Amethyst Tears (YA Paranormal Romance) (Luminescence Trilogy) (20 page)

That’s what I was afraid of.

The bell rang.

“We’re late,
” I sighed.

“Here take this.” A slip of paper
appeared between her dainty fingers.

I unfo
lded the piece of paper, a hall pass excusing my tardiness. How convenient. She grinned at me, reminding me of Gavin with mischief gleaming in her dark blue eyes.

“Thanks,” I said jumping off the table.
“You’re as bad as your brother.”

“Not quite.”

~*~

Never before had I cared
about what I wore. Now suddenly nothing in my closet was right. It wasn’t stylish enough. Not sexy enough. It was all so boring like the old me.

The new
wild child in me, well she wanted to be vibrant, alive. She wanted to be noticed. And most importantly, she wanted to be noticed by Gavin.

“
Austin,” I said into my cell phone the instant he picked up. “I need your help. I have nothing to wear,” I half sighed.

“Say no more. Tori and I will be there in second
s. And babygirl… don’t make any decision without me. I got this.”

I needed an intervention
– a fashion intervention. This classified as a crisis.

Somehow I could
n’t figure out if calling on the dynamic duo was going to be epic or a disaster. What I needed was to tap into my inner swag. Did I even have swag? It was totally debatable.

Like my two personally fashion angels, Tori and
Austin arrived at my house in record time. They ransacked my closet, my dresser, and under my bed leaving no crevice unturned. They tossed clothes everywhere. Not a corner, nook, or cranny was left untouched by their mayhem. To top it off, the outfit they pulled together had me blushing before I’d even tried it on.

“I can’t wear that,” I protested.

Austin shoved the clothes in my hands. “Can. And will.” He steered me into my conjoining bathroom.

Closing the door behind me
, I picked up the jean skirt. I was pretty sure it wasn’t even mine. Snuggling the skirt over my hips, I looked around to see where the rest of it was. This gave a new definition to mini – it was micro mini. I hope I didn’t drop anything because I just might end up being tonight’s entertainment. And a peep show was not part of the deal.

This had to be a joke.

I held up the black top, a sheer, very see through off the shoulder do-hicky. Beaded fringe dangled from the bottom. Pushing my arms through the sleeves, I slipped it over my head and checked myself out in the mirror.

I am going to kick their ass
.

Storming out of the bathroom, I shot painful daggers at Tori who was sitting on my bed filing her nails.

She glanced up and gushed, “You look freaking hawt.”

I peered at myself in the full-length mirror. “
I look worse than Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.” Turning back to her, I put my hands on my scanty covered hips. “I look like a hooker.”

“A smokin’ hot
hooker,” she assured. “Here I brought these over. You can borrow them. They’re purrfect.”

I took the pair of knee-high stiletto boots from her out stretch hand. “Oh yeah right. Like I am not going to break my neck in these.”

“Just put them on you baby. I’m dying to see how they look.” She was literally doing a happy dance in the middle of my bedroom floor.

Bending over, a feat
all in its own, I zipped up the hooker boots. They had a pretty pattern on them with a peek-a-boo toe in the front and at the heel. I was sure they cost more than I made in a month.

“You got a tattoo
!” Tori exclaimed squealing from behind me. Her hand was already pulling up my shirt. “When were you going to tell me?”

Oh shit
. I’d forgotten, and this skimpy ass top gave her a bull’s-eye shot of my back.

Austin
popped around the corner. “Babygirl got a tattoo? Get out of here. Let me see,” he said wiggling his way in-between us.

Feeling naked and vulnerable
I had completely forgotten about my newly body decoration. “It’s not a big deal,” I said trying to push my shirt back in place. The bigger problem was this outfit left nothing for the imagination and barely covered the necessary parts.

“Are you kidding me? Does your aunt know?
Of course not,” she said answering her own question.

Wh
at on planet earth ever possessed me to think I’d ever be able to hide this from them? I chewed my lip. “No one knows…except Gavin and now the two of you. And I expect to keep it that way.”

“
Please. My lips are sealed.” She air zippered her mouth shut.
Ha
, I thought. That would be the day. “Where and how? I need details. You aren’t eighteen yet,” Tori rambled over-excited.

I shrugged. “Gavin might know someone.”
I waited to see if either one of them would noticed anything peculiar about the tattoo, like the fact that the rainbow ink swirled in movement.

“You have a fake ID,”
Austin proclaimed. “Can he get me one?”

I rolled my eyes.
Boy could he ever and that was beside the point.

Austin
looked, really looked at me for the first time since I came out of the bathroom. “Girl you are going to bring him to his knees. Look at those legs. Who would have guessed Babygirl had legs like that.”

“Me,” chimed in Tori. “Someone is going to get lucky tonight,” she sung, winking at me.
God, she was worse than a guy. Every thought somehow started and ended with sex.

“Tonight is going to be unforgettable,”
Austin declared pulling us in for a group hug.

I didn’t doubt that.

Chapter 21

THE FIRST STIRRINGS OF BUTTERFLIES fluttered into my belly. I was upstairs in Tori’s bedroom finishing my hair, while a swarm of people gathered below. Deliberately I was taking my sweet old time, not entirely prepared to embrace my skanky side just yet. If Sandra Dee could do it, so could I. There is a little bit of bad girl in all of us, right?

Tori and
Austin literally had to haul me from my bedroom to her house in this ridiculous getup. I didn’t go without a fight, and they forbid me a sweater – cruelty. Thank God my aunt was on one of her routine date nights with Chad. He seemed good for her. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about her as much when I was off to college.

College. I was light-years behind my fellow classmates on the whole college submissions. My mind this whole year had been filled with boys and magic. There hadn’t been thought
s of my future. Now with it looming in the near distance I was screwed.

And my aunt knew it too.

Just the other day I had woken up with an enrollment packet to UNC Wilmington, Lukas’s school. It might have once been my first choice, and obviously my aunt’s, but now…I wasn’t so sure. I wasn’t so sure of anything.

The whole thing with my missing aura
came back to haunt me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe I had done something. What if there was evil lurking inside me? What if I was capable of darkness – dark magic?

I shudd
ered at just the thought.

My reflection scowled in the mirror.
Turning off the curling iron, I figured this was the best my hair was going to get. Satisfied with my curly locks, I paused at the door inhaling a deep breath. “Here goes nothing,” I muttered taking once last look at myself and shaking my head.

My heels clicked on the tile floor
as I weaved down the hallway. An interior designer had decked out Tori’s pad in the spirit of Christmas. Lighted garland hung over the doorway arches, down the banisters, and alongside the fireplace mantels. Snowflakes hung sporadically from the high ceilings, a Christmas tree the size of Time Square twinkled in the corner. What was usually the music room had been cleared out for a dance floor and DJ.

Tori’s
dad’s wallet knew no end. He pulled out all the stops for his little girl.

Leaning against the
stair railing, a group of girls giggled wildly behind me.

Rianne and her posse of hoodrats.

Oh goodie sugar plums.

“Looks like someone forgot to take the trash out,” Rianne goaded with a sneer. Her eyes filled with ridicule and disdain.

“Apparently, they let you in,” I grimaced. She deserved so much more. Turning my back, I ignored the clunking of heels as her minions trailed her down the hall. Far. Away. From. Me.

Where the hell were my sidekicks
?

Just as I was about to search them out, t
ingles skirted the back of my neck, and the tattoo at the small of my back roasted instantly. My eyes darted to the doorway.

Gavin
, looking so insanely hot, my heart melted. He walked through the door with a rock-star swagger, his gaze sliding over me from head-to-toe lingering in some parts longer than others.

Whoa.
My pulse darted all over the place as I waited near the stairs. There was a flutter deep in my chest. He made my head swim, my knees tremble, and my blood burn.

I still hadn’t composed myself by the time he was in front of me.
A small smile crept over his lips, and his eyes traveled up at something over my head. Mesmerized, I could barely pull my gaze from him, but when I did, I saw what capture his attention. Mistletoe hung directly above us.

I blinked.
“Oh.” I couldn’t help it. I stared at his totally kissable lips. The silver hoop rolled as he played with it. And I knew without a doubt he was going to kiss me.

Or
at the very least I was going to attack him, either way it ended the same, his mouth on mine.

Gripping the banister, I could do nothing but hold on as a gazillion pearls of
anticipation beaded through me. He pressed his lips against mine in a feathery kiss that left me aching and starved for more. One was never enough.

My breath
got stuck somewhere between my lungs and my throat. Dazed, my eyes fluttered open.

Smirking he said,
“You look…dangerous.”

I toyed with the
necklace at my throat needing something to do with my hands. They were itching to pull him back. “Thanks I think,” I managed in a breathy whisper.

He
casually interlocked his fingers with mine as if it was the most natural thing ever. “She’s really outdone herself,” he said surveying all the glitter, thousands of flickering candles, and lighted bulbs. There were people strewn around the great room, hanging out in the hallways and gathered around the food in the kitchen, playing some kind of drinking game. Red solo cups scattered over the countertops.

“
That’s putting it politely. I thought it looked like Frosty exploded. Everything with Tori is over-the-top.” Including the lack of supervision. Her dad and his barely legal wife, Mariah, were having their own overnight holiday party at the Hilton. Wink. Wink.

In my mind, they were nuts to leave us alone. It was only a matter of time before their house was trashed.
Or we were trashed.

He chuckled. “Poor Frosty.”

“I bet this doesn’t even compare to the parties in Chicago,” I said, thinking how boring our little party in Holly Ridge must be.

He pulled us down on
a recently vacated couch. “Considering the people I hung out with…yeah they weren’t exactly your run of the mill. It feels good to have a little
normal
every once in a while. We need it to stay grounded.” His deep blue’s pointedly caught mine.

Got it. I needed some
normal
.
Easier said than done
, I thought to myself. “Tori and Austin saw my tattoo,” I revealed, waiting for some kind of reaction.

He was as calm as ever – nerves of steel.
“And you were worried that they might notice something different about it?”

I nodded.
It hadn’t mattered that he had told me otherwise. “Sometimes it’s hard not sharing this huge part of my life with them. We’ve been through everything together, and I feel like in some way that by not being truthful to them, I’m not being a good friend.”

“I wish I could tell you that it gets easier, but I think right now is not the best time to tell them. I don’t want to see you get hurt.” There was concern crammed in his eyes.

“I know,” I sighed heavily, laying my head on his shoulder.

Moments later
Gavin stiffened beside me, and I felt the familiar prickles in the air. Another witch.

Lukas
. I didn’t need to glance up to know it was him, everything in Gavin’s body language told me what I needed to know.

Internally I moaned, suddenly feeling
like I was walking on pins and needles. I was going to puke.

Slowly I raised my head
, Lukas and Tori strolled towards us. They looked…striking together. Her long legs accented by deathtrap heels, a blinding sparkly strapless little number, and Lukas in his college pretty boy swag. Lukas might look like the boy next door, but it was the bad boy next to me who made my heart sputter. I was just starting to really realize what that meant to me.