Angel Star (4 page)

My tone was serious but I instantly regretted sharing my unnerving evening. How could I expect the ever-joking Claire to sympathize with this one?

“You read too many vampire books.”

She was right. My fictional track record left me wide open for that one. I felt like the boy who cried wolf.

“Or…” she continued. “Maybe Batman was coming to save you!”

Claire was cracking herself up, flapping her arms above her head while we were stopped at the traffic light. I shook my head and stared out the window. The looming shadow of Carver High School suddenly couldn’t be close enough. And then it happened. My stomach lurched into a series of somersaults when I recognized Garreth’s Jeep as we pulled into the school’s parking lot.

By the time Claire parked, my insides had tied themselves into a gigantic knot. An incredible rush of excitement, eagerness, and panic swept through me all at once, like the first day of high school all over again. I could scarcely will my feet to swing out of Claire’s car.

I scanned the campus for any sign of Garreth, my eyes raking over the fellow students I was forced to be herded with day in and day out, but he was nowhere in sight.

Trembling, I walked to homeroom alone.

The morning dragged on endlessly, though it was only just past second period. Anticipation bled into a twisted combination with all-too-familiar disappointment as I fumbled with my locker, and I decided to take on a more reasonable way of looking at the obvious.

Maybe I was a crutch to get him through his first day?

No, no. He seemed so sincere.

Could someone that gorgeous really be that nice?

Why am I such a moron?

My thoughts turned to panic as I mentally jumped from one scenario to the next. I made it down the hall to third period. I was feeling claustrophobic with all the possibilities and nonpossibilities jumbling themselves in my head, and still he was nowhere in sight.

The bell rang. Fourth period.

I felt jittery. English class passed by in a blur thanks to my elaborate doodling of wings in the margins of my notebook. It was sheer luck I was never called on.

Bell.

I forced myself not to look for him. Claire and Ryan appeared to be lost in some tender adolescent huddle at her locker. I rolled my eyes and walked away.

At lunch, I sat brooding, picking at my sandwich and a measly bag of chips, which Claire happily ate for me when she noticed my nonexistent appetite.

I felt bruised. Dejected.

The end of the day had finally come and I gathered my books from my desk. As I walked slowly to my locker, I reached the inevitable and unwanted conclusion that my mind had played some serious tricks on me yesterday and today I was obviously and understandably being avoided.

My hopes were crashing when…

“Hi, Teagan.”

Instantly, my heart tripped at the sound of his voice.
So much for being rational.
I slowly turned to find myself face to face with a set of blue eyes, and all my worries melted down through my sneakers into the tile floor beneath me.

“Hey.”

“I’m sorry about lunch. I never realized a meeting with a guidance counselor could last an eternity.”

“Let me guess. Transcripts with Mr. Dean?”

Garreth nodded, sincerity gleaming in his eyes as he rolled them. Mr. Dean was notorious for dragging on and on in his especially annoying, especially nasal monotone voice.

“That’s okay. I knew you were here. I saw your car.”

It had taken only seconds for me to open my mouth and sound like a total idiot. Bravo. I quickly tried to blink away the love-sick gleam I felt clouding my eyes. Yet here he was, speaking to me as if I were the only girl in the school, and my world felt surprisingly complete.

He leaned casually against the row of lockers, appearing as if he had just come from a modeling shoot. The sleeves of his tan button-down shirt were rolled up just past his elbows and I tried not to stare at the fabric straining against his well-defined arms. Beneath the shirt was a black T-shirt, untucked, over slightly worn jeans, frayed at the hems, that wisped over smooth brown Timberlands. He had the look all girls dreamed their boyfriends could achieve, one that brought on immediate breathlessness. He swept his sandy hair out of his eyes as he leaned in closer to speak to me and I swore he could hear my pulse bouncing into the metal interior of my open locker, echoing out into the crowded hallway for all to hear.

“Let me make it up to you,” he offered. “Spend the afternoon with me?”

He smiled so sweetly, but I didn’t know what to say. Today was early dismissal and I knew I would either end up being bored or doing homework. Still, in all truth, Garreth was a stranger to me. I could almost hear Claire whispering in my ear, “If you get to know him better, he won’t be a stranger, now will he?”

I chewed my bottom lip and looked around. Through the window opposite my locker I could see the buses at the curb, the lines of poor defenseless kids lining up to be driven home. Across the parking lot were the
other
kids, the smiling ones, the laughing ones, the thank-God-it’s-Friday ones. Brynn was rolling down her windows as her friends piled in, all laughing and free for the weekend.

I looked at Garreth and something close to trustworthiness gleamed back at me. Something felt right.

“Sure,” I answered. “But I can’t stay out too long.”

I glanced at the battery level on my cell phone and then grabbed my books for the weekend and shoved them into my bag before closing my locker. I tried to ignore the surprised looks aimed in our direction as he took my hand. His long, warm fingers entwined with my own and I felt my knees buckle slightly as we walked out into the brilliant sunlight that warmed the parking lot.

As he led me to his car, it dawned on me that I had forgotten about Claire, who I assumed was growing very impatient by now. My thoughts briefly switched to my mother and her rules but they faded quickly into oblivion as Garreth Adams opened the passenger door for me and I slid inside.

B
utterflies in the pit of my stomach were swarming at an impossible rate, so I took a deep breath. My sense of better judgment told me I should be feeling slightly wary of the situation I had allowed myself to fall into, but I wasn’t nervous to be seated where I was, in the unfamiliar car of a boy I had met only yesterday. Quite the contrary, I was overtaken by an astonishing feeling of relief to finally have him to myself.

Because of this, I found myself suddenly scrutinized for my actions by the student body, like a bug under a microscope. I could feel their stares penetrating the glass window that separated us, and I knew if I turned my head to peer out I would surely meet dozens of curious eyes. I knew what they were all thinking because in my own paranoid, self-conscious state I was asking myself the same question.

The only question.

Why me?

They were all wondering how quiet, mind-her-own-business Teagan McNeel could suddenly snag the attention of the beyond-humanly-handsome new boy in record time. Claire would have flamboyantly shouted something snotty and sarcastic to them all, but it was more my style to take the quiet route. My butterflies, however, were jumping for joy in a thousand directions and I dare not let it show.

I allowed myself one quick peek at the audience we were attracting, while Garreth removed the Jeep’s top, stashing it in the back. Yep. Eyes. Even some of the teachers had noticed. I turned back to face the mind-blowing fact that I was now sitting in the very car that had caught my eye and everyone else’s interest for the last two days. Shaky jubilation filled me.

Garreth opened the driver’s side door and flung his backpack onto the backseat. The breeze rustled his clothing through the open framework of the Jeep, bringing the warmth of an incense I recognized. Champa Blue Pearl. How strange. I had burned a stick of that very same fragrance in my room last night.

His car was startlingly clean inside, which really didn’t surprise me. It was that mature, clean-cut thing I had noticed earlier. I was pulling my hair into a rubber band when my eye caught the glint of something delicate hanging from the rearview mirror. It was a rosary. It appeared quite old and remarkably fragile with its delicate blue topaz Hail Mary stones wrapped with simple silver wire, dropping to three more stones, slightly larger in size, that fashioned into a cross in what appeared to be genuine marcasite.

“May I?” I instinctively reached up to touch its delicate beauty.

It struck me as unusual that such a thing would be on display in the car of a teenage boy. Garreth smiled and nodded permission.

“Is it antique?”

“It’s been…in my family for a long time.” He seemed hesitant but obviously pleased by my interest.

“It’s beautiful.” I found it reassuring that it was in his car on display, like he came from a good background or something, good stock.

“So where to?” I was suddenly aware I had no idea where we were headed, but I didn’t quite care. I was thrilled beyond sanity just to be with him. My butterflies had settled down and pure excitement now pulsed through my veins cleansing me of the uncertainties I had felt earlier in the morning. His attention turned to the dashboard and he turned the key in the ignition. The Wrangler rumbled to life.

“I know just the place,” he said warmly.

I felt completely at ease sitting beside him, as if I belonged there, though I tried not to get too ahead of myself. So far, this could hardly count as a first date and there was so much I was eager to know yet. I decided to enjoy the moment and revel in the unknown laid out before me.

We were nearing the street now. The long line ahead had trickled down to us and a few remaining cars. The buses had filtered out in the opposite direction, leaving large plumes of exhaust to linger after them, and the parking lot was emptying quickly.

“Oh, no! Claire!” My hand shot up to cover my mouth as I saw her still waiting for me beside her car.

Then I realized the impatient anger on her face was not directed at me for my absence but was aimed instead at the person furiously arguing a few feet in front of her. Ryan’s usually happy-go-lucky demeanor had been strikingly replaced by stone and his dark eyes glared at my best friend as they continued their very public discussion.

“Did you want to stop?”

A wave of guilt suddenly washed over me. I didn’t know which was worse, leaving Claire alone to fight her own battles or the sinking feeling that I had witnessedsomething she wouldn’t want to talk about later.

“No. Ryan’s with her. I’ll…I’ll call her later.” My voice unavoidably sounded detached with concern. I would call Claire as soon as I got home, not to gloat about my impromptu date, but as a friend.

Garreth put his hand over mine and gave it a gentle squeeze then pushed a CD into the stereo. Soon the car was filled with the soothing chords of Rush’s “The Pass,” an outdated classic I secretly held close to my heart. I stared at Garreth in wonder and my soul slowly began to fill with something I had never felt before.

We drove down Church Street and pulled into a little shopping center already bustling with the early-afternoon business of high school students free for the weekend. Although I was elated to be with him, this was the last place I wanted to be. All those eyes watching us, wondering, forming rumors, unnerved me. As much as I, too, wanted those whispers to be true, I couldn’t help but wish they would mind their own business.

We parked in front of Starbucks and Garreth turned to me, his beautiful smile blinding me; and, just like that, the “eyes” seemed a million miles away.

“Do you like coffee?”

“Love it. It’s my one weakness.”

Until now.

I lowered my eyes, convinced if he stared into them long enough they would surely give me away.

The door to the coffee shop opened and the sharpness of the Arabica beans hit me as I inhaled the penetrating caffeine rush. We stepped inside to take our place in line. It was the only decent place in town to give in to an all-consuming caffeine addiction and was becoming increasingly more crowded by the second; several kids I recognized turned to look at us.

Brynn, unfortunately, was holding court at the back table, conferring with her wicked groupies. As if catching our scent over the bold Colombian cloud, they turned in unison, their dark eyes unreadable. I looked away in hopes of forcing them out of my head as I scanned the menu board on the wall, but I was already distracted and overwhelmed. Making sense of the newly listed coffees for the season was mind-boggling, so when I overheard Garreth ordering a latte I figured that was good enough for me too.

“I’ll have the same. Just a tall.” I reached for my wallet to pay my share but he was quicker and handed a twenty to the frazzled girl behind the counter, who happened to spare enough time to drink in the tall, blond wonder standing beside me.

We stepped aside to wait for our drinks at the crowded counter and I realized I was self-consciously aware of nearly everything around me; aware of how close we were standing to each other; aware of the dark scowls Brynn and the other girls were shooting across the room at us; and, very aware of the problem they seemed to have with me getting coffee with Garreth Adams.

“I believe your friends are trying to get your attention.” Garreth motioned with a nod of his head.

I followed his gaze but quickly looked away when I realized whom he meant. “Um, they’re not my friends.”

Sensing my unease, Garreth rescanned the room, resting his gaze on the back table. He defensively stepped between me and Brynn’s glare, and to my delight, I felt his hand protectively settle on the small of my back. At last our little white cups materialized on the tiny countertop and we were free to leave. It was entirely too crowded and too hostile in there.

I was hardly aware of the Jeep moving swiftly over the blacktop beneath us. Between sips, I stole glances at him, wondering if he felt the strange comfort I felt when we were together. I wanted to see inside, into his heart, to see if it raced in my presence like mine did when I was in his. Was I the only one affected?