Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy)

by Anna Applegate

  “Of course. Isn’t this a staple at college parties?” he said. I grinned sheepishly, realizing the question had been silly.

  “Sorry, I just thought it’d be better to ask than assume.” He studied me for a minute before chuckling.

  “Thanks.” He turned his attention to the game before saying, “Ready?” I nodded.

  We started playing and it seemed to me the more I drank, the better I was. It was down to the last cup for each team and it was my turn. Squinting seemed to help when it came to focusing my vision towards the cups on Caroline’s end of the table more clearly. My arm went up, arced the ball back and to my utter amazement, it went right in! I started cheering and James reached over and gave me a … high five. Ugh, lame.

  Mid-celebration, the door burst open and the rest of the party people waltzed in. They were right on time because Riley had just finished up with the food and walked it into the kitchen.

  “Food’s up!” he announced.

  The last people through the door were Ashley and Devon. He smiled over at me immediately. What was it with all the attention from him? A small part of me had that tingling chill again, like when I’d first met him. I tried shaking it off, telling myself I had been overly sensitive lately. It was true. I had been experiencing quite the range of emotions. I must really be up and down about senior year, because I’d never had such a roller-coaster ride of feelings before in such a short amount of time.

  Things were always pretty steady in my life. The only time I got overly emotional was when reading a book or watching sappy movies. Sometimes those cute Christmas commercials got to me, too, but I thought that was pretty typical for a girl. Lately, though, I felt like I was an emotional blur and that I was all over the place. I chalked it up to the lack of sleep, and that was due to my falling sensations. However, it was getting a bit ridiculous.

  The tingling sensations that occasionally shot through me from Devon, the completely idiotic love-struck feelings for James when I knew nothing about him, and even the falling dream itself were a bit strange. My anxiety levels must be crazy with graduation only a year away. Maybe every senior goes through an emotional time. I decided I would just avoid Ashley and Devon as much as possible, even if I were just being sensitive.

  James came up next to me and asked if I wanted a drink. I hadn’t noticed him standing there, so I was startled. “Um, sure, I could use one.” We headed over to the kitchen and he handed me a cup.

  “So, tell me more about where you were before coming to Kingsbrook?”

  “I was in a much bigger city, south of here.” Hmm, still being cryptic, I thought, watching him continue. “I wanted to get away and just be a face in the crowd for a bit. Small town living draws attention and the city seemed to provide an escape.” What would James need an escape from? Crazy ex-girlfriend? Crazy family?

  “I must be invisible then, because I’ve never had that feeling,” I was joking, but he looked sad when I said it. I tried to correct myself. “I mean, I’ve just been living in small towns my whole life. I grew up in a small town and now I’m at college in one. Cities scare me with all the people and crime. It feels safer here, like people don’t get a lot of attention in general.” It worked, and he looked fine again. Still, why would he look sad for me saying that? “Do you have family near here?”

  “No, my father travels a lot and my mother is dead.” It sounded like it was a topic not open for discussion. Perhaps this was why he wanted to escape.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

  “It was a long time ago, but thank you.”

  “How old were you?” Darn my nosey behavior. I had to remind myself constantly that not everyone wants to talk about his or her problems to me.

  “I was much younger.”

  He changed the subject after that. I was surprised at how casually he’d said his mother had passed away. I don’t know if I would get over my mom dying. Maybe he was putting up a tough front. He was in college, so “when he was younger” couldn’t have been that long ago. We talked a bit more before he excused himself.

  Caroline walked over and asked, “How’d it go?”

  “I can’t tell if he’s interested or not. Oh well, right? I mean, look at him. He’s going to have to fight everyone off when classes start.” I laughed at the thought of him struggling to get anywhere on campus with the girls that would surely be fawning all over him.

  “Just give it time. Maybe them city boys are harder to reel in.” She went for a southern accent, but broke out giggling at her attempt.

  “You’re so weird.” I laughed along with her. I glanced over to the kitchen and saw the trashcan was already overflowing. “I’m gonna run and take the trash out. Can you handle putting a clean bag in there?”

  Caroline hated chores. She threw a fake temper-tantrum by stomping her foot, so I just shoved a clean bag into her hand. After tying up the old bag, I headed out the front door.

  The dumpster was at the end of the block of our apartment buildings, at the opposite end from the entrance to the complex. I heaved the over-stuffed trash bag over my head and into the dumpster. I was brought up short when I turned to walk back to the apartment. Devon was standing in front of me, smiling. That smile stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I had an odd feeling and it wasn’t good.

  A tingling sensation on the back of my neck started, and my stomach knotted up. How could Devon be causing this much of a negative reaction to my body? He hadn’t given me that bad of a feeling when we first met. I had actually thought he was kind of attractive. Being here alone, though, felt dangerous. That couldn’t be right. I didn’t know the guy. How could I possibly tell if he was dangerous?

  “I was going to offer to help with that, but it looks like you managed just fine.” Okay, so he wasn’t necessarily dangerous. He is just overly attentive to me. It still felt strange, him being with Ashley and all, and following me like this.

  I smiled back uneasily and shrugged. “Caroline hates taking out the trash so I usually get stuck with it. I have lots of practice. Thanks, though.”

  I started to walk back towards the apartment, but he sidestepped in front of me and blocked my way. My body began feeling like I was being trapped. I was alone out here with him, and suddenly I really did not like the idea.

  “You know, I feel like you don’t like me very much. Did I do something to upset you?” There was an edge to the tone of his voice, like he knew that he was creeping me out, but enjoyed the reaction anyway.

  He was staring intensely at me. I stammered in response, “No, uh, no. I just take awhile to warm up to new people. You seem great for Ashley.”

  Again I tried to keep walking, but was blocked. I could feel my heartbeat start to speed up, but tried to maintain my composure. What was he doing?

  “I’m not interested in Ashley and her silly games.”

  What? Now, I was incredibly disturbed. My skin was crawling and tingling like crazy. My legs felt like they were trying to propel me in any direction other than towards Devon. He took another step closer.

  “Is there anyone else I would be great for, Ariya?”

  He was way too close. His movement forward brought him within touching distance. Those thoughts about him being attractive were fluttering out the window, quickly. He was attractive in an American Psycho sort of way at this point.

  “Haha,” I laughed, nervously, “Um, not right now, I don’t think.”

  I was taking steps back now just to get him away from me in any way possible. If forward wasn’t working, I would go backwards, although there wouldn’t be many places to run behind me if it came to that.

  “Hey!” I heard a shout and Devon jerked around. James was walking down the sidewalk towards us. “Ariya, I’ve been looking for you.” He surprised me by walking right up to me, taking my face in his hands, right in front of Devon. “I told you not to run off like that,” he said, lightheartedly. “I’m still getting to know everyone.” He dropped his hands from my face to my
arms and just like that, the fear and tingling sensations that had been taking over me moments before were gone.

  I gave a small smile and said, “Sorry.”

  Devon said something unintelligible under his breath and stalked away. I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

  James immediately dropped his hands from me when Devon was out of sight. “Are you okay?” he asked. “He seemed to be bothering you. I figured that might scare him off.”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I can handle idiots. He just creeped me out.” I responded, gaining back the composure that I had lost during the encounter.

  “He should. Don’t go off alone with him, okay?”

  I looked up at James. He didn’t look very happy and was still looking in the direction Devon had lurked off in. What a strange thing to say about someone you don’t even know.

  “Okay.” It was the only word I could manage while the various sensations that had been running through me calmed down. Of course I wasn’t going anywhere alone with him!

  James nodded at me in response and we headed back inside. He didn’t say much on the walk back in. I definitely couldn’t read him. He was probably just overprotective of women. Perhaps living in the city made him feel like he could protect people, but how had he known where to find me?

  Caroline looked worried when I walked in and I immediately thought she and Nick had gotten into a fight. When she saw me, though, she smiled and seemed to snap back into chatting away with the people around her.

  My head started throbbing. After a bit more time standing around with everyone, I snuck into my room to grab some Tylenol. While tilting my head back to take the pills, an eerie, irritated voice reached my ears.

  “Be careful whose side you’re on, Ariya.”

  My head snapped back up. It sounded like a woman. I turned to look around and see who in the world would say that to me, but there was no one by my door. My window was still shut and locked and no one was in my room. I’m done drinking for the day, I thought to myself. I needed to lie down for a minute before heading back to the party. But, as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out.

  Chapter 4

  I woke up slowly, thankful that it wasn’t through a rough, jerk-awake. Crap, how long had my nap been? I could hear the T.V. in the living room, but it sounded like the party was over. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep and had only wanted to rest for just a minute.

  I snatched up my clock and saw that it was 8 pm. That’s weird. I had been so tired lately. It really wasn’t like me at all. I walked out and saw Caroline, Nick, Riley and James all watching a movie.

  “Hey, Sleeping Beauty, come to grace us with your presence?” Riley joked. I was still groggy from waking up and tried to smile, but it came out a yawn and I had to cover my mouth.

  “Move over,“ I said back to him as I wiggled my way between Riley and the end of the couch. They were watching a scary movie. I hate scary movies. I can never convince myself they aren’t real. That’s what people say to do. They say the movies aren’t scary because you know they aren’t real. Well, watching not-real things attack people still scares me. Things jump out, and people scream, which just gets under my skin.

  “I’m going to have nightmares. What is this?”

  “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” Nick said. “Don’t worry, it’s almost over.” He flashed a grin at me and made me smile, too.

  “Scaredy cat.” Riley brought his arm around my shoulder and ruffled his hand through my hair with the other.

  “Hey, you guys wanna head over to McGrady’s after this?” Riley asked the group once he was done teasing me.

  He was always looking for a party. McGrady’s was the local pub and it was considered the hot spot for college students on Saturday nights. Since this was the first Saturday back, it was sure to be jam-packed with people. Everyone chimed in that they wanted to go. I nodded, unenthusiastically. I looked over at James and noticed he had been staring at me. Oh calm down, stomach, I told myself when the butterflies seemed to be fluttering again.

  He turned to Riley and said, “I might stay in tonight.”

  “Aw, man, come out with us – we gotta get out since clearly Ariya is once again not going to take me up on having me as her man. I gotta find another lucky lady.” I rolled my eyes and shoved into his side that was exposed to me because of his arm being up on the couch. I think teasing me came as second nature to Riley. “Plus, it’s your first weekend here. You can’t hole up in your house already.”

  “I know it sounds lame. I think I’m going to just take it easy. I’m sure there will be plenty of Saturdays to get into trouble with you.” James smiled, and I felt my own face burn up in response to his comment.

  “Fine, goody-goody. I’ll help clean up before we head out. Let’s move it ladies! I got places to be and people to see.” Riley jumped up off the floor and headed to the kitchen to grab trash bags.

  Not many guys would hang around to clean up before going out. He might act tough and too cool for things, but Riley was a stand-up guy.

  We started shuffling around the apartment to pick up from the BBQ. I was sure I would end up cleaning thoroughly again tomorrow. If you let the carpets sit with beer on them for too long, the smell never leaves. I walked over to the Beer Pong table and started throwing the cups away. James came up, too, and held a bag open for me while he joined in picking up cups. After a couple minutes, he spoke

  “If you would like, we could hang out tonight, only if you don’t want to go with everyone else. You just seem tired, and I figured if I was staying in anyway, and you were tired…” he trailed off.

  It took every muscle in my body to hold myself together and not let my appearance betray the girly teenager wannabe inside of me who was jumping for joy. Maybe he was more interested than I thought.

  “Sure, that could be fun.” Could be fun was an understatement, but I had to try to salvage my coolness somehow.

  “Great.”

  He took the bag around to the living room while I headed to the kitchen to wipe everything down. I told Caroline I was tired and was just going to hang out at the apartment. She smiled, nodded, and said to do whatever I needed. I was proud of her for not making some snide remark about me finally getting some.

  When we finished cleaning, I told the rest of the gang to go on without me. Given my condition earlier, no one seemed to push me to go out. They were soon off, and on their way, leaving James and me alone in the apartment.

  “So, what did you have in mind for tonight?” I asked.

  “Would you like to take a walk?”

  “Sure. It’s always nice to get walks in before you have to be bundled up against the cold weather. We probably don’t have many more weeks left of it, even though we just got back.”

  Mineral Point was known for being one of the coldest cities in the US. Once it started getting cold, it was frigid, and walks weren’t as pleasant as in the fall when everything was still enjoyable and untouched by frost.

  He smiled. I grabbed a light jacket and we headed out the door. We walked around a bit, talking every once in awhile. He seemed strangely quiet as we made our way around the outskirts of town.

  We were at a break in conversation when I heard something. It was the same noise I’d had heard walking home the previous evening. It was out here again tonight. I froze. I hadn’t imagined it. It was the exact same sound as before. I knew it. It was a deep, low snarling sound. I noticed James had stopped, too. He looked back at me, and then towards the direction the sound came from.

  “You heard that too, right?” I questioned.

  He nodded, but kept walking. He acted like it was no big deal, but seemed to have picked up his pace a little. I noticed he was heading back to my apartment.

  ”Did you want to just hang out back at your apartment?” he asked me.

  From the direction he was headed, it seemed he’d made that decision already, but I played along.

  “Sure.” We got inside without saying another word.
When he turned around, instead of looking nervous, he smiled and asked if I wanted anything to drink.

  What? I thought. “You don’t think it’s weird that we just heard an animal outside?”

  “Are there not animals around here?” he asked, tilting his head to the side as he spoke.

  “No, not in town like that.”

  “Oh, well, I guess I haven’t been here long enough to know. I’m sure it was nothing. Even if there was something, it was probably in the woods. Most animals aren’t actually in town. Are you upset by it because of the scary movie?” I noticed by his expression that he was teasing me again.

  “No, not upset. I’m a tough girl, can’t you tell?” I made a muscle and he laughed. “But it is weird. I’ve been here three years and never heard anything like that. Now there is some crazed wolf hunting hikers. I saw something that looked just like it on my walk home last night, and the noise again tonight…” I trailed off thinking how strange it really was.

  “A wolf?” He looked at me, but not in a way that made me seem bizarre.

  “Yeah, I thought it was after me last night.” I laughed, thinking how silly I must sound to this gorgeous man. “Caroline thought it was just my imagination that it was a wolf, and it was probably something else.” I paused.

  Should I reveal the craziness of what had happened just before he found me last night? He was watching me intently and seemed to be listening to everything I was saying. Why not tell him?

  “There was this straggly-looking wolf on my way home last night that looked like it was going to rip my head off. I know it sounds weird, but something ran into him or hit him and he left me alone. I fell when something hit me too, which is why you found me on the ground.”

  James looked like he was processing what I was saying. That was better than bolting out the door because I sounded like a crazy person.

  “And you told Caroline about it?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I wanted her to be careful walking home. Well, I told her about the wolf, not that something had knocked it and me over.”