BlackMoon Beginnings (24 page)

“I meant here.” He circles his arms in my
immediate direction. “You were over there,” he says while pointing
to the other half of the table.

“Is everyone done eating?” asks Claire. “Why
don’t you guys go hang out in the entertainment room, while I clean
up.” Everyone starts getting up from their chairs and leaving the
room.

“Can I help you clean up, Claire?”

“No. Go hang out with everyone else. I’ve got
this.”

“Are you sure?” I don’t want to leave the
mess for her to clean up on her own. There are a lot of dishes to
do.

“Yes, go. Go.” She pushes me towards the
door. Taking the hint, I walk out of the room and up to the
entertainment room. The couch is already occupied, as are both of
the smaller chairs.

Natasha is sitting very close to Colton on
the couch. Emma and David are sharing a chair. Logan is sitting on
the other side of the couch. Conner and Natalie are sitting with
Madison on the floor. Liam is sitting by himself against the wall,
so I walk over and sit beside him. Wrapping his arm around me, he
pulls me close to him.

“You feeling any better?”

“Yeah, I really am. I promise this time. I am
hoping that if I get back in the habit of training, things will
slowly start to return to normal. I could really use normal right
now.”

Liam squeezes my shoulder a little, “I hate
to break it to you Ryanne, but none of this is really normal.”

“True. Well, any semblance of normal would be
fine.” I rest my head on his shoulder and look around the room.
Everyone seems to be involved in their own conversations.

“Natasha keeps giving you the stink eye,”
Liam tells me.

“I read her thoughts earlier. She thinks I’m
ruining her chances of getting back with Colton. Apparently they
were an item at one point. I’m not standing in her way, so I don’t
know why she keeps glaring at me like that.”

“Maybe it has something to do with the fact
that Colton isn’t giving her any attention because he keeps
glancing at you.”

I lift my head off his shoulder and glance
over at Colton and Natasha. He is quietly talking to her, not
looking at me. I don’t know what Liam’s talking about. “He does
not.”

“Does too.”

“I’m not having this conversation.” We settle
into silence. Listening to the conversations around us, I hear
Conner mention that he missed last week’s episode of The Big Bang
Theory. Gasping, I turn around and ask, “You watch The Big Bang
Theory?”

“Yes, it’s weird, but it’s one of the only
shows that I can stand to watch.”

“I love it. Sheldon is so hilarious.” We
start animatedly talking about Leonard and Penny’s relationship,
the quirkiness of Howard and Raj, and strange
friendship/relationship between Sheldon and Amy.

“Aww, look they’re having a nerd moment,”
says David.

“Hey, hey. Don’t diss it. Just because you
can’t understand anything more complicated than a rock…” I smile
innocently at him.

“Ooooohhhhhh.”

“Oh, little girl. You asked for it,” says
David, while standing up. Walking towards me, he wiggles his
fingers.

“You wouldn’t!”

“Wouldn’t I?” He is getting closer to me. My
eyes dart to the door, right before I run towards it. He runs after
me and catches me in the hallway. Wrapping his arms around my
midriff, he starts tickling my stomach.

Doubling over laughing, I say “Mercy, Mercy.”
I am laughing so hard, I can barely get a word out. “You’re a
genius,” I manage.

“I know.” He drags me back into the room. I
yank my hand out of his and sulk back towards Liam. Sitting on the
ground, I fake pout towards David. “You’re not very nice; picking
on girls smaller than you.” He chuckles before sitting back in the
chair and wraps his arm around Emma. She snuggles into this
side.

An hour later, Madison has fallen asleep and
Conner decides that it is time for them to leave. Standing in the
living room, by the front door, everyone is saying their goodbyes.
Natasha is still glued to Colton’s side.

“It was very nice talking to Ryanne. I hope
we meet again soon,” says Conner.

“Me too.”

“Colton, can I speak with you? Alone,” asks
Natasha. Colton runs a hand through his hair and I think I see him
glance at me, but I don’t know for sure.

“Umm, sure.” She pulls him outside, shutting
the door after her. Out of sight and out of hearing range. For some
reason, I just stare at the door, not able to pull my eyes
away.

“He’s not interested in Natasha,” David
whispers in my ear.

Blinking, I draw my eyes away from the door.
“Okay?” I look at him trying to find the underlying meaning to his
statement. When he doesn’t explain further, I shake my head and
say, “I think I’m going to go to bed. I’m pretty tired.” I turn
away and head upstairs slowly.

“Goodnight Ryanne,” a chorus of voices says
behind me.

Even buried under the comforter, I start
shivering. I don’t have any warmer clothing to change into.
Spotting Colton’s sweatshirt folded on the dresser, I push the
covers back and put it on, inhaling. The shirt smells like his
cologne. I walk back to the bed and pull the covers back, nestling
under the sheets. Closing my eyes, I slowly drift into a dreamless
sleep.

I wake up to the sound of a shower the next
morning. Instead of waiting for Emma to get out, I get up and go
down to the kitchen to look for Claire. Instead, I find Colton
searching through the cabinets. Looking down, I realize that I had
slept in his sweatshirt.
Shoot
. I try to back out of the
room quietly, without catching his attention. Since I have
absolutely no luck, he turns around at the last second.

“Morning Ryanne.” He says giving me his
thousand-watt smile. His smile grows when he sees what I am
wearing. I walk over and lean against the island behind him.

“I got really cold last night,” I try to
explain. “Do you want it back?” I start to pull my arms out of the
sleeves to take it off, but Colton reaches out and grabs my
hand.

“Keep it.” I blush and look away. Stepping
closer and lightly caressing my cheek, he says, “You blush so
easily.” That, of course, just makes me blush more. His breath
against my cheeks makes goose bumps arise on my skin. Thankfully
for the sweatshirt, he can’t see that. My heart is pounding a mile
a minute. The hand on my cheek moves down to my chin, slowly
tilting it up. “Ryanne…”

I look up and gaze into his eyes. I’m about
to lean forward when I hear laughter.

Laughter? Who would be laughing?

Hearing people entering the room, I try to
step back, but I am already pressed up against the counter. My
blush darkens. Muttering a few choice words, Colton takes a few
steps back, but never takes his eyes from me. I, however, turn and
look at who came into the room. Emma is grinning like a madwoman at
me, while David is standing there with a smirk on his face looking
at his brother.

“Oh, morning guys.” I say quickly.

“A good morning it is, I see,” David
says.

“I’m going to go take a shower now that Emma
is out.” Keeping my eyes on the ground, I brush past them and run
up the stairs. That was close.

Too close.

Turning the water on as high as it can go, I
get into the shower. After a couple of seconds, the room is already
full of steam. The shower is one of my favorite places to think.
There’s no one to disturb you. It’s just you and the water in a
peaceful little bubble. Washing my hair, I start going over
everything.

That’s twice now that Colton has tried to
kiss me and we were interrupted. I think he tried the night of the
backyard attack at the other house...and that didn’t end well. Is
that a sign? Maybe the universe is telling me that Colton and I
aren’t meant to be together. I don’t even know if I like him in
that way. Any girl would be crazy to not find him attractive. He’s
probably only interested in me because I’m one of two girls he’s
around all the time and the other one is possibly accounted for
already. There’s no other reason why a tall, muscular, incredibly
good-looking guy would be interested in a short, awkward girl like
myself. Natasha mentioned something about wanting to get Colton
back, meaning they were together at one point. We are two
completely different people. Colton and I are in two distinctly
separate leagues. I don’t want to be someone’s toy—a thing to pass
the time until something better came along. I want to be someone’s
first choice, not a replacement.

That’s it. I’m going to try and stay out of
situations like that with Colton without making it too obvious.
Maybe he’ll get the point and move on.

Hopefully.

Walking out of the bathroom and into the
bedroom, I see Emma sitting on the bed reading through one of Tom’s
outdoor magazines. Emma would never read one of those magazines, so
I know that she has something up her sleeve.

“So….you and Colton, huh?” She says without
glancing up from the magazine.

“There’s no me and Colton.”

Dropping the magazine, she jumps off the bed
and walks over to me, “Well why not?” I brush past her and leave
the room, hoping that the conversation would end with my departure.
“Ryanne, why not?”

Stopping on the stairs, I look down in the
living room and when I see no one, I continue, “Because I’m no
one’s first choice, Emma, and I never have been. I’m the girl that
gets picked on. The easy target. Everyone picks on the insecure
girls. I’ve been told by a crapload of people that I’m not good
enough. You think if a guy like Colton had a choice, he would pick
me?” I don’t wait for her to respond. “No. He wouldn’t. We belong
in two completely different social classes. And I can’t seem to
keep danger away from me. I’ll just get someone killed and I don’t
want it to be him. I don’t want it to be any one you guys.”

“What if you
were
his first choice?”
She calls after me as I walk down the rest of the stairs.

Walking into the kitchen, I say, “I’m
not.”

“Not what?” asks Logan. I briefly glance in
his direction. He’s sitting with David, Colton and Liam at the
kitchen table.

“Tall.” I walk to the fridge and grab out a
water bottle and leave the room, heading back upstairs. Emma is
still trailing me.

“Ryanne, please talk to me.” I hear the sound
of chairs scraping in the kitchen, so I have a feeling that the
guys are trying to listen in.

“I don’t want to talk.” Stopping down the
hallway, I lean against the wall. “Please.”

“So what are you going to do? Just ignore him
from now on?”

“No, I’m not going to…crap.” I feel the tug
of a vision, pulling me away from the present and into the
future.

I am sitting in the attic, looking down at
the yard, when a figure materializes in the corner of the room.
Larkin. I briefly look at him, before turning my attention back to
the window. It is partially cloudy, but I don’t know if it is
because of me, or if it is supposed to be like that today.

“
Ryanne, Dravin’s coming for you again. He
doesn’t know where you are exactly, but he’ll find out soon enough.
I’ve tried to divert his attention elsewhere, but I’m pretty sure
he is suspicious,” he says.

“
I know. It’s fine. Don’t let him suspect
you. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me. Let him come. I’ll
be ready.”

“
He is going to try and rig the house to
blow up. It won’t happen until after he is here though. He wants
you out and wants to see the destruction he’ll cause. So, you’ll
have some time.”

I come back and find everyone standing over
me. Pushing back their hands, I stand up on my own and dust off my
clothes. “Dang, why can I never have one of those when I’m by
myself?” I mutter. “And why do I always end up falling over?”

“Ryanne, what did you see?” asks Emma.

“Not a whole lot happened. I was sitting in
the attic, by myself, and Larkin came. He told me that Dravin is
coming for me again and the house is going to get blown up.”
Nonchalantly, I walk past all of them and head upstairs to warn Tom
and Claire. They all remain frozen.

About halfway up the stairs, they all say,
“What?” and start to follow me.

“It doesn’t happen for a while though.”

“How do you know that?” asks Colton.

“The leaves were changing colors. Oh, and
because my hair was longer and so was Larkin’s. Apparently, I don’t
get a haircut anytime soon.”

“Good,” mumbles Colton. I turn around and
look at him, but he is looking elsewhere. Entering Claire’s room, I
find her sitting on the window seat, reading a book.

“I had a vision.” I go on to tell her
everything that happened in the vision. It wasn’t very detailed, so
I’m worried about forgetting anything.

“Ok.” Claire starts nodding. “That gives us
some time then. That doesn’t mean that we won’t get attacked before
then, but we’ll be fine in the meantime. I’ll tell Tom when he gets
out of the shower.” I nod and brush past everyone standing in the
doorway.

Colton grabs my arm, “Can we talk?” Without
looking at him, I shake my head and walk out of the room.

“Give her time,” I hear Emma whisper to
him.

I walk back to the room I share with Emma,
grab my notebook and head outside. Sitting on the stone steps, I
open my notebook and start drawing. I don’t think about anything. I
just draw. My pencil scratches across the page leaving behind a
dark line, bending to the will of my hand. The sun keeps going
behind clouds, creating shadows across my page. It is hot out, but
not hot enough to be uncomfortable. A slight breeze keeps blowing
my hair in my face. Every ten seconds, I have to retuck my hair
behind my ears.

Someone touches my back.

“What are you drawing?” Startled, I scream,
throw my notebook into the air, and jump backwards. I turn and see
Liam sitting beside me with a huge grin on his face.