Destiny Binds (3 page)

“You know, they really arenʼt that bad once you get to know them,” Jase said, watching as Jordan managed to get a ketchup coated fry to stick to Jamesʼ shirt.

“Jordan Daniels is not only a complete jerk, but heʼs also as dumb as a box of rocks.”

“He doesnʼt still call you Al the Albino does he?”

“No.” Not since Jase slammed him into a wall in the boyʼs locker room and suggested he quit. “That doesnʼt mean that he suddenly stopped being a half-wit. I overheard him asking one of the secretaries where to put a stamp on an envelope last year.”

“Okay, so Jordan is an idiot, but Tyler and Seth are pretty decent, and I think you would like some of the girls if you would just give them a chance.” Sure, we would become the bestest of friends. We could have sleep-overs where we braided each otherʼs hair and talked about how super-cute and hunky Jordan is.

Gag.

I was about to turn back to my table when a pair of steely eyes caught my attention. Alex Cole sat two tables away from us, once again staring. Only this time, it wasnʼt at me. Instead, he was looking at Jase with an expression which could have easily been interpreted as murderous. His eyes were hard and I could see the muscles in his cheeks jump as he clenched and unclenched his jaw.

I could also see Ashley Johnson babbling on like a ditz beside him. I briefly wondered if she was discussing possible honeymoon locations.

“Earth to Scout,” Jase said, pulling my attention away from Alexʼs table.

“Who are you looking at?” Talley glanced over and smiled. “Ah-ha. The new guy. I should have known.”

It occurred to me that it might have been a good idea to have mentioned Alex before that moment.

“What new guy?” Jase looked towards Alex and his face went blank. I was reminded of the time he came home to find that our little sister had decided to make his Star Wars figures

“pretty” by coloring on them with a red Sharpie. He had looked at them with this exact same expressionless stare before launching into the biggest temper tantrum ever. Angel had cried for hours.

“His name is Alex Cole, and he just moved here from Montana.” Talley said. “He is smart, attractive, funny, and madly in love with your sister.”

“What?” Two voices came out in unison -- mine incredulous and Jaseʼs furious.

Talley flinched slightly, but refused to be dissuaded. “Cʼmon, Scout. You said he was staring at you in Calc, and he was definitely flirting with you in Shakespeare. You could almost see the electricity in the air between you two.”

What the Hades was she talking about? I love Talley. Really, I do. But there are times when Talleyʼs world and the real world are two completely different places.

Jaseʼs lips were pressed so tightly together you could barely see them. “Stay away from him. I donʼt even want you talking to him. Do you understand?”

“Did you seriously just try to tell me what to do?”

Jase narrowed his eyes. “You do realize who he is, right? You remember what the other one said?”

“I remember.” Like that was the sort of thing that just slipped your mind. “But Alex doesnʼt seem so...
intense
. I think heʼs fairly innocuous.”

“I donʼt care what he is. I promised Iʼd keep you safe. I canʼt do that if youʼre hanging out with one of them.”

I could have argued the issue, pointing out that I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself, but I didnʼt. It wasnʼt like I actually wanted to hang out with the new guy. “No problem.

Really, I canʼt stand the guy. I would be perfectly happy if I never spoke to him again.”

“Good. Letʼs keep it that way.” Jase got up, shooting another glance in Alexʼs direction. “Iʼll see you at the car after school,” he said, grabbing half of my turkey sandwich.

“What was that all about?” Talley asked, watching Jase as he made his way out of the cafeteria.

“Iʼm not a hundred percent sure,” I admitted. “It has something to do with Alexʼs psycho brother. I think Jase is involved in something bad. I tried to ask him about it, but he just shrugged me off.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Iʼll just wait it out. Jase will eventually tell me whatʼs up.”

“I was talking about staying away from Alex.”

“I honestly donʼt think thatʼs going to be a problem.” Talley looked over at the table where Alex was now chatting away with Ashley. They were most likely going over baby names. I cringed at the mental image of little Ashleys.

“That may be a bit harder than you think.”

“Donʼt be crazy; itʼll be a piece of cake.”

And it was a piece of cake. I managed to avoid any and all contact with Alex Cole for two whole hours.

***

I walked back to the table where Joi Fitzgerald and Meg Jamison waited for me. I took a deep, steadying breath as I sat in the only available seat, next to Alex.

Crap.

“We just keep running into each other,” he said as I began to consider becoming a sports writer.

“Yes, it seems karma is intent on us spending some time together. Obviously, I did something horrid in my previous life.”

“Or maybe youʼre my reward for being so good.” You would think that grey eyes would be dull and lifeless, but his seemed to glow.

I decided my best response would be silence. Unfortunately, he did not take this as a hint to end the conversation.

“So, I was going to sit by you at lunch, but your boyfriend beat me to it.”

“Who? My what?” The boyfriend statement threw me. “Do you mean Jase?” Joi, who had been listening intently to our conversation, looked even more shocked than Talley had earlier. “You and Jase have lunch together? But I thought that there had been a royal decree that the Donovan Twins werenʼt allowed within 500 feet of each other on school grounds since the Ms. Tubbs incident.”

Good grief. So you make one teacher have a mental breakdown in elementary school. Was it really that big of a deal?

“Twins?”

“Jase is my brother.”

“No, heʼs not,” Alex said with absolute conviction.

I was about to tell Alex exactly what I thought about him and his presumptuous arrogance when Joi decided to be helpful.

“Oh, we just call them twins. Jaseʼs mom married Scoutʼs dad when they were babies. They donʼt look anything alike, and Jase is technically a couple of months older, but they act like twins.”

“Five weeks to the day,” I corrected automatically.

“Thatʼs quite the distinction, Scout, ” Meg said. After watching an episode of
Law and Order
in the fifth grade, Meg Jamison decided she wanted nothing more in life than to be a lawyer.

She had been speaking like one ever since. I tried imagining her using “hottie” or “yummy newbie” to describe Alex, but my imagination wasnʼt that good.

“Do you have any siblings, Alex?” she asked, steering the conversation away from Jase, who she loathed with a passion since a brief stint as his flavor-of-the-month last year.

I eventually came to know that Alexʼs brother was named Liam, and he served as Alexʼs legal guardian. (“Heʼs two years, ten months, and four days older,” Alex told me with a wink.) They moved from Libby, Montana, a town about 75 miles from the Canadian border, to Kentucky the first week in July.

There was no mention of Liamʼs habit of terrifying random strangers for fun.

It quickly became apparent that Alex was one of those naturally outgoing people that could coax even the most aloof individuals into a group discussion. Thanks to him, the entire class was debating the best zombie survival tactics when school was dismissed for the day. I was so intent on making sure he understood the advantages of owning a blimp I never considered how Jase would react to seeing the two of us strolling through the parking lot together. It was, without question, one of my more remarkable errors.

My senior year was off to a spectacular start. I had Beelzebub as a Calculus teacher, half of my classes came with first day homework, and the new guy had managed to completely disrupt my peaceful, structured world. I was so distracted by the time I got home, I didnʼt notice the boy sleeping in my bed until I almost sat on him.

Charlie Hagan isnʼt handsome in the classic sense - his features are a little too sharp and his lips a little too full - but he was unmistakably attractive. Itʼs not so much his physical appearance as his personality. Although, his athletic body, piercing green eyes, and curly hair with natural high-lights arenʼt to be ignored.

I wanted to go lie down next to him. I wanted to feel his arms wrapped around me and discover what his lips taste like. I wanted to tell him I had been secretly in love with him since I was two years old. So, I did the only thing I could do. I hit him in the head with Guido, my sock monkey.

“Ow, Scout.” He yawned and stretched out, causing the bottom of his T-shirt to ride up and reveal a sliver of bare stomach.

I seriously considered passing out.

“Charlie, what are you doing in my bed?”

“Jaseʼs room smells funky and Angelʼs room is too pink. Your bed, on the other hand, is just right.”

Well, if he felt that way about it...

No, Scout. Bad. Think of something else.

“Shouldnʼt you be home packing?”

Charlie was Jaseʼs best friend and paternal cousin. He lived with the rest of the Hagan clan near the Army Base, but spent as much time at our house as possible. On Friday, he was going to break my heart by moving three hundred miles away.

“Pack, shmack. Iʼll do it later. I wanted to see how your first day of school went.” I plopped down on the bed. Although my heart accelerated slightly at being so close to Charlie, I knew that he thought nothing of it. To him I was just like a sister. Or, at least, a cousin.

“School sucks. Iʼm dropping out and becoming a truck stop waitress. I think Iʼll change my name to Flo and get a really bad perm. Flo the truck stop waitress with a bad perm doesnʼt need high school. She lives off the knowledge of life.” Charlie reached over and put a consoling arm around my shoulders. I had trouble hearing his words over my pounding heart. “Was it Goat Girl? Do you need me to kick her ass for you?

I mean, I donʼt normally like the idea of hitting girls, but Iʼll make an exception.” Goat Girl was what Charlie and I called Ashley Johnson. It was because when you actually took the time to look at her face, she really did look like a goat with her little mouth, long face, and oddly placed eyes.

“No,” I grumbled. “Sheʼs not the problem. Although, having two classes plus lunch with her doesnʼt add up to happy, happy fun.”

“Then what is the problem?”

Before I could answer, my bedroom door swung open and in marched the very definition of a little girl: pink skirt, pink top, pink sandals, and a pink bow keeping her bouncy, blond curls pulled back from her little, round face.

“Found him!” Angel yelled at the top of her lungs. “Heʼs in bed with Scout!” My parents adore my six year old sister, positive that she is the most perfect child to have ever been born. Jase and I mostly just manage not to kill her.

“Why are you in bed together?” Angel asked, shooting Charlie and me a disapproving look.

“Because itʼs the most comfortable place in the room to sit,” I explained, refusing to feel guilty.

“Why is his arm around you?”

“Because my first day of school sucked.”

“You shouldnʼt say ʻsuckedʼ. Itʼs a bad word.”

“Iʼm seventeen. I will say ʻsuckedʼ if I want to.”

“Iʼm gonna tell Mom.”

“Go ahead. See if I care.” These little talks with my sister always brought out the best in me. We could have gone on for hours, but Jase came into the room with a plate of Oreos and a glass of milk.

“Good work, Munchkin,” he said, handing the snack over to Angel. “Hereʼs your reward.

Now, why donʼt you go eat it in your room?”

She looked like she was going to protest, but saw something on Jaseʼs face that made her comply. Maybe it was the dried blood.

“What happened to you?” Charlie asked, surveying the damage. Jaseʼs face was starting to swell around his nose, and the area around his eyes was turning purple.

“Wasnʼt paying attention in gym. A football hit me in the face.”

“Thatʼs pretty good. Excellent delivery. Your parents are sure to buy it. Now, tell me what really happened.”

“Scoutʼs new boyfriend punched me.”

All of the zen-like calm Charlieʼs presence had created immediately vanished. “Heʼs not my boyfriend, and you swung first.”

It was the ultimate in high school drama. When Alex and I got outside, I had tried to shrug him off.

“Well, Jase is parked over by the gym, so Iʼll see you later.” It was stupid of me to think he would let me off that easy. The boy couldnʼt seem to take a hint.

“Thatʼs where Iʼm parked too,” he had said with his ever-present smile before walking with me towards Jase, who was leaned against our little Mazda, engaging in some slightly embarrassing PDA with Nikki Anderson. We were still about three cars away when Jase pulled back from Nikki.

“What are you doing here?” Jase asked Alex as rudely as possible.

“Well, I was walking to my car.” Alex motioned towards an old red Toyota in the next row.

“I meant here at this school, in this town.”

In retrospect, Alex must have been purposefully trying to provoke Jase. Maybe he was more like his brother than I thought.

“We thought it would be a nice place to settle down.” One corner of Alexʼs mouth pulled up as his eyes locked with mine. “I had no idea it would be this nice.” The next series of events went so quickly I canʼt be exactly sure what happened. Jase took a swing at Alex, but it didnʼt connect. I donʼt know if Alex managed to duck out of the way, or if Jaseʼs aim was just really off. I do know he meant business because it really hurt when my shoulder accidentally got in the way and I fell to the ground.

The next thing I knew, Tyler Burkeen and Seth Roberts were holding Alexʼs arms, and Jaseʼs nose was dripping blood.

“Stay the hell away from my sister,” Jase spat out, red droplets flying from his lips.