The Lost Girl (8 page)

I shuffled my feet self-consciously. “Am not,” I protested. “I was never good at charming anyone, you know that. How many times did you have to help me with my seduction skills back at school? If it wasn’t for your lessons I would have never gotten together with Tristan, remember? Remember when I only wore boys’ clothes? I was hopeless. You saved me!” I said, throwing my arms up in the air.

She laughed at my theatrics. “Yes, you
were
hopeless back then. But look at you now! My baby girl is all grown up!” She pinched my cheeks proudly and we ended up reminiscing about the old days at our boarding school.

The afternoon passed by in a cheerful mood, with everybody joking, laughing, playing around and relaxing in the sun. By the end of the day, the boys were all excited about the raging party that was supposedly happening later at some trendy club downtown. Amanda and Tiffany were already discussing what clothes to wear, and everybody began drifting off to start getting ready for the night out.

I watched Tristan as he walked up the stairs with a spring in his step to take his bath, excited to be going out tonight. I hunched down on the living-room couch and sulked: I
really
didn’t want to go out tonight. I didn’t want to deal with people in another crowded and stuffy room. I wasn’t in the mood to dance, or drink, or tell people over and over again about what happened in that bookstore. I just wanted to relax in my own home, drink some tea and go to bed.

“Hey, what’s the matter, Joey?” Harry asked as he walked by the couch and noticed me sulking by myself.

“Do you think there’s any way I could weasel out of going to this thing?” I mumbled, staring at my feet.

“You don’t wanna go?” he asked curiously, and then chuckled as I pulled a face. “If you don’t wanna go, don’t go.”

“Yeah, but … everybody’s going …”

“So?” he said, and then he paused, like he was just realizing something. “Stay here with me,” he proposed. “I’m not in the mood to go out, either. I think I’ll stay home tonight. You can stay with me.”

“Harry. You don’t need to do that. I know you want to go …”

“Please, Joe. I need to make it up to you. Let me do this?” He smiled and wrapped an arm around me.

“Okay,” I agreed, after seeing his pleading eyes. I was so relieved that I wouldn’t be on my own anymore.

“Great, then,” he said, slapping my back lightly, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek and standing up.

“Harry …?” I called after him, making him stop and turn to look at me. “Thank you.”

His smile was big and he shot me a quick nod before leaving.

I walked upstairs to talk to Tristan about my last-minute night-out cancelation.

He was leaning over the bathroom sink with a white towel wrapped low around his waist, smearing shaving cream over his jaw.

“Hey, I’m about to hit the shower. I’ll be ready in a minute,” he said, glancing quickly at me. “You don’t look too excited.”

“Yeah, I’m not really in the mood for this, Tris.”

He stopped mid-shave. “You don’t wanna go?”

“Sorry, no.”

He furrowed his brow, clearly disappointed at the news. “Are you sure? We never go to these kinds of parties with the boys … It might be fun. Plus, it’s a very selective guest list. All our close friends are going to be there.” He looked at me for a few seconds and then sighed in resignation. “Well … I guess you are right. It will be a loud night and probably bad for your head; we should stay home and get some rest.”

“What? No, you don’t need to stay with me,” I protested. “You can go with the boys. I’ll be fine here.”

“What are you talking about, Joe? I’m not going without you.” He turned to look at me, clearly annoyed.

“Why not? You’re not glued to me. Just because I’m not going it doesn’t mean you can’t go, either. We have been to lots of events before without each other!” I felt bad; I could see in his eyes how much he wanted to go out tonight.

“That’s different. Those were job-related events,” he stated, leaning his hip against the sink and crossing his arms over his chest with a stubborn scowl. “If you’re not going, I’m not going. I’m not leaving you here all alone, especially after what happened yesterday.”

“That’s very sweet of you, Tris, but you don’t have to worry. Harry is going to stay with me. He’s not in the mood for going out, either,” I reasoned.

He pursed his lips, not really sure what he was going to do.

“Come on, Tris. Please say you’ll go? I’ll feel like crap if you have to stay here because of me, and then you’ll resent me later for having missed all the fun. I’ll feel
obligated to go, just so I won’t ruin the night for you,” I exclaimed, moving closer to him and wrapping my arms around his waist. “Please, Tris. Say you’ll go? This way I’ll be happy about staying and you’ll be happy about going, so we’ll both be happy. What do you say?” I gave him my best puppy-dog eyes.

He chuckled and, after a moment, conceded defeat. “All right, Buttons. I’ll go.”

“Yay!” I exclaimed and stood on my tiptoes, giving him a small peck on the lips, getting shaving cream all over my face. He laughed and wiped the cream off my nose before going back to his shaving.

When everybody was ready to leave, Tiffany whined a little about me and Harry not going, but she dropped it when she saw how adamant I was about staying home.

It was just me and Harry tonight.

“So, are you ready to kick some zombie ass?” he asked, waving our favorite video game in his hands, after everybody had left.

“Hell, yeah!” I shouted happily.

After a few hours spent contentedly killing zombies, Harry and I decided to call it a night, and I went for a quick shower before hitting the sack. I had the water running and was feeling quite happy and relaxed when a shiver ran up my spine, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up: that eerie feeling was back, putting me uncomfortably on edge again.

I shook my head and tried to get back to enjoying my steamy shower. Then I caught a shadow moving by the bathroom door. It was so subtle and fast, I could almost swear it was only a trick of the light.

I quickly turned off the shower and stepped into the middle of the bathroom, wrapping a towel around me in a protective gesture. I was about to shout to see if there was anybody outside in my room when I realized that would be the most dumb thing in the world to do.
What was I? Stupid?
This wasn’t a horror movie! And if it was, I sure as hell wasn’t going to be one of those bimbo girls that always got themselves killed off doing idotic things in the few first minutes. If there really was a psycho in my room, he
wasn’t going to reply, “Sure, I’m right here, watching TV and waiting for you to get out of that freaking long shower. By the way, be a doll and toss me that knife there on the nightstand, will ya? I wanna hurry up with the atrocious murder; my favorite show is about to start!”

Maybe I really was losing my mind here, seeing shadows lurking in the dark, waiting to get me. But what if that boy from the bookstore had broken into the house and was here now, waiting for me, in that dark room? I looked around urgently, searching for something I could use as a weapon.

As it turned out, bathroom facilities aren’t particularly great at doubling as weapon storage. Unless I wanted to soap the killer to death, or tie him up with toilet paper, there was nothing I could use to protect myself. Curses!

Well, I guess I did have my martial arts training to put to use. But then again, martial arts were all fine and dandy until the murderous bastard appeared with a gun in his hands. No amount of karate chops can counter a bullet to the head …

I stepped out of the bathroom into the darkness of my room, and turned on the lights. There wasn’t anyone there.

Yeah, that’s what the murderous dude wants me to think, right? To relax and let my guard down. Then he’ll be inside the closet or under the bed, waiting to murder me … with that knife he left on the nightstand while he was watching TV!

I searched under the bed, and then inside the closets. If this had been a horror movie, a scary soundtrack would have been playing in the background this entire time.

It had just been a tricky play of lights and shadows again. There was nothing to worry about. Maybe if I repeated this
to myself a dozen times, over and over, I could convince my jittery nerves …

After I was done inspecting my room, I quickly got dressed and left my bedroom to inspect the dark living room downstairs. Silhouettes and smudges of light danced around the quiet room, branches and leaves on the trees outside creating shadows that played over the walls and floorboards. Suddenly I could see things moving everywhere, and hear suspicious, creaky noises teased out from all around the room, with unseen threats lurking in the corners of my eyes.

Panic started to rise up in my chest and my heart pounded. My body’s instincts screamed for me to run.
Run. Run! You need to get out of here! Now!

I was completely taken over by fear as I bolted upstairs for Harry’s room, yanking the door open and running inside without thinking twice. His room was completely dark, so I turned on his lights, shouting his name at the top of my voice.

Harry shot upright in his bed, momentarily blinded by the bright lights bursting unexpectedly through the room.

“WHAT? What? Is it a fire?” he asked groggily, trying to understand what the hell was going on. I glanced around his room, searching for lurking shadows or any murderous strangers holding big scary knives, but found nothing out of place. Only Harry staring back at me with a stunned expression.

Boy
. Talk about being embarrassed now!

“Erm … Sorry about barging in like that. I-I just wanted to know … if I could stay with you until Tristan comes back?” I mumbled, all red in the face. No way in hell was I going to stay in my room all alone tonight.

Maybe I hadn’t left the bookstore incident so far behind me after all. I’d thought I was over it, but this embarrassing meltdown was proof that maybe that wasn’t the case.

I was glad when Harry agreed to stay with me. I would have been scared out of my mind if I’d been all alone in this house. Harry sighed, relieved that the house wasn’t in fact on fire, and patted a place by his side on the bed. I switched the lights off and hurried to sneak under his covers. Somehow being in the dark with Harry by my side didn’t seem so scary now. I pulled the covers up to my neck and rested my head comfortably over his chest. Harry always slept with no shirt on, with his tattoo of green waves crashing endlessly over red licking flames. After I had finished counting the waves on his chest, I started to count how many times his chest would rise and fall, and I guess I fell asleep in the middle of counting.

I woke up to the sound of voices and laughter coming from downstairs, and after a couple of seconds I drifted back to sleep again. It was probably Tristan and the boys getting back from the club, I thought, in my slurred, cotton-candy hazy head. The bed was too warm and too comfortable; I snuggled back against my pillow, giving in to sleep once again. Tristan should be coming back to sleep with me in a minute.

A few more minutes must have passed before someone turned the lights on. I squinted my eyes as a harsh, angry, female voice shouted across the room, making me wake with a start.

“Harry!
What the hell?
”

And only then did I remember I wasn’t in my room.

Recollections of the night drifted through my blurry
head as I remembered how I had fallen asleep in Harry’s bed.
With Harry
. Who was now sitting by my side, with the same stunned expression on his sleepy face.

“J-Jackie?” he asked, confused.

Holy Moses. It was his girlfriend. This was
soooo
not good.

“Yeah, damn right it’s Jackie!” she shouted again. “I came back from the club with your friends because I missed you, and this is what I find? This is beyond fucked up, Harry!”

“Wait, Jackie, it’s not what you’re thinking …” I started to say, but stopped when I realized how lame it sounded. That was so the typical reply people came up with when they were caught cheating. Even though it
was
the truth; this was not what she thought it was!

She snapped her angry eyes back to me, jealousy and anger pounding like a sledge hammer, making me flinch under the intensity of her fury.

“Tell her to get the fuck out!” she spat.

“Jackie, please …” Harry said, but she turned her outraged glare on him, and he stopped whatever it was he’d been about to say. “Joe, could you please leave us alone for a second?” he said, his eyes fixed on Jackie the whole time.

I nodded and walked out in a hurry. As soon I stepped out of Harry’s room, Jackie slammed the door behind me, making me flinch again. Everybody was standing in the living room and turned their heads to stare at me as I emerged downstairs.

“Joey, what happened?” Tristan asked, coming up to me, all worried.

“Oh, God! What should I do?” I repeated to myself in
panic, wringing my hands anxiously. “It’s all my fault. I-I was scared to be alone in my room, so I asked if I could stay with Harry until you came back from the party.”

“Jackie walked in and saw you guys sleeping together.” Tristan connected the dots. “God. I’m sorry, I didn’t think … We met her in the club, and she wanted to see Harry,” Tristan explained. “I should have thought …”

“No, it’s all my fault. If I had stayed in my own room, like I was supposed to—”

“No, Joe. It’s my fault. I should’ve stayed with you. I knew you would be scared being alone after what happened yesterday. I’m sorry …” Tristan cut in.

We could all hear shouting coming from Harry’s room.

“So? What’s the big deal? You were hanging with Harry in his room, waiting for Tristan to get back, so what?” Amanda asked, standing at Sam’s side. “Do you remember, Sam, when you were watching that chick flick in your room with Joey? And you two fell asleep and I walked in and caught you two drooling over each other,” she said, chuckling lightly. “It was so funny!”

“Yeah, very funny! And for the record, it was
not
a chick flick. It was a thriller, a very
scary
movie!” Sam corrected, embarrassed.