To Love a Shifter: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (109 page)

The smile widened.  “Hello, Deli.”  And then she laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“You.”  Audrey’s eyes twinkled and it just showed how desperate I was for a friend when I actually welcomed the sight even if it did mean I was glad about someone laughing at me.

“What did I do?”

“It’s more like what you’re not doing.  I’ve just told you that the most powerful girl in school virtually wants you dead—”

“What’s new,” I muttered under my breath, thinking about the Zekans attempt to massacre my entire family.  Really, was there something about me that made me an ideal murder victim?

Audrey frowned.  “What did you say?”

“Err—nothing.”  Stress over my current status allowed the cafeteria noise to get to me, making my head pound again.  The clanging and banging of forks and spoons seemed as loud as claps of thunder.  I willed myself to relax and eliminate everything but Audrey’s voice.

Audrey lifted her shoulders in a shrug.  “Well, anyway, here you are, acting all bright and happy.”

I put my half-eaten sandwich down and took a gulp of my orange juice.  “I’m not bright and happy.”  I forced myself to take another bite of sandwich and almost gagged.  Being unpopular made me lose my entire appetite.  “I just think it’s pointless to worry.  And anyway, I’m sure things will get better in time.”

“Sure.”  She rolled her eyes.

I looked at her curiously.  “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“What made you one of her least-favorite people in the world, too?”

Audrey’s mouth tightened.  “Oh, that.”

Immediately regretting my impulsive question, I hastened to assure her, “You don’t have to answer.  Who cares if we’re both unpopular, right?”

“You do,”
The Voice pointed out resignedly.

“Hush,”
I responded mentally. 
“It’s not polite to butt in when you’re not being spoken to.” 
I turned my attention back to Audrey and was relieved to see the hard expression on Audrey’s face easing a little.

“I guess.”  After a few moments, she said slowly, “But I don’t think it would hurt to let you know.”

“You don’t have to—”

“You’ll find out sooner or later anyway.  Everyone knows about it.”

I didn’t know what else to say to that so I simply kept quiet.

Audrey finished the last bite of her burger and wiped her mouth with tissue before speaking again.  “It happened last year.  I was going out with Matthew—he’s a jock.  I’ll point out the jerk to you when I see him.  I was totally shocked when he asked me to be his girlfriend.  I wasn’t exactly Ms. Popular even back then, with how I look and, you know, how
different
I was.  But then I found out about his little hobby so I had to break up with him.”

“He’s dating behind your back?”

“He’s doing drugs.”

“Oh.”

“Oh, indeed.”  Irony tinged her words.  “A social user I might tolerate but he couldn’t even pee without snorting a gram.  So, I dumped him.  His ego couldn’t handle it so he decided to tell the whole town I was a slut and the one with a hidden stash in my bedroom.”  Audrey’s fingers curled.  “The idiot was pretty thorough, actually.  He even managed to hide a packet in my drawer—”

I impulsively took her hand, saying earnestly, “There must be a way to convince people—”

Audrey snatched her hand away, releasing a bitter laugh.  “When my own parents believed him?  They saw the stash and that was it.”

My mouth opened and closed.  An uncomfortable moment of silence elapsed.  “If it’s worth anything, I believe you.  And if there’s any way I could help—”

“I’d appreciate it if you have your Chevaliers beat the hell out of Matthew,” Audrey quipped right away.

The tension between us broke and I giggled just as Audrey’s lips formed a tiny smile.  “Just you point me in the right direction and I’ll have them kick his ass.”

The school bell rang then, and thanks to The Voice’s training and Audrey’s company, the sound barely hurt my ears.  Audrey and I had the second period after lunch together so we decided to meet up in the hallway in an hour.  Audrey headed to her history class while I proceeded to the music room.

It was a relief to see that neither the Queen nor her ladies were present.  Music was tolerable as long as I exerted enough effort not to let the shrill notes from string instruments get to me.  Trigonometry with Audrey was a blast.  The rest of the afternoon was fine.  But just when I started to think everything was going to be all right, the Queen came back to ruin my mood.

Someone had slashed my tires and was thoughtful enough to stick a note under my wiper.

Welcome to Sanger High, bitch.

“Back atcha,” I mumbled, still a bit shell-shocked that someone would go this far just to let me know they didn’t like me.  Couldn’t a text message do for them?

Footsteps from behind made me whirl around, surprising the guy walking toward me from the edge of the parking lot and disconcerting even me because I still wasn’t used to how good my hearing was these days.  When I paid attention, that was.

“Problems?”

I gazed at him warily, the varsity jacket making him a potential RS boy.  He could even be the detested Matthew, for all I knew.

He whistled when he caught sight of the tires.  “That’s bad.”

“You think?”

His sheepish smile just made his attractive face cuter.  “Do you need help?”

I debated with myself and for once, I decided to listen to my head.  “It’s okay, I can take care of this.”  I couldn’t let myself trust him.  Well, at least not yet and not so soon.

He gave me a doubtful look.  “Sure?”

I made my smile more reassuring.  “Yes, but thanks for the offer.”

He dug his hands in his pockets, not seemingly inclined to leave.  “You’re the new girl in school, right?”

I found myself smiling again.  “You really don’t know?”

He laughed.  “All right, I know.  You’re Deli, right?”

“Yup.”  I gave him a questioning look.

“Wesley.”  He hesitated, shifting on his feet.  “I guess I better go.”

It was then I realized in absolute surprise that he liked me.  Or maybe the better word was that he was attracted to me.  And he didn’t know what to do about it—either because of my run-in with Melissa or the fact that I was supposed to be Lucian’s girlfriend.

“You got that right,”
The Voice said grimly.

I ignored that and smiled at Wesley.  “See you tomorrow.”

“Really?”  Wesley coughed.  “I mean, right.  See you tomorrow in school.”  He began walking away backward.  “Sorry about your tires.  Are you sure—”

“It’s being taken care of,” I lied even though I still had no idea how to get home.  When Wesley left, my despondency returned and I stared at the tires in frustration.  It was only half past five, but the school’s parking lot was nearly deserted.

“I’m curious.  How are you going to take care of it?”

I spun around in a gasp.

Dyvian grinned while Lucian simply gazed at me quizzically upon asking the question.

And without knowing why, I burst into tears.

“Deli
.”  Dyvian was quick to panic.

I cried harder.  “What are you guys doing here?”

“We were worried about you,” Dyvian answered.

A pair of arms slowly came around me.  I looked up and met Lucian’s wry smile.  “Bad day?”  His tone was still clinical, but this time, I knew him well enough to hear the slight thread of concern in it.

A teary laugh escaped me.  “Not very, but it could have been better…and I like to cry.  You know that.”

“I want to comfort Deli, too,” Dyvian declared almost plaintively and promptly pushed Lucian away to hug me so tightly my ribs were in danger of cracking.

That effectively put a stop to my tears and I burst into laughter.

Dyvian pulled away, grinning.  He ruffled my hair.  “Feel better now?”

“Quite.  But the car—”

“Is being taken care of,” Lucian deadpanned.

My face scrunched into a grimace.

“A mechanic’s on the way.  We called him while you were busy flirting with the football dude,” Dyvian explained.

“I wasn’t flirting.”  I tiptoed to kiss both brothers on the cheek.  “Thanks.”  Dyvian took it in stride, but Lucian again froze when my lips made contact.  I hid a smile and said brightly, “So, how do we get home?”

“We walk.”

I laughed.  “No, really—”

“No, really, we walk.”  Dyvian’s cheerful voice began to grate on my nerves.

“You honestly don’t mean that, right?”

Lucian raised a brow.  “What’s wrong with walking?”

I couldn’t believe he even had to ask.  I stuck one foot out.  “Look,” I demanded.  “Don’t you see what I’m wearing?”

“They’re very nice,” Lucian said politely.

“They’re not just nice.  These are Jeffrey Campbell shoes, Lucian.  Do you understand what that mean?”

“Jeffrey Campbell made them.  So?”

I clutched my chest, unable to believe he could be so disrespectful about my shoes.  “His shoes are so limited you’d have to sell your soul for them.”  I raised affronted eyes to meet his.  Lucian’s forest green eyes were still to die for, but their mesmerizing effect was temporarily muted by the sheer horror of his words.

“You can’t make me walk all the way home.  You’re going to ruin them!”

“It’s not like we’re going to make you walk all the way to Kansas, Dorothy,” Dyvian teased.

“Ha-ha.”  I shook my head.  “I’m not going to walk.”  Then my face brightened.  “Why don’t we just fl—”  Lucian’s hand immediately clapped over my mouth.