Beyond - Volume 1 (YA Paranormal Romance) (8 page)

My cheeks get red hot
, and my eyes drift to the ground. I can’t look at him right now. I don’t want him to see the pity in my eyes.

“But let’s talk about something fun,” he says
, and he stretches his arms out above him. “What do you think about our school?”

“It’s alright
, but that woman in the office is grisly.”

He laughs. “Yeah, I agree.
For Halloween, she usually doesn’t dress up for the party. She doesn’t even need to.”

We both chuckle.

“You surprise me, Damian,” I say. I just can’t resist flirting with him.

“How come?” he asks
.

“Well, they said
… they said you were … ” I don’t know if I can finish my sentence, or if I even want to. I don’t want to hurt him, so maybe I’d better keep it to myself.

“
Hmm, what did they say? You can tell me, I can handle it.”

“Lillian told me you don’t like girls for some reason. And
Joey called you lazy.”

He laughs
. “Joey … yeah, I thought he would say that. Just like him.”

“What?” Apparentl
y he doesn’t care about Lillian, since he didn’t mention her at all.

“Well,
he has a tendency to exaggerate things a little bit.” Damian rolls his eyes and pushes his index finger close to his thumb.

“I didn’t believe him, you know,” I say. “I think you’re nice
, and I don’t understand why they said that.”

“I do.” He turns his head away from me.

“What do you mean?”

“I’d rather not talk about it, if you don’t mind. There’s just some things they don’t understand.”

“Oh,” I say. I’m giving stupid answers, but what else am I supposed to say? He doesn’t want to tell me what’s behind all this, and it’s making me feel uncomfortable asking about it. “I understand,” I say, to make my answer sound less awkward.

“But still, thanks for saying
I’m nice.” Damian throws me a playful smile.

My stomach flutters and I’m flushed
.

“So
… are you going to tell me why you were lying on the side of the street?” he asks out of the blue.

I’m flabbergasted and don’t know
how to answer. I can’t tell Damian what happened to me. These things I see daily are horrifying and even worse to imagine for regular people, so I can’t begin to explain it to him.

“I
… well I was just being stupid. I was riding and hit a stone, which made my bike wobble and I fell over. I hit the ground so hard that I fainted.” I’m making stuff up as I go along. I don’t think I sound credible, but it’s worth a try.

He looks at me with scrunched eyebrows
. Then the corners of his mouth go up. “You should watch out next time, okay?”

“Yeah,” I reply. I’m so embarrassed that I
had to tell him a lie. “Well you’ve seen me; I’m a klutz.” I try to laugh my way out of this and clasp my hands on the wooden boards of the bench because of the nerves.

“I think it’s cute.” He places his ha
nd closer to mine and reaches for my hand with the tips of his fingers. I’d love for his hand to grab mine and never let go, but that thought’s just absurd. Why do I want his touch so bad already? I feel so weird, so happy and warm.

“Do you want to go to Billy’s tonight?” he asks.

“Billy’s?”

“A pool
room in town.”

“Yeah, sure,
cool.”

We laugh at each other
, and I wobble back and forth on the bench. I don’t get why Joey and Lillian draw the conclusion that Damian isn’t cool to hang out with. Maybe they judged him too soon, but I don’t know how long they’ve known him. Nevertheless, something tells me they’re wrong. I don’t see what they see. This guy isn’t bad or lazy. He’s tough, mysterious―and we have so much in common.

***

After Damian and I are done talking, we pick up my bike and his motorcycle from school. We agree to see each other at seven o’clock. When I come home I ask my mom if she can drive me to Billy’s. Of course she says yes, because she loves the idea of me moving on with my life here in Piney Hollow.

“Have fun,
Honey,” my mom says, while she parks the car near Billy’s.

“Thanks.” I get my things as fast as I can. I unbuckle my seatbelt and try to get out before she starts harassing me with questions, but I’m already too late.

“Aren’t you going to tell me anything? Please?” She pouts her lips.

‘No
, Mom. Not now. Can I first find out for myself whether I like him or not?”

She makes an
exaggerated face by pulling her lips down with her index fingers. “Please?”

“No,” I sigh. “How can I tell you what I know, if I don’t find out myself first?” I wink and c
lose the door. Maybe now she won’t bother me with her questions anymore.

“See you ton
ight!”

M
y mom blows a kiss. She’s outside her car, standing in the parking lot, waving at me like an idiot. I signal her to get back in her car, and I hope she gets down soon, before anyone sees her. Instead, she sticks both her thumbs in the air and smiles from ear to ear. I pretend not to know her.

Fixed on
the poolroom, I walk to the entrance and take a deep breath.

Am I really doing this? G
oing out with Damian, at night?

My brain is saying
no, this is weird, this is too quick
, but my heart says I should. I want to see him. I want to talk to him and find out why I feel the way I do, why I want to be with him so much. And I want to know if he feels the same way.

My clammy hands
clasp the lever and pull open the door.

It’s musty and dark inside. It smells of smoke and alcohol
, and I already know my clothes will smell of cigarettes when I get home. In front of me is a bar with a tattooed man behind it who’s handing out a couple of beers to some customers. To my right is a pool table and standing in front of it is Damian Hayes, who’s aiming his cue at a ball.

When he looks up at me he misses.

“Raven.” He puts the cue down and walks toward me, his eyes fixed on me. I smile and twirl my hair at the same time.

“You’re here,” he says.

“You didn’t expect me to come?” I ask.

“W
ell, my suggestion was kind of … daring.”

We’re gazing at each other again, without even saying one word. I don’t know what this is, but I feel so strange when I’m around him. Like the re
st of the world just disappears and all that’s left is us.

He takes my coat and hangs it on the coat-stand.
“Want something to drink?”

I nod. He escorts me to
the bar and orders two Cokes.

“Thanks,” I say when he hands me my glass.

“Let’s sit down there.” He points to a sofa in the corner. “We’ll have a bit more … privacy.” When he says that last word, I get butterflies in my stomach. We sit down on a red leather couch. A small table is between us, but the space feels so tiny that it’s making me shiver being so close to him.

“So, are you getting used to P
iney Hollow yet?” He asks and takes a sip of his Coke.

I didn’t expect Damian to be so interested in me.
“A little. I have to get used to my new classmates.” I take a sip of my Coke too, but when I catch his eyes scanning my face from top to bottom, I almost choke on it.

“Like me
?” he says with a playful smile, but I get the feeling there’s more to it. Like he says this for a reason.

“Among others.” I smile and put my
Coke down on the table. Every time I look at him I get this strange feeling in my belly like I’m supposed to say something, even though I have no idea what.

“Why
—” I start, but I don’t know how to finish my sentence.

“What?”

“I’m just wondering … why did you want to take me out?” I take a large sip of my Coke and swallow it down, so I can’t take back my words. He makes me so nervous I can hardly talk normal, let alone drink my Coke.

“Isn’t
it obvious?” He leans back and folds his arms behind his head.

I blush and fiddle with my hair to hide my broad smile. So I’m not the only one feeling the power of attraction between us. When I see him, the way he looks at me, I don’
t want to look away ever again.

“Want to go play some pool?” He stands up and sticks out his hand
toward me.

“Yeah.” I grab his hand and he pulls me up.
Now I’m just four inches away from him. I’m so close, I can feel the heat radiating off his body. For some reason I’m so attracted to him that I do things I’d normally never do so quick with a guy. Being so close to Damian is terrifying, but in a good way. I don’t want to move away. This is strange.

An awkward moment passes
, and Damian looks at me like he wants to tell me something, but he keeps his mouth shut. I clear my throat. My arm lightly touches his as I pass him to walk toward the pool table.

Damian
stands behind me and hands over the cue. “Do you know how it works?”

I blush. “No, I’ve never done this before.”

He stands in front of the pool table, puts
everything in place and then bends over with the cue to shoot away the balls. “Like that,” he says. Then he moves over to make room for me.

“Okay
,” I say as I saunter toward the table and put the balls in place. When I bend over with the cue I feel watched.

“No, that’s not it,” he says
, and I come back up.

Apparently
I’m not doing it right. I swear he was standing the exact same way.

Then
I feel his chest pushing against my back as he puts his arms around me. My heart is racing. His hands fold over mine, and he places my fingers on the right spot of the cue.

“You have to hold it like this,” Damian says. But I’m not think
ing about the game at all. I can feel his breath on my neck. The warm touch of his fingers tickles my skin.

Together
, we hold the cue and bend forward to put it on the right place. I feel his body leaning against mine, and I like it. I should push him away. It’s going so quick between us, but I don’t want to. I want to feel him close to me, even though it’s too weird. I don’t understand why I’m so head over heels with this guy. I barely know him.

Why do I have these feelings?

He pushes the cue away from me, and it shoots the ball.

We come back up
, and I turn around. His arms are still around me. His hands clench the table. On his face is a confident smile. My heart throbs in my throat. He comes closer and closer. I can feel his calloused fingers slide alongside my arm while his other hand brushes away a strand of my hair from my face. The soft strokes of his fingers are electrifying. I close my eyes. His face is so close to mine right now that I can feel his breath on my skin.

Then his lips touch mine.

It’s warm, soft and tender, but also tingling, like I’m on fire. Jolts of electricity go through my lips and travel through my body right up into my head. His lips … this kiss. I know this feeling.

I push him away. “No
… ”

He looks confused and tries to kiss me again, but I push him
farther away and gaze at him.

Can this
be true? No, it’s impossible.

“What’s wrong?” Damian asks.

“You … ” My voice falters. “It’s you,” I say.

His eyes change
, and his pupils grow bigger. He looks scared, almost afraid. I push Damian’s arm aside, walk toward the coat stand and put my coat on. One more time I look at Damian before I waltz out the door. He looks furious, and I know I have revealed what I think; he is the blue ghost.

I can hardly breathe. Damian is the blue ghost I kissed during my hallucination. That guy is real. His kiss … it was exactly the same. This isn’t possible. A hallucination can’t also be a living human. This has never happened before.

I put my hand on my mouth and shake my head,
as if it will help me understand what just happened. I walk to an alley next to the building and lean against the wall. Then I take out my cell phone and call my mom.

“Mo
m, can you come pick me up?”

“Why so soon
, Honey?”

“Please
, just pick me up.”

“Okay, okay
, I’m coming,” she says before she hangs up again.

I sigh and let myself slide down to the ground. A million bits of information cross my mind. Damian can’t be
a hallucination, because my classmates can also see him, so he has to be human. But then why am I so sure I kissed him before? It felt exactly the same as the one with the blue ghost in my room. I’m sure about it.