I don’t have time to say anything when Valentina’s shrill voice interrupts our conversation.
“At what time are you guys picking me up?”
The guys give her a blank stare and Robyn is the first one to speak up.
“It’s a nightclub, Tina. You don’t have an ID.”
Valentina looks at Dylan through narrowed eyes.
“Then get me one. You just said you got her one!”
She says ‘her’ as if I were the scum stuck to the bottom of her shoe.
But Dylan doesn’t miss a beat and dismisses her sounding totally nonchalant.
“I only had money for four.”
She raises her voice.
“How much do you want? I’ll pay you!”
Dylan tells her that it’s too late to get her one for tonight.
“Then we’re going somewhere else!”
I have to give it to her, she’s got nerve but I’d take a hint that I’m not wanted and quit before sounding too desperate, while she seems totally unconcerned about it.
Robyn shakes his head.
“No, we’re going to Vee. Miss Devlin said that we lack chemistry with Onyx and there’s nothing better than dancing to get in tune with one another.”
My guts twist with disappointment: so it’s a work thing?
“Robyn’s right. It’s a work thing. Only for the lead actors.”
Dylan’s confirmation stings and I try to step away from him but his arm tightens around my shoulders, keeping me by his side.
“But I’m the lead’s understudy. What if something happened to Onyx? If she couldn’t perform, I’d get to play Scrooge.”
I don’t like the way she says it, there’s a glint in her pale blue eyes and her upper lip curves in a cruel smirk while she gives me a once over .
Miss Devlin’s voice interrupts our discussion as we get summoned onto the bus.
THE PLAY IS AWESOME and Miss Devlin knows the director, so we get invited backstage to hang out with the cast.
The guys are always by my side and I’d be lying if I said that I’m not enjoying it but I wonder what made them change their attitudes, since until yesterday morning they seemed to barely notice me.
Robyn sits on one side of me and Dylan on the other during the play.
“Hey sweets, would you like a twizzler?”
He takes a pack of my favorite strawberry flavored licorice and offers it to me.
“Thank you! Those are my favorite!”
He chuckles.
“I know. I got these just for you. Remember that composition we had to write in fourth grade about our favorite Halloween candy? Yours was about how much you love twizzlers over red vines.”
His eyes are intense in the dark theater and the fact that he remembers what’s my favorite candy is, makes butterflies take flight in my stomach.
The day would be perfect if I didn’t see Valentina stare at me every time I turn around.
On the way back to Silver Springs, Robyn saves me a seat next to him and I’m excited to talk about the play and how we want to portray the relationship between Scrooge and the ghosts, since in our modern version the three ghosts resemble the protagonist’s exes who dumped her at Christmas.
But the early start, the nervous tension caused by the boys’ sudden change of behavior and by Valentina’s constant and malicious glare have the best of me and I end up dozing off soon after we leave Syracuse.
I sleep deeply and I dream:
I’m at the Harvest Festival with Julian by the magic springs that give our small town its name.
I throw a shiny coin in the deep well with my eyes closed.
I wish there were more love in my life.
I open my eyes as the bus drives over a speed bump and I find myself staring into Robyn’s dark blue eyes.
I’m pretty sure that I didn’t fall asleep with my head on his shoulder and his arms around me.
He smells so good, like dark chocolate and cinnamon and for a long moment, I think I’m still dreaming, because this is the closest we’ve been since that Christmas party four years ago.
“Onyx ...”
His voice is soft and low, his eyes are focused on my lips and for a second, I fear that I’m drooling or that I have something stuck to my mouth.
But one of his hands cups my jaw, the tips of his fingers finding the sensitive spot behind my ear and stroking it lightly.
His gaze is so impossibly intense that I have to remind myself to breathe.
“I like you, Onyx. I more than like you, I—”
He never finishes the sentence but crushes his lips on mine and they’re warmer and softer than I remember them, they taste like the strawberry licorice candy we shared earlier.
Our first kiss four years ago was innocent and shallow but this kiss has nothing in common with it, because I’m not the innocent girl I was in ninth grade and he’s no longer the skinny blond boy with glasses I used to admire from afar.
This time his tongue enters my mouth and his kiss is strong and confident, explorative and hot.
I grab a fistful of his jacket to anchor myself to him and thank the heavens that we’re sitting down or I know that my knees wouldn’t support me.
Our kiss becomes more intense and hot with every stroke of his tongue against mine and I can tell that he’s practiced a lot since we were thirteen because he knows exactly what he’s doing.
And yet I feel that he’s reining himself in, especially when he nips at my bottom lip with his teeth, immediately soothing me by sucking lightly on the skin he just bit into.
His hands are holding my hips and the look in his eyes tells me that things would go much further than a kiss if we weren’t on a school bus with the whole Drama Club and our teacher on it.
I wish we were alone, free to let the situation evolve between us and he must feel exactly the same because he breaks the kiss and says with his lips still on mine:
“I wish we were alone. I wish I could ... you’ve no idea how you make me feel, Onyx. Kissing you like this is like a dream.”
Like a dream?
His words hit me with unexpected force and I think about the dream I was having just moments before he started to kiss me.
The wish in the magic springs ... I wished for more love in my life and I thought about Allan, Robyn and Dylan.
At the time I laughed when Julian was so adamant that wishes made at the spring came true but now I wonder if it’s at all possible.
His behavior was also quite odd the other night at the Cafe and if I weren’t sure that Julian’s a nice guy, I’d think that he put something in that drink he gave me.
Because sure enough, it’s since that night that the guys’ behavior toward me changed.
But while you can roofie someone to make them compliant, or more likely to tell the truth, I doubt you can put something in a drink to make people feel attracted to someone they’re not.
So the drink can’t have anything to do with the change in the guys but what about the wish I made a few weeks ago?
And if all of a sudden they want me because of that wish, is this even real?
I want love in my life and God knows how much I’ve wanted the guys to like me but not if it’s because of magic.
Not if it isn’t real.
“Onyx, are you all right?”
Robyn looks concerned and I really don’t know what to say, how can I tell him that I’m freaking out because I’m afraid that his sudden interest in me has been caused by magic?
I’m still thinking about an answer but I’m saved by the bus coming to a stop and the driver announcing that we’re back at Stone Hill High.
I get up and Robyn is right behind me, getting my rucksack and walking so close that his chest is touching my back.
And strangely I wish he weren’t so close, because when one of the guys is touching me, I can’t think clearly.
On our way down the bus aisle, Valentina passes us and shoves me, pushing her shoulder into mine.
&nb
sp; When Robyn glares at her, her eyes fill with concern and she smiles softly asking me out loud if I’m all right.
But when Allan and Dylan distract him by asking him a question from behind us, she smirks cruelly and whispers a ‘slut’ only I can hear.
10.
Motherfucker Jones
Onyx
THE GUYS WANTED TO take me out to dinner before going to Vee later on but I needed to check on Mom and be alone with my thoughts for a while.
I know that it sounds silly but I can’t get it out of my head that Julian has something to do with the guys’ interest in me and either at the Cafe or at the spring something happened.
But I can’t explain what or how and I sound paranoid even to myself.
Mom’s settled on the couch writing a lifestyle piece for Spell Library’s seasonal magazine: it’s a piece about the Magic of Christmas and our town’s traditions and she put on some Christmas music to find inspiration.
I’m making mac and cheese with little hot dogs chunks for our dinner and granted, with her blood pressure issues, maybe not the healthiest meal, but Mom’s been really craving it and I just cheated a little by getting everything lower sodium and the hot dogs are tofu.
I’m stirring the cheese sauce when ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! blares from her laptop and it makes me think about Robyn and the way he kissed me at that party to then ignore me for years, until two days ago.
I sit next to her on the couch with my plate, still thinking about the change in the way Robyn looked at me.
“Onyx, what’s wrong?”
I tell her what’s been on my mind and Mom sighs, taking my hand in hers.
“A wish come true? It’s an odd way to think for someone who doesn’t even believe in the magic of Christmas.”
I roll my eyes at her observation.
“There’s nothing magic about Christmas! The only good thing about it is that there’s no school. But other than that, that stupid day only brings misery and bad luck.”
Mom shakes her head and apologises for ruining Christmas for me, last year.
“It’s not just that, Mom. It’s also the pressure to feel happy on that day, which makes you all the more miserable if for some reason you aren’t. That song just reminded me that Robyn kissed me at that Christmas party to then walk away without a word. And he really didn’t talk to me again for almost four years. Not until I got cast in this stupid play.”
Mom objects that maybe the play is the way Christmas will redeem itself by bringing me and Robyn closer again.
“Or is it Christmas’s way of making me get closer to him and the others to then make it all the more painful when things go back to normal after the play is over?”
“Well sweetheart, for what it’s worth I don’t think that magic has anything to do with the reason those boys are into you. And before you say that of course I think you’re smart and beautiful because you’re my daughter, that’s not the reason. I don’t think that kind of magic could ever work if you don’t believe in it.”
I don’t have time to respond to her theory because the doorbell rings: Robyn and Dylan are on my doorstep and greet Mom politely. I told her that we’re going to a party without specifying where, because somehow I doubt that she’d be ok with a nightclub and fake IDs.
Allan is waiting in his car: he decided to sacrifice and be our DD tonight.
I’M NERVOUS WHEN WE approach the entrance to the exclusive nightclub: what if the big, burly bouncer by the cordoned entrance understands that our IDs are fake and calls the cops?
Dylan spots the concerned expression on my face and surrounds my shoulders with a comforting arm and of course the thrill that invades my body when he whispers with his lips touching my ear is anything but soothing and reverberates in places that I dare not even mention.
“Don’t worry cutie, Reggie is a friend. As long as we don’t behave like idiots, he doesn’t care if we’re underage.”
And surely enough the chunky, imposing guy who wears sunglasses despite it being nighttime, doesn’t even card us and lets us in after one of those bro handshakes with Dylan.
He chuckles at my curious stare and explains that he and Reggie met playing poker at the game Allan’s older brother hosts once a month.
I’m about to comment something but once we’re in the nightclub, my breath is taken away by the cool decor.
One side of the huge room is taken by a black wood bar that stands out against the red lighting around it.
A gorgeous, curvy woman is behind the bar serving several people and the music coming from a DJ booth on one side of the large dance floor thrums through my body with its hypnotic beat.
Instead of walking to the bar, Dylan steers me toward what looks like a VIP area with booths adorned by heavy red velvet curtains, probably there for privacy even though right now only a few are occupied and all the curtains are open.
Dylan pulls me into one of the booths, sitting by my side while Allan sits opposite us with Robyn.
The boys grab one of the drink menus and ask me what I want.
“I don’t know. I drank before with Holly but only cheap vodka or whatever she can steal off her parents liquor cabinet.”
Dylan looks at me with amusement sparkling in his hazel eyes.
“Then you wanna try Rose’s specialty: The Motherfucker Jones.”
“The ... what?”
His boyish grin makes him look cute, as opposed to his normal cool and brooding expression.
He explains that the gorgeous bartender Rose is a huge Jamie Foxx fan and named her signature cocktail ‘Motherfucker Jones’ after the iconic character in Horrible Bosses.
“It’s like a margarita but she uses bourbon instead of tequila. She called it Motherfucker Jones because it goes down so smoothly that you want a second one but if you do drink two it’s at your own risk, because it will fuck you up.”
I agree to try a Motherfucker Jones and while Allan and Robyn go to the bar to give Rose our orders, I’m left alone with Dylan.
For a moment neither of us says anything: we’re just looking at each other.
It’s the first time we’re really alone since we met and the instant attraction I felt to Robyn’s cousin has never really gone away, the reason why we haven’t got to know each other as more than acquaintances is that the boys have totally ignored me until our first rehearsal at Jewels Cafe.
Dylan smiles and tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear: and as soon as the tips of his fingers brush against my skin, I feel an electric current that carries that touch straight to my nipples and my lower belly.
I open my mouth to say something but I’m totally breathless and all I can do is stare at his mesmerizing hazel eyes and wonder how soft the strand of hair that has fallen onto his forehead would feel if I touched it.
Dylan looks toward the bar: there’s a long line of customers, so it looks like our drinks will be a little while.
“Onyx, would you like to dance?”
I nod and follow him to the dance floor where an instrumental, hard metal version of ‘Let It Snow’ starts playing.
What the fuck? Christmas is seriously taunting me and messing with my head.
Tomorrow is Halloween and the first song played on the dance floor is a Christmas song? Do I have to take this as a bad omen?
But as soon as Dylan’s body rubs against mine as we move in sync with the music and he grabs my hips to keep me close, I couldn’t care less what kind of music they’re playing.
All that matters right now is his hands on my hips, his sexy wintergreen scent and the way he’s looking at me, as if we were the only two people not only in the nightclub but in the whole world.
But it’s a short-lived feeling because some kind of commotion happening by the DJ booth causes the music to stop.
There’s a cop standing there and an announcement is made that the police has received an anonymous tip that there are some underage customers in the club.
Everyone will be asked to show their ID
and that they’ve been stamped with an underage marker if under twenty one.
“Shit!”
Dylan stops dancing and grabs my hand heading toward one of the two ways out of the room, while everyone’s distracted looking at the cop.
“We haven’t been stamped and I don’t know how good our fake IDs are.”
I follow him without question: Silver Springs isn’t a huge town and some of the cops might know my mom from when she worked as a reporter for the gazette.
It’s not like Mancini is a super common last name and the last thing Mom needs right now is more stress.
We make it out of the room and Dylan guides me through a dimly lit hallway, passing some bathrooms and what looks like an office, until he opens an emergency exit door and we find ourselves outside in a dark alleyway in the chilly night.
The cold air makes me shiver and Dylan closes his arms around me to warm me up, but my thoughts right now are for Allan and Robyn who are still inside.
“What about the guys?”
Dylan smirks.
“It’s not the first time we’ve gone to Vee. They know to meet us here if anything goes wrong. They aren’t stupid, Onyx. They’ll be here soon.”
“What if the police checks the back exit and finds us?”
He shrugs.
“You can access the alleyway from the road, so they can’t prove that we were in the club. It isn’t illegal to hang out here.”
I shiver again and he tightens his hold on me, leaning us against the brick wall of the club’s building.
He doesn’t say anything but his hand finds that spot behind my ear again and my breath catches in my throat at the way his touch and his intense gaze make me feel.
“Onyx, you’re so beautiful ...”
When his lips crush on mine, any thoughts of cops and raids and fake IDs are erased from my mind.
All that exists in the world is his kiss, his mouth tastes minty and delicious and each expert stroke of his tongue against mine sends an electric current straight to my core, making me hug him tighter, trying to leave no space between our bodies.
Onyx (Jewels Cafe Book 10) Page 6
