by K. R. Grace
How could she twist me up like this so soon? Unless she was my destined. Damn Fate. Odds were all of us were programmed to think Star was our destined. We’d fight each other to the death when in reality she was destined for someone else.
Give yourself a chance, Drake. You’ll surprise yourself.
I turned in time to see Meliena’s gray wolf disappear into the night.
Distance. I needed distance. I turned in the direction of the mountains and ran. Something told me I could run all the way to China (if that was even possible), but I’d never be able to outrun Star.
Chapter Six
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Star
“What happened? You look like a raccoon,” Giles said as soon as I sat down at the lunch table.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“Giles! You’re such a doof burger.” Wayley rolled her eyes. “Anyway, we’re all going to the movies tonight. Wanna come? It’s that new vampire thriller.” Wayley’s eyes grew large with glee. I wondered if she was excited about watching vampires drink human blood, or if she was wound up about spending two hours salivating over the lead actor as he strutted around shirtless.
I knew my parents were scrapbooking as soon as dinner was finished. It was Mom’s idea. She thought maybe doing family projects would bring me out. Being terrified by blood-drinking vampires sounded like the better alternative.
“Sure,” I shrugged.
“Really? You really wanna come?” Wayley stared at me like I’d grown a second head. “Why are you surprised?” I was uncomfortable with her shock.
“Well, usually we invite you and you come up with a reason to back out. This is good,” Onyx gave me an encouraging smile.
“You can sit next to me.” Giles winked.
“No, she’ll be sitting next to me.” Chris had the audacity to drape his arm across my shoulders. “Gotta protect her from all that evil.”
“I think I’ll just sit between Onyx and Wayley,” I shrugged his arm off and shoved a strand of hair behind my ear.
The jab didn’t daunt him. He flashed me a goofy grin, and I found myself comparing him to Clint. They were built the same. Clint was probably just a few inches taller. Both had ash blonde hair that could be mistaken for white, except Clint had always kept his short. Chris’s hair was on the shaggier side, like he rolled out of bed and squirted a little gel in it. Chris’s eyes were hazel. Clint’s had been the perfect shade of sea green or turquoise, whatever was my choice of description for the day. That was where the comparison stopped. I felt my throat tightening up like I’d swallowed a wad of bread without chewing it good. If I didn’t change my thoughts, I was going to have an emotional breakdown in front of total strangers who’d then know the ugly truth of my life.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention as I felt a presence behind me. Without turning I knew it was Drake. But, I turned and looked anyway. Something beyond my control compelled me to him the second he was on my radar. Weird.
“Mind if I sit here?” He pointed to the vacant seat to my left. I didn’t have to glance at the others to know they were all staring. I mean, who wouldn’t stare at him? No one had the right to be that hot.
To avoid drawing more attention to myself, I nodded. “Sure.”
Drake sat down, shoving his crutches under the table before pulling out a brown bag from his backpack. I watched each graceful movement, wondering how he managed to make the most mundane of tasks seem…spectacular. He surprised me by resting his large, warm hand on my thigh and giving it a gentle squeeze. My leg jerked as warmth spread throughout my body.
Ah, that was…yeah, I had no words.
“How’s the nose?” He asked low enough only I could hear.
“Fine. I only notice it when I bump it, or when I look in the mirror.” I was so proud of myself for sounding cool, because I definitely wasn’t feeling it inside.
“I’m sorry you’re hurt.” He drew circles on my thigh as he spoke, causing my brain to completely shut down. My body shimmered under the mindless ministration, and my eyes dropped to half mass. I might have possibly purred; it felt that good.
One minute I’d been on the verge of tears, the next I was turning to putty at the simple touch of his hand. Amazing.
“So, about tonight. I can pick you up if you want,” Wayley offered, finally finding her voice. Or had she been talking before, I just hadn’t noticed? Did it even matter?
It took me a few seconds to push past the fog in my brain to come up with a coherent answer.
“Do you know where I live?”
“Yeah, just down the street from me. I saw your family move in.”
I nodded but didn’t verbally answer. That was all the communication she needed to know I agreed with her plan.
“Okay, I’ll be by your house at…wait, why don’t we just ride home together? You can hang out at my place until it’s time to go.”
I shrugged. It beat going home.
“What are you doing tonight?” Drake asked me.
But of course, it was Wayley who answered. “We’re going to see Vampire’s Revenge. You wanna come?” She bounced in her seat like an eager Chihuahua.
I tried not to look like I cared one way or the other when Drake refused to take his eyes off me. But the truth was I really, really wanted him to come with us. Being around him made me uncomfortable. A good type of uncomfortable. The kind that made me feel almost human; something that had been missing in my life since they buried Clint. I felt…complete around Drake.
“Sure, if Star doesn’t mind.”
All eyes fell on me, and I fought the urge to bury my face in his shoulder. God, I didn’t do well with attention.
“I don’t mind,” I mumbled, and his fingers resumed their seductive dance on my thigh. His pinkie went errant, slipping over my inner thigh, so close to my “no no” zone, and my body went on red alert. Before I could say anything his hand shifted to safer regions.
“Great! This is gonna be so much fun.”
Wayley went off on a tangent about a girl named Brittney in her French class, and I was content to drown myself in my lettuce with no dressing. When the bell rang, we all gathered up our crap so the next lunch group could take our places.
I waited on Drake while the others walked on ahead of us.
“I have to take care of some business before the movie or else I’d drive you myself,” he said once he had his backpack in place and his crutches supported all his weight.
“It’s fine. You don’t have to come if it’ll cause you problems. Wayley gets carried away like that sometimes.” I shrugged as I matched my pace to his.
“Someone has to hold your hand when the blood drinking gets to you.” He gave me that smirk. God, I had a love/hate relationship with that sly grin, and I hardly knew him.
I rolled my eyes and shoved my hair out of my face.
“See you tonight.” He winked as he turned to go the opposite direction of me.
“What about band?”
“Not going today. Like I said, I’ve got a thing.” He grinned like skipping was no big deal. Even in my dejected state of living, skipping was a big deal.
“A thing?” To be honest, my mind went straight to the gutter.
“Yeah,” he nodded as if that said it all before hobbling on to wherever it was he was headed. Maybe to deal with his thing.
That made me snicker.
I walked to calculus without further incident and busied myself at my desk, getting ready for class.
“Star, why don’t I just meet you in the band room after school?” Wayley asked as soon as I had my homework assignment out and stopped fidgeting.
“I don’t think you want to brave that place.” Giles grimaced as he plopped down into the seat directly behind me.
“What’s so terrible about the band room?” Onyx huffed, apparently taking up for her fellow band mates as she took her seat next to him.
“Probably afraid of the monster hiding in the uniform room that s
mells like stale B.O. and peanuts,” I snorted.
Giles tilted his head back as his body shook with laughter. It really wasn’t that funny but apparently it was to him and his contagious cackles got everyone else involved.
“You all are strange.”
Class was boring and uneventful. By the time the bell rang, I was pretty sure my brain had leaked out into a pool at my feet.
~*~*~*~*~*~
As promised, Drake wasn’t in band. It should’ve made me happy, but I missed avoiding his stares. Since our practice session yesterday, I couldn’t help but want to spend more time with him. He was quiet and possibly moodier than me, but there was something about him that drew me like a magnet to a metal refrigerator. I was two parts excited and one part scared about seeing him tonight. No matter how I tried to put it in my head, somehow my mind twisted the outing into a group date.
Would he sit beside me? Would he try to hold my hand? Would he be upfront about it or do the whole hands-bumping-in-the-popcorn-bucket bit? Ahh, I needed to stop!
True to her word, Wayley met me in the band room as soon as the last bell rang. I allowed her to do all the talking as she drove us to her house. It really was on the same street as mine and looked the same, too: 1950s retro brick with split foyers.
“Before we go inside, I want you to meet my dog.” She cut the engine before springing out.
Wayley led me to the backyard where a black lab was barking and loping from one side of the yard to the other, tail wagging eighty miles an hour.
“Star, Prynne, Prynne, Star.”
“Prynne? As in Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter?”
“We were reading the book when my parents brought her home. I first wanted to name her Hester, but Mom thought it might be a little too much ego for one dog, so Prynne it was. I call her Prynney most of the time.”
Prynney jumped up and plopped her big, dirty paws on my stomach the moment we stepped through the gate. Inwardly I was begging for someone to get the mutt off me.
“Uh, nice dog,” I said awkwardly, trying not to touch her. I hated animals. Too much fur and not enough brains. Sure, they were fine from a distance, but being up close to them was a different story.
“Oh, Prynney, be nice to Star.” Wayley was leaning over, trying to pull the dog off me. “I think she likes you.”
“Can’t say the feeling is mutual.”
Wayley only giggled and diverted Prynne’s attention with a bright green tennis ball. “Go get it!”
The ball launched into the air and Prynne charged after it, her muscular back legs barely keeping up with her. She grabbed it and returned to drop it at my feet. Wayley laughed and threw it again. While this game continued, I sat down in an iron chair on her patio and stared at the ornate pattern dancing across the matching iron table. My eyes zeroed in on the hole in the center where an umbrella was supposed to be. I felt like that hole, missing something that was normally there. All that was left was the space it’d made.
“Dammit.” It was just a whisper, but I felt the frustration I was bottling up inside eek out with the simple word. I was really tired of having to fight emotions all the time. Why couldn’t I just move on like everyone else? My heart twisted awkwardly, and I wasn’t sure I was ever going to breathe again. Oddly enough, my heart cried out in need…for Drake’s arms around me.
“Want to get something to drink? I think my mom made peach tea last night.” Wayley’s words shook my brain enough to make my lungs function, but they weren’t enough to take away the pain.
What the heck was happening to me?
“Peach tea?” The question squeezed out through my constricted lungs.
“You’re from Georgia and you haven’t had peach tea?”
“Not all of us are into that sort of thing.” I was regaining feeling in my arms, and my breathing was back to normal. The throb was now only a dull thud.
“Well, you have to try it. Come on.”
We walked into her house, and I immediately realized how wrong I’d been. Our homes may be similar on the outside but the inside of Wayley’s looked like something straight from the Home and Garden channel. Votive candles twinkled in every corner and the walls radiated with olive green warmth. The den was decked with a large leather sofa and matching chair-and-a-half. The kitchen was completely modern with stainless steel fixtures and granite countertops.
It couldn’t be more obvious that we came from two different worlds. Nothing in my house matched because my parents sold everything they had to move here and stopped at various garage sales along the way between Atlanta and Seymour to stock up on the essentials.
“We used to have lavender cookies but it looks like my dad took those.”
“Lavender? Is that common around here?”
“Oh no. Dad’s a diabetic, so we’ve experimented with ways to make his favorite foods where he can eat them again.”
“Huh.” I grunted. Still weird.
She opened the spacious refrigerator and pulled out a glass pitcher filled half-way with tea. I turned away and was content to stare out the window at a massive oak tree blocking my view of the mountains. Its limbs were barren, a stark contrast to the gray sky.
“Drink up.”
I looked down at the glass shoved at me and resolved myself to being Wayley’s lab rat. I said a silent prayer and took a sip. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. Slightly on the quirky side but still drinkable.
I finished the drink, and she stuck our glasses in the dishwasher before giving me the grand tour. We eventually made it to her room, which was an explosion of bright pink. I felt like running back to my room where there was nothing but unopened boxes and white walls. I couldn’t handle all the cheerfulness. Not even back in my pre-Clint days could I have handled this much perkiness in one room. It was candy syrup mixed with artificial food coloring. My tongue recoiled like I’d swallowed a mouthful of hairspray. She plopped herself onto her bed, and I decided to take the magenta pink computer chair. The place even smelled pink.
“So, are you interested in any boys at school?”
I had a feeling that was where her thoughts would go. She was into Chris. I’d gotten the message loud and clear last week when she “accidentally” fell into his lap on her way to her seat at lunch. Frankly, they’d make a cute couple, if she could keep her mouth shut long enough for him to ask her out.
“No.”
“What about Drake?”
“Never.”
“Hum, I thought you two seemed to be hitting it off, especially since he’s coming with us tonight. He practically invited himself.”
“He’s probably just bored.” I shrugged, trying to play it down. Even I knew there was something going on. Guys didn’t touch girls’ thighs unless they were interested. At least no guy I’d ever known did anyway.
“No, he’s into you. Drake Knight doesn’t do social events. He’s the dark, sexy loner. This is huge.”
I shuffled uncomfortably in my seat. “Whatever.”
“I’m serious. Once word gets out, you’re going to be a legend.” Wayley tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder as she rolled onto her back.
“What’s his story anyway?” I found myself asking. Onyx had given me her version. I was curious to see if Wayley’s was any different. Not that I’d take either girl’s word as law where Drake was concerned. Why trust a third party when you could get the truth straight from the source?
“No one really knows. All the girls try to hook up with him, but he never shows any interest. Supposedly, he did a stint in juvie. Only dates college girls. Doesn’t have any friends. At least not at school. Tends to stick to himself. I heard he has a bad temper. That he got kicked out of ALC because he beat up a teacher.”
“ALC?”
“Alternative Learning Center. It’s where the bad kids go after being suspended or expelled one too many times.” She shrugged.
“Why would he be transferred to a public school if he beat up a teacher in the alternative school?�
��
“How would I know?” she flopped back onto her stomach with a smile. “So, would you be okay if I tried to sit by Chris tonight?” She asked, effectively changing the subject.
“Of course. As long as I’m between you and Onyx, I don’t care.”
“What about Drake?” She frowned.
“Put him beside Giles.”
Wayley was satisfied to talk about the latest relationship drama happening within their social group, and I slipped into a mental state of numbness. It was the first time I’d literally felt nothing. If I’d been able to feel, I would have said it was wonderful. Instead, I just stared down at my black converse shoes.
“You know, I bet you would make a great blonde.”
“It’s red.” I fought of the urge to play with my hair now that it was the topic of conversation.
“Deep or light?”
Why the hell did it matter? Still, I answered, “Like cherry coke.”
“Why did you go black?”
“Felt like it.”
“I thought about going chocolate brown once.” She began studying her hair in the full-length mirror mounted on her wall.
“Don’t. Guys like blondes.” The words flew out my mouth, but I wasn’t thinking them through. However, I knew if I wanted to use Wayley as an excuse to get away from my house, I had to somewhat act like a friend. I wasn’t sure how long she’d find my “social outcast” behavior endearing.
“Apparently they like black, too.”
“No, I’m just a novelty. Once the newness wears off, they’ll forget I exist.”
Wayley pulled out some fashion magazines and started talking about different styles she should try. I nodded in all the right places but didn’t say anything. Finally, she looked down at her watch and declared it was time to go.
The theater was packed by the time we got there. Giles and Chris were loaded down with massive tubs of popcorn and M & Ms. Somehow the seating arrangement ended up being Chris and Giles in the middle with Onyx and Wayley flanking them. I sat on the other side of Wayley with an empty seat on my left reserved for Drake. I blamed my perky seat neighbor for that coincidence.
