The Zeuorian Awakening (16 page)

Lexi ran to the school entrance, pushing her way through the crowd of students as the wind whipped her hair violently in the air. She didn’t bother to check whether Tyler followed her. She focused on trying to beat him to class where he couldn’t touch her.

She ran inside the school toward her first-period classroom and saw Angie standing next to the door talking to Robert. Lexi raised her hand to get Angie’s attention, when Tyler gripped her waist.

Her stomach twisted in a knot and thunder rumbled above the building. “I already told you I don’t want to see you anymore.”

“Yeah. I heard you.” Tyler leaned in close to her ear. His warm breath blew on the side of her neck. “But I’m not going to let you break up with me. I know you have feelings for me, especially after what we almost did on Saturday.”

“Tyler—”

“Come on let’s sit down,” he said, pulling her inside the class and over to a couple of seats next to each other.

Lexi plopped down onto the hard plastic seat and stared out the window. It shook from the wind beating against the glass. Dillon wasn’t exaggerating about Tyler being determined to be with her, no matter what she wanted.

Now she had to figure another way to question Everett. Actually, she had an idea and turned her back to Tyler. Then she pulled out her cell phone and sent Everett a text message. “I need your help to get rid of Tyler.”

A minute later, her cell phone buzzed and the photo of the boy and her appeared on the screen, her contact photo for Everett. “I’m on it,” he text.

Then she heard Mrs. Miller call out, “Mr. Moore, can I speak to you for a minute about your last paper.”

Lexi watched Tyler walk toward the large wood desk where Mrs. Miller sat behind. She wondered if Everett arranged for the impromptu meeting.

Just as Tyler bent over to speak to Mrs. Miller, Everett slipped into the seat next to her. She lowered her head, letting her hair mask the smile dancing on her lips. Everett did have Tyler pulled away so he could sit next to her.

“Is that a picture of you?” Everett leaned over his desk to get a closer view of the screen on her phone. “You were cute, but I think you look better now.” He winked at her. “So what are you doing after school ’cause I wanted to see if you were up for a movie?”

Tyler stood in front of Everett’s desk. “You’re in my seat,” he said with a commanding tone.

Everett didn’t look at him and continued to speak to Lexi. “Anyway, the movie theater downtown is playing The Shining. You and Angie can meet Robert and me there. I’ll buy the popcorn.”

“She’s not going anywhere with you, loser.” Tyler placed his hand on the desk. “She’s with me. Now get out of my seat so I can sit next to my girlfriend.”

“You think she’s your girlfriend?” Everett laughed at Tyler. “That’s not what she told me Saturday night. She made it clear she didn’t want anything to do with a jerk like you.”

The casual tone in Tyler’s voice disappeared to something hard and dangerous. “I guess she hasn’t told you—we got back together. Now move before I cram my fist in your face and throw your limp body out of the class.”

“Tyler,” Mrs. Miller shouted. “Leave Everett alone and find another seat.”

Everett leaned back in the chair with a smug grin and crossed his arms behind his neck. “You’d better do what the teacher says or you’ll be stuck spending the next hour sitting in the principal’s office while I spend it with Lexi.”

Tyler shot Everett a dirty look as he clenched his fist. Lexi could hear his every thought from wanting to knock the smug grin off Everett’s face to sending the football team after him. None of those thoughts concerned her since she didn’t believe he would act on them, except for his last thought.

Before she could move, Tyler swooped down and kissed her. He moaned and made a big show of it. She pressed her hand against his chest, but he deepened his kiss and moaned louder.

When Tyler finally pulled away from her, he winked at Everett and said to her, “Wait for me after class, my love. I’m taking you back to my house so we can be alone to finish what we started here.”

“
My love
. Get real.” Everett wrinkled his nose. “What is he, from the eighteenth century?”

“Ignore him.” Lexi turned her back toward Tyler. “I’m sure he was just trying to piss you off by calling me his love.”

She certainly hoped Tyler didn’t love her. But he’d told her he loved her the night of the party, too and said he’d wanted her since they first met. Perhaps he did love her, but that wouldn’t make her reconsider dating him.

“I gather you didn’t tell him it was over yet?” Everett asked.

Lexi slumped in her chair. “I did.”

Everett jerked around and glared at Tyler sitting at the end of the row, squeezing the plastic seat as his fingers turned red. “I’m going to kick his butt. No one should kiss you unless you want them to.”

“I doubt that’ll work,” she said with a deflated tone to her voice. “He’s determined to be with me.”

“I bet if you told him to get lost and you’re only interested in me, he’d back down.”

Lexi sat up straight and jerked her body toward Everett. The only way he would’ve known she liked him, if he had heard her thoughts the other night?

No matter what Angie thought, she was sure Everett had to be her Watcher. But she was sure Tyler had been her Watcher too. She better question Everett before confronting him.

She double checked her thoughts were blocked before asking Everett in a casual tone, “So you think I’m interested in you?”

“Nope, but I hope so, since I’m interested in you.” Everett leaned back in his chair with a playful smile on his face. “Now are you going to tell me why you’re carrying a photo of a boy with you?”

Her throat dried up. She hadn’t been prepared for him to declare his feelings for her and ask about the boy in the photo at the same time. She wanted a chance to question him before bringing up the photo. But she had to tell him something.

She picked up her notebook and flipped through the pages. “He’s nobody. Someone I knew a long time ago and Angie sent the photo to me as joke.”

“A joke?” He cocked one eyebrow. “So you’re embarrassed of him. Is it his ridiculous bleached hair?”

“No,” she blurted too quickly to pass as indifferent. She didn’t mean to get touchy over Everett referring to the boy as some kind of loser. The suggestion that the boy had been anything other than special upset her for some reason, but she couldn’t tell Everett that without raising suspicion. She settled on saying, “I just said that since I don’t want to talk about him. It brings up too many bad memories.”

“I see.” Everett leaned back in his chair. “You remind me of a girl I dated a few summers ago. I fell hard for her, but,” he sucked in a deep breath, “it ended and she’s long since forgotten me. I don’t like to talk about her either since it breaks my heart thinking about how I lost her.”

A girl he dated forgotten him, just like what had happened with her and the boy in the photo. Did Everett just admit he was her Watcher?

Lexi traced her finger on the desk, thinking up what to say next. “I don’t believe even for a second she forgot you. You can’t forget someone you once cared about even if you forgot everything else that had happened while you knew them.”

“It sounds like your speaking from experience?”

Perfect. He answered exactly how she hoped he would. But she didn’t want to seem eager to discuss the subject. She glanced away and pretended to act embarrassed. “What should I do about Tyler?”

Everett chuckled. “You’re not getting off that easily,” he said. “I told you my secret. It’s your turn to tell me yours.”

“Okay.” She let out a long sigh, pretending she didn’t want to discuss the subject. “There isn’t a lot to tell since I can’t remember hardly anything about the summer I spent with him. I just remember he existed.”

Everett shook his head. “You’re just trying to get out of telling me you’re secret. You must remember something more than he existed. The sound of his voice. The scent of his aftershave. Something.”

He seemed to be trying to help her remember him. She should play along. She thought for a minute trying to recall a memory about him. One came to her. “I do remember one time kissing him and he tasted of Mountain Dew. He drank it all the time.”

“I can see why. I can’t seem to get enough of it either.” He grinned at her. “So is there anything else you remember about him?”

“Actually, I do.”

It seemed since she remembered her parent’s death, her memories were slowly coming back to her. Maybe she’d get them all back soon. She could only hope.

“So,” he encouraged her to continue.

“Whenever he would climb out of the water, his swim trunks would slip down below his hip and reveal this tiny mole on his lower back.”

“Interesting memory to recall.” His left eye brow lifted up. “I gather you must’ve spent a lot of time checking out his butt for you to remember his mole.”

“What? No. I mean I don’t think so,” she said as blood rushed to her face. “Anyway, who are you to judge? You spent the entire summer staring at my boobs, especially when I wore my white bikini—”

She covered her mouth with her hand. It just came to her a vision of the boy trying to avoid her noticing him staring at her chest. She couldn’t see his face, but somehow she knew he had to be Everett.

He was her Watcher.

“Uh-hum.” Mrs. Miller cleared her throat. “If you two have finished talking,” she said to Everett and Lexi, “I would like to get back to Hemingway.”

“We’re done,” Everett said, before mouthing to Lexi, “We’ll talk later.”

“You better,” she said with a low voice. ‘Cause the next time they talk, she won’t be playing games. She planned to confront him being her Watcher. She just hoped Tyler won’t get in her way.

Class after class, Tyler attempted to approach Lexi, waiting outside her classroom or sitting close by and making it virtually impossible to confront Everett about being her Watcher.

She opened her driver-side door and Tyler slammed it shut. “I’m not going to let you go until you talk to me,” he said in a deep, seductive voice from behind her.

The last thing she needed was to talk to him. The weather had already changed again, but she had no choice in the matter. Better to get it over with. She turned and faced him.

Tyler cupped the back of her neck and drew her closer to him. “You’re making a big mistake ending it with me. We’re perfect together and, well, I’m in love with you. If you gave me a chance, I’m sure you would fall in love with me too.”

She was getting annoyed how he kept throwing around he loved her when he couldn’t. “You barely know me.”

“I know you better than you realize.”

He stroked her cheek as a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky and struck a light pole. The glass cover on the light exploded and rained down onto the cars below. Both Tyler and her watched in awe as a loud thunder clapped right above them and set off several car alarms.

She opened her car door, eager to leave before she made the weather get worse. “I’m sorry Tyler, but I can’t be with you. I’m dealing with some serious drama at home and need time alone.” She lied.

“Hold on a second.” Tyler blocked her from getting into her car. “The last thing you need to be is alone after what you tried this weekend.” He stroked the bandage on her arm. “You need me. I can help you.”

She yanked her arm away. How could he know she cut her wrist unless he was the boy from Colorado, her Watcher? No, he couldn’t be. Everett had to be him. “How did you know about that?”

“It doesn’t matter how I know. It only matters that I do and won’t ever let anyone harm you. All I care about is keeping you safe.”

He only cared about keeping her safe, just like her Watcher. “Are you him?” she blurted. “Are you the one who’s been watching after me?”

Tyler blinked a couple of times. “Yes. I’ve been watching you since the day my father moved to Brookings. I didn’t mention this before, but we moved here because my father promised your parents he would keep an eye on you. He even convinced the principal to enroll you as a sophomore instead of a freshman so I could watch you at school.”

“W-why did your fa-father want you to watch me?” she stuttered.

“Cause you’re special. No one on this planet is like you and you need someone more than ever to keep you safe.”

Special? What did he mean by special? Special as in special abilities? She opened her mouth to probe him further but Everett stood beside them.

“There you are Lexi,” Everett said. “I thought you wanted to continue the conversation we had earlier and avoid you know.“ He raised his eyebrows and motioned for her to leave.

“Hold on a second.” She pulled Tyler out of Everett’s earshot. “What exactly did your father tell you about me?”

“Nothing much,” he said in a low voice. “Only you were special and needed to be protected.”

That little bit of information didn’t tell her a lot. He could be saying she was special because her parents were murdered and might have trouble coping with it. She needed something more concrete to prove Tyler was the boy.

Her Watcher could read her mind—could Tyler read her mind? She thought to herself, “If you’re the boy from Colorado, kiss me.”

“Lexi, let’s go.” Everett motioned for her to leave again.

She kept her mouth shut and waited for Tyler to kiss her, an opportunity he wouldn’t pass up if he had heard her thoughts. Judging by the confused look on his face, he obviously hadn’t heard a single word that crossed her mind.

She took a step back. “I should go.”

Tyler grabbed her wrist. “I don’t want you going anywhere alone with him.” He flicked his hand at Everett. “He’s your Stalker.”

Lexi looked at Everett with her mouth wide open. She never would’ve expected to hear that about him. He didn’t seem to be the obsessed-stalker type, just someone keeping tabs on her like her Watcher.

“I think you’re mixing up the rumor,” Everett said. “You’re the one who’s been stalking her. Not me.”

“How do either of you know the other is stalking me?” Lexi demanded.