Darkly Divine: A Paranormal Enemies to Lovers Romance

by C L Walker

  “You aren’t wrong. That’s one thing I’ve always appreciated about you, you don’t press me on things, and you take my word for it when I say things are fine, and they are.”

  He considered what I had said for a moment as if he were trying to figure something out. “But here’s the thing, if Micah sees more than I do, if there’s something he finds difficult to mind his own business about, I can’t really blame him. You may appreciate me for minding my own business but now I wonder if maybe I should have pressed you more.”

  I opened my mouth to say it wasn’t necessary, but he held up his hand to stop me from speaking.

  “I won’t do so now, not when you’re leaving in two weeks and you already have him on your ass.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “But he’s mean about it, and it doesn’t help.”

  He shrugged his shoulders as our food arrived and I waited until the waiter was gone to question his meaning.

  “Care to explain that shrug?”

  “I don’t know that I agree it doesn’t help. If he’s being mean, then that’s not cool. But if you’re mad just because he gets a rise out of you then maybe you should stop to consider your role in it and the situation from his perspective.”

  “Huh?” He shrugged again but didn’t explain. “Oh, come on, Sai, don’t take his side. He is insane.”

  “Possibly. But I can’t say that your reaction to him isn’t good for you.” He put a roll into his mouth and chewed a few times. “I have never seen you act this emotional about anything or anyone the entire time I’ve known you.”

  “You say it like it’s a good thing.”

  “I’m saying it like you’ve been closed up for as long as I have known you, then this guy shows up and pushes you to express your feelings in ways I thought I’d never see. And in little more than a week. So, I’m sorry to say this but again, I really think there is something there, and if you guys could just not fight–”

  “That’s impossible,” I cut in, “and there is nothing there.”

  He sighed and rolled his eyes; a double whammy insult he didn’t even try to disguise. “Come on, Skylar, be real with me.”

  “Look I hear you, and I’ll consider your opinion on the matter, and I suppose I’ll admit one thing.” He perked up in anticipation. “I do find him sort of…” He leaned forward. “…attractive.”

  He clapped once and said, “I knew it!”

  I waved my hands in front of me to usher him to calm down because he was being too loud.

  “But it means nothing when I want to beat his ass more than I want to kiss him.” I covered my mouth as his mouth turned into a giant O. “No, that’s not what I meant, I don’t want to kiss him! I honestly haven’t thought about it and that’s the problem. Who would want to kiss him when everything that comes out of that hole in his face is obnoxious?”

  He pursed his lips and tried to hide his smile, but it wasn’t working. “I’m just saying.”

  “There’s nothing,” I said, “absolutely nothing, but dislike between us.”

  When he shrugged his shoulders repeatedly just to be annoying, I sighed and gave up. “Just eat your sushi and leave me alone.”

  He made it difficult for me to keep a straight face and eventually a laugh slipped out because he wouldn’t stop shrugging.

  “I could talk about Ashley if you would like?” he asked.

  I ate a roll and said, “Go for it.”

  A change in subject was just what I needed.

  Eleven

  Skylar

  I was waiting in the lunch line as I looked at the sweet and sour chicken with lusty eyes, when Sai ran up to me with a huge smile on his face. He was obviously excited about something, but I doubted that it compared to how excited I was to eat chicken after skipping breakfast.

  “Ashley asked me to eat lunch with her!” He looked around and stood a little taller as he realized he had made that announcement to me and everyone else who was near enough to hear his words.

  I laughed at his embarrassment like any good friend would. “I take it you’re excited about it?”

  His smile grew as he pushed his glasses up higher.

  “But you’re not sure about her, right?” I teased.

  “Did I say that?” he asked sheepishly. “In my defense its high school and a lot can happen quickly.”

  Isn’t that the truth!

  “This means I don’t have to go to the party this Saturday, right? Because you can go with her.”

  He shook his head much to my disappointment. “I have no idea what I am doing. I haven’t had a girlfriend since ninth grade and things were vastly different back then. I need you there.”

  I had no experience either, but I knew even mentioning as much wouldn’t make him change his mind.

  “You’d be fine without me and you know it, but if you insist, I’ll be there wallowing around just in case you require my assistance for God knows what.”

  He slapped me on the back. “Thanks for honoring the bro code.”

  “But I’m not a bro.”

  “You are to me so that means you have to honor the code.”

  I grabbed my tray and inhaled the steam coming from my chicken before I answered. “That’s so not fair, but okay.”

  He grabbed his tray and frowned at the chicken. Obviously, we were seeing two different things because there was no way in hell the meal I was about to feast on, deserved a frown.

  “Anyway, so about lunch today,” he said.

  I didn’t want to eat alone and it kind of hurt my feelings that he was even okay with the idea, but I also wanted him to be happy. So, I smiled sweetly at him and told him to go. It wasn’t his fault that I didn’t want to ask anyone else if I could sit with them, I just felt like it would be rude because I never asked when he was available which was most days.

  Besides there is nothing wrong with being alone, independence is a good thing.

  I sat down at our usual spot in the corner by myself but instead of facing the lunchroom I faced the window. I ate my chicken quickly because I wanted to walk around a bit and get some fresh air before I took on the last half of the day.

  Micah hadn’t texted me about his car mirror the night before and when we saw each other that morning he didn’t approach me, so I gathered that he had no idea it was me. But I was still worried he was going to ask about it, or even bring it up because apparently, he was a human lie detector, and I didn’t know how I would even begin to justify destroying his property just because he had made me mad.

  It was dumb, disrespectful and it wasn’t me, but it was done, and I had to deal with the consequences eventually.

  I thought about giving him a note with some money in it on the last day of school right before I would hopefully never see him again. But that was only going to work if I didn’t get caught before then.

  I dumped my tray and stopped to talk to a girl from my math class for a minute before I walked through the building to the courtyard and lied down on a bench. A few minutes later I heard laughter from the other side of the tree, so I sat up to see who it was.

  It was Micah sitting next to a girl on a bench to the left of me, she was giggling about something and he had a charming smile on his face that made me snort out loud.

  I covered my mouth and nose immediately and creeped over to another bench to my right so that the tree blocked my view of them and in turn his view of me.

  I lied back down and dug my headphones out of my pocket and turned on my gently used iPod that Sai had given me that he had loaded with all his songs. We listened to a lot of the same music thankfully, otherwise I’d be shit out of luck because I couldn’t afford to buy music.

  I put on “Can You Feel My Heart,” by Bring Me the Horizon, and I closed my eyes so I could block out the world and pretend I was somewhere else.

  Half-way through the song my eyelids grew dark, and I opened them to find that Micah hovered just above me with a confused look on his face.

  I pulled out one ear bu
d and waited for him to say something because I was confused myself about why he was hovering so closely.

  “Do you really think listening to that is going to make you feel any better?” he asked finally, before he stood up straight.

  I took a deep breath of relief over having my space back because I couldn’t think straight when he was so close and unfortunately, he seemed to always be in my face.

  “Yes. The lyrics are a reflection of my own thoughts and feelings, so it is a release of sorts.”

  He nodded his head and considered my words. “Is it though when it’s making you cry?”

  “I’m not crying!”

  “Well, your eyes are glassy and filled with water and I guarantee that at any second now one of those babies is going to spill over.” He squinted his eyes and watched my eye carefully until a tear slipped out and he clapped once in response. “And there it goes!”

  I hadn’t even realized tears were there until I had opened my eyes, so I didn’t even know why I was crying.

  “Whatever,” I muttered, because sometimes you have to cry to be okay.

  “Tsk, tsk, another day, another tragedy,” he said as he frowned down at me.

  He had no idea how incredibly angry he made me, because if he did know, I liked to think he would be smart enough to leave me alone because one day he was going to regret it if he didn’t.

  I looked at him and tried to convey my disbelief over his actions. “Do you really find my situation amusing?” He shrugged his shoulders. “Let us discuss what’s actually wrong with you.”

  “You already know, I’m just a douchebag that has everything you don’t and you’re an easy target.” He threw my words back at me in a condescending manner that made me wonder if I had assumed too much about his life.

  It made me feel ashamed because as a victim of abuse, I should recognize the struggles of others and empathize better than most. But I had basically told him that my life was worse, so no one would understand or ever feel anything similar to my pain.

  Woe is me.

  I sat up and gathered my things before I turned to him as he waited there with his hands in his pockets and watched me. It was beginning to seem like he was waiting for something.

  “I don’t want to do this with you. I don’t need more drama in my life, and I don’t need you concerning yourself with my business.”

  He ran his long fingers through his hair and glanced at the sky through the tree’s branches as he seemed to consider my words with great care.

  I afforded him a sliver of my respect and I waited for his response patiently.

  “You’re still that same little girl you know,” he said quietly without meeting my eyes. “Your words aren’t the same but the meaning behind them is.”

  I didn’t understand why he couldn’t leave the past alone.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.

  “You’ve wanted to push me away since the moment we first met eight years ago.” He looked at me and the emotion I saw in his eyes left me speechless.

  His eyes told me, begged me even, not to push him away, meanwhile his actions and words since he returned sought to make it hard for me to do anything but.

  “Why–” I stopped because he had begun to walk away.

  Why did your eyes implore me not to do the very thing you accused me of doing?

  I tried to understand the sudden contradiction, but it was too much for me to pick apart.

  An hour later I marched into fifth period with my head held high, I wasn’t going to let his words confuse me, because for all I knew that was exactly what he had wanted.

  As soon as I entered the room his eyes shifted to mine, I almost faltered but I took a deep breath and pressed forward with feigned confidence.

  But as fate would have it my foot got caught on someone’s backpack that was lying in the aisle and I went flying into his desk.

  I managed to grip the desk and stop myself from falling to the floor, but my stomach took the brunt of the fall in the process and I grunted in pain as I tipped my head up to look at his face.

  He was leaning back casually just as he had been before, with his headphones blaring something that sounded like it had a double bass drum hitting hard in the background. He chewed on a piece of gum slowly and I was sure he didn’t even bat an eyelash in surprise when I almost barreled into him.

  “Was that your backpack?” I asked.

  He stared at my mouth for a moment then looked irritated as he pointed a finger at his ear. He couldn’t hear me and when he couldn’t figure out what I had said by watching my lips he got annoyed. As if it was my fault his lazy ass couldn’t pull out a single ear bud.

  I reached over, yanked one out and I sucked in a breath when he moved his hand quick enough to grab my wrist before I could pull my arm all the way back.

  Despite my body’s clear overreaction to his touch, I persisted. “Was that your backpack on the ground that nearly sent me to my death?”

  He nodded his head slowly and tightened his grip when I tried to pull away.

  “Let go of me,” I said as calmly as I could, even though my body had suddenly become aware of how close his face was to mine and I was freaking out.

  When he didn’t let go and he didn’t respond to my words I tried pulling away again and not only did he resist but he pulled me towards him.

  Our faces were about three inches apart and I was sure I was going into cardiac arrest over it. I was so close I could see the lighter brown flecks in his eyes and every separate lash that shadowed his cheeks as he looked down.

  When his eyes found mine again his intense stare swallowed me whole as his mouth remained silent.

  “Are you going to say something or just stare at me?” I asked when I couldn’t take it any longer.

  “Hello, Sky,” he whispered, his tone sensual.

  My mind was absolutely reeling because it was the first time that I had heard him say my name, and the way he had said it made me feel like he caressed my skin at the same time. It made me weak in the knees as I forgot about every frustrating thing that he had said to me, and with the way he was looking at me, I knew he had to feel something too.

  He was hot and cold, and I couldn’t keep up with the mixed emotions he was sending me. Confusing, it was the only word that accurately described him and my feelings towards him.

  I heard voices behind me, and I was reminded that we were in the middle of a classroom with people trickling in that were most likely watching the odd spectacle we were putting on.

  I opened my mouth to say something, anything would have been good, but nothing came out.

  The second bell rang as one side of his mouth rose into what I could only say was a seductive smile. It was also a smile that said he had all the power and I believed it.

  Mr. Burks walked in talking before he knew if anyone was listening as usual and Micah finally let go of my wrist.

  I Shuffled to my seat as I cradled my side that ached from the impact, and once I was seated, I glanced at Micah and wondered what that had all been about.

  Hello, Sky?!

  I couldn’t figure out why he had said that or why he had said it like he had just realized something while he looked into my eyes. It sounded both like a realization and a promise.

  “How long are you going to stare at me?” he chided, snapping me out of my daze. “Pay attention.”

  I focused on the front of the room and gave Mr. Burks my undivided attention.

  Hello, Sky…

  Okay, I lied… my attention was divided, no it wasn’t even divided I literally couldn’t think about anything else beyond my name on his lips. But I could hardly be blamed when he said it like it meant something, no, like it meant everything.

  Mr. Burks finally penetrated my mind when he said my name to get my attention because I had put my head in my hands and closed my eyes.

  “Sorry.” I sat up straight and he continued with his lesson about something that was entirely lost on me.


  My phone buzzed in my pocket and I slowly reached down and grabbed it and waited for the coast to be clear.

  Micah: Do you have to work today?

  I scrunched up my face and glanced at him in confusion, but he refused to meet my eyes.

  Me: No, asshole.

  I heard a quiet snort when he read my message.

  Micah: Good. You’re coming with me after school.

  I looked to him again with my mouth open wide in surprise, but he ignored me still.

  Me: No, I am not. We hate each other remember? Why the hell would I go anywhere with you?

  Micah: Because you owe me.

  Me: For what? Existing?

  He hadn’t answered for the remainder of class and when the bell rang, and Mr. Burks finally stopped talking, he turned towards me.

  “You owe me a mirror,” he said with a smirk.

  Oh, heh…that.

  “How did you know it was me?” I asked incredulously.

  “Lucky guess.”

  I could tell he was lying; he knew it was me, there was no luck about it, but how?

  “You deserved it and you know it!” I followed him out of the classroom.

  “So that’s your only explanation, I deserved it?”

  “You really pissed me off yesterday.”

  He stopped and gave me a strange look. “Okay.”

  “Okay?” I asked. “That’s it?”

  He began walking again. “Yep. That’s it. But you have to make up for it.”

  My jaw dropped. “You aren’t mad?”

  “Nope,” he said, and to his credit he sounded like he meant it.

  I imagined someone doing the same thing to my future Volkswagen Beetle. “I would be mad if I were you.”

  He stopped at his locker with his hand on the lock and I stopped beside him not thinking about what I was doing or realizing that I had followed him again.

  “I can’t be mad because it was you,” he said.

  “What? Why not?”

  He unlocked his locker and grabbed a book before he shut it. “Be by my car after school.”