Change of Possession (3 page)

I wanted to feel sorry for Brick. I’d been there before. Not with football practice, but the whole hangover thing was really horrible.

“Ah, I’m fine. I’m not drinking anymore anyway. Coach would have my ass if I got too drunk and puked all over his field.”

“Yeah, you remember that,” Steve warned.

“Nice to meet you, Brick.” I hoped I didn’t sound too anxious to leave. Being around him set my nerves on fire. I couldn’t let myself get tempted ever again and I think Brick would be all too willing to share.

“Keeley, come over here with me. There are a few more people I think you should meet.” Steve put his hand on the small of my back, and led me away from the island.

We walked over to four people. They were huddled pretty close, and if I were a betting kind of girl, I’d say they wanted nothing more than to be left alone, but Steve strode right up to them anyway. “Hey, guys, having fun?”

One of the guys tucked something in his pocket with a sly smile. “Yeah, we’re cool.”

My stomach twisted as I knew deep down what they were doing huddled together. All my high school years I drank, but never tried drugs. This scene was right out of the D.A.R.E. handbook from middle school. I almost waited to hear the infamous words; ‘
Hey, Keeley, you gotta try this cause it’s the cool thing to do’.
I wasn’t stupid but tried to ignore the fact that drugs were something Steve clearly allowed in his house. A party was one thing, alcohol even, but drugs, drugs were something on a completely different level—a level I was not okay with.

Steve smiled then nodded. “It looks like you’re having fun.” He gestured for me to come closer to him. “This is Keeley. Keeley, this is John, Adam, Tina, and Stacey. John and Adam are on the team too.”

I recognized Stacey from one of my classes earlier. She sat on the opposite side of the room from me, but her face was one that I remembered. A burn scar covered the right side of her face. She quickly drew her long, caramel-colored hair down across her cheek to hide it and turned so I couldn’t see that side of her. Poor girl. I wondered if she knew how incredibly beautiful she really was. Her green eyes were the perfect almond shape, the kind that eye shadow loved to accentuate, not like my boring hazel eyes.

Adam and John were twins. They both shared the same dirty-blonde hair and dark brown eyes. The only way I might ever be able to tell them apart was that John had a mole on his chin and Adam didn’t. John kept his arm wrapped around Tina, who seemed a bit more approachable than the others did.

Tina was a little too thin in my opinion, but who was I to judge? I was considered too thick by some. Her hair was short, shaped in a long wedge, with a mixture of black, blonde, and brown streaking through it. Her blue eyes lit up as she spoke. “Hi, so you’re new to Orem?”

I nodded. “Yeah, just got in town about a week ago.”

“Sweet. We’re all roommates. Well, not all four of us together, that would be weird, but these two goofballs in one room, and me and Stacey in another, our other roommate isn’t here for you to meet tonight.”

“That’s great. I didn’t know anyone to room with, so I just have a small apartment close to the school.”

“Oh, are you at UVU too?” Adam asked.

“Yeah, I’m doing the whole geology thing.”

“Nice. Stacey’s doing something like that too. I bet you guys have at least one class together.”

I nodded and smiled at Stacey. “Yeah, I think we have Professor Thornburg together right?”

She gave me a shy smile. “Yeah.”

Tina bumped Stacey gently with her elbow. “You have to excuse her. She’s a little shy.”

“Oh, I totally get it. I’m pretty far away from home right now, and everything is so different that I wasn’t sure if I should even come tonight.”

“But we’re glad you did,” Steve spoke up.

Stacey chewed on her bottom lip. Maybe she was uncomfortable around new people. I wasn’t one to judge, with enough demons of my own clamoring all over my back, and my heart poured out sympathy for her. “It was great meeting you guys. Maybe we can sit together sometime, Stacey, or share notes, or whatever.”

“That’d be nice,” she said.

I smiled once more, and then walked away. Steve caught up to me. “Don’t mind Stacey, she’s just nervous around others who don’t know what happened.”

“And what’s that?”

“Well, we were college freshman so it was about two years ago. Her house caught on fire after her dad fell asleep with a smoke and, well, she couldn’t get out. A fireman rescued her, but not before the flames licked her face. The smoke had her unconscious, so she didn’t feel anything till she woke up two days later.” Steve shook his head. “She’s lucky she didn’t die. I don’t know how she survived.”

I cringed and my heart leapt up into my throat. I couldn’t imagine that kind of terror. “Oh my gosh. That’s horrible.”

“Yeah, we all went to high school with her, so we were worried about her.” He shuddered. “Jonah and I were there. We were just walking by when we saw the smoke, but we couldn’t do anything. We didn’t even know she was inside until we saw a fireman carry her out. It was a bad day.”

I thought back to my own bad day and bit back the emotional tears. “I bet.”

“Hey, let’s go dance again. It’s supposed to be a party, right?”

I smiled. “That sounds great.”

We made it back to the makeshift dance floor where Caty and Jonah were still tied at the hip, dancing in rhythmic sways.

The next song was slow and I danced with Steve in small circles. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and a shiver coursed down my spine. It was as if someone was staring at me—again. I watched the partygoers as we swayed around in another circle. Once we made it so I could see who was behind me, I spotted my suspect. I swallowed hard as I took him in. My heart raced; it was the same guy from earlier at school. The shadows absorbed his black leather jacket and jeans. Even as far away as we were, I could see his silver-gray eyes staring into mine. My breath hitched as his stare burned down to my soul. He took a swig of his drink and continued to watch me. I smiled at him, wanting to run from Steve and over to him. He smiled back as he leaned against the wall, one foot up on the arm of a couch.

We continued to dance in a full circle, but it wasn’t fast enough for me. I lost sight of the one guy I wanted to see more than Steve. Once we made it all the way around I looked, but he was gone. I couldn’t stop the disappointment from showing as I let out a huff.

“You okay?”

I glanced back up at Steve. “Yeah. I’m fine.” Liar. Ugh. I wasn’t fine. I wanted to run from Steve’s arms to find a stranger.

Steve pulled me a little closer. The smell of his cologne was overpowering, making me dizzy. I tried to push away but he held me tight. I pushed again, getting his attention. “Oh, sorry,” he whispered as he let his arms relax, allowing me to breathe again. 

“I think I’m done dancing.” In all honesty, I wanted to go home. I scoured the room, and found Caty and Jonah talking with another couple. They looked like they were having fun so I didn’t want ask them to leave because I wasn’t feeling like myself.

“Okay, let’s go get another drink.” He placed his hand on my back and guided me through the crowd. New partygoers were arriving and Steve hollered at them over the music, letting them know he was happy they came.

It wasn’t until about eleven-thirty and after I met about a dozen or more people that Caty was ready to leave. Steve became my forever shadow, never letting me from his sight. I wasn’t sure whether I should be happy to meet a guy who appeared to like me, or be creeped out that he liked me so much. Each time I had the chance, I looked for my stranger. I really wanted to know who he was, or where he was, but neither answer surfaced through the night.

We piled into Jonah’s car and headed back into town. Maybe Jonah or Caty knew who my guy was? “Hey, I was wondering if you guys might know a guy that was at the party tonight? He was about the same height as you, Jonah, and he wore a leather jacket, and hung out in the shadows by the wall.” I almost laughed at myself. That description didn’t sound too sane. Maybe I was chasing after some psycho and I didn’t even realize it?

“Well, there were about fifty other guys at the party tonight,” Jonah said. I caught his reflection in the rearview mirror as he wiggled his eyebrows.

I laughed. “I just want to know who he was. I saw him at school too, but never got a chance to say hi. I just thought someone might know who he is.”

Jonah frowned. “So we’re not talking about Steve huh?” He let out a deep breath as he stopped at the stop sign. “Look, Steve is my best friend, but he gets a little close to people he likes. If you don’t like him, make sure he knows before he gets hurt, okay?” Jonah looked up into the mirror to stare at me before turning down my road. His glare sent chills down my arms.

“Okay,” I drawled out the word. That was weird. All I wanted to know was a guy’s name. It wasn’t as if I was cheating on Steve or asking my stranger to marry me.

I leaned back in the seat, letting my head fall back. My stomach flipped and butterflies sailed through me as I thought about seeing my stranger again, but it was so frustrating that he kept disappearing. I smiled as I remembered him staring at me. I wondered if he thought about me too. I wanted to laugh at myself and how fast I claimed the unknown man as my own by calling him ‘my stranger’.

We pulled up to my apartment and I got out. “Thanks for the ride and the invite to the party. It was fun.”

Caty got out and gave me a hug. “It was! I’m glad you came. It looked like you kinda hit it off with Steve, too. That’s awesome. I bet whoever that other guy is, isn’t worth it.”

“Yeah, probably.” I wasn’t sure what to say. Steve didn’t leave me alone all night. I guess that could be considered hitting it off, but on the other hand, I completely disagreed with her; my stranger was worth it, I just knew it.

Caty darted back to the car. I was on the first floor so I didn’t have far to go to get home, feeling relieved to finally be alone. Movement to my right made me pause and look. I squinted off into the shadows. The streetlight flickered and dimmed. Jonah and Caty were already gone. A rustle came from the barberry bush by the corner of the apartments. I froze as I strained even harder to see in the dark. A rabbit jumped out from the base of the bush and I jumped. I grabbed my chest as my heart thumped wildly. “Oh my gosh.” I tried to calm my breathing as I finished unlocking my door and quickly closed it behind me.

I dropped my keys on the kitchen counter and raided the fridge for a bottle of water. My heart was still racing, and I shook my head at my foolishness. If there had been someone there, the last thing I should do is wait for them. I was just grateful it was a bunny. I could hear my dad’s voice in my mind,
‘I told you to carry pepper-spray’
. I really needed to invest in something if I was going to live alone in a state thousands of miles from home.

It was a little after midnight, but I didn’t have classes first thing in the morning. I decided to crawl into bed and start up my laptop to see what I missed online. I had about twenty emails from my mother, and about that many Facebook messages from online friends asking how I liked Utah. I told my mom that so far everything was great. The weather was still hot in the day, a little chilly at night, the mountains that lined the entire valley were gorgeous, and my first day of school was awesome, even though it wasn’t my personal best. I hoped that would suffice for a while because I didn’t have the desire to share anything more.

I closed the computer and pushed it off my lap so I could lay down, then plugged my cell phone in and made sure to turn off the alarm. There was no way I wanted to get up early tomorrow.

Three

Sleep came easily after such a long day. A loud banging on my front door woke me up. I sat straight up and looked around, wondering if I only imagined the sound. I looked at my phone. 8:25.
Ugh
, I could still sleep. I laid back down when I heard the knock again. I jerked upright. It was real.

Jumping from the bed, ran a hand down my hair, and tried to wipe off my face, in case I drooled during the night. I was still in the same clothes from the party and grumbled to myself about going to bed without changing, but at least I was somewhat presentable, even if I was a wrinkled mess. It was probably some salesman or something.

I made it to the front door and opened it, only to shut it quickly once seeing who stood right outside it. “Oh crap.” What was Steve doing here? I looked down at my once passable attire and realized he couldn’t see me in last night’s clothes. “Um, hold on just a minute!” I hollered.

I dashed to my room and threw the closet door open, grabbing the first thing I saw: a black-and-red polka-dot dress with a V-neck halter-top. As fast as I could, I changed clothes, grabbed my brush from the bathroom, and ran it through my hair, tying a black and red bandana in it to match. I looked at my smeared black eye makeup, cringing at my reflection. I didn’t have time to redo it so I washed it off with water and filled my hands with a mask, rubbing it over my face. I might be green, but at least he wouldn’t see how bad I looked without makeup.

I opened the front door just a crack. Steve was still there. “Steve, what a surprise.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I wanted to see if you wanted to go to breakfast. I didn’t know you’d get all dolled up just for me though. The green really suits you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Trust me, this is better than you seeing the real me.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I liked the real you last night.” He smiled. “So what do you say? Breakfast?”

“Um, yeah, sure. That might be nice. Just let me finish getting ready first.”

“Sure. Just call me when you’re ready.”

“But I don’t have your number.”

He raised his finger and grabbed his phone out of his pocket with his other hand. My cell phone rang from inside my bedroom. He smiled widely. “You do now. Just program my name to that number.”

I crossed my arms. “How did you get my number?”

“Caty.”

I nodded. “Of course she gave it to you. Why didn’t you just call in the first place?”