Covet (20 page)

Swallowing hard, I texted back,
I’m fine. Stop texting me. It’s against the rules. Go text your new girlfriend instead.

A few seconds later, his reply arrived.
Girlfriend???

Oh please. Did he really think everyone in Jacksonville hadn’t heard about him and Bethany?

I was so irritated I didn’t bother replying. If he wanted to lie and pretend he wasn’t seeing someone, that was his choice. But I wasn’t going to waste my time arguing with him about something that was already public knowledge. I had better things to do. Like practicing using my newfound powers.

I would need every hour available this summer to train for the upcoming school year. Now that I was finally learning to use magic, I had a lot of catching up to do.

Dylan and the Brat Twins were going to be in for a major surprise if they tried to mess with me or my friends this year.

* * *

Learning how to do magic gave me a sense of confidence I hadn’t had in too long to remember. I no longer felt like the Clann’s doormat, lying around waiting for them to step all over me.

I was ready to kick butt. Starting with Anne’s birthday party in August, two weeks before school started. It seemed the perfect time to get a head start on my magical to-do list.

This year Anne was having her annual sleepover in the small hunting lodge her family had built out on a remote piece of land they owned in the country between Jacksonville and Rusk. Anne said it was where they liked to go deer hunting every fall. She had emailed me directions, which weren’t too hard to follow, and soon my truck was kicking up a huge cloud of dust down a long dirt drive that cut through the front fenced-in fields to where a tiny pier and beam house was set in the middle of the property.

I’d arrived late on purpose. Since I was the last one there, everyone else’s vehicles were already lined up outside, giving me the perfect opportunity to place a protection spell on the back bumpers.

Friends’ cars protected? Check.

With the first phase of tonight’s mission completed, I climbed the short wooden steps to the lodge’s door and knocked. Anne answered, and the smell was the first thing that hit me when I entered the one-bedroom house. It was all I could do not to stagger from the stench and cover my nose with my hand.

“Savannah,” Anne whispered as she gave me a quick hug at the door. “Have you eaten at all since school ended? You’re a stick!”

“Thanks,” I muttered, holding out her present. “It’s great to see you again, too, birthday girl.”

“Sav! Wow, you look great!” Michelle called from where she was laid out on the floor of the living room area on her stomach. “New diet?”

Forcing a smile, I ignored the question and walked over to sit beside her and Carrie, trying hard not to breathe too deeply. Something in the house smelled absolutely awful. It was making my stomach roll over with every breath I took.

Michelle held up her wrist. “Check out my new perfume! I picked it up when we went swimsuit shopping. Which you missed.”

I took the quickest of sniffs. Superstrong flowers soaked in alcohol. It might make me sneeze soon, but it wasn’t the source of the house’s stench.

I refocused on what she’d said. “Oh come on, guys. Like you really wanted to be blinded by the sight of me in a swimsuit.”

Carrie snorted. “Yeah, about that. What have you been doing all summer, other than avoiding us? Obviously not tanning, by the looks of it. You know, just because it’s recommended that you wear sunscreen to avoid getting burned doesn’t mean you should live your whole life in a cave, either. Step out of the Addams family mansion every once in a while. A little sunlight is good for you. It gives you vitamin C and D.”

I laughed. “Thanks, I’ll try to keep that in mind.” Then I remembered the small bundle in my pocket. “Oh, by the way, I made y’all something.” I dug the bundle out, untangled it and held up the four bracelets I’d spent hours and checked out a book from the public library in order to make.

“Friendship bracelets!” Michelle squeaked, plucking one from my palm. “Awesome!”

Anne walked over from the kitchen to join us.

Carrie grinned and took a bracelet. “Nice. Thanks. Have we ever had these as a group?”

“No,” Anne said as she leaned over my shoulder and snatched one for herself. “But we should have. Good idea, Sav. Here, tie mine on.”

I tied hers around her wrist and tried not to feel guilty about the magical reason behind my gift. They were still given in the spirit of friendship. I was trying to protect my friends here. They just didn’t need to know that part.

Once everyone’s bracelets were on, Anne said, “So who’s ready to party? Let’s do cake so I can get to opening more presents!”

“Not so fast,” Mrs. Albright said over her shoulder before turning away from the oven with a giant homemade pizza. She set the steaming meal on the tiny table, which was set and just large enough for four people. “You know the drill, Anne. Pizza first, then cake and presents.”

My stomach knotted up, causing what felt like my entire esophagus to clench shut with it. Oh boy. I hadn’t planned how to get out of eating tonight.

“Mrs. Albright, it’s a work of art,” Michelle whispered as we gathered around the table.

She wasn’t kidding. Every single mushroom, pepperoni and sausage chunk was perfectly spaced in an uninterrupted circular pattern as if arranged there by a robot.

But the smell. Oh lord, I wanted to hurl.

We took our seats at the table, with Anne’s parents choosing to stand behind their daughter due to the lack of chairs.

“Bow your heads,” Mrs. Albright commanded.

We all bowed our heads for prayer, even Michelle, whose family didn’t go to church. Silently, I added my own prayer that I would somehow get through this meal without spewing all over the table.

And then the ordeal began. I took the smallest nibbles I could manage under Mrs. Albright’s eagle eyes, using my fingers to tear the slice into smaller pieces so hopefully it would look like I’d eaten something.

I glanced up and caught her frowning at me. “Does it taste all right?” she asked.

“Oh! Sure, it’s great!” I pasted on a smile and forced myself to take a healthy bite, chew and swallow.

My prayer was answered…sort of. I didn’t spew all over the table. But I should have asked not to be sick at all. I held it down as long as I could, then muttered an excuse about needing something out of my truck and all but ran out the door. Anne found me hunched over by my truck’s tailgate under a lovely sunset, holding on to the ends of my ponytail with one hand and my nose with the other as I tried without success to puke as quietly as possible.

“I’m so sorry,” I gasped in between retches. “Please tell your mom her cooking is fine. It’s not…”

“Wow. You really can’t eat food anymore, huh?”

Miserably I shook my head. “It sucks so bad. I used to
love
pizza!”

“Why are you holding your nose? I can’t smell anything.”

“So it doesn’t come out my nose.”

“Oh gross.” She awkwardly patted my back. “Don’t worry, I’ll cover for you. I’ll tell them you just came out here to help me get the four-wheelers ready.”

“Four-wheelers?” I took the water bottle she offered and rinsed out my mouth as my stomach reluctantly settled down again.

“Yeah. You’ll see. I’ll be right back with the girls.” Anne ducked inside the house. I had just enough time to move away a couple of yards and paste on a smile before she returned with Carrie and Michelle in tow.

“I thought you wanted to have cake and presents,” her mother was loudly complaining.

“Later, Mom!” Anne yelled back before pulling the door shut behind her.

Great. I was screwing up her birthday. “Sorry,” I muttered to her as Carrie and Michelle walked ahead of us toward the quartet of four-wheelers parked at the other end of the building.

Anne waved off my apology. “Aw, don’t worry about it. We’ll get to the cake and stuff later. Let’s go have some fun first. Um, if your stomach’s up for it, that is.”

“It’s fine.” I refused to let this stupid vampire business mess up her party any more than it already had.

Michelle hung back and bumped her shoulder against mine. “New diet, huh?”

Before I could come up with an excuse, she said, “You know, you should never lose weight just to get a guy back. Not even for
him
.”

“I didn’t… I mean, I’m not dieting—”

Michelle continued as if I hadn’t said anything. “Of course, the competition is pretty tough this time. Bethany’s so tiny, and they’ve been seen together all summer now. And everyone says she’s a shoo-in for Charmers captain next year, too.”

He was still dating Bethany? My shoulders slumped. Before me, his longest relationship had lasted all of two months.

“But don’t you worry about it, because obviously she’s way too short for him,” Michelle added with a wave of dismissal as she hopped onto a four-wheeler like a pro. “He’ll get a backache having to bend over to kiss her all the time. He’ll get tired of it in no time and see how perfect you two were.”

At the thought of Tristan kissing Bethany, my stomach threatened to rebel again.

Anne stopped explaining how to start the four-wheeler to Carrie. “Michelle, don’t be dumb. She’s not on a diet. Especially not for Tristan Coleman!”

I was surprised how much hearing his name hurt. But I’d have to get used to it. I would hear his name all the time when school started back up.

Anne showed me how to start my four-wheeler and make it go and stop, which was all easy to do since it was an automatic. No shifting or clutch work required, just push the lever-type button under my thumb to go.

“Don’t drive behind anyone,” Anne warned us with a grin as she hopped onto her own four-wheeler. “These fields are filled with cow patties.”

I drove slowly in the beginning, getting used to the sensation of driving across bumpy terrain on a machine with no protective windshield, seat belt or doors. The property was larger than I’d thought at first, giving us plenty of room to chase each other and make huge donuts in the fields. Then we found the field with the terraces, now grass covered to form long horizontal mini-hills.

And then the fun really began.

Anne started it, daring us to take the terraces a little faster each time. Before I knew it, my four-wheeler and I were airborne, the wind whipping wildly through my hair as a crazy shrieking sound mixed with laughter erupted out of me.

The faster I went, the more fun it was as the rush of the wind around me in the fading light filled up my lungs, cool and clean, my adrenaline-laced blood rushing through my body. This was what I’d needed—to let loose, to get away, to go where no one was sneaking looks at me to see if I was okay, like Dad did at home when he thought I wasn’t watching. No phone calls or texts “just to see how I’m feeling” like I got twice a day from Mom. No more keeping secrets, at least not from Anne.

I never wanted it to end.

Unfortunately, Anne’s parents had made her promise that we wouldn’t ride the four-wheelers in the dark. So once the sun finished setting, the fun was over for the day. I was the last to follow her back to the lodge and park.

“Sav, you coming?” Anne called from the top of the steps. Carrie and Michelle were already inside.

Reluctantly I turned away from the four-wheeler and joined everyone in the lodge.

Mrs. Albright was just lighting the last candle on the cake. She glanced at me with a quick frown then pasted on a smile while we all sang “Happy Birthday” and Anne blew out the candles.

Then Mrs. Albright handed me a paper plate full of cake.

“Feeling better now?” Her tone made it more of a challenge than a sympathetic question.

“Uh, Mom, Sav’s…on a special diet,” Anne said. “Sorry, I totally forgot to tell you. She can’t eat the cake or it might make her sick.”

I flashed her a look of pure gratitude.

Mrs. Albright gasped and took a step back like I was Typhoid Mary. “You’re sick, Savannah?”

“No, Mom,” Anne quickly answered. “Not like with the flu or anything contagious. I said the cake will make her sick. She’s on a healthy foods only diet.”

The alarm slowly faded from the air around Mrs. Albright. “Oh. Well, that’s certainly understandable. I keep trying to get Tom and Anne on a diet like that. But all Anne wants to eat is junk food.” She waved at the now empty pizza pan in the sink as if to prove her point, though the pizza had been so nongreasy I could almost swear she must have wiped the cheesy surface dry after baking it.

“How about I break out the strawberries early?” Mr. Albright suggested, his voice low and kind, and I understood then why Anne never hesitated to proudly call herself a daddy’s girl.

Mrs. Albright brought out a bowl of sliced strawberries from the fridge. Feeling everyone’s eyes on me again, I quickly grabbed a strawberry slice and popped it into my mouth, thinking maybe my body could handle the plain fruit at least.

I nearly choked. They must have coated the strawberries in sugar or something. The darn thing was so sweet it literally made my jaw ache.

“It’s…good,” I managed to say as my jaw muscles did their best to lock up in protest. I chewed once, twice then gulped the bite down and arranged my face in a smile. “They’re great. Thanks.”

Mrs. Albright smiled and relaxed in the chair I’d vacated earlier. “You go right ahead and eat as many of them as you want.”

Carrie shook her head and dug into her cake, one eyebrow raised as she watched me trying to find a way out of having to choke down more of the too-sweet fruit.

After Anne opened all of her gifts, her parents went to the lodge’s only bedroom while the rest of us settled in for a movie fest on top of sleeping bags laid out in front of a small TV set. Watching the birthday girl’s favorite movies was a tradition at all of our b-day sleepovers. In the DVD stack for tonight was an eclectic mix of Johnny Depp’s movies, including all of the
Pirates of the Caribbean
movies and a really old one called
Cry Baby
.

She started with the first
Pirates
movie, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. I kept getting distracted by the smells assaulting my nose from the kitchen just a few yards away. There were also a whole host of smells I couldn’t identify, and those were the worst. But not because they smelled bad. Actually, they smelled…mouthwatering.