by Lisa Daniels
Her eyes narrowed at the implication. “I am not crazy.”
To her surprise, the man laughed. “I don’t think people would make that assumption. More like they would question your ability to think if you have to hear your thoughts to understand them. It’s kind of like explaining things to a child.”
“Are you saying I’m stupid?”
“Why exactly are you being so defensive? I’m just giving you advice.”
“Some advice. Everything out of your mouth sounds a lot more like criticism than advice.”
The man paused and looked at her for a moment. The sudden sound of The X-Files theme song rang out. The man slipped his hand in his pocket. “Excuse me.” He turned his back on her as he answered his phone, “What now?”
Serenity immediately turned and stalked away from the man, her mind spinning through numerous insults she would like to have hurled at him. Pulling her headphones out, she shoved them in her ears and kept walking.
Her anger subsided after a while as Serenity explored a new path. It led her up to a point that overlooked a large valley. In the background she could see Mount Rainier and on the other end of the valley Mount Baker peeked out. It was beautiful and made her feel at peace. After the last 24 hours, she was glad for the sense of relaxation and clam. Sitting down, she began to meditate. It was only as she began to clear her mind that Serenity realized she hadn’t done this since her arrival in Deep River. Perhaps that was why things were bothering her so much. Usually she had a better grip on her emotions, but she had not really been acting like herself for the last day or so.
Time passed, but she did not pay any attention to it. All that mattered at the moment was recentering herself. It was going to be a very long school year if she started it off feeling off-kilter.
At one point during her meditation, a sound from the bracken caught her attention. Turning her head to the side, Serenity tried to find what was making the noise. She had heard that there were cougars in the woods, and bears. It seemed unlikely that they would be this close to the town. Right? Suddenly a squirrel burst out from the bracken and shot up a tree, screeching as it went. Placing a hand on her chest, Serenity smiled and closed her eyes. She would periodically hear rustling, but the noises did not quite penetrate her thoughts as she escaped into herself.
When she finally felt better, Serenity rose and looked out over the landscape. “It really is breathtaking up here. I can’t imagine moving somewhere that didn’t offer–” Suddenly she cut off her verbal thinking. Without thinking about it, she looked around, half expecting to see the man she had encountered earlier. Giving a sigh of relief, she put the headphones in her ears and started down the path. As long as she was listening to music, she wouldn’t talk to herself. Even if she did, she wouldn’t hear his response. Not a bad form of defense. It certainly worked back home.
Serenity was making her way down the trail when her phone buzzed. Frowning, she pulled it out of her pocket. There on her screen was the name of a place. Her frown deepened until she realized that she was supposed to be meeting up with the group going whitewater rafting. Her eyes shifted to the time. She only had about 15 minutes until she was supposed to be there. Picking up her pace, Serenity was almost running down the trail.
When she reached the place where she had encountered the mystery man twice, she slowed down. She did not want to trip and fall in front of him, giving him one more thing to criticize her for. Her feelings were mixed when she looked to the side and saw that the man wasn’t in his usual spot. Automatically, Serenity began looking around, half expecting to see the man smirking at her with some quip to belittle her. When she didn’t see him anywhere, the woman began to jog down the trail. Obviously she wasn’t going to be on time, but at least she could be only five or ten minutes late.
Not the best impression to make. As she thought that, Serenity thought back to the conversation that she had had with the two people who were going. Somehow, she didn’t think that it would be that much of a faux pas to be late for the impromptu get-together. It’s not like there had been much time to prepare. Once she reached the bottom of the trail, she pulled out her phone again and texted them that she would be a little late. She apologized for not having texted earlier, then explained that she was somewhere with bad reception.
Seconds later a text arrived.
“Quite alright.”
“We are still a couple short, so you are fine.”
“Oh, nope, make that one other short. Someone else just arrived.”
“See you soon!”
Serenity smiled at the texts. Something about Cora reminded her of her friend, Eva, although Eva was a bit more reserved around people she didn’t know.
I would prefer to not be the last one there, she thought as she began jogging again. She could slow down when she got a bit closer, that way she wouldn’t be too out of breath. After taking some time to really get it together, Serenity was feeling slightly excited about the meeting. With any luck, I won’t have to spend a lot of time trying to get to know people in my classes. I didn’t move here to spend time inside.
Smiling that things might be about to get more interesting, Serenity turned down the street to the diner.
Chapter 4
A Lively Gathering
It was only when she opened the door to the diner that Serenity realized she was lacking basic information to figure out who she was meeting. There had been no descriptions of people or what they were wearing. Looking around, she had no idea which one of the several groups was the one she was supposed to be meeting. She stood there looking around, wondering if she should text Cora.
“You must be our newest member.” A woman with platinum blonde hair in a very cute pixie cut walked up to her. “Hi! I’m Cora.”
Serenity took her outstretched hand. “Serenity. Thanks for setting this up on such short notice. I feel guilty.”
Cora laughed, her musical voice echoing around them. Serenity noticed that several people turned to look at her, mostly men, and Serenity recognized the look they were giving Cora. If she had to guess, at least half of the men in the diner were in love with the girl. A sincere smile spread across her face. Suddenly Serenity felt very comfortable with the beautiful woman in front of her. Finally, she would not be attracting a lot of attention because there was someone else far more desirable than her. Unlike Serenity, Cora did not seem to realize just how pretty she was. At about five foot one inch tall, Cora was a small package with a lot of energy. Exactly the kind of thing that would make a guy want to protect her. Right?
“Wow, look at you!” Cora had stepped back and was looking Serenity up and down. “So tall and thin. I bet people ask you if you are a model all the time. So jealous!”
Serenity shook her head, “I don’t think you have anything to be jealous about. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the trip. I’ve never been whitewater rafting.”
“What, really? So Alaric just threw you into this with no experience.” She had a concerned look on her face. “We aren’t doing one of the trips that are great for beginners.”
“Is that a problem? Should I wait until next time?”
Cora twisted her lips to the side, “Maybe we should change the plans and do something a little easier.”
“Oh no, I don’t want you guys changing everything for me. You don’t even–”
“Cora, are you hogging the newest member of our group? Woah!” A tall man appeared behind her and was looking at Serenity in the way that she was accustomed to men reacting to her. For the first time in a long time she didn’t mind. His floppy, dark brown hair framed a young face in a way that reminded her of a puppy. If she had to guess, he couldn’t have been older than 20 years old. Then he took her hand, lifted it up to his mouth and kissed it. “I’m Silas.” He looked at her, his face tilted slightly down.
Serenity gave him a sincere smile. “Serenity.”
“Now that is a beautiful name. I bet you are nothing like our little Cora here. Oooph!” He leaned forwar
d, dropping Serenity’s hand.
“Stop it, Silas, you are going to scare her away. Come on.” The last sentence was directed at Serenity. “We are over here. You need to meet everyone else.”
“So I am the last one here?” She felt a little guilty.
“Don’t worry about it,” Silas appeared beside her. “Cora said you were out of range. So where do you live that you don’t get good reception? Out toward the old mill? Or are you close to the river?”
“Oh, no, I get good reception at home.” She was looking at Silas as they reached the table. He pulled her chair out, and she couldn’t help but blush. “That isn’t necessary.”
“I want to.” His smile was dazzling, exposing just a little bit of his teeth between perfectly pink lips. His hair swayed near his gorgeous hazel eyes, and she couldn’t help the passing thought that he was incredibly good-looking in addition to being friendly.
Serenity smiled and sat down. It had been a long time since she had allowed anyone to do that, so it was a little awkward as he pushed the chair in while she was in it. He dropped down in the seat next to her. “So,” he put his elbow on the table and kept her attention, “where were you that you didn’t have much signal?”
Serenity opened her mouth to answer when a man’s voice cut in, “She was with me up at Willowdown Peak.”
The smile on Serenity’s face slid away as she recognized one of the members of the group. Turning her head, she looked at the man who had twice interrupted her walk on the trail near her home.
Beside her Silas became agitated. “What did you do? Ditch her to get here first?”
“No. She ditched me when Cora called. I didn’t know she was coming here because she never said a word about it.”
Serenity simply looked at him, her mind racing with all kinds of responses to what he was saying. The first thing she wanted to do was to let everyone there know that she had not been with him on purpose.
Silas put a hand over hers, startling Serenity. “Don’t worry, Serenity. I’ll take care of you now. You can forget about that jerk.”
Serenity turned and smiled at Silas, “Don’t worry about it. I really don’t know anything about him.”
Silas pursed his lips, then started to smile. “Well, if you are willing to hang out with someone you don’t know, that means we can start hanging out as soon as this is over.”
Serenity laughed a little. “Actually, I am already far more familiar with you than him.” She tilted her head to the side to indicate the guy sitting on the other side of the table.
Cora finally cut in, “Well, I’m not sure if you are simply humoring this guy,” she gave the back of Silas’s head a light slap, “but I think we need to do introductions with everyone else.”
Silas let go of Serenity’s hand and rubbed his hand on the back of his head. “Fine. We’ll continue this later.” He winked at Serenity.
Cora stood behind the woman on the other side of Silas, and travelled around the table as she introduced each of the members. “That’s Josie. She was one of the first people to join. If you need to know where to go to get supplies, start with her – she’s our resident expert. Beside her are Jackie and Jake. They aren’t going to be joining us this time, but I wanted to have them here so you could meet them. Next is Phillip. He does a lot of recon for us. The twins are Trenton and Jacqueline, our skiing experts. They’ll be joining us for this one, though. And you already know Ryland.”
Serenity looked at the man who didn’t look like he was about to say anything else. “Actually, no. We’ve only met up twice at the viewpoint he mentioned. He’s never even told me his name.”
“Ryland!” Cora gave him a slap on the arm as she sat down on Serenity’s other side. “You still being antisocial?”
“Not at all. I spoke to her first both times.”
“What? Really?” Cora look shocked and turned to get confirmation from Serenity.
“Yes, technically that is true. But he didn’t seem interested in continuing the discussion once he initiated it.”
“That sounds more like him,” Silas muttered on her other side. “Thought it sounded suspicious when he said they were hanging out before he got here.”
“Still, he talked to someone without being prompted. Then again, given who he talked to, guess it isn’t too surprising.”
“Hey!” Ryland didn’t seem too pleased with the implications. “I only responded to her talking to herself. The first time I didn’t even realize that she was talking to herself, and I didn’t want to be rude.”
Serenity gave him a look of shock that he would bring that up after warning her not to do it anymore.
“You talk to yourself, too, huh?” Silas rested on his hand again. “If you need someone to listen, I am willing to always be there.”
Serenity frowned, “Who else talks to themselves?”
Almost everyone at the table answered, “Alaric.”
Looking around, Serenity asked, “The professor talks to himself?”
“All the time,” Ryland answered from his relaxed position.
Cora laughed, “Yeah, I think that most of his students would be a little less interested in him if they knew.”
“I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Serenity said, feeling like she should stick up for the man who was responsible for her being there.
“Of course you would. You do it yourself,” Ryland said, his eyebrow arched and a slight smile on his lips.
“Oh, honey,” Cora put a hand on Serenity, “I hope you aren’t hoping to get his attention. That guy is the highest maintenance man I’ve ever known. Even more difficult than Silas there.”
Without thinking, Serenity asked, “Even more difficult than Ryland?”
He chuckled as Cora looked surprised. “You think Ryland is high maintenance? Oh, dear God, no wonder you fell for Alaric. I bet you come from a small town with incredibly friendly men.”
“Actually, no. I grew up on the east coast near D.C.”
There were some gasps from several of the people at the table. Silas became agitated. “You’re from the east coast? I have always wanted to go and check it out. I want to hear all about it.”
“Silas,” Jaqueline cut in, “you can hit on her later. Right now we are supposed to be planning.”
Serenity had been watching Ryland out of the corner of her eye, waiting for him to mention that she had actually spent time in New England, but he didn’t show any indication of wanting to add to the conversation.
“Jaqueline’s right. Our Serenity here hasn’t been whitewater rafting before, so I think that we may need to change our plans a bit.”
“No, please don’t, not on my account. You guys have been planning this for a while–”
“Less than a week, actually,” Cora interrupted her.
“Oh, well still. I don’t want you guys to have to change your plans. I can always wait for the next time.”
“No!” Silas was quite adamant. “I don’t think that will be necessary. I’ll take care of you.”
Serenity tried to graciously decline when Ryland cut in, “I really don’t think that is a good idea.”
“Why not?” Josie asked. “I think that we’ve done enough planning that changing it up will be too much of a pain.”
“I agree,” Jackie chimed in. “We’ve already made a payment. Besides, there are enough of us here that I think we can take care of any possible issues.”
Trenton added, “It should be easy enough to keep her secured. Just don’t put her in the front or the back, and she should be fine.”
Ryland looked around. It looked like he wanted to say something, but he knew that he was outnumbered. Serenity watched as he shrugged his shoulders and resigned himself to accepting the decision of the rest of the group. Not entirely sure that she agreed with the group, Serenity didn’t want to agree with the guy who had caused her to lose sleep the night before.
“Okay. I’m in.” She smiled as she looked around, avoiding making eye contact with Ryl
and.
“Awesome!” Silas said from her left side.
“Fantastic!” Cora said on her right side.
The group began to chatter and talk amongst themselves now that the main decision had been made.
“So which one of Alaric’s classes are you in?” Silas lost no time trying to get all of Serenity’s attention to himself.
“Oh, just–”
“Give it a rest, Silas. Seriously, she’s not here to talk about school. Besides, it’s not healthy to get her to talk about that guy.”
Serenity turned her head a few times trying to look between them. “You guys really don’t talk very highly of him.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” Silas held his hands up. “When you need help, there is no one more reliable than Alaric. He’s a fantastic guy, but, well…” his voice trailed off.
“He tends to find himself in trouble a lot.” Ryland’s words were casual, but really struck a chord.
Serenity frowned. “How so? Somehow I can’t imagine him being a police suspect.”
“Not that kind of trouble,” Ryland said, giving her a smile.
“Yeah. It’s best that you forget about him. You can do that with us,” Cora beamed at her.
Serenity scratched her face, “If I’m being honest, he’s the reason I moved here.”
“Oh, dear God! Why?” Silas looked like he was in agony. “I can’t believe you are so far gone.”
Ryland shrugged his shoulders, the smile never leaving his lips. “She’s hardly the first woman to follow the fearless leader.”
Silas got suddenly quiet. Serenity turned to look at him, but Cora caught her attention first. “As much as I hate to say it, I think that I’ll have to give you to Silas so you forget that guy. Honestly, he’s never taken a woman seriously. He disappears for weeks at a time, and no one could say why.”
Serenity’s eyes widened, “Well, he’s still involved in his business. That doesn’t come as too much of a surprise.”
