Destine (The Watcher's Trilogy) (8 page)

Chapter
4

Revelation 6
; 12
: “Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like
thunder
, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a
bow
, and he was given a
crown
, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on
conquest
.”

I blinked hard
, trying to clear my vision;
surely he was not actually sta
nding outside my bedroom window. B
ut as he began to walk closer to the house I realized that it was actually Gabriel
.
I stood
,
half
hanging out
of
my window
,
ra
c
king my brain for something to say, or for that matter some reason for him to be here
.
I fail
ed miserably on both accounts.

“I’m sorry to
disturb you
, but I was wondering if you could
come down so we can talk?
”
he shouted up
.

“
Uhh
, yeah
…
I’ll be right down!
”
I
did my best
to disguise my excitement at the fact he
had come to see me
, but failed miserably
.
I turned from the window and rushed from the room
.
I paused only long enough to catch a glimpse of my reflection in the hall mirror
.
I was still wearing the same clothes I had worn to school, but I had pulled my hair out of the bun it had been in after the potting clay catastrophe
.
Surprisingly
,
my ha
ir actually looked pretty good;
the bun had caused the lower half of my hair to have a slight wave to it, while the top half was still tamed and straight
.
I checked for smeared mascara under my eyes, and my teeth for any potentially embarrassing bits
then
hustled to the door, not so much as mentioning to my mother where I was headed
.
She probably wouldn’t
even notice I was gone, plus he probably just had a question about our science homework
.

As I pulled the front door closed behind me I noticed that the
fact it was six
p
.
m
.
did little to extinguish the heat
.
Early September was always just as hot as August and the fact it wouldn’t be dark till
eight-thirty
was a taunting reminder that summer wasn’t over just because I was back at school
.
Gabriel met me on the front porch with a smile
.
I didn’t notice a science book or
a
copy of the
Canterbury Tales
,
so
maybe this wasn’t school related! 

“You can come in if you want,
”
I blurted
.
“
Oh, that was r
eal smooth
,
Michelle
,”
I thought to myself
.

He craned his neck to look into the house through the glass in the front door
.
“Would your parents approve of you having a boy in the house when they are not home?
”
he questioned with a smirk
.

“My m
om
’
s home,” I replied automatically, purposely leaving out the fact that even if she was physically present she really wasn’t home at all
.

He seemed to jump slightly at the mention of my mother, but maybe that was simply my imagination
.
He stopped trying to look into the house and instead turned and smiled at me
.
I felt a chill run up my spine.

“Actually
,
I was hoping you would accompany me on a walk,” he replied with that perfect enunciation of his
.
The boy would never be accused of mumbling
.
I wondered if he ever consider
ed public speaking for a career.
“
M
aybe he should
run for student council
,
”
I thought
to myself with
amusement
.

“Umm, o
f course,” I managed to spit out
.

“Good,” he turned and started for the sidewalk in front of my house
.
I stood
,
staring in his direction
.
What could this be about
?
He must have felt my hesitation
.

He turned back.
“Are you coming, or have you changed your mind?”

Staring at his face
,
whatever doubts I had about his visit evaporated
.
I smiled back at him and replied, “Right behind
ya
.”

“Well I would prefer you right beside me,” he said with a joking lilt to his voice
.

I swear my heart stopped
.
After a second I pulled myself together, forced my hear
t
to start beating again, and walked up beside him
.
I couldn’t help but wonder what this was about
.
Surely his interest in me was somehow school related or maybe his attention was for charities sake
.
After all
,
I had been feeling like a
charity case all week;
the poor, lonely social misfit
.
I physically shook myself and focused on not feeling sorry for myself, and instead thinking of something to talk about
.
I glanced sideways at Gabriel
.
He seemed deep in thought and not about to start a conversation any
time soon
.
We were walking down my street in the opposite direction of school, although since the town was only one square mile it didn’t much matter which way we walked
.

Finally I gath
ered all my bravery and spoke.
“Springdale, Utah
huhh
…
”
Well that was a
brilliant
display of
witty
conversation
.

“Huh, w
hat?”
H
e blinked at me
.
“
Ohh
, y
es, where I’m from
.
Yes, Springdale, Utah.
”

“Well, if you don’t mind, could you tell me about it
?
I’ve never even left the state
.
I would love to hear about
where you come from.
”
Wow
,
two whole sentences
. G
o me
.

He took
a deep breath and exhale
d
slowly
.
“Well honestly there isn’t much to tell
.
Springdale is a small town with only about 500 people in the whole town, and considering the town consists of about 100 square miles, people are pretty spread out
.
It originally was a Mormon farming town, but when Zion became
a
national
park tourism became the main employment
.
My Dad wasn’t able to make a living there, so we moved to the east coast w
h
ere hopefully he could make more money.
“

“Well, you traded in one small town for another
.
Everyone thinks that all of New Jersey is a huge suburb of New York City, but down here we’re pretty spread out
ourselves,
”
I replied without really worrying about w
here the conversation was going. M
aybe I could do this
.

“Shady Lane is a small town
,
but you drive in any direction for thirty minutes and you hit a mall,” he replied with a laugh
.
“What’s unique about areas like Utah is there are towns like Springdale
where
not only is your town small, but you
’
r
e
surrounded by other small towns
.
You could drive for hours and see nothing but farms and the occasional gas station
.
You really are in God’s country out there.
”

I thought about having to drive
for
hours
to find a mall or a movie thea
ter or a bowling alley
.
“T
hat must have been boring,” I thought out loud
.

“Well there were up
sides
,
too
.
Zion is amazingly beautiful
.
I think it might be one o
f the prettiest places on earth
.
The
red and
orange stones
and dirt would make the
crystal blue water
standout
in contrast
;
all the colors were incredibly intense, and the sunsets were breath taking
.
When the sun was setting the oranges and pinks in the sky would meet with the horizon and stretch on for miles
.
That’s wh
at I miss the most, the scenery,
”
he said wistfully
.

I tried not to let my brain get hung up on the fact that this incredibly good-looking guy was also poetic and appreciative in a way few
eighteen-year-old boys were
.
Mo
st guys my age would be boring me with stories of how they beat the most recent version of Call of Duty on their X-Box
.
Gee
sh
… “I know Zion is a national park, but I feel like it has another meaning that I can’t remember
.
Isn’t it a mountain or something?
”

“Well, in
T
he Bible
it’s the hill of Jerusalem on which the city of David was built
.
Zion is also sometimes thought of as the heavenly city or the kingdom of heaven
.
I guess that’s why the park is Zion, because
it’s
so beautiful that peopl
e thought it looked heavenly.
”

“Did he just quote
T
he Bible
to me?” I asked myself
.
I mean
,
I had been r
aised Catholic and until my m
om got sick we
went
to church every Sunday.
Dad had never been the church going kind of guy, but I couldn’t quote
T
he
Bible
.
That was both impressi
ve and strange at the same time. M
aybe he was some kind of missionary looking to covert me to his religion or worse yet his cult
.
I’m exactly
the kind of girl cults look for;
lonely, lost, and gullible
.
Before I could work myself up to
o
much, I took a deep breath and reminded myself that we were on the street, down the road from my ho
use. H
e was not going to throw
me into a van and force me to join a cult
.
God
,
I had an overactive imagination
.
I thought a change in topic was
in order
.
“So,
do you really have a tattoo and a motorcycle or are the rumor mills at school completely unreliabl
e?
”

“Well the motorcycle is untrue, but I do have a tattoo.”

OMG, I wasn’t expecting that one
.
I thought for sure all the rumors were just that
,
rumors, but apparently some school gossip was based on truth
.
“Would it be inappropriate for me to ask to see it?
”
I asked before my brain could scream “Shut
-up!” He gave me that crooked grin that I was really starting to love and pulled me off the
sidewalk
into a wooded lot in between two houses
.
We weren’t exactly
hidden
, but we were no longer standing in plain sight either
.
I felt my heart
beat start to race
.
I just didn’t know if it was because I was afraid to be secluded with him, or because he had just touched me
.
I unconsciously rubbed my wrist w
h
ere
his skin had brushed mine
;
it felt like my hand was asleep, that weird pins and needles feeling
.
I looked away from my wrist and up at him
.
He was unbuttoning his collared shirt
.
I thought
my heart
would hammer out of my chest
.
“
What
…
w
hat are you doing?” I stammered.