Authors: Michele G Miller
When Katie doesn’t immediately answer, Jules wants to crawl under the covers and disappear.
"Are you kidding? You did him a favor! You could have screwed around with West behind his back."
"You know I wouldn't do that."
Katie nudges her leg as she agrees. "I know. So tell me about West. What happened between you two?" she prods and grabs a bag of chips from their snack stash.
Jules reminds her friend of the ‘Seven Minutes in Heaven’ game they played back in seventh grade when she first kissed West, and gives her some information on how he makes her feel. She looks at her best friend, her eager eyes hanging onto every word, and it suddenly occurs to her that she doesn’t want to share all of the details. Not yet, anyway.
First, there is the way he ran away from her at the park the other night. She hasn't heard from him since, and she certainly isn’t going to make the first move. Second, she is still confused about everything. She took the past weekend to really rest and spend some time with her parents and Jason, as well as to try and keep West out of her mind.
"You know he's always stayed really close with Jeff, right?" Katie offers, once Jules has given every last bit of information she can think of without spilling the really personal details.
"West?"
"Yeah, they never stopped being friends. I was shocked. I mean, it was obvious to me the night of the twister, the way they talked to each other. But I didn't realize how close they were until West showed up at Jeff's house last night."
"He did?" Jules shoots up from her position on the bed, eagerly awaiting more information, and Katie smiles at her knowingly. Busted! Reaching for a snack cake, Jules attempts to cover her excitement as she tries to sound interested, but not
too
interested. "Why was he there?"
Jules can tell by the smile lighting her face that Katie isn’t buying it. She reminds her of a little kid ready to spill a super-special secret, and Jules’ pulse picks up speed automatically; knowing she is about to hear something good.
"Well, Jeff and I were supposed to watch a movie. We'd settled down when Mr. Dark and Moody walked into the house without so much as a knock." She frowns and Jules laughs at her spot-on description of West.
"Of course the Carters weren't there, and apparently West knew they were out, but c’mon! Most people would knock. What if we'd been in the middle of something...you know,
private
?"
"Whatever could you mean, K?" Jules teases and eyes her friend suspiciously. She can’t help but wonder if Katie and Jeff have actually had sex yet. She knows Katie isn’t against it, and though they have been close many times before, they always seemed to break up before they actually did the deed.
Her pale skin blushes ten shades of red and Jules is pretty sure she has her answer in those crimson cheeks.
"Anyway, West came stomping in the house and blurted out as loud as he could how screwed he was. He must not have noticed me, because as soon as he did he cussed like a sailor and almost left before Jeff tore him a new one and told him to stay."
Curious, Jules takes the bait. "What was wrong with him?"
"Technically…" Katie moves her eyes from left to right and lifts her shoulders furtively, pretending to be indulging in classified information. "I have no idea, because I politely excused myself from the room."
"You what?" Jules gasps, and Katie raises her hand to shush her.
"But in reality...I excused myself and then stood in the hallway so I could hear every last word."
"You're terrible!" Jules laughs and hits Katie upside the head with a throw pillow. "Now tell me every last detail," she adds with a conspiratorial grin.
"He was so pissed off, he was almost incoherent at first. Kept talking about some spoiled little cheerleader who he couldn't stop thinking about. Jeff had to talk him down from his psycho rant."
"Spoiled cheerleader!"
"Imagine my surprise when I realized he was talking about
you
." Katie laughs while Jules glares at her.
"So I'm standing there listening to Jeff ask him what was up his butt, when he says 'They broke up'. Of course
my
curious mind went into overdrive, especially when Jeff seemed so shocked by that little revelation."
She stops and her face takes on a more serious look as she continues. "You know what he said next? Jeff, that is."
"What?" Jules questions.
"I quote, 'It's what you've been waiting for, man'. At that, I started to have heart palpitations. Imagine West Rutledge, Man of Mystery pining after some girl
—
a cheerleader, no less! At that point I still didn't realize it was you. For all I knew, it was some chick from another school, but what he said next gave you away. I peeked around the corner from my hiding space and saw West with his elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands, and in the most broken voice I've ever heard come out of a guy’s mouth he said, 'She dumped him for me. Mr. Football, for me. What if I screw it up?" She pauses and touches Jules’ knee with her hand. "Jules, I don't know what all went on between you two, and I sure as hell know you're leaving out a lot of your story, but that boy is in love with you, and it sounds like he has been for a long time."
"Why would you say that?" she asks. Her hands start to shake as she pictures West sitting in Jeff's house, confiding in his friend. Guys don’t normally confide in each other about these things, do they?
"Jeff, for one thing. I had him fill me in on a few things after West left. Before that though, West went on to tell him he'd been a jerk to you. Something about you calling to let him know you and Stuart broke up, and he got pissed at you. From what I could gather, he’s totally freaked out about screwing up. I don't know what his hang-up is there, and Jeff wouldn't say. He
did
tell me that West has been jonesing after you for a long time…like
years
. Apparently you’re the girl who got away."
"But I didn't," Jules mutters, more to herself than to Katie.
"You didn't?"
"I didn't get away! I need to call him or see him, or..." She jumps up as if her bed is on fire; the bowl of popcorn sitting in her lap overturning and spilling buttery kernels all over her gray comforter.
"Like hell you are!" Jules stops at her serious tone, and Katie orders her to sit back down. "We’re going to have a girl’s night tonight, and you’re going to let that boy worry over you some more. He doesn't know what he wants any more than you do. Give it time."
"Time? Gah! Stuart said to give it time and I'll see it's nothing, my parents said to give it time and things will be normal again, and West and I both said we should take our time…but look at us!"
Katie chuckles. "Yeah, he's busting in houses like a raving lunatic and you, my friend, are keeping secrets about a boy from your best friend."
"Katie," Jules warns.
"I'm not mad at you about it. Okay, I was at first, I won't lie. It hurt to know you didn't tell me, but I get it."
"Do you think I made a mistake?"
"How does West make you feel?"
Jules doesn’t hesitate. "Safe. Is that stupid?"
"Of course not. I think we could all use a little ‘safe’ in our lives right now. Besides, we’re
seventeen
. Maybe it means something and maybe it doesn't, but you don't have to decide your whole future right now."
"Tanya would tell me to get on the phone and call him," Jules admits, and silence blankets the room.
"Tanya was also a mess at every relationship she ever had, wasn't she?"
Katie smiles a sad smile. "Yeah, I guess she was."
Picking up handfuls of spilled popcorn, Jules thinks about West and the revelations Katie made. She looks over at Katie, who is popping the tops of two soda cans, and she decides to follow her best friend’s advice for tonight. Tonight they will have a girl’s night, and tomorrow she’ll figure out what to do next. By the time
Katie leaves, at close to one in the morning, Jules is feeling lighter than she has since the twister happened.
Nineteen
Jules wakes up in a cold sweat with her heart pounding as she grips her bunched up covers to her chest. Her pillow is soaked from the tears covering her face. The clock on her bedside table reads six fifty-seven in the morning. She sits up, pulls her knees to her chest and takes deep breaths as her nightmare replays in her mind.
She’s standing at the Ice Shack with West, and the gravel parking lot is dark and empty.
"Why do you keep following me, Buffy?" he asks; his voice slurring as he takes a sip from the silver flask he carries.
"Who's Buffy?"
He opens his mouth to laugh, but instead of laughter the piercing screech of the tornado siren comes out of his lips. Jules turns away from West and suddenly she is standing in an open field. The Ice Shack is gone, and in its place is a blood red sky with a dark funnel cloud cutting its way to her.
"Jules!" a terror-filled voice calls for her, and she squints in the distance seeing Tanya running towards her.
"Tanya!"
Jules tries to run for her but can’t move. Looking down, she finds her feet are nailed to the ground, literally, and her shoes are covered in blood. She watches Tanya running towards her in slow motion. The more she runs, the further away she actually becomes. Tanya releases a terrified scream as the funnel jumps behind her; the winds ripping at her short uniform skirt. Jules falls forward when the nails disappear, and she falls roughly to her knees.
"Tanya!" she cries, and awkwardly tries to stand. She limps and runs towards Tanya; jumping over downed limbs and debris to get to her friend.
"No!" She hears a shout and West appears beside her. He grabs her hand and tugs hard, pulling her away from Tanya's struggling form in the distance. Jules watches her best friend being pulled back towards the twister like a vacuum sucking up dirt from the floor. The winds pull her closer and closer to its deadly center.
"I can't lose you! You have to come with me!"
"But what about Tanya?" she shouts over the howling winds.
"You can't save her!"
"I can!" she cries back, and he releases his grip when she pulls forward once more.
Running from West, whose shouts echo behind her, she trips and stumbles her way to within arm’s reach of Tanya. She reaches her hand out and barely skims Tanya's fingertips when a forceful gust rips her back. Tanya's arms flail out to the sides, and then a foreboding silence fills the air. The wind stops howling, the siren stops blaring and their eyes meet. Stark terror is written on Tanya's face when she looks over her shoulder once and meets Jules’ tear-blurred gaze.
"I don't want to die!" she begs pitifully.
A strange growl sounds as the black funnel inches closer, and Jules falls to her knees with a whispered 'Tanya' as she watches the tornado cover her friend.
"No!" she hears herself scream and then falls from her knees to her stomach; pounding the earth with her fists in anger.
"Buffy?" West's voice halts her tantrum when she feels his hand touch her shoulder.
Remembering the twister, she raises up. The sky is now an ominous red and the tornado is gone. She turns to West with a curious glance and falls into his open arms, allowing him to hold her closely as she weeps.
"What's wrong?" His voice sounds strange to her ears and she sniffles.
"I should have saved her," she confesses into his chest and feels his shoulder shake.
"You couldn't save her, Buffy. You can't even save yourself."
"What?"
At first she thinks she misunderstood him or mistook his words, so she pulls away and looks up to see his smile and her heart stops. West Rutledge is no longer sitting in front of her. Instead, she stares into the face of a vampire; his fangs dripping with saliva as he licks his lips with the tip of his tongue.
"Dinner time." He laughs menacingly, yanks her towards him with a snarling laugh and tears his fangs into her neck; waking her instantly.
The part about West turning into a vampire would be almost humorous if it wasn’t for the horror of seeing what she imagines were her best friend’s final moments in her mind. She reaches out blindly, grabs her cell phone from her bedside table and pulls up the Facebook app on her screen. Without thinking about what she is doing, she pulls up Tanya's page and types a quick 'I miss you' on her profile. She scrolls through post after post of thoughts from different people as her heart rate slows and the tears start to fade away.
She can’t help but wonder what Tanya would think of half of the comments on her page if she could read them now. Notes from kids she barely knew, coaches, teachers, family members. Jules comes across a simple heart from one person and is surprised it’s from Carter. A picture Katie posted from cheer camp is next. Overwhelmed, she clicks to her personal news feed and scans it. Stuart posted about his new school the day before: 'Houston is different. But I think it will be good.' She clicks the 'Like' button, but can’t make herself comment more than that just yet.