Seconds Before Sunrise (The Timely Death Trilogy), page 18
With that, he was gone, disappearing down the hallway and into the office. When I turned back to Eric, he was staring at me. “Come to yell at me again?” he asked, shoving books into his locker. “Because I was hoping for that.”
“It isn’t like that—”
“Then, what is it like?” He was tenser than usual. “I come back from fighting one guy only to find another waiting for me.” His knuckles were white.
“Zac wasn’t waiting for you,” I explained quickly. “I was.”
My words affected him. His shoulders dropped, and he exhaled sharply. “I already told you what I know.”
“I know you’re lying, but I don’t care,” I said, but my voice was shaking. I thought the apology over all night, but it was hard to say it aloud. “I know you wouldn’t hurt me, and I’m sorry.” It was all I could manage.
Eric held his locker like it was the only thing holding him up. He glanced away, and the side of his jaw popped. He wasn’t going to speak. I was rejected again.
I sucked in a breath. I had done everything I could to rebuild what I destroyed, and all that was left to do was walk away. I went straight to my locker, trying to suppress my rapidly beating heart. Only Eric could affect me that way, and I had to ignore it if I were going to function for the remainder of the day.
I put my books away and grabbed my drawing pencils for art class. At least I could distract myself by talking to Jonathon. I wouldn’t be completely alone.
“You aren’t alone.”
I nearly fell over from Eric’s voice. He was right next to me. “Wha—what?”
He was smiling. “You were talking out loud.”
Heat shot up my spine and crawled across my neck. “I was not.”
He ignored me. “If you didn’t want to be alone, you could’ve asked me to walk you to class.” He had returned to his usual, smirking self, and I couldn’t even bring myself to be irritated.
“Then, walk with me,” I said, surprised by myself as I stomped away.
He did exactly what I told him. He bounded up to my side and walked next to me. It took every inch of my confidence to glance over, but he was focused on the hallway, his eyes darting from person to person.
“Are you looking for someone?” I asked.
His face turned so quickly that I was surprised he didn’t get whiplash. “Why would you ask that?” His voice was rushed, almost breathless.
“You were glancing around.”
“I always do,” he said, shifting his backpack higher onto his shoulders. He was definitely stressed, and I wanted more than anything to help him.
“Would you mind if I come over after class?” I asked, hoping to talk to him about whatever was on his mind, but he shook his head as we stopped outside of my classroom.
“I meant it when I said you can’t come over anymore.” His tone was sharp. “Family stuff.”
“Oh.”
He laid a hand on top of my head. “Don’t worry that curly head of yours.” His fingertips brushed across my scalp. “Everything’s good between us.”
I could barely breathe. “That’s good.”
He removed his hand only to grab my shoulders. “Now, go to class,” he said, spinning me around to face the door. “I’m sure Jonathon is waiting for you.” I could feel his words on my neck. “I’ll see you later.”
His warmth dissipated before I turned around. “But—” He was already walking away, waving over his shoulder like he always expected me to face him again.
Eric
She was impossible to ignore, so I left school early, hoping to at least avoid her. Teresa – or Camille – joined me as soon as I asked.
“She wasn’t talking out loud,” I explained to my guard as we strolled down the only shopping street in Hayworth. “I heard her thoughts.”
Teresa’s lip pulled up in a grimace. “But that’s impossible.”
“It should be,” I agreed. “She doesn’t have any powers.”
“Well, obviously she does,” Teresa commented, tightening her maroon coat. The color stuck out in the plain, winter clothes everyone seemed to be wearing.
“She doesn’t seem to be aware of it,” I added, noting how easy it was to convince her that she was talking out loud. She trusted me, even though she had hated me the day before.
Teresa exhaled, and I half-expected to see her breath fog out in front of her. “She needs to know, Eric,” she said. “You need to tell her.”
“You sound like my father.”
“Bracke told me what she said to you,” she said, and I wished I hadn’t brought Jessica up.
“She meant it, even if it were just for a second,” I mumbled.
“And when she gets her memories back, that meaning will disappear,” she argued. “The elders know about the list with your name on it. I’m sure Luthicer would take the block down if you talk to him.”
Luthicer’s scars took over my vision. “I don’t think we have time for another meeting.”
“And we don’t have time for your hesitation.”
We only had a week before my birthday.
The house was already decorated, and the intensity in the air had increased. I had begged my father to take Mindy and Noah away, but he wouldn’t. Not when it could expose us more. No matter what we did, every decision felt like the wrong one.
“Her power block would disappear if she got her memories back,” Teresa suggested.
“I can’t return them on my own.” Only Luthicer could.
Teresa shook her head, and her black hair whipped around. “You can get through to her,” she said. “If she’d listen to anyone, it’s you.”
I cringed. “I don’t know how she’d take all of this at once, especially without proof.”
“So, transform in front of her.”
“And give her a heart attack?” I couldn’t imagine her reaction. “No, thank you.”
“At most, she’d faint.”
“I don’t want that to happen either,” I said.
My guard walked by my side as if we hadn’t contemplated taking the Dark’s fate into our own hands.
Teresa’s sigh ended our debate. “Did anything else happen at school?” she asked, but I knew the real question. She wanted to know if I thought the Light was getting closer.
“No,” I confessed. “The only people I saw were Jessica and—Zac.” I couldn’t say his name without my voice shaking. “I don’t like him.”
Teresa rolled her eyes. “Because of jealousy.”
She was right. “I still don’t like him.” And I didn’t like how he talked to me.
“Do you think—” Teresa didn’t have to say it.
“He can’t be Darthon.” I sounded more confident than I felt. “He’s all talk, no action. It doesn’t fit his profile.”
Teresa’s head bobbed up and down, but breath escaped her as a hiss. “Personalities can change just as much as the physical transformation.”
She was right again. She was almost incapable of being wrong. “When did you get so smart?” I joked.
She pushed me with her arm. “You forget how much I’ve been by your side through this entire mess,” she said. But I couldn’t forget. I never would. She had witnessed enough that she might as well have been the first descendant. Her life was sacrificed for mine, and mine didn’t even belong to me.
As we neared the coffee shop at the end of the street, a question consumed me. “What do you think you’ll do when this is all over?”
Her expression was the same one she had when she accepted her guard position. “I’d like to be a therapist,” she said, and I realized I didn’t know as much about her personal life as she knew about mine. “But I’d come back to Hayworth after school.”
The last part astounded me. “Why would you want that?”
Her right shoulder lifted in a half-shrug. “I know,” she began. “It’s not like my family is around. The Dark raised me. I don’t even know where my parents are,” she said. “But the Dark is my family. I couldn’t leave them.”
I didn’t think I could either, but I didn’t have the choice like she did.
“Do you know what you’re going to do?” she asked.
I shook my head. “The war is only a beginning,” I repeated the words the elders had convinced me of. “The Dark will have to adjust to whatever happens afterward.”
“They could do that without you.”
“I don’t think I want them to,” I confessed, knowing I wanted to stay, even if I fantasized of leaving.
Teresa didn’t say anything after that. She grabbed the door of the coffee shop, and it sprang open before she could pull it. Two girls walked out giggling, only stopping when they met our eyes.
“Jessica,” I stumbled over her name before I added a hello.
“Eric.” Her cheeks were rosy. “Hey, Teresa.”
“You remembered,” Teresa chirped, tilting her head. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought they were acquaintances running into each other on the street. As far as Jessica knew, she had only met Teresa once.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. I left class to avoid her, not to meet her in public. “School is still in.”
Jessica fumbled with her purse, but Crystal was the one to respond, “We skipped,” she spoke like she deserved an award − which she did. I couldn’t fathom how she always got away with it as much as I did. I doubted she was friends with Luthicer.
“Are you taking the day off, too?” Jessica asked, but her voice was quiet.
“Yeah.”
“I’m going inside,” Teresa said, pretending to shiver, but her eyes were locked with Crystal.
Jessica’s friend straightened up. “We’re leaving anyway,” she said, dragging Jessica behind her. “See you later,” she called over her shoulder, and Jessica turned around, her blue eyes as gray as the winter sky. She waved before she turned her back to me and walked down the street with her friend.
When they were out of earshot, Teresa grabbed my arm. “You two really can’t stay away from each other, can you?”
I shrugged her off. “It’s a coincidence.”
“Don’t tell me you actually believe that.”
“I’m currently convincing myself of it right now,” I said.
“It’s fate, Eric,” she said it like destiny was a factual concept. “She’s going to be a part of this war, whether you like it or not.”
I didn’t like where our conversation was going. “I’d like to have a coffee before I hear another lecture,” I said, pushing past her, but her words followed me in.
She needs to be able to defend herself, Teresa argued in our minds. You need to tell her—
Fine, I surrendered to my guard and to myself. I’ll tell her.
Jessica
Crystal clutched her steering wheel as she drove us through the outskirts of Hayworth. Her bangs hung above her eyes, and she chewed on her lip ring like it was candy. Driving around town was her new habit, and I was her accomplice.
“Are you stressed out or something?” I asked, wondering if she would continue it for the entirety of winter break.
“What? No.” Crystal’s tone answered yes. “Why would you ask that?”
“You haven’t said anything in a while,” I said, wondering how long we had been in the car. It felt like hours.
“So?”
She always had something to talk about, even if it was just petty rumors. “It’s unlike you,” I stated the obvious, hoping she would confess. But she didn’t.
“How are Eric and you doing?” she asked, changing the subject.
My back sunk into the passenger seat of her Sedan. “I talked to him about prom.”
Crystal’s eyes widened. “Is that why it was so awkward running into him?”
I shuddered at the reminder of the coffee shop incident. “He didn’t know anything,” I said.
“I swear you left to see him.”
“So, I didn’t leave with him?”
“No,” she clarified. “But you danced with him, and you seemed pretty upset when he walked out. I just assumed.” She tilted her head. “My hunches are normally right.”
I couldn’t tell her I believed in her hunch. It was mine, too, but he hadn’t talked to me all week. I had endured four days of an awkward silence between us in class. Even though he said we were good, I knew we weren’t. “I don’t think he likes me.”
Crystal groaned and leaned into her steering wheel. “My eyes will be stuck in a permanent roll if you keep talking about him like that.”
I giggled, but Crystal turned to me long enough to glare at me.
“The guy practically revolves around you.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. “We sit together in class.”
“And he got into a fight over you,” she argued. “No one does that for fun, not even Welborn.”
I cringed, thinking of how defensive he was around me, especially with Robb and Zac. I had assumed he was always defensive, but now I wished I could see him when I wasn’t around.
“I don’t think I could ask him,” I managed, unable to tell her the truth − he rejected me, told me to stop coming to his house, and then contradicted himself by walking me to class.
“Well, how do you feel about him?” she asked, and I stared at her, unable to speak. She started giggling. “I guess I don’t have to ask that.”
“Is it that obvious?” I squeaked, unable to deny my growing emotions. When it started, I didn’t know. “I feel like I’ve known him a long time.”
“It’s almost been a year since you moved here,” she said. “In a way, you have known him a long time.”
“I guess I never thought of it that way.” I thought about Eric’s history − the one filled with death. It was no wonder why he rarely smiled. “I just don’t think he has an interest in dating me.”
“That’s not what Zac said.”
Her words made my fingers curl into fists. “What?”
“Zac,” she repeated. “When I talked to him, he said you were waiting for Eric at his locker. He also said Eric wasn’t very happy to see him.”
So, Zac hadn’t been lying – they were talking.
“Zac shouldn’t have gotten in the middle of it,” I ranted. “He should’ve turned in his paperwork and left.”
“Paperwork?” Crystal straightened. “He turned that in a long time ago.”
“Then, why was he at our school?”
“Hell, if I know,” she said. “He didn’t say anything to me.”
Maybe Eric wasn’t wrong to think Zac came to get revenge for Robb. “You don’t think—”
My best friend knew me well enough to guess what I was thinking. “He could’ve been,” she said. “Zac’s really protective of Robb and Linda. In fact, those three are inseparable,” she said it like she was never a part of their clique.
“What about you?”
Her eyes darted around the street. “They’ve known each other since birth,” she said. “I came in later. It’s not something I can fix.”
I stared at my friend, realizing she was more like me than I thought. She didn’t have many friends because of her gossip column. What students didn’t know was how loyal Crystal was. Classmates would have had less of a chance of appearing in the newspaper if they talked to her like a normal human being.
“I’m sorry, Crystal,” I said. “If I hadn’t gotten involved, you wouldn’t have to pick a side.”
“Sides aren’t something that are picked, Jess,” she said. “They happen because of our morals, and I was brought up better than they were. Obviously.”
I couldn’t help but think about her poor relationship with her mother, and Crystal looked at me like she was expecting my reaction.
“I know I complain about Lola,” she said. “But I really respect how she raised me singlehandedly.”
“Then, why act like you don’t?”
She was stifling her laughter. “You are the strangest teenager I know,” she said. “You always seem so put together, even when things are happening to you. I’m envious.”
She wouldn’t have said it if she knew how I had treated Eric.
“I’m not that great,” I managed.
“But you are,” she argued. “And you get along with your parents—”
“I’m adopted.”
My interruption silenced Crystal, and her face flushed.
I sighed, looking up at the ceiling of her car. “Do you remember that car wreck I had you research? The one where the couple died?”
She nodded. “And the baby—”
“That’s me.”
Her fingers turned white as her grip tightened on the steering wheel. “You were born here?”
It wasn’t the question I was expecting. I expected her to demand why I hid it, why I lied, or pretended a part of my life wasn’t falling apart. Not what she had asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “Why is that important?”
“It’s not,” she said, but her voice was tight. “But I always wondered where you got that gorgeous hair of yours.” She was laughing, and I couldn’t help but join her. I didn’t resemble my adoptive parents, and it felt good to finally admit why.
“Thanks for understanding,” I said.
She wagged her finger at me. “Don’t think that distracted me from Eric.”
I groaned, and she jiggled in her seat. “Don’t you see how he looks at you?” she asked, but I couldn’t answer. He always looked like he was in pain. “It’s pretty obvious how he feels.”
“Then, why would he ignore me?”
“Because boys are complicated,” Crystal explained.
“I thought girls were the complicated ones,” I joked, but Crystal wasn’t laughing.
“If I’ve learned anything from journalism, it’s that everyone is complicated,” she said.
I looked out the window. The fields on the edge of town reminded me of how isolated the Midwest was compared to Atlanta. When I lived in Georgia, I hadn’t known many people despite being in a homeschooling program that introduced me to other teenagers. I felt isolated. I had given up on the concept of friends until I met Crystal and Robb. Out of all the places I could’ve found friendship, it ended up being in an isolated town.
