Cursed (11 page)

I nodded, “I’ll have the veggie burger, no
bacon, with cheese, extra tomato and a side of yam fries.”

She nodded at my order not even considering how
stupid it was to have to ask for no bacon on ones veggie
burger.

She looked at Shane, “I will have the bacon
cheese burger, with bacon, no tomato and a side of regular fries. I
also will have a chocolate shake.”

She finished writing it down and glanced at me
while taking the menus’, “Water okay for you?”

I nodded and she was gone.

“So you like your bacon cheese burger with
bacon?” I asked making him smile.

He grinned, “I don’t see how you can stomach a
veggie burger without bacon.” I laughed shaking my head at him.

“You’ve been a veggie for a long time, what is
it seven years now?” He asked playing with the fork and knife on
the tabletop.

I smiled at him completely taken aback, “Yeah
almost eight. How do you remember that?”

He shrugged, “I just notice stuff I guess. So
who are you going to the spring formal with?”

I gulped blindsided again, “Oh my god I kind of
figured it would be Blake. I guess I’m not going. I’m not a dance
kind of girl anyway.”

“Well I was taking Alise, why don’t we go
together?”

I sipped my water cautiously, “As friends?”

“Yeah. I don’t see how we can be anything else
Aimee, as much as I would love to date you and wish I had dated you
instead of Lucifer I mean Alise, you need some time I think to get
better.”

Relief and disappointment battled inside of me,
“Okay sure. I have a rule anyway about dating boys who date my
sister.”

He sighed back still playing with the utensils,
“Okay good. I like you so much and I like being with you, as
friends.” I could swear I saw something, a gleam in his eyes.

I laughed wistfully but secretly imagining what
it would be like to be held by his strong arms besides being
carried all the time like a feeble invalid, “Yeah I was thinking
the exact same thing.”

He leaned over the table looking around slightly
as if he were to tell me the biggest secret ever, “You wanna know
what you said to me that night on the grass?”

I got nervous again, I fiddled with the straw
with my teeth holding my glass so tight it could burst in my hands
as I nodded.

“You told me that you didn’t understand how I
could date her and that she was abusive.”

I had to admit I felt a small amount of
disappointment, “Yeah I still feel that way. I don’t get that Blake
who I have known my whole life, as an upstanding kind guy likes my
sister. He is so smart and funny and easy going and she is-”

“The antichrist?” He cut in.

I raised my hands a little, “I know right? So
bazaar.”

He shook his head, “There is something about
your sister men cannot resist. If she walked in and went over to
that table right now and said I wanna do it. That man would. Any
guy would 'date' her again again again and suffer the same fate
every time. Those silver eyes and that dark brown hair, she's
unstoppable. Aimee you’re more like a sweet girl next door that I
want to marry. Your sister is not the marrying type, she's like the
spring break type.”

I gulped at him saying marriage and my name in
the same sentence but then translated his whole speech and frowned
a little.

His little rant was not meant to hurt my
feelings and I knew this but being told I wasn’t sexy was a little
hurtful even though I believed sexy was not something teenage girls
should ever strive for and he did say I was the marrying type.

“I’m sorry I shouldn’t say such bad things about
her, she is your sister.”

“I have no illusions about my sister Shane, she
is exactly what she is. She burns through men, she has no
self-respect and even less for anyone else and she is always
attracted to the thing she can’t have.”

“Great, speak of the devil and she shall arrive
at your favorite burger joint.”

I turned to see my sister and Blake walking hand
in hand but stopping dead as they saw me and Shane sitting at the
table. Our food arrived as they got brought to the seat behind us.
Blake dropped her hand and straightened up in his stance not
letting his gaze leave mine as if trying to reassure me.

Alise smiled sweetly, “Fancy meeting you two
here.” She looked back and forth between us suspiciously.

I felt sick looking at them, “We went to see
Wade.”

Blake smirked, “The elusive Wade, what did he
have to say for himself?” Blake kept his gaze on me as if we were
the only people in the room. I avoided his gaze still feeling angry
with him and not in the mood to discuss it in a diner.

Shane shook his head, “It’s not the right guy.
She didn’t recognize Wade at all.” Shane seemed, rightfully so,
touchy.

“Can we just sit with you?” Alise asked
innocently.

“No let’s just go somewhere else, Alise lets go
somewhere else.” Blake wasn’t pleading he was telling. He pulled
her back toward the entrance obviously detecting my annoyance,
“Enjoy your meal.” He said softly dragging her out onto the
street.

I sighed picking up my juicy veggie burger and
smiled at Shane, “Bon Appetite.”

He tried to smile but his anger was obvious.

I laughed taking the biggest bite I could. The
tastes started to swirl in my mouth the flavor was so similar. I
hated this taste. I started to feel like I was going to throw up.
My favorite veggie burger in the world was making me sick. I
grabbed my napkin and spit the huge bite into it.

“I’m so sorry Shane, I don’t usually spit out
food but it tastes exactly like my vomit the other night. I had a
veggie burger for dinner that night before the party.”

His eyes lit up, “You remember the taste of your
puke!” He nearly shouted.

I realized what I had said and indeed some
memory had come back, “Alise did my hair and makeup and made me
wear the outfit I was wearing. I ate the veggie burger in secret in
my room so she wouldn’t know I ate. My dad had picked it up for me
when he picked up his pizza.”

He clapped, “Yes, see some of it is coming
back.”

I was excited except for the fact veggie burgers
were going to be off the menu for quite a while.

I felt my phone vibrate in my jacket pocket as I
was trudging my way to chemistry. Normally it was one of my
favorite classes but sitting next to one of the biggest frauds on
earth was hard to stomach. Blake had pretended to be something he
wasn’t, no matter what I couldn’t respect him after everything that
had happened.

My sister had cried to me and told me it was a
mistake when really they were making plans all along to hook up and
Blake sent me the broken heart symbol when really he had been
sending my sister messages. That was how he knew about my room
being with Giselle and that was a lie in my books.

I hadn’t really spoken to my sister since the
incident but I knew that I had been taken by one of the best
grifters in the world. She was a pro con artist from not wanting to
do chores to juggling four boyfriends.

Trying to think on other things I thought about
how I needed to see the 'not Wade' guy again, I had become
convinced he was a ghost who I could only see when I was near
Shane’s house. I didn’t believe in ghosts at all but the only times
I had seen him were in the yard and in the stairwell there so I
became convinced that Shane's house was the key. I was scaring
myself with the shaman ghost story I had cooked up in my head but I
needed to see that guy again. I thought about him day and night. I
could hear his voice; he was talking about my veggie burger and to
come back to myself. His face and those words were the only memory
I really had. I recalled seeing him in the bathroom at Shane’s but
the memory was really fuzzy.

I was leaving for Portland with my dad to see
Giselle later in the day, she wasn’t even really speaking to my
sister anymore.

I looked over noticing the kids at school
whispering and watching me. It wasn’t one group of kids, it was all
the kids in the courtyard. I tried not to notice but it was hard
going from complete unknown to that girl who got drugged and nearly
raped.

I held my books tighter and looked toward my
class but I saw Blake walk up to the class door. I cringed thinking
about being around him and for the first time ever I decided I
needed more air than chemicals. I decided to ditch and go to
Shane’s house. Mr. Mac saw me running the wrong way, well maybe not
running, “Aimee what are you doing?”

I looked down at the ground ashamed, “Sir I need
to go home. I’m feeling sick.”

He laughed, “You are the worst liar ever.” Mr.
Mac knew me better than any other teacher. His youthful look had
people believing him to be just a youngster but was smarter than
any teacher in the school.

He walked toward me looking extremely concerned,
“Are you having a problem getting back into the swing of things
Aimee?”

I nodded, “Yeah it seems hard to focus now. I’m
tired a lot lately.”

He looked down on me and pointed to the
chemistry room, “I’m going to walk this way and if you follow great
and if you don’t I might not notice cause I’m pretty preoccupied
about the marks on the test we took last week. The ninety eight you
got probably earned you a day off from class if you wanted to think
about it that way.” His eyes grew dark, “I truly hope you’re
feeling better Aimee.”

I looked up into his dark brown eyes and smiled
relieved, “You’re the best Mr. Mac thanks,” He nodded and walked
away from me strolling casually toward the Chem. Lab.

I hobbled over to where Shane was taking his
welding class and waved at him through the shop doors. He looked at
me puzzled.

He walked over all sexy in his coveralls and
welding hat lifted up with bits of grease and dirt on his face.

He smiled at me as he opened the door, “Aims
what’s up?”

I held my hand out, “I need your truck keys I
want to go to your house for a bit. I think your yard is
haunted.”

He burst out laughing and fished his keys out of
his pocket, “You are the weirdest girl I have ever met. I notice
you’ve gained a bit of weight by the way. I meant to say something
cause you’re filling out again.”

I took the keys and grinned at him, “Thanks,
this is a good look for you too. I think if you wore this to the
spring formal I might want to dance.”

He winked and closed the door.

I turned on my heel feeling very flirty; it
could be that I felt so safe with him. I knew nothing would ever
come of our flirting even though deep deep down where I never let
myself go I wished it would.

I went to the truck feeling a small sense of
freedom mixed with a lot of guilt, I never skipped, ever. The one
good thing about being a straight A student was that at the end of
the school year it was pretty well sorted out what your grade was
going to be. We had two and a half months of school left and I was
at a ninety-three percent average. Skipping out one day wasn’t
going to cost me too much I told myself.

The drive to Shane’s house was about five
minutes and for some reason I couldn’t help looking in my
rear-view. I was not a very good criminal.

I pulled into the driveway and hopped out of the
truck, my ribs hurting slightly but I ignored it and walked quickly
up to the house. I was so hopeful it was ridiculous. I wandered
around the outside of the huge grey house looking behind myself
sharply and then peeking around corners. If anyone saw this they
would instantly assume master spy or total idiot. I was going with
the latter as I snuck around the bushes and the vibrant green
grass.

I decided the woods were my best bet.

I looked around me stopping midway across the
lawn to listen for anyone who might be following me. I decided
thinking about creepy people following you was not the smartest way
to enter the woods.

The trees on the North Coast were huge; big was
what you called a tree at half its life here. The trees in the
woods that Shane called a yard were massive. I felt the forest air
hit like a ton of bricks as I entered, it was freezing and damp. I
crept along looking all around me.

I decided camping out in a quiet spot was my
best plan, then like a rabbit hopping into a trap I would be able
to see him but he wouldn’t see me. I crept through huge ferns and
old mans beard covering the branches. The forest thinned out
remarkably once you were inside of it. The canopy of the huge trees
was such a filter for the light not a lot of other small trees and
bushes could grow. But moss and ferns didn’t need light to prosper.
The forest on the north coast always reminded me of Jurassic Park.
The air was clean and pure but colder sometimes by five or six
degrees.

I found the old tree fort Shane had constructed
once with his friends and hid at the base of the tree next to it.
There was a small bush surrounded by several huge ferns and if I
sat still long enough I could probably see his ghost.

I pulled my jacket tight around me and pulled
the hood up around my head to cover my blond hair. The black jacket
helped me to blend into the brush and massive trunk. I sat back on
the dirt leaning against the tree and sat still. I turned my phone
to vibrate and waited.

I wanted to say I was a peaceful enough person
that the calm of the forest and the small noises it made throughout
the day were relaxing but I felt on edge hiding in the forest for
either a ghost or a stalker.

I heard a crunch after ten minutes fifty feet
back toward the house, I stayed very still as it came closer. I
felt my heart beat increasing as the noise got louder and louder. I
wanted to close my eyes and become invisible or blink my way back
to the safety of my own room. I was terrified, as the sound got so
loud I swear I could feel the vibration of the branches breaking. I
knew for an unexplainable reason this was not his ghost, this I
needed to fear.