Eternal (Eternal series) (4 page)

Her mind was spinning.  This new boy—Destry—obviously had no desire to talk to her, or even look at her for that matter.  He must be like the others, too superior to talk to someone who appeared to be beneath his social standing.

I'm a walking disaster
, Emma thought as she headed down the hall toward the drinking fountain.  Water would have to suffice for lunch today, although she doubted it would stop her stomach from growling. 

She shouldn't have let him intimidate her like that and make her leave the lunch line.  What gave him the right?  She didn't have the guts to go back in there though.  She couldn't endure that uncomfortable stare of his again. 

What did it matter anyway?  High school would be over soon and she’d never have to spend time with these people again.  Who cared what this new boy thought of her, or what anyone thought of her? 

An angel had spoken to her, and she was going to find a way to get him to do it again.

Chapter 3:  LONGINGS

Destry was still confused about what had happened at lunch.  He stood in the hall before his next class, listening to Chuck talk about the girls that passed.  Chuck was confident that Destry could steal any one of them away from their current boyfriends if he so desired. 

“I know everything about everyone that goes here," Chuck said confidently, “so if you have any questions or need background info on anyone, I’m your man," he spouted. 

Destry was just barely aware of the names and faces of the girls Chuck pointed out as they walked by coyly fluttering their lashes in his direction.  He only caught a few words Chuck said which included:
cheerleader, hottie, easy, popular, blonde, available, and party girl...none of them registered with him.  He felt detached from the whole situation.

As Chuck continued babbling away Destry saw the girl from the lunch line walk by.  She didn't seem to notice him at all, unlike most of the other female students that looked at him slyly, giggling and whispering to one another. 

He felt bad about the lunch incident.  He'd upset her enough that she'd left the lunchroom without eating.  He'd hit into her pretty hard.  But for some reason when he'd turned to apologize he felt like someone had punched him in the gut, knocking the air out of him.  He hadn't been able to talk, or even breathe for that matter.

Destry didn't understand it.  She was pretty, but he wasn't one to be taken off guard by anyone or anything.  So what
had
happened back there in the lunch line?

She probably thought he was a jerk for not speaking to her when she'd said hello.  He'd wanted to speak, but something strange was happening in his chest—like acid reflux rising up his throat and burning him from the inside out.  A strange fluttering in the back of his mind had made him feel dizzy. 

In the end, all he had managed was a strange look.

"What do you know about that girl?" Destry interrupted Chuck's ranting, nodding his head towards Emma as she hurried past them and down the hall.

Chuck looked towards the girl for a moment, as if he didn't really see her.  "You mean Emma?"  He finally said with a puzzled snort.

Destry just looked at him blankly,
is her name Emma then
?  Somehow just thinking it made his throat start to burn again.

"Baker?!!"  Chuck continued scoffing when Destry didn't reply, mocking disbelief in his tone.

"I guess," Destry said with a bit of ire, "I don't know what her name is, but I'm talking about that girl right there."  Destry pointed towards Emma's back as she rounded the corner and disappeared from view.  "The one with the brown hair, carrying all the books," he continued when Chuck just sat there with a baffled look on his face.

"That's her, Emma Baker," Chuck replied, still sounding shocked that out of all the girls he'd just pointed out, Destry wanted to know Emma's name.

"So...what do you know about her?" Destry asked his first question again, feeling a little annoyed at Chuck's reaction.

"She moved here a few years ago," Chuck recited blandly.

"Why did she move here, and where did she move from?"  Destry prodded.

"I don't know," Chuck said lamely, "what is this, twenty questions?"

"How can you not know?  You just said you knew everything about everyone in this school."

"Well yeah, but nobody pays any attention to
her
," Chuck said arrogantly.  Then he noticed a look that could only be interpreted as anger filling Destry's eyes.  He quickly back peddled.  "I'm not sayin' she's bad lookin' or anything, but she keeps to herself, she's kind of a loner.  I don't think anyone here knows very much about her.  Besides, she's not worth your trouble, if ya know what I mean."

"And why's that," Destry snapped back, "because she's not blonde and she's not a cheerleader?"

"Yeah... I guess," Chuck said hesitantly, surprised by Destry's harshness.  "You asked," he added flatly.  Chuck was beginning to wonder if befriending the new kid had been such a good idea after all.

"You're right, I did."  Destry said calmly, trying his best to diffuse the situation.

What was wrong with him today?  He felt like he hadn't quite come to his senses after being sucker punched.  Where had this behavior come from?  For some reason he didn't understand, he felt the need to defend this girl he didn't know—an urgent need to protect her.  

He didn't want to alienate his first friend on his first day, so he slapped Chuck on the shoulder and gave him a warm smile.  "Thanks for the info.  I'll see ya after school, okay?"

"Um...yeah, sure," Chuck said, giving Destry a nod and then turning into his locker so he could roll his eyes.  Obviously the new kid had issues.

Destry threw his backpack over his shoulder and headed to his next class.  Unfortunately, he thought to himself, it was in the opposite direction that the girl...Emma, had gone.



Emma hugged her books tightly to her chest as she sat in her last class waiting for the bell to ring.  She wanted to go home.  She glanced toward the window and out at the vast lawn that stretched across the front of the high school. 

She noticed a boy walking along the sidewalk that passed in front of her seventh period class.  As he stepped in front of the window he turned slightly and Emma recognized Destry.  He didn't look harsh or angry now, but sort of lost.  His hair caught the sun and shimmered with bits of gold.  He really was handsome.  But that fact wasn’t enough to override her irritation.  He’d behaved like a monster.

As he continued past the window and out of sight Emma discovered she'd been holding her breath.  She exhaled slowly feeling thankful now that the new boy, Destry McQuade, wasn't in any of her classes.  He was obviously rude and had some sort of superiority complex or something.

She'd hoped he might be different, that they could possibly even be friends.  Those hopes had been dashed almost as soon as they had formed.  Now she would be perfectly content never to see him again.

As soon as Emma got home, she dumped her books on the kitchen table and sprinted to the barn.  She wanted to forget about school and focus all of her energy on the angel voice.  She figured the barn was the best place to try after her last experience there.

She closed the big wooden door quietly behind her and walked nonchalantly over to the stack of hay bales.

“
Hi there, um—angel.” 

Yeah, that was casual right?  There was no way he would suspect anything from that. 

“I wanted to talk to you again.  I have some questions for you.”  Emma paused, and silently hoped.  “You can talk to me,” she tried to sound reassuring.  “You can trust me.  I won’t tell anyone else about this, I swear.”

Emma waited patiently for some kind of a feeling or a sign, but nothing happened.  She wondered if she should go into the events of today.  They were hard to think about and even harder to talk about.  He had probably seen everything that had happened anyway, if he was watching her like she suspected.

Everything was silent around her, which was odd in a barnyard.  She wondered if it might be a sign that he wasn’t going to answer her today.  She was probably insane for thinking she could have an ongoing relationship with a voice.  Besides, it was sadly obvious that no one else was there.

The eerie silence wasn’t something Emma was imagining though.  Why weren’t the chickens clucking softly in their nests, or the sheep rustling through their feed bin?  That was definitely strange.  It felt unusually warm too, especially now, like a wave of heat was swirling around her.  Did that mean something? 

She closed her eyes, hoping to reproduce the events from Saturday.  The warmth and comfort seemed thick in the air.  She smelled sunshine and wind in her nose, hot and cool at the same time in her lungs.

He
was
here.  She could feel him like before. 

“
Are you here?” Emma asked timidly. She was sure of it, but longed for a heavenly response.

“
I'm here Emma.
” 

The words were almost a whisper, but they echoed through the warm air and vibrated through Emma's body down to her core.  Her heart thudded in her chest, making her wonder if it might stop altogether.  An angel was speaking to her, this was big!  This didn’t happen to normal people.  She stumbled backwards a little and fell into the hay.  Graceful wasn’t something that worked for her.

“I’m sorry, did I startle you?”
he sounded a little concerned.

Emma scrambled to make words come out of her mouth. “No!  No, I just tripped,” she said, picking bits of hay out of her hair.  “I was hoping you would come again.  I wasn’t sure if you would.  I guess I'm just a little overwhelmed you’re here and—that you know my name.” 

“
Of course I know your name.  I know a lot of things about you.  I’ve been around for a long time,
” his voice seemed to dance through the air.

“
How long, exactly, is a long time?”  Emma questioned hesitantly.  She secretly hoped it wasn't too long.  She shuddered at the thought of him seeing her pass through those awkward, pimple covered, uncoordinated years.  They had definitely sucked.

“
I’ve been with you since you were born.  I was your guardian from the moment your spirit was placed into your body.
”  He seemed a little hesitant as he disclosed this information.  Maybe he was thinking about those awkward years too.  Crap!  The best way to distract him would be to keep him talking.

“
I was wondering…why you're talking to me?  I mean...that’s not normal is it?”

“
I felt like you needed to hear my voice, to know that you weren’t alone.  Not to mention that I had to save you from your little brush with death. You really should be more careful with yourself.  Your life is precious and quite fragile actually.”
His words were pure ecstasy. 

“
Yeah, I’m sorry about that, and thank you again for saving me.”

“
There’s no need to thank me, it’s what I do, but you’re welcome anyway.”
His perfect voice was making Emma light-headed.

“
So this is allowed then—you talking to a human?” she mumbled, trying to keep hold of her sanity.

“
It’s not exactly encouraged, but it’s not forbidden either.  You could say I’m operating in a bit of a gray area at the moment,
” he sounded amused.

“
Well, as long as you’re not going to get in trouble, I wouldn’t mind it if you kept talking to me.”  Emma didn’t want to sound too excited about it, even though she wanted to jump out of her skin. 

“
Well, I’m glad you approve, but
I don’t know if that’s a good idea.  I’m not supposed to interfere with your life.  That kind of constant involvement is sort of frowned upon,
” he spoke the words carefully, his voice guarded.

“
Oh—well maybe if you only talk to me when I ask you to, that might not seem like interference, right?”  She didn’t want this to end, it had just started.

“
That sounds reasonable enough I guess.  So, since we're talking now, what was it you wanted to ask me?”
  His voice floated through the air.  Emma had never heard such a voice in her entire life.

Emma didn’t think it would be a good idea to interrogate him for his stalker-like behavior yesterday, so she asked him an easy question. “Well—since you know my name already, I was wondering what your name is, or what I should call you?”  Emma wasn’t sure if that was allowed, but she didn’t want to go off not knowing his name.

“
My name is Micah,
” his voice was like velvet.  Emma was surprised that he was being so open with her.  She'd assumed mystical beings were supposed to be more secretive than this, that’s what made them mystical.

“
I like that name.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before, but it sounds kind of familiar.”  Emma thought she heard him chuckle and she had the feeling she was missing some inside joke. 

“
I think you should probably get back to the mortal world now Emma.  I don’t want to take you away from your responsibilities and I'm not sure how much of this you can handle all at once.” 
There was a small amount of humor in his words
. “Besides, you look a little flushed and you’re covered in hay.  What will your mother think?”