Enemy through the Gates

by D T Dyllin

  I grabbed my cell phone out of my purse and swore under my breath—25 missed calls. Just then my phone began to vibrate again in my hand. It was Jenna. “Hello?” I squeaked.

  “Oh my God! Where are you? Your parents were freaking out. I told them you came over my house after your date to tell me about it and fell asleep, but they’re going to be expecting you home soon.”

  Relief washed over me and I exhaled the tension from my body. Our cover wasn’t blown yet. “I’m on my way home now. Thanks, Jenna.”

  “Wait!” Jenna yelled. “I better get all the details later. It’s the least I deserve.”

  “Yeah, okay. But I have to go now. I so don’t wanna get busted.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bye.” She hung up in a huff. What exactly was I going to tell her? Guess I could worry about that part later. For now, the important thing was that I had to get home before anyone discovered what really happened to me.

  “Jenna covered for you?”

  “Yeah, thank God.” I said as I pulled my shoes on and headed for the window.

  When I’d made it through, Bryn caught my wrist and tugged me up so I had to stand on my tippy toes to reach him. “I need to see you later.”

  I smiled up at him. “I hope you don’t think we’re going to be getting naked again for the next couple of days. I can barely walk.”

  He delivered me one of his patented lopsided grins complete with dimples. “We can do other… things.”

  I’m not really sure why I felt the need to ask, but I just couldn’t seem to help myself. “What was it like—with Tammie? I mean was I as good?”

  “I didn’t go all the way with her. Why do you think I did? Last night was my first time too, Peej.”

  My jaw dropped in surprise. “But you were with her for over a year, and you’ve been making such a big deal about my first time and—” And he was so good. How was he so good at some of those things if he’d never done them before?

  “Girls look at their first time a lot different than guys do. I just wanted to make sure it was special for you.” He locked eyes with me. “I told you I couldn’t get you out of my head. It would’ve been wrong to do it with her while I was imagining it was you the entire time. I knew as long as it was with you it would be special for me.”

  My cheeks flushed. “Oh but—”

  “We did other things. Mostly she did them to me.” Bryn answered before I could ask. “They were good and I enjoyed them but… she wasn’t you.”

  I knew it was absolutely ridiculous but thinking of Tammie doing things to Bryn, and him enjoying them, despite after the night Bryn and I had just shared, made jealousy flare red hot within me. “Teach me,” I practically growled. “Teach me so I can do all of those things to you. I wanna learn how to make you happy, Bryn.”

  He reached forward, face serious, and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “You’ve already made me happy, Peej. You’re so amazing—beyond amazing—I can’t even describe.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I’ll be happy to teach you.” Bryn mischievously grinned at me, heat shining at me from his eyes. “There are a few things I wanna learn to do with you, now that you broached the subject.” He kissed me one last time, slipping his tongue in my mouth to briefly intertwine with mine before he playfully pushed me away from the window. “Now go before I don’t have the strength to let you.”

  “Okay.” I smiled up at him, biting my lip. My steps were slow and labored as if my legs were protesting the thought of leaving him. I willed myself not to look at him for fear that I would run back into his arms. I hurriedly made my way back to my house with what I was sure was a big goofy grin on my face.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  My mom turned to glare at me as I sheepishly entered the kitchen through the back door. “Nice of you to call to let us know you were safe. I was frantic with worry.”

  “Mom, you’re always frantic with worry. It’s what you do,” I mumbled, averting my eyes. I was almost positive that she’d be able to tell I wasn’t a virgin any more just by looking at me.

  “True,” she stated. “But that’s beside the point. Next time at least call.” She turned back to the stove to continue cooking breakfast.

  I just stood there for a moment looking at her back in shock. That was it? I half expected her to turn back around to yell at me that she could tell what I’d done. That it was obvious to anyone who would look at me. But that didn’t happen, and I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. “I’m gonna go shower,” I mumbled as I scurried out of the kitchen.

  Only when I was safely behind my closed door did I dare to release a sigh of relief. I pulled out my phone and texted Bryn. “In the clear,” I typed before hitting send.

  A few seconds later, my phone beeped in response. “Wasn’t worried… need 2 c u later.”

  “I’ll text u when I can get away,” I typed.

  “I’ll be waiting.” I couldn’t help the smile that broke out across my face. I was so lucky to have Bryn. And I thought it sucked before being separated from him when he was just my best friend… although I’m really not sure he was ever just my best friend… now that we were so much more, it was almost as if I could barely breathe being away from him.

  I heaved a loud sigh and made my way into the bathroom for a quick shower. I turned the water on to let it warm up as I stripped my clothes off, stopping to study myself in the mirror. On the surface maybe I didn’t look any different, but the eyes that were reflected back at me were that of a stranger’s. She seemed to hold some dark delicious secret of what it meant to be touched so intimately by the man she loved, and her eyes danced merrily with the knowledge of what it felt like to be made love to by her heart’s desire. She smiled at me. I smiled back. I paused another moment to study the rest of me for changes; unfortunately, I hadn’t sprouted the body of a woman overnight. I was still a tad too skinny, and a tad too tall… “But Bryn thinks I’m beautiful,” I murmured to myself. And that was all that mattered.

  I hopped into the shower with a smile on my face, letting the hot water roll over me, relaxing my well-loved body. I began humming to myself, unable to pull my thoughts away from Bryn. Snatches of last night kept flashing across my mind, making my shower take longer than planned. By the time I finally turned the water off the entire bathroom was filled with steam. I pulled a fresh towel from the linen closet, wrapping myself in it before making my way back to my room, still humming.

  “Someone’s in an awfully cheerful mood today.” I stopped short to see my mom standing in my room setting some folded laundry on my bed. She smiled at me obviously thinking my good mood had something to do with my date last night, and not Bryn. “Want to tell me about it?” She looked at me eagerly.

  My face heated as an unbidden memory of Bryn and I locked together in bed together flashed across my mind. “There’s nothing to tell. Can’t I just be in a good mood for no particular reason?”

  “No, you can’t be in a good mood for no particular reason. I know you too well, peanut.” Her face was expectant; as if her words would loosen whatever secret I didn’t want to tell her.

  “There’s nothing to tell,” I repeated fidgeting from foot to foot.

  She frowned, her face showing disappointment. “Fine. If you don’t want to share with your mom, I guess I can live with that. But can I assume you’re going to have a second date with Jeremy?”

  “Yeah,” I said, leaving it at that. I wasn’t lying about that part; let her draw her own conclusions.

  “Good,” she said, sounding very pleased with herself. “Come downstairs when you’re dressed and I’ll heat up some breakfast for you.”

  “Okay.” I waited for her to leave before getting dressed, pausing to text Jenna before I headed downstairs. “U need 2 get here asap—can’t deal with mom interrogating me about last night…”

  “K. But we need to go somewhere so u can fill me in,” she texted back, followed by, “Leaving now… c u in 10.”

  I
texted back, “K. Pretend we already had plans.” She didn’t text me back but I knew she’d be on it.

  I stalled a little bit longer before heading downstairs, giving Jenna time to get to my house. Just as I was coming down the stairs, I heard the doorbell ring, and I dashed for it. “Jenna’s here mom, we made plans to hang out today last night,” I called.

  “You still need to eat breakfast,” my mom called back. “Maybe Jenna will want something too.”

  I flung the door open, never more relieved to see Jenna and her now… blue hair? “That red lasted even shorter than normal,” I observed.

  “Yeah, well I had to do something last night since a certain someone was M.I.A. after her date, and I had no prospects of my own.” She retorted.

  “Shhh…” I hushed her. “My mom has bat ears. We have to eat before we go anywhere,” I added. Well, at least Jenna’s new hair color might distract my mom for a few minutes while I scarfed down some breakfast. I trailed into the kitchen behind her, my nerves at an all time high, when suddenly my entire world tilted.

  It was like the dream/premonition I thought I’d had the other night at Jenna’s after Ryan’s party, it was if I was being pulled up and away from my body, drawn to the purple glow of the same gate. I saw in fast forward the same imagery as I had before, but this time I seemed to be able to follow one of the ‘aliens’ as he left the scene. I focused in on him as he made his way to… Tennessee… yes… even though I’d never been there myself, in my current state I had knowledge of this place. I watched as he crept into the bedroom of an older man, his dark hair was almost the same shade as Bryn’s I noted, and—well he proceeded to ooze into him. It’s hard to explain really, it was if the alien went liquid-y and flowed into the man, only to reform inside of him. He still looked like the man he had been, and yet… I could see the ‘alien’ shining through. I screamed at the image and I felt myself being hurtled back to my body, everything going dark.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I came to slowly, my head pounding as if someone had done a tap dance on my skull. I could hear my mom talking in a hushed voice, “No doctor, she passed out cold. Mmmm-hmmm. Mmmm-hmmm. Well, please get here as soon as you can, I’m pretty sure it was just a premonition but because she’s never had one before I can’t really be sure.” I heard the telltale beep of the cordless phone letting me know that my mom had hung up.

  I sat up slowly, blinking my bedroom into focus. “I’m fine mom. I don’t need a doctor.”

  “Oh honey, you’re awake. Good.” My mom sat on the edge of my bed and put the back of her hand to my forehead in the way that all mothers seem to do.

  I pushed it away with annoyance. “I said I was fine. I just had a premonition is all.”

  My mom studied my face for a moment and then smiled. “Oh, I’m so happy. What did you see?”

  “It was horrible. I saw the gate and everything, but then these aliens came through, and then I followed this one alien, well, not me exactly, but my consciousness or whatever and then the alien slid into this old guy and I could see him hiding underneath him, inside him, like he took over.” I inhaled deeply, having not bothered to take a breath during my entire long run sentence of babble, but at least I’d gotten it out—sort of.

  My mom’s smile dropped from her face. “That’s not possible, honey. I guess maybe you did just pass out from low blood sugar or something; good thing the doctor’s on his way.”

  “No mom, it was real!” I exclaimed.

  “Alright, honey. Just calm down and we can talk about this later.” Which meant she didn’t believe me and was just patronizing me until she had something better to dissuade me with. Fine, I could bide my time too.

  I crossed my arms over my chest and waited.

  * * *

  An hour later I had a clean bill of health although I still couldn’t convince anyone that my premonition was real. I was beginning to wonder how sure I was anymore to persist with the fight. Besides I had more important things to worry about at the moment. I was almost at Jenna’s house, and I hadn’t thought of a single good lie that I thought she’d buy about where I had been last night. I couldn’t exactly say I was with Jeremy, because then if I slipped up about some detail from our date she would know I was lying. A part of me wished I could just tell her about me and Bryn, but the less people that knew, the safer our secret would stay. Having a secret affair just isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be.

  I’d barely raised my hand to ring Jenna’s doorbell when she was pulling me into her house, only to then drag me up to her bedroom. She flopped onto her bed and looked at me expectantly. “Spill,” she demanded.

  I sighed, my eyes dodging around her room, wishing I didn’t have to say anything. “Well, there’s really not much to spill—we fell asleep is all.”

  “Liar,” Jenna hissed. “I’m a Speaker, remember? I can understand all kinds of language including body language and you—” She waved her hand in my general direction, “—are hiding all kinds of secrets.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re a Speaker, not a mind reader. You’ve been known to make mistakes before.”

  “Not this time. Spill, now.” She demanded again.

  “I don’t have to put up with you accusing me of stuff that I’m not even guilty of—I fell asleep—and that’s all,” I said.

  She narrowed her eyes at me and studied my face for a few seconds before relaxing. “Okay.”

  What? Some Speaker she is if she actually bought that. “Okay?”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  My phone beeped, letting me know I had a new text message. I popped it open to see it was from Bryn. “Getting impatient—need to see you. Meet me in 15 @ our tree.” My face flushed at him mentioning ‘our tree’ . . . I’d come to think of it as that, but I was pleasantly surprised to know that he had too. My stomach did a little flip flop thinking about having Bryn kiss me while pressed up against my favorite tree in the whole world—where he’d finally decided to be with me. “K.” I responded.

  I shut my phone and looked up to see Jenna eyeing me suspiciously. “Who was that?”

  “Bryn. But umm… . I’ve gotta go. We’ll talk more later.” I hurried from her room. “Thanks for covering for me—Love ya!” I called over my shoulder as I rushed through her front door, slamming it behind me. I didn’t want to upset Jenna but I wanted to see Bryn more than anything else in the world right now. The walk over was a blur, I was floating on a cloud of joyous anticipation, and I would have run but I didn’t want to arrive all sweaty to see Bryn.

  I’d hardly made it a few feet into the spattering of woods across from my house when warm strong arms encircled me from behind. “I missed you.” Bryn spun me around and captured my lips with his.

  “I missed you too,” I murmured, running my hands eagerly over his muscled body. It felt like I hadn’t seen him in months, not hours. His hands explored me, emboldened by the night we shared last evening, and it wasn’t long before we could have been arrested for indecent exposure.

  “I’ll never get enough of you, Peej. It’s like a dream—us being together,” Bryn rumbled. “I love you so much.”

  “I love you too.”

  “Oh. My. God.” Jenna’s voice shattered our happy little love bubble. Bryn and I fumbled to put back on and straighten our clothes, as Jenna stood in the clearing gaping at us. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” she exclaimed.

  “Why would I tell you?” Bryn said with agitation.

  “Not you—her. I mean I know he’s your best friend and all, to which now I can see why—but I’m at least your best female friend.” She crossed her arms and glared at me with indignance.

  “Did you follow me?” I couldn’t believe she actually followed me—well—then again maybe I could. I would do it if I were in her shoes. “You didn’t believe me at all, you just said you did so I wouldn’t think to look if you were following me.”

  “Exactly.” Jenna smirked at me. “I knew you were hiding something really
big and juicy. I just never in a million years imagined it was this.” She motioned to both Bryn and me. “And you guys are in love? I mean having sex is one thing, you know, being friends with benefits or something, but this is some real serious shit.”

  “You heard us?” I asked incredulously. “But if you followed me—” I stopped to stare at her for a stunned moment. “You were watching us? Oh my God Jenna, are you some kind of perverted voyeur or something?”

  “No! I’m not, I just wanted to see what I could find out, and then I got distracted by a chatty squirrel who, by the way, said he would normally be annoyed by you guys but after the other night when he heard you professing your love for each other he now is okay with you guys being here.”

  Damn Speakers, I inwardly cursed, and damn chatty squirrels. “You can’t tell anyone—please,” I begged.

  “Well—duh. Like I said, this is some real serious shit. I can’t believe you guys are in—did you guys have sex? Did you lose your virginity to him and not even tell me? Please tell me it isn’t so.”

  I almost laughed at the look on Jenna’s face, she was more upset at the thought that I wouldn’t tell her about losing my virginity than anything else. “Last night.”

  “I suppose I can forgive you since you’ve only been keeping that vital information from me for less than twenty-four hours.” A huge grin broke out across her face and she jumped up and down clapping. “Oh—oh—I’m so excited! I need to hear every last detail!”

  Bryn looked at me with horror. “Please don’t. Our sex life is not up for public discussion.” Bryn and I had a sex life. We’d had sex. I inwardly sighed. Life is good.

  “It’s not public, it’s just me. And I bet you’re super pumped to finally have P.J. after all this time. I kept trying to get her to have sex with you but I just couldn’t tell if she was into you or not.”

  “What?” Bryn and I exclaimed at the same time.