Cursed (Book 1, The Watchers; Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (16 page)

I immediately went
to her and put my arms around her shoulders.   She cried for a solid five
minutes and kept mumbling that she didn’t know what she would do without me in
between sobs.  I held her as tightly as I could and kept trying to reassure her
that everything was going to be all right.

“Besides, they’d
be crazy to try something now that we’re on to them.”

“Well they better
not try anything when I’m around.” Tara wiped the tears from her face onto her
shirt sleeve.  “They’ll be deader than a possum laying on the side of the road
after midnight if they do.”

I hated what my
misfortune was doing to my best friend, my sister.  But it wasn’t like I had
asked to be stalked by whoever it was who wanted me dead. 

There was a knock
at the front door.  I went to answer it while Tara continued to pull herself
together and finished making breakfast.

I had expected to
see Will standing in my doorway, but it was a police officer.  He said
Detective Randall asked him to come by my apartment and check on me to make
sure everything was all right.  I knew what he was really doing, checking on
whether I had survived the night without another attempt on my life.

I thanked the
officer for coming by and reassured him that everything was fine.  As Detective
Randall had done, he told me to call if anything out of the ordinary happened.

While we were
having breakfast, Tara slapped the table apparently remembering something
important.

“I totally forgot
to tell you about Will.”

“What about him?”
I asked buttering up a biscuit.

“You kissed the
dog
out of that poor boy yesterday, girl.”

“I think I would
remember something like that, Tara.”

“You would if
you’d been conscience.”

“I don’t
understand.”

Tara was
completely confusing me.  Then it hit me.  The dream I thought I was having
before I woke up in Will’s arms out by the pool.

“Oh God.”  My
hands started to tremble so bad I had to lay my biscuit back on my plate.  “I
thought that was a dream of me kissing Brand.”

“Well, that
explains why you called Will Brand,” she said stuffing her mouth full of egg.

“I don’t
understand.  How did we end up kissing?”

“He was giving you
CPR and then all of a sudden you grabbed his head and acted like you were gonna
suck his face off.  I think he was enjoying it up until you called him Brand.” 
Tara smiled and sort of snorted a laugh.  “He let go pretty quick after that.”

“I’m going to have
to apologize.”

“I wouldn’t if I
were you.  He saved your life.  You shouldn’t embarrass the boy like that.  If
you don’t mention it, he’ll just think you don’t remember doin’ it.  I just
thought you should know what happened in case he brings it up himself.”

Tara was right.  I
would let Will bring it up if he decided he wanted to talk about it.  As it
was, I was completely mortified that my second kiss with Will happened that
way. Speaking of kissing…

“How did your date
go with Simon Saturday night? You haven’t mentioned it.”

“Oh, it went
fine.”  The sly little smile on Tara’s face told me that it had been more than
just fine.

“Well, do I get
any details?” I prompted anxiously.  “What did y’all do?  Where did he take
you?”

“He took me to the
Lakewood Country Club for supper and then he showed me how to golf out on their
course.”

“You golf?  That
must have been a sight to see.”  If anyone had worse coordination than me it
was Tara. 

“I didn’t do that
bad,” she defended.  “In fact, Simon said I had natural talent.”

“So when’s the
next date?”

“I don’t know,”
she said vaguely.  “Depends.”

“I know what
you’re doing.  Will and Brand can look after me just fine while you go on a
date.  You won’t be able to watch over me all the time.  Besides, Simon sounds
like a great guy.  You should see where this leads.”

“We’ll see.”

After breakfast,
we got ready for school.

It wasn’t until I
was about to head out the door that Will appeared.  He only gave me the
briefest of greetings before asking if I was ready to go.  On the drive to
school, he didn’t say a word, just sat behind the wheel with a brooding
expression on his face.  I wondered if his attitude had anything to do with the
unintentional kiss we shared the previous day.

When we reached
campus, he walked me to my world civilization class and told me he would be
waiting outside the door until I needed to go to my college algebra class.

“Don’t you have
your own classes to go to?” I asked.

“Don’t be silly,
Lilly.  You know we’re not going to let you out of our sights until we find out
who’s after you.  It’s obvious you can’t look after yourself.”

His course words
cut through me like the jagged edge of a knife.  Hadn’t I been through enough
without his ridicule adding to my already fragile state of mind?  I couldn’t
help the tears which threatened to show how much his inconsiderate words had
hurt me.

He noticed them of
course and opened his mouth to say something, but I didn’t want to hear what he
had to say.  I turned my back to him and went inside the classroom.

After class, he
was waiting outside for me and walked me to my college algebra class.  Neither
of us said a word.  I barely acknowledged his presence.  When class was over, I
let everyone else walk out before me.  Will was leaned up against the wall
beside the doorway patiently waiting.

“This is your
lunch period, right?” he asked following my lead down the hallway.

“Yeah, but I think
I’d rather go into work early.”

I didn’t even look
at him.  The more I thought about his crass statement from earlier that morning
the madder I got.  I sure as hell didn’t want to spend a whole lunch period
with the inconsiderate dolt.  And then I remembered I didn’t actually have to
go into work that afternoon.  Dr. Barry was still in New Orleans.  How was I
going to get away from Will now?  Maybe I could just hide out in her office for
a while.  Will didn’t know she wasn’t there.

“Lilly, stop for a
second.  We need to talk,” he pleaded.

We were outside
the liberal arts building now.  I started to walk toward the science building
but Will grabbed my arm and made me look at him, though I stubbornly kept from
meeting his eyes and looked at the sidewalk at my feet instead.

“Lilly,
please
. 
I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean what I said earlier.  I was just mad at something and
shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

It wasn’t enough. 
I yanked my arm out of his hand and started walking.  I didn’t know where I was
walking to, but I knew I had to get away from him before I said things I might
regret later.  By the time he tried to stop me again, we had walked to a
secluded spot underneath the trellised arbor beside the library.  No one else
was within hearing range.

He grabbed me by
the arm again causing me to yank free, spilling my books to the ground.  He
quickly picked them up and held them loosely in one hand at his side.

“Lilly, I said I
was sorry.  What else do I have to do?”

I finally looked
up into his pleading blue eyes and basically lost it.  All of the frustration
from the last two years bubbled to the surface, spilling over before I had time
to think through what I was about to say.

“There’s nothing
you can do, Will!”  I heard the hysteria in my voice but couldn’t help it. 
“Why do you care so much about what I think of you anyway?  Why are you
pretending that you actually care about me again? Is it because I might have
actually found someone else who can replace you I my life?”

“I’m not
pretending,” he defended.  “I do care about you.  More than I have any right
to.”

“Well you sure
have an odd way of showing it.  If you cared about me you wouldn’t have said
what you did this morning.  People don’t do that to their friends.”

“I said I was
sorry about that, Lilly.  Why won’t you believe me?”

“Because I don’t
know who you are anymore, Will.  It’s almost like you have a Jekyll/ Hyde
complex or something.  I’ve seen the Will I used to love more in the past few
days than I have the past few years.  But then you have to go and ruin it by
being a complete jackass this morning.  Who are you Will?  Which personality is
the real you?”

“You don’t know
what I wouldn’t give to be that boy who kissed you on the beach again, Lilly. 
I want that more than anything.  I want to see you look at me like you did that
night.  What do I have to do to make you love me again?”  The tortured way he
said these words brought tears to my eyes and made my chest feel heavy with
grief over missed opportunities.

“You’re two years
too late!  You broke my heart.  Why should I forgive you?”

“Because I love
you, Lilly.  I’ve always loved you.  Can’t you see that?”

“Why didn’t you
say that two years ago?” I yelled at him, backing away.  I felt like I was
losing my mind.  Hadn’t I always wanted to hear those words from Will?  I would
have given anything if he had declared his love for me just last week.  But
now, I had Brand, someone who had done nothing but show me respect and
kindness; someone who brought joy back into my life.  He was someone who knew
what he wanted: me.

“You’re too late,
Will.  You’re too late,” I said shaking my head at him continuing to back
away. 

I could see the
hurt in his eyes even through my tears.

“Don’t say that,
Lilly.  For God’s sake, you don’t know him.  You just met him last week!  
You’ve known me your whole life!”

“No, I don’t think
I know you at all.  I thought I did, but I don’t think I do now.  You really
need to leave me alone, Will.  I can’t be around you anymore.  It hurts too
much.”

I ran.  I didn’t
know where I was going and I didn’t care.  I just knew I had to get away.

Chapter 9

The next thing I
knew I was standing in front of the Common’s building weeping uncontrollably. 
People were looking at me funny but I didn’t care.  I could hear Will yelling
my name behind me and knew I needed to keep going.  The last thing I wanted was
to be around him.

“Hey Lilly, hop
in!”

I looked to my
left and saw Abby in her car wearing a purple pigtailed wig and blue contacts
dressed in a white mini-dress opening the passenger side door for me.  I didn’t
need a second invitation.  As soon as I got into her car, she hit the gas pedal
and we sped off.  I don’t think I stopped crying until we were on the highway.

“I’m sorry,” I
told her searching through my purse for a small package of Kleenexes I always
kept in there.  “You shouldn’t have to see me like this.”

“No worries,
love.  Do you want to talk about it?”

“No. I don’t want
to even think about it.”

Abby was silent,
content to give me whatever time I needed to pull myself together.

I knew if I
thought about Will anymore I would just end up crying again.  I racked my brain
for something to take my mind off of him.

“Do you think you
could take me to my car?”  I asked.  “Brand said it was at his house.  I really
need to get in touch with my insurance company and see about getting all that
taken care of.”

“Sure thing, love,
I can take you there now if you want.”

“Thanks, I’d
really appreciate it.”

It wasn’t long
before we were turning off the highway toward Brand’s home. 

“What were you
doing on campus?” I asked.

“Watching after
you,” Abby admitted with a small amount of guilt over her voyeurism.  “Brand
asked me to keep an eye on you.  He didn’t completely trust Will to do the job
right.  And from what I saw, he had good reason to believe that.”

“Well, thanks for
being there for me.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to get away from him
otherwise.”

“I’m always up for
a quick get away.” She emphasized her words by revving up her car engine a bit
with a devilish grin on her face.

I couldn’t help
but laugh at her.  It eased my tension and I finally started to feel my body
relax.

When we pulled up
to Brand’s house, I stared in disbelief at what was left of my car. 

“Oh my God.” 

The front end was
completely smashed in.  I’m not even sure where the engine was anymore.  I felt
lucky it hadn’t ended up on my lap.  The driver’s side door was propped up
against the side of the car, almost like it had been wrenched off.  I assumed
it must have been torn off in the accident somehow. 

I used the phone
Brand had given me and called my insurance company.  Luckily they had an agent
free that afternoon to come look at the damage.  Abby invited me into Brand’s
home and offered to make me lunch.

 “He always has a
stocked kitchen,” she said.  “He knows I’m too lazy to do my own cooking.”

 In no time at all
Abby cooked us a couple of ribeye steaks, baked potatoes and prepared a salad. 
When we sat down to eat, I noticed her steak had so much blood coming out it
was almost raw.  Thankfully, when I cut into my steak it was a perfect medium
rare.

 “So, mind me
asking how much you like my dear cousin?” She asked popping a large bite of
steak into her mouth.

 “Well, I like him
a lot.  He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”

 “Nice,” she
mulled the word over like it didn’t quite sound right.  “Most women talk about
how gorgeous and dead sexy he is.  It’s odd you would talk about an attribute
of his personality.”

“Well he is
gorgeous,” I admitted.  “But, that’s obvious.”

“True,” she said. 
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him as taken with someone as he is with
you.  In fact, I know I haven’t.”

“But what about
the girl he mentioned?  His first love.  I assume he told you about my best
friend interrogating him before we went on our first date?”