The Dead Boyfriend (3 page)

I peered at her through the railings in the banister. Did she see me?

Yes. Her eyes flashed behind her owlish glasses. She jumped to her feet.

I nudged Blade with my elbow. “That girl who's coming over—”

Blade squinted through the crowd as Deena approached. “Do you know her? Is she a friend of yours?”

“No,” I said. “I mean—”

Deena stepped through a dancing couple to get to us. Her face was even paler than usual, and her lips were covered in a neon purple lipstick. She stepped up to me, a few inches too close. I mean, she didn't give me any space at all.

“Hi, Caitlyn.”

I nodded. “Hey, Deena.”

She swept her long hair behind her shoulders with one hand. “Caitlyn, do you know Blade?”

“Well…” I hesitated. How did she know Blade's name? He didn't go to our school.

I glanced at Blade. He was studying her intently, like she was another species or something.

“How's it going, Blade?” Deena asked.

“Not bad,” he said. He squinted at her. “Do I know you?”

She didn't answer him. Instead, she startled me by grabbing my wrist, wrapping her fingers around my silver bracelet, just as she had at Lefty's. I felt a shock of warmth travel up my arm.

“Great party, huh?” Her eyes peered into mine, as if searching for something. I tried to free my arm, but she held on.

She squeezed my wrist, so hard the silver bracelet cut into my skin. Then she brought her face close to mine. I felt her hot breath on my cheek.

“I saw him first,” she whispered.

 

5.

I blinked, my mind suddenly whirring. I knew I hadn't heard correctly. The music … the voices … It all seemed to grow louder, as if I was swimming in sound. Drowning …

I didn't say anything. I guess I was too stunned to react. And, I just wanted to free my arm from her grip, to get away from her.

“We should get going,” Blade said, his eyes on the front door.

I tried to turn, but Deena held on. She raised my hand close to her face, puckered her bright purple lips, and blew on the silver bracelet. Blew a puff of hot breath onto the bracelet and my wrist.

Her breath felt damp, almost sticky, on my wrist. I gasped and tugged my arm free. The bracelet tingled, then grew burning hot. “Hey, Deena—” I called out.

But she had already spun away from us. She bumped a few startled people out of her way and disappeared out the door, her long tangles of black hair swaying behind her.

I held my wrist, waiting for it the bracelet to cool.

Blade's face was twisted in confusion. “What was
that
about?”

“Dunno,” I murmured. “Seriously. I don't have a clue.”

“She is weird with a capital weird,” he said.

“Her name is Deena Fear,” I told him, stepping out of the way of a young man carrying a large pizza box to the food table. “She is a Fear. Do you know about the Fear family?”

He shrugged. “Not really.”

“I'll tell you about them sometime. They're famous here in Shadyside.” I stepped back to avoid another pizza box coming through. “Do you want to leave?”

He grinned at me. “So soon? I think our hosts would be hurt if we left this early.” He put a hand on my shoulder and guided me toward the food table. “I'm hungry. I didn't get to finish my cheeseburger, thanks to you.”

Blade folded a slice of pizza in his hand and started to eat it hungrily. We talked to a couple across the food table. The woman was studying to be a vet. The guy said he was working on a blog and a YouTube channel. They asked us if we knew a place to go sky-diving in Shadyside.

That's kind of a laugh, if you know Shadyside.

I caught a tall red-haired woman watching Blade and me from the kitchen door. She had a puzzled expression on her face, like she was trying to place us. I wondered if she was Hannah, one of the hosts.

The front door swung open and several more couples arrived. The red-haired woman hurried to greet them. There was a lot of hugging and cheek kissing.

Suddenly, I had another idea.

Did I want to show Blade how crazy and bold I could be? Did I want to see if he was as impulsive and crazy as me?

Maybe.

He was pulling a string of pizza cheese off his fingers. I tugged him close. “Blade, I have another idea. How about this? It could be a riot,” I said. “How about we stand in the middle of the living room and start kissing? You know, like we're really into it. We're all over each other. Kissing like we should get a room somewhere.”

He nodded. His eyes flashed. “That could work.”

“It would be a way of thanking our hosts,” I said, grinning. “You know. Give them a little entertainment.”

He pulled me into the center of the room. “Caitlyn, I like the way you think.”

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to him. He was stronger than I'd imagined. He held me so tight, I struggled to breathe.

And then he lowered his face to mine, and we began kissing. A long kiss. It made me even more breathless. I wrapped my hands in his hair, then lowered them to his back. We both had our eyes wide open, watching each other, enjoying the joke. Enjoying the kiss … Enjoying …

I glimpsed people moving out of our way. Couples stopped dancing, their faces twisted in surprise.

Blade and I ground our lips against one another's, being as showy as we could. I soon realized it wasn't just a joke, not just a way to shock people. We were kissing each other for real, with real feeling.

When did the joke end and the true emotion kick in? I don't know. I only know there wasn't enough time to enjoy it. Because the pounding dance music cut off suddenly. A hush fell over the room. And then I saw the red-haired woman striding toward Blade and me, her face tight with anger.

“Who are you?” she called. “Do I know you? Who brought you here?”

Blade and I clung to each other for a few seconds more. Then we broke apart and watched her approach, her hands balled into tight fists at her sides.

“Who are you? Do you belong here?”

“Oops,” I said. “Sorry.” I couldn't think of anything better to say. But then I added, “Awesome party.” Then Blade and I took off, barging through some startled guests. Out the front door. It slammed behind us.

We ran down the driveway, laughing, shrieking, stumbling. As giddy as I'd ever been in my life. Was it the greatest night of my life? Probably.

We held hands and ran full speed till we reached the corner. No one was coming after us. I stopped and hugged a streetlight to catch my breath.

Blade was bent over, holding his knees, gasping for breath. “Awesome party. Awesome party.” He repeated my farewell line. He shook his head. “I can't believe you said that. That was classic.”

“Ow.” I felt a stab of pain at my wrist and realized my silver bracelet still felt hot. I backed away from the streetlight and raised my arm to the light.

“What's wrong?” Blade straightened up and walked over to me.

“It's my bracelet,” I said. “This is so weird. It's burning me.”

“Well, take it off,” he said.

I moved the fingers of my other hand to the clasp. I'd never had any trouble snapping the bracelet off. But now I was having trouble finding the clasp.

I smoothed my thumb and pointer finger around it. The bracelet seemed solid. A solid band of metal. “This is impossible,” I murmured. “I … I can't find the clasp.”

Blade took my arm. “Let me try.” He held my arm high, lowered his face, and eyed the bracelet closely.

“Turn it over,” I said. “Spin it so the clasp is on top.”

He tried to turn the bracelet. “Ow!” I cried out again. He tried to spin it in the other direction. Pain shot through my hand and up my arm.

Blade let go of the bracelet. He raised his eyes to me. “Caitlyn, the bracelet won't slide. I think … I think it's melted onto your skin.”

 

6.

“No, Julie. The jeweler couldn't get it off. He said he didn't have the right kind of saw for silver.”

I had the phone to my ear in one hand and pushed the shopping cart with my other. Whoa. I stopped just in time. I almost rear-ended a woman with a little girl riding in her cart.

“Well, what are you going to do?” Julie asked. “You can't just leave the bracelet on forever. It'll cut off all your circulation!”

“Do you think?” I said sarcastically. “Think I haven't thought of that?” I turned the cart into the produce aisle. Blade was ahead of me, halfway toward the frozen foods section. “My dad says he's going to talk to a surgeon. You know. Like a bone surgeon. Someone who can cut off the bracelet without taking my hand off with it.”

“I-I … don't believe it,” Julie stammered. “And you really think Deena Fear—”

“I don't know what to think,” I said. “It's not like she has super powers. Something happened to the silver. I don't know what. Something made it melt, I guess.” I sighed. “At least it cooled down. It isn't burning hot anymore.”

“Weird,” Julie said.

I grabbed a head of iceberg lettuce with my free hand and dropped it into the shopping cart. “I've got to go,” I said. “I'm at the Pay-Rite. With Blade.”

“Excuse me? Caitlyn, you're food shopping with Blade? Are you moving in together or something?”

“Ha-ha. Very funny. I'm shopping for my parents. Blade came along because—”

“Caitlyn, here's some unwanted advice from me,” Julie said, lowering her voice. “Maybe you're going too fast with Blade. Maybe you should be more careful. You know. Take it slower.”

“You're right,” I said. “That
was
unwanted advice. I'll talk to you later, Julie.” I clicked off and tucked the phone into my bag.

Blade held up a gigantic frozen pepperoni pizza. “Is this on the list?”

“No. Maybe on
your
list, but not my parents'. Go put it back.”

He turned and walked back down the aisle, twirling the pizza box on one finger. I checked the shopping list again. My parents were making some kind of stew to take over to my cousin in Martinsville.

“Celery…” I pushed the cart alongside the produce shelves. An old Beatles song played in the background. In the next aisle, a little boy was crying his eyes out, screaming because his mom wouldn't let him have a cookie.

Blade got there before I did. He grabbed a thick bunch of celery and tore off two sticks. He tossed a stick to me. “
En garde!
” he shouted. He came at me waving his celery stick, slapping it against mine.

I turned away from the cart and began to duel. Our celery swordfight became intense. I get aggressive with a stick of celery in my hand. Slapping at his stick, I drove Blade back. His arms flew up as he tumbled into a cereal box display, and the boxes went toppling noisily onto the floor.

I heard a few gasps. People were watching us with stern, disapproving faces. I saw a red-faced young man in a long white apron hurrying toward us, waving angrily.

Blade and I tossed our celery sticks into the cart. I brushed my hair back, took a deep breath, and prepared to face the angry store worker.

“What's going on here?” he demanded breathlessly, lowering his hands to the sides of his apron. His name tag read:
CHUCK W
. He had short brown hair spiked up in front. His face was very red. I could see beads of sweat on his forehead.

“We … had an accident,” I said, motioning to the cereal boxes strewn across the aisle.

“Yeah. An accident,” Blade repeated. We both put on our most sincere faces. “We're sorry.”

“They just fell,” I said. “Can we help you pick them up?”

He glared angrily at Blade, then me. “An accident?” He lowered his gaze to the celery sticks in the shopping cart. He stared at them a long while. He seemed to be thinking hard, considering how to handle this.

Finally, he sighed and shook his head and said, “I'll take care of it. Have a nice day.” He walked off, wiping his sweaty forehead and muttering something about “teenagers.”

A few minutes later, Blade and I were lifting the groceries into the trunk of my mom's Toyota. “Where did you learn those moves with a celery stick?” Blade asked.

“I took lessons after school,” I said. “I wanted to be a celery fighter in the Olympics. But my parents couldn't afford the grocery bills.”

He kissed me. “You sure you have to go to work?”

I nodded. “It's my duty. I don't want to deprive people of their popcorn.”

We had fallen into a warm and teasing relationship. We felt so good together in such a short time. I kissed Blade again, said goodbye to him, and drove home to drop off the groceries.

On the way, I thought of Julie's warning.
Slow down with Blade.
I knew she meant well. She wasn't being jealous or mean. She's known me forever, and she knows I can go overboard sometimes.

I'm an emotional person. As I said, I cry at movies. Maybe I hug people a little too long. Maybe I get hurt more easily than some people. One cross word from someone makes me feel like I'm a total failure.

That's me. You can't help being who you are, Diary. And why not live life
large
. I mean just grab the bull by its horns. Go whole hog. Live everything to the fullest.

Well … listen to me go on and on. I've become a real philosopher ever since I met Blade. Ever since I fell in love with him. Face it, Caitlyn. You're in love with him. It was love at first sight.

And maybe that was making me a little crazy. A little hyper. A little more
bonkers
than I was before.

Later that night, maybe I overreacted to what happened. After my shift behind the popcorn counter … the most frightening minutes of my life … Maybe I overreacted. But that's just me. What can I do?