Stuck in the Moment

by Tracie Puckett

  Chapter Four

  “I’m sorry, walk me through this again,” Mel said. “You did what?”

  “I told Jasper he could help.”

  “Because he’s cute?”

  “No.”

  “Sure.” My friend winked at me, and I rolled my eyes.

  I did that a lot; Dad always accused me of acting just like my older sister. Sometimes I would swear you’re twins, he’d say. It was almost an insult, considering everything she’d put us through. My similarities to Lucy began and ended with our small stature, brown hair, and pale complexion.

  “Okay, so you told him he could help?” Mel asked, weaving through the current of students making their way down the hallway to the cafeteria.

  “Right,” I said.

  It was the following afternoon, and I’d just finished rushing through last night’s events with one of my oldest friends. I’d known Mel and Roz since the first day of kindergarten, and I trusted each of them with my life. But since Roz was on the other side of the school, and Mel was at my side, I started my story with her. Which was a good place to start.

  Sometimes I was certain she knew me better than I knew myself.

  We didn’t have much time to linger on the subject; we’d just reached the cafeteria and staked a claim on our usual table in the back. Roz and Carter would be by any minute with their lunches, and then all talk of the surprise party and our new partnership with Jasper would have to cease.

  Mel pulled a hairband off her wrist to tie her long loose curls into a messy bun at the top of her head. Once her dark hair was secure and out of her face, she massaged the circles beneath her eyes.

  “You okay?”

  “A little restless,” she said, waving a hand. She never liked talking about herself, especially if the topic stretched too close to a sensitive subject—the sensitive subject—one I was certain was responsible for how haggard she looked today. “Tell me more—back to Jasper. He’s working with us now?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you feel good about this? You remember he threatened you in the barn, at Carter’s house, and again on the street?”

  “Not on the street.” I hoped I wouldn’t have to go through the story again. And he never really threatened me, I realized; it was the party he was ready to take down. “He apologized.”

  “Did he say why he was so rude in the first place?”

  “No, only what he said outside the barn—that I need to leave the past alone.”

  “And you considered that, right?” she asked, but I only shrugged. “What kind of past do you think he’s talking about?”

  “I don’t know.” I remembered the moments of sincerity I’d caught in his eyes as he pled with me the night before. I didn’t care for his execution, but something in his stare told me his intentions weren’t malicious at all.

  I wished Mel could’ve been there to see the way he’d looked at me. She was so intuitive, and she’d always been the most compassionate of our group. She would’ve gotten a better read on Jasper than I was able to because, in all the areas where I was a little more abrasive, Mel was always sensitive.

  Death affected us so differently.

  Since losing Kyle last year, Mel was more empathetic than ever. She’d become the rock for her boyfriend’s friends and family during that tragic time. She’d only dated Kyle for a year before he was killed, but losing him had done something to her heart. Suddenly, she was vulnerable to emotion—hers and everyone else’s. She was empowered with this incredible gift of understanding.

  Somehow Mel worked through the pain and heartache like a champion, and I attributed a lot of that to her journaling. I rarely saw her without the black notebook she carried in her bag. In quiet moments, she’d sneak away to write. She’d even ignore classwork to write during school. None of us ever knew what she was scribbling down in that thing, but it must’ve been therapeutic, because she was always ready to write when inspiration struck.

  “Do think you can trust him?”

  “Jasper?” I asked. “Do I have a choice? He’s either going to work with us or against us.”

  “Is that the kind of guy you want on your team?”

  “Again: do I have a choice?”

  She shrugged. “So what’s the plan?”

  “We carry on as if nothing ever happened. He’s gonna change the guest list—don’t ask me how. And as far as I understand it, he’s hanging out here in Sutton Woods. I have no idea if that means he’s staying until the party, or if he’s going to go home at some point . . . only to turn around and come back.”

  “And what did Roz say when you told her about the cake?”

  I smiled, my lips twisting into a wicked grin—one I knew Mel was judging me for.

  “You didn’t.”

  “I did.”

  “Oh, come on, Ally. You know you can’t talk to her while her show is on.”

  “But can you blame me, really? I went over for dinner last night, the TV was on . . . it seemed like a golden opportunity.”

  “And you said . . . ”

  “Something along the lines of cancel the cake; Jasper’s working with us; and now he’s in charge of the food.”

  “And she said . . . ”

  “Nothing. She didn’t seem to care at all.”

  “Which means you’ll have to tell her again. She didn’t hear you.”

  “I’m sure she did.”

  “No,” Mel said, pointing out the fact that I knew too well. “You can’t expect her to register anything when Avery Chase is in her sightline.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said, still smiling, still proud of myself for taking advantage of the moment.

  Roz would agree to just about anything if it meant an hour of silence while she got her weekly fix. She’d fallen head over heels in love with Avery Chase—the hot young actor who played the brooding vampire, Sterling Dalca, on a cable TV show, Where You Belong. There was zero chance of pulling her out of her Monday night trance—not when she could sit in front of her TV wishing Avery Chase was sucking on her neck.

  I’d caught a lucky break, and I took full advantage of it. Guilty as charged.

  “Promise me you’ll tell her again—when she’s not so distracted by prosthetic fangs and lust.”

  “Fine, yes, I’ll tell her.”

  “Thank you,” she said, sipping at her water before setting it aside. “Now . . . back to the important details. How do you feel about working with Carter’s hot cousin, considering you have a massive crush on him?”

  “I don’t have a crush on Jasper.” I hoped that I could convince her, but her twisted smile was proof enough that she’d already made up her mind.

  “You’re too hardheaded, Ally. You get high on being in charge and calling the shots. Don’t get me wrong—you come by it honestly; we’ve all met your dad.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “I’m saying that you’re the most stubborn person I know, and yet as soon as Jasper St. James opened his pretty little mouth and asked for a favor, you crumbled. You caved way too easily. The Ally Montgomery I know wouldn’t have accepted that guy’s apology, nor agreed to accept his help. You like him.”

  “I don’t like him,” I argued. “I just . . . I feel like maybe there’s more than what he’s saying, and I want to give him a chance. There’s just . . . something about him.”

  “You like him.”

  “Oh my god, give it up,” I laughed, but Mel just shook her head.

  “Don’t worry,” she said, beaming. “I won’t say a word. Your secret’s safe with me.”