PANDORA

by Rebecca Hamilton

  My mind had already been racing to find some attack response, but his words stopped my mouth from forming it.

  “You push and push and then when I give the slightest push back you take off, or make some flip comment. I just don’t know when you’re being serious.” He threw Chloe’s words at me. God, I hated it when Chloe was right. Why didn’t she just tell me this is what she’d seen?

  My shoulders sagged and my eyes dropped to focus on where the tips of our shoes met. This wasn’t Chloe’s fault. It was my own. I’d acted like a little girl with her first crush and did what I normally do. I bit my nose off to spite my face.

  Nathan’s hand wrapped around one of my arms, then slid his fingers down to wrap around mine.

  “Do you think we could start over? Pretend I’m the new guy again? Only this time, maybe you could leave the chasing to me?” His eyes widened in a cute attempt at puppy dog eyes.

  My heart was thudding and it was difficult to draw in a deep breath. Then my nose started to tingle. What the hell?! No way was I going to cry 'cause Nathan wanted to chase me. If I’d seen this in a movie, I’d probably have fast-forwarded because I felt embarrassed for the actors forced to repeat the ridiculous lines. Thankfully, my natural instincts kicked back in.

  “Does that mean I can’t flirt? I’d really miss that.” I looked up at him, for once loving that I was tall. It made it easier to see the small blue flecks mingled with the grey in his eyes.

  “I think I could handle a bit of flirting, just maybe not in front of the guys.” His fingers danced across my palm before trailing up my arm.

  “But that’s the best part,” I teased.

  “Is it?”

  He cupped the back of my head and leaned toward me.

  “Hey, it’s not midnight yet!” A voice called out from the doorway, breaking us apart. The voice was followed nearly immediately by calls of “Fight! Fight!” from inside the house.

  Chapter 5

  Nathan and I sprinted inside. As much as I hated fights and sickened at the sound of fists pounding on flesh, the instinct to see who was fighting overrode the threat of puking. Everyone had crowded into the living room to the point where Nathan and I were trapped in the kitchen doorway. No way could we see anything.

  “Who’s fighting?” I yelled at some guy next to me, hoping he could hear over the music.

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Dylan and some guy I don’t know.”

  “What happened?” I asked. Again, he shrugged then moved away from me, trying to get a better view.

  “It’s Dylan,” I said, turning to Nathan.

  “Shit.” Dylan was one of Nathan’s best friends, not to mention Lily’s boyfriend. Nathan guided me along the wall toward the dining room table then pulled out two chairs with pale suede seat covers. Climbing on top, we stood heads above the swarm of spectators.

  One punch was enough for me. I’d seen the fighters. Dylan and Trevor were swinging and grappling in the center of the room. Tonya stood at one end of the circle encasing them, tears streaming down her face. Lily was nowhere to be seen.

  I jumped down from my vantage point and started shoving my way through, Nathan following right behind me. The closer I got to them the louder things became. Amid the roars of ‘Fight! Fight!’, poor Nadine screamed at them to stop. Her parents didn’t mind the occasional party, but destroying their home would mean the end of the school’s party house.

  I reached Tonya’s side just as Nathan burst into the circle and stepped between the two guys. Both of them kept jabbing at each other until a couple more guys helped break it up, grabbing arms and dragging them in opposite directions. The end of the fight sent a mass of people to the beer kegs.

  “What happened?” I asked Tonya, wrapping an arm around her.

  “I don’t know. Trevor and Dylan were talking and I went to get a drink. When I got back they were arguing about something and then they were hitting each other.” Tonya pulled away from me and ran to Trevor, where he’d wrestled himself free from the guy holding him back. I started to follow her when Lily entered the room. She was deathly pale and went straight for Dylan.

  I couldn’t let her heal him here in front of everyone. I snagged her arm as she passed me, ignoring her struggles to get to her boyfriend.

  “Lils, not here,” I whispered, taking in her pursed lips and glistening eyes. “Go outside and we’ll bring Dylan out.” I gave her a gentle push toward the door then went over to where Dylan and Nathan stood talking. Or at least, Nathan was talking. Dylan was sulking in a chair, cradling a bloody hand to his chest.

  “Dylan, Lily’s outside waiting for you.”

  “Great, even she doesn’t want to be seen with a loser.” Above Dylan’s head, Nathan rolled his eyes and made a drinking motion with his hand.

  “Get your ass up or I’ll drag you out there, and then everyone’ll be talking about how not only did Trevor beat the shit out of you, but I did, too.” I spun on my heel and left.

  The cool air did little to dampen my anger. Lily sat huddled on the steps, head resting on her raised knees. I smoothed a hand over her red curls and down her back. Dylan was being such an idiot and because of him, Lily was hurting. I wanted to smack him upside the head, but that would only make it worse for Lily.

  “We should go to the hospital, man,” Nathan said to Dylan as they eventually made their way outside.

  “I’m fine,” Dylan snapped, shrugging off Nathan’s hand from his shoulder. “Lily, let’s go.”

  He pulled his keys from his pocket and started walking down the street to his car. Lily stared after him, unmoving. When he realized she wasn’t coming, he stopped to look at her.

  “Let’s go,” he said, again.

  There was no way Lily would get in his car with him behind the wheel drunk, but I also knew she didn’t want to upset him.

  “Forget it, bro.” Nathan walked up to Dylan and took the keys from him before Dylan even realized his intent. “You’re not driving.”

  “God, you’re just like your dad.”

  “Yeah, well when it’s my dad who would be putting your ass in jail for drunk driving that’s a good thing.” Nathan shoved the keys in his pocket and came back to where Lily and I now stood waiting for Dylan to react.

  “So, who’s driving?” Nathan asked, giving me a sheepish smile.

  “You?” I suggested.

  He grimaced. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Not only would my dad kill me for driving after having a few drinks, he’d kill me if he even knew I’d been drinking. I’m crashing at Dylan’s tonight.”

  I was so tempted to give him some smart remark, but Lily clutched at my hand as Dylan approached. I looked down at her, wishing I knew why she was so apprehensive about healing Dylan. Her internal struggle caused her body to practically vibrate. Odd, since Lily was usually a bit over-eager to use her gift. She gradually released my hand and went over to Dylan, but even then, I noticed she didn’t touch him.

  “Guess it’s me then. I’m parked around the block,” I said, motioning with my hand. “I’ll catch up with you guys, I need to talk to Tonya for a minute and let Owen know I’m leaving.”

  “Owen?” Nathan raised his eyebrows at me.

  “Yeah, I picked him up on the way here, but I don’t know if he has a ride home.”

  “Want me to wait?” he asked.

  “Nah, I’ll just be a minute.”

  I watched the three of them head off down the street, then I turned back to the house. As much as I wanted to make sure Lily was okay, I couldn’t just ditch Tonya or Owen.

  Everyone inside seemed to have already forgotten the brawl and were back to full party mode. Even Tonya and Trevor had moved past it, and were grinding each other in beat to the music. Squeezing between clusters of people, I wound my way over to them.

  “I’m taking off,” I yelled, hoping to be heard over the music. She stopped moving, letting go of Trevor to face me.

  “What? Why?”

  I stared at her in shocked realiz
ation. She really was obsessing over this guy. He’d pretty much just humiliated my sister’s boyfriend by beating the crap out of him, probably scaring the crap out of Lily, and she wondered why I was leaving? Maybe I’d have stayed if it had been one of Chloe’s flavor of the month boyfriends, but this was Lils.

  “How am I supposed to get home?” Anger bit her words short. “You were supposed to drive me home.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “Since when?”

  She glanced at Trevor, then back to me. “You know Gran can’t see Trevor drop me off, and you never drink, so I figured...”

  “Yeah, well, maybe you should have stopped your new boyfriend from beating up Dylan. Now I have to drive him and Lily home.”

  “Why can’t she just drive his car?” she asked.

  Trevor moved in closer and settled an arm around her shoulder, pulling her to his side. She gave him a smile so sweet I wanted to puke. Just wait till the honeymoon phase was over and she’d be back to her bitchy self.

  “I’m leaving. If you want a ride, then let’s go. Otherwise, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Fine,” she snapped. “Let’s go.”

  “We ain’t ready to go,” Trevor said, finally opening his mouth. I rolled my eyes and groaned in frustration. “We’ll get a cab.”

  “Bye,” I said and turned away, ignoring Tonya’s call of my name. I wasn’t going to spend my night listening to them argue. Owen stood over by the kitchen talking to Nadine and a couple of guys from our biology class last semester.

  “Hey,” I said when I reached him. “I’ve got to take Lily home, and I’m going to drop off Nathan and Dylan, too. I can give you a ride, but we’re leaving now.”

  “That’s okay,” he said. “I’ll catch one with someone.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. Your car is freakin’ small and I don’t really want to see Lily in action.”

  “I’ll see you Tuesday then. Happy New Year.”

  Waving bye over my shoulder to Owen, I scanned the living room for Tonya, but she and Trevor had disappeared. I noticed a guy Tonya had dated briefly last year sitting on the couch and nudged him.

  “Have you seen Tonya?” I asked.

  “She just left with her latest boyfriend,” he said and took a swig of beer.

  Left? After making a big stink about me leaving and she was gone before I’d even made it out of the house. I stomped towards the door.

  “Phoebe!” Chloe called out, working her way to me. I stepped outside, letting her follow me. “What happened?”

  “I’m taking Nathan, Dylan and Lily home.” I wrapped my arms around me, seriously debating if I should just make her follow me all the way to the car.

  “What about Tonya?”

  “What about her? She and Trevor already bailed.”

  “But, I saw...”

  “Do you realize how often you’ve been saying that? ‘But, I saw!’ Maybe you need to talk to Nanna about your vision.”

  Part of me felt bad for calling out Chloe on her misguided visions again, but I squished that feeling fast. I started down the street, rubbing my hands along my arms. It was darker than I thought it’d be. Only a few of the streetlamps worked, the rest were turned off to save the town money. Tall bushes lined the sidewalk and I edged my way to the far side of the pavement, just in case. Dad always said it’s better to look stupid than to be caught actually being stupid.

  “Boo!” A huge blob jumped out from the bush.

  I jerked back, a scream ripped through my throat, echoing down the street. My body turned instinctively to run in the opposite direction. It took only a moment to recognize the hysterical laughs coming from the blob. Nathan. I swung my arm out, hitting him, and enjoyed seeing him struggle to cover the side of his head.

  “You ass! I can’t believe you did that!” Another smack. “You scared the crap out of me.” Smack.

  “Okay, I’m sorry,” he said between his continued chuckles and attempts to evade my hand.

  “No, you’re not.”

  “You’re right, I’m not sorry. The look on your face was priceless.” His smile was so cute I just deflated. He looked behind me, searching for someone. “Did you talk to Owen and Tonya?”

  “Owen’s gonna catch a ride from someone else.”

  “What about Tonya?”

  Anger gnawed at my insides thinking of how rude Trevor had been, so I decided to keep it simple. “She and Trevor left while I was talking to Owen.”

  A gentle breeze swept down the street and a shiver ran through me.

  “Here,” Nathan said, tugging his hoodie off. He tossed it to me, momentarily blinding me as it flopped over my head before I could yank it off.

  I considered tossing it back. No way did I want him to think I was one of those sissy girls. On the other hand, he gave me the shirt off his back. I pulled it over my head, instantly glad I’d taken his offer. The fleece was still warm from his body and it smelled just like him, which was completely unfair, because it totally destroyed my anger.

  “Thanks,” I said. His smile grew. Damn, I was blushing. “Where’re Lily and Dylan?”

  “They went ahead. I thought you might get scared walking in the dark - you know, with all the boogiemen around.”

  “Boogiemen, huh? Well, I always knew there was something weird about you.” I took a step forward, closing the distance between us.

  “Oh, there’s definitely something weird about me.” He came to me this time, until only an inch or two separated us.

  “And what’s that?” I whispered.

  “That it’s taken me a year to get up the nerve to kiss you a second time.” His hands wove through my hair and I leaned forward, glad I stood nearly eye-to-eye with him.

  “That’s not entirely true, since I kissed you the first time.”

  “Do you really want to fight about this?”

  “No.” I didn’t move. He’d said he wanted to do the chasing this time, so here was his chance.

  I gazed up at him, loving the shadows flickering across his eyes. Why wasn’t he kissing me? Was he going to? Was he chickening out? Maybe I should do it. I would do it. I inhaled and let my eyes start to drift closed.

  Then he kissed me.

  There were fireworks. Really. They exploded through the night sky, illuminating the street in blues and greens, followed by reds and oranges. My eyes finished closing, because as beautiful as the sparkling lights were, nothing was going to stop me from totally enjoying the feel of Nathan’s lips on mine.

  It was better than I remembered, or maybe he was better, or maybe a year of waiting had simply faded the memory. His lips were soft and warm and he tasted of chocolate. My heart raced and little shivers ran up my arms. I pressed closer to him, loving the way his hard chest felt against mine. His hands dropped from my face, slid down my ribs, and wrapped around my waist until they came to rest at the base of my spine.

  The flirty side of me wanted to reach back and drag his hands lower, but his words from earlier had stuck and I knew that I had to let him make the move no matter how frustrating it was to wait. I curled my fingers around the back of his neck and tangled them in his hair. Trying to catch my breath, I drew back, pulling in deep breaths that mingled with his until his lips followed mine. The tip of his tongue swept across the seam of my lips and I sighed. God, he tasted as good as he smelled. It wasn’t fair that I’d missed out on a whole year of this.

  Finally, we broke apart and he leaned his forehead against mine, placing a gentle kiss at the corner of my mouth.

  “Wow,” he said. “Why the hell did I wait so long?”

  The words were innocent, but they stung, nonetheless. It had been his choice to wait this long. He’d chosen Vivian over this. Over me. I tried brushing it off. Wasn’t I getting him now? Wasn’t that what was really important? Brushing it off didn’t work.

  I dropped my hands and stepped back so I wasn’t touching him. The feel of him was way too tempting and I knew there was something I should remember. “Lil
y.” She and Dylan were waiting for us. I abruptly turned and headed for my car. Behind me, I could feel Nathan watching for a moment before he sprinted after me.

  “What was that about?” he asked when he caught up to me.

  “What?” I gave him a sideways confused look, while somehow managing to avoid any real eye contact. No way would I admit again that I was still hurt by him turning me down. I would just play dumb. But how long could I keep it up for? It didn’t seem too hard for Vivian. Then again, I doubted she was playing.

  “The taking off thing, what else?” It was hard to read his face in the darkness, but he sounded angry and more than a little confused. Another illuminating flash of purple in the sky revealed I was right. Not exactly the reaction I was going for. Dumb obviously wasn’t going to work, so flirty was my next best option.

  “You wanted to do the chasing, so I’m letting you.” I smiled and found that it didn’t feel as forced as I expected.

  “Don’t do this, Phoebe.” He grabbed my hand and gently pulled me to a stop. “I don’t know what I said to piss you off, but don’t start with the games again.”

  I sighed. “Okay. Then let’s just say I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s go. Lily and Dylan are probably wondering where we are.”

  This time when I walked away, he kept his grasp on me and we ended up walking hand in hand. There was something really sweet about that simple action that I’d never considered. I’d dated a few guys over the past year - just because I’d wanted Nathan didn’t mean I’d been a complete monk, or whatever they call female monks - but never anyone I liked as much as Nathan. Holding hands had always felt awkward and the touch of sweaty palms just didn’t do anything for me. But this was different. This was Nathan and I couldn’t feel anything other than the soft glide of his skin against mine.

  Turning the corner was all it took to bring back reality. Under the streetlight, Dylan leaned against the hood of my car, Lily standing before him, his hand clutched between hers. She was working her magic.

  Dylan’s face was devoid of pain, relief sagging his shoulders. Lily, though, was beyond pale. Even from three houses down I could see her shaking, the grey tinge to her complexion.