The Xoe Meyers Trilogy (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series) (42 page)

“The point Allison,” I argued, “is that I want you to live.”

Allison sighed. “I don’t want to
die
Xoe. I just want to be a werewolf.”

I glared at her. “You tried to become a vampire too. You really could have died in that process. Is it really worth dying over?”

Allison glared back. “It's my life Xoe. It's my choice.”

“I’ll make you a deal,” I offered. “You can come with us to the dance, and any other fun activities, and I’m using the term fun very loosely here. You can come with us if you agree to wait on deciding to become a werewolf until after we get home.”

“And how will I get someone to turn me once we're home?” She questioned.

I sighed. “You'll get to come out and meet all of the other werewolves. I'm sure you'll make some friends. You can seem charming to those who don't know any better.”

She held out her hand to me without a second thought. “Deal.”

We shook on it. No, I had not resigned myself to the idea of her becoming a werewolf. I would simply wait until we got home, then I'd lock her in a closet. Forever. Okay, maybe it wasn't the best plan, but at least this way I'd have time to think of something else. Maybe with time, she'd realize how ridiculous she was being. Yeah, and then we'd all ride away on our unicorns.

With our agreement out of the way, it was on to the horrible task of getting ready. I was in the girls’ room with Lucy, Allison, and Lela. The boys were in the other room “getting ready,” which meant watching TV and hogging the food from the complimentary gift basket that had been left waiting in our room.

Chase had given me the peace offering of some freshly gathered mini sandwiches when we had first gotten back to the room. It was a small consolation to him ruining our impromptu picnic, but it was a welcome one. Food was definitely the way to my heart.

Lucy and Lela were sharing the bathroom mirror, which left me all alone and at the mercies of Allison. She was pawing through my clothes, but the only dress she liked was the one I had worn to the earlier event. I probably should have been offended, but I didn't care. Personal style wasn't really my strong suit, and I was okay with that.

Slamming my suitcase shut, she marched over to the closet. I glanced inside to see that she had a row of garment bags already hung up with several pairs of shoes on the floor. She unzipped one of the bags and nodded her approval. Without looking, she crooked her finger at me to gesture that I should come to the closet.

I almost didn’t do it, but I wanted Allison to keep her promise. I hadn’t even reached the closet when she threw the garment bag at me and focused her attention on her selection of shoes. I laid the garment bag on the nearest bed and slowly unzipped it, dreading what was inside.

A medium length, jewel-green dress with delicate beading at the neck stared back at me. I removed it from the bag to find that the part that was supposed to cover my back was composed of a few thin strings of the same tiny, glittering beads that decorated the front. The dress had a high halter neck, so at least it wouldn't slip off.

I threw the dress back on the bed. “No way Al. Absolutely not.”

Ignoring me, Allison walked over to the bed holding a pair of silver strappy sandals. Silver strappy sandals with four-inch heels.

My instincts screamed at me to run, which I wouldn’t be able to do once I put the shoes on. I looked down at the offending footwear. “You realize you’re asking me to risk my life with those?”

Allison smiled the wicked smile she always wears when she gets to dress me up. “You’ll be fine Xoe. You’re lucky you wear the same size shoe as me . . . enjoy it.”

She dropped the shoes into my waiting hands and walked away towards the bathroom, no doubt to observe and critique Lucy’s makeup. I looked down at the dress again. May as well get it over with.

I checked to make sure that the adjoining door to the boys room was locked and slipped out of my crimson dress. I still didn't see why I had to wear a whole new dress when I'd only worn the other one for a few hours. I struggled with the stringy non-straps of the new dress, being careful not to pull them too hard. When I finally got the thing pulled up and zipped, I went and did a quick twirl in front of the mirror above the room's generic desk.

The dress actually fit like a glove, and looked far less skanky than I thought it would. The neckline was cut high enough to balance out the revealing back. I instantly knew that Allison had brought it for me, with how tight it was on me, it never would have fit over her curves.

I humored myself with another twirl. The dress would work. The shoes on the other hand, I was still not sold on. I grudgingly put them on and walked around the room feeling like a newborn baby horse.

Allison exited the bathroom long enough to grab my hand and pull me back in with her. I clomped after her nearly spraining my ankle several times along the way.

The bathroom was rather spacious inside, especially compared to the size of the rest of the inn. Allison patted the gold-veined marble counter-top in-between the double sinks. With a grimace, I hopped up onto the counter to sit in front of her. I was pleased to find that I could at least sit in the dress comfortably.

Allison grabbed her makeup bag from the counter and observed my face like an artist looking at a blank canvas. I knew I'd have to go without concealer, since Allison, Lucy, and Lela are all darker than me. I wasn’t about to cry over it.

The first thing she grabbed out of her bag of tricks was eyeliner, and I cringed. Putting eyeliner on yourself is scary enough, having someone else shoving a stick towards your eyes is downright nerve-wracking. I fidgeted so much while she tried to do it that she finally had to have me sit with my back and the back of my head against the wall so I couldn't pull away from her. She finally smudged enough on to make her happy, then she tortured me with mascara as well.

When she finally finished, Allison instructed me to look it over in the mirror. I appreciated that she hadn’t gone overboard. The dark gray eyeliner was way more than I was used to, mainly since no makeup was what I was used to, but overall I could deal. The shoes still had to go.

A knock resounded at the adjoining door. I took my cue to escape the bathroom and ran (as much as one can run in four-inch heels) to unlock and open the door.

It was Jason, and he stopped dead in his tracks. He gave me the once-over while I waited patiently. The second once over elicited foot tapping on my part.

“Well?” I huffed.

“Woah,” was the only reply I got.

Max walked past Jason into the room, then stopped and turned to me. “Woooah,” he grinned, then turned to high-five Jason.

I walked back towards the bathroom. “That’s it, I’m changing.”

Allison met me at the door to the bathroom and forced me back out into the bedroom. “No way Xoe. Our deal includes me getting to dress you.”

I tried to push past her, but I couldn’t seem to get much traction in the heels. “Oh no, we never agreed on that.”

“It was totally implied!” she exclaimed.

Suddenly I was lifted up and carried back to the center of the bedroom. Jason set me down and turned me to face him. “You look lovely Xoe. We didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

I looked at Max with a raised eyebrow.

He grinned back at me. “I totally meant to embarrass you, but if you must know, you look fantastic. Tall, but fantastic.”

Chase finally came into the room to see what all of the commotion was. He spared me any comments. He simply smiled and did his best to not look me up and down. At least he was back to meeting my eyes again.

Allison came to stand in front of me with crossed arms. She tsk-ed under her breath. “Now what am I going to do with you hair?”

I shrugged. “Leave it?”

She held up a finger gesturing for me to wait where I was and disappeared into the bathroom. She re-emerged with hairspray, a brush, and a little cardboard tab of bobby pins. Crap.

When she finished, my hair was in a loose up-do, with little braids twisted in and strands of hair falling strategically around my face.

When I finally escaped her, I went to sit next to Max on the bed to wait on the rest of the girls to get ready. Chase and Jason stood leaning against the wall looking bored out of their minds. The three boys were all still wearing their clothes from earlier. Being a girl is
so
not fair.

“We should have a signal,” Max stated suddenly.

I turned and eyed him suspiciously. “Go on,” I prompted.

“We should have a signal,” he explained, “so we can alert each other whenever we need to be rescued from a dance, or a conversation. Some of the people here are a little intense.”

Chase chuckled.

“Okay, what happened?” I asked, searching for an explanation.

Max began to blush.

Chase grinned a little wider, baring his teeth. “Max has an . . . admirer.”

I laughed and turned back to Max. “Tell me. Is she hot?”

Max paled. “She's twelve.”

“What!” I shouted. Taken aback. “Is she a werewolf?”

“Apparently,” Max answered, “lycanthropy can be transmitted from a mother to her child. It makes sense I guess, since it's in the blood.”

I paled. “Holy crap, a baby werewolf?”

Max shook his head. “I asked about her. Children born with lycanthropy don't turn the first time until they're ten or so.”

“Uh,” I began. “A ten year old werewolf is still pretty bad.”

Max nodded. “Which is why she's mainly just been raised around her own kind. She's been pretty sheltered.”

I smiled again, I couldn't help it. “So a twelve year old, sheltered werewolf has a crush on you?”

Max sighed loudly in response.

The whole idea was too creepy for words. Not a little girl's crush, but the way the little girl had been forced to live.

I patted Max on the shoulder. “I'll do my best to save you from the little werewolf if you want, or you could just be nice and dance with her. She's probably pretty lonely without any friends her age.”

Max looked at me grumpily. “Can't you do it?”

I shook my head. “Sorry buddy, you have been chosen.”

Max put his head in his hand as the bathroom door finally opened and the girls pranced out. Allison was in a lacy white dress, cut high in the neck like mine, but also cut rather short at the leg. Her shapely legs looked about ten miles long, especially with the expensive looking, black stiletto ankle boots she was wearing. A thick black belt around her waist completed the look.

Lela was in basic black again, but whereas her dress from earlier had been simple, the one she was wearing now was bedecked with lace and sparkle. The entire top from armpits up was made of sheer lace. It looked uncomfortable as hell, and I was suddenly very glad for my dress. Lela's black heels weren't as high as mine or Allison's, but then again she didn't need any help making her legs look long anyhow.

Lucy was in crimson, and it made her olive skin stand out in stunning contrast. Her dress was simple, but fit her perfectly to accentuate her petite frame. Her shoes looked like the twin of Lela's.

I gestured towards the door. “Let’s go get this over with.”

We all left the room and made our way towards the stairs. Allison led the way like she owned the place, of course.

As soon as she was far enough ahead, Jason shuffled up beside me. “Why is Allison even coming?” he whispered.

“We made a deal,” I answered simply.

“But it’s probably not a good idea to let her meet werewolves that could potentially turn her,” he went on.

“Just like it probably wasn’t a good idea to keep me in the dark about Allison wanting someone to change her in the first place.”

“I thought I had talked her out of it,” he countered.

I shook my head. “If there’s one important thing to learn about Allison, it’s that you can never talk her out of anything.”

Chase walked up on my other side to join our conversation. “Sounds like somebody else I know.”

Jason chuckled. He looked my outfit up and down. “At least she can be talked
in
to stuff.”

Chase laughed in return. Oh man, they were banding together against me. Now I’d never get anything accomplished, and with the heels I couldn’t even run away.

Instead of running, I walked as fast as I could to catch up with the rest of our group. Chase and Jason fell behind, making wisecracks that I chose not to hear.

Max and Allison walked as far away from each other as possible without actually leaving the group. I joined arms with Lucy and walked a little farther ahead. I
so
didn’t need to deal with their drama on top of everything else. We exited the front door and continued walking. The dance was being held, wait for it . . . in the woods. Big surprise there.

“I can’t believe you actually want to go to this thing,” I mentioned to Lucy conversationally.

“Yeah, well it could be fun,” she answered, not meeting my eyes.

“Please, someone explain to me how this is supposed to be fun,” I said sarcastically.

“Dancing can be fun Xoe. It might be nice to dance with . . . people,” Lucy replied hesitantly.

Aha, the truth comes out. “And which people, pray tell, might be fun to dance with?” I prodded.

Lucy looked behind us to see how far back the others had fallen. We had a good bit of distance between us.

“Wait,” I began, then asked, “Max?”

Lucy sighed. “No, not Max.”

“Well I know it's not Jason,” I prompted.

Lucy looked down at the ground. “It's Chase,” she mumbled.

Wait, Lucy liked Chase? I definitely had not expected this. I mean, I shouldn’t care really, but I did. I hated that I did. I loved Jason. I knew for a fact that he loved me back. I shouldn’t give a damn who Chase dated. Damn . . . I totally cared.

I stumbled at her words, and in four-inch heels it was quite a stumble. Luckily since my arm was linked in Lucy’s, I managed not to fall. “So . . . you like Chase?” I asked, looking for verification.

Lucy gave me a sharp look. “Not so loud Xoe!” she hissed.

“Okay,” I soothed, “sorry. How long have you liked him?”