PANDORA

by Rebecca Hamilton

  I rolled off Nathan and lay on my stomach, my face turned to watch him. Standing he pulled his shirt back on and then adjusted his jeans, bringing a smile to my face. I loved knowing that he was so affected by me. He grabbed my shirt from the floor and tossed it over my back.

  “Let’s go before I get banned from your house.”

  I pushed off the bed and tugged the shirt on. He opened my bedroom door, and I trailed him down the hall. We reached the top of the stairs just as Dad walked into the house making me wonder if he was picking up on some of Chloe’s gift.

  “Mr. Matlin,” Nathan said, nodding. His reddened cheeks were probably only confirming my dad’s suspicions.

  “Nathan, nice to see you upstairs.”

  I rolled my eyes and pulled Nathan into the kitchen. Dad hung up his coat and then joined us. It took a moment to register his empty hands.

  “I thought you were picking up fried chicken from that new place downtown?”

  “Nanna called and said she was feeling lonely, so I invited her over. You know how she is with fried foods. Lily is going to pick up sushi.”

  Nathan gagged and I looked over to see him swallowing repeatedly.

  “Maybe I should head home,” he said, ending with another gag.

  “Too late,” Chloe said, coming into the kitchen. She hopped up on the counter, ignoring the look Dad gave her. “Don’t worry, Nathan, I already told Lily to pick up enough for you.”

  His face paled and I swore a hint of green tinged his cheeks.

  “Yes, Nathan, please stay,” Dad said, and then turned to me. “Nanna said she was looking forward to meeting the boy Phoebe has been fighting over. Which has me a bit curious as well.”

  “Dad-”

  “Save it for now,” he said, cutting me off. “Once will be enough for this story. Nathan, no need to look so green. Lily only gets enough sushi for the girls. She’ll pick up some cooked food for us.”

  “Dad! You spoil all the fun.” Chloe slid off the counter and went the door, opening it as Nanna reached the porch. She came in, giving Chloe a kiss on the cheek.

  “Chloe dear, you look so lovely in that dress. I’m so glad Phoebe didn’t ruin it.”

  So that was how it was going to be. I took in a deep, calming, breath and went over to give her a hug. The exchange felt a bit stiff, and I wasn’t sure which one of us still held the grudge. Okay, it was probably me, but Nanna was pretty stubborn, too.

  “Nanna, this is Nathan.” I let go of her and motioned to Nathan across the room.

  “Well, you’re certainly an improvement over the last boy Phoebe went out with.” She reached out her hand to shake his. He came toward us, extending his hand. I surged forward and grabbed his hand before Nanna could get a grasp. She chuckled behind me.

  “No need to make it easy for her,” I said under my breath when he gave me a curious look. I gave Nanna a tight smile. “We’ll go lay the table.”

  “Nice to meet you, ma’am.” Nathan gave a slight nod and then went with me to the dining room. “What was that about?”

  I glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one was listening, but the three of them had wandered into kitchen.

  “Nanna can see things you’ve done, but she either needs to touch you, or something belonging to you, to do it.”

  “Ah, so you were saving me. Shouldn’t I be worried that my jacket is hanging off a chair in the kitchen?”

  I shrugged a shoulder. “She’ll do it anyways, but it’s better if you’re not there to see her reaction. It’s why Dylan never comes over when he knows she’s here.”

  “What did she do to him?”

  “Nothing, they were fine for a while, and then about six months ago she stared at him real hard, but it totally freaked him out. I thought it was because he and Lily started, you know... but it must have been something else.”

  “Is there anyone in your family I’m safe around?”

  “My dad and Lily.” I saw him give me a skeptical look. “Okay. Lily.”

  I handed some place mats to Nathan, and while he laid them on the table, I pulled the plates and silverware from the china cabinet. We were setting the last of the silverware when Lily arrived with dinner. Chloe, Dad, and Nanna followed her into the room and she placed the carryout bag at the head of the table. Nathan, eyeing the bag with disgust, shuffled to the side until he was at the opposite end as the food.

  “Don’t worry, Nathan, I ordered some teriyaki beef for you and Dad.”

  “I believe it’s the smell that’s bothering him. Or at least it was the last time he was around sushi,” Nanna said as she took a seat.

  I gave a groan and rolled my eyes as I put the last of the utensils on the table, then sat down next to the chair Nathan hovered behind. Lily casually made her way behind me, and reached for something on the china cabinet. I watched as her hand darted out and touched his back. She was done in a second, moving to the empty seat beside me.

  “You’re looking a bit better, Nathan,” Chloe commented when he finally sat. She opened the food containers and started passing them around.

  “Actually I am.” He took the carton of sushi from me, giving it a tentative whiff.

  “Lily only settled your stomach, she didn’t change your taste.” I snatched the container from him and scooped out salmon rolls.

  “She what?”

  “I’m sorry, Nathan. I can’t stand the sight of people gagging or getting sick.” Lily handed him the teriyaki beef, with an apologetic smile.

  “No, that’s okay. I guess I just thought...”

  “What?” I asked.

  “That I’d feel something, you know, when she was doing it.”

  Chloe gave a snorting laugh followed by a cough as she choked on a bite of food.

  “Chloe, that’s enough.” Dad took the teriyaki beef from Nathan and shoveled a heap onto his plate.

  The conversation ended as we all started eating. I slowly chewed my food, watching Nanna. She’d been quiet. Too quiet. I kept waiting for her to pounce on me about Vivian, or at the least going to Mom’s grave again. She glanced up at me, a knowing smile on her face.

  “So Nathan, how long have you known Phoebe?” Nanna speared a small piece of tempura with her fork.

  “Um, a couple years.”

  “I’m surprised it’s taken this long for the two of you to start dating.”

  “Uh, yeah, well...” Nathan faltered and glanced at me for help.

  “Do we really have to play this game?” I asked her. “Nathan was dating Vivian. Then he decided not to date her anymore.”

  “Is this the girl you’ve been fighting with?” Dad looked from Nanna to me.

  “I haven’t been fighting her. She attacked me twice.”

  “And you walked away?” He wore that look that said he already knew I didn’t.

  “This is so unfair! I only defended myself.” Everyone was staring at me, with expressions ranging from amusement to concern to disappointment. “Okay, so I may have hit her back the first time. But I didn’t touch her the second time.”

  “Then why didn’t you tell me about this?”

  Because I had tried to hit her. Not that I was going to admit that to Dad.

  “I just wanted to forget about it.”

  “Maybe I should go,” Nathan said.

  “No! We can go eat downstairs.” Holding my plate, I started to stand.

  “Sit down, young lady,” Dad said. “We’ll put this to rest. For now. But if I hear about anymore fighting, there will be consequences.”

  Chloe and Lily tried to fill the room with a semblance of normal conversation, chatting away about school and friends, although I noticed Lily didn’t bring up Dylan. Nanna must have wondered about it too, because she reached over and touched Lily’s hand, and followed it up with a long stare. Lily didn’t meet her gaze, which only added to my suspicions over the last few weeks that something was going on with her and Dylan.

  While Chloe and I cleaned up after dinner, Nanna made small tal
k with Nathan. It seemed innocent enough and Lily and Dad were there to make sure that she didn’t go too far. Although I’m not sure why she even bothered. She’d already grabbed one of his hairs from the sleeve of his shirt under the pretext of brushing it off, but I saw her slip it into her pocket. Now she’d be able to check up on him whenever she wanted. When I went back into the dining room, Nathan looked up at me, an expression of pure relief shining there.

  “Ready to watch our movie?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he said and practically jumped up. His chair teetered on its back legs, and he grasped it before it fell backwards into the china cabinet. “Nice meeting you, Ma’am.”

  “Oh, I’m sure I’ll see you again.”

  I hated the cheeky little smile she gave. Hopefully the implications of her comment would go straight over Nathan’s head. Having him realize that my grandma could use the strand of his hair to check up on him was not the best way for me to enjoy having a boyfriend.

  Lily giggled as I snagged Nathan’s arm and got him away from Nanna before she could freak him out anymore than she already had.

  “Is your grandma always so strange?” he asked once we were safely downstairs.

  “Yeah, though she fits in pretty well with the rest of my family.”

  “You included?”

  “Ha ha.”

  We sat on the sofa and I flicked on the television, scrolling through the menu until I found the movie we’d planned to watch, then I got up to throw a bag of popcorn into the microwave Dad had finally allowed us to put downstairs. When I ran up to get us a couple of sodas, I hoped Nanna would be gone, but luck was never on my side. She sat at the table with Dad, sipping a coffee.

  “He’s a good boy,” Nanna said. Thinking she was talking to me, I looked at her from around the fridge door, but she was staring at Dad. I knew she was referring to Nathan. At least she wasn’t revealing any of his dirty laundry.

  Dad coughed and stood up, holding his coffee mug with both hands. “I’ve got to make a quick call for work. I’ll be right back.” He snuck a peek at me, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Nanna, if you have something to say...” I let my voice trail off. Confrontation with Nanna hadn’t been working well for me lately.

  “He’s right, you know,” she said, finally turning her gaze on me.

  “Dad?”

  “Nathan. You spend more time talking about Tonya and her boyfriend than you do...well, enjoying him.”

  Was Nanna actually telling me I should be getting it on with my boyfriend?! Thank God, Dad wasn’t around.

  “Your gift is still new, Phoebe. And you lack control.”

  “So, you’re saying I should just forget about the fact that Trevor is a jerk and might be hurting my best friend?”

  “No, I’m not saying that, but do you trust your gift? Absolutely? Can you say that the voice you heard was the truth, beyond any doubt?”

  She sipped her coffee and I watched her hand tremble slightly. She was getting old. Almost ninety.

  “Of all my grandchildren and great-grandchildren, I worry about you the most. Your gift has come to you so late, and you have no experience controlling it. You hear the voice and blurt it out, not stopping to think if you have influenced it with your own ideas and desires.”

  “So this voice is all in my head? I’m just making it up?”

  “No, dear. But you need to listen with your heart as well as your head. I meant it when I told your father that Nathan was a good boy. But you are consumed by the certainty of what is happening with Tonya to the exclusion of everything and everyone else around you.”

  The sound of machine guns rose from the basement, reminding me that Nathan was waiting for me. I didn’t say anything to Nanna as I left mainly because I didn’t know what to say.

  When I got back down to the rec room, blood and gore filled the screen as zombies took over a town. I snuggled in next to Nathan, stealing some of the popcorn he’d dumped into a bowl while I’d been talking to Nanna.

  I thought back to the day Chloe had tested my gift. How I hadn’t caught lie after lie, until the very last. But that one lie had been the only one she truly hadn’t wanted me to know. Everything else had been...what? Lies? Fibs? Nonessential untruths?

  I glanced at Nathan. I’d heard him lie about why he’d broken up with Vivian. He’d claimed it had nothing to do with me, yet the voice had called him out. Had it been my wishful thinking that had me hearing the voice? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know if I’d been wrong about that. And without asking, there was no way to know for sure.

  Nanna did have a point about one other thing though. I had been ignoring Nathan and he was fed up with it, maybe on the verge of being fed up with me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. He looked down at me, his eyes questioning. “You were right about me obsessing. No more suspicions, no more plotting. Tonya says he didn’t do anything. He seems like a great guy. From now on, you’re the only guy I’ll think about. I’m done obsessing.”

  “What? I’m not worthy of obsessing over?” He cracked a smile, and some of my guilt lifted.

  “Oh, I don’t know. If I did, then that wouldn’t be much work for you now would it?”

  I ran my hand up under his shirt and loved the way the muscles contracted. Creaking from upstairs reminded me that Dad was home and lately he’d been prone to spontaneous runs down the stairs. I withdrew my hand and gave him a sassy smile.

  “You don’t play nice, you know that?” he said, shifting to get comfortable.

  “Hey, you were the one that said you wanted to do the chasing.”

  Chapter 10

  “I need you to cover for me,” Tonya said, sliding up to me while I emptied the mountain of trash from my locker. The plastic bag I held was nearly full, but I still had a pile more to go.

  “When? Where? And most importantly, why?”

  “Trevor is taking me to the Triple Feature on Saturday and I need you to tell Gran that I’m going with you.”

  Almost six months of dating and she still wouldn’t tell Gran about Trevor. Why not? I quashed the thought as soon as it came to me. For the past four weeks, I’d been really good at not thinking anything about Trevor, even the couple of times we’d all hung out together.

  I pulled my mind away from Trevor and onto the Triple Feature. It was Beachgrove Cinema’s attempt at cashing in on what had once been my most hated day of the year. Prom. From six o’clock on Saturday evening until three in the morning, the drive-in theater just outside of town was converted into a rom-com haven, with three romantic-comedies playing non-stop all night.

  Beachgrove High sponsored the Triple Feature as the major prom fundraiser, staffing it with volunteers and parent chaperones. It was the one time of year the town suspended curfew and was usually the highlight of the year for anyone fifteen to eighteen, since there wasn’t anywhere else to go. And under the guise of fundraising and covering costs, the school and theater managed to get away with charging a hundred bucks a ticket. I hated to think what they would be charging for drinks and food at the concession. In a less affluent community, the place would probably have been dead, but Beachgrove was one of those places where my dad’s nice law firm income placed us in the lower bracket.

  Dad said the whole thing was a lawsuit waiting to happen. One kid gets hurt after normal curfew and the school and drive-in would be shelling out big bucks. Not that that deterred me or any other high school student from wanting to go. This was going to be my first year, and if he was so convinced about it ending someday, I didn’t want to miss my chance.

  “So? Will you?” Tonya asked.

  “Sorry, Nathan already asked me to go with him. Dad said no at first. Some lame excuse about it being too late for me to be out with my boyfriend. Not that he minded when he told Lily she could go with Dylan. So, I convinced Lily to let us make it into a group thing with Owen, Karin, and Bianca. And he couldn’t really say no to that.”

  “And you didn’t invite me?!”

  “I
figured you would have plans with Trevor. You guys are together practically every minute you’re not at home or school. Besides, Dylan and Trevor didn’t exactly hit it off last time, and I figured it was better they didn’t meet up again.”

  “Whatever. Besides, that doesn’t matter. I just need you to get me out the door. Please?”

  “When are you going to tell Gran about him?” I asked.

  “Soon. She’s still so wrapped up in dealing with Mom since she got out. Even though Mom’s still in San Diego, she’s been calling and asking to come home, and you know how Gran hates not letting her come. Come on, you still owe me for that double date.”

  “Hey, you were the one who first mentioned that double dating stuff.”

  “Yeah, back when we were ten. Come on, please?” she said, her lips in a pout.

  “I don’t know. I already feel bad about lying to your gran all the other times. Maybe you guys can just come with us and then it won’t be a lie.”

  “When did you turn into some goody-two-shoes?” She huffed and leaned her back against the neighboring locker. “Fine. I was going to pay for your ticket, but now you’re on your own.”

  “Gee, thanks. Dylan already picked up our tickets for us. He gets them at a discount since he’s the all important assistant manager at the cinema, so we only had to pay fifty bucks a ticket.”

  She perked up. “Can he get anymore? Trevor was bitching about the price.”

  “No, he reached his limit. Sorry,” I said, trying to hide my satisfaction. If Trevor wanted to be with Tonya, he could pay full price. I may have promised Nathan I wouldn’t obsess over Trevor anymore, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t always in the back of my mind.

  The voice hadn’t popped up again, at least not with Trevor and Tonya, but my gut still clenched anytime he was around. Nanna said I had no control of my gift, but personally, I thought that was all the more reason to believe it. Each day I caught more and more people in lies, which occasionally still freaked me out, but at least I had the brains to keep it to myself. Well, except for the time Owen lied about not crushing on someone. That time I had to tell Tonya, and maybe I mentioned it to Bianca and Nathan.