Unbound (14 page)

“No, he—” I cut off because Mom and Dad came rushing in.

“What happened?” Dad asked and turned on the light. Harrison looked at me for help on an explanation.

“There was a moth,” was the first thing that popped into my head. Bugs didn’t normally bother me either, but who wouldn’t scream at that? Ok, maybe most people, but moths really grossed me out. They have powdery wings and antennas…eww.
 
“It was flying around. I opened my eyes and it was right in front of my face. Then it landed on me. It was really gross and it startled me and I screamed.”

“Oh, ok,” Dad said. “Well, where is the damn thing?”

“Not sure. I’ll find it. Sorry I scared you.”

“It’s ok sweetheart. I’m just glad it wasn’t in my face,” Mom said with a smile. She absolutely hated bugs.

“You guys can go back to…whatever you were doing. I’ll make Harry help me look for it. Hunter will probably find it and eat it before we do anyway.”

“Ok, explain,” Harrison said after our parents went back downstairs. Hunter was protectively sitting in front of me, leaning up against my legs. He was still growling, but it was inaudible; I only knew because I could feel the vibrations coming from his throat. I sat down to hug him.

“I don’t really have much of an explanation. I went to bed and I felt…” I trailed off. Even I thought I sounded crazy. “I felt someone touch me. So of course I turned around and there was this guy standing right by my bed. The same one from before, the boy that I saw outside a few days ago.” Harrison looked concerned. I wasn’t sure if it was concern for my safety or my sanity. Someone knocked very softly at my door. Jenny was standing in the doorway, looking a little scared and very confused.

“You ok?” she asked gently, twitching. The jeans I had on earlier were strewn in front of her on the floor. She looked at them with a disgusted expression. Harrison glanced at me nervously, like he was worried I was going to tell her what really happened. I wished I could yell at him telepathically.

“I’m fine. Just saw a moth.”

“Oh, right. Bugs are gross,” she smiled. Her expression changed immediately when she saw the ugly bruise on my head. It was starting to turn that horrible green color now. I reached up and touched it. “Fell off my horse.” I shrugged.

“Oh, wow. That looks like it hurt.”

“It did, but I’m ok now. You still want to ride now?” I laughed.

“I broke my arm at cheer practice two years ago, and it hasn’t stopped me,” she said, telling me that she wasn’t afraid to ride but her eyes were glued to the gash on my forehead.

“Good,” was all I could think of to say. Hunter, who had finally calmed down, became on guard again. I pet him to try to calm him down.

“Oh, this must be your dog.” She reached down hesitantly to pet him. Oddly, he shied away with his teeth bared. That ghost must have really upset him. “He’s really big.”

“He’s the nicest dog,” Harrison said and knelt down next to Hunter to prove so. Hunter licked his face. “He’ll slobber you to death though.” Harrison stood and looked at me, not sure if he should stay or go. Even though Harrison was born a mere twenty minutes before me, he took his role as big brother seriously. But this wasn’t something he could beat up or bully away from his little sister.

“You guys have fun. I’m gonna go back to sleep.”

“I think I’m gonna go home now. It was nice meeting you,” Jenny said with a wave. Her eyes narrowed and her head snapped to the direction of my closet. She nervously played with her necklace and backed away.

“Yea, you too.”

 
I shut my door an opened my laptop. I needed to find a way to repel ghosts. I’d been blocking them from my inner eye my whole life, but I’d never tried to actually keep them out of my house before. I entered my search in Google and a ton of different things came up. Now I just had to decipher what was crap and what wasn’t.

Salt was mentioned on several sites. I’d heard that one before too, and I know we had salt downstairs. White candles were supposed to create positive energy. I had some of those too. That was about all I could muster up for ghost repellant. I’d have to go shopping to get the necessary ingredients for other ways.

I stood at the top of the stairs and listened. I heard exactly what I wanted to hear: nothing. I dashed down to the kitchen to get the salt. I knew where the salt shaker was, but I didn’t think that would be enough. I laughed when I imagined myself shaking salt out all over my room. If anyone saw me they would surely think I was crazy. I quickly rooted around through the cupboards until I found the big canister of salt. I lined the entire perimeter of my room with it. Mom would kill me if she found out. Next, I put a white votive candle at the North, East, South and West points in my room. I turned off my light and stood in the middle of the room. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the energy of the candles flowing through the lines of salt.

I felt rather silly when I said, “Elementals, I call on your power to protect this room.” Even with closed eyes, I noticed an increase in light. I opened them and my jaw dropped. The flames of the candles were three inches high. Power surged through my body. When I finally exhaled, the flames dropped back to normal size. Was that a coincidence, or did I just do…something? Exhaustion crashed into me and I almost fell. I blew out the candles and collapsed into bed.

The next thing I knew my alarm was going off. I was instantly alert when last night’s last waking moments flashed through my brain. I got up and showered, dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. A rush of excitement went through me when I remembered that Ethan was meeting me at the barn. I hadn’t told Laney yet, for two reasons. One, it would be an awesome surprise. Two, if he didn’t show up, I would feel really stupid and let down and I wouldn’t want to have to share that with anyone.

Mom was off again today so I didn’t have to come home to let Hunter out after school. I grabbed my barn clothes, which I carefully picked out, but it’s not like I wanted to look extra good for Ethan or anything. For some reason I opened the wooden jewelry box from Aunt Estelle and took out the pendants. One of them was on a long, leather cord, and I tied it around my neck. I attached the other to Hunter’s collar.

***

I had told Ethan to meet me at the barn at five o’clock so I was surprised, and mortified, since I was dancing to
Kickstart My Heart
, when he showed up a little after four-thirty.

“So, how come you got here so early?” I asked after I introduced him to the horses.

Ethan shrugged. “I don’t live that far.” He looked away and a bit of embarrassment showed on his face. “I guess I was excited to see you.”

A smile broke across my face. “I was excited to see you too, which is weird.”

“Why is that weird?”

“I barely know you.” Now I shrugged. But it was true; I knew virtually nothing about him.

“Well, we can change that.” He smiled deviously. I blushed and turned to Neptune. I ran the brush over her one more time before deciding she was clean enough to tack up.

“Ok, I just have to get her saddle and bridle from the tack room and we can ride.”

“The what room?”

“Tack room.” I forgot normal non-horsey people don’t know the lingo. “It’s like a locker room for tack, and tack is like equipment, like the saddle and bridle and stuff.”

Ethan nodded and followed me into the tack room. He offered to carry Neptune’s heavy Western saddle, and he picked it up as if it weighed nothing. I grabbed her pink and black plaid saddle pad and bridle. I showed Ethan how to put the saddle on and he watched intently. Next was the bridle. After that was on I handed him the reins and walked out of the stall. He looked from me to the horse and then to me again. “Just walk a little in front of her and she’ll follow,” I instructed.

“Where’s your horse?” Ethan asked.

 
Normally when a friend rides for the first time I give them a mini lesson before I get on my own horse and we ride together. Maybe it was the weird confidence I gained last night or my insane attraction to Ethan’s incredible physique that made this idea pop into my head.

 
“I’m riding with you for now.”

“Oh, are you?” I could tell he was trying not to smile. We walked to the arena. I was happy when Ethan got on Neptune without any problems.

I put my left foot in the stirrup, grabbed the saddle horn and swung myself up behind Ethan.
 
I reached around him and took the reins out of his hands. “Ok, this is how you hold the reins, and this is about as much pressure as you need for her.”

Ethan turned slightly to look at me and nodded. He put his hands over mine, imitating how I was holding the reins. His warm skin on me made a rush of butterflies flutter in my stomach. Being close to him felt oddly comforting.

“Your legs are probably going to be sore tomorrow,” I warned him. We had been riding for a lot longer than I planned.

“Nah, I doubt it.”

“Trust me, that’s what everyone says.”

I hadn’t even noticed that Laney had arrived at the barn. She had Abra in the grooming area, and her mouth dropped and her eyes bugged a bit when she saw Ethan leading Neptune. Luckily I was in front of him, so I mouthed “Stop staring!” at her.
 
Ethan helped me put the tack away and then we brushed the horses. Laney put Abra way and motioned for me to come over. Ethan was still brushing Neptune so I snuck across the aisle to Abra’s stall.

“Annie!” was all she could say.

“I know!” I squealed.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She smacked my arm.

“I wasn’t sure if he really would come or not. I saw him that night I found out Aunt Estelle died, when I went to tell Mom at the hospital. He was there with his dad, who is that older guy he was with the first time we saw him, by the way. Anyway, he really randomly asked me if I wanted to hang out.”

“So you brought him to the barn?”

“Yea, I mean, I have to come here anyway. And I’m
not
going out of my way for any boy until I know for certain he’s not a jerk-faced loser like someone.”

“Did you tell Marie?”

“No, I thought she might get, you know, jealous or something.”

Laney nodded in agreement. “You’re probably right.”

I heard Neptune’ stall door slide open and then shut. Ethan walked over to join us.

“Laney, right?” he asked.

“Yea. I’m surprised you remembered.” Laney blushed a bit.

“Why wouldn’t I? I wasn’t the drunk one that night.” Ethan made a face at me, and I shot him one right back before I started laughing. We stood there talking for a while. Leslie came in with her horse Henry, and she was equally impressed with Ethan as I was. After we said goodbye to everyone, Ethan and I walked out into the parking lot. Ethan stopped a few feet in front of his car.

“Want to get something to eat?”

“Ok,” I agreed to his again sudden asking to spend time with me.
 
“I’m actually hungry.”
 
Ethan opened his passenger door for me, held his hand out to help me in, closed the door and walked around and got in. “You don’t care that I’m wearing my breeches?” I asked a bit apprehensively.

 
“Not at all, why would I?” he said.
 
“Where do you want to go?”

“Oh, I don’t care. I’m not a picky eater. I don’t like onions or really spicy stuff, but that’s about it. What about you?”

“Doesn’t matter to me either. Why don’t you choose though, since I don’t really know the restaurants around here yet.”

“Hmm, ok.” I thought for a few seconds. “What about Chinese food? There’s a really good place not too far from here, actually.”

“Sounds good.” He turned on the car and drove down the driveway. I pointed in the direction he needed to go. “Want to listen to music?”

“Yea. Can I?” I asked, reaching for the radio.

“Sure.”

I changed it to my favorite classic rock station.

“You really like this kind of music?” he asked.

“Yes, why is that so hard to believe?”

“I don’t know, I guess you just don’t seem like someone who would. I would have guessed you to like that annoying hip-hop crap.”

I smiled. “Nope. I think it’s annoying too. My brother and my friends like that stuff though, and we are always fighting about what kind of music to listen to whenever we go somewhere. It’s kinda funny, I guess.”