by Heidi Acosta
“Eden, they are going to catch him.”
“I know,” I sigh. “I’ll be fine once the person who did it is caught.” I open my eyes and give her a small smile.
“Are you sure that is all you are thinking about?” she asks.
“Yes,” I snap.
Liv hesitates for a moment. “Do you still talk to Dr. Brinks?”
Dr. Brinks is the school psychiatrist who I started seeing after Mom and Dad’s accident. I ended up listening about his failing marriage instead of talking about my parent’s death, which was just fine with me. I didn’t want to continue to reliving it. I wish every day that they were still here, but I don’t have time to sink into a deep depression like I want to because I have to focus on keeping Essie sane.
“No,” I say cautiously, afraid of where this conversation is going. “We sort of stopped seeing each other after his divorce was finalized.”
“Maybe you should talk to him again …. You know, about seeing things.”
“Liv,” I gasp.
“I’m just suggesting you speak to him. With your family history, it might help.” She tiptoes around me.
I hate when we do this—me trying to protect her feelings and her mothering me.
“Will you stop saying that? Schizophrenia is not contagious.” I cross my arms and stare out the truck window at the toys littering her front porch. A trike sits upside down across the walkway and stuffed animals are scattered throughout the lawn. A rusty metal swing set stands amidst it all.
Liv likes to get her way and will argue until she does. Hence, her being captain of the debate team, so she continues on her mission. “I know that, but—”
“But nothing. It was just the shadows. I saw or a trick of the light.” Note to self, never tell Liv anything again. I will do like every other teenager when I’m emotionally distraught. I will start an anonymous blog and pour all of my feelings out for the world to read.
“Don’t be mad at me. I’m just worried,” she pleads.
I can see in her face that she didn’t mean to hurt me. “Well don’t be. I’m fine.” I wave off her concern but still feel the sting of her betrayal.
“When I was talking to Jamie about—”
My head snaps in her direction. “Wait, you were talking to Jamie about this! Liv, that breaks every BFF code out there. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s number one in the best friend handbook: don’t talk to your boyfriend about the mental state of your best friend.”
“Please, now you’re just overly dramatic.” She waves me off with her long hand.
“Look who’s talking,” I spit.
We sit there, silently glaring at each other and waiting for the other to give up, but this time, it’s not going to be me. Silence fills the cab like a bad perm, each of us not ready to admit their mistake.
“Hey, are you two going to make-out or something?” Blaise calls from the porch. “Come on, I need the truck. Mom said you better give it to me,” he whines.
“Let’s just drop it,” I say, calling for a truce.
“I can’t just drop it. First, you’re seeing things, and then accusing innocent people of attacking you, and now this dangerous crush on Jaxson, who is obviously a complete psycho.”
“I don’t have a crush on him.”
“Yes, you do. I see how you look at him like he’s a double mocha latte.”
My mouth drops open. “I do not look at him like that.”
“You do, too. You should be looking at his hot, not creepy brother.”
“You mean Cardelian?” I choke on a laugh. “What does he have to do with this?”
“If you don’t get out of the truck now, Liv, I swear to god I’m turning the hose on you guys,” Blaise calls.
I watch as he walks over to the tangled mess of hoses and starts to pull them apart. We both turn away from Blaise and continue our fight.
“Jamie heard that he has a thing for you.”
“A thing? Like as in the flu?”
“Whatever! You know that’s not what I mean.”
“Whatever you say.” I roll my eyes at her and push the truck door open. Blaise has the hose in one hand and holds up his baggy pants up with the other as he runs toward us screaming like a banshee.
“Hey, what does that mean?” Liv calls after me.
I don’t answer. I race up the stairs as a stream of water flies over my head and make a dive for the safety of her house before I’m caught in the war between Liv and Blaise. I look out the window at where water, curses, and fists are thrown.
A few moments later, Liv walks in, triumphant but soaking wet, and tosses her keys on the counter. “That little asshole! I swear we’re not related. It’s like he is from another planet. Planet A-Hole.”
I roll my eyes at her and decide that I’m going to be the mature one in our fight and give her the silent treatment.
“Real mature! Fine, don’t speak to me.” Liv pulls her wet sweater off and tosses it at me.
“Hey, you were the one that started it. Then, to add insult to injury, you suggest that Cardelian could possibly be interested in me.” I throw the shirt back at her unable to give her the silent treatment any more.
“I’m not lying.” She actually sounds hurt. “He really was asking Jamie about you today,” she says and sticks out her bottom lip.
“He was?” I can’t help it, my curiosity piques, even though I know Liv is blowing this thing way out of proportion. He wouldn’t be the first new kid that was curious about the freak. His brother sure was. The thought of Jaxson sends my stomach tumbling. I don’t like that just the thought of him can affect me.
“The usual things that a guy asks when he likes a girl. Do you have a boyfriend? What color bra do you wear?”
She smiles, and I throw an apple at her from the bowl of fruit, hitting her in the shoulder.
“Hey, that hurt.” She rubs at the spot.
“Really, what did he ask, Liv?”
She grabs two cans of soda out of the fridge and hands me one. “I’m not sure. Jamie didn’t really say, but I know he did ask the boyfriend question,” she sings, opening her can and taking a sip out of it.
“And Jamie, what did he say about me?” I tug at the curl behind my ear.
Liv scrunches her face, examining her nail polish.
“Nothing. He doesn’t know anything about you. Do you think I should go red? After all, it’s fall.” She tilts her head to the side, looking at her fingernails.
“Liv!” I say, exasperated. “Why would he want to know anything about me?” I wonder aloud.
“Hmmm, I wonder. He’s a guy, you’re a girl, and you sit next to him in English. Could it be that he really is interested in you?” she says sarcastically, giving up on her nail polish.
“I doubt it,” I say to myself.
“I bet you he wants to ask you to homecoming.”
Now I know she is blowing this way out of proportion. “There is no way in this world he wants to ask me to homecoming.”
“How come? I bet you he does. Homecoming is two weeks away, and he doesn’t have a date yet.”
“Liv, come back down to Earth. He’s one of the most popular guys at school, and I’m the biggest freak. It just doesn’t make sense.”
I catch my reflection in the mirror above the kitchen table. My mousy brown hair hangs to my shoulders in limp curls, and my bangs are at a weird length—too short to pull back, too long to stay out of my eyes. Liv comes and stands next to me, wrapping her arms around me. Compared to her, I look like a twelve-year-old kid. She is tall, perfect, and looks like a model.
“You are not a freak. That is just a stupid nickname Buck made up for you.”
“Yeah, well it stuck.” I sigh, looking away from the mirror.
“When Cardelian asks you to homecoming, you won’t feel that way anymore,” she says with a sly smile on her face.
“We already went over this! He’s not going to ask me.”
“Well, I know one way that we can find out
if he likes you.” Liv’s smile turns wicked.
“No way! Whatever you have planned you can forget about it.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Can you please tell me now what you are scheming?” I yell so she can hear me over music blaring from the cracked speakers as we speed down the road.
“Just trust me. I know what I’m doing when it comes to guys.”
I rub my fingers across my eyelids, thinking that this is the point in any story where the heroine develops a headache from her overburdening friend.
“Fine, don’t pout over there. Gosh, sometimes you remind me of Blaise. Football practice is ending just about now, so if we hurry, we can meet Cardelian at his house.”
My head snaps in her direction. “What? No.”
Liv just smiles at me as she speeds down the road.
“Didn’t I suffer enough today?” I say, thinking about Jaxson at the mall. I squeeze my eyes shut again and see the glow of his.
“You need to move on from this weird attraction you have with Jaxson, and you need to stay away from him.”
I’m not sure what I feel for Jaxson, so I change the subject. “Liv, I wish you would stop acting like Cardelian likes me. Do you remember in third grade when you thought Billy Fishkill liked me?” I remind her of the note she forced me to send to him. ‘Do you like me? I like you.’ It ended with him shoving me off the top of the playground equipment and everyone seeing my Little Mermaid underwear.
She waves me off. “You have to stop living in the past. Besides, you no longer wear mermaid Underoos. Oh, my God, please tell me you still don’t.”
I blush. “I don’t.”
“You see? This is exactly why you need to do this … to build up your confidence. I know you have some weird thing for Jaxson, but you need to let it go. Cardelian is a great guy, and you deserve a guy that really likes you. Maybe he’s just what the doctor ordered to put an end to this weird fascination you have. Which is why we are going to his house, to put this all behind you.”
“No way. Turn this car around, or I swear, I will jump out of it.”
She rolls her eyes. “Will you stop being so dramatic. Look, I know what guys like, and while the socially awkward, mousy girl is cute at first, after a while, it’s going to on his nerves. You have to riposte, and let him know that you are interested, too.”
Liv jerks the wheel and I’m thrown against the door. “You just called me mousy! Thanks, that’s a real confidence booster. I’m not socially awkward either, and what makes you think I’m interested in him?” Okay, so I’m slightly interested, but more in a scientific way. Why could he possibly have any interest in me?
“Because I know you, and deep inside, you are a hopeless romantic.” She grins at me.
Even though I have a million reasons why this is a bad idea, I sit back and let Liv perform her experiment on me.
###
We park on the other side of the street from the Fosters’s house. It is a three story Victorian with a wraparound porch, and it looks as if one wrong step would send the entire thing tumbling to the ground. At one time, it must have been beautiful, but now it looks as if it’s decaying— returning to a grave in the earth. Gray paint peels away from the walls, exposing the bare, rotting wood. The yard is carpeted with dirt and patches of dead grass, and vines wrap around the house—strangling it.
“Liv, this is stupid.” I groan. “What do I even say?” I stare at the house, afraid to leave the safety of her truck.
“Tell him you need to interview him for the newspaper.”
Liv only wants to prove that she is right and Cardelian does like me. However, I do need to finish the interview with him.
“And if that fails?”
“Just ask to use the bathroom.” She winks and pushes me out the door.
I cross the wet, potholed road to the house. I must be absolutely insane for doing this. As I climb the stairs to the house, they creak and groan under my weight. My heart picks up with each step I take until it’s in my throat. This is so stupid! How did I let Liv talk me in to this? I turn back—ready to run—but her large, enthusiastic smile and two thumbs up urge me forward. The things I do in the name of friendship.
I grit my teeth, cursing under my breath, and climb the remaining steps. The door is in no better condition than the rest of the house. Chipped paint litters it and mold covers the small cracked window. There isn’t a doorbell to ring. I’m about to knock when the door swings open with a loud groan, and I jump back to avoid being hit with it.
Jaxson stands in the doorway, sucking up all the light around us and dimming everything to the same gray as the house. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t to see Jaxson. Okay, so a tiny piece of me was hoping I would run into him. Seeing him sparks a nervous excitement in me, which seems to be always present when he is around. He has on that infamous dark, faded jeans with ripped knees exposing the white skin under it. A thin T-shirt clings to the well-defined and lean muscles of his chest.
“Can I help you?” he asks, sounding annoyed.
I’m gawking at him, but I snap my mouth shut. Can I be any more of a loser? “Ummm … ummm ….”
Narrowing his eyes, he grits his teeth together. “Wasn’t bad enough you where stalking me at the mall, now you’re following me home? Careful, Ace, or I might have to get a restraining order on you.” Disdain drips from his words.
“I’m not stalking you,” I snap. He has a gift for making me exasperated and keeping me baited so I keep coming back for more.
“Any judge would take your actions as stalking. This infatuation with me has really gone too far.”
“I’m not attracted to you. I just came here to … ummm, to …” Frustrated, I blow my bangs out of my eyes.
“If you didn’t come to see me, then you must have come for my brother, and he’s not here,” he says bitterly.
There is always another meaning behinds his words, I just can’t figure it out.
“No, I didn’t come here to see Cardelian,” I say, exasperated.
He leans against the door frame crossing his arms over his chest. “Are you sure about that?”
A slight smirk tugs on his lips, pulling my eyes to his mouth. He drags the tip of his tongue slowly across his bottom lip.
“It’s not nice to stare, Ace.”
I snap my head up. “I wasn’t staring.” A flash of warmth spreads across the bridge of my nose.
“I said it wasn’t nice. I didn’t say I minded.” He takes a step down, closer to me. It’s freezing out, and he has nothing on his feet but socks. It’s strange how the cold doesn’t seem to have any effect on him.
“But I wasn’t,” I say defensively, forcing my eyes to look down and not the lean muscles of his forearm. I keep them glued to the mud that is dried to the tip of my brown leather boots.
“He’s at practice …. If you are looking for him.” He takes another step closer to me.
“I didn’t come here to see him.” Frustration makes my voice shake, giving away my lie.
“Hmmm.” He takes the last step that is separating us, filling my personal space.
Despite my frustration with him, I want this. I want to close any space that separates us. The twisted part of me wants to continue this game of cat and mouse we play. My senses are filled with him, and cold waves drift off his skin, making me shiver. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. He smells woodsy, like pine and freshly fallen snow. It reminds me of winter, of Christmas.
“Are you having fun?” he asks in amusement.
My eyes fly open, and I can see the look on his face that says he thinks I’m a freak. God, could I be any more obvious? I’m leaning toward him, smelling him. Way to live up to your nickname, Eden.
“I’m sorry,” I mutter, taking a step back.
His expression is no longer the one of disdain that I’m so used to seeing. Instead, it is calm, an odd sense of content floats off him. Another shiver runs through me. His raven hair is pushed off his for
ehead, giving me full access to his striking features, and his heart-stopping, beautiful eyes, which glow bright blue.
I am not imagining it. Fear grips me. I feel like I’m on a rollercoaster about to drop over the peak. I think I might actually puke. He can’t be from this world.
“Can I use your bathroom?” I blurt out.
“Umm. Yeah,” he says, sounding a little shocked. Blinking as if waking from a daze, his eyes fade back to the pale blue.
“Thanks,” I say pushing past him and into the house. I can feel his calculated stare on my back.
I hurry out of his gaze and down a narrow hall. The walls and floor throughout the house are the same dreary gray as the outside. Threadbare rugs cover the floors in various sizes and shapes. A flickering yellow lamp sets at the end of the hall, offering the only light. The house feels like the setting of a horror movie.
Uneasiness settles over me, and my stomach begins to twist with nerves. What was I thinking, coming into his house alone? Into the home of the boy with glowing eyes. They were most definitely glowing. I’m not crazy. If I was, wouldn’t I think everyone’s eyes glowed? Maybe the years of living with Essie has made me numb to the thought of creatures from another world, which is why I’m not running out of here screaming.
A morbid thought suddenly crosses my mind. What if he has the Fosters and Cardelian down in the basement, wrapped in some weird alien netting, waiting to be harvested? I could be next. The whole town might be next. What if he was luring Juliet to his nest to be his next victim in his harvest? And now I am in the hive.
Okay, calm down. I can do this. My journalism instincts kick in as I make a left down another narrow hallway that ends in a bathroom. I shut the door behind me. Think Eden, think. I drag a deep breath of cold air in, I need to get it together.
If I was a weird, dark, elusive, glowing-eyed boy, where would I keep my secrets? I wish I had my phone so I could text Liv. She could distract Jaxson, but I don’t have my phone, so I’ll have to take my chances. There is some small comfort knowing that she is outside in the truck, she’s probably freaking out right now. I will have to be quick about it before she does something impulsive.
