“Get out of my face, man.”
“I wasn’t in your face,” Brody says, “And don’t put your hands on me.”
Cam pushes Brody again. And then Brody pushes Cam. And before I know what’s happening, the two of them are wrestling. A guy at one of the nearby tables stands up and pulls them apart, and Raine and I rush over.
“What the fuck, man?” Cam asks, straightening his shirt as he and Brody get separated. I’m over by Brody, my hands on his chest, trying to calm him down. I can feel his heart beating hard through his shirt.
“Calm down,” Raine says to Cam. She’s talking in that same voice she was just using on me a few minutes ago. And then, suddenly, she turns to the guy who broke it up.
“Thanks,” she says.
“No problem,” he says. “But you guys might want to think about paying your bill and getting out of here before they decide to kick you out.”
A finger of icy dread runs up and down my spine. That voice. I would know it anywhere. I force myself to turn around.
“Hello, Natalia,” he says.
Chapter Three
Campbell
This friendly brunch has basically turned into a WWE match. Everyone in the place is staring at us. Some random guy is talking to Natalia. Apparently they know each other -- he’s acting really nonchalant but she doesn’t seem very happy to have run into him.
“We should be going,” she says, pulling at Brody’s arm. “Let’s just pay. Come on.”
“Fine,” Brody says, glaring at me. I glare right back.
“No hello, how are you, what’s new?” the guy who broke us up says to Natalia, touching her wrist briefly. She pulls away a step. He’s tall, but on the thin side. Wiry, though, and you get the vibe that he’s not physically weak. He broke Brody and I apart no problem. He’s wearing a popped collar shirt and a pair of jeans, totally prepped out, but there’s Tattoo of a Jack of clubs just visible on the lower part of his neck, near his collarbone.
“How are you, Derek?” Natalia says, after a long pause.
“I’m fine, Natalia. Just having a nice breakfast until World War III broke out at the table next to me. Who are your friends? They seem like really nice people.” His tone is sarcastic.
I’ve already calmed down and Brody seems to be cooling off as well. He gives me a little smirk and then turns his attention to this Derek kid. “Brody Ketterling the Third.” He holds out his hand and the two of them shake for what seems like ages.
Derek is practically laughing in his face. “The Third, huh? A long line of Brody Ketterlings, I take it?”
“Yeah. Something funny about that?”
“Not at all. Not at all. My grandparents probably cleaned your grandparents’
toilets.”
“Cool story, bro.” Brody turns away from him and makes a face like the guy is a tool. Natalia looks like she wants to just disappear.
Raine taps my shoulder. “This is soooo lame. Let’s get out of here. Brody and Natalia can stay with that guy --” she wrinkles her nose in distaste – “if they want.”
I nod, then dig into my wallet and drop a fifty on the table. Raine grabs my hand.
“Come on, Cam.”
“We’re coming, too,” Natalia says, as Brody adds some money to the total. The waitress comes over and picks it all up, scowling.
A moment later the four of us are outside, about to get into our cars and depart.
It’s pretty awkward.
“You’re lucky there are ladies present, Elliot,” Brody says to me.
“Come on man, it was a game of darts,” I say, shaking my head and realizing how stupid we’re both acting. “Just let it go already.”
“Stop being a punk,” he says. “You should apologize to Natalia for ruining brunch.”
“He doesn’t have to apologize. Can we just pretend it didn’t happen?” She wipes a strand of hair from her face and Brody looks down at her, all fake concerned, puts a hand on her shoulder.
That should be me, I think, but I shake the feeling off. Sling my arm over Raine’s shoulder instead. She instantly moves closer to me.
“So who was that douche in there?” I ask Natalia.
“Just some guy from my old school. He’s nobody.”
“Is that the type of person you used to hang out with before Brody?” Raine says.
“If so, congrats on stepping up like a hundred rungs on the social ladder.”
“I barely knew him.”
“Whatever.” Raine sighs like she’s totally over it. “Well, thanks for inviting us to eat, Brody. It was…nice.”
Brody looks confused and I panic, not wanting him to mention that I invited them.
“We should definitely do this again sometime,” I say. “Have your people call our people.”
And then I quickly open the passenger door and usher Raine into the car. As I walk around the other side I see Natalia’s face. She looks positively ashen. Like really shaken up. She keeps looking back toward the bar.
I know there’s more to the story with that Derek guy than she’s telling.
But I get in the car and we drive off.
Raine is reapplying some makeup and fixing her hair as we drive back to her house.
“Ugh, that was so not a good time. Brody is a total idiot, I forgot how annoying he can be,” she says, fixing her eyeliner.
“Yeah. And he calls me a punk.”
“You think you could take him in a fight?”
I glance at her. She says it like she’s genuinely curious and not caring much more way or the other. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“That doesn’t sound very confident, Cam.” She drops her eyeliner back into her purse “I’ll bet if I asked Brody he’d say that he could take you. Without a doubt.”
“So what? That’s like when we play some football team and they all talk trash leading up to the game. I never say a word and I’m not always sure what’s going to happen—but we stomp them just the same.”
“True.” She thinks about it, and then her face breaks into a smile. “That’s pretty hot, actually. The whole quiet confidence thing.”
We’re both silent for a bit. I still feel really tired this morning. Just can’t seem to get any energy going. I wonder if it has anything to do with fainting. Could I really be getting sick?
I tell myself not to be paranoid.
A few minutes later I drop Raine off and we kiss briefly. Then I go home and crash. I sleep until the early evening.
Chapter Five
Natalia
When Brody and I get outside of the restaurant, I’m not doing so well. Seeing Derek in there threw me for a loop, but I’m trying not to show how rattled I am. The last thing I want is Brody asking tons of questions about who Derek is. I’m not ready to talk about that, and besides, it’s none of his business. We make conversation on the way home, but not about much. He seems a little tense after his fight with Cam, and after a few minutes of awkward conversation, we lapse into silence until he drops me off in front of my house.
Once I’m inside, I head upstairs and run a bath, letting the water get as hot as I can stand. I pour in tons of bath salts and bubbles, and soak until the water’s gone lukewarm and my fingers are wrinkles. Then I wrap myself in a pair of cozy sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and warm socks and head to my bed for a nap. The whole morning was exhausting.
I must have been asleep longer than I thought, because when I wake up, late afternoon light is filtering through the blinds, and someone’s ringing the doorbell.
I stumble downstairs and fling open the door, figuring it’s my mom. She had to work today, and she’s notorious for forgetting her key. But it’s not my mom. It’s Cam.
Standing on my doorstep, his hands in his pockets. He gives me a sheepish smile.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hi,” I say, suddenly aware of the fact that I’m wearing sweatpants and have behead. I reach up and swipe at my hair, trying to smooth it down.
“Sorry to just sho
w up,” he says, “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine,” I say, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You seemed a little upset at the restaurant,” he says. “Who the hell was that dude?” It’s the way he says it, so simple, like he’s just curious, with no trace of judgment. I wonder if I should tell him, if I can trust him. But before I can decide, he says, “Can I come in?”
I hesitate and look over my shoulder into the house. I want to trust him, I do, but I don’t even know him. He must sense my hesitation, because he says, “Are you hungry? We could go somewhere.”
“Sure,” I say, “Just give me a second to change.”
Twenty minutes later, we’re sitting on a bench outside of the mall, eating burgers and fries from Johnny Rocket’s. The food is greasy and delicious, the air is cool but nice, and for some reason, the fact that it’s starting to get dark out just makes the whole scene even better.
“So,” Cam says, reaching into the cardboard box of fries that’s sitting between us.
“Are you going to tell me who that guy was?”
“Just this guy I knew from my old school.” I shrug, like it’s no big deal.
He takes a sip of his chocolate shake and thinks about it. “Boyfriend?”
I hesitate. “Yes.”
“Bad break up?”
“You could say that.”
“What happened?”
“We… we went out for a few months, and then when we broke up, he started all these rumors about me.” I hope he doesn’t ask me what kind of rumors, because I really don’t want to get into the things Derek told everyone, the names I got called, the way the girls, even the ones I thought were my friends, turned on me, the way everyone started looking at me differently.
But Cam just nods. “What a scumbag. I’m sorry you had to run into him like that.”
“Yeah,” I say, “It kind of sucked.” I take a deep breath. “So now that I answered one of your questions, you have to answer one of mine.”
“Shoot.”
“What’s up with you and Brody?”
“Me and Brody?” His tone is light and nonchalant, but I sense a certain tension in his body as he takes another fry.
“Yeah,” I say, “The fighting?”
“He was being an asshole,” he says simply, and shrugs, like it should be obvious.
“And so you decided to put him in a headlock?”
“A headlock?” he says, grinning. “Is that what you thought that was?”
“I don’t know,” I say, “Aren’t guy always putting each other in headlocks?”
“Maybe the pus—the wimps,” he says. “But what I did to Brody wasn’t a headlock.”
“So what was it then?”
“Nothing,” he says, “That dude from your old school broke it up before either one of us could do anything.”
“Okay,” I say, “But still. What’s the deal?”
“I told you, he was – “
“I know, being an asshole. Do you guys usually get so mad at each other? I mean, I thought you guys were best friends.”
“We are,” he says, “Me, him, and my friend Aiden have been friends forever.
But sometimes Brody can be…” He sighs and leans back on the bench, then readjusts the baseball hat he’s wearing. “He can be an asshole.”
“You already said that.”
“It’s complicated,” he says.
“Then why still hang out with him?”
“Why are you hanging out with him?” he counters.
“He’s nice.” I shrug. “At least, he is to me.”
He opens his mouth to say something, then closes it. “What?” I ask.
“Nothing.”
“Cam,” I say, “If you know something about Brody, then you should tell me.”
He looks at me, and then finally, he sighs. He pulls his hat off and turns it around, so that he’s wearing it backwards. He leans forward, his elbows on his knees, and looks up at me, his face serious. “It’s probably not a big deal,” he says,
“But when he found out I was supposed to take you to Raine’s party, he showed up at my house and told me not to.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
I feel like there’s more to the story, but I have a feeling that if I press him, he might shut down. So instead I just say, “So you think Brody’s just being nice to me because he thought you liked me?”
“I don’t know.” He’s still looking at me, his eyes searching. A breeze flows through, ruffling my hair, and I shiver, wrapping my arms closer around me. “Do you like him?” he asks softly.
“I’m not sure,” I say honestly, “He’s been really nice to me.”
“I’ve been really nice to you, too.” He’s moving closer to me, and his lips are right there, soft-looking and kissable. My heart speeds up and I want to look away from him, but I can’t. “I’ve been very nice to you. I came over to check on you, didn’t I? I don’t see Brody anywhere around.”
His lips are just a few centimeters away now, and he moves even closer and tries to kiss me. But I turn my head, even though it takes all my self-control. “You have a girlfriend,” I tell him. I’m staring down at the ground now, trying not to look at him, trying to stop what I know is about to happen.
“Raine’s not my girlfriend,” he says.
I look at him then, and before I know it, his lips are on mine, sweet and soft and amazing. I lean into the kiss, not worrying about anything, just letting myself fall into him. His hands are in my hair and on my neck and on my face, and I don’t think about what it means or what’s going to happen. I just think about how it feels. And how it feels is perfect.
Chapter Six
Campbell
Okay. I have to face facts. Kissing Natalia is way more fun than kissing Raine.
Like, there’s really no comparison. Raine is hot and all, but somehow when we make out it’s…kind of…lame. No, not lame. It’s just lame when I put it side by side with how kissing Natalia feels.
I could make out with Natalia for hours. But we stop after a few minutes and just hold hands under the bench outside of the mall.
“What are we doing?” she says, sounding a little panicked.
I laugh. “We’re getting up and walking to my car. Come on.” We stand up and I grab her hand again.
On the ride back to her house, we talk a little bit, listen to the radio, and sometimes we’re just quiet. But it’s not an awkward kind of silence. It’s like we’ve known each other for years and don’t need to fill every second with chatter.
Finally we get back to her house and I put the car in park and let it idle.
Natalia looks at me with those dark, serious eyes. “This could be bad.”
“How so?”
“Ummm…you and Raine. Me and Brody?
I sigh. “I thought you and Brody weren’t officially an item. And I told you that Raine and I aren’t.”
“You know what I mean.”
“We’re not doing anything wrong.”
She bites her lower lip nervously, which I find very cute.
“Well, I should go,” she says. “But I had a lot of fun.”
“So did I. Glad I took the chance and dropped by.”
“Me too.” She starts to open the door.
“Hey,” I say.
She waits for a moment. “Yeah?”
“I don’t want you to think that I’m going to be like that jerk, Derek. I’d never spread rumors or talk about you to anyone. Ever.”
Natalia smiles. “I know you wouldn’t. But thanks.”
I want to say more. For a moment, I want to say a whole lot more. But I chicken out and she leaves. When the car door slams shut, I sit there and watch her move up the front walkway to her house. She looks back once and waves before going inside.
I wait a second after her front door closes before putting the car in gear and pulling onto the street. On the way home all I can think about is kissing h
er. Being with her and how right it felt.
The rest of the night I want to call her. Text her. Something.
But I resist. Instead I watch a string of movies and try not to think about Natalia.
And fail miserably.
The next day is even harder. I wake up thinking about her. In fact, I’m pretty sure I had a dream about her. Something to do with butterflies. A whole bunch of them fluttering and flying around in this field where I was trying to find her. I was calling her name but couldn’t see where she was.
Weird dream.
“Cam, you promised you’d help with the garage today,” my mom says as I sit downstairs on Sunday morning, channel surfing and eating a bowl of cereal.
Normally I’d bitch about it and try and get her to let me do it some other weekend. But now I consider that maybe it’ll help me keep my mind off Natalia.
So I change into sweatpants and a t-shirt and go out to the garage with mom barking orders at me. I make it my mission to do everything she says without complaint.
I’m sweating and we’re getting a lot done. Then, in one quiet moment when mom leaves to get us water, I can’t take it anymore. I pull out my cell.
I have three unread text messages.
Natalia? I think, my heart beating a little faster.
But no. One is from Aiden.
So what am I now? Chopped liver?
I grimace. It’s going to take some time for me to make this up to him. Maybe it will mean really giving him a play by play of Friday night and every little thing that went down. Except for my little fainting spell. Nobody needs to know that happened.
And then there are two texts from Raine.
Hey cutie.
And then, just a few minutes ago:
Ugh. So bored.
Shit. I can’t ignore her completely. That would be weird. So I send her a text and tell her that I’m having a terrible time helping my mom in the garage. Raine responds that I’m a sweetheart and how sexy it is when a boy does manly work.
But I don’t really want to continue the conversation so I go right back to working, deciding it wouldn’t be right to text Natalia until after I talk to Raine. When the garage is finally done, it’s time for dinner. I’ve killed off most of the day and managed not to go insane thinking about Natalia.
The Witches of Santa Anna ( BKs 1-7 Complete Set) Page 6
