by Marie Hall
“We’re back,” Christian, or Roman, said the moment the four of them were finally alone.
It was really hard to tell the two apart. They looked almost identical. From the Hollister hip jeans to the collared polo shirts. They weren’t nearly as pale as their mother, but they weren’t as sun-kissed as she remembered them being once upon a time, either.
Their hair was cut stylishly short and curled around the napes of their necks. She might be eighteen and them a few months shy of sixteen, but it was obvious to her that they were turning into super good-looking guys.
The girls at school would eat them up.
Their lips twitched and then the one wearing the red polo spoke up. At a guess she’d say he was Christian, since his hair was just a little bit lighter than the one wearing the blue polo.
“We look kind of different, huh? You too, Lisa.” His pretty blue eyes sparkled. “I’m Christian by the way.”
She snorted. “I knew that.”
“Yeah, right.” He yanked her into his arms.
It felt strange being hugged by him. What had once felt so normal now felt awkward. She patted his back, but her eyes drew like magnets to the third Wright boy sitting on her couch.
Unlike his brothers, Julian wasn’t the all-American boy next door. Dressed entirely in shades of black and white, his hair was long. Hanging in a kind of skater style around his shoulders. Soft and wavy looking, and it was bizarre that her heart suddenly started to pound as hard as it did. Especially when she noticed a hint of black swirls on his wrists peeking out from under the cuffs of his shirt.
Did he have tattoos?
She wet her lips, jerking her eyes away from his, hoping it might help her to breathe a little easier.
And maybe it had something to do with the intense way he was staring at her, his gaze unswerving from her face, his breathing just this side of heavy, that’d caused her heart to thump so violently, or maybe it was just the shock of seeing people she’d sworn she’d never see again.
Christian stepped back and then Roman took his place. Giving her a quick side hug.
“Jeez, I forgot how boring this place was,” Christian snorted when she stepped back.
It took everything Elisa had to ignore Julian’s hard stare. But she felt it move all through her.
“Boring? You’re boring.” She swatted his shoulder. Her legs were jittery as she made her way over to her father’s favorite worn blue recliner and sat on the edge of it.
The boys sat down beside Julian and Elisa was suddenly upset that her mother had failed to warn her that company might come over today. She was in short blue jean shorts and a Minnie mouse crop top.
She brushed her fingers down her shirt; thank God it was clean at least.
“So…umm.” She giggled—that was always her thing when she got nervous. It was a terrible habit. “You guys here on vacation? Can’t imagine you’d be happy to trade in the bright lights of New York for Maine.”
Resting his arm on the back of the couch, Roman crossed his leg over his knee. “Nope. Here for good. Yay.”
She curled her nose, tossing a quick glance at Julian. Her heart thumped loudly when she realized he was still looking at her. All three of them looked so different from the boys she remembered and yet she could have picked Julian out in a crowd.
There’d just always been something different about him. Something uniquely Jules.
She gave him a little wave.
But instead of waving back, he turned his face and studied her father’s running magazine on the end table.
“Ignore him, he’s still just a freak,” Christian said with a roll of his eyes.
She frowned. Feeling that weird need to defend him, which was ridiculous. Julian was no longer a little boy and she was no longer his sister.
They were all pretty much strangers now.
“He’s not a freak,” she said anyway.
Roman scratched the side of his jaw. “Yeah, and how would you know? Not like you’ve been around for a few years.”
“Ouch. That was mean.” She crossed her arms. “When did you become such a jerk, Rome?”
Christian shrugged. “He doesn’t mean it, Lisa.”
Roman rolled his eyes again.
Clearly things hadn’t been good since the Wrights had left Sunny Cove. She glanced back at Jules. He still wouldn’t look at her.
Mrs. Wright came out of the kitchen. “Okay guys, we gotta get the bags moved out of the car. You look so gorgeous, Elisa. As tall as your father.” She hugged Elisa and then kissed her cheek.
It was weird how much a scent could ingrain itself into a person’s brain. How even after years of not smelling Mrs. Wright’s perfume of lavender and verbena, suddenly the smell of it transported Elisa back years.
Memories of seaside barbecues, birthday parties, movies under the stars in their backyards, and all the wonderful times they’d spent together.
She hugged her back hard and smiled; those had been some of the best days of her young life.
“Right, boys? Isn’t she beautiful?” She looked directly at Julian as she said it.
Elisa’s pulse pounded hard in the back of her throat when Julian’s sea-green stare turned to her.
From the corner of her eye she could see Christian and Roman nod. Julian never answered; instead he stood, shoved his hands into his pockets, and walked toward the front door.
Mrs. Wright’s smile wavered just slightly. “Anyway, it’s really good to see you guys again.”
“You too, Mrs. Wright.”
“Call me, Lori,” she said and patted Elisa’s cheek. “I think you’re old enough now.”
And just like they always seemed to do, the Wrights walked away from her again. But this time they were back, and for Elisa it was like something in her world had changed forever.
Chapter 4
“Hey!” A loud male voice caused Elisa and Chastity to turn in the crowded hallway. It was Roman. With his stylish jeans and funky turquoise blue and orange chuck sneakers on, he was hard to miss.
It’d only been two weeks since the boy’s return, and Elisa’s thoughts had been proven correct. Christian and Roman, regardless of the fact that they were only sophomores, were already the big men on campus.
Girl’s heads swiveled on their necks whenever the boys walked past. Jocks would high-five the brash soccer duo. Roman fist-bumped the varsity team’s longhaired goalie as he sailed past to reach her side.
“Roman?” Her lips twitched when Chastity’s brow rose. She was probably one of the few girls at school who hadn’t fallen under their spell. “What’s up?”
He shrugged. “Nuthin’. Waiting for Christian to get out of Mr. Speller’s class. Saw you, decided to grace you with my presence.” His grin was all teeth.
She rolled her eyes. “Gah, anyone ever tell you you’re cocky?”
“Nope.” He scratched the back of his head as his eyes twinkled. “Never. Anyway, where you going?”
“Chas and I are going to lunch. You want to join us?”
He frowned and stopped at his set of lockers, resting his back against it. “Can’t, we don’t get lunch for another forty minutes. You coming to our match tonight?”
“I think it’s ridiculous to have a match on a Wednesday.” Chastity sniffed, curling her nose up at him. “Not a chance in hell I’m going.”
She might dress like a goth princess, but her friend was obsessed with her grades. The only way she’d make it to college was by winning a scholarship; her GPA was something she took very seriously because of that.
“Good, ‘cause I don’t recall asking you.” Roman gave her a little snarling grin.
Shaking her head, Elisa sighed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you guys were flirting.”
“What?” Chastity smacked her on the shoulder and cocked a hip. “You do know the boy’s jailbait, right?”
Roman stuck out his tongue and wiggled his brows. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”
Flash
ing him the finger, Chastity rolled her eyes. “Suck my—”
“Now children.” Elisa shook her head, slapping Chas’s finger away. “Play nice. And of course I’ll be there, Rome. You know I will.”
“Sweet.” Giving her a playful hip bump, he turned and spun the dial on his locker, opening it quickly to take out more books. “See you then. It’s at five, don’t forget it, lame ass.”
“Oh jeez,” Elisa sighed and shook her head as she and Chas headed for the cafeteria.
“I cannot believe you are friends with those boys, bunch of arrogant assholes.” Chastity gave Roman one final withering glare over her shoulder before turning back around.
“Nah.” She shrugged. “They’re not so bad.”
Which was true. The past two weeks Elisa had gotten to hang out with the Wrights a lot. Mostly because her mom kept inviting them over for dinner every freaking night, which was kind of annoying, but she was getting used to it.
One thing Elisa had learned from hanging with them was that she basically had to relearn all of them. They in no way resembled the seven-year-old boys she remembered. They were way beyond cartoons and playing wrestling matches.
Roman and Christian were hardcore athletes. But Julian… She still didn’t really know a thing about him. Other than he barely ate, he picked at the food on his plate, and that he did indeed have tattoos.
Even her parents had been shocked when he’d shown up three days ago wearing a short-sleeved CBGB shirt that clearly showed the thick, swirling bands of tribal tattoos down both arms.
No one had asked about them, but she was sure her family had thought the same thing she had. How was it possible that at fifteen Julian was already so tatted up?
Chastity sighed. “Damn, we’re going to have to sit in loser row.”
Glancing up, Elisa realized that because of the rain almost everyone was inside today, which meant only the tables all the way to the back were still open.
“Then let us press onward to our most certain demise.” Elisa shook her fist and struck a dramatic pose.
Giggling and rolling her eyes at the same time, Chastity shook her head. “I do not know you.”
Turning on her heel, Chas walked over to a table to save their seats, pulling a packed lunch out of her book bag. The Debisette’s weren’t poor; Chas could have afforded to buy hot lunches if she’d wanted to, but Fareed Debisette was a penny-pincher if ever there was one. Chas’s father believed in the merits of saving and hard work and had raised his only child to live by his same code.
Jumping into line, Elisa frowned at the day’s selections. She was a swimmer and needed carbs, but that didn’t mean she liked noshing on things like fried chicken and fettuccine alfredo.
With a growl, she snatched up a wrapped tuna fish sandwich, a carton of whole milk, and was digging through the bowl of fruit, trying to find one stinkin’ red apple in the pile of greens and oranges.
“Excuse me.” Elisa looked up at the heavyset lunch lady.
Elisa had never learned her name, but everyone in school called her Scary Mary, mainly because of the flesh-toned wart on the tip of her nose and the wild shock of purplish red hair tucked behind her black hairnet.
“Yes?” she said in the deep voice of a pack-a-day smoker.
“Do you have any red apples back there?”
“Nope.” She popped the P and began snapping her fingers for Elisa to hand over her money.
“Nothing at all?” she tried to use her sweetest wheedling voice, but there would be no taming Scary Mary.
“Look, young lady, the world doesn’t revolve around you. Either pay up or get out of line, there’s a lot of people waiting.”
When she said that Elisa glanced down the row, ready to murmur an apology when she noticed that three kids down stood Julian. His intense sea-green eyes roved over her face, making the back of her neck feel suddenly hot.
“Oh, I’m…ah…” She snapped her gaze from his. “Sorry about that.” Dropping a five into the lunch lady’s hand, she waited for her change and then stepped to the side, waiting for Julian to come up.
Today he was dressed in dark tapered jeans and another one of his rock band t-shirts. She was hopelessly clueless when it came to the band names. She wasn’t really into rock, Dad had raised her to be a lover of jazz and blues.
Elisa was also slightly surprised that Julian wore rock shirts considering he couldn’t hear the music.
His dark hair slipped over one eye and she couldn’t help but want to pat it back into place. Julian was just so different from his popular brothers. He didn’t seem to care about fitting in and being cool; for him it was all about being who he was and doing his own thing, and she had to respect that about him. It wasn’t easy marching to the beat of your own drum, especially not in high school where opinions mattered so much.
She knew he could feel her looking at him, because his left finger kept tapping his tray in an agitated manner. But he didn’t look back at her as he paid.
“Jules.” She tapped his hand before he could walk off.
Glancing down at her fingers, his eyes narrowed.
She wasn’t sure what that look meant, but she had been practicing some sign language in the past two weeks. Sadly, she wasn’t very good at it yet, but she was determined now that he was back in her life to learn from her past.
Julian didn’t talk much in school. She’d catch him every once in a while signing to his special ed teacher in the halls, but almost the moment he’d catch her watching him he’d drop his hands to his sides and saunter off.
Whether that meant he was embarrassed because he had to sign or he just didn’t feel like talking anymore, she didn’t know. But she was tired of pretending like they didn’t know each other.
It was one thing to be five and seven and communicate with jerky weird movements that only the two of them could understand. The days of pointing to a playground and having that be enough were long gone. There was really only one way to learn him and that was to talk with him.
Back when they’d been little they had a way of talking with each other that’d been slightly different from what others had done.
Sometimes when they were too busy digging in the sand or watching cartoons to look up, Elisa and he would tap things out on each other’s bodies. Two taps would be “food.” Three would be “run,” etc. Sort of like Morse code, but on skin. As they’d matured their taps had taken on different meanings, meanings only they’d understood. Elisa couldn’t help but think that if he hadn’t moved away from her their language would have evolved into having actual conversations.
It’d felt special to their relationship, like something only the two of them had shared, and feeling all of sudden like talking a walk down memory lane, she tipped his hand over and placed her fingers on top of his palm.
But instead of tapping, she used her letters.
Lunch. She signed it slowly. Her fingers weren’t as dexterous as they needed to be to really have a fluid conversation, but given time she knew it would get there.
She lifted her brow, proud of herself for trying, and then pointed to herself. “Come with me?”
His hard stare always left her feeling slightly breathless. Julian was so much more intense than she’d remembered him being before.
She was pretty sure he would say no, so she was surprised when he shrugged and turned his tray toward her.
Giving him a brilliant smile full of relief, she turned and headed toward Chas. Julian dropped into the seat next to her.
Chastity was taking a bite of her very red apple and Elisa almost moaned. Chastity knew how much she adored red apples. The fact that she was forced to eat lunch and not get her daily red apple had obviously not escaped Chas’s notice as she proceeded to groan and chew dramatically.
The wench.
“You’re Julian, right?” Chastity said after she swallowed, rubbing her mouth with the back of her hand.
Elisa pointed to her ear. “He’s deaf, Chas. He can’t hear you.”
>
Julian frowned, glowered at her, and then reaching into his pocket, pulled out a small pad and pen and furiously scribbled something down on it. She cocked her head when he turned the pad around.
In bold, sure strokes he’d written: “I read lips.”
Mortified, and ears burning a bright shade of crimson, Elisa covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh, Jules, I’m so…I’m…”
But he was looking down at his tray and she could tell by his rigid body language that he didn’t want to see anything she said.
Chastity patted her shoulder gently, telling her without words to drop it, and began chatting about dresses. But Elisa’s heart just wasn’t in it. Every once in a while she’d peek at Julian, hoping to catch his eye so she could say she was sorry, but he wouldn’t look at her.
Disgusted with herself and beyond embarrassed, it was an effort to pretend like nothing had happened.
Halfway through lunch Joey Crawford, star quarterback of the Bay Consolidated High Mariners, sauntered up to their table. “Slummin’ it, I see, Adrian.”
With his short brown spiky hair and his rich brown eyes, he made her heart flutter. Every girl in school wanted to be with Joey, and right now, Joey wanted to be with her.
It made a girl feel special.
He planted his hands on the table, leaning forward until their faces were close enough to kiss. To her left Chastity snickered and Elisa’s throat grew warm. The spicy scent of his aftershave was all she could smell.
“Joey?” She smiled. “What do you want?”
He took a deep breath, as if considering something important. “I’m the hottest guy in school, you’re the hottest girl, bada bing bada boom.” He winked. “So what do you say?”
Her brows twitched. “Jeez, that was lame. Wasn’t that lame, Chas?” She turned to her friend, who was having a helluva time hiding her humor at the situation.
“Totally, straight up lame as hell,” Chastity agreed and then took a huge bite out of her apple, as if for emphasis.
Joey snorted. “Fine. Come with me to homecoming.”
Elisa flicked at her milk carton. “You asking me? Or telling me?”
His pretty eyes narrowed. “Whatever it takes to make you say yes.”
