Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series) (15 page)

A burst of air shot out from between Brie's lips. "I guess people from New York care about things that people from Honolulu don't."

Pilot thought about it for a minute. "No, I think most of them care about the same things. Rykken is just different."

Brie nodded, biting the inside of her cheek. Her cheek dimpled and she stared at the ground.

"It bothers you, doesn't it?" Pilot asked.

"No. It's my fault. Everything is my fault right now."

"True..." Pilot laughed, blocking Brie's attempt to punch him in the arm. "I'll talk to Rykken. I'll make him forgive you."

"Don't."

"I sort of already did. You didn't leave much of a bruise on his face anyway." Pilot laughed. "But it
was
hilarious when Justin told everyone that Rykken had been punched by a girl over the weekend. That was after he told everyone about that necklace Rykken found."

Brie gave him a half-hearted smile. "Tell me what's going on in your life now."

Pilot noticed the not-so-subtle shift in topic. He tried to think of something that might distract her from whatever she was upset about. "Well, I met a girl."

"Really?" Brie perked up. "Does she go to our school? Is she coming to the party tonight?"

"Yes, no, definitely not." Pilot shuddered. "I don't want to introduce her to family and friends yet. The media finds out and then it complicates things."

He realized too late how that might sound to Brie, but she didn't seem surprised or offended. "What is she into?" Brie asked.

Pilot felt his grin spread across his face like an infection. "Magic and Mentos." Brie raised an eyebrow, but Pilot felt something warm rise from his chest. "I don't really know, since we haven't even had a real date yet." He leaned forward, resting his chin on his entwined fingers. "She's really different though. Not like other high school girls."

Brie's expression hardened. "What are
other
high school girls like?"

"Ugh," Pilot said. "They're self-conscious and full of drama. And they're always clustering together and laughing at stupid things."

Brie seemed a little surprised by his answer, and a little lost in thought. After a few seconds, her expression returned to normal. "That's great that you met a girl." She squeezed Pilot's arm. "I'm really happy for you."

He smiled. "You should come downstairs. People are already here."

"I'm not sure I can face James in front of all those people."

"I don't understand how you can face the paparazzi, but you can't face your own father."

"It's not just him. I got in a fight with one of my friends also. And then there's Rykken."

"You have to suck it up." Pilot sighed. "You're thinking that you have to face them all at the same time. Just start with one."

Pilot could see the gears turning in Brie's head. "Fine," she said. "Who should I start with?"

His smirk was unavoidable. "I think you know who."

*****

Brie checked her makeup in the mirror one last time before she went downstairs with Pilot. She was dreading an entire evening with James, Rykken, the Hallows, and a bunch of people she didn't know very well, but was supposed to be friends with.

Rykken stood in the kitchen alone, putting together a vegetable tray and humming to himself. He moved easily between the counters, pulling utensils and containers from the cabinets without having to search. Brie marveled at how well he knew their house.

"Go." Pilot pushed her through the kitchen archway. He then slipped out through the sliding glass door onto the balcony and gently shut the door behind him.

Rykken turned around, brushing off his hands on his board shorts.

"Hey," Brie said tentatively, announcing herself.

He eyed her warily. "Hey."

The warm tones of the room contrasted Rykken's icy demeanor. Brie stole a raw carrot from the vegetable tray. "Do you want any help?" she asked sheepishly, crunching the carrot with her jaw.

"Not from you."

Brie sighed and walked to the fridge. She pulled out a huge bowl of macaroni salad and spooned it into a dish.

Rykken grabbed a spoon from the dishwasher and took a swipe of the salad, putting it in his mouth.

"This is awesome. Who made it?"

Brie looked at him cautiously. "Me."

Rykken's spoon free fell into the sink with a loud clank.

"It's my mom's recipe. She used to make it for us in the summer."

"Fascinating."

Brie grabbed her own spoon and took a bite of the macaroni salad she had just ladled into the bowl.

It reminded her of spending summers with Christy, Lauren, and Adele; back when the four of them were friends. Before her mother had passed away.

Outside, someone shrieked, ripping Brie from her thoughts. Brie breathed a sigh of relief when the sounds of splashing and laughter followed. It seemed like the party was well underway.

Brie set her spoon on the counter. "We need to talk."

Rykken popped a cherry tomato into his mouth and chewed it slowly. He swallowed with a huge gulp. "I don't need to talk."

Brie glowered. "Look. I want to apologize again for slapping you."

Rykken's laugh didn't help matters. "That's not what I'm mad at you for." He turned his back to her and grabbed a soda from the fridge. "You still don't get it," he said, cracking open the top on his cola.

"I knew you wouldn't. It's easier if you leave me alone."

Brie tried to keep her voice from trembling. "You're right, I don't understand. Tell me what's wrong so I can apologize and make it right."

"It doesn't work like that. You can't apologize for something you don't even think you did wrong."

"But Pilot wants us to be friends, so I'm trying to make things right between us."

Rykken cringed, a glimmer of hurt in his eyes. "You also can't apologize to someone to make the person you care about happy."

"Why do you hate me?" The words tumbled out of Brie's mouth against her will. She wanted desperately to know the answer, but she regretted asking it instantly.

Rykken locked eyes with her, intense and brooding as ever. Her body tensed, and she cowered away from him—but he didn't yell. He also didn't deny it. "You represent everything I hate."

Brie put her hands on the kitchen counter to support her anxious body. "And what would that be?" she asked quietly.

"Everything," Rykken said. "You're superficial. Your dad buys you whatever you want, and you're terrible to him. You get anything else you want with your looks. Everyone at school wants to be friends with you because your dad is famous, and you let them so you can feel special."

"What don't you get about my life?" Brie asked. "I didn't
ask
for any of this."

"Well I didn't ask to be found in a dumpster nearly dead when I was two years old. I didn't ask for my parents to abandon me. I didn't ask to be brought up in foster care my entire life." Rykken shifted his attention to the floor, stirring his foot around one of the tiles. "But I don't let it be an excuse.

I used my Hawaiian heritage to get scholarships, and I worked my butt off to get into Punahou so I can go to a good college."

Brie tried to hide her pity from her face. "It's not fair to assume my life isn't hard just because yours has been harder," she argued.

"That's not my point." Rykken picked up a magazine lying on the counter, and held it in front of Brie's face. "My point is why is
this
always an excuse for your actions?" On the cover was a picture of Brie holding a hibiscus over her mother's coffin. It wasn't a cover she had seen yet, but the image gripped her. She didn't know if he meant that she used her fame as an excuse or her mom's death as an excuse. Probably both.

Rykken drilled into her eyes expectantly. "I don't know what to say," Brie confessed.

He scoffed. "Don't say anything then. At least you're consistent."

For some reason, this comment more than any of the others made Brie furious. She was done apologizing to Rykken and side-stepping the eggshells of his broken ego. She tried to think logically.

What was the minimum she needed tonight?

"Fine," she remarked, in a tone as businesslike and free of emotion as she could muster. "We don't have to get along and you don't have to like me. I'll just get to the point." Her voice was steady, but her entire body was shaking. "I need to see that pendant we found last Saturday."

"What?" Rykken looked truly dumbfounded, like she'd slapped him in the face again.

"I need to borrow it." Brie racked her brain for an argument that would resonate with Rykken. "I can't explain why, but if you care about Pilot at all, you'll give it to me."

"What does Pilot have to do with the pendant?" Rykken seemed extremely tired all of a sudden.

Brie wondered how much she should say. "I'm using it to protect him," she said quietly. "You can't tell him though."

"I won't, because I'm not giving it to you. I don't care what you need it for."

She walked over to him and grabbed his arms. "Look at me," she said desperately, searching his eyes.

"
Everything
depends on you giving me that pendant."

"Why?" he asked, still not looking at her.

"I can't explain it to you. I just need it."

Finally, he met her eyes. It only took one second for Brie to see his answer.

"Fine," Brie said, backing away. "I won't bother you again." Rykken said nothing as she turned and walked away from him.

"And by the way, I hate you," she said, her back to him as she opened the glass door to the balcony.

"I know."

"And I'll never forgive you for this."

Brie stalked off outside, fuming. She barely heard Rykken's mumbled reply, "That was the point."

In an attempt to hide her tears, Brie half skipped, half-jogged to the deep end of the pool.

"Brie!" someone shouted across the yard. Brie ignored the voice and climbed the high dive ladder.

Once at the top, she did a running jump and dove headfirst into the water.

*****

As Brie stormed out of the kitchen, Rykken leaned against the stainless steel refrigerator door, crushing an empty soda can in his hand. What was that? He had no idea where all that anger came from.

But that wasn't completely true—he did have
some
clue, didn't he? Rykken was on the defensive as soon as Brie had tried to take the pendant from him, making up some absurd excuse about why she needed it to play on his emotions. As much as he hated the pendant, he didn't want her to have it. If it was bad for him, he'd rather find a way to destroy it than let anyone else own it.

Absentmindedly, Rykken pulled his spoon out of the sink and dipped into the macaroni salad again.

Rykken looked around. It was hard to believe Brie had even set foot in a kitchen, much less prepared the delicious salad he was eating. She didn't seem like the domestic type. He turned around and opened the fridge, pulling out another cola even though he wasn't thirsty. He cracked it open and thumbed through the magazine on the counter, not really looking at the pages. He wasn't sure if he should leave now or wait for Pilot to come after him. There was no way he wasn't going to hear about what had just happened.

The door opened, and Pilot entered. "Hey guy."

Rykken's throat constricted. "Are you here for Brie?"

No," he said. He smiled. "She just did a flip off the high dive. Such a show off." Pilot chuckled as he opened a bag of potato chips and poured it into a bowl. "James is too busy signing autographs for the cheerleaders to be a good host. I guess someone has to be the adult around here." Pilot's gaze flitted across the counter. "Are you actually reading that trash?"

"Brie didn't say anything to you?" Rykken asked, ignoring his question.

Pilot grabbed a handful of chips and shoved them into his mouth. "Nove, whud vood zhi zhay do mwe?"

"Dude, that's disgusting." Rykken laughed in relief. "And no, I'm not reading this idiotic crap. Do you want help carrying anything?"

Pilot swallowed loudly, smacking his lips. "Can you grab some more burger? Eric volunteered to barbecue, but he destroyed the last batch." Pilot paused. "Actually, Brie did say something to me earlier. She doesn't hate you. And she wishes you didn't hate her."

Rykken stopped in the middle of the kitchen, almost dropping the tray of burgers he had just pulled from the fridge. "She said that, huh?"

"Yep." Pilot grabbed the burger tray, holding it steady. "Did she apologize for the face slap?"

"I mean, yeah."

"So are you two cool now?"

"Yeah," Rykken lied. "Of course."

"Good." Pilot looked around. "While we're here alone—the pendant." His voice dropped to a whisper.

"Did it..."

Rykken cringed. He reached into his shirt and pulled out the heavy emerald pendant with the silver crescent moon encrusted in the center. "Did it what, Pilot?" he asked. "Did it appear out of nowhere and attach itself around my neck while I was sleeping, even though I threw it into a fire at least five miles away?" Rykken heard his voice rising.

Pilot stared wide-eyed at the pendant. "Can you take it off?"

"Of course. How else would I throw it in a fire?" Rykken slipped the pendant off his neck and set it on the table. Pilot reached his hand out to pick it up, then withdrew.

"Afraid to touch it?" Rykken smirked.

"No," Pilot said defiantly. "I already have, haven't I? At the tonkatsu place." He picked up the pendant, letting it spin around its own chain.

"Look at me," Rykken said. Pilot had trouble tearing his eyes from the pendant. "You can have it.

But promise me you
won't
put it on."

"Sure." Pilot seemed dazed, dazzled by the glint of the silver moon. The pendant looked rather plain to Rykken though; he couldn't see what had captured his interest initially.

Rykken's head cleared, like he had shaken a cloud of fog from his mind and an invading force from his body. "I'm serious, dude. There's some freaky shit going on with that pendant." Rykken felt better than he had in days, but he had a terrible feeling about giving his best friend the pendant. "Maybe I should take it back," he said. Brie's words struck Rykken, echoing in his head.
If you care about Pilot
at all, you'll give it to me.