Enchant Me (3 page)

While driving home, I decided I couldn’t wait
till tomorrow to talk to Tina. I didn’t care how selfish it was, I
was going to call her as soon as I got home, no matter how late.
The whole way there I kept feeling a stupid, giddy grin spreading
across my face. 

My mom was already in bed when I got there so
after cleaning off my makeup and getting everything ready for
tomorrow, I called Tina. “Hey, were you sleeping?” I whispered. Of
course by her confused voice I could tell I had woke her up. A tiny
bit of guilt passed through me but just as quickly exited a second
later. “I have to tell you about the art show.”

“What? Nicolas didn’t show up did he?” She
was waking up now, I could hear the worry in her voice.

“God no, bite your tongue.”

“What then?” She could finally tell that I
was happy excited, not scared excited. 

“I saw the most gorgeous guy tonight,” I
confessed and lost the battle to control my giggle. 

“I thought you had sworn off men,” she said
with amusement. 

“I did? I don’t recall that. But you would so
understand if you saw him.” I pulled my camera out and turned it
on, quickly finding the two shots of him. “Dark hair, sultry eyes
and a muscular body but not like he is obsessed with the gym; He is
hot, hot, hot girlfriend.” 

“Is he from Crescent Point?”

“Yeah, a senior, his name is Christian
Marino. Have you ever heard of him?” 

“No but that doesn’t mean anything. Assuming
you took pictures of this paragon can we reconvene this discussion
tomorrow?”

Even though I knew she couldn’t see it, I
smiled sheepishly. “Of course, you know you really are the bestest
friend a girl could have.”

“I know, good night Lex.”

“Good night.”

Getting up for school earlier than I would
normally like, I went straight to my closet. I was going to put a
little more care into my look than usual for school. I felt that
same giddy grin start to develop as I thought about the reason why.
Sitting down at my vanity, I opened my make-up kit and stared at my
death warmed over complexion; this was going to take a lot of work.
Throwing on the same jewelry as the night before and brushing out
my hair, I was finally ready. I took one last look in my full
length mirror, thankful for my curves--not bad at all. Luckily
I got to school pretty early and I went straight to Tina’s first
period class.

She was already outside of her class waiting
for me with a big smile on her face. “Hey, so did you want to
see the pictures?” 

“You’ve got it bad, don’t you?” There was a
little bit of surprise in her voice and her dark eyes were wide
with amazement. Ignoring that, I quickly found his picture in the
camera and showed it to her. “What do ya think?”

“Not bad at all,” she replied. That was
an understatement of a lifetime. I rolled my eyes and then looked
at her.

“I guess it is actually a good thing we don’t
have the same taste in men.”

“Yeah,” she said smiling at me, most likely
remembering all the guys she had crushes on that I just didn’t get
the attraction. 

“So, are you up for a little reconnaissance
mission at the secretary’s office?” I asked. 

“You mean for this?” She queried, holding out
a piece of paper. It was Christian’s class list.

I started laughing. ”You’re the best. Does
this make me a stalker?” 

She laughed at this and then pushed me
towards my own first period class, which I was of course, running
late for. “Yes it does, do you want to give me back the list?”

“No,” I said and even gave a little shake of
my head to emphasize the point and ran non stop straight to class,
clutching the list against my chest. Her laughter seemed to follow
me all the way down the hall.

CHAPTER 2

Preparing to sneak into class, I belatedly
realized there was no need. Apparently Mrs. Love was running late
too. I was about to dump the entire contents of my book bag onto my
desk in search of my homework when suddenly a white box with a dark
red ribbon and bow, no bigger than a notebook, was shoved under my
face. Bewildered I stared up and up into a tall, brunette,
girl’s face. I vaguely recognized her. She was a senior, not one I
had a problem with thankfully. I glanced back down at the box as
she dropped it into my hands. It wasn’t my birthday and even if it
was, I didn’t know her. I looked up to question her and she was
gone. 

I could feel a couple kids looking at me
questioningly, but luckily I wasn’t close enough to anyone in this
class for them to be comfortable to ask about it. I was completely
surprised, which was pretty rare for me. Slowly I undid the ribbon
and lifted off the top part of the box. One look inside and I knew
exactly who it was from. On a framed, miniature canvas, there was
an exquisite Celtic knot design similar to the one still on my
hand. Within its patterns, there were words in a medieval looking
script. I had to keep rotating the canvas to read the whole
message. Alexis, will you go to prom with me. Christian.

Taking my lip between my teeth to stop that
giddy smile from happening again, I lifted out the miniature easel
the canvas came with and placed it on there. This was probably the
most romantic thing that had ever been done for me. I’ve gotten
flowers, jewelry, even been serenaded outside my window, but this
would’ve taken hours to do. What I couldn’t figure out is why did
he want to go out with someone he hadn’t even technically met yet?
Was he crazy? Hadn’t he heard the rumors about me?

Gently I put both items back in their box to
keep them safe. Finally Mrs. Love came in, and having pity on
us since we had Friday fever, she just gave us our homework and let
us work on it in class. That was my cue to finally look at
Christian’s class list. I already knew we didn’t have any classes
together but it looked like our second and sixth period classes
were near each other. I didn’t recall seeing him at lunch but maybe
he left school for that. Deciding I would have to find a way to
sneak a peek at him in second period, I knew I would have to reach
my class first or be the last to leave it, to catch a glimpse of
him. 

Trying to be unobtrusive, I texted Tina and
my other close friend Becca to give them the news and asked them to
meet me at lunch. After that the hour seemed to drag and I couldn’t
concentrate on my math assignment for my life, so I kept coming up
with excuses to leave. First I needed to put the box in my locker;
then I needed to go talk to the secretary and lastly to go to the
restroom--for a little primping. As I stepped into the
restroom I immediately regretted it. Three seniors, all of whom I
knew to be friends of Nicolas’s, were gathered in there. In one
motion they all turned to look at me. There was one important
lesson I had learned because of this situation with Nicolas -- you
couldn’t show fear. The seniors were like dogs. If you let them
sniff your fear, they would rip you apart. 

I returned their stares for a second then
forced myself to casually walk up to the mirror. They started to
whisper behind their hands. Reminding myself to remain calm I
freshened up my lip gloss then calmly and deliberately started to
pull a brush out of my cosmetics bag. Abruptly I was hit with the
same sensations as the previous day but slightly stronger and for a
split second I thought I saw an image of one of the girls grabbing
my brush and attempting to rip through my hair. Shaking myself out
of the weird feeling, I finished taking my brush out. 

Without even looking I instinctively found
myself snatching the girl’s wrist before she had barely extended
it, startling both of us in the process. “Don’t…ever do that,”
I threatened, staring hard into her eyes. 

For a moment she just stared at me, then
ripping her wrist out of my grip she and her friends made a quick
retreat calling me every curse word they could think of on the
way. Once they were gone I leaned against the wall to collect
myself and force myself to stop trembling. Whether it was because
of my near fight with the seniors or the strange vision I had, I
wasn’t sure. Surely it had just been Déjà vu, although I had never
heard of it being so strong, so real, or so physical. I wouldn’t
complain. Hopefully that would be the last time those particular
girls bothered me. After doing a couple of yoga poses I felt calm
and ready enough to go back to class.

It seemed like the longest hour of my life
when the bell finally rang. I was practically running out the door
when I almost ran into him. Christian. I came to such a dead stop
upon seeing him that I almost fell right over. Nope. I wasn’t
dreaming, he really was that beautiful. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he replied while looking me over. His
brown eyes were warm but curious. 

I realized he was looking for his box,
well--maybe not just the box. “I put it into my locker for safe
keeping. It was really beautiful, thank you.” 

I now took a turn looking him over. Even
though he was more casual today with a black coat, t-shirt and dark
jeans, he was still yummy. 

“You’re welcome, can I walk you to your next
class?” he asked and stepped slightly to my side allowing me to
walk just a little ahead of him. 

“Sure.” 

Once again I felt an idiotic blush coming on
and I dipped my head a little, allowing my hair to fall forward for
me to hide behind. Without looking I could feel him trying to lean
forward and catch my eyes, his body so close that I could feel his
heat all down my side. And I could swear his hand was hovering at
my lower back in that gentlemanly protective sort of way. When
I thought I had my blush under control, I looked up at him. He was
tall but not too tall; I wouldn’t get a crick in my neck looking at
him nor have to find a footstool to kiss him. I couldn’t keep my
gaze from lingering on his lips while I thought about that.

He was just perfect, like cupid had taken my
list for the ultimate guy and sent him to me. Completely entranced
I literally started to walk by my class until he gently grasped my
elbow and pulled me to a stop. “This is your class,” he leaned
in and whispered.

The look in his eyes was mildly amused but I
decided I wouldn’t take exception to it--this time. I started
to walk away when I felt him reel me back, all the way back, until
my whole right side was pressed against the entire left side of his
body from head to toe. His breath was warm against my cheek.
“Alexis… the feeling is mutual.”

I pulled away and headed into class. As I got
safely across the threshold I looked back and gave him the
sultriest look I could. “Of course.”

His soft, low, laughter stayed with me for
the rest of the class. Mrs. Di’stefano eventually gave up calling
on me, since every time she did she had to remind me what we were
working on. I could feel the heated glances from that horrible
Jenny Slater but I realized it didn’t bother me at all now. I was
going to have a lot of homework to do on Sunday though, since I
wasn’t getting anything accomplished at school. 

Which reminded me, I was staying at Tina’s
tonight. Lord, I hope she wasn’t going to spend all night trying to
convince me to fight fire with fire or something like that. Only
seniors were involved in the drama and they were going to be gone
soon. If I could just hold out a little longer, it would all be
over. Even if I tried to tell them the truth, they didn’t owe me
any loyalty. I had only been around since Junior High but Nicolas
had lived here all his life. Who were they going to believe, me or
everyone’s favorite bad boy? When I had met him, he was everyone’s
favorite guy, exciting, fun, loyal, and enough friends to fill a
stadium. No one but me had experienced that other side. He had done
an excellent job of ruining me. That’s what I get for dating a
brilliant- -and in this instance, manipulative guy. Maybe next time
I should date an idiot… Of course it was too late. I was
already falling for another dark-haired, intense, brilliant
guy.

Finally another interminable class was over
and I headed out the door to third period French. When I felt a
presence beside me, I should have recognized him by his cologne
alone, which was so delicious. I couldn’t stop the surprise that I
am sure was all over my face. 

He seemed to be fighting a smile. “I thought
I better help you get to your next class, just in case you have
trouble finding it.”

I pretended to be affronted and looked away.
“I think I can make it.”

“None the less,” he replied and assumed that
slight position behind me as we walked.

This time I could feel the heat of his hand
on my back. When we finally reached my class, I turned to thank him
but he spoke first. 

“What are you doing for lunch today?” he
asked.

Since his head was dipped towards mine, his
bangs had completely fallen forward and this time I didn’t resist
the urge to move them to the side. I already had his complete
attention but the effect of my small gesture had made it even more
intense. Marveling at how his eyes had darkened, I had to think
hard to bring myself back to the moment.

“Nothing in particular, what did you have in
mind?” I hoped my friends would forgive my lie. 

“We unfortunately don’t have much time, so
would McDonalds be ok for today?” He looked embarrassed just to
suggest it. 

“That would be great, where did you want to
meet?”

“How about at your bike and then we can take
my car.”

I blinked at the mention of my bike. He knew
my bike and my classes? Maybe I wasn’t the only one who could do
reconnaissance.  “Ok.” 

I had intended to watch him walk away just
for the pleasure of watching him walk but as we stared at each
other I realized he was patiently waiting for me to go into class.
Bemused, I left him standing there and I had a feeling he didn’t
leave until I was seated. Deciding that my school day was
probably going to be a total loss at this point anyway, I spent the
next hour texting Tina and Becca again, giving them the news
regarding lunch. They promised to grill me later. I was actually
looking forward to it. Thinking and talking about Christian was no
hardship.