Crescent Bound (25 page)

“Megan, as much as I love to hear Marc is a good guy, I’m really in the kind of mood that I could turn Kelly into a
C
heerleader
Popsicle.
”

Megan laughs and says, “You know, I’m going to change your theme song
,
“Burn It Down” isn’t working for you anymore.”

I look at her agreeing with her words, “I g
uess you’
re right, and the song doesn’t
really
apply anymore.  I’m kind of sad because I really liked that one.”  Turning towards the classroom, I walk through the door
way
and say over my shoulder, “Let me know what you come up with, I just can’t go walking around in public without one.”

Finishing class, I walk out and head straight for the restroom even though I really despise public restrooms.  After going in, I decide to just touch up my lipstick.  Reaching into my bag I grab my gloss.  I look into the mirror and see Kelly walking up behind me. 
This will be interesting;
I think and continue applying my gloss to my lips.  Making a smacking sound, I throw my lipstick and gloss back into my bag. I turn around to leave, but Kelly is standing right in my way.  I move right and she blocks me.  Two of Kelly’s cheerleading buddies come out of the bathroom stalls. 

“Look who
we have here, girls,” Kelly announces
in a taunting tone.  I start running down my list of options.  I can’t mind sweep them by myself, there are too many.  I would need Megan and Lisa for that. So, I think I will try out my new resource…my ice.  Kelly motions for one of the girls to block the door and then she turns, looking me over in disgust
.
“You know…Alyssa, that color on your lips doesn’t match your slutty eyes.”  Both
of her hands prop on her slender
hips.  I know she wants to intimidate me as she towers over my 5’2 frame.  I lean over Kelly’s side like I am going to whisper to her.  Instead I blow frost down her left arm, just enough to give her the chills.  I reach out and grab Kelly’s right arm gently sending a wave of my ice down to her elbow making her shiver.

I whisper in my most diabolical voice, “Oh…Kelly, didn’t you hear the bell…recess is over.”  Making my eyes flash an ever brighter blue for an instant.  I drop her arm and walk up to the bathroom door.  Kelly’s girl is still standing there with her hand holding the door shut.  I put my hand on the door and the other on my hip.  I radiate my ice into the door making it instantly cold.  The girl jumps away looking completely
baffled.  I walk out of the girl’s bathroom rolling my eyes.

I hear Kelly yell, “Freak!” just
as the door slams shut behind me.  I brush my hand through my hair, walking calmly to my next class.

After class Lisa shifts next to me as we walk.  I have this uncanny feeling Lisa wants to tell me something and can’t.  I shake the feeling off and decide,
if it’s meant for me to know, then I’ll know.

Megan shifts next to me and informs
, “I feel a prick upon my thumb,
something wicked this way comes.
”
S
he smiles
saying
, “I gave myself a paper cut.”  Showing it off and then sucking her finger.  “That’s what made me think of it.”  She looks over at me and laughs; I roll my eyes
animatedly
at her.

We turn the corner of the building and see Marc and Kelly together.  Kelly has her hands on his chest.  It appears like she is trying to convince him of something.  I stop where I am and shift back around the corner.  Lisa shifts with me, I look over to Lisa and say, “Maybe we need to listen to Megan’s thumb more often,” I chuckle.  As for Megan, she just keeps on walking and leans against the wall next to Marc.

Kelly glowers
at Marc with her ha
nd gripping
her hip and
exasperatedly
says, “I wil
l talk to you later.”  She attempts to stare
M
egan down, which is quite amusing.

“Hey,” Marc says to Megan.

I walk up to them and ask, “What was that about?”

“Kelly is having some family issues and wanted to talk,” Marc tells us.

Megan asks, “So, does that mean you’re her fa
mily counselor now?”  Marc strolls
over and wraps his arm around me.

Turning to Megan, he counters
, “No, but I’m sure if you need counseling for yourself, we can always look in the yellow pages and see what we can find.”

Megan promenades
up to me and says, “Alyssa, I don’t know where you found this one, but I don’t think he’s the one.  I mean, come on, he doesn’t even know about the internet, that’s where I find all my professional help.” 

I playfully push her away and watch Lisa and Megan shift to their cars while I walk with Marc to mine.  He opens the door for me and I get in as he leans over and hands me a
solid
frozen Bling bottle.

“Sorry, I thought it woul
d of thawed out by now,”
he confides smiling his game-winning
grin
.  I give him a come-hither motion with my finger, as he leans more into my car
,
and
I devour him
with
kisses.

When we are able to talk again, Marc clears his throat and
blithely
asks, “What’s this I hear about recess being over?” he pauses
, giving me this roguish smile
and continues, “I hope its not over for me.”

I peer at him and comment
playfully
back
, “I have a game we can play for recess.”

Chapter 17

Pulling in the driveway,
I
quickly
park my car in the garage around back. Thinking I will have some time to work on the
Shelby
before I go have dinner with Marc and his parents tonight.  I run inside looking for my dad.  We are supposed to get that new shipment of parts for my
Shelby
today and I’m pretty ecstatic.  Dad is in the kitchen
making a sandwich and he asks,
“Hey there, want a sanger?”

“No thanks
Dad
, I’m fine, so, did the parts come in?  Did everything come in, anything missing and when
can we put the parts on?”  I grill him
in my rambling way.

He
raises his hands in a
n I-
surrender
-
fashion as
he says in a teasing tone, “Take me to your leader, so that I’m not tortured by anymore of your interrogating questions.”

I laugh and prod him
, “So, when?”

He pulls his keys out of his pocket and tells me, “Drive my car tonight over to Marc’s.”

My brows scrunch together in confusion and I bite back the disappointment in my voice,
“But, I thought we were going to work on the
Shelby
together this evening
,
Dad?
” 

He stands up, walks over handing me the keys and m
aneuvers me out of the kitchen,
“Go, before I change my mind.” 

I kiss him on the chee
k and announce, “I love you
,
Dad
.
”
I
shift upstairs. I put on a short emerald blue cocktail dress with black heels.  I pull my hair up and leave a few strands to curl around my face.  I walk into a room where we keep all our herbs and plants that we make elixirs and healing potions with. We call it the
Nature room
.  I think we have some of the rarest plants from around the world in this sun room.  Devil’s claw, Dittany of Crete, Solomon’
s S
eal, Moonflowers, and Balm of Gilead fill only a third of the room, there are so many beautiful and powerful herbs and plants packed within this space.  I step around one of the taller plants to find
Dad
conjuring a mixture, most likely for the new coven member he recently told me about.

I start placing everything back as he pulls different ones down.  I then turn around as if I am a model posing in a Valentino Show.  Well, I am in a Valentino dress, but
Dad
hasn’t noticed yet.  Flipping through his old books and placing the last containers away, I finally lean o
ver and watch his mixture as it
slowly separate into three distinct colors.   Layer upon layer are created as it settles.  When I was younger I always had this insatiable desire to
stick my tiny index finger in the vials and
make the colors swirl together.

Lost in my memories my dad’s voice brings me back
to the present,
“Wow, you look absolutely divine, Alyss.”

Standing up straighter, “Well thank you.”

He sends me one of his fatherly smiles
and
tenderly
kisses my forehead, “You better go, I th
ink Marc has called a few times.
” I jump up and
return a kiss on his
cheek and head out.

“I’ll see you later.
”
H
e waves after me as he reverts back
to his work without ever raising his head.

My father’s car is a magnificent 2011 black Chevy Corvette.  He hasn’t raced it in some time, but it used to be a flat eight second car.  I guess once we get things running the way we want on the
Shelby
we will work on the Corvette.  Not that it needs it; I just love tinkering with cars, always looking to make them even faster than before.

I slide into the
black
butter-soft
leather seat and drive to Marc’s house.  I pull up in the driveway and get out as Marc opens the front door and comes out to greet me.  He just stands there
shamelessly staring, I’m not
quite sure if it’s the car or me?

He clears this throat and advises
, “Wait right there, don’t mov
e a muscle.”  And he turns, sprinting inside the house.  Charging
back out with his cell phone, he starts taking pictures of me standing by my father’s Corvette.

“Happy?” I ask sarcastically. 

Before h
e
answers, he
kisses me,
“Yes, I am.
I only have one picture of you, sleeping on my
bed and
now I have a new pic as
my
background on my
cell
.”

I give him a
quirky grin
while we walk in the house and teasing him I respond
, “Great, just remind me not to sleep nude in your bed, okay?”

“I’ll crush my
cell
right now if you promise to start doing just that.”  He smiles as we walk into his living room and sit together on the couch. “My parents called about an hour ago to tell me their flight got cancelled due to
the
weather and they can’t make it in tonight.  They said most likely tomorrow sometime.”

Marc leans back and props his feet up on the glass coffee table. “So, we have the house to ourselves, what shall we do?” he asks as his eyes roam over me.

I know Marc has an exquisite Chinese cuisine meal prepared for his parents and me.

Crossing my legs slowly in a seductive manner
, I move closer leaning into his arms.  I run my fingers across his face towards his lips.  He teasingly tries to snip at my finger with his teeth.  I pu
ll away laughing and then deliberately
run my finger over his captivating full lips.  He kisses my finger, but my mouth moves to take its place.  I whisper softly, “Rang wo men kai shi ch
i ba,” which basically means, “L
et’s eat,” in Mandarin.

He smiles his wicked
grin at me and says, “I have no idea what you just said to me, but I hope it has something to do with my thoughts of devouring this food in ways that involve you losing your clothes.”  He gets up, taking me by the hand and walks us into the kitchen.

“Okay, so tell me Chef, what are you s
erving tonight?”  I begin to
observe
him.

He move
s around the kitchen setting numerous
bowls on the center island, finally he stands in front of me and says, “It’s called Dim Sum and it literally means
touch your heart
in Cantonese.  I have several small dishes here, that we can sample.”  He places his hands on either side of my waist and backs me up to the counter.

I glance next to us noticing a small dark brown clay teapot with four small cups, “What
’s this?” I ask him intrigued
.

“
Yum cha
is tea you must dr
ink a certain way.”  That heart singeing
smile shows itself again as he starts to unzip my dress from the back.