Falling for Hadie (5 page)

“Don’t stay out too late. And no alcohol or making out with boys,” Dad said, trying his best to look serious.

My parents were so theatrical about the smallest things, but they always made me laugh. Still, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes again as I headed outside. “No promises.”

Our house was almost identical to every other house on the street. It was a double-story red-brick home with a double garage and large yard with white fencing around it. Mom was really into gardening, so we had a flowerbed filled with seasonal flowers throughout the year that our neighbors envied.

Dad was really into home improvement and was always fixing things that didn't need fixing. Our mailbox was a fancy double-story house with a bird bath. Totally unnecessary, but Dad felt otherwise.

Like I said, my parents were theatrical.

Halo and I started jogging in the direction of Jackson Heights, which was the neighborhood next to ours. Jackson Heights was a small gated community where the mansions were something amazing to look at and where the people liked to keep to themselves and their wealth.

I passed Mariah’s house, which was exactly six houses down from mine. She would be at dance practice right about now, or I would’ve stopped by to hang out for a bit.

As I rounded the corner onto Waterview Crescent, I stopped in my tracks when I saw a familiar figure walking in my direction.

No. No way.  I couldn’t seriously be that unlucky, could I?

When Lincoln caught sight of me, he slowed down and stopped, flashing me a grin that I wanted to knock off his face. I suddenly became conscious of the bike shorts and tank top I was wearing. Then my eyes shot to him, and I tried not to stare.

Okay, well, I kinda was staring but I didn’t want to. That had to count for something, didn’t it?

Lincoln was dressed in gym shorts and a white wife beater that stretched across his muscular chest and displayed his arms for the world to see. Obviously, the guy was confident about his body which just made him come across as arrogant and self-assured. The kind of guy I wanted nothing to do with.

“Hairdresser?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”

Was this guy dumb too?

I pointed at Halo. “Obviously I’m walking my dog. And I’ve already told you, my name is Hadie.”

Lincoln ignored me and bent down on one knee so he was at eye-level with Halo. Halo began sniffing his shoes cautiously. I was kind of hoping he’d take a bite out of Lincoln’s face, but instead he began licking Lincoln’s outstretched hand.

My dog was a complete traitor.

“Hey buddy,” Lincoln was saying in a voice you would normally use to address an infant under the age of five. “What’s your name?”

“Halo,” I spat out.

Lincoln stood up and smirked. “I don’t believe it. Hades has a dog named Halo. What are the odds?”

“You are seriously messed up, you know that? My name is Hadie, not Hades, so stop calling me that.” I gave him my best glare.

“Why are you so uppity?” Lincoln asked, drawing closer to me.

His proximity to me made me uneasy, and I inhaled sharply and took a step back. “I am not uppity. I just don’t like arrogant jerks.”

Lincoln raised an eyebrow. “You think I’m an arrogant jerk?”

“I don’t think you’re an arrogant jerk; I know it.”

“Oh, yeah? How do you know that?”

I tapped a finger against my chin as if contemplating his question, even though I already knew the answer.  He watched me in amusement, and for some reason it bothered me the way he was studying me.

“Hmm…it couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you told me you’re used to girls throwing themselves at you, and then you implied that I was one of those girls. I get that you’re hot and everything but…”

I stopped mid-sentence as a broad grin spread across Lincoln’s face.

“What?” I demanded.

“You think I’m hot?” he asked, leaning in so close that I forgot to breathe.

The way he was looking at me made my stomach flip backwards. For a moment, we just looked at each other, our breaths entangling in the cold air—neither of us said a word. Something unspoken was passing between us, making my heart thrum and my hands shake.

Coming to my senses, I placed a hand on the center of his firm chest and pushed him back. When Lincoln was that close it made it hard to think.

“That’s not the point,” I argued.  “The point is that I know your type and I don’t like your type, so stay away from me.”

Lincoln’s smile faded and he actually looked hurt for a moment. He turned to the side, lost in thought. For a second, I couldn’t help but admire his profile—the strong jaw, the straight and narrow nose and the thick, dark lashes that stood out against his face.

When he turned back to me, those azure eyes were on fire. The look in them was so scorching, so intense, that my knees went weak. It felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. No one had ever looked at me like that before.

“It’s going to be hard to stay away from you, Hadie.”

My breath caught in my throat, and I swallowed. “W-why?”

Lincoln tilted his head to the side. “Because you’re…” He trailed off, the words hanging in the air.

“I’m what?” I squeaked.

It was amazing the affect Lincoln was having on me. I’d been adamant that I would stay away from him, that I wouldn’t get close to him, but he was making that increasingly difficult for me. The boy was definitely attractive and now I knew how Mariah had felt earlier on.

A smile lurked around his mouth. “Because you’re my buddy for the week.”

The spell between us broke instantly, and I took another step back and glared at him. “I’d rather stab myself in the eye repeatedly with a hot poker.”

Lincoln laughed, raising his hands in front of him. “Whoa, settle down there, Hades. No need to get your panties in a bunch.”

My mouth fell open and I pushed him back with a hand. I couldn’t believe the audacity of this guy. “You are so gauche!”

Lincoln raised an eyebrow. “I’m a what now?”

“Look it up in the dictionary!” I snapped and stormed back the way I’d come. I wanted to get as far away from Lincoln Bracks as humanly possible. The boy grated on my nerves. All he was was a pretty face. There was no substance or depth there at all. Just good looks and a body that filled out his clothes well.

Okay, that last part wasn’t necessary. I didn’t care how well his body filled out clothes. I didn’t care about him at all.

“Nice to see you too, Hades!” Lincoln’s voice followed me around the corner, and I gritted my teeth, refusing to turn around.

Lincoln

Hadie Swinton’s angry brown eyes haunted me all the way back home.

I couldn’t figure out why she hated me so much. What had I done to her that was so bad? What could possibly make her act that way towards me?

When I’d watched her with her friends today, she’d seemed happy enough, albeit a little quiet. There was this sadness about her along with a lot of anger too. Even though she seemed to hate me, I’d seen sincerity in her eyes. And I liked that.

As I hurried back home, I took in the surrounding houses that were almost identical. Statlen was so different to New York City. For starters, the buildings there towered over you, and New York was noisy. There was noise from traffic and from the millions of people who lived there, always in a hurry, on their way to work or home or some super important business. Everyone seemed to be going somewhere.

Statlen couldn’t be more different from my old home. The people here didn’t seem to be in a hurry at all. They took their time, they helped their neighbors take the groceries inside, and the air was clean and peaceful. If I closed my eyes and stood in the middle of the street, it was so quiet that it felt like I was alone in the world.

The funny thing was that even though New York was a concrete jungle—vast, expansive, like a labyrinth—I’d never once gotten lost there, but in Statlen the streets were so unfamiliar that I’d gotten lost twice already. It was bizarre walking the streets and not really knowing where I was going or where anything was.

Statlen seemed to be made up of a large network of houses and then basically forests and large, empty fields for miles. It was beautiful and frightening at the same time to be in such isolation.

I finally found my way back to my own street, which was actually only two blocks away from where I’d run into Hadie. Our house was the largest one on the entire street and I think Mom was somewhat proud of that fact.

She had what I liked to call “Big City Syndrome” where she thought that she was better than people from small towns, which was weird because Dad had been born in Verdana, which was the town next to Statlen. His family had moved to New York when he’d been quite young, so he was right at home here and was already mingling with the neighbors and reconnecting with old friends.

Mom had been a nurse back home, but here in Statlen she preferred to stay at home and spy on the neighbors when she thought they weren’t looking. She acted like she was too good to speak to them, but kept complaining that they weren’t speaking to her. Hypocrite much?

As for Becky, well, she thought that being one minute older than me gave her the right to act like she could boss me around in big sister fashion. She absolutely hated the fact that we’d chosen Statlen of all places to move to. And she blamed me for it. Sure, the reason we’d moved here was because of me, but I couldn’t believe that she couldn’t understand why this was so important to me.

“Lincoln, is that you?” Mom’s voice carried from our new kitchen.

“Yeah, Mom, it’s me,” I said, as I walked into the kitchen and found her putting some frozen fish fingers and chicken nuggets on a baking tray.

Mom didn’t do home-cooked meals. Back in New York she’d had crazy night shifts at the hospital, which had left little time for home-making skills. Becky and I’d grown up on frozen dinners so it wasn’t anything new. Recently, Mom had been attempting to cook but I guess today was one of those days where she’d given up.

Speaking of Becky, she was sitting at the kitchen table and gave me one of her overly cheerful looking smiles that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

That’s another thing Mom and Becky had in common: their fake smiles. To the unsuspecting eye the smile seemed genuine enough, but I knew them well enough to know that that wasn’t the case. See, Mom and Becky liked to talk about other people like it was no one’s business, especially after flashing them one of
those
smiles. Seriously, I would never understand females.

Mom put the tray in the oven and straightened up, wiping her brow with the back of her hand. “You’re back early. I thought it might be your father home from work.”

Dad had been an accountant in New York, but accountants weren’t really in high demand in Statlen, so he’d settled for a boring desk job at the bank.

I shook my head. “No, it’s just plain, old me.”

“You haven’t told me about your first day of school yet,” Mom said, brushing her stringy brown hair out of her eyes as she sat down at the table, looking at me expectantly.

Man, I hated this question. What was I supposed to say? That I’d had the bestest day ever trying to navigate my way through a small, close-knit school where all the students stared at me like I was dressed in drag?

I leaned against the wall and shrugged. “There’s nothing really to tell. The kids ignored me for the most part. And there’s this girl who’s really unfriendly…”

“Mom,” Becky began in a whiny tone better suited to a five-year-old, or a boiling kettle, “What am I going to do in this redneck, hillbilly town? Today was, like, the most boring day of my life.”

If the attention wasn’t on Becky for more than a minute, she would make it all about her. That’s just the self-centered person Mom’s pandering had turned her into. As kids, Becky had always been the perfect child who could do no wrong, while I’d been the one who would get into trouble over the tiniest things.

If Becky achieved something, it would be a huge deal and Mom would brag about it to anyone who’d listen. When it came to me, Mom never showed the same enthusiasm. Now that I was teenager, Mom found even more to blame me for. Story of my life.

Naturally, Mom ignored me and gave attention to her favorite child. “But you said you had such a great day, and you made friends with the most popular girl in school. I’m sure you’ll get invited to lots of fun social events.”

My mom always complained that I didn’t tell her anything but in all honesty, she just didn’t care enough to listen. Which was cool. I was used to it by now.

“I know, Mom.” Becky flipped her hair over her shoulder. “But it’s so hard, you know? Therese Skyped me this afternoon and told me about this cool party they went to over the weekend. It’s such a bummer that I had to miss it because of the move.” She shot me a pointed look like it was all my fault that she’d missed some stupid party that’d probably gotten busted by the cops long before midnight.

“Who asked you to come with us?” My tone came out a lot harsher than I’d intended, and Becky’s eyes widened.

“Lincoln, apologize to your sister right now!” Mom snapped.