Onyx

Chapter 5

Carissa was waiting for me by my locker after biology. “Can I just go home?” I asked as I switched my textbooks.

She laughed. “Having a bad day?”

“You could say that.” I thought about elaborating for a second, but what could I tell her? “I was running late this morning. You know how that just screws your day up from there.”

We headed down the hall, chatting about the party on Friday and what we were going to wear. I really hadn’t put much thought into it, figuring I’d just wear jeans and a shirt.

“Everyone is dressing up,” she explained, “since we don’t get a lot of reasons to actually wear something nice around here.”

“We just had homecoming.” I groaned, knowing I didn’t have anything dressy.

Carissa launched into the routine conversation about what colleges I was going to apply to. She was hoping I would send an application into WVU. Most of the students were applying there.

“Katy, you really need to start applying,” she insisted as she grabbed a plate of what appeared to be Salisbury steak. “You’re going to run out of time.”

“You know, I hear it from my mom every day. I will when I decide where I want to go.” Problem was I had no idea where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do.

“You don’t have forever,” she said, quick to remind me.

Dee was already at our table, and I launched into my own tirade the moment I sat down. “So I can’t wear jeans to the party? I have to wear a dress?”

“Huh?” Dee blinked and looked at me.

“Carissa told me I had to wear a dress on Friday night. I didn’t really plan for that.”

Dee picked up her fork and pushed the food around on her plate. “You should wear a dress. We get to be pretty princesses for the night and dress up for the party.”

“We’re not six.”

Lesa snorted and repeated, “Pretty princesses?”

“Yes, pretty princesses. You can borrow one of my dresses. I have enough.” Dee poked at her green beans.

Something was not right with her. She wasn’t eating and was now suggesting I could wear one of her dresses. “Dee, I don’t think I’d fit in one of your dresses.”

She turned her angelic face to mine, lips turned down at the corners. “I have plenty of dresses you can wear. Don’t be silly.”

I stared at her, dumbfounded. “If I wore one of your dresses, I’d look like a tightly packaged sausage.”

Dee’s gaze darted over my shoulders, and whatever she was going to say died on her lips. Her eyes widened and face paled. I was afraid to turn around, half expecting to find a set of DOD officers strolling through our school cafeteria in black suits.

The picture in my brain was equally hilarious and frightening.

I slowly twisted in my seat, preparing myself to be thrown on the floor and handcuffed, or whatever it was they did. It took me a moment to find what Dee was utterly transfixed by, and when I did, I was confused.

It was Adam Thompson—the nice twin as I liked to refer to him and he was Dee’s… friend? Boyfriend?

“What’s going on?” I asked, swiveling around.

Her gaze darted to me. “Can we talk later?”

In other words, it wasn’t something she could say in front of the others. I nodded and glanced behind me. Adam was getting food, but I noticed someone else.

Blake stood by the doors to the cafeteria, scanning the crowds for someone. His gaze found our table and his hazel eyes settled on me. He smiled, flashing a set of ultra-white teeth, and waved.

I gave him a little wave back.

“Who’s that?” Dee asked, frowning.

“His name is Blake Saunders,” Lesa said, eyeing her lunch. She poked it with her fork as if she expected it to jump off her plate and run away. “He’s a new kid in our biology class. I found out he’s living with his aunt.”

“Did you go through his personal files or something?” I asked, amused.

Lesa snorted. “I overheard him talking to Whitney Samuels. She was giving him the third degree.”

“I think he’s coming over here.” Dee turned to me, her expression unreadable. “He’s cute, Katy.”

I shrugged. He was very cute. Blake reminded me of a surfer, and that was hot. And he was human. Bonus points there. “He’s nice, too.”

“Nice is good,” Carissa said.

Nice was great, but…I glanced at the table in the back. Daemon wasn’t sitting with us today. He seemed to be in a heated discussion with Andrew. There was also no Ash. Strange. My eyes bounced back to Daemon.

He looked up at that exact moment. The smirk on his face faded. A muscle in his jaw popped. He looked…pissed. Whoa. What’d I do now?

Dee kicked me under the table, and I twisted back around.

Standing beside me was Blake. A nervous smile was on his face as his eyes flickered over the table. “Hey.”

“Hi,” I said. “Want to sit?”

Nodding, he took the empty seat beside me. “Everyone is still staring at me.”

“Ah, it should fade in a month or so,” I told him.

“Hi,” Lesa chirped. “I’m Lesa with an e, and this is Carissa and Dee. We’re Katy’s cool friends.”

Blake laughed. “Nice to meet you. You’re in bio, right?”

Lesa nodded.

“So where are you from?” asked Dee, her voice surprisingly tight. Last time I’d heard that tone was when Ash had shown up at the diner with Daemon before school started.

“Santa Monica.” After another round of aahs, he grinned. “My uncle was getting tired of the city, so he wanted to get as far away from it as possible.”

“Well, this is as far as you can get.” Lesa grimaced after taking a bite of her food. “I bet lunch was better in Santa Monica.”

“Nah, it’s also questionable there.”

“So how are you adjusting to your classes?” Carissa folded her hands on the table, as if she were going to do an interview for the school newspaper. All she needed was a pen and paper.

“Okay. It’s a much smaller school than my old one, so I’ve been able to find my way around easily. The people are nicer here, except for the whole staring thing. How about you?” He turned to me. “Since you’re still technically new?”

“Oh no, I hand over new-kid status completely to you. But it’s pretty cool around here.”

“Not much happens, though,” Lesa added.

The conversation moved easily. Blake was super friendly. He answered every one of our questions and was quick to laugh. Turned out he had gym with Lesa and art with Carissa.

Every so often, he’d glance at me and smile, revealing a set of straight white teeth. It had nothing on Daemon’s smile—whenever he decided to grace our world with its presence—but it was nice. And it was also drawing the attention of the other girls. Their eyes kept darting back and forth between us. My cheeks were growing hotter by the second.

“We’re having a party Friday night.” Lesa flashed me a quick grin. “You’re more than welcome to come. Dee’s parents are letting us have it at their house while they’re away this weekend.”

Dee stiffened with the fork halfway to her mouth. She didn’t say anything, but I could tell she wasn’t happy with the invite. What was her deal? Half the school appeared to be invited.

“That sounds cool.” Blake glanced at me. “You’re going?”

I nodded, twisting the lid on my water.

“She doesn’t have a date,” Lesa added with a sly look.

My mouth gaped. Real smooth move there.

“No boyfriend?” Blake sounded surprised.

“Nope.” Lesa’s eyes sparkled. “You have a girlfriend you left back in California?”

Dee cleared her throat as she found the food on her plate to be of extreme interest.

Mortified, I wanted to hide under the table.

Blake chuckled. “No. No girlfriend.” He turned his attention back to me. “But I’m surprised you don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Why?” I asked, wondering if I should be flattered. Like my awesomeness was just so extreme that I couldn’t be single?

“Well,” Blake said, leaning in toward me. When he spoke, it was right in my ear. “That guy over there. He’s been staring at you since I sat down. And he doesn’t look happy.”

Dee was the first to look. Her lips formed a tight smile. “That’s my brother.”

Blake nodded as he leaned back. “Did you guys date or something?”

“No,” I said. Every muscle in my body demanded that I take a look-see. “He’s just…Daemon.”

“Huh,” Blake said, stretching. He nudged my arm. “So no competition there?”

My eyes widened. Boy, he was bold. His hotness level went up ten points. “Not likely.”

A slow smile crept over Blake’s lips. He had a fuller bottom one. Looked totally kissable. “Good to know, because I was wondering if you wanted to grab something to eat after school?”

Whoa. I glanced at Dee, who looked just as surprised as I did. I had every intention of finding out why she was acting so weird over Adam and then talking to Daemon about the weird stuff that had been happening.

Dee misinterpreted my hesitation. “We can get together tomorrow after school.”

“But—”

“It’s okay.” Her look seemed to say, Go out, have fun. Be normal. Or maybe that was my wishful thinking, because she didn’t seem very pleased with Blake’s interest in me. “It’s fine,” Dee adds.

I could wait one more day to talk to Daemon. I glanced over at Blake and our eyes locked. I found myself nodding.

Blake’s smile remained on his face the rest of the lunch. Toward the end, I caved and had to look because I could still feel him. Blake had been right. Daemon was staring. Not at me, but at the boy next to me. There wasn’t anything friendly in the hard line of his jaw or his sharp jewel-toned eyes.

Daemon’s gaze slid to mine. There was a flutter deep in my chest. I tried to draw in a breath, but I felt pierced. My lips tingled.

There was definitely no competition there.

…

Blake and I decided to go to the Smoke Hole after school. We took separate cars, and the wind was howling when we got there, tearing at the bare branches of the trees surrounding the parking lot as we rushed inside.

His cheeks were flushed under his tan as we grabbed a seat near the crackling fireplace. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to the wind here. It’s brutal.”

“Me, too,” I said, rubbing my chilled hands over my arms. “And I’ve been told to expect a lot of snow come winter.”

Interest lit up his eyes, making the specks of green stand out. Nowhere near as bright as Daemon’s, though. “Perfect snowboarding weather, then. Do you snowboard?”

I laughed. “I’d kill myself in two seconds. I went skiing once with my mom and it wasn’t pretty.”

Blake grinned and then shifted his attention to the waitress taking our orders. Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous. There wasn’t a tipsy feeling in my stomach when our gazes met. My skin didn’t feel stretched too thin. And I wasn’t sure what that meant. It seemed so…normal.

He told me about surfing while we waited for my slice of cheese pizza and his cup of chili. I told him the closest I’d come to surfing was watching the guys down in Florida. I didn’t have that kind of coordination, and he tried to convince me it wasn’t that hard.

I laughed. A lot. We took our time eating. With him, I wasn’t thinking about aliens from outer space or the looming threat of the DOD or Arum. It was the most relaxing hour I’d spent in a long time.

Toward the end, he was ripping a napkin into tiny pieces while he grinned at me. “So, you have a blog?”

Surprised, I nodded and figured I’d get my geekdom out of the way. “Yeah, I love books. I review them on the blog.” I paused. “How did you know?”

Blake leaned forward and whispered, “I looked you up. I know, kind of a nerdy thing to do, but I found your blog. I like how you write your reviews. Very witty. And you’re passionate about it.”

Flattered and completely won over by the fact he actually read my reviews, I smiled. “Thank you. The blog is really important to me. Most people don’t get it.”

“Oh, I totally do. I used to blog about surfing.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Yep, I miss the surfing and blogging—the whole connecting with people all around the world that shared the same passion. It’s a pretty awesome community.”

This guy was perfect. He didn’t make fun of me like Daemon had over the whole blog thing. Cool points for Blake. I took a sip of my drink as I glanced out the window. Dark, thick clouds blanketed the sky. “When I first saw you, I had you pegged for a surfer. You have that look.”

“What kind of look is that?”

“You just have the surfer-boy look going on. The hair, the tan—it’s very cute.”

“Cute?” He arched a brow.

“Okay, it’s pretty hot.”

He grinned. “I like the sound of that.”

He had one of those personalities, much like Dee, where I couldn’t help but feel comfortable around him. A welcome change from the pins-and-needles feeling I got around Daemon.

When we left the diner close to five, I couldn’t believe how much time had passed. The wind whipped at my hair, but I was still buzzing too much from my afternoon with Blake to care about the fact I hadn’t bought a jacket yet.

Blake nudged me with his elbow. “I’m glad you came with me.”

“So am I.” I twirled my keys as we stopped by his truck.

“I don’t normally put myself out there.” He leaned against the hood of his truck, crossing his ankles. “You know, just asking like that in front of an entire table of strangers.”

Brisk wind cooled my warm cheeks. “You seemed pretty confident.”

“I am when I want something.”

Pushing off the hood, he moved to stand in front of me. Oh God. Was he going to kiss me? I totally loved the easy afternoon we’d just spent, but, well…I just didn’t feel right leading him on. I didn’t know what was going on with Daemon, if anything really was going on, but I knew it wasn’t fair to pretend I was completely free. I had feelings for Daemon; I just wasn’t sure what they meant.

Blake leaned toward me, and I froze.

Above him, the branches shook and groaned under the force of the wind.

There was a loud crack, and my head jerked up. One of the thick branches broke under the weight of the wind. Panic leaped into my throat as it spiraled down to where Blake stood. There was no way he could move fast enough, and the size of the branch promised major damage.

Static rushed over my skin, crackling between the layers of my clothing. I felt the tiny hairs on the back of my neck raise. Heart racing, I shot forward and I thought I screamed Stop, but it was only in my head.

And the branch stopped…in midair, suspended by nothing.