Kaleidoscope (Faylinn Series) (11 page)

“Callie?” his voice held concern. “Cal, you okay? What’s on your mind?”

“What?” I shook out of my daze.

“You look lost. Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah,” I said as reassuringly as I could. “Yeah, I’m great. I’m at my favorite restaurant. Eating my favorite food, hanging with my favorite person. What could be wrong?”

He tilted his head to the side, scrutinizing me, having forgotten about the plate in front of him. “I don’t know. But it’s something.”

I shrugged.

“Talk to me.” Cameron peered at me over the table, his familiar blue eyes capturing me and I nearly poured out my heart. How did he know how to do that? This part hadn’t occurred to me when I had agreed to a night alone with him. Without the distraction of Isla, Cameron could observe me. What if he could see a difference? What if I was starting to look different?

“It’s just good to be here with you,” I said, munching on another bite of greens to deflect the topic. “I’ve missed this.”

He nodded, hesitantly accepting my answer. It wasn’t as if I was lying. I did miss this. The casual comfort of being near him. He was my other home.

“I’m glad we did this too. I still want for us all to get together, but we have to make our nights too. There’s so much less pressure when I’m with you, you know?” He looked down at his plate as if he finally remembered it was there. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely not tired of Isla. I don’t think I’ll ever be, but—”

“I get what you mean, Cam,” I cut him off before he could ramble on and on about how perfect she was. I hoped it wasn’t too obvious. “You don’t have to explain yourself. I know you. You know me. It’s easy.”

“Yeah,” he agreed and smiled easily.

I didn’t want to be easy for him. Comfortable, yes. Happy, yes. Effortless, yes. But easy. . .you never wanted to be someone’s choice because it was simply easier. I’d never let myself be that to him. It was a turn in my feelings for him. I needed to accept that our relationship would never be romantic. I was just his best friend, Cal. Someone it was easy to spend time with.

We didn’t speak for a few minutes, eating in a comfortable silence. After several rounds back to the salad bar, the food hit the spot, totally satisfying my Green House craving. When I looked up from my empty plate to him, he was watching me. My stomach twirled under his scrutinizing ocean eyes.

“Do I have something on my face?” I asked, wiping the corners of my lips.

“No.” He looked thoughtful, gazing at me as if I were someone different, like he’d never looked at me before. I cleared my throat and tried to keep confident eye contact, but failed a couple times and dropped my eyes back to my empty plate. He blinked and shook his head. “Did you get enough to eat?”

I grinned. “I’m stuffed. Completely content.” I leaned back in my chair, stretching out my stomach. “You?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “The night’s still young. Do you want to do a movie or something?”

Did he really need to ask?
“Sure.”

We pulled into the parking lot of the movie theater and Cameron said, “I have to pee.”

“You should probably do that in the bathroom,” I advised.

He nodded. “The parking lot might cause a little bit of a scene.”

“These people came to see a movie not a peep show.”

He chuckled. “Dangit.”

Cameron paid for the tickets without question or comment and I thanked him again.

“You do the bathroom,” I said. “I’ll get popcorn and meet you in the theater.”

“Deal.” He nodded once.

When I walked in, snacks in one hand, drink in the other, Cameron had saved me a seat next to him in the back row, our usual spot.

“Light butter?” he asked.

I nodded as he held his hand out to me. He didn’t even have to ask; I knew he wanted the chocolate covered raisins I hadn’t shown him yet to mix in the popcorn. He knew just how I liked it.

Once the lights in the theater lowered to a dim glow an unusual tension encompassed Cameron and me. I wasn’t sure if he felt it, but I definitely did. Going to the movies had always been casual before, but now that he had Isla it felt like we were crossing into enemy territory, a boundary that shouldn’t be passed. It wasn’t unlike him to curl his arm around me during movies in the past, but now it seemed like he didn’t know what to do with himself. During the entire movie he was shifting in his seat, situating and resituating the placement of his hands. He’d rest his arm on the armrest between us then shift to the other side, then cross his arms in front of his chest and sigh. After finishing the popcorn I stuck with the arms across the chest approach. It made things easier. I didn’t know why he was so anxious.

When the lights came up, he let me pass in front of him and followed me to the exit. As we walked to his jeep, he wrapped his arm across my shoulder, enfolding me close to his warm body. “Thanks for coming out with me tonight.”

“Thanks for not ditching out on me.” I smiled and nudged my head into his shoulder.

He squeezed my shoulder once and slowly trailed his fingers down my arm, uncontrollably tickling my stomach, before releasing me as we approached the jeep.

The ride to my house was silent as we drove through the still darkness, which normally wouldn’t bother me, but it wasn’t our typical comfortable silence. We had a thousand pound mammoth in the backseat peering over our shoulders as we awkwardly tried to act natural. Cameron pulled into my driveway as the digits on his clock above the stereo read 10:57 pm.

I hopped down from the passenger’s seat. “Thanks again, Cam. I had a lot of fun.”

“Me too, Cal.” The look in his eyes changed again, like he was trying to figure me out which was the last thing I needed right now. Having Cameron dissect my appearance now was dangerous. He might notice something about me before I did. But there was something more in his eyes. Something that resembled longing.

“I’ll see you Monday,” he said after clearing his throat. He had to feel it too. It couldn’t just be me. He had to detect the difference.

I nodded and closed the door, waving as I walked away. Once I was safely in the house, his car pulled away.

At the sight of my bed, I could instantly hear it calling my name. The exhausting day hit me. I sat at my armoire and put my curls into a messy bun on the top of my head, pulling the strands away from my face before putting on moisturizer.

After leaving Cam though it felt strange, I felt satisfied. I had my Cameron fix. I could probably let Isla take my best friend for a few more weeks before I felt neglected again. At least now I knew he still cared. He still wanted me in his life.

When I turned my face up to the mirror, taking in my appearance, my eyes bulged and I stifled a scream. I frantically turned each side of my face to the mirror, examining the foreign growth. It was really happening. It wasn’t as if I could turn back now even though I wanted to. My ears had begun to form delicate points.

I
dodged my parents all day Sunday. My excuse was that I had a ton of homework I needed to concentrate on and shouldn’t be disturbed, which was a bunch of bull. I locked myself in my room. What I really needed was to test different hairstyles to figure out the best way to cover up these babies. There was no way I could do that if my mom was constantly coming in and out of my room. With every creak and every thud, I jumped, thinking there was someone at my door.

At midday I heard a faint knock on my door and the sound of my dad calling my name. It nearly made me fall off my chair.

“Come in,” I said and pulled my hair down around my ears in case Mom was with him.

He peered around the door and stepped inside alone. “Is everything okay?” I gave him a helpless look and he rushed to my side. “What changed?”

I pulled my hair behind my ears to reveal the tips. Of all things I was expecting, a smile was not one of them, but it formed on his face as if I just told him I got a 4.0. Was that pride in his eyes?

“Dad?” I prompted.

His voice was quiet as his bottom lip quivered. “I haven’t seen those in so long I almost forgot what a faery looked like,” he said softly

Sentimental. Really. He was getting sentimental on me?
“Dad,” I repeated, my voice reprimanding him.

“I’m sorry.” He swallowed, blinking back what could have been tears. “Right. Your ears.” He couldn’t stop looking at them. “It won’t be easy to hide those.”

“You think? I can’t keep these from Mom.”

A deep breath of air flowed from his mouth as he ran a hand over his face and his faded green eyes finally met mine. “You’re going to have to try.”

“But, Dad—”

“She’s got a lot on her plate right now, Calliope,” he interrupted. “I cannot add this to it.”

“You say that as if it’s
her
burden to bear.” I threw my hand to the closed bedroom door.

“This affects us all, Calliope,” he chastised.

“Oh really. Because the last time I checked, your ears looked pretty rounded and normal to me.”

The stern look that crossed his face made me shut my mouth. I’d never seen my dad so wound up. He was normally the laid back one in the house. Zen. Which made sense now that I knew he lived in a forest for the majority of his life. But why was it so important to keep this from my mom? I understood that this case was a big deal. I understood that it could completely rock her world, but this was a lot for me to process on my own. And I didn’t want to live a lie. I wanted to be able to live and talk freely in my home.

“I’ll tell her. Just not yet. We have to wait for this case to be over. If her concentration is tampered with, she could lose and this vile criminal could get off. This case is really important to her, Calliope.”

I sighed. I knew it was. She’d been building this case for months and months. It was
the
case. The one she had fixated on for years, doing everything in her power to keep this man behind bars before his trial. I saw his point, but it was going to be far from easy. Not that any of this had been easy thus far. Nothing was easy anymore. Everything was complicated. I was spinning more webs full of lies and if I wasn’t careful I was going to get caught in one of them. I didn’t want this.

“Just give it a few more weeks,” he pressed.

“As if I have a choice.”

“Thank you, Calliope.” He leaned down and kissed the top of my head. “Hair looks good by the way.”

I laughed without humor and offered him a smile. “Thanks.”

Luckily, the next morning I slipped out of the house undetected and made my way to school. If my mom had been around, she would have figured something was up. I hadn’t gained control of myself yet. I needed to get my bearings before being able to confront her without suspicion.

I made my hair extra curly and braided it in two, making sure not to tuck it behind my ears. I hadn’t braided my hair since I was twelve. It was probably a horrible idea to go to school in the first place, but I had to go. I couldn’t not go to school ever again. I still had a life, a human life that I was going to cling to for as long as I could. I would not go to Faylinn and be forced to live among the Nesters as a slave to Favner. My body was not his to use as an instrument for reproduction. That was going to be decided by me and the future Mr. Whoever when the time was right.

My nerves were spiraling in chaos underneath my skin. Every eye that I caught in the hallway was judging me. Examining my every move. I touched an ear nonchalantly, self-consciously. It was safely nestled underneath my nest of hair, as I was sure it would stay if I would just stop touching it.

I saw the back of Cameron’s head by our lockers. Maybe it was because I was so conscious of my ears now, but when my eyes found him they went straight to his perfectly round ears, his blonde hair brushing the tops. Isla wasn’t with him, thank goodness. The fewer people I talked to today the better, at least until I figured out how to hide these things better.

“Hey,” I said, breathless, and hid behind my locker door, searching for my English book.

“Mornin’,” he replied, still rummaging in his locker.

I focused on my breathing. That was where I would keep my composure. If my hyperventilation didn’t slow down, it was going to make me faint and cause a very unnecessary scene in the middle of the hallway. I was being paranoid. Cameron wasn’t going to notice anything was different if I simply acted natural.

I heard him close his locker door. “Isla’s still throwing up.”

“That’s disgusting.”

“Tell me about it.” He sighed and came to stand on the other side of my locker door, in view of me. I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn’t want to seem flustered or out of character. I continued to sort through my locker, hoping he’d leave so I wouldn’t have to have an actual conversation with him. “Calliope, you’ve got something in your hair.” He lifted his hand, pointing.

My hands flew to my ears, fluffing my hair out over them.
My other ear
. The wind had moved my hair just enough for a point to barely poke out through the blonde curls and I had missed it. I knew people were looking at me funny. This was going to be harder than I had thought.

“Cal,” he prompted. “What was that?”

I attempted to play stupid. I knew it wouldn’t work for long, but I had to stall to think. “Oh. . .I don’t know,” I said, clipped, closing my locker. “Must have been a leaf or something.”

He chortled. “Oh, c’mon. That didn’t look like a leaf.” He reached out to touch my hair and I stepped back.

I was supposed to keep this world from Cameron, but he was making it very difficult. And I was doing a terrible job at seeming normal.

He laughed again. “Take a chill pill. What’s up with you today?”

I was becoming a faery. There wasn’t any denying it anymore, as much as I wanted to. As much as I didn’t want it to be true, it was happening, just as Declan and Kai had predicted. If there was one person I needed more than ever now, it was Cameron. I had proof now. He’d probably scream like a girl at first, but he would know what to say to me. He would know what to do.

“Cam, meet me after school.”

“What?”

“Just meet me after school,” I persisted.