The Awakened (3 page)

I placed a bobby pin on the page I was reading and set the book aside. I hopped up off the bench and walked over to Ash, who was laughing at his own obviously hilarious situation. Not saying a word, I just started unwrapping the lights from his body.

“What are you doing?” Ash said, watching as I moved around him, removing the lights as best I could without getting them tangled up. If they got tangled, it would be a disaster almost instantly, and I’d be stuck on the bench untangling the stupid mess until the doors opened in a few hours.

“We have to decorate the courtyard, Ash, not ourselves,” I said, as my hands brushed along his hipbones. I blushed and avoided eye contact.

“Nah, you just wanted an excuse to touch me,” he laughed. “That’s exactly why I did it, you know. I knew Madison would send you over here to untangle me, and I couldn’t get past that thought.”

“You’re revolting,” I answered indifferently. I didn’t have a lot of effort to spare on Ash today, not when a classic Madison Wu breakdown was imminent. “Just help me with these, okay?”

“Yeah, sure, Z, whatever you say,” he said, stepping out of the last bits of lights that were wrapped around his legs. How did he even manage to do this to himself?

“Zoey?”

I turned around and saw my ex-boyfriend, Joel, standing behind me, a stack of tablecloths in his arms. “Oh, hey, what’s up?”

“When you get a chance, can you help me with this?” he asked, motioning over where the food and beverage tables were set up under a breezeway.

“Yeah, definitely. Just let me help Ash finish these lights first, okay?” He nodded, smiling, and walked away. 

“So what’s up with you and Joel over there?” Ash asked, helping me to set up a ladder. As I climbed up, I felt a blush cross my cheeks. I was wearing the clothes I wore to cheer practice and the shorts left very little to the imagination. Ash would be one to take advantage of this situation.

I glanced at Joel, talking casually with Jaida, the junior dance committee rep. We had dated for a little over a year and had parted without any drama, the easiest breakup in the history of all breakups. We’d had a few hot and heavy months, but our friendship was stronger than our chemistry, and we decided to remain friends. “We’re friends,” I said, reaching for the lights and the staple gun.

“That’s not the way I see it, Zo-Zo,” Ash said, grinning at me, his arms gripping the ladder tightly. “The way I see, Joelskies over there is still pining for you.”

I stapled a section of lights to the breezeway and glanced back over at Joel, who was laughing at something Jaida said. Ash and I were not even a blip on their radar. “If you say so.” I felt myself slip a little on the ladder as it shook slightly, and Ash’s hand came up to steady me, just under the hem of my shorts. A tingle spread through my legs down to my toes, and I glared down at him. He smiled lazily back up at me.

“I know jealousy when I see it,” Ash assured me. “He’s heartbroken that you’ve left him in the dust, leaving him to run to underclassmen like Jaida.”

“Last I had heard,” I said, putting my body weight forward and stapling another section, “Joel was dating Kat Mitchell.” Ash’s hand was still on my leg, and it was incredibly distracting.

“Kat,” he scoffed. “She’s missing something. Or maybe has an extra couple somethings. She’s not quite as good as my girl Z.”

“Zoey,” I said, automatically, as the ladder shook again. I descended quickly and shoved the staple gun back into his hands. “And I think you’re perfectly capable of finishing this.”

He took the staple gun, surprised, watching as I walked away, the slick bottoms of my beat up converses slipping on the smooth cement of the courtyard. “I hope you save me a dance tonight, Z!”

“DO YOU THINK EVERYTHING LOOKS
okay?” Madison asked me, wringing her hands together and glancing around the room.

“It looks beautiful,” I assured her. “So do you by the way.” After we had spent a good couple of hours setting up for the dance, we’d finally descended upon the girls’ locker room. Using it as a makeshift beauty room, we changed from our practice clothes to the dresses we’d bought a couple weeks ago.

She beamed, but I could still see the anxiety building in her eyes. Her hair was still pulled back in a bun, but she’d added glitter to her sleek black strands, and it caught in the twinkling lights stretched across the courtyard. Her pink flowing dress hit right above her knee and made her look like a tiny ballerina. “Thanks. You do too. Scandalous. I hope Headmistress Dweller doesn’t see you.”

I rolled my eyes and looked down at my dress. It was red, which was already an alarming thing that might cause our old fashioned and conservative headmistress to lose her cool. It was a halter and accentuated the fact that I had large boobs, but in a good way, of course. I had started getting boobs when I was nine years old and had taken to wearing baggy shirts and jackets to cover them up. Now that I was older and enjoyed dressing up, especially when Madison and I went dancing, I dressed for my body type. No use in letting them hide when they were so nearly impossible to do so anyway. The dress hit at least a hands width above my knee but it wasn’t
that
short.

Plus, I had left my long hair down for once, in messy waves so my shoulders were even covered. “What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s like a shirt, Zoey,” Madison said, smirking a little.

“It’s a dress,” I protested. “But I will take your compliment and forget your doubt in my dress. This cost a good chunk of my monthly allowance.”

“Also known as the mom guilt money,” Madison finished. “You think it looks good, really? The dance, I mean.”

“It does,” I said, firmly. “You worked really hard on it. I still don’t really get the apples hanging from vines when apples grow on trees but it looks good.”

She threw me a glare. “It’s fall. The apples add a fall ambience.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “Fall ambience, sure.”

Madison looked like she wanted to say more but was momentarily distracted as her boyfriend Brody approached us. She lit up, and I shook my head again at the endearing yet vomit-inducing love they shared.

Sometimes, Madison treated dating like another thing to tackle on her never-ending to-do list. I remember the first day of freshman year, sitting on the steps that led up to St. Joseph’s and planning which boys would be the best to date—and would help her lift her social strata. This was basically part of her plan for world domination. She had the grades, the fashion sense, the family pedigree, and the determination and ambition. She needed a boy to fit into that.

But Brody snuck up on her. He was nondescript, according to the list she had made of attributes necessary for a perfect boyfriend. There was no denying that he was good-looking with his shaggy blond hair and green eyes. But he was from Brooklyn and a scholarship student, and my dear social-climbing friend just couldn’t handle that sort of reputation for her future boyfriend.

He was always there though: volunteering to help her campaign for class president, helping her bake cupcakes for the Honor Society bake sales, and helping her to study math, her hardest subject. It wasn’t long before she dropped the cold method of finding someone suitable to her list and fell madly in love with Brody Levitt. That was three years ago, and she has never lost that dreamy look on her face when he came near her.

“Dance with me?” he asked, holding his hand out to her.

She grinned, taking his hand. She looked at me. “You okay over here?”

I nodded. “Go.”

“Have fun, wallflower,” she called behind her as Brody led her to the dance floor.

“Hey, that’s a good book,” I retorted, but she was too far away and the music was too loud for her to hear. I stood around for a moment, watching my classmates dancing on the dance floor before deciding to walk over to the dessert table and grab a cupcake. Madison had managed to get the cupcakes donated by Crumbs, and I had been dying to try one all night.

I was peeling the wrapper off a dark chocolate cupcake when Ash came up to me. “And here I thought you weren’t coming to the dance.”

I shrugged, trying to ignore how good he looked. None of the guys at St. Joseph’s looked particularly good in the uniforms, but once they were out of them, it was a completely different story. “I helped put the decorations up, might as well see my hard work in action.”

He laughed, reaching for a cupcake himself. “Don’t lie. You may act all cool and aloof, but I know that you love to dance.” 

“And how do you know that?” I asked, swiping a glob of cream cheese frosting off the top of the cupcake and stuck it in my mouth. I nearly moaned; this was delicious.

“I pay attention, Z,” he said, biting into his own cupcake. Unlike me, he didn’t hold back and a moan escaped his lips. “Jesus, these are amazing.”

“What do you want, Ash?” I asked, shaking my hair out of my face.

“Come dance with me.”

I burst out laughing. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

“I know you love to dance, Z, and I know you’re dying to right now,” he said, wagging his eyebrows up and down suggestively. “So come dance with me.”

I shook my head, a grin still on my face. “No, Ash, I’m smart enough to know that accepting a dance with you is a bad idea. I’ve seen
Carrie
. I’ve seen
Never Been Kissed
. It never works out well for the geeky girl when the popular boy asks her to dance.”

“You don’t look very geeky in that dress,” Ash said, looking me up and down, his eyes lingering over my breasts, hips and legs. I felt a blush creep up on my cheeks, and I knew my face probably matched my dress perfectly.

“Zoey, do you want to dance?”

I turned and saw Eddie Ward standing there. He had been considered as a perfect match for Madison when she was obsessed with that sort of thing, until he had announced that he was gay, to the disappointment of Madison and pretty much every eligible bachelorette in New York City. Eventually he became incredibly close friends with Madison and, in turn, with me as well. He often went out to the clubs with us, dragging his boyfriend Trent along with us. He was a fantastic dancer.

I grinned and put the cupcake back on the table, away from the clean, untouched ones. “I would love to.” I took his outstretched hand and let him lead me down to the dance floor. I tossed a victory smile over my shoulder at Ash. The DJ picked a faster paced song, and I felt the music pouring through my body.

“Was Ash bothering you?” Eddie shouted in my ear, his hands on my hips.

I rolled my eyes. “He’s always bothering me. It’s fine.”

We stayed on the dance floor for a few songs before Trent came up to us. He looked awful. His face was incredibly pale, and sweat dripped through his hair and was running down his cheeks.

“Oh my god, Trent. Are you okay?” I shouted. I grabbed his arm, and Eddie and I guided him through the crowd to a seat on the outside.

He immediately collapsed on a bench, his head in his hands. He groaned loudly. “I feel awful.”

“Please don’t throw up on the shoes,” I begged, and Eddie laughed. “Seriously, I worked hard for these. And Madison will kill you because she picked them out.”

Eddie threw me an amused but exasperated look and turned to his boyfriend. “What did you have to eat?”

“Pancakes at the diner. And I had about three of those cupcakes,” Trent said, looking like he was going to blow chunks at any moment.

Eddie laughed a little at that. “I told you that pancakes for dinner was a bad idea,” he scolded him. He hooked his arm through Trent’s and hauled him to his feet. “Sounds like a trip to the little boy’s room is in order.” He smiled apologetically at me, and I smiled back, watching them walk away.

“What’s wrong with Trent?” Madison said, coming up from behind me and looking worried.

“He’s sick. He’s probably throwing up right now,” I explained. Madison looked panicked for a moment. “He had pancakes before the dance apparently and three of the cupcakes, so it’s really not a surprise.”

“Oh god, the cupcakes,” Madison moaned, looking around. “There are a couple girls in the bathroom throwing up too.”

“Yeah, that’s probably not the cupcakes,” I said drily. Brody laughed, and I grinned widely.

“Zoey Elizabeth Valentine, be seriously!” Madison shrieked. “This is a disaster.”

“It’s not a disaster,” I said, breezily. “A couple people are sick. It’s not a big deal, and it’s most likely not the cupcakes. Did you have a cupcake?”

“Yes,” she answered, slowly and uncertainly.

“And are you sick?” I said, just as slowly.

“Well, no, but…”

“It’s not the cupcakes,” I said firmly.

“There’s been some guys throwing up too,” Brody piped up.

“You’re not helping, Brody,” I laughed. “We’re trying to
avoid
a meltdown.” Brody laughed again, and even Madison showed a small smile.

At that moment, a few freshmen girls came bursting out of the dance crowd. Two girls had a third supported between them. She had a distinct green tinge to her face, and I had a bad feeling immediately. She stopped her friends, her hands clutching her stomach tightly. I winced as she pitched forward and threw up all over the concrete floor.