“Mr. Oleo, please
have Tierney Anderson report to the nurses’ office immediately.”
The intercom
crackled and died. That little bitch, Dare thought incredulously, seeing relief
-- but no surprise -- flood her features. She had this planned. Did she think
that avoiding him would cause him to leave her alone?
He glanced
surreptitiously around the classroom, staring at Tierney out of the corner of
his eye, but trying not to be obvious about it. Gathering her books carefully,
she smiled weakly at Mr. O, then flipped her now silky hair over her shoulder
and glided out of the classroom.
She was gone for
exactly a second and a half before Dare’s hand shot into the air.
Raising an eyebrow,
Mr. O demanded, “Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Drache?”
Evil bastard,
Dare thought, but he was careful not to let those thoughts translate onto his
face. “Can I take the hall pass?”
Again Dare saw
that menacing flash of dislike flicker through the man’s eyes. If Mr. O didn’t
let him go, Dare was going to stand up and walk out, simple as that. No human
-- and especially not this unhappy old man -- would stop him. He was sick of
showing these damned humans deference and was nearly to his breaking point.
A smile cracked
along the man’s face, breaking everywhere but his eyes. “What’s the square root
of 3,247?”
“*What*?”
The way the words
slipped from his mouth made Mr. O’s gleeful delight morph into a disapproving
frown, the condescending and disgusted tones wavering in the air. The corners
of his eyes crinkled. “If you can tell me the square root of 3,247, then you
can take the hall pass. Otherwise, you can sit there until the bell rings.”
The disgust on
Dare’s face deepened to a withering glare. His jaw clenched, insolence slipping
over the misshapen angles of his cheeks, then he glanced at Byron and silently
drilled him on what to do now. Tierney would be long gone before he ever left
the classroom.
Byron looked
merely baffled, much to Dare’s complete lack of surprise. He shrugged. “Don’t
know. Use your calculator.”
His gaze flying
to meet Mr. O’s, Dare stared at him a moment before reaching for his
calculator. He punched the numbers viciously into the keypad. Really, he didn’t
have time for this. “Fifty-six,” he offered finally, clearing the numbers from
his calculator and poising to stand.
Mr. O watched all
this with a vicious sort of amusement. Some of the glassy detachment left his
eyes, leaving only two burning pools of vindictiveness. Under the guise of
joviality, he cheerfully demanded, “To the fourth decimal place.”
Dare gritted his
teeth, but punched the numbers back into the calculator. “56.9825.”
“You can take the
hall pass now,” Mr. O conceded, the dislike simmering in the cloudy blue depths
of his eyes.
Not bothering to
thank him, Dare stood, his movements both slinking and unsettling, and walked
to the chalkboard, where the hall pass sat propped. He snatched it up and moved
quickly out of the classroom, ignoring the collective sigh of relief as he
exited.
Once outside, he
listened intently, peering down the corridor. Someone moved to his right.
Swiveling in that direction, he caught a brief glimpse of shimmering silky hair
and a lithe figure floating through the double doors leading to the staircase.
Smiling coldly, he started after her.
So the little
witch thought she was going to get away, did she? She was in for the shock of
her life if she thought she was going to leave him in this -- this -- parody of
what he was. He strode down the hallway quickly, thinking evil thoughts all the
while, then he burst through the double doors.
Light footsteps
pounded against the tiled staircase, echoing in the drafty stairwell and singing
her location directly to his ears. This was almost too easy.
“Tierney,” he
called softly, when the footsteps paused. He could hear her heartbeat thudding
against her chest, pulsing rapidly with that steady stream of adrenaline
flowing through her veins. Her breathing beat softly in the stillness, but
could not mask its ragged edge. Unease as striking as a flash of lightning
searing his senses.
Or maybe he heard
his own anticipation singing over the other sensations. He could almost taste
the pleasure of her acquiescence, of admitting that she was wrong. It should be
almost too easy to convince her of her mistake. A little coercion, a little
threatening, and everything should be back to normal. And if not, he had other
ways of getting her to do what he wanted.
She hadn’t
answered when he called her. His sculpted mouth twisting under its guise of
deformity, he bounded up the stairs, careful to listen for her footsteps. She
stopped at the very top.
He heard her push
through the double doors leading to the hallway of the third floor and took a
brief moment to wonder why she was headed in that direction, when her locker
was on the first floor. Then, quickening his pace, he hurried up the remaining
steps.
Maybe he
shouldn’t imagine the possible outcomes of this talk they were going to have,
instead letting nature take its course. Thinking only built up his anger, the
emotion flashing in the wicked gold of his eyes.
With that wicked
emotion came wicked thoughts.
Pausing a moment
in front of those doors, which were scuffed and beaten by the heavy stream of
traffic that flowed through them, he chewed his lower lip thoughtfully.
Oh, yes, there
were a number of things he could do to her if she didn’t cooperate. Torture and
murder being the obvious ones, of course, but who liked to be obvious?
Psychological warfare was so much more fun.
As far as he was
concerned, rules bound the weak. And the simple way to rectify that was to
pretend they didn’t exist, because they didn’t. Rules were made for those who
needed to be lead. Those who needed a star to cling to in the emptiness of
their bleak, cavernous existence. Rules bound those who let themselves be
enslaved by others’ ideals and they carved into their souls a scar they did not
know was there.
Some rules were
important. He wouldn’t deny that. They kept him alive and healthily breathing,
though Tierney would probably prefer otherwise. The majority were unimportant
and irrelevant, and in this case, they were totally superfluous...
And they were
completely unnecessary.
So the little witch wanted to play games. Fine.
Since she was so damned insistent about it, he’d do the only polite thing...
He’d oblige her. And, of course, he’d win, because he had one distinct
advantage over her: he didn’t want her.
Disdain swept like a drought over his face,
draining all other emotions into a whirling cesspool of feelings, carefully
hidden from anyone who looked too close. But Tierney would know. Tierney would
see the rage etched deeply in the sweeping planes of his cheekbones and in the
tightening of his mobile mouth. She would see the horror buried deep beneath
his singing gold eyes and bruising the skin beneath them. She would see the
shattering vulnerability he thought he’d destroyed so long ago.
She would see all this and more, because for some
inexplicable reason, she could touch the plummeting recesses of his soul, the
ones he thought didn’t exist. And he didn’t like it.
He didn’t like *her*, either. The disdain deepened. Maybe she was beautiful
now, but he knew what she really was: a blight on his vision. The fact that she
could see inside him was only an added annoyance. They’d made an agreement to leave each other alone and she
obviously hadn’t felt obligated to keep it. This time he’d make certain she
didn’t have a choice.
Resolve rushing through him, he slammed through
the doors into the hallway, the hall pass clacking sharply on the metal. He saw
that flash of hair whip around the corner. Quickening his pace, he hurried
after her. By avoiding him, she’d only
made it worse on herself.
Because now not only was he angry, he was
furious. Furious with her, with himself... And that only made the emotion trip
through his body like a crackling flame. What better to do with that emotion
than channel it into her?
He reached the corner swiftly. The shadows hid
the soft glow of her hair where she’d stopped, digging in a locker that wasn’t
hers. Something about her seemed... wrong. He couldn’t see the highlights
shining in her hair and the shimmering length was almost too short. He couldn’t
*smell* anything in this damned school. The reeking stench of humans melded
together and masked any individual scents.
The sweeping drape of her hair hid her now
beautiful features from his eyes. Those eyes flared briefly and his full lower
lip pursed into a white line of hatred. He strode purposefully toward her. She
didn’t glance up and she didn’t acknowledge the soft pad of his footsteps
against the linoleum floor.
Hesitating a moment -- not out of indecision or
uncertainty, but to wrench in his anger -- he studied the casual and
unconcerned way she shifted as she stood. Certainly not the way she had moved
before. Something about her was not quite as graceful; something about her now
defied the stunning elegance she used like a weapon against his cruelty.
He shoved that thought from his mind. She
*deserved* cruelty and it was only apt that her one defense was now gone. He
could see through her beauty, dipping beneath the layers to find the horror
lying like a beacon, and recognize her for what she really was.
Oh, this was going to be fun. He resumed his
purposeful stride, so focused on her that the rest of the world seemed to fade
around him. Nothing else mattered, except Tierney and what she’d done. Right
now he just wanted her to fix it. After that, then he’d think up a suitable
punishment, if he could find something worse than making her turn herself back
into the ugly mess she’d been.
A hallway in a public high school wasn’t the
place to deal with that, nor had he had time to think up something just enough
to retaliate for her actions. Reaching her, he yanked her around to face him.
And only after he registered the features before him did he realize that her
hair didn’t have the same bewitching highlights or that her bone structure
wasn’t nearly as fine.
“You’re not Tierney,” he accused.
The girl swept a disgusted look over his
features. “Lucky for her.” She shrugged out of his grip, nearly throwing his
fingers off her arm. Then she turned away.
Cursing himself for not being more careful or for
paying more attention -- how had he mistaken this girl for his soulmate? -- he
barely refrained from slamming his fist through the nearest locker.
Where had the little bitch gone?
***
“I am *not* going home tonight,” Raquel
announced, pushing her way past Tierney into the spacious foyer and tramping
toward the living room. Then, remembering house rules, she bounded back over
and kicked off her shoes. “Jordana brought along that girl Brittany and I can’t
*stand* listening to her talk about herself. Even Jordy looked ready to choke
her before I left, and you know how tolerant she is.”
Tierney eyed the duffel bag slung over her
shoulder in trepidation, then she checked her watch. Seven o’clock exactly.
Great. “I take it you’re spending the night?”
Raquel swung suddenly suspicious eyes in her
direction, one eyebrow arching in question. “Why? Did you have other plans for
the night?”
Debating how to answer that question, she finally
settled on the truth. “Julien’s coming over,” she shrugged, like it was no big
deal.
What she didn’t mention was how *nervous* she was
about his impending visit, or how she’d managed to worry about it and what he
wanted through all of the other problems she’d been dealing with since she came
home. Even at the end of Calculus, when she’d worried that Dare would try to
follow her -- which she’d taken care of by disappearing into the nearest open
classroom instead of continuing down the hallway -- she’d been thinking about
what Julien could possibly want.
Even when she’d held her breath as Dare stalked
past, she’d been thinking about what to say to him. Even as she’d spent three
hours figuring out what could have gone wrong with the spell, he’d pervaded her
thoughts more thoroughly than an infectious disease. He’d somehow managed to
get under her skin...
And she wasn’t completely sure what to do about
it.
“I can make myself scarce,” Raquel offered
innocently, her wide violet eyes sparkling with mischief, “if you two want some
privacy.”
Tierney felt like kicking her, making that
abundantly clear by the disgusted look she bestowed on her friend. “I don’t
know why you think we need privacy. As far as I know, he needs a favor, not
laid.”
“At least you’re not denying that he likes you
anymore,” her friend pointed out, that angelic smile widening as the doorbell
rang. “I’d hate to have to ask him to get my point across.”
“Go into the living room,” Tierney answered,
ignoring Raquel’s threat pointedly, because she knew that’s exactly what it was
and nothing more. She’d cheerfully strangle Raquel if she actually did it and
they both knew it. Expecting her to do as she’d asked, she slid open the door,
plastering a smile on her face and hoping it hid her unease.
She lost whatever thoughts were flying through
her head as soon as she saw him standing there.
“You changed clothes.”
Embarrassment flushed his features, then he
shrugged. “Mom was babysitting when I got home. One of the kids spilled orange
juice all over my jeans.”
“Oh,” she said, not able to think of anything
else to say. He’d hesitated before he said that, which made her wonder whether
he was lying. But... why would he lie about that? She blinked, realizing that
she hadn’t invited him in yet. “I’m sorry,” she said, blinking a second time,
“come in.” She backed away from the doorway so he had room to step by her, then
she shut the door softly behind him.
Julien in jeans was bad enough. Julien in khakis
and a button down shirt was nearly mind-boggling. Before Raquel had said
anything, she probably wouldn’t even have noticed, but now... She drew in a
deep breath, studying him circumspectly. The khakis slung low on his hips,
emphasizing the flat, narrow waist, and his shirt stretched across his wide
shoulders. Goddess help her if he really did want her, because she wasn’t sure
she would have the willpower to refuse, even if she should be thinking about
Dare.
“Are you okay, Tier?”
She shook those thoughts away, smiling brightly.
“Great.”
He smiled at her, his dimples flashing. Then he
pulled his hand from behind his back and handed her a perfectly pale orchid. “I
ordered your flowers after school. This is proof that I didn’t order you
something completely off the wall. And I did remember to order ghost orchids,
not these.”
“Thank you,” she said, smiling warmly once his
explanation slowed her heart rate to a more sedate pace. “And here I thought
you’d forget like Adrien did.”
Solemnly, he replied, “That’s exactly why I
brought proof.”
She laughed and pushed him playfully toward the
living room. “Go and wait in the living room while I put this in water. I’ll be
there in a second.”
“Your wish is my command,” he joked irreverently.
Rolling her eyes, she waited until he’d disappeared
through the doorway before she headed in the opposite direction to the kitchen.
Suddenly realizing she hadn’t warned him that Raquel was here, she hurriedly
found a vase, filling it with water and placing the flower inside. She set it away from the counter’s edge so
it didn’t have a chance of getting knocked off, then she headed for the living
room.
Julien’s face was somewhat disappointed when she
entered, even though he and Raquel were engaged in a heated but joking debate
over the lifespan of tropical fish. The television was on, a diver avidly
discussing the merits of said fish.
“What do you think, Tier?” Raquel demanded as
soon as she entered the room. She sat on one of the couches; Julien sat on the
other. Tierney suddenly faced the dilemma of where to sit. If she dropped down
next to Julien, he might take that as encouragement. If she sat next to Raquel,
he might think she was intentionally avoiding him.
Groaning, she realized it was a lose-lose
situation. Inwardly sighing, she glided to where Julien sat, careful not to sit
too close or too far away. Raquel grinned knowingly.
“What do I think about what?” Tierney asked,
distracted.
Raquel’s smile was guileless. “Lovebirds.”
“Excuse me?”
Julien cleared his throat uncomfortably. “She’s thinking
about getting a pair.”
As Tierney’s face smoothed, the shock fading
swiftly away, she briefly considered believing Raquel instead of assuming the
worst. But upon closer inspection of her friend’s seemingly innocent face, she
knew she’d been giving her too much credit. At this point, Raquel was going to
be lucky if she didn’t sleep outside tonight.
“I think you’d kill them in less than a week,”
she replied calmly, keeping her plans for retribution from surfacing on her
face. “Remember the turtle?”
“That was Adrien’s turtle,” Raquel countered. She
offered Tierney a brilliant smile before turning her attention back to the
tropical fish.
With Raquel “distracted” by the television
--although Tierney knew she was paying more attention to her and Julien than
she was to the program -- she couldn’t exactly avoiding talking to Julien. She
shifted in her seat so that one leg propped on the dark leather and she faced
him. “What favor did you need?” she asked expectantly, skipping over the
pleasantries and idle conversation.
He looked distinctly uncomfortable at her
question, shooting Raquel a look from beneath thick lashes. “It’s not
important.”
“But isn’t that why you came over?”
As Julien groped for an answer to that question,
Raquel stood abruptly. Tierney wasn’t sure if she was interrupting or
attempting to make herself scarce. “I’m going to get a drink. Does anyone want
anything?” She raised an eyebrow, waiting for their responses.
Tierney shook her head negatively, but Julien
nodded. “Could you get me some water?” he requested.
“Of course,” Raquel said. “Are you sure you don’t
want something, Tier?”
Mentally, she thanked her friend for having the
foresight to disappear so Julien could share whatever his “favor” was,
especially since he didn’t seem to want Raquel to hear. “I guess you can grab
me a Coke,” she answered.
Raquel nodded and wandered off. Julien waited until he was sure she was gone
before he said anything.
“I didn’t know Raquel was going to be here,” he
mentioned, his voice guarded. He now sat so he was facing her, too, his arm
stretching along the back of the couch and brushing lightly against her hair.
“Neither did I,” Tierney admitted, while
shivering at his proximity. “She showed up right before you did.”
He seemed to relax. “There’s no chance that she’s
leaving soon, is there?”
Something about that question struck Tierney as
odd. She glanced at him from beneath her lashes, realizing suddenly just how
close he really was. His mouth was only
inches away from hers, his spicy scent subtly invading her senses. “Why?” she
asked, her attention only half focused on the question.
It was so hard not to notice the thick fringe
lashing his clear gray eyes or the cleanly chiseled cheekbones that begged to
be touched. His short blond hair glinted soft and sleek in the television’s
flickering glow. She was tempted to run her fingers through it, to see if it
was as silky as it looked.
“I just wanted to talk.”
His mouth wrapped around the words as if he
caressed them, gentle and unintentionally seductive. She shivered again,
knowing there was something she should be remembering, but unable to drag her
mind away from the boy sitting so close to her. “About what?”
She needed to remember...
*Dare*. The name popped into her head so suddenly
she blinked. Jerking back, she tried to remind herself that this was Julien,
and that she was probably reading too much into it. Ever since Raquel had
brought it up, she’d been looking for the signs. She had to be wrong. Raquel
had to be wrong. They *both* had to be wrong.
But the atmosphere was no less charged for the
distance she’d put between them. And he looked all the more determined to share
whatever it was. He opened that sculpted mouth to speak, his dove gray eyes
flashing with determination, and it was all Tierney could do to remember her
soulmate.
The tension shattered as Raquel clattered back
into the room before Julien could get the words out, banging her hip against
the couch. Some of the intensity faded from his face and he sat back, looking
almost defeated. “Later,” he muttered.
She slanted him a curious glance, but accepted
the drink from Raquel, murmuring, “Thank you.”
Remember your soulmate, she told herself,
repeating that thought in her mind over and over, while trying not to look at
Julien again. Just because she was attracted to him didn’t mean anything. She
had to keep thinking about Dare and what she was going to do about him.
Otherwise...
She snuck a look at Julien. Otherwise, she’d
forget him altogether, and she certainly didn’t want that, did she? He was the
one Fate had decided was right for her, not Julien. And once she got this whole
mess with the spell straightened out, maybe the two of them would have a
chance.
She could only hope.
Her friend dragged her from her thoughts rather
unceremoniously. “Anyone want to watch a movie?” she demanded cheerfully.
Julien sighed. Now, instead of simply
disappointed, he looked mildly annoyed. “It depends on what you want to watch.
I am *not* sitting through three hours of ‘Titanic’ again.”
“’Titanic’ it is,” Raquel chirped.
Before Julien had the opportunity to strangle his
best friend’s little sister, Tierney agreed with him. “If you put in ‘Titanic,’
Raquel, I’m kicking you out of the house.”
Raquel sighed, mock regret tilting at the corners
of her mouth. “Then what are you in the mood for? Because I’m not watching ‘Fight Club’ again. I’m not in the mood
for martial arts or whatever you want to call that.”
“Fighting, Raquel. It’s called fighting.”
“Whatever,” Raquel snapped, brushing that off
without a second thought. “Let’s watch a comedy.”
Julien flopped back against the pillows of the
couch, his arm coming dangerously close to Tierney’s thigh. He didn’t seem to
notice, but Tierney’s breath caught in her throat just the same. She shut her
eyes and told herself not to think about it. Remember your soulmate! her mind
screamed.
If only it were that easy.
He hadn’t moved his hand, and even though it was
inches away from her, Tierney could feel it as clearly as if he really were
touching her. She wondered if he realized what he was doing to her pulse. Don’t
think about it, she ordered her body, but that didn’t help, either.
“Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?”
The annoyance in Julien’s voice couldn’t be
missed. Raquel grinned, carefully hiding the expression from him. Then she
craftily answered, “Do you want me to leave, Jules?”
He glared at her, but answered calmly, his voice
indifferent. “I just thought Adrien said you were going to a party tonight.
Shouldn’t you be there by now?”
“Actually,” she said, still hiding that gleeful
smile, “I already went. It was lame, so I came here.”
Apparently unsure of what to say to that, he
turned toward Tierney. “A comedy would
be great. So would a gag and a long length of rope.”
Laughing, Tierney finally broke up their verbal
sparring. “Enough, you two. I’m not supposed to be babysitting here.” She shook
her head, standing up and grinning down at Julien. “You can fight over the movie.
I’m going to go make some popcorn.”
His face lit up. Opening his mouth to suggest
that he come with her while Raquel picked out the movie -- even if that meant
they were stuck watching ‘Titanic’ -- he didn’t offer fast enough. Raquel beat
him to it.
“I’ll help you,” she said cheerfully, jumping out
of her seat. She pointedly ignored his silent efforts to get her to rescind the
offer. “You can pick out the movie, Jules. I bow to your superior judgment
where entertainment is concerned.”
“With good reason,” Tierney added, smiling warmly
at him. “We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
He nodded unhappily, uncoiling his lanky body to
stand and walk over to the entertainment center. They left him sorting through
the shelves of DVDs.
Once they’d traveled a suitable distance down the
hall, Tierney took one look at Raquel and said, “I don’t want to hear it.”
“Hear what?”
“Anything.”
“Like that Julien likes you?”
Tierney abruptly decided that sleeping outside
wasn’t good enough for her friend. At that moment, she would have happily sent
her to Antarctica without a snowsuit. “Shut up, Raquel.”
***
They ended up watching ‘What Women Want.’ Julien
muttered something about needing instruction while he glared at Raquel. Despite
her friend’s apparent engrossment in the movie, she somehow made Tierney feel
like she was being watched. When Julien’s arm had crept around the back of the
couch -- innocently, of course -- Raquel choked. She blamed it on the movie,
but from the way her eyes continued to stray in their direction, Tierney knew
she was lying.
Julien finally left a little after one. Tierney
assumed he figured out Raquel wasn’t going anywhere and decided to cut his
losses. He hesitated at the doorway before he left, but shaking his head, he
went with only a casual goodbye.
Yawning, Raquel suggested they go to sleep,
immediately after she convinced Tierney to take her shopping for prom dresses
the next day. She still wouldn’t divulge the name of her date. Even threatening
to leave her at the Collective’s mercy couldn’t pry that information out.
And that was why Tierney now lay in bed, trying
vainly to still her racing thoughts. She rolled onto her back and kicked the
covers from around her legs to free them from the tangled mess. Tonight had
been... a figment of her imagination?
Probably.
This was all Raquel’s fault. If she hadn’t said
anything, Tierney never would have thought for a second that Julien might like
her. And now she was *looking* for it. Hell, before Raquel said something,
Tierney hadn’t even noticed Julien was a guy. But now... Now she was very much
aware and reading into every little thing he did.
He didn’t even act differently than he had
before! Heaving a sigh, she threw herself onto her stomach. Julien could have
any girl in the school. He had absolutely, positively *no* reason to want her.
It was just that stupid idea of Raquel’s...
And besides, she had Dare. Well, she didn’t
exactly have him yet, but she was getting there. It didn’t help that Jihn had gotten her the wrong spell, though
she supposed it wasn’t entirely Jihn’s fault. Jihn *did* say they’d had trouble
reading her handwriting. The irony lay in the fact that they’d only missed the
correct spell by a single letter.
The two spells were only slightly different. The
Council had forbidden both because they altered people’s thinking; they somehow
made the general populous -- those not directly affected by the spell --
oblivious to the altered appearances, as though they’d always been that way.
Both obviously changed outward facades. Both were reflection spells. But
instead of doing what Tierney wanted -- to reflect back the beauty of her
soulmate -- the one she got reflected back each half’s inner beauty. Or so the
spell said.
Tierney was firmly convinced that it was wrong.
Dare’s soul couldn’t possibly be as twisted as
his newly distorted looks boasted. He couldn’t be that devoid of inner beauty.
How could Fate match her with someone so empty inside?
She believed that life was cruel, but not that
cruel. And so she simply ignored the effects of the spell she’d done, because
it *couldn’t* be right. Deep in her heart, she clung to the hope that he might
possess some redeeming qualities she hadn’t found during their brief
encounters.
Tossing onto her back, she realized she was too
worked up to sleep. Maybe she should get out of bed and run. Drowning in the
steady beat of concrete beneath her feet as she pushed herself into a blissful
state of forgetfulness. That plan quickly died when she remembered she hated to
run.
“Tier?”
Raquel’s soft voice whispered through the
silence. Not in the mood to talk -- and especially not about Julien -- Tierney
thought about pretending to be asleep. Then again, Raquel would probably wake
her up anyway, if she even believed Tierney was sleeping after all that tossing
and turning.
“Yeah?” she responded. She let her hand flop down
on the comforter. No point in trying to be quiet if they were both awake.
“I was just wondering if you were still awake.”
She was also lying. Tierney knew something was
bothering her friend, because she’d been at the point of passing out forty-five
minutes ago. She should be on the verge of comatose by now. But something was
obviously tripping through Raquel’s mind, or she wouldn’t be lying there awake.
Sighing, she shifted back onto her stomach,
propping herself up on her elbows. In the moonlight, she could just make out
the edge of Raquel’s pretty features. “What’s bothering you?” she asked.
“Nothing,” her friend answered, only a moment’s
hesitation edging her denial.
“You’re lying,” Tierney stated.
“I know.”
She sat up in the darkness, her blond hair
swinging softly around her, and wrapped her arms around her legs. She rested
her chin against her knees. “I just don’t understand why you won’t give Julien
a chance.”
Tierney rolled her eyes, even though she knew
Raquel couldn’t see her. “Give it up, Raquel.” That said, she lay down once
again -- hopefully for the last time -- and worried the comforter with her slim
fingers. Why did Raquel insist on making an issue out of this?
Her friend didn’t move from her huddled position
on the floor, and when she spoke her voice was thoughtful. “I mean, you guys
get along really well, don’t you?”
“Raquel!”
“It’s true!” Raquel exclaimed. “You get along
great, you look adorable together, and you’re a perfect--“
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
“But--“
Tierney sighed. “Goodnight, Raquel.”
She turned on her side, presenting her friend
with her back and effectively cutting off any further conversation. She heard
Raquel sigh, then huddle underneath the blankets. Even through the inky night,
she could feel her friend’s glare aimed directly at the center of her back.
Ignoring it, ignoring the worries Raquel had raked
over blistering new coals, she squeezed her eyes shut. Maybe if she went to
sleep, all her problems would disappear overnight. But even then, she couldn’t
help but wonder what dating Julien would be like. What it would happen if Dare
didn’t exist. Raquel thought she and Julien belonged together.
It was a shame she wasn’t right.
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