The rain was really coming down, so I ran to my car, hoping to dodge the raindrops. I opened the driver’s door to my Honda and got in. Before I could turn the key, I felt a horrendous, debilitating pain dragging razor blades up and down my arms and legs, deep inside me. “Owww,” I shrieked before I could stop myself. But then, just as fast as it had come, it was gone, and I was left sitting there in its wake, hyperventilating and wondering what was wrong with me.
CHAPTER IV
I MADE IT TO school without any more bizarre episodes, but I still wondered what was going on. It was irritating. True to form, the rain was just a light drizzle and it made the wipers chatter across my windshield. Bdraaaap, flaaaap. So I walked the dangerous line between embarrassment and annoyance and the need to see where I was going. I was clicking them on and off all the way to school. Lame…
I cringed when I pulled into the parking lot. Kim had told me that Michael Alexander drove a huge white Chevy truck and there it sat, gleaming in the rain. My stomach did a flip, and I sucked it in and found a parking space. Isn’t that great. Here I am ... I haven’t even met the guy and I’ve already had an entire relationship with him in my imagination. Just go to class and get this over with. He’s just a dumb boy like all the others. This stupid obsession will run its course and in another week or two, he’ll be just another guy. Get a grip, Airel.
I walked to my first class with no sign of the mysterious new boy. I was glad about that because I didn’t want to face him and risk the chance of a repeat of yesterday’s disaster. I felt off my game, if I had one at all. My body was fighting this illness—no doubt brought on by my idiotic and uncontrollable feelings—and even the thought of him made me panicky, or worse, made me want to cry.
I knew I would have to see him in the halls. And we would have more classes together, too—at least if the world were as sucky as I thought it could be. I ran ideas through my mind about how to avoid him.
Kim found me in between classes and gave me a quick hug. “Are you going to live?” She had that familiar smile on her face.
“Yeah, I think I might make it today. You may want to stay away from me, though. I could be contagious.” I coughed in my hand and felt my forehead as if I had a fever.
“Ha. Only if you can catch the love bug.” Her eyes sparkled and she wore yet another dumb grin on her face.
We reached my locker and I ran the combination. “Funny. I would say he’s way out of my league, if I didn’t respect myself too much to go there.” I opened my locker door. “Besides, what does it matter, anyway? Even if I do think he’s hot, why should he care? He doesn’t even know I exist.” I knew it was a bald-faced lie, and I knew Kim knew it too.
But Kim was silent—which should have been my first clue. She was looking past me with her brows arched just a little, as if expecting something.
Like a mindless automaton, I turned around to see what she was looking at. There, standing two feet from me, was Michael Alexander. My heart jumped and—I swear—it stopped for a second. Now he was right in front of me, with the suggestion of a smile on his face. He had the most gorgeous crystal-blue eyes I had ever seen in my life and he was looking at me with that same soul-sucking look of his.
Kim stepped into the middle, cutting in between us. “Hi, I’m Kim. You new in town? How do you like it here?” Some other jock guy I hadn’t noticed was standing next to Michael. I groaned under the pressure, diving behind my locker door and hiding my face, wondering what I had done to deserve this. Me and my big fat mouth, that’s what.
Michael looked around her toward me and smiled. “Hey, I’m Michael Alexander.” It was obvious that he was being polite by answering her, while not actually talking to her at all. He was seeing me again. I looked out at him from behind my locker door, flushed, and then dove behind it again. I was not used to feeling flustered. I could talk to just about anyone and hold my own, but he was making my mind go blank.
“Michael …” Kim said, as if his name was completely novel. “Good to meet you. This is my friend Airel.” As she hiked a thumb at me, I could see the wicked smirk on her face. I was going to kill her. Murder, kill—and then for the kicker—unfriend her on Facebook.
“Hi…” I trailed off into nothing. Just “hi.” I probably sounded like I had some disease—which I wasn’t ruling out just yet. I thought of giving him my name, but Kim had already spilled those beans, and besides, I couldn’t for the life of me remember what my name was. I blushed even more, which made Kim giggle. From the smirk on his face, I could tell Michael was enjoying my discomfort. Boys are just evil.
“You’re Airel?” he asked. “I heard you got sick yesterday.” The smirk took on just the slightest hint of compassion, which nearly killed me. “You okay today?”
“Everyone’s been asking me that,” I growled, directing my wrath at Kim. Great—the new guy knew I was a sicko … that meant the whole school knew. Perfect.
“Yeah,” Kim said, “she’s doing better today. She’s glad to meet you.”
Say something intelligent, Airel. Get that mouth moving and stop gawking at him. “Uh…” Nice start, stupid. “Yeah, I’m much better today. Must have been a … a twenty-four hour … sort of … thing. And yes, I am Airel, like she mentioned—this is Kim.” I redirected the conversation to her, hoping Michael would just go away and not notice that all the introductions had already been made.
No, wait—I wanted him to stay. Hashtag facepalm.
“Kim, nice to meet you,” he said. “Again.” The smirk came once more, directed at me, God help me. “I guess I’ll see you around, yeah?” He smiled for me, then looked at Kim, lifting his hand in a half wave, and turned toward the cafeteria. His jock friend followed, and I could hear them laughing. I saw Michael hit the other guy in the arm.
I heard a few giggles from other girls peppering the stifling air, and saw a few football players rolling their eyes.
“Hi?” Kim asked. “Way to go, Airel.” She was a little beside herself. “Good thing I was here. You might have just stood there gawking at him.” She tossed her books into her locker and stood now, grinning from ear to ear, looking like a stupid cartoon character.
What is it with her lately? “Whatever, Kim. I wasn’t ready for that.” I shoved my books into my locker and glared at her. “And thanks for ambushing me. You could have at least warned me he was standing right there the whole time.” This was turning out to be a bad week. All I wanted to do was go home, curl up under the covers, and sleep the rain away.
CHAPTER V
SOMEHOW I SURVIVED TO the weekend without embarrassing myself any further, thank God. The school was buzzing about the new guy on set, and it made me—well, I guess I’m not sure what it made me. Things were complicated inside my head as a general rule, and since Michael Alexander had been added to that pseudo-chaos, I was beginning to think odd things indeed.
I even caught myself acting jealous of him. I had this thing: if I had a friend, and if I felt like I had a small claim on someone, then they were mine—dibs. When other people started crowding in on that, it made me uncomfortable. And it’s not like I was the only one who thought this way.
From what I heard, guys had this “code” or something, which meant they couldn’t date a girl if their buddy dated her. Well, we had our code as girls, too. If you put a claim on a guy, he was yours until you released him. Whether or not he liked you back had nothing to do with anything. I guess I was trying to justify my more volatile thoughts about Michael and how others saw him, but just because I knew that didn’t mean I felt any better about the whole thing.
I went over to Kim’s house pretty early Saturday morning to pick her up. We were both up for a day of retail therapy—admittedly rare for me—but since I had the money, I decided I needed a new pair of jeans. Okay, maybe “need” was too strong a word, but I wanted to go shopping. And I wanted to feel awesome by looking awesome.
As I drove the Honda toward the mall, Kim chatted up a storm. We were both so over all the lame and weird events of
the past week, and I had to admit that I was looking forward to a day of nothing but girl time.
It was nice out, unlike most of the previous week, and the sun shone in full force. Kim was going on about her latest crush, James Carver. He was the new star quarterback, a transfer from another school. And he was also way out of her league, but who was I to burst her bubble? I let her have her dreams; she’d most likely get bored and move on within a couple of weeks anyway.
I pulled in to the Sunrise Café and parked. I needed breakfast and a cup of coffee with lots of cream. I guessed Mom was starting to get to me. The unrelenting rants on breakfast were beginning to sink in. Maybe she was right anyway, and I should take more time in the mornings to eat. Then again, maybe she was just being a mom. Whatever the case, I had to confess to myself that somewhere deep inside I had become a little nervous about eating lately.
“Did you see him at practice yesterday?” Kim was rambling. “Like, he had his shirt off, and man oh man, was he buff. I wonder if he saw me. I think he was waving at me, but I’m not sure.” Kim smiled and tugged on her purse strap as we went into the little mom-and-pop café.
“Kim, you do realize he’s the quarterback, right? He’s the one all the cheerleaders and every other bimbo are after. Believe me, you don’t want to make a play for that guy.” I grabbed a booth and looked at the menu, hoping she would wise up. Knowing her, it was a lost cause.
Kim shut her mouth and stuck out her lower lip. “Thanks for being a total buzz kill. You can’t help who you fall in love with.”
“Come on, Kim. Love? You’ve talked to the guy like what—once?” I hated to be the voice of reason, especially when in actuality, I ought to have been taking a little of my own advice. I tried to stop thinking about Michael, but everything I looked at—every billboard, every sign, and every newspaper—reminded me of him.
“Look who’s talking, Miss Suddenly in Love with the New Hottest Guy in School. No, check that—in the entire town. And you have the nerve to give me grief?”
Busted. She had me. I hid a smile behind my menu.
Just in time, the waitress came by to get our orders.
“I’ll have the Sunrise breakfast and a coffee,” I said. There were lots of individual creamers in the little dish on the table, plus sugar to drown out the bitterness. I’d learned how to make coffee my grandpa’s way—he loved cream and sugar. Now, if there wasn’t the possibility of a coconut latte, I couldn’t take it any other way.
Kim had obviously decided what she wanted, but she was still trying to hold on to her pouting lip. It made me laugh. “Give me the French toast with a side of bacon,” she said, “lots of bacon. And OJ, please.” Our waitress hurried away with a smile.
I sat back and looked through the crowd—local farmers and regulars reading the Thrifty Nickel. The place was definitely hometown. There was a wagon wheel on the wall, painted saws with mountain scenes on them, and other Old West stuff. We were a bit out of place, surrounded by farmers and construction workers, but I loved eating at the Sunrise Café. It was nostalgic. I used to pop in for breakfast with my dad back when he had more time off.
I loved my dad, but somehow he and I had grown apart over the years. It might have been a simple case of growing up, but I missed our little father/daughter dates.
I was thinking about the first time I’d been here with him when I noticed that Kim was silent. That meant something was off. “What?” I asked a bit defensively. She was looking at me as if I had three eyes.
“Did you change your makeup? You did something different today.” She was leaning closer, and just like her, she had to touch my face. People talk about their bubbles. Kim’s bubble was much smaller than mine, to the point of having no bubble at all.
I recoiled as politely as I could, just out of her reach. “No, just the same old thing I always do. Why, what’s wrong?” I pulled my compact out and looked at my reflection to see what all the fuss was about—did I have a zit making an appearance?
“I don’t know… it’s just that something looks different. Like, in a good way. You look like you have a smoother complexion. No little blackheads and tiny bumps, like normal.”
“Thanks a lot. I didn’t know my face was inspected every morning by the zit patrol.” I didn’t see anything worth getting all worked up about, but I did look good, considering how I’d only jumped out of bed and pulled my hair back in a pony. It was Saturday, I was going shopping with my best friend, and who cared about anything else?
“Hmm. Well, maybe it’s that new cream I got you. Maybe I’ll have to borrow it some time. We all know I need it.” Kim flipped her reddish hair and it bounced like she was a shampoo commercial girl. She was pretty. She had three faint freckles on her right cheek that she hated violently. She always plastered on foundation to try to hide them, but I thought they were kind of adorable.
Our food came. I took a bite of my fave—scrambled eggs. I was savoring them when, like a freight train, barf-o-matic showed up in full force. Come on. Not on my weekend. I need a break. Please … My chest felt very tight and a wave of nausea flooded over me. I almost lost it right there all over my breakfast. I jumped up, knocking over my steaming cup of coffee, and ran to the bathroom. Yet another great start to a perfect day—spilling coffee and puking in the bathroom. This is starting to get old.
Seconds behind me, Kim burst into the bathroom and saw me hunched over a grungy toilet having a close conversation with the porcelain. “Awww. Airel, what’s wrong? Girl, you need to see a doctor. This is not normal. I mean, you’ve got some sort of bug or something.”
I heaved one more time and then started to feel a little better, like it was going away. I walked to the sink and avoided looking in the mirror. “Whatever it is, it sucks.” I splashed water on my face and washed out my mouth. The water tasted sickening and sweet. Ugh. Probably better ask Kim if she has any gum.
“Are you pregnant?”
I looked up in the mirror at my friend, shocked. I shook my head. “Kim. A million other girls …” Only Kim would blurt out that question, and at a time like this, in a dingy café bathroom after I had just thrown up. “Pregnancy requires sex, Kim, which I haven’t had. I’m not pregnant.” Was she just joking around, or did she really think I could be pregnant?
“Hey. I had to ask. I mean, hello, it’s the most obvious question.”
“The most obvious …” I was incredulous. “Kim, do you understand what asking the question means?”
She looked remorseful. “Okay, fine, Airel. I’m sorry. But you need to go see a doctor. Something is definitely up.” She fiddled with her hair and looked at me with her big green eyes. She looked really confused and concerned all at the same time.
“I hate doctors.” It made my stomach hurt just thinking about going there. “I’m fine; it’s just the flu or something like that.” I stood up all the way, testing things. “See? All better.”
“Uh-huh.” She didn’t sound convinced.
“Got any gum?” I asked. She gave me a stick and I took it, chomping into it. “Let’s go. I’m still hungry, and I need to get to the mall quick. I gotta put this bad start to the day behind me.” I lifted my hands in the air and spun around like a little girl in a summer dress, as if this would show how good I was supposed to feel.
Kim rolled her eyes. “Cute. Let’s go.”
After I took one last look at my hair, we left the bathroom and started walking back to our booth. I tried not to look at the other customers, who stared at us as if we were from Mars as we passed by them. I didn’t care. Besides, they were all grizzled old men anyway.
But I did have an odd feeling, an undeniable sense that we were being watched. It gave me goose bumps. I looked around.
It was déjà vu, only this time there were two guys standing in the doorway. One was James—yeah—the James, Kim’s James, as in the star quarterback. Right behind him was Michael Alexander. It was a moment in slo-mo, just like a movie. Kim and I both froze, staring. As soon as we did, they bot
h looked at us. Michael was a Greek god standing there in the morning sun, the light colored T-shirt he wore making his shoulders look like they were going to rip the fabric apart.
I looked away quickly, pretending I hadn’t seen him, and started for our table. My face flushed yet again. Kim, though, gushed and giggled as only she can. “Hey. I can’t believe you guys are here. What are you doing?” She walked right up to them, her body language very open and friendly.
That’s a bad thing. That meant Michael was going to end up at our table, and then … You can do this. Don’t be a baby. Act normal for once in your life and talk to him. Don’t think about what to say. Just act like you’re not a total idiot. I then argued with myself. But I’m not a total idiot. I never go all stupid over boys. What is happening to me?
Michael moved in an easy walk toward our table. Thankfully, the waitress had come in the interim and cleaned up my coffee spill. More déjà vu. Whenever Michael Alexander showed up, I turned into a klutz with a cup of coffee.
I sat down, smoothing my hair, regretting that I hadn’t spent more time on it this morning. I was caught with the kind of ponytail I used for gym class, not chance meetings with gorgeous guys, and there was nothing I could do about it. I imagined my hair was suddenly sticking up everywhere, like I was seriously one of those junior high girls who went out in their pajamas. I cringed inside, hoping he wouldn’t get the wrong impression about me.
“Kim and Airel, right?” Michael’s voice was deep, smooth, sending unexpected shivers up my spine. He seemed like he didn’t even notice my discomfort in his presence. I thought he was a nice person, that he probably did this to every girl, that he didn’t know, that maybe I was the one with the problem. But seriously, how could a guy like that be completely ignorant of the effect he had on people? Is that even remotely possible?
“Yeah,” Kim said, and I could tell she was a little breathless too. “Boy. Michael Alexander and James Carver. Who doesn’t know your names?” She looked at James as if he was on clearance at Vanity.
The Airel Saga Box Set: Young Adult Paranormal Romance Page 3
