Hunted (32 page)

"Then
she's not worth the worry. I know you care about her, but that only
goes so far. If she can't do her part then there's no way for things
to work out, and killing yourself trying to make up for her lack of
interest is just a good way to get screwed over."

"Wow,
that's pretty profound. When did you get so insightful?"

"It's
all that time hanging out with you cheerleaders."

I
rolled my eyes at him. It was a pretty lame joke, but it had brought
a smile to my face, which bought him a lot of points. It was
irrefutable proof that I really hadn't lost the ability to feel good.
It was also the perfect segue into telling him that I didn't care
that he wasn't interested in me. Normally I never could have done
that, but knowing that Alec was out there waiting for me made it a
lot easier, and I really did want to try to keep Jackson as a friend
for as long as I could.

"Right.
About all of that time spent hanging out with cheerleaders, it seems
like it's really one cheerleader in particular…"

He
went stiff, but I held my hand up in an effort to placate him. "It's
no big deal, really. That's the only reason that I'm bringing it up.
I didn't want you to think that I was jealous or anything. You have
been a good friend to me, and you helped me out a lot, especially
when I first made the squad."

"I
got the impression a few days ago that you really didn't like the
fact that I was spending so much time with Wendy."

My
face started heating up, but it was too late to back out of the
conversation gracefully.

"I
didn't—not at first—because I thought for a while there that you
were interested in me, but I'd rather us continue to be friends and not
drive you away because you think I'm crazy jealous of the fact that
you want to date Missy's best friend."

Jackson
pursed his lips and then sighed. "You probably don't even
realize that what you said is exactly what a girl who isn't really
over the idea of dating a boy would say, do you?"

"Okay,
I didn't think of it in those terms. I do actually know that girls do
that, I watch TV after all, but I just didn't look at things that way
because all I was thinking about was the fact that I want to continue
to be your friend. Besides, that's not the kind of behavior you'd
expect out of a cheerleader anyways."

"I'll
give you that. Alpha females like Missy would never do something like
that. They'd expect the guy to come to chase them, even if they had
to manipulate him into doing it in the first place. But you're hardly
an alpha female, Adri. Don't get me wrong, you're hot enough to be
one, but you just don't think the same way that Missy and the others
do. Heck, even Cindi doesn't think like that and she's been moving in
those circles for years longer than you have."

"Fine,
you're right, I'm not that kind of girl, but I really wasn't trying
to keep you as an option for later. You've proved your point and you
get extra kudos for comparing Missy to a dog in your argument."

That
earned me a chuckle. "Okay, so maybe that wasn't the most
diplomatic way to explain things, but it's true. You should try
thinking about it that way sometime. Humans really aren't that
different from a pack of wolves. Everyone likes to think otherwise,
and it's true that some of the rough edges have been worn away by a
few thousand years of civilization, but the fundamental drives and
urges are all the same. That's why high school sucks so bad. Society
tells us all that everyone is equal, but we're not, and telling a
bunch of kids they are just confuses things while the pecking order
is sorted out."

"Riveting.
You must be a real hit at parties. So are we cool now?"

It
was more sarcastic than was typical for me, which probably didn't
help my case when it came to convincing him that everything was fine.

"I
don't know, Adri, are we? You didn't really ever provide any kind of
convincing proof that my suspicions are wrong."

"Fine.
The truth is that I met someone else."

The
words just kind of came out of my mouth without me having consciously
decided to say them and I immediately wished I could take them back.

"That's
exactly the kind of thing you'd say if I was right, Adri."

Now
I was starting to get mad and given how much residual anger I still
had floating around inside of my head from earlier, that was a
dangerous thing.

"What
do you want me to say, Jackson? Every valid reason for a girl to lose
interest in a boy has been pulled out and polished up by some
desperate girl at some point, so no matter what I tell you there's
still going to be that niggling little suspicion that it's just a lie
to throw you off the scent."

Apparently
more of my anger leaked through into my voice than I'd realized,
because Jackson leaned away from me and put his hands up in mock
surrender.

"I'm
sorry if I'm being too brutal, Adri, it's just that I've been in this
exact situation a few times before and it never ends well. You have
to understand that there haven't been any rumors or anything to back
up what you just told me. Cindi has been pretty pissed that you're
hitting on Tristan, only you're not, but the fact that she thinks
you're available enough to chase Tristan is a pretty good indication
that you don't have some other guy you're chasing. You don't have a
car of your own, so it's not like you're driving somewhere without
her realizing it."

"And
everyone in school would start talking as soon as I hung out with
anyone there."

"Right,
and I'm with you at all of our practices and games, so it's not like
you're seeing someone on the down-low there either."

"You're
right, there's absolutely no reason for you or anyone else to believe
me."

"But
you're sticking to your guns, it's the truth? There really is some
guy that you've got your eye on?"

"Yeah,
there is."

"So
where does he live, what is his name?"

I
opened my mouth to answer him, to at least give him Alec's name, but
I suddenly remembered just how much work I'd gone to in order to
remain anonymous in the dream. Alec hadn't said anything before we'd
been interrupted, but I was pretty sure that he didn't want to be
publically tied to all of the crazy supernatural stuff that was
trying to seep into my life.

"I…I
don't actually know where he's from, and I'm not sure that he'd be
very happy if I told people his name."

Jackson's
expression had taken on a hard edge. "So what am I supposed to
believe? Is this some kind of weird internet chat room thing?"

His
partial apology from earlier had gone a long ways towards calming me
down, but this last question reignited my anger to a white-hot living
entity.

"I
saw him in…" I caught myself just barely in the nick of
time, but it left me without anything convincing to say. "You
know what, just forget about it. I'm being stupid, I just thought
that after everything terrible that it's brought…I mean
everything terrible that's happened. Never mind, just forget I said
anything."

I
stood to leave, but Jackson grabbed my wrist. His grip wasn't
painful, but he was so strong that I was practically handcuffed to
him. He pulled me around so that I was looking at him.

"I'm
sorry, Adri, that wasn't fair of me. Everyone needs a
dream
."

My
stomach dropped like I'd just been thrown out of a plane without any
parachute. The warning from the girl at the first away game played
back inside of my head. She'd warned me that someone dangerous was
close to me, but I'd always assumed it was Tristan. I'd been wrong
though. Something about how Jackson said the word 'dream' told me
that he knew more than he should. His voice had even gone slightly
different. It had still mostly been Jackson's voice, but it had also
been uncannily similar to the voice that had haunted my dreams ever
since the sunflowers had been sent to our bus.

I
tried to control my breathing, tried to pretend like his statement
hadn't rattled me, but I
was
rattled. It was all I could do to
muster a response to him.

"I
don't understand what you mean. If you're implying that my dream is
to still catch you then you're wrong, but either way I'm done with
this conversation."

I
tried again to walk away, but he still hadn't let go of me. I debated
screaming. If I made a big enough scene then I would almost certainly
be guaranteed a ride home and I was probably going to be safer in a
crowd than by myself, but I didn't actually
know
that. If
Jackson really was the old man somehow then there was no telling what
he was capable of and the last thing I wanted to do was get people
killed.

Besides,
there was always a chance that my effort to pretend that nothing was
wrong had been successful enough to leave him with at least a little
doubt as to whether or not I was the cheerleader he was looking for.
It was doubtful, but I didn't know what else to do.

"I
didn't mean to make you mad, Adri. Sometimes I get too cynical where
all of this stuff is concerned, but it's good that you haven't gotten
that way yet. You're right, I should give people the benefit of the
doubt more than I do. Just because I'm not a romantic doesn't mean
that I should try to deprive everyone else around me of those kinds
of dreams."

"Fine,
apology accepted."

He
hadn't actually apologized, but it wasn't like I believed his
explanation either. He was obviously just making stuff up to explain
away his comment from a second before. He still hadn't let go of my
wrist yet and I didn't know how much more stress my heart could take.

"Let
me make it up to you, Adri. I'll call my mom and she can come get us.
I know you well enough to know that you don't want to ride the bus
back. Miss Winters might agree to let you come with us, but you're
not going to want to deal with all of the gossip and knowing looks
from the rest of the team."

Did
his mom know what he was? Had he always been different, or had he
developed some kind of unique ability at some point recently? If he
really was the old man, then she almost certainly had to know.

It
didn't matter either way though because I couldn't allow myself to
end up alone in a car with the two of them. He still hadn't let go of
me, it was almost like he was a different person entirely right then.

"You're
hurting me, Jackson, that's hardly the way to make anything up to
me."

"I'm
sorry, you're right."

He
loosened his grip enough for me to slide my hand free, but he didn't
exactly let go and I got the feeling that he was savoring the feel of
my skin against his as I freed myself.

"So
what do you say? I'll call my mom and we can ditch this place?"

"No,
I don't think so, not after your big speech about how you're worried
that I'm secretly in love with you. You apologized, but that doesn't
mean that you really believe me. I'll get home another way. I think
it's best if we don't see as much of each other for a while. Maybe
then you'll believe that I only wanted to be friends."

He
wanted to call my bluff, I could see it in his eyes, but anything he
did right now would be witnessed by at least a couple hundred people.
He let me back away without saying anything else, but we both knew
that it was only a matter of time before I'd be by myself.

I
wanted to run down the bleachers as fast as I could, but I knew that
would just put me in even more danger. I needed an escape that
provided the illusion that I didn't realize just how much danger I
was in. If he thought I was about to leave town he'd move sooner than
he would otherwise. I needed him to remain complacent and sure of
himself if I was going to have even a sliver of a chance of getting
somewhere safe, of making a run to wherever Alec was.

I
managed to get down to the ground without cracking from the stress
and fear I could feel ratcheting tighter and tighter inside of me and
then was faced with walking the length of the bleachers with hundreds
of eyes on me.

A
few minutes ago it had seemed smart to sit as far away from our
cheerleaders as I could get, but now I wasn't sure that I'd be able
to make it to Sheree and the others without betraying just how scared
I was. It took nearly everything I had to force myself to take one
slow step after another. I could feel Jackson's eyes on me and my
shoulders kept trying to knot up.

I
could see Sheree now; she was on the far end of everyone else, an
impossible distance away from me. My legs were weak now and my
backpack and duffle bag were dragging at my arms. I started to fall,
but a pair of strong arms caught me before I traveled more than an
inch or two towards the ground.

"Adri,
you look terrible. What's going on? Where did Cindi and Missy go?"

Tristan's
voice was full of concern and I grabbed onto it like the lifeline it
just might be.

"I'm
off the team. It's hard to explain, but I need a way home. I'm…I'm
scared."

I
said that last bit in a whisper while looking away from him. I was
afraid to meet his eyes and see the mockery in them, but he reached
up and gently turned my chin until I didn't have a choice but to look
at him.

"You're
serious, aren't you? This isn't some kind of joke or anything, you're
actually scared for your life. Do you need to leave right now?"

He
responded in a whisper, for which I was profoundly grateful. I
couldn't manage a response other than a shaky nod.

"Okay,
my phone is over there, do you have yours handy?"

Now
that the anger was gone I felt shocky and numb again. I handed him my
phone without thinking about what I was doing. As Tristan started
dialing I noticed his coach headed in our direction.