Sophie's Secret Crush - [Whispers 05]

by Tara West

  I slowly sat up and looked around my bedroom. The sun must have gone down because the only light that illuminated the room was the glow from my computer screen. I rubbed my eyes as I to piece together what had happened before I’d fallen asleep. I vaguely remembered falling onto my bed and crying after a fight with my mom, and then before that…Ethan! OMG! He was going to call me when he got home. I scrambled off the bed, looking for my jeans. I was only wearing a T-shirt and underwear, so I must have stripped down before my nap.

  I reached into my pants pocket and pulled out my phone. Sure enough, two missed calls and four texts. The first text was from Frankie, telling me thanks for being his friend. I fired back a ‘you’re welcome’ and a few winks and hearts before opening Ethan’s messages.

  Hey? Where are you?

  You okay?

  Call me.

  Total guy speak, short and to the point, but I couldn’t help wondering if he thought I’d been ignoring him. I didn’t want him to think I wasn’t interested anymore.

  Just as I was about to dial Ethan, there was a knock at my door.

  “Sophie,” my dad said in his usual booming voice. “I’ve called you three times to dinner.”

  “Just a minute, Dad,” I pleaded. “I just woke up.”

  “Hurry up,” he grumbled, before I heard his heavy footsteps retreating down the stairs.

  I realized there’d be no time for a phone call until after dinner, so I fired off a text.

  Hey. Sorry. I was sleeping. I’ll call after dinner.

  I then slipped on my jeans and ran my fingers through my hair, knowing I had total bedhead. But, oh well, it was just my parents. I didn’t need to look good to get my butt chewed. Somehow I suspected the tone of tonight’s dinner would be grim, as Mom harped on me about Salem and boys sleeping in my bed.

  As I turned to leave, I noticed my cat sitting atop my bed, looking all regal and mysterious, shrouded in the pulsating blue glow of the monitor light.

  You’re growing up and she doesn’t want you to.

  I rolled my eyes. Not Alessia, too. “She’s going to have to let me grow up sometime.”

  It’s hard for her. You’re the baby of the family.

  “She won’t let up on me about anything,” I groaned. “Especially boys.”

  I can’t say I blame her. Look at what happened with your sister. I’m sure she doesn’t want you to end up like her.

  I gasped, and then snapped my head back. “I’m not that stupid.”

  Your sister was the valedictorian.

  “I’m not getting pregnant any time soon,” I said in a huff.

  Alessia jumped off the bed and circled around my legs, purring as she nuzzled my shins. You’ve been kissing that elemental witch, haven’t you?

  “What?” I winced at my tone of forced shock as I dragged on the word a little too long. I was such a terrible liar.

  Don’t lie to me. You smell like him.

  “I do?” I lifted my arm and smelled my armpit. I have no idea why I smelled there. I guess it’s the first place I check when somebody (or some cat) says I smell. I shrugged, deciding my best course of action was feigning innocence. “We just made out a little.”

  I’m sure that’s how Rose Marie started with her boyfriend, Alessia answered wryly before jumping back on the bed. She circled my comforter once and then sat down on her hind legs, glaring at me like I’d just been caught with my hand in the cookie jar.

  I looked at my cat for a long moment, hating the smugness I read in her face, but at the same time realizing she may be right. At the rate Ethan and I were going, was I going to end up like Rose Marie? I hoped not, because I actually did enjoy my freedom. I didn’t want to wear clothes covered in baby puke that were picked out by my mom. I didn’t want to look stressed and frazzled all the time, and have absolutely no social life.

  Sure, I knew there were birth control options out there. AJ’s mom had put her on the pill this summer, even though AJ wasn’t having sex. AJ told me it was for her heavy periods, but I wondered if her mom was trying to prevent an accident. I could only imagine how that would go over with my mom if I asked to get put on the pill. She’d probably have a heart attack.

  Besides, I liked Ethan. I really liked him. He was fun to be around and his kisses were amazing. But was I ready to go to the next level with him? My gaze shot to my cat who had that knowing look in her feline gaze. Sometimes I swear Alessia knew me better than I knew myself.

  No, I wasn’t ready to go that next step with Ethan, no matter how hot his kisses were.

  *****

  After nearly two hours of homework and another hour on the phone with Ethan, I was exhausted when I crawled into bed that night. Ethan and I had mostly talked about ourselves, like how cool his new family was and his adorable little sister. We compared pets, too. He briefly mentioned his crow, but didn’t elaborate. I knew he didn’t want to talk about witch’s familiars over the phone. I couldn’t blame him. AJ, Krysta, and I tried to save the witchy talk for when we were in person, unless it was extremely urgent. Even then, we tried to talk in code.

  Saying goodnight was kinda silly and kinda awkward. When he whispered “sweet dreams” I would have swooned, if I hadn’t already been laying down. Luckily, he didn’t blow air kisses through the phone. That would have been borderline creepy. AJ’s ex-boyfriend, Bob the skater, used to give her smooches through the phone. Sometimes he was so loud, we could hear his lips smacking on the other end. After that, we’d teased AJ until she threw us out of her room.

  Ethan wasn’t like AJ’s ex, though. Everything he did seemed to be pretty much perfect… well, with the exception of giving me first degree burns. I snuggled into my pillow with a sigh, thinking of Ethan wishing me “sweet dreams”, but my eyes shot open when a vision of Mr. Sleznick’s glowing red eyes flashed through my memory.

  Those aren’t sweet dreams, Sophie. Those are really, really icky dreams.

  All of a sudden, I was no longer thinking about sleep as my heart began to hammer in my chest. When Alessia settled down beside me, nestling against my abdomen, I had to force myself to slow my labored breathing. No use getting worked up about it. Besides, it was probably all in my imagination.

  I thought about telling Alessia about my teacher, but what would I say?

  “I was trying to control my teacher’s thoughts and his eyes turned red.”

  No, that wouldn’t work. Alessia had already scolded me for mind controlling my teacher. If she found out I’d gotten him to let us out of detention, she’d lecture me for sure, and after this evening with my mom, I didn’t think I could handle another nag-fest.

  Besides, as a little voice reverberated a sibilant warning in the back of my skull, I realized I might not want to know the truth about my teacher.

  Chapter Thirteen

  As luck would have it, Ms. Jahns and several other drama students had caught Vanessa’s cold. With nearly half of the cast missing, there was no point in rehearsing, which meant Ethan and I could sneak into a rehearsal room and practice our “love scenes.”

  I swear Ethan and I must have had magnets in our lips, because we were falling into each other as soon as he shut the door behind us. We stumbled toward the bean bag chair, me landing on top of him and straddling his waist, our lips still locked together like they were infused with adhesive glue.

  I was vaguely aware of his hands roaming my back and coursing through my hair, and of the exquisite warming sensation everywhere he touched. Eyes shut tight, I moaned into his mouth and wiggled against him. Oh, damn. This was too good.

  And then without warning, a pair of feline eyes invaded my thoughts, and I thought I heard my cat’s hiss resonate in my eardrums.

  Slow down, little witch.

  I jerked back, our lips releasing with a pop, and then I inhaled a huge gulp of air. As I looked down into his smoky gaze, I realized how much my chest had been heaving. I took several more deep breaths and then cleared my throat. “We need to slow down.”

 
; “Why?” He flashed a wicked smile as he reached up and caressed my arms. “Don’t you want to kiss me?” His feathery touch sent electric shocks across my skin and all through me.

  I stifled a groan. The boy was pure torture. “I do, but I don’t want to end up like my sister.”

  He arched a brow while struggling to sit up. “The one with kids?”

  “Yeah,” I said as I swung my leg off of him.

  Dismounting a boy in a bean bag wasn’t exactly easy work, and I ended up landing on my butt. I winced as pain shot up my tailbone. I’d never been the graceful type.

  “You know, there are ways to prevent kids.” Ethan sat up and grabbed my elbows, pulling me into his lap. As he gently kneaded my lower back, warmth infused the area and the pain was just a memory.

  Whoa. How had he done that?

  This boy was becoming more dangerous by the second. Even more reason to take it easy. I could hardly think straight when he was touching me. I was all hormones, very little brain.

  “I still think we need to slow down.” Even as I said the words, my body was screaming at my brain to shut up. I heaved a sigh while looking into his eyes, and maybe some part of me was hoping he’d try to talk me out of slowing down.

  I gasped at the transformation of Ethan’s eyes, from smoky grey to a soft shade of blue. He gently traced my face before leaning closer and breathing against my lips. “I won’t push you.”

  Some part of me, actually a very big part of me, was screaming in protest, wishing Ethan hadn’t given up so easily.

  In the next moment, much to my dismay, he was helping me up and pulling out a chair beside the worn wood table.

  Double damn!

  “Thing is,” I thought I heard myself say, though my chest ached with the admission, “your kisses are so good, I don’t trust myself.”

  “Okay,” he said as he pulled a chair up across from mine. “How about we rehearse?”

  He set my script in front of me. Odd, because I didn’t remember us bringing our scripts to the rehearsal room. All I could remember were Ethan’s lips and warm body.

  I looked down at the pages covered in yellow and orange highlights and blue pen markings. “You mean we’re actually going to do what we’re supposed to be doing?”

  “Yeah,” Ethan answered. “But first I thought we could talk.”

  “Okay.” I nervously bit my lip, suspecting what the talk would be about. I knew we had to get this whole special powers thing behind us.

  He leveled me with a serious gaze. “Beltran said you’re a witch.”

  “Beltran?”

  “My crow.” Ethan shrugged, as if big talking birds were no big deal, but last time I checked, we didn’t live on Sesame Street. “He said your power is telepathy.”

  “Smart crow,” I said through a nervous laugh. I ducked my head down, looking up at him from beneath my lashes. “What do you think about my gift?”

  I don’t know why it hadn’t bothered me before, but I had been thinking about it all morning, worried Ethan wouldn’t trust having a mind reader for a girlfriend.

  His grin nearly stretched ear to ear. “I think it’s pretty awesome. Beltran told me there were more people like me. I just can’t believe you’re one of them.”

  A sense of relief washed over me, and I smiled at Ethan. I felt the exact same way. Just a few months ago, I thought I’d never find the right guy. Not only had I found a boyfriend who was okay with my powers, but he was a witch as well. We made the coolest couple ever.

  Now if I could just feel comfortable around my mom….

  Ethan leaned over and touched my chin with his fingertips. “What’s wrong?”

  “Huh?” The word came out on a gasp. He was going to have to stop touching me if he expected me to think clearly. I made a mental note to ask Alessia if his tormenting touch was an elemental thing, or if I simply had a serious case of raging hormones.

  Ethan frowned. “One second you were smiling and now you look upset.”

  I heaved a sigh while leaning back in my chair and out of Ethan’s reach. “My mom thinks all witches are devil worshippers.”

  His features hardened. “Did you tell her?”

  I shook my head. “No, but I think she suspects something. My great-grandma was a witch. Alessia told me to deny it. At least for now.”

  “Alessia’s your cat?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  He flashed a dimpled grin. “Smart cat.” He leaned forward, grabbing both my hands. “Sophie, why do you think I was given up for adoption?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Ethan’s hands began to turn cold, and though I thought about pulling away, I didn’t want to upset him. As his feelings of sorrow washed over me, I knew his sudden drop in temperature had to do with his shift in mood.

  “My birth mom gave me up after I burned her,” he said in a voice filled with emotion, “I was just a little kid. I didn’t know any better.”

  I squeezed his frigid hands as more feelings of sorrow and despair washed over me. “Ethan, I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” He shrugged, pretending indifference, but I knew better. “My new parents are awesome. They’ve helped me through some tough times.”

  And then, just like that, the warmth returned to his hands. It was the oddest thing. I realized his new parents must be pretty awesome, especially since they had to know Ethan was a witch. I seriously doubted anyone could live with him and not find out. I wondered how they felt about having a witch for a son. Then a thought struck me. They could be witches, too. Just last year, I’d thought AJ, Krysta, and I were the only freaks on the planet, but just like my BFFs and I had been drawn together, I was starting to realize maybe it wasn’t a coincidence Ethan and I had found each other. Maybe it was magic.

  Before we could speak any more on the subject, Finn burst into the room. His freckled face looked a diaper doo shade of green. “Hey, if you see our substitute, tell her I went to the nurse.”

  Ethan turned in his seat. “You sick, too?”

  “Uhhh,” Finn groaned and then slammed the door behind him. That’s when I heard the distinct sound of him puking. Gross. There were no garbage cans out there.

  I turned to Ethan. “Should we go help him?”

  Ethan stood, his mouth set in a grim line. “I’ll go. It takes a lot to make me sick. You stay here. You’ve got to babysit tomorrow night. I don’t want you catching it.”

  Damn. The boy was a great kisser and thoughtful, too.

  Yeah, it definitely had to be magic that led Ethan to me.

  *****

  Is it wrong I thought Sleznick’s absence was the best part of my day? Imagine my surprise when I showed up to history class, and Mr. Dallin, AKA Mr. Pick-N-Flick, was sitting behind Sleznick’s podium. Never in a thousand years did I think I’d feel relief at seeing my junior high booger-eating substitute again. Mr. Dallin looked pretty much the same as he had last year, except maybe he’d added another chin, if that was possible.

  He still had the same walrus-like moustache, which was usually decorated with a few crusties. Honestly, I had no idea how one man could make so much snot, but this guy was a waddling booger factory.

  Mr. Dallin’s bulbous nose and swollen cheeks reddened when I walked into the classroom as he eyed me from beneath thick glasses. “Sophie Sinora!” He slapped his knee with a beefy hand before waving me over.

  I cringed as I made my way toward the front of the room.

  Oh, great. Please don’t touch me, Mr. Dallin.

  As I approached the podium, I noticed how the top of the stool he was sitting on was somehow lost beneath the many folds of his enormous backside. I had to stifle a laugh, because it looked like Dallin’s butt was eating the chair.

  “Hey, Mr. Dallin,” I said warily, keeping a double-arm’s length between us. “So nice to see you here.”

  “I was just asking Frankie about you,” he said through a snort. “Wasn’t I, Frankie?”

  “Yes, sir.” I turned to see
Frankie flashing a devilish grin. “I was just telling him how pretty you look this year.”

  The rest of the class collectively snickered. Oh, great. I was so glad Ethan hadn’t come back from taking Finn to the nurse. I really didn’t need him and Frankie at each other’s throats again.

  “And he wasn’t lying.” Dallin waggled his big, bushy eyebrows. “Hope you did the smart thing and made her your girlfriend.”

  Frankie heaved a dramatic sigh. “Some other guy beat me to it.”

  “Awww, I’m sorry to hear it.” Dallin winked at Frankie. “But not sorry for the other guy.”

  I made a mental note to strangle Frankie later as I shrugged my bag off my shoulder and sat next to him.

  Frankie leaned over and nudged me with his elbow. “I’m ditching school tomorrow. Grandpa is taking me on a three-day fishing trip.”

  I looked at him and smiled. “How cool is that!”

  His gaze quickly swept the room before he lowered his voice. “I heard from my dad.”

  “Oh,” I asked, nervous tension twisting my insides into a knot. “Everything okay?” I was almost afraid to know the answer. Based on what I knew of Frankie’s dad, the guy was a bigger ass than Mr. Dallin, figuratively speaking, of course.

  “I guess.” He shrugged before eyeing me through sideways slits. “You gonna hang out with your new boyfriend this weekend?”

  “No. I can’t go anywhere this weekend. Remember?” I said with emphasis. After all, it was partially Frankie’s fault I was being punished.

  He made his best sullen, puppy dog face, and my anger instantly melted. Damn that boy for still worming his way into my heart.

  “Oh, that’s right.” He leaned closer, dropping his voice to a barely audible whisper. “So, what you said about being who I want to be. I’m going to do a lot of thinking while I’m gone.”

  I reached out and squeezed his forearm. “No matter what you decide, I’ll be here for you.”

  “I know,” he said before Mr. Pick-N-Flick interrupted us with a loud burst of coughing.