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Authors: Anthology

Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Fantasy & Magic

Eternal: More Love Stories With Bite (10 page)

BOOK: Eternal: More Love Stories With Bite
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I
floundered over backward. Water gushed. My feet found the pool
wall
and
I
pushed,
hard, and made it away. I got to the middle of the pool and stopped, staring goggle- eyed while trying to stay above the water.

He hadn't moved,
crouching
easily on the concrete lip. Same sneakers, same worn designer jeans, same white
shirt.
Same olive skin, same curly hair, same dark eyes fixed on me. Only now a spark of crimson showed in each eye. When he blinked, the red—it was like a little LED light right in his pupil—winked cheerfully at me.

"Jesus Christ," I whispered. The water splashed. Goose- bumps marched up my skin.

"Nope." He grinned. The necklace was a gold chain and a tooth, startlingly white against his throat. "Jack. Remember?"

I treaded water. If he jumped in, maybe I could make it to the steps in the shallow end. My heart pounded so hard even my fingers felt it. "What are you doing here?"

"Visiting you." He cocked his head a little. His hands dangled as he crouched, and those red spots in his eyes were so unfunny. "I've been thinking about you."

"Are you going to kill me?" It was out before I could stop myself.

He stopped, staring at me. Those red dots blinked, dimmed. "Of course not," he said finally. "Don't be stupid."

I didn't bother to point out that it wasn't a stupid question, everything considered. "What did you do to Chelsea?"

His head-tilt got more pronounced. He looked just like a cat staring at something confusing. "Chelsea?" He said the word like it was foreign.

"My friend." My arms and legs were heavy, treading water that suddenly felt far too cold. The wind picked up, making a dry whooshing sound. "At the party."

"Ah." He grinned, white teeth flashing, and I began to feel like my head was too heavy. "Did she not enjoy herself?"

My heart pounded in my chest. My arms and legs stopped working and my vision squeezed down to a pinhole.

Because his teeth weren't just so pearly white they glowed. The overlarge canines curved sharply down, just like in a bad horror movie, and those red dots in his eyes dilated. My body stiffened, jolted back, and the pounding filled my skull. The dry Santa Ana wind rushed in, and I sank under the water with a grateful exhalation. I'd never fainted in my life before. That was the first time.

I heard a splash like a body hitting water, and then the sound of the wind filled everything with funny brown darkness.

I came to lying on concrete. My eyes opened and I saw the stars. The lights were still on. My throat hurt, and I was out of the pool. My skin was drying and my hair was, too, wet curls raveling up into dry frizz. I pushed myself up on my elbows and found out I was alone. And still alive. My heart still beat.

There were drops of dried blood on my chest, where the swimsuit didn't cover.

* * * *

The next week, my phone rang again, the tinkling little notes of "Just Say Yes" filling my room as I sat on my bed with my trig book open. I was ignoring my homework and trying to do it at the same time. I snatched it up and hit the "dismiss" button, then thought maybe I should tell someone.

Right after that Bebe called. "We're going to the Rose. Come with."

I looked at the window. It was dark and the winds were still blowing. The stars burned dryly wherever you could see them. "Got homework."

"You've been, like, a hermit for a week. We're kidnapping you. Get dressed."

Yeah, no shit I'd been a hermit. I was inside before dark every day, and I stayed there. It was like being a prisoner in my own house. "We?"

"Me and Jen and JoJo. Come on." Someone giggled in the background, and the doorbell rang. I heard Consuela yell
Uno momento!
as she headed for the door. "We're at your house, bitch. Get dressed." She probably meant to sound cheerful, but there was a warning in her tone.

Translation: I was falling down on my social bargains, and I wasn't going to be part of their crowd much longer if I didn't snap out of it.

So what could I do? I threw on a pair of jeans and a cami, brushed my hair, stuffed my ID and some cash into my bra, and headed downstairs.

"There
she is!" Jenny sang. Her pupils were dilated—she was high as fuck. Bebe giggled, and JoJo flashed me a half- ass gang sign. "I'm on the rag! Hey, your hair looks great. What have you done with it?"

"Congrats." I whipped her the finger and all three of them broke up. JoJo was high, too. I could smell the weed on both of them. "Hey, Consuela, I'm going out. I'll be back."

She held her pink print robe closed with one hand. "Should I tell your father?" Her tone hovered between worried and unable-to-push-it-because-I'm-an-employee.

"He's working late,
he
won't care." Actually, I
thought he was probably with his secretary, but
it
didn't matter. He wasn't home. That was the main thing.

"Be careful,
mija."
The cross at her throat glittered golden.

"Wow. Tragic." JoJo rolled her eyes.

"Let's go." I
skipped down off the stairs and headed for them, and they scattered out the front door like birds. Jen put
her
arm over my shoulder. She smelled like Chanel and powder deodorant, and the heavy musk
of
weed.

"Dude, you've got a hickey." She blinked at my neck. I almost shoved her off the front step, the dust-laden wind pulled at my hair, and we all piled into Bebe's Mini Cooper. As soon as we did, JoJo handed me a joint and we
lit
up, Bebe started the car, and
I
began smoking like there was no tomorrow.

I
couldn't wait to be buzzed.

* * * *

Dancing is tragic, but on nights when there's no parties it's what we've got. So we toked up good and hard before we went in, but not hard enough to make us just want to sit in the car. It's a fine art.

So we were trance-dancing, all in a circle, and Jenny was looking pretty happy for a girl who was on the rag. I didn't blame her. Giving birth to another Marty would be
truly
tragic.

The Rose was a loud throbbing womb of lights flashing, fake smoke, kids crowding. We spent about an hour in there before getting the munchies and swarming the bathroom so Jen could replace her
plug.
We spilled
out
onto the
street
and JoJo
lit
a cigarette, despite the fat-assed bouncer glowering at her. "Move
along!"
he yelled, and Jenny whipped him the finger. She even kissed the tip of it before she blew it at him. We all
laughed
and
moved down the
street.

It wasn't
a long way to
Druby's Diner,
where
all
the kids went for
noshing after
the Rose. I
had my
arm over Jen's shoulders and we were both singing,
just
what
I
didn't
know.
Bebe was boogeying, and JoJo flicked her cigarette out into the street. "Fire hazard!" she crowed, and that broke us all up pretty good. I let
go
of Jen and
she
hooked
up
with Bebe instead, both
of
them
doing
some sort of dance step. There were trembling
coronas of
light around every streetlight, dust spilling through them. I stopped to take a look and they all went be-bopping on. I figured I'd catch up with them at Druby's. They were my ride home, after all.

And as if I knew he was somehow going
to be
there,
Jack
stepped
out
of the
shadows
on the
other side of the
street.
Golden lamplight ran along
his curls. He
stood there, hands in his pockets, staring at me.

Same white shirt. Same jeans. Same hair, same nose, same eyes. Only they didn't have red LEDs in them now.

He stepped down off the curb like
he
had all the time in the
world
and ambled across the street. I
half
expected
a car
to come along and mash
him,
but
nothing did. Of course
it wouldn't. He was too sure.

He was too real. Everything else was paper and plastic, and he was something else. It was like a hole in the world where something behind it was peeking through.

I stood there. Waves of hot and cold went down me. JoJo yelled, and it sounded very far away.

He reached the sidewalk. Three steps and he was next to me. His hand closed around my arm, and he pushed me around on one heel and we were walking right into an alley opening up off Elm Street.

Why they
call
it Elm I don't know. There's not an elm tree for miles.

He kept walking. It got darker. All the breath whooshed out of me. I sucked it back in. "What are you?" I sounded high, and squeaky, and scared out of my mind.

Jack gave me a sideways glance. "You know what I am."

"What are you going to do?" My legs weren't quite working right.
He
didn't seem to mind.

"I'm going to give you
a
present." He stopped. As if it was the most natural thing
in
the world, he turned and put his arms around me. I was rigid. He sighed into my hair. "I've been watching you."

BOOK: Eternal: More Love Stories With Bite
4.82Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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