Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (10 page)

And how big of a chip did she have on her perfect little shoulder?

. . .

“You are going to have to do something about that girl. I can’t stand her.” I plopped down beside Brian on the bench outside by the bus stop.

“Eh, she’s all bark and no bite. Don’t worry so much.”

“How long has this been going on?” I pulled my book bag up into my lap and nestled my hands on top of it.

“Since last year. Since I started here, I think. Before the break—before
everything
changed—I never sat with you at lunch so you never had to put up with her, but she’s been at this for a while, believe me. I don’t know why she can’t just hit up a guy in her own nasty attitude league. There are plenty of horny sophomores here.”

“Brian, don’t talk like that, please.”

“Sorry. But I don’t like her either. She seems to think if she pushes enough, I’ll go for her. I won’t. She doesn’t have any self-respect. You’d think she spends nights hanging out on street corners.”

“Yeah. She kind of does have tramp written all over her.”

“Exactly. I like to think I have better taste than that.” He tapped the tip of my nose playfully with his finger and I blushed.

Sam came up beside us and sat. “Hey, guys.”

I scooted closer to Brian to give her more space on the end of the stubby bench.

“I’ll talk with her about it later,” replied Brian. “Trust me, Alice, I’ll put an end to this stupid game of hers.”

“Thanks.” I smiled. “Oh, and… the reason I brought it up is because she confronted me between classes today.”

“What the hell?” His voice rose.

“But something else happened, too.” I lowered my voice.

“Yeah?” He perked up.

Sam leaned in closer.

“I got upset and grabbed her hand. Squeezed it pretty hard.”

“She probably deserved it.” A cocky grin curled in his lips.

“Then… I shocked her.”

“What?” The smile vanished and his eyes widened. “You shocked her? Like…”

“Yeah. Exactly the same. She seemed okay, though. Just angrier.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Sam pressed her shoulder into mine. “No biggie, right?”

“Maybe, but I didn’t think I could
hurt
people.” I slumped over. “Electronics, maybe, and you,” I motioned toward Brian, “because of your pacemaker, but a normal person? What if I’m becoming a danger to people? What if this stuff…”

“Touch me,” Sam said, excitedly. “Come on. Just do it.” She held out her open palm and wiggled her fingers.

“No. I don’t want to take a chance of hurting you.”

“I’ll be fine.
I
don’t have a pacemaker.” She beamed playfully at Brian. “Now come on. Do it.”

I looked at Brian. He shrugged. “Worth a shot,” he said. “You apparently didn’t hurt Kareena too much, anyway.”

“Okay. Okay.” I stretched out a hand toward hers and she grabbed me.

I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath though my teeth.

“Hah! Nothing!” Sam shook my arm wildly, shaking my whole body with it. I almost toppled off the bench. “I’m fine!”

“Yeah. I guess. But what does that mean?” I slouched and wrapped my arms around myself. Then I glanced at Brian. “I wonder why I’ve only shocked you and Kareena?” Sam pried my arm loose so she could snake her own around it.

“Shit!” Brian pulled back. He swallowed hard, widened eyes staring off at nothing.

“What! What is it?” I grabbed his knee.

“You. Me. Kareena…” he said quietly, his voice breaking. “What if…”

“What if what?” I looked into his eyes. “What if what, Brian?”

“What if she’s the third one?”

I gasped.

No. No.

Not… Kareena.

. . .

“
I think it’s something we need to consider,”
said Brian
. “You heard them. They said there was one more. Maybe… as horrible as it may be… she’s it.”

I flopped onto the couch in the living room and put my phone on speaker. “With an attitude like that, I hope to God she’s not.”

“Me, too. But think about that dream we had. The one where we were trapped in the abandoned building. Whoever that was we found, they had dark skin. And it sounded like a girl from what I remember.”

“I don’t remember that much. All I know is we were in trouble and I was hurt. And there was someone else
you
were trying to save. I didn’t want anything to do with whoever it was.”

“Alice. You heard the… Wait. Am I on speaker?”

“Yeah, but Mom’s not here. She went to grab groceries.” I kicked my shoes off and propped my feet up on the arm rest.

“Oh. Anyway, you heard what the Saviors said. Something about finding the third one and how you were needed for that. Don’t you think it’s just a little weird how Kareena is so interested in you? In us? Maybe she’s more than just jealous. Maybe she senses something different about us?”

“I think that’s crazy. I think she’s just being a brat. That’s what I think. Besides, you said she’s been after you for a while now.”

“
Can I come over?”

“I don’t know. I’m sort of embarrassed to ask my Mom.”

“You can come see me, you know.”

I laughed out loud by accident. “Yeah, right. I’m sort of at the mercy of my mom and her car.”

“Yeah, well, you won’t have to worry about that for too much longer. I’m totally getting my license next summer.”

“That doesn’t mean we can go out driving wherever we want.” I heard a car pull into the driveway.

“No, but we can see each other more often than this. I can’t stand being stuck on the other side of town every night and not being able to come see you.”

The garage door opened. I didn’t have much more time to speak uncensored.

“So… if this Kareena girl is one of us? Then what? How do we know for sure?”

“I’ll think of something…”

I heard Mom jiggling the key in the front door so I sat up and took Brian off speaker phone. “Mom’s home. I need to go. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

“Bye.”

“Was that Brian?” Mom asked, setting an armload of stuffed brown paper grocery bags on the kitchen countertop.

“Yeah.”

“When was the last time you talked to Sam?” She took a carton of eggs out and tucked them into the fridge door.

“Uh, today. At lunch. Why?”

“Okay. Just wondering.” Mom shrugged.

I knew that shrug. It was the “Okay, whatever you say but I hope you’re telling me the truth” shrug.

Chapter 15

T
he doorbell rang.

We weren’t expecting anyone.

I crept down the stairs and listened as Mom opened the door.

“Brian?” she exclaimed.

I tiptoed down to the first floor and into the living room so I could hear the conversation.

“I need to see Alice,” he said.

Hearing those words made me sigh.

Yeah. I had it bad.

“You weren’t invited. Nor have I given you permission to come over. How did you get here anyway? Where’s your mother?”

“I walked. My mom’s at work… and… really…” I couldn’t hear everything. “I have to see Alice. Please.”

“You walked all the way here from Jefferson?”

“I hopped a bus for a few blocks, but yeah.”

“To see Alice?”

I couldn’t hear his reply.

Mom said something else, but I couldn’t make that out either.

Brian went quiet.

She shut the door.

I would have told him not to come, if he’d asked
before
trying.

I flipped on the TV, hoping Mom wouldn’t suspect I had been eavesdropping.

“Alice!” she yelled.

“On the couch!”

Mom came into the living room a moment later. “Someone’s here for you,” she said flatly, and then walked past me and into the kitchen, shaking her head.

I leapt off the couch so fast, I stumbled over the throw rug in front of it. Then I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. I couldn’t act too excited. I wasn’t supposed to know it was him and… he wasn’t supposed to be here at all.

I cracked open the front door.

“Brian?”

He greeted me with a subtle smile.

“Hi, Alice.”

My heart beat a little faster. I looked up at him through my lashes.

“Hi…”

. . .

He hadn’t been to our house since the Christmas party and now I was bristling with emotions.

Excited. Happy. Worried. Scared.

It excited me to finally be alone with him again. Well, as alone as we could be with my mom around, of course. And scared because of all of the crazy feelings swirling around inside. Maybe part of me honestly knew we needed to study for the next history test or do something productive. But some stupid part of me just wanted to spend the evening cuddling.

As if that could happen with Mom around.

I’d convinced him we needed to do something important with our time, so my mom wouldn’t get upset about the unwelcome visit. If I wanted to spend more time with him, I needed
Mom to trust him.
Trust began with us being responsible.

We sat on the couch in the living room with our history books open. Studying.

Trying
to study.

“What did Mom say to you earlier?” I toned my voice down to a whisper.

Brian leaned over and picked up a notebook from the coffee table. “She said I had to be good to you. Or that I wouldn’t be welcome here ever again.”

“Ah.” I nodded. That sounded like something she’d say.
“What did you say back?”

“You really want to know?” he smirked.

“Yeeeah.”

Brian scooted closer to me and our hips touched. “I told her… I would never do anything to hurt you.” His lips came close to my ear and he lowered his voice. “And that I had it bad for her gorgeous
daughter.” He snuck a peck on
my cheek before I could push him away.

“Gah! You’re crazy!”

He shrugged
. “Okay, so maybe I didn’t tell
her the second part. But I did tell her the first.”

“You’re a piece of work. You know that?”

He liked to make me laugh. I liked it, too.

As we sat there studying, my shoulder pressed against his, our books in our laps and two cups of hot tea steaming on the coffee table, I caught him glancing at me and my heart skipped a beat.

He’d been trying harder than ever now to do well in school. He’d started slacking years ago when his father died because he felt like no one cared. Ever since we’d met, he’d been trying really hard to do better. It showed. He wasn’t even late for class anymore.

“So, about Kareena,” Brian started, setting his book down onto the coffee table.

“What about her?”

“I have an idea.” He folded his hands together in his lap, twiddling his thumbs nervously.

“Okay…”

“Well, I thought about what you told me about getting her off your back and I went to talk to her about it.” He paused again.

“And?”

“Then she… sort of invited me over.”

“What? You told her to get lost, right?”

“Yeeeah… no, I didn’t.” He ran a hand through his hair and wouldn’t keep eye contact with me.

My jaw dropped. “No way! Why? Why would you do that? She’s a creep! And what about me? I thought I was…”

“You are. This has nothing to do with that. I didn’t agree to see her because I like her. I swear. Only the three of us know what’s going on, and Kareena’s not exactly willing to talk to you. I need to see if I can get close enough to her to find out if she’s the one we’re looking for. Maybe if I can get her alone she’ll…”

“Alone?” I crossed my arms and leaned back against the couch cushion. “Hmph. This is a bad idea, Brian.”

“Maybe if we’re away from other distractions, I can convince her to open up to me. What? You don’t trust me?”

“Whatever. All I’m trying to say is I’ve only known you for a few months. I’m supposed to trust you completely?”

“I want you to, yes.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

“I know. I know.”

Beautiful Kareena. Long sleek hair. Brilliant green eyes. The body of a tall, shapely lingerie model.

Did I mention
shapely
?

And me, a scrawny 5’2” fourteen-year-old.

It scared me to imagine him alone with her.

If I were a boy his age… A hormonally driven teenage boy…

I didn’t feel like studying anymore.

. . .

“Seems like you’ve been spending an awful lot of time with Brian,” Mom said, hanging her coat up in the closet by the front door. She’d felt bad about letting Brian walk home alone in the dark, so she’d driven him back herself. “On the phone. On your computer. In class
. At lunch,
too, I’m assuming. Right? Maybe you should hang out with more
girls
your age, like Sam and some of her friends.”

“Mom, he’s my friend, too.”

“You mean your
boyfriend?
Friends
don’t act the way you two do.”

I shrugged. “Either way, don’t I have the right to spend time with him?”

“Yes. You do. But as your mother, I have the right to decide which people I think are good influences and which aren’t.”

“And you think Brian is a bad influence?” I slid my feet off the coffee table. “He’s never done
anything
to hurt me.”

“It’s not about him hurting you.” She came into the living room, peeled off her black gloves, and tossed them onto the couch. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He
really
likes you, Alice. No doubt he more than just
likes
you.”

“Ew, Mom. I know he
likes me
, but you don’t have to go all birds and bees. I’m not stupid.”

“I’m not calling you stupid, sweetheart.” She sat down,
her weight sinking into the
cushion beside me. “I’m concerned. Stuff can go wrong even when you believe you’re doing the right thing. I’m asking you to think about how much time you’ve been spending with him. That’s all. You’re not even halfway through high school. There are so many more people out there to meet.”