Kaleidoscope (Faylinn Series) (2 page)

“To be honest I can’t believe you did either,” I chuckled.

“A definite lapse in my judgment, but he looks so happy now.” She followed my gaze. “You doing okay with them?”

“Yup.”

“All right.” Lia knew not to pry. We were close enough that I never had to tell her about my feelings for Cameron. She figured it out on her own. It was also one of the reasons she had ended it with him, though it definitely wasn’t the only one. And boy, did that throw Cam for a loop.
He
got dumped? That never happened. But he was over it within a week when Blair Vander pounced on him at Jake Winter’s birthday bash the following weekend.

“He could do worse,” she encouraged.

All I could do was nod. He
had
done worse. I should be happy for him, but I had never come second to a girlfriend before.

“Shall we sit or. . .?”

I cleared my throat. “Yeah. Let’s go.” I thought about sitting with the lovebirds, but I already needed a break. We headed to our own shady spot on the opposite side of the lawn, out of sight from Cameron and Isla.

The bell to my last period class rang and I heaved a sigh of relief. One day down, only one hundred and seventy-nine days to go. Putting it into a number like that only made it sound worse.

“Hey, Callie, you headed home?”

I looked up to see Cameron without his second half. “Yeah.”

He draped his arm casually over my shoulder and leaned his head down to mine, smelling like his familiar fresh, soapy self. “Can you do me a
huge
favor?”

“That depends.”

Cameron had to know he had me wrapped around his finger. I had tried my best to conceal my feelings, but I wasn’t sure how well that act worked. We were two sides of the same coin. We could practically finish one another’s sentences. He had to know, didn’t he?

He rushed on. “Isla has to stay after school for some mandatory cheer meeting or something and we drove to school together this morning because my jeep’s at my dad’s shop. So. . .”

“You’re a little bit stranded.” I looked up at him, arrested by his blue eyes. I looked away to break the connection before it was too late and I showed him a glimpse of me.

I could hear the partial smile in his voice. “A little bit.”

“What about your dad?” It was a long shot and I knew it.

“He can’t leave the shop, you know that. His mechanics are lost without him.”

Cameron’s dad’s auto repair shop had become his life when Cameron’s mom left. His dad ate, breathed, slept and drank cars. Where did that leave Cam? It left him with me.

Until Isla.

I let out a deep breath. “You want me to go home and then come back and pick you up just to drive all the way back home,” I said dryly.

“C’mon, Cal,
please
? Pretty
please
?”

Cameron only lived a couple streets over from my house. I knew I wasn’t going to say no. He knew I wasn’t going to say no, but it was pleasurable to see him beg anyway.

“Fine.”

“Thanks!” He planted a quick peck on my cheek. “You’re the best.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

He laughed. “I’ll see you in a couple hours.”

I waved him away as I headed for the front of the school and to my car.

Throughout our high school years everyone had tried to tell us a boy and a girl couldn’t be best friends without
some
friction between them. “There’s always some sort of sexual tension from one or both sides,” they’d say. I’d casually brushed them off because I knew perfectly well they were
right
, but Cameron would laugh and wrap his arm playfully around me, hugging me so close to him I felt like I could melt into him and say, “Callie and I have done it so far. Haven’t we, Cal?” crushing my heart more and more every time.

I’d nod and wryly say, “Who’d want to date this guy?” while inside I would be screaming, “Me! Pick me!”

So desperately stupid, but such is my life.

• • •

Before I went back to get Cameron I figured I would get a head start on some homework. You would think teachers would at least give you a day to get back into the swing of things, but apparently there was no time to waste in order to get everything accomplished by graduation. I had the first act of Macbeth to read through; an essay for home economics on what I thought it meant to be a parent; the first chapter of physics to get acquainted with; and my first worksheet of Calculus to work through without any instruction. My calculus teacher wanted to get a feel for what we already knew. As if I would be taking calculus if I already knew the subject.

I spread out a blanket on the grass in the backyard near our gnarly old oak tree to appreciate what sun I had left before evening came. The tree swing hanging from the oak swayed slightly in the light breeze.

Sometimes by going outside before the pulsing started I could beat it and lessen the urge. There were few places that made me feel as relaxed as when I was near our trees. It could have been the peaceful sound of the chirping birds or the fluttering leaves, but I could never place it. It was like the warm river flowing through my veins craved to be among nature. I knew it sounded weird, but I wasn’t sure how else to explain it.

I nibbled on an apple slice and flipped through my physics book, scanning the pages on matter. There was a rustling in the woods, which normally wouldn’t startle me, but the breeze had stopped and it only came from the left side of the trees. My gaze lifted to the forest lining the back of our property. Our yard backed right up to preserved woodlands. They stood silently now, undisturbed.

I flicked the light of my cell phone on to check the time. There was still an hour before I needed to leave to pick up Cameron. I bowed my head down again, finding where I left off, trying to become enthralled with atoms and molecules and yada yada yada.

It wasn’t more than a minute when I heard the snap of a twig. This time I sat up and scanned the grove of trees from one end to the other. Animals heavy enough to snap a twig never came this close to civilization. But everything was eerily quiet again. No motion of the greenery or movement between them.

Crack
. My eyes darted to the sound on the opposite side of the forest from where I heard the twig snap and yet all I saw were the soaring trees and thick shrubbery.

“Hello?” I asked uncertainly. I sounded ridiculous, calling out into the forest at nothing. But I felt something there. Tentative footsteps sounded, growing fainter and fainter. But I couldn’t see a thing. I stood up to get a better view. “Hello?” I asked with a little more confidence. There had to be someone there. And most likely I didn’t want to wait to find out who, but curiosity is like a plague, completely unavoidable.

“Calliope?” I gasped and spun to see my dad’s curious gaze from the back deck. “What are you doing, sweetheart?”

I fussed with my hair nonchalantly. “Nothing. Just working on some homework.”

He looked at me skeptically, as if he didn’t believe me. “Did you hear something out there?”

“It was probably just some squirrels.”
Giant squirrels.

“Come on inside. I really need to build a fence along those trees. I don’t like you being out here like a sitting duck. You never know what’s lurking in those woods.”

I stood up and snagged my books and the quilt from the grass, tucking them under my arms, cell phone in hand.

“Let me help you,” Dad offered when I got to the deck, reaching for the blanket.

“Thanks.”

“I forgot that you were getting out early this year. I wanted to be here when you got home.”

“It’s okay,” I said. He rested his hand on my shoulder and kissed my forehead.

“I just had to run to the grocery real quick.”

I nodded. “What’s for dinner?”

“I’m making vegetable lasagna.”

“Cool. Do you need help bringing in the groceries?” I asked and dropped my books on the kitchen table.

“I got them all,” he said. “Thanks though.”

“When’s Mom going to be home?”

He opened the fridge and finished putting away the groceries. “She’s going to have a late night tonight. Probably won’t be home until after eight, big case she’s working on. The trial is coming up in a few months. I don’t know the details, but from the sounds of it, she’s prosecuting a man for horrendous things. . .child abuse, battery, murder, you name it.” He shook his head and sighed.

Our family defied all family stereotypes. My mom was a lawyer and my dad stayed home. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to and my mom wanted to work. He didn’t go to college. She did. She was in law school when they met.

The lines were still blurry on how they met exactly. My parents met in some park in North Carolina where my mom often studied during law school. They noticed each other and clicked. Something like that.

I didn’t know much about my dad’s past. All I knew was that he was an orphan. His parents abandoned him at birth. I guess it was something he didn’t like talking about and I didn’t pry. My dad did a few odd jobs on the side to keep himself occupied. He designed landscapes in his free time. He loved the outdoors, like father like daughter.

“She’ll be pretty stressed out until then, huh?”

He nodded. “She’s really committed to this case and getting this guy locked up. But, it just means more time for us.” He smiled to try and lighten the mood.

Yay
. Not that I didn’t love spending time with my dad, but a girl just needed her mom sometimes. Moms got things in a different way than dads. And it had been too long since I’d actually spent any bonding time with her. I really missed her.

• • •

Cam slid into the front seat of my little white Cabriolet. I had the top down to feel the warmth of the sun. She’d definitely seen her fair share of use over the years, but she had been good to me. Maybe a little beat up, but she was mine.

Cameron and I had taken turns driving on road trips over the years—half in his old Jeep, half in my Cabriolet. Not cross-country overnight trips, but daytrips to Charlotte, Myrtle Beach and Charleston. We’d had lots of good memories in this car together.

“Thanks, Cal,” he said. “I know you didn’t want to come back.”

“Don’t sweat it.”

Cameron threw his backpack in the backseat and combed his hand through his dirty blonde strands. “Are you as swamped as I am? I feel like I’m drowning in homework. This was supposed to be the easy year. The fun year.”

I chuckled humorlessly. “And yet, I get out two periods early and I have twice as much to do as I did with all seven periods.”

“It’s a joke.”

“Yeah, on us.”

He slapped my knee coolly and kept his hand there. “We haven’t really talked in a while. What’s new?”

At that moment I really wished I had something to rub in his face, but I had nothing. We’d spent the first half of the summer together, but he’d spent the second half with Isla.

For whatever reason we’d gone to school with her since kindergarten and never had he ever noticed her. Then at one
random
summer party they caught one another’s eyes and everything fell into place. As if they were just at the right place at the right time. She smiled and waved and he didn’t look back. If that didn’t feel like complete desertion after six years of friendship I don’t know what did.

The second half of my summer was spent with Lia or my parents. No hot dates or summer romances. No exciting adventures or escapades to relay to him. We didn’t even go on a vacation. I should’ve just lied, told him something. But what was the point?

I shrugged, not at all unaware of the warmth of his palm on my thigh. The simple touch had my nerves darting around my body like a pinball machine. “Nothing really.”

His hand squeezed my leg lightly. “Well that’s lame. No hot dates or thrilling adventures to relay?”

He knew just how to rub it in. “Nope.”

Cameron took his hand back and crossed his arms. “I just don’t get that, Cal,” he said, perplexed. “You need to relax and stop being so intimidating to all the guys. They want you, if you’ll just give ‘em the time of day.”

“Thanks for the words of wisdom. I’ll try harder to change
myself
to be more appealing to
them
.”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” he said. “You just turn the cold shoulder every time any guy wants to talk to you.”

I chuckled.
I did not
. “Why do you care so much about my dating life, Cam?”
Did I?

“I don’t,” he said, looking away indifferently out the passenger’s side. “It’s just now that I have Isla, I see what I was missing out on by not being serious about any girl before. I can’t believe I never saw her before. The blind man can finally see.”

Cut me while I’m down, will ya? Maybe spit on me while I’m down there and rub a little salt in the wounds to top it off.

“The only guy worthy of my time will be the one who’s willing to work for it. I refuse to give this away for free.” I gestured to myself to get a chuckle out of him and it worked.

“All right. I see. You’re worth more than that. I know. You deserve a really good guy.”

If only you could see that guy is you.

I pulled up to his house and let him hop out.

“Thanks for the ride, Callie. See you tomorrow.”

I nodded and waved.

It used to be—
I’ll call you later;
or—
let’s hang out tonight.
I couldn’t even remember the last time Cameron called me just to chat. Gosh, I missed him.

P
ulsating through my body like another heartbeat, the subtle thumping broke my concentration on Macbeth. The sensation beckoned me to my bedroom window overlooking our trees.

The internal thumping started getting a little stronger a few weeks ago. The need; the yearning; the hunger to be outside—it had been controllable in the past. Simply being outside used to fulfill the urge. Before, there were even times when I could brush it off and go back to whatever task I was doing. Now, I found that it grew stronger every day, pulling me to the trees. It made me feel crazy.

I cracked the window in my bedroom open and skimmed the trees. The sun had barely set behind the grove, generating a grayish blue haze streaming through the branches. I’d never been apprehensive about the vast pasture of greenery before, but as my eyes studied the unknown beyond, I began to question what was out there. I wasn’t sure if I was being lured by simple curiosity or something deeper. The only thing keeping me in the security of my bedroom was the coherent side of my brain that screamed danger at the thought of entering a darkening forest alone. But it was so tempting.