Forgotten (3 page)

Waiting for my ball to come up the
return, I glanced in the general direction of where the voice had
come - nothing unusual. A sea of shadows was all that I saw.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have eaten so much ice-cream… I closed my eyes
and tried to clear my head. With them closed, I shouldn’t have been
able to see anything or anyone. Lights off so to speak – so
convincing me that I didn’t see a smoky outline of a young man
standing exactly where I assumed the voice had come from was
another thing entirely. I opened my eyes. Again, there was nothing
but shadows.

I heard a thump and rumble,
but the noise didn’t register as anything important. What was going
on with my sight? It wasn’t until the bowling ball nearly smashed
my fingers upon its return, that I realized it caused the noise. I
blushed and hoped no one noticed that I was
slightly
distracted. I glanced at
Bree and Ryker. They seemed to be in their own little world,
oblivious to the entire human race. Ryker’s hand rested on Bree’s
inner leg. She giggled and then scooted closer to him. I made a
mental note to have a serious talk with her about acceptable
PDA’s.

I sounded like a mom. Ryker’s comment
about me becoming an old cat lady hit home.

Trying to concentrate, I slid my hand
over the ball’s smooth surface and closed my eyes. Every bit of two
seconds passed before I stole another peek at the far wall. A hazy
outline of a young man was apparent, again! My jaw dropped,
refusing to believe what I saw with my closed eyes. My ball
followed suit with my mouth and dropped. I grabbed it before it hit
the polished wooden floor, but not before it slammed into my shins.
Wincing, I clenched my jaw to silence the words that flowed from my
tongue more quickly than I preferred.

The guy with the hazy outline didn’t
move for so long, I thought it might have be an unusual object
reflecting the light – until I opened my eyes. Instead of seeing a
usual dark shadow, I saw a white abyss. My conclusion was that a
dark hole from another dimension sucked in all the light from that
exact spot, which made his figure appear light instead of dark, (or
I’d gone mental.)

He stood next to a normal dark shadow
that was several inches taller than him. After speaking a thread of
sentences I couldn’t understand, the lighted one nodded at me. The
taller person’s head jerked – a nervous twitch. I thought I saw a
silver lining around the tall shadow when I blinked, but I couldn’t
be sure.

The lighted young man pushed off the
wall. He walked over to a chair that was closer to my lane, his
white blazing increased with each step. A wave of nausea engulfed
me as he approached closer. A cold chill slipped down my spine when
he sat down on the chair, still a couple lanes away. The hair on
the back of my neck stood on end when he subtly waved at
me.

“
Something wrong, Winnie?”
Bree asked.

I wanted to smack myself. I couldn’t
recall how much time passed as I stared. My cheeks warmed as I
tried to think of any reason why I’d stalled. Finally, I recalled
dropping the ball and gestured to my shins like me dropping my ball
against them explained everything. I concentrated on pulling myself
together and rubbed my leg a few moments longer than necessary. If
I kept staring at the guy, I’d be labeled a creeper. Rumors spread
fast in our town.

Convinced that the changes in my sight
had to be a side effect from all the sugar pumping through my
veins, I regained my composure. Once I was confident that I wasn’t
losing my marbles and that my stomach was merely upset because I
polished off half of a container of ice cream, I repositioned
myself in the lane and threw the ball. Three pins slapped against
the lane.

“
Spare,” Ryker confirmed
nicely and walked up to take his turn. Our shoulders bumped,
“Cheater.”

I simply raised an eyebrow and gave
him the lane in exchange for his seat next to Bree, which was
closer to the young man who waved at me. The closer I became, the
sicker I felt. My stomach was in knots; my skin was clammy. I
leaned close to Bree and asked, “Is there a guy sitting two lanes
over, looking in this direction?”

She glanced over her shoulder subtly –
a guy scouting pro. Bree had her talents, none of which I
possessed.

“
There are times I swear
you’re faking this whole blind bit,” she squealed but quickly
recovered before her voice rose too loud. “Mister tall, dark, and
handsome looks too delicious to be posing in a bowling alley. Even
his big friend walking up next to him is a hottie! I usually don’t
go for gingers, but for him I’d make an exception. He has the body
of a lineman –the kind that you can tell is all hard muscle and not
just extra padding around the midsection.”

“
I don’t care how they
look,” I whispered and hoped her heard the frustration in my voice.
“Is the shorter one watching me?”

“
I never said he was short–
just not as tall as his friend.” Bree casually glanced again. “Yep,
Mr. Abercrombie and Fitch Underwear Model is totally
checking
us
out –
like staring us down.”

“
Thought so,” I mumbled,
nervously rubbing my arms.

The tension grew in my back when he
stood up and walked closer. The chill flooded my bones. I couldn’t
even choke down a minuscule of spit. I wiped my clammy hands on my
pants.

“
A Hershey’s Kiss has more
fat than his entire body! Speaking of kissing, he looks like the
type who’s had
lots
of practice. You know I have a thing for chiseled eye candy,
especially brown haired, brown-eyed ones, Dibs!”

“
Have them both,” I
muttered.

The closer he walked, the more
nauseated I became. When he crossed the lane beside us, my
ice-cream decided it was going to part ways with my digestive
system prematurely. Clutching my stomach, I cued to Bree that the
chances of me throwing up, were high.

She started to argue, but wasted no
time racing me to the restroom when I started gagging. I held onto
her hand, allowing her to lead me, since I was trying my best not
to make a mess in public. Once safely inside the privacy of the
girl’s room, she said that I was burning up. I flung open the metal
door to a bathroom stall.

Gripping the sides of the plastic
seat, I tried not to think too hard about when the last time the
toilet was cleaned. I dry heaved into the butt-water long after my
stomach was empty. When I was sure I was done, I took a deep breath
and pushed off the seat. Trading the toilet for the sink, I
splashed water on my face. The cool water streamed down my eyes,
when a vision I could describe to a tee flickered in my
mind.

A moonless night was
illuminated by the fire crawling across a young man’s bare back. He
kneeled in the sand and faced the ocean. Blue hues danced from his
skin, transforming into brilliant oranges and yellows flames. Waves
crashed against the shore, echoing in the night. He made no effort
to run into the cool water; instead he picked up a stone
half-buried in the sand and threw it into the ocean. The longer it
rippled in the water, the more clenched his fist became. His
muscular arms glistened with blood and sweat, as if he’d just
finished fighting even though he bore no combat
injuries.

“
Are you coming down with
something, or was this an adverse affect of being checked out?”
Bree joked, jolting me from my vision. She handed me a wad of paper
towels.

“
Not faking. Believe me. I
can come up with a better way of not talking to a guy that doesn’t
involve sticking my face in a public toilet,” I assured
her.

“
We’ll call it a night
then. I’ll pull the wheels around.”

“
If you tell Ryker I just
lost my lunch, I’ll die of embarrassment,” I stated.

“
Would you prefer I make up
a lie about you needing a miniature body bag since it’s your time
of the month, or would you rather I tell him you got sick
spontaneously after a sizzling hottie tottie looked our
way?”

She had a point. “Just tell him I
don’t feel the best. There’s no need to tell him every single
detail.”

I dried my face and followed her out
of the bathroom. My stomach was still jumping so I didn’t want to
be far from the bathroom. I didn’t have to say anything about my
nerves; Bree found me an empty table close to the exit and bathroom
without me having to mention anything about feeling unease. She
then left to snatch my shoes and inform Ryker about our impromptu
departure.

I closed my eyes and willed the nausea
to pass. It didn’t work. In addition to my stomach pains, my head
gradually began to ache. It wasn’t long before it pounded. I wished
it wasn’t such a long, sloppy ordeal to “say good-bye” to
Ryker.

“
May I?” A deep, masculine
voice drowned every sound in the bustling hangout.

My skin crawled. I couldn’t decide
what made bothered me more – that I didn’t hear him walking up
behind me, or that he smelled of a rich, unlit cigar, but more
otherworldly. Digging my nails into my palms, I focused on
breathing, since my tongue refused to work properly.

He pulled out the chair next to me. An
ear-splittingly screech pierced my ears as the chair’s legs slid
across the tiled floor. I wanted to blatantly cover my ears but
stopped myself solely because Bree would lecture me to no end if I
had acted like a baboon around a potential boyfriend.

I clenched my jaw to keep from saying
something obscene. The smoky outline of his hand reached for mine,
which were resting on the table. I quickly slipped my hands into my
lap. He cautiously leaned closer to me. I pushed on the floor,
creating distance between us. The chair scarcely moved before he
grabbed its back, stopping my retreat. His hand tightened around
the chair; however, he was careful never to lay a finger on
me.

I opened my eyes and stared
at the white figure where a normal dark shadow
should
have been. His shimmering
refection suggested that he was athletic, but I couldn’t get a
grasp on his actual physique. The light played tricks, not giving
me any indication of his actual size.

“
Sea blue with a touch of
hazel trying to conquer your right,” he said, confirming my eye
color.

The deep subtleties of voice sounded
familiar. Even the way he spoke, like he was half-heartedly singing
a melody, reminded me of tune long forgotten.

“
Heterochromia,” he said.
“Ocean-eyes.”

His hot breath hit my neck, making me
relax. The pounding in my head became a distant memory. Sound waves
no longer broke the laws of physics. My stomach eased. I only hoped
the sweat dripping along my hairline wasn’t blatant. A rewarding
groan rose from his chest when I finally took a deep breath. My
lungs no longer felt like they were going to collapse.

“
I’ve been looking for you,
Deino.” He spoke the name so softly, I almost didn’t hear it. The
deep vibrations of his voice soothed the buzz in my ears. It was as
if his mere words could caress me from the inside out. It literally
sounded too good to be true.

“
You have the wrong girl.”
I reassured him.

“
I’ve heard that once or
twice,” He chuckled. Much to my protest, the beginning of a smile
grew on my face. “Glad you’re feeling better…”

“
Winnie,” Bree piped up,
giving out my name as she walked up behind me. She set my boots and
Stella on the table. “Patterson,” she added to my mortification,
breaking an implicit oath never to give away too much information
to the opposite sex. I was especially annoyed since I’d planned on
telling him my name was Patty – the name I gave out to all
potential stalkers.

“
It’s Gwyneth,” I
corrected. If he was going to know who I was, I’d be damned if he
address me by my nickname.

“
Gwyneth Patterson, I hope
you feel better soon,” he said, memorizing my name. “Need any help
getting her home, Miss?”

I tried to keep from biting my lip. If
a voice could be lickable, his was. Instead of answering, I busied
myself by upgrading my shoes. Any foot-wear, even these ridiculous
boots, had to be better than bowling shoes.

“
Call me Bree, all my
friends do!” Her voice rose with exhilaration. He had to be
ludicrously good-looking – on an unfathomable level if Bree was
going to flirt with a guy while Ryker was nearby – or at least
within hearing distance. The table shook when she sat along the
edge. I had to bite my tongue to stop from telling him her name was
actually Breanne Jackson. Lacing up my boots, I kicked the shoes
aside.

“
I haven’t seen you around
these parts. Are you new to town?” she asked a little too hopeful
to sound casual.

“
It seems that Fate brought
me here,” he muttered. His words hung in the air like he’d sung.
“My name’s Jace.”

“
Well Jace, are you going
to be attending McKesson High?” Bree asked. Not pausing for an
answer, she said, “I’d be more than happy to show you around. I’d
give you a heads up on what teachers are push-overs and the ones
who are homework Nazis.”

“
I’m checking out a few
places that have open enrollment,” he said. “I usually don’t enroll
in public schools.”