I woke up the next day with a heavy heart. Today was the thirteenth, the day before Valentine’s Day. I couldn’t wait because all the hearts and love in the air would evaporate. Making this feeling inside of me twenty thousand times more depressing. I still wondered why Blake didn’t follow me. He was so adamant, but after our time in the woods, he just disappeared. I didn’t even see him for the rest of the day.
I hated my father’s reasoning. That my crush on the hottest guy at school was something childish. He wouldn’t even grant me that much.
It was inevitable, but I still couldn’t stop thinking about Blake.
The drive to school was silent. I was glad that I didn’t have to take the bus today, and a part of me couldn’t wait to see Blake either. Even if it would lead nowhere.
He would always make my day.
Dad parked a few minutes before the school bell rang in the parking lot. I grabbed my bags, kissed him on the cheek, and climbed out.
I knew yesterday with the jocks yelling, my name was grating on him. It put him on edge and I hoped telling him it was nothing would be enough for him to not go digging up their past because of his paranoia.
“See you later.”
I nodded with a smile and rushed to the entrance of the school.
I just hoped that Chloë didn’t booby-trapped my locker or anything else again. I didn’t see Blake anywhere in the hallway, either.
A student pushed a pamphlet into my hands. The school play again. Try-outs were still going on during lunch and after school at two. Another song played and the four idiots serenaded another girl.
I reached my locker as their love song grated against my nerves. I opened it slowly, but didn’t duck. There was nothing inside. I still wondered how my locker and books turned paint free. It freaked me out.
I took the first few classes books and closed my locker.
I walked past the guys serenading to the girl with people holding their phones out, smiling like dorks, who got hit with a love spell.
I kept searching for Blake in secret, but there wasn’t any trace of him.
Was he even at school today?
I didn’t like the new feeling that brewed inside of me, not one bit, and regretted what I said to him yesterday in the woods.
Still, everything happens for a reason, right? I hoped so.
The entire day, I tried to look for Blake, but he was nowhere to be seen.
In art class, before lunch, I paid attention and drew the building that was on the board. I finished the outline. I even got to paint in the shadows, which I never used black for. I mixed brown and yellow to get that funny poopy-brown and dipped it on the canvas.
The bell rang, and I hoped I might see Blake during lunch. I passed the double swing doors that led to the kitchen. Bright fluorescent lights lit up the food area. Smells of garlic and creamy sauces filled my nostrils. Students already sat around the rows of long tables with plastic chairs. My gaze scanned the last table where I usually sat. It was empty. He really wasn’t here today.
I quickly scanned the menu board, listing items and prices. Today was pasta with the usual corn dogs, fries, hamburgers and other greasy items.
The line with jostling teens moved forward as they carried colored plastic trays to open tables.
I waited in line and reached the trays and picked up a tray.
Scratched-up sneeze guards covering most of the food selections, as I set my heart on the creamy pasta that they had on the board.
The grumpy lunch lady barked at the boy in front of the few girls before me to make his choice. She scared me with her deep voice.
Laughter and talking came from the tables near me. The murmur echoed off the walls. A tray slamming on the table made me look. It was one guy that was always around Blake.
The cheerleaders were in their uniforms. The guy hadn’t taken a seat yet, just stood with his hands resting on the table, speaking to Chloë. Blake wasn’t around him. He wasn’t in the cafeteria at all.
The ding of the cash register was the sound that moved the long cue forward as a ladle full of lasagna plopped down on a plate.
A whiff of floral scent reached my nose, and I looked in the direction it came from. Chloë almost reached me and when she saw me, she gasped as her eyes grew. Her shrilling laughter escaped her lips. “Is that shit on your face?” she yelled and pulled the top part of her lip upwards.
I touched my face, and my finger felt the paint.
“No, it’s—”
“The geek has shit on her face,” she yelled to the entire cafeteria, and laughter followed.
I stepped out of the row, plopped the tray back down on top of the other trays, and ran out of the cafeteria to the bathroom. It was happening again. My worst nightmare was coming true. It was one thing to get teased by your own grade, but an entire thing to get bullied by someone in a higher grade.
I could help that Blake didn’t like her, I had no control over that.
Chloë knew it was paint. She wasn’t that stupid.
I opened the bathroom to the girls’ toilets and saw the brown smear right across my cheek. It looked like a shit stripe.
I opened the faucet and let the water heated first as tears stung my eyes. The warm water splashed on my face as I rubbed the brown paint off.
I had told him to leave me alone. A tear rolled down my face and I wiped it away.
I tried everything, and I hated this school. I wished we could move.
The entire lunch I stayed in one cubicle as the tears spilled down my cheeks.
Why wasn’t he at school today?
The bell rang, and I opened the cubicle, washed my face and went back to class, trying to ignore the pointy fingers, sniggers, and shit face comments as I walked to where I had to be.
BLAKE
Jace was going to come by the afternoon to drop off my homework and other things that I asked him to get for me today. Everyone said he was great at being stealthy. The subjects on this side were so boring. I missed transformations, aviant, and art of war. These idiots would probably get a heart attack if they knew what I could do with a weapon.
I found the perfect song, well, almost perfect, and played with the words to fit my situation. I listened to the cords over and over and even downloaded a music sheet to write the tune.
I wished I had my guitar, but the school’s instrument had to be enough.
Jace and Carlos knew what I had in mind and they paid the serenade boys a few bucks to back me up. That I could sing shocked them and they were dying to hear me play.
I might not get close to Elena, but she could get close to me, and it was up to Jace to bring her to me.
The furiousness that she didn’t know about our world, her world, still pressed on my gut and Dad thought it was best to stay home and calm down. I couldn’t believe that she didn’t know about our world, no idea that dragons existed and what she had to do soon.
I felt sorry for her. I wished I could tell her as my father’s words of the ‘bond comes first’ kept playing through my mind.
She was going to be pissed off with me for not telling her about it sooner.
That shit could scar a bond badly, and I didn’t know how much time I still had left before the human part of me was going to resemble the dragon inside of me.
The knock finally came, and I jumped from my bed, rushed down the stairs and to the front door.
I opened the door by the second knock, and Jace, Carlos and Mike waited.
My eyes landed on the guitar that was in Jace’s hand. “Nicked it from the music room.”
“I told the group to meet you tomorrow morning at eight in the music room,” Carlos added. He had dark raven cropped hair, with dark tanned skin. His brown eyes and bushy, dark eyebrows rounded off his complexion. Mike’s red hair was almost the same color as the freckles that dusted his crooked nose, the result of way too many broken noses.
All three guys were sturdy and three of the best ice hockey players on their team.
“Thanks, you’re lifesavers, come in.” I stepped out of the way and took the guitar from Jace as the three of them walked in.
We walked up to my room, and Jace whistled. “Nice crib, Blake.”
I chuckled as I took out a cigarette and put it into my mouth.
I offered the guys one, and Carlos was the only one that took a cigarette.
I had to use my lighter that Dad bought. I missed my Pink Kiss.
I grabbed the guitar and sat down in the chair by the desk as Carlos took the window to blow out his smoke.
I strummed the snares. It was so out of tune. I fiddled with the knobs in order to get the right sound.
“How long have you played?” Mike asked.
“A long time,” I answered. “Music is my life.”
“You’re any good?”
I smiled. “I guess you have to wait and see tomorrow. You saw her today?”
They all became silent and looked at each other.
“Oh fuck, what happened?”
“Chloë, there was an incident,” Jace said. “It’s like she is focusing all her hatred towards this chick.”
I closed my eyes and tried to control my temper. “What happened?”
“Well, she was planning something. I tried to get it out of Liv, but she just said to watch and learn. That it would happen to my next girlfriend if I left her.”
“This chick is fucking crazy. I’m not her boyfriend.” I dragged the cigarette, and the cherry glowed bright red as I puffed the smoke out of my nostrils.
“Yeah, well, nobody says no to Chloë,” Carlos answered.
“I don’t fucking care.”
“She is a bit flat chested, Blake,” Mike said.
My lips curved. “They say a mouthful is more than enough.”
They all burst out laughing.
“So what did Chloë try to do?”
Jace shook his head. “I don’t know, but when Elena entered she had a paint mark on her face that looked like a GT stripe.”
I closed my eyes but couldn’t help the chuckle.
They all laughed.
“She didn’t go through with what she planned but she humiliated her in front of everyone about it.” Jace finished.
I shook my head.
“Well, I’m sure tomorrow, Chloë is going to get a wake up call.”
“Poor girl,” Carlos said as he blew out a whiff of smoke out the window.
“Okay, so what is our part in this?”
“I’m glad you asked.”
