Dark Seraphine (The Seraphine Trilogy) (11 page)

“
I
’
ve never in my life heard of a Gia Jones
,”
I said. I was a tad curious
,
though.

“
Come on
,
Caleb. I know you
’
re into your M
anga and all
that
,
but are you really that far out there? Who doesn
’
t know about Gia Jones? I mean
,
she
’
s North Carolina
’
s local
skate board
hottie.
Get
this
, now.
They say she
’
s one of the first girls to get sponsorship from a major shoe company.
”
Kyle grinned and wagged his eyebrows.

“
Is that right? What do they say about guys who know all of this stuff? You know the ones with
a girlfriend
standing behind them.
”
The petrified look on Kyle
’
s face was worth giving up about five of my
favorite
Marvel comic books. He spun around. No Shani.
“
Just kidding.
”

He punched my good arm.
“
That
’
s what you get for teasing me
,”
I grinned. My smile faded real fast when I spotted the
girl Kyle gushed all over
. I
almost
threw up all
of
the Cookie Crisp I ate for breakfast.

Our skateboard hottie was my stalker
Walke
r
.

She stood among a gang of students
,
breathing and laughing and stealing my sanity. In the hallway
,
all kinds of things were happening. Football players were lined up along the
lockers,
doing what they did best—using testosterone to get
a
new girl
’
s attention.
The
cheerleaders surprised me the most. A couple of them stopped to chat with her
,
even going so far as to invite her to a practice. Why not? Decked out in her skirt over ripped tights
,
a tee shirt with the words P-Rod slashed across the front
,
and fingerless gloves
,
even they had to admit she was sort of a
Punk
goddess.

“
Gia Jones
,”
Kyle said beside me.
“
Her name oozes with sexuality.
”

I looked at him
,
frowning.
“
Yeah
,
well
,
if Shani hears you saying that you
’
ll be oozing blood from your open skull.
”

“
It
’
s not like you
’
re doing any better standing there gawking like that. Besides
,
I got Shani all wrapped up around
this
.
”
He held up his pinky and
grinned
.

“
Whatever you want to believe
,
my man
,”
I muttered and turned my head back to where the
Walker
who was
named Gia Jones stood. Finally
,
I knew her name. I do
n
’
t know what I expected
,
but I didn
’
t
think it would be
a name
as simple as
Gia. And Jones was about as plain as it got. Together they rocked
,
I guess. The more I mentally pronounced it
,
the sexier it sounded. I
’
d bet all of my vintage
80’s
albums that her real name wasn
’
t anything close to
the words
Gia Jones.

She
headed into my first period class.
No way.
I couldn
’
t help but think of the last time when the two of us were alone in that classroom. Strange things happened that day. As far as I knew
,
I was the only lucky person assigned to seeing
weird
people walking in dazes and drifting between this world and some other one
. Now everybody could see her
.
What the freak?

About the time I
decided
to turn away
,
she looked up
,
her gaze locking with mine. Strange feelings jolted through me: awe (Kyle was right about the sexiness in her name) confusion (
Walker
s
had never turned human on me before) and anger (she could outsmart any secret agent with her lie tactics). That last one had to be obvious. She played me the entire time. If she stood there in the flesh today
,
she could already have done so before. I broke the connection between us and turned away. Eagle-eyed Kyle didn
’
t miss a beat.

“
Um
,
did I just see the two of you
eyeballing
each other?
”
He pushed against
my good arm again which aggravated my bad one.
“
Whoa
,
I
’
m sorry
,
dude. I forget that you
’
re fragile these days.
”
He grinned and glanced behind me.

“
Caleb
,
there you are
,”
Erica laced her arms around my waist
,
lifted up on her tiptoes
,
and kissed the back of my neck. I managed to turn around
and face her
even with her arms around me.

“
What
’
s that all about?
”
I asked
,
feeling strangely aware of the
Walker
—
scratch that
,
Gia—
watching us
from across the hallway
. I didn
’
t realize we
’
d moved up to the
PDA ladder.
Behind us
,
Kyle made a wheezy laugh until I silenced him with a look.
“
Don
’
t think my
other
arm isn
’
t functional
,”
I warned him.

“
Oh
,
I think you
’
re
in good working condition
,”
Erica said
,
smiling in a way that should keep any thought of the word Gia from clouding
over
my mind. I still wanted to turn around. I worked hard to stay focused on E
rica standing there in front of me.

The rest of
the
day consisted of Erica acting clingy and Gia avoiding me. After school
,
the four of us headed to the
County
library. Shani and Erica made a sort of unspoken
arrangement
where they mentally agreed to get along for me and Kyle
’
s sanity purposes.

We sat down at our favorite table, the one beside the magazine rack and took out our books.
About
the time Kyle started talking about the car wash his church was holding over the weekend
,
Gia walked through the doors. She wasn
’
t alone this time
,
though. A guy who must
’
ve been a giraffe in another lifetime walked in behind her along with two girls—a redhead that reminded me of Rose from that
old
Titanic
movie
my Mom watches almost every day,
and a girl with blonde hair who gave
Rhianna
a run for her mo
ney. According to Kyle they were all on
the same skateboarding team.
R
ight. Of course he would
know t
hat. But I
also
knew this group
was part of
another race. The skateboarding thing was only a disguise.

They sat down at the table ac
ross from my group. Gia pin
ched the giraffe dude in the arm
,
stood
,
and headed toward the bathrooms out in the lobby. It was time to make my
play
.

“
Hey
,
I
’
ll be back
,”
I whisper-yelled as I nearly tipped over my chair.

“
Where are you going?
”
Erica stood up too.

Shani sighed loudly.
“
Oh please. Have some dignity. Let him go pee if he
need
s to.
”
Erica obeyed even though I could tell she didn
’
t want to. I held back a smile
,
feeling thankful for Shani
’
s in-your-face personality. I took advantage and trailed behind Gia without being too obvious
,
I hoped. She stopped at the water fountain and took a drink. I stood behind her and folded my arms.

“
Hello
,
Gia Jones. It
’
s so nice to finally meet you
,”
I said with all the sarcasm in my voice that I could manage.
Yeah, so
,
I was a tad annoyed with her
because
she didn
’
t say a word to me the entire day. Wasn
’
t she the one who stalked me at
home, at school, and the locker room
?
Hell, she even stalked me at
the hospital.
And then she had the gall to pull
out
the
vintage Poe poems on me.
It wasn’t fair to use someone’s weakness against them.
Come on
,
a guy can get spoiled by things like that.

“
Who’s
your fan club?
”
I asked. She turned around. I controlled
my
urge to touch her
,
to find out what a
Walker
in the flesh felt like.
Would she feel the same? Different? Most of all, I wondered if that electricity between us would still be there.

“
Just some groupies I hang out with
. I was going to come check on you. I hadn
’
t seen you in a while
, my
buddy
,
”
she said.
Gia acted like we saw each other every day at the library.

“
Yeah
,
I noticed.
Why was that
? Were you too busy prepping for your grand entrance?
”
I was failing at my attempt to stay neutral about my feelings.

“
I hate that you
’
re angry
,”
she said and moved closer to me. That vanilla mixed with lavender scent drifted in to my nostrils again. She stood so close
,
our noses almost touched.
“
Then again
,
jealousy is incredibly sexy on you.
”
Her gaze travelled up and down my body. I fidgeted and nodded my head
,
reigning in my loss of control.
I’m not
used to being visually undressed by a girl; but damn if it didn
’
t feel good.

“
Jealous? Dream on
,
babes.
”
I scoffed
,
smirked
,
and folded my arms across my chest.