Luka, page 11
She extracts a cat ear headband from her pocket. “A little kitten. One of three.”
I laugh. The idea has Leela written all over it.
“You pull off the cowboy look pretty well.” She nods at my hat.
“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a real-live rodeo cowboy.”
She glances at her brother, slouching in the back of my car. “What changed?”
“I’m afraid of horses.” Before I can tell her the story, my dining room window lights up. I spot my mother, pretending not to spy. I reach past Tess and open her door.
Once I’m situated behind the wheel, I glance at Pete over my shoulder. “We haven’t officially met.” I start the car. “I’m Luka.”
Pete grunts.
“Adjusting to life in California?” I reverse out of the drive.
Pete shrugs.
“Classes okay?”
“Peachy,” he replies.
I can feel Tess’s tension mounting beside me.
Her brother’s attitude bothers her. Just like his tablemates at lunch bothered her.
“Do you know where Leela lives?” she asks.
“I have a general idea.” I meet her eye and give her a reassuring smile. I could care less about Pete or his animosity. “Want to punch in her address?”
She does so and the pre-programmed voice tells me to take a left hand turn out of Forest Grove. I follow the directions while Tess bounces her leg and her brother broods.
Eight minutes later, we idle in front of a ranch home with a small, tidy lawn. As soon as my headlights hit the house, Leela and her sister hurry outside. Leela stops so abruptly, Kiara runs into her. I get the impression Leela wasn’t expecting my car. When she recovers, she opens the door, her brown eyes bright and warm—a black triangle painted on her nose and whiskers on her cheeks. Judging by the blush rising up her neck, she wasn’t expecting Pete either.
Kiara dances. “Get in, Leels. I’m freezing!”
Leela hesitates for a brief moment, then climbs inside.
“Hi Pete.” Her greeting comes out like a squeak. She clears her throat. “Where’s your costume?”
He exaggerates a smile, showcasing a mouthful of glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth.
Kiara gives Leela a shove. “Be careful, Leela. He might bite you.” She leans across her sister’s lap. “Where are your ears, Tess?”
“And your whiskers,” Leela adds.
I reverse out of the driveway, thankful for the levity the McNeil sisters bring. “Yeah, Tess,” I say. “Where are your whiskers?”
21
The Halloween Party
Bobbi lives in a large house on the outskirts of town. Her parties are large and mostly legal thanks to the fact that her father is the police chief of Thornsdale. I park behind a long row of cars, leave my cowboy hat on the console, and step outside to the sound of laughter and music thumping through the night. Tess and I fall into step beside one another. I brush my knuckles against hers and a sizzling heat shoots up my arm.
She takes a shaky breath.
“You okay?” I ask.
She nods—too fast to be honest—as we step onto Bobbi’s front porch.
I tip my mouth toward her ear. “If things get claustrophobic, we can slip out and go for a walk.”
She nods again.
And the front door swings open. The full magnitude of the party escapes in a blast of noise. The Bride of Frankenstein stands in the doorway smiling at us—Bobbi in a white, floor-length gown, a black beehive wig with streaks of gray, and a choker with neck bolts. My mom would swoon.
“You came!” She flings her arms around my neck, then proceeds to hug Leela, Kiara, and Tess. When she’s finished, she points at Pete. “You’re Tess’s little brother.”
Little doesn’t fit. Pete is skinny, sure. But tall. A couple inches taller than me, in fact, and I’m six foot.
“I’m so glad you’re here!” Bobbi’s enthusiasm reaches just shy of jazz hands.
Pete’s demeanor hardly matches. With a dismissive nod, he slinks around her into the party. Other than witches and angels and superheroes dancing in a mob, I see nothing abnormal.
“Make yourself at home,” Bobbi shouts above the noise. “Keg’s over there—but I’ll warn you now, it’s just Root Beer.” She flashes Tess a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Tess. My dad’s the chief of police in Thornsdale. He would have me shipped off to boarding school if I threw a party with any type of illegal shenanigans. Both of my parents are upstairs.” She points toward the kitchen. “Food’s in there. Fire pit’s in the back yard, where it’s not so loud. People are actually bobbing for apples on the deck. Not my idea.”
The bell rings behind us.
“You guys have fun!” Bobbi returns to the door.
I glance at Tess. “You hungry?”
She nods for the third time. And I throw reservation to the wind. If we’re pretending, we might as well pretend all the way. I take her hand, warmth pulsing in my palm as I lace her fingers with mine.
A group of linemen exit the kitchen as we enter. A few slap me on the back as we pass. Party food fills an entire counter—licorice, candy corn, chips, M&M’s. A large, opened cooler filled with ice and a variety of sodas.
“I’m gonna go find my friends.” Kiara grabs a handful of M&M’s and pops a few into her mouth before leaving.
Leela turns to Tess, her attention dipping briefly but not-so-covertly to our joined hands. “You have to wear your cat ears.”
When Tess makes no move to humor her costume counterpart, I use my free hand to extricate the headband she’s hiding in her pocket. “I agree.”
“I’d rather be Goth girl,” she protests.
I fit the ears on her head. “You make a very cute cat.”
Our eyes meet and hold.
Her lips part, followed by the smallest catch of her breath. A sound that induces a shock of potent desire.
“Aw.” The nasally croon scratches like nails on a chalkboard. “Are we interrupting a romantic moment?”
Summer stands in the doorway of Bobbi’s kitchen, wearing a revealing red dress and devil horns. Her cheeks are flushed, making me suspect there’s more than root beer in the plastic cup she holds in her hand.
“How cute. Two little kittens.” Summer sneers, her eyes glinting as they rove over Leela. “Well, one’s little anyway.”
It’s a mean comment.
One that raises my hackles.
“And you’re the devil,” Tess says beside me before I have a chance to respond. “How fitting.”
She delivers the line with such dry dispassion, I have to cough to cover my laugh.
Summer’s eyes flash.
Jared stumbles into the kitchen, his face more flushed than Summer’s. She cracks open two Dr. Peppers and pours the soda into three cups, one of which she plucked from a stack by the bowl of M&Ms. The drink fizzes as she reaches behind the inebriated linebacker and removes a flask from his back pocket. She jiggles it in the air with a sensuous grin, then holds her finger to her lips. “We brought the party,” she whispers, mixing in a generous amount with the Dr. Pepper before offering the unclaimed cup to me.
I prop my hand on the counter and lean back. “I’m good.”
Summer offers the drink to Tess.
She shakes her head.
“More for us then.” Summer taps her cup against Jared’s, then takes a long drink, not bothering to offer Leela any at all. When she finishes, she smacks her lips. “Looks like Jennalee’s having fun with your brother on that couch over there.”
Tess glances toward the living room, where Pete lounges with one arm extended long across the couch’s backrest. Jennalee—dressed like a slutty nurse—faces him with her legs tucked close to her body, her knees resting against the cushion, a red cup in hand as the two talk intimately.
“All sorts of unlikely people are getting together these days.” Summer shrugs, then saunters away while Jared follows like a lapdog.
I expel a breath. “That was pleasant.”
Tess doesn’t respond. She’s too busy glaring from Pete to Jennalee, who gets up and makes her way to a group of girls on the other side of the dancing mob. Then—with no warning at all—Tess marches out of the kitchen and pushes her way through the crowd. By the time I reach her, she’s squared off with her brother, exchanging words I can’t hear thanks to the loud music. As soon as Pete sees me, he stands with an eye roll and skulks away.
Tess remains for a moment—unmoving—then spins around and runs right into me.
I reach out to steady her. “What was that about?”
“I’m not sure.” She pushes a shaky hand through her hair and looks again at Jennalee, who’s talking with the same group of girls, her eyes glowing in that way Wren’s did in the cafeteria. Whatever her brother is saying to people, Tess isn’t happy about it.
I step into her line of vision. “How about we get some air.”
She looks past me. To her friend. “Wanna come?”
Leela’s lip trembles like she’s trying hard not to cry. If I had to guess, it’s from Summer’s cruel insinuation. “I don’t want to be a third wheel.”
“Leela,” Tess says, her voice kind. Sincere. “You aren’t a third wheel.”
“I should probably go check on Kiara, anyway.” Leela smiles a wobbly smile, then turns around and hurries away.
Tess watches her go.
I take her hand again and lead the way to the back door. Outside, the air is fresh. Cool. The throbbing music, muted. A couple of our classmates dunk their faces into a tub of water and apples, squealing with laughter as they do. Several others stand around a fire pit, roasting marshmallows and hotdogs.
We walk past them, our breaths escaping in white puffs as we make our way to the woods behind Bobbi’s home. Once we’re alone, I force myself to let go of Tess’s hand.
“There are some pretty cool paths through here.” I step beneath the cover of trees, the limbs overhead breaking apart the moonlight.
Tess steps with me.
“Care to share what you’re thinking?” I study one half of her face. “I can never tell.”
“I feel bad for Leela,” she says.
“Why’s that?”
“Because she’s in love with my brother and he’s being a total jerk.”
The revelation isn’t a surprising one. I guessed as much when Leela’s face turned tomato red upon seeing Pete in the back of my car. I’m just not convinced this is the whole of Tess’s thinking. Or the whole of why she’s upset with her brother. “And?”
“And what?”
“What else are you thinking?”
“I really don’t like Jennalee.”
I laugh. “That’s refreshing.”
“What is?”
“You. Your honesty.”
“I don’t like Summer either.”
My smile grows as we hike deeper into the woods. “A lot of girls pretend to like them.”
Leaves crunch beneath our feet. I move a rotted branch off the path with my shoe. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Why did your brother want to come tonight?”
“He didn’t.”
“So why did he?”
“It was between this or sitting in the living room with my mom and dad.”
“Why’s that?”
“I told my parents he was hanging out with Wren and Jess. I may have implied that he’s doing drugs.” Tess steps over a jutting root. “All he does is lock himself in his room. He never used to be that way.”
She eluded to the same thing in one of our very first conversations. Her brother Pete isn’t a loner, even if he fits the description to a tee here in Thornsdale. “What did he used to be like?”
“Reluctantly popular.” She casts me a sideways look. “Kinda like you.”
My smile returns. It’s an apt description. “What changed?”
“I don’t know. He sort of had a girlfriend in Jude. He blames me for moving.”
“Right. You said that before. The first time we talked, but you covered it up.”
“It was my fault. I went to a party with him. They got out a Ouija board.”
I raise my eyebrows. The manufacturing of Ouija boards stopped a long time ago. Along with every other item that was thought to encourage belief in the supernatural. Like the hemp bracelet around my wrist. “What happened?”
“We did a séance and I freaked out. I guess. I don’t remember that part. I just remember waking up in the hospital.”
My stomach sinks.
Tess had an episode that landed her in the hospital. Which means she would’ve been entered into the system. Flagged. Assessed by a federal psychiatrist.
Overhead, the tree boughs groan with the wind.
Tess shivers, then stops abruptly. “What do you know about Wren and Jess?”
“Not much.”
“Has Wren ever gone to the Edward Brooks Facility?”
I shoot her a crooked smile. “Contrary to what you might believe, I don’t make a habit of snooping into other people’s files.”
“Oh.” She crosses her arms and scuffs her shoe against the dirt. “Just mine, then?”
“Just yours.”
There’s a boulder to the left of the path. I lean against it.
“So tell me about your dream last night,” she says, continuing her shoe scuffing. “What happened on your end?”
“I fell asleep and woke up on the beach. I looked around for you, but you weren’t there, so I sat down and waited for a really long time before you showed up.”
“And then I disappeared?”
I nod.
She crosses her arms tighter. “I wish I knew how it worked.”
“So do I.”
“How about the dreams you had before?”
“Before I met you?”
“Yeah. How do you think those worked?”
“I wish I knew that too,” I say.
“Are you sure it was me?” A small divot creases her brow as her arms fall to her sides. “I’m sure there are plenty of girls out there with dark hair and blue eyes and freckles.”
“It was you, Tess.” My attention drops to her hands. It’s cold. We’re alone. And Tess looks impossibly lost. Like she did in the cafeteria. Like she isn’t sure what to believe. I take her hand and gently pull her toward me until she’s standing between my splayed legs. I’m taller than her by several inches, but leaning against this rock, we are eye to eye. “Exact same nose. Exact same eyes. Same chin.” My attention moves from the smooth skin of her neck to the scar along her jaw line. I trace it softly, fire catching in my thumb. “Even the same scars.”
She stands so still, I can’t tell if she’s breathing.
“I don’t understand how it worked. All I know is that when you showed up in Current Events that first day, it was like … this huge sense of relief.”
“Relief?”
“It seemed crazy to be consumed with thoughts about somebody who wasn’t real.”
Tess swallows. “Do you think there’s anybody else like us?”
“Like us, as in people who see the things we see?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe.”
The divot in her brow deepens.
I give her pinkie a gentle shake, drawing her attention back up to mine. “It’s going to be okay.”
She looks doubtful. But then her expression shifts, morphing into a determination I’ve seen before in my dreams. “We need to find my grandma. The dream I had about her last night? Finding out she’s alive? That she tried to kidnap me? I –I need to find her. She might have answers. She might not even be crazy.”
“I’ll help you,” I say. “We’ll find her.”
“How?”
“Could you ask your parents?”
“They’d only get suspicious.”
“What about Dr. Roth?”
“I wouldn’t know how to go about asking. What if he wants to know how I know?”
A worthy question. One that needs to be considered. I rub my bottom lip, considering it. I trust Dr. Roth to keep Tess’s secrets. My father wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t committed to patient confidentiality. Even so, I’m not sure she should tell him about her dreams. “We can figure out what to tell him.”
A twig snaps in the dark.
Quicker than a heartbeat, I’m on my feet, pulling Tess behind me.
A squirrel hops across the path.
I exhale. “I guess I’m a little jumpy.”
Tess looks at our laced fingers. “You’re good at this.”
“What?”
“This.” She lifts our hands. “You make it look pretty believable.”
“I’m not that good of an actor.” My attention slides to the hollow of her clavicle, where her pulse thrums. I imagine pressing my lips against the spot and ache with the desire to do it. “I’m very drawn to you, Tess.”
My words scare her.
I don’t want them to, but I see the fear in her eyes. She looks like the caged bird again. She looks like she wants to fly away. I brush a strand of hair from her cheek and quirk one corner of my mouth into a teasing grin. “You don’t have to look so frightened.”
Loud, bumbling footsteps come crashing up the path.
I stand and pull her behind me all over again.
This time, it’s not a squirrel.
This time, Summer and Jared stagger into view, holding each other upright like they might fall if they don’t. A snarl builds in my chest. Even out here—alone in the woods—we’re interrupted.
Summer jerks to a stop. She throws up her hands like Bobbi’s dad just yelled at her to freeze. “I am so sorry. We keep interrupting your romantic moments.”
My teeth grind as Summer looks from Tess to me, wagging her finger between us. “I don’t get this.”
Jared hiccups. Then cups his mouth and giggles.
“Jennalee ’n Pete? I get that. Yer brother’s hot. Loner and broody sorta adds to the whole appeal. Plus, he’s full of interesting information.”
The back of my neck prickles. Interesting information? What is Summer talking about—Tess’s breakdown in Jude? Surely Pete isn’t so angry about their move that he would throw his own sister so far under the bus?
Summer takes a few belligerent steps toward us. “I don’t know if your boyfriend here knows about it.”
