flicked on at her arrival, illuminating the driveway and the tree covered front lawn.

  Alex twisted the
red cloth in her hand and stared off into the darkened distance. The tears would come later.

  She’d successfully replaced the initial surge of pain with numbness—and confusion.

  How could he?

  And why would she?

  They hated each other!

  Didn’t they?

  Alex knew she wouldn’t be able to hide from what had just happened. Cassie or Kenzie—or both—would soon be showing up on her doorstep to check on her.

  The same doorstep on which she was currently seated.

  Alex got to her feet. She wasn’t ready for that. She didn’t want to talk about it. Not now. Not ever.

  “Hey, birthday girl!” Cil was seated on the couch in the living room, piles of assorted paperwork scattered on the coffee table before her. “Back so soon?”

  Alex didn’t answer.

  Her aunt, distracted by her work, didn’t appear to notice.

  “Don’t forget,” she called as Alex started up the staircase. “I need you to pick up my dress from the alterations place on your way home from school tomorrow afternoon. They’ll be closed by the time I get out of that meeting with the gallery owners. Oh, and I hope you’ve decided on your own dress. You’ve only got another day left to choose one.”

  At that, Alex missed a step and nearly tumbled backward down the stairs. Thankfully, she managed to catch herself by grabbing hold of the railing.

  The opening gala.

  She’d completely forgotten.

  The opening night celebration of her aunt’s gallery installation had been moved from next Monday up to Friday, in the hopes of drawing a bigger crowd. It would take place the day after tomorrow.

  Swallowing a sigh, Alex said, “No worries, Aunt Cil. I decided on one two weeks ago.”

  Her aunt finally looked up from her work, having recognized the odd timbre of Alex’s voice. “Is everything alright, Lee-Lee?”

  She kept climbing. Her aunt disappeared from view as Alex reached the second floor landing.

  “Everything’s fine, Aunt Cil,” she managed. “I’m just tired. I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

  “Alright, love,” her aunt called. “Sleep well.”

  Alex closed the door softly behind her.

  She stared down at the doorknob beneath her palm, imagining Declan’s long fingers wrapped around it as he opened the door and walked out into the hall.