Threads That Bind (Havoc Chronicles Series Book 1) (8 page)

The other one had dark, longish hair and the bluest eyes I had ever seen – but maybe that was just an effect of my enhanced vision. His nose was slightly crooked, as if it had been broken at least once, and his features didn’t quite have the flawless look of the blonde one, but there was something about him that was very striking.

The dark haired one opened the rear door of the Rover and pulled out a blanket and placed it on the back seat. The blond guy gently placed the woman on top of the blanket, and tucked it in around her. He slid into the seat next to her, and the dark haired one climbed into the driver’s seat. With a roar, the engine started and the Range Rover sped out of the school parking lot.

By the time I made it back to the stadium the game was almost over, and Woodbridge was ahead by forty nine points. It wasn’t until I sat down next to Amy that I realized I didn’t know where the blanket was. I had lost it at some point during my run through the forest.

Amy gave me a look, half exasperated, half annoyed, until the expression on my face must have told her something was wrong.

She leaned in and gave Cory a squeeze before slipping out from under his arm. “Give me a sec,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

Grabbing my arm, Amy pulled me up and took me out of the bleachers to a semi-private spot by the drinking fountain.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. The annoyance was gone and replaced by a look of concern.

Where did I start? So much was wrong that I couldn’t possibly explain it all. I went with the only thing I could tell her.

“Josh kissed Ginger,” I said, and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from crying. I could still see it clearly in my mind. Even with everything else that had happened since, that one moment was etched into my mind forever. A mental tattoo with no possibility of removal.

Amy’s eyes widened. For a half second she got that excited look on her face she always got at the prospect of new gossip, but then the implication of what I said sank in and it quickly faded.

“Are you sure?”

“Believe me, I wish I weren’t,” I said. I looked up, trying to keep the tears back.

As always, Amy was quick to jump to my defense. “What a jerk. You just barely broke up.”

I was grateful to have her on my side, so I didn’t remind her that she had been pushing me to do the exact same thing. Logically, it made sense. This was high school. The odds of any relationship lasting past graduation were about the same as being struck by lightning the same day you won the lottery.

After a few minutes of silence, Amy spoke again, a big grin plastered on her face. “So, I have good news. Cory and his friends are going out after the game and invited us to come along. Want to go?”

So, her diabolical scheme to ensnare Cory had worked. I may have changed physically over the summer, but that was nothing compared to how Amy had changed. What had happened to the shy girl who wanted to come to my house and watch sappy romance movies all weekend?

“Would you hate me if I didn’t go?” I asked. “I don’t think I’m up to it tonight.”

Amy sighed, the excitement draining out of her. “No, that’s fine. I understand. I’ll tell Cory that we can do something next week.”

“Just because I’m not going doesn’t mean you can’t,” I said. “Based on the amount of cuddling I saw going on tonight, I am sure Cory would be willing to find some transportation for you.”

“Are you sure?” Amy asked. “Not about the transportation – I mean, clearly that wouldn’t be an issue – but about my going without you.” She looked skeptical. “You’re not just trying to be a martyr are you?”

I grabbed Amy by the shoulders and turned her so she was facing the entrance to the bleachers. “I have no plans on being killed for any causes tonight,” I said. I considered explaining that I was actually being very selfish because the prospect of going out with Cory and his friends tonight was about as enticing as being bludgeoned with a blunt object, but I decided that might hurt her feelings.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Go,” I said, giving her a gentle nudge towards the bleachers. “I’ll be fine. I just need some time alone. I’ll see you Monday.”

And that was enough to finally convince her. I watched her climb back up the bleachers, and then I walked out to my car.

I unlocked the door and stood there a moment, looking into the dead woods. They had seemed creepy before, but now they looked absolutely dangerous. I was standing on the boundary of a war zone. One step forward, and I would be in the line of fire from monsters and who knows what else.

Those boys.

They had glowed like I did. I was connected to them in some way, but how? They seemed to be able to control their glowing. Did that mean it was something that could be learned? And if so, would they be able to teach me?

At that thought my fantasies began to run wild. If I had my condition under control, then Josh and I could get back together again. He had told me that he cared for me, but was worried I was dangerous, right? That kiss between him and Ginger was probably just her trying to seduce him.

I pushed away the voice in my head that pointed out that he hadn’t looked as if he were putting up much of a fight.

If only I had been able to follow them.

***

On Monday the school was abuzz with elation at blowing out our rival in football. The football players wore their orange letterman’s jackets with black sleeves, strutting through the halls like jack-o-lanterns brought to life.

I hadn’t seen Amy again all weekend. She had texted me to say that things had gone “spectacularly well” with Cory and that he was going to give her a ride to school.

She was waiting at my locker when I got there, a big grin on her face.

I really didn’t want to hear how “spectacular” her night with Cory had been, but given the fact that she had stood by me and listened to me gush when I was going out with Josh, I figured I owed her the same.

“So,” I said, forcing enthusiasm into my voice. “Tell me all about it!”

“It was so much fun,” Amy said. “You should have been there. We all went to the Safehouse for dinner and Cory treated it like a real date and paid for my meal.”

I did my best to look interested.

Amy continued. “Then we went to Cory’s house and watched a movie and played pool. They have this huge game room with a giant TV and everything. During the movie we cuddled on the couch, and he held my hand.” This last part was practically squealed.

“That’s great!” I said. “But, weren’t you holding hands at the game?”

“No, he had his arm around me, but that didn’t really count because he could have just been doing that to be nice since it was so cold.”

“So at his house—”

“—there was no need anymore. All signs of affection were purely voluntary.”

For the next five minutes I got the in-excruciatingly-minute-detail version of her night with Cory, and how he had volunteered to take her to school. When she finally began to run out of steam, she got a mischievous gleam in her eye and said, “Oh, and Ryan asked about you, too.”

Great, just what I wanted to hear. “And you said?”

“Well, I told him that since you and Josh had broken up that you were back on the open market.” She shrugged and tried to look innocent.

Amy was saved from facing the full fury of my wrath by the timely arrival of Cory.

“Can I walk you to class?” he asked.

The look on Amy’s face was pure bliss as she gave me a small wave and walked off with Cory.

I watched them leave with mixed emotions: relief that I wasn’t going to have to deal with my own emotional issues while listening to her tell me how perfect everything was, and sadness because I could feel the beginnings of cracks in our friendship. For so long it had just been the two of us. Now that other people were in the picture, it felt as if things had changed and we would never go back to the way things were.

I closed my locker and headed to Physics class, so wrapped up in my musings about friendship that I didn’t notice Josh and Ginger until they were only a few feet away.

 Hands linked, they seemed to glide down the hall in slow motion, like something out of a movie montage. Ginger wore her cheerleader outfit in celebration of the big win, and Josh had on a tan sweater that brought out the color in his deep brown eyes. The only thing missing was romantic music and sappy gazes.

Once he noticed I was there, Josh avoided looking at me, his signature smile missing. Whether this was done out of sadness, politeness, or embarrassment, I couldn’t tell. Ginger, however, glared as if challenging me. As they walked past, she turned her head to follow me, staring me down.

I ignored her and walked into Physics class, sliding into my seat. Aaron Parker was already there and appeared to have been waiting for me. He immediately struck up a conversation asking me about my weekend.

Given the high levels of suckiness I’d experienced over the past few days, this was a topic I wanted to avoid like a Spice Girls reunion tour. But since saying it sucked would only make him ask me about it, I decided to go with generic and boring.

“It was all right. How was yours?”

It didn’t take much to get Aaron to talk about himself. He told me all about how he had skipped the Football game and gone to a frat party in Portland, which according to his description was filled with college students and beer.

“You should have been there, it was crazy.”

I would have chosen other words to describe it. Moronic was pretty high on the list. Hanging out with a bunch of judgment impaired frat boys fell pretty low on my list of fun things to do. “Yeah, not really my thing,” I told him.

“Aw, come on,” he said. He leaned in close and lowered his voice, as if letting me in on a big secret. “There’s another party this weekend. Why don’t you come with me?”

He was asking me out – in a sort of pathetic, I’m-not-taking-the-hint kind of way. Aaron was a nice enough guy, but why would he ask me to go do something I had already told him I didn’t enjoy? Clearly, he didn’t want to go out with me, he just wanted someone to come with him to the party. There was a difference.

“Sorry, Aaron. I’m not into that kind of thing,” I said.

He shrugged. “Sure, I understand.” He pulled out his notebook and began leafing through the pages.

Relieved to have that conversation over, I began checking over my Physics homework. It was pretty basic stuff, so I wasn’t too worried about it, but I needed something to do to break up the awkward silence.

I didn’t get off as easily as I had thought. After a few minutes Aaron said in a very casual, off-hand way, “So, do you have any plans this weekend?”

This had officially become an awkward moment. I had zero interest in going out with anyone besides Josh right now, and even if I took Josh out of the equation, Aaron was too much of a partier for my tastes. His kind of fun and mine were worlds apart.

“Yeah, I do,” I said. It was a complete lie. The sad truth was that I didn’t have any plans for this weekend. No doubt Amy could wrangle me a double date with Ryan Jacobs – she’d been hinting about it for the past week - but I didn’t want to go out with someone just because I didn’t want to spend the weekend at home. I would have felt badly about lying to Aaron, but since it wasn’t any of his business, I spared myself the guilt trip and simply held my breath, hoping that he didn’t ask me
what
I was doing, because I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

At that moment, all thoughts of Aaron Parker were driven out of my head as a new student walked through the door.

I recognized him instantly. Dark hair, slightly crooked nose, and those amazingly blue eyes. His face had been etched into my mind since I first saw him at the football game.

Only now he wasn’t glowing or fighting monsters.

I sat up straighter, a thrill running through me. My senses sharpened and everything around me took on a crisper look.

The dark haired boy turned me as if startled. His piercing eyes met mine. With my enhanced senses it was more than a simple look. It was like peering into his soul. Surprise and hope drifted on the surface, but deeper down lay a hidden sadness and – He broke eye contact and swept his gaze across the room as if looking for something.