Always and Forever (13 page)

With an angry meow, Horcrux vaulted off my chest and tore out of my room like the hounds of hell were hot on his trail. Apparently, he didn't care for that idea.

I pushed up to my feet and headed toward the bathroom to see how Kal fare. On my nightstand, my phone lit up and buzzed. A quick glance told me it was Ricki, so I ignored it and checked on Kal.

“Need help?” I leaned against the doorway and drank in the sight of him standing half-naked in my bathroom.

“Depends on what kind of help you're offering,” he returned. A playful grin slid up to his lips. He wrung out the cloth he'd just run under the faucet and held it out to me. “Use it as you see fit.”

Heat rushed up to my cheeks and splashed pink across them as I crossed over to him. I racked my brain for something witty and sexy to say in response but came up empty-handed. When I reached out for the cloth, he pulled it back and held it just beyond my reach as his arm snaked around my waist to drag me up against him.

“You wear pink well,” he whispered as his lips brushed against mine. My palms slid up his bare chest, and I leaned into him. But before things could heat up any further, the shrill
blah-blah-blah-blah
of his ring tone cut through the air between us. He made a sound that was half growl, half groan and dug into his pocket to pull out the offensive device. After only a quick glance at the display, he tapped the screen and put the phone to his ear. “What?”

Using his momentary distraction to my advantage, I swiped the cloth out of his free hand and positioned him so that he leaned against the counter. Then, I stepped up to him, pressed my chest against his, and slotted my arms along his sides. With the mirror as a guide, I dabbed at his back where Horcrux had dug several holes.

“I thought we weren't meeting up until later,” he said into the phone. His eyes slid closed as I pressed a light kiss to his chest, directly over where his heart thumped steadily. “Yeah, well, I'll have to check.” His hand came up to cradle my skull and hold me in place. His fingers massaged my scalp tenderly. “We may have had other plans.” A short pause while whoever he talked to—I assumed it was Adam—squawked at him. “Okay, I'll talk to Mia. It's up to her. No, dude, I'm not whipped.” He rolled his eyes and grinned down at me. “It's called being thoughtful. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Later.” He tapped the phone, tossed it onto the counter behind him, and wrapped his arms around me. “Now, where were we?”

“What'd Adam want?” I asked instead.

He shrugged. “He and Ricki are going to meet Dave and Brad at the diner before going up to the depot. They wanted us to come with.”

I nodded, torn between the desire to stay here locked in this moment with Kal forever, and being among people where I'd be reminded with every word uttered just how little time I had left—especially since I needed to come up with my next “accident” plan as soon as possible. Before things with Kal got so far out of hand that I couldn't let him go. That wouldn't help either of us.

“Yeah,” I said to Kal. “Let's go.”

S
IXTEEN

COLONEL MUSTARD WAS A LAND TANK
masquerading as a 1979 Lincoln Town Car that I'd purchased for the bargain price of $250 just three weeks before I turned sixteen. If you could overlook the shitty yellow color of the exterior and the leather interior, the overly-loud muffler, and the fact that the radio didn't work, but the eight-track did, the Colonel was actually a decent ride. At least, I thought so.

Kal, on the other hand, hated my car with a passion that transcended even his extreme dislike of peas. Every time I wanted to drive somewhere, he grumbled and groaned about riding shotgun in the Colonel. By the martyred expression he wore as he wordlessly climbed in beside me, today was no different.

“I don't know why we couldn't take my car,” he griped as he opened the glove box to flip through my music collection. “At least, we'd have decent tunes.”

“Shh.” I glowered at him. “You're going to hurt the Colonel's feelings. And, I have good music. It's classic.”

“It's ancient, is what it is,” he countered. “And, so is the Colonel. Maybe it's time he was retired from active duty. He has earned his stripes, you know.”

I shot him a dark look as the Colonel eased out onto the road. “We're going to pretend you didn't just say that.” I patted the dash lovingly. “Aren't we, Colonel?”

He expelled a laugh, shaking his head. “Sometimes, I wonder about you, Mia. I really do.”

I couldn't help but grin at that. “But you love me anyway,” I added helpfully.

Returning my grin, he leaned over and pressed a kiss to the slope of my neck where it turned to shoulder, his hand sliding onto my thigh in the process. “Yeah, I kind of do,” he whispered in my ear, his hot breath caressing my skin and igniting a fire that quickly spread through me. “You know, we can still turn around. Go back and finish what we started before that damned cat interrupted us.”

“Nice try, mister.” I pushed him over to his own side of the car and ignored every fiber of my being that screamed for me to turn the Colonel around and do just what Kal suggested. “You just told Adam we'd meet them. Plus, we promised Dave and Brad we'd be at the party tonight. So, we're going.”

“Aw, but
Mom
,” he whined good-naturedly, which earned him a frigid glare from me. He cleared his throat and shrugged. “You can't blame a guy for trying.”

I let loose a laugh and shook my head. No, I guess I couldn't. We fell into a comfortable silence after that, and within a few moments, the diner came into view. I maneuvered the Colonel into a parking spot in front of the restaurant, and Kal bounded out before the car had even come to complete stop. I glowered at him as he opened my door, but my irritation didn't last much farther than that, as he kissed me soundly when I'd climbed out.

“Please stop. You're scaring the Colonel.”

We sprang apart. A few feet away, Dave and Brad leaned against the lamppost, surrounded by a hazy fog of gray smoke. Brad grinned and blew out a long trail of air pollution. “We could hear you coming from a block away. The Colonel is getting loud and cranky in his old age,” he told me.

“I told her the exact same thing,” Kal grumbled. “It's about an inch away from leaving her stranded on a deserted road.”

“Yeah, Mia,” Dave piped in. “You should trade the old boy in, get something cute and sporty. You'd look great behind the wheel of a little red convertible. Sexy.”

“Dude,” Brad punched him playfully in the arm. “Her boyfriend is standing right next to you. Not to mention yours.”

“Ow,” Dave grimaced, rubbing his bruised bicep. “Down boy. I was just stating a fact. And, you need to watch how hard you hit.”
He turned to me and Kal with a long-suffering look. “With hammers for fists, it's borderline abuse when he hits me.”

Brad's fist connected with Dave's arm again. “Keep it up, pretty boy, and you won't have anyone to kiss at midnight,” he scowled, and then a second later ruined it by smiling.

Kal laughed when Dave turned huge, rounded eyes on him. “Don't look at me.” He waved his hands out in front of him as if warding off a vicious attack. “This one gets jealous real easy.” He jerked his head in my direction.

“Oh no,” I hooted. “Don't let me stand in your way.” I turned to Brad, looped my arm through his, and pulled him toward the diner's front door. “You two want to smooch at midnight, we won't stop you. Will we, Brad?”

Deep chuckles floated out of him as he held the door open for me. “They can have at it. We'll just kiss each other,” he told me.

“Over my dead body,” Kal growled from behind us.

Dave and Brad both howled at that. “Guess you're not the jealous one after all, eh, Mia?” Dave guffawed.

I could only grin in response as Ricki materialized at my side the moment we stepped inside the tiny restaurant. “There you are,” she interrupted. She grabbed my arm and whirled me around. “We've been waiting for you forever. Come on.”

Kal tried to ask if I wanted him to order for me, but Ricki had whisked me away and into the ladies' room before I knew it. I pulled in a deep breath and waited for the inevitable Ricki tirade to spew forth.

Instead, she promptly burst into tears.

“Ricki, honey, what's wrong?” I pulled her trembling form into my arms. Evidently, sympathy broke the dam, for her soft sobs turned into a giant swell of emotion, which flooded everything it touched. “Rick,” I groaned. “I can't help if you don't tell me what happened.”

She shook her head, burying her face in my shoulder. “You'll hate me,” she wailed.

“No, I won't.”

“Yes, you will!”

“Ricki,” I began slowly, carefully. “How could I possibly hate you? You're one of my best friends. I promise you that whatever
it is, I won't hate you for it. Now, tell me what's wrong. Is this about Adam?”

She sniffled, wiped at her nose, and nodded.

“So, you told him?” She just looked at me with those luminous eyes of hers, and I knew. “Oh, Ricki,” I sighed, frustrated with her and her idea that she needed to play the field, so to speak. How could she be so reckless, so careless with the heart of someone who loved her so much? “Please tell me you didn't!”

“I told you you'd hate me!” she cried and stamped her foot like she was two years old.

“I don't hate you,” I told her as calmly as I could, but inside I was seething. “I'm just…” She had everything! She had someone who loved her, someone who wanted to be with her and only her for the rest of her life—a life, by the way, that would last for years, decades more—and this was what she did with it all? Her complete lack of…of gratitude for her so very blessed life poured salt into my still very fresh, very raw wounds. How dare she be so selfish? The thoughtless, ungrateful bitch. I shook my head, forced out those thoughts, and reminded myself that Ricki was my friend. But I wasn't quite so sure I believed that anymore. “I'm just disappointed. Look Ricki, I'm not the best person to talk to this about. I'm sorry.”

Her mouth dropped open, her shock at my lack of compassion for her problems almost laughable. That is, if I was in the mood for shits and giggles, which I wasn't.

I used her momentary speechlessness to duck out of the bathroom and head out to where the boys were crammed into a corner booth. Adam grinned when I slid in next to Kal.

“My girl still primping?” he asked, his eyes sparkling. His complete and total blindness to Ricki's extra-curricular activities ratcheted up my irritation another notch. At my short ‘yeah,’ he shrugged and turned his attention back to the menu in his hand.

Kal slid his arm around me and pulled me in close; his body heat poured over into me and melted some of my stone cold bitterness. But not by much. “I ordered you a hot chocolate. With extra marshmallows,” he murmured in my ear as he slid his menu in front of me.

“Thanks,” I whispered back and took the menu from him even though I knew exactly what I wanted. Ever since I was a kid, the food choices here had not once changed. I didn't even know why they continued to hand out menus. Everyone in town probably had them memorized by now.

Ricki returned just as the waitress was taking our orders. She went out of her way to avoid making eye contact with me—which was something considering I was sitting directly across from her—as she told the waitress what she wanted and then proceeded to chat with everyone else at the table. Really, I was still too irritated with her to care about her childish little games. I had half a mind to pull Adam aside sometime tonight and tell him everything.

Kal's arm around me tightened, and I turned to him; his worried gaze trapped me and dislodged all other thoughts but what I had to do tonight. After midnight, I told myself. It could keep until then. But once the new year rang in, I'd have to do something about this mess I'd made of both our lives. I couldn't lead him on any further. I wouldn't.

“You okay?” he asked, his brow furrowed into a frown. “You look awful white all of a sudden.”

“Dude, she always looks that way,” Adam snorted loudly. “Mia's literally the whitest person we know. I mean, she wears sun block even in the winter.”

“Ha, ha. Very funny,” I muttered sarcastically. I snuggled up closer to Kal and drank in his warmth, the safe feeling of his arms, snug around me. I wouldn't have that for much longer, and it was yet another thing I wanted to have memorized for when it was gone and I was all by myself. “I'm fine. Just a little headache. That's all.”

He pursed his lips, considered my answer, and measured its validity. “You're sick. I'll take you home,” he announced.

“No,” I blurted out a little louder than was necessary. I cleared my throat and aimed my most brilliant smile at him. “I'm fine, Kal. Really.”

“But if you're sick—”

“No, no. I'm okay. I've got some aspirin in the Colonel's glove box. It'll be fine. I promise.”

“I don't know, Mia,” he began, not at all convinced.

“Dude, she said she's alright,” Adam cut in. “Don't get all over-protective-boyfriend on her. Just let it go.”

“You should listen to him,” Dave put in helpfully. “Anyone who can keep Ricki happy for as long as he has probably knows his boyfriend shit.”

“Yeah,” Brad guffawed. “But you should really steer clear of what this guy says.” He elbowed his boyfriend in the ribs, eliciting a hot glare from Dave. “He doesn't have that good of a track record.”

“Like you do?” Dave shot back, to which the whole table erupted in laughter.

Kal's face smoothed out into unreadable lines, but he didn't push me any further about going home. Instead, he watched me out of the corner of his eye. His close scrutiny worried me that maybe he'd figured out my secret all on his own.

The food came a short while later, and we all chowed down. Afterwards, we climbed into our respective cars and headed out toward the depot, where most of the school came together for parties and bonfires. On New Year's Eve, the party was always huge and loud and full of distractions. The perfect place for me to end things with Kal.

The only question now was:
how would I do that without giving away my secret?

S
EVENTEEN

FULL DARK HAD FALLEN
, bright moonlight casting an iridescent glow over everything and everyone it touched. Mixed with the warm, orangey-glow of the small fire Brad and Dave had built, the winter night seemed almost warm, inviting.