Wicked Fate (The Wicked Trilogy) (10 page)

**********

In the morning
, I run downstairs f
or some breakfast.
I open the refrigerator and bend down sticking my head inside. I decide to make myself a ham and cheese omelet. I grab the ham and cheese and two eggs from the egg rack on the refrigerator door.

My grandmother’s standing
behind the
refrigerator
door
when I close it. I scream and drop everything on the floor—egg and ham
end up
everywhere. After the night I ha
d I’m on edge and my nerves are a wreck
.

My grandmother looks at me oddly
.
It’s not often that I get spooked.

“Are you okay?” she questions
.

“Yeah
,
I’m okay. I just had a pretty
bad nightmare last night
. I’m sure I’ll get over it. It’s just got me a little jumpy.”

“You had a nightmare? What was it about?”

I proceed to tell her about my
nightmare as I
clean up cracked eggs and bits of ham. By the time I’m
done with my sto
ry, I’m not
even hu
ngry anymore.

My grandmother now has a
frightened look on her face.

“Have you told your grandfather about this?”

“No, I haven’t even seen him yet today. Besides, why would I tell him? It was just a nightmare, it’s n
ot like it was real or anything.
”

“You
don’t sound so sure about that. A
re you telling me everything?”

I didn’t want to, but I t
ol
d her about the lady in my room. I never worry about my grandmother thinking I’m crazy. A
fter
all, she’s dead and here I am
talking to her. It doesn’t really get much crazier than that.

She makes
me promise to tell my gran
dfather about the events of the
night
before.
I have no idea
why, but she seems p
retty persistent ab
out it—that concerns me. My grandmother’
s usually so
calm and serene, but today I see something in her that I’ve never seen before—she’s
afraid for me. Why that is, I don
’t know, but I plan to find out

Chapter
7

Movie Moments

I try to talk to my grandfather, since I promised I would, but it’s useless. He stares at me while I talk then calls me
Rose
, my mother’s name. I make sure he’s comfortable and get him some breakfast. I sit with him for the day, and after lunch I leave
h
im alone
.

It’s funny, even though my grandfath
er has moments where he either has no idea who I am or thinks I’m my mother, h
e seem
s to always remember how to care for
himself. I dread the day wh
en he forgets how to do that
. Not lik
e I’
d min
d, but when that happens I’ll
h
ave to be with him at all times—that might make school difficult.

After leaving my gr
andfather alone with a book, I run downstairs and spend the rest of the afternoon talking to Thaddeus. He’s
in a foul mood today too.
There must be something about today that’s making everyone so grumpy.

Once I’ve killed enough time, I go to my room and start to
get
ready for the movies. I can barely contain my excitement! I’m g
oing to my very first movie with my very first living
,
human friend.

Go Mage!

I take the hottest shower my skin can stand, and then dress in my
favorite jeans with my black qu
arter sleeve shirt. I blow dry my hair—which I never do—then I smear
on some lip gloss
and stick in a pair of old hoop earrings—also a first. In no time, I’m
ready for my first official Saturday night
out
on the town.

“I’m going out for the night, Pop!” I call into his room.

My grandmother doesn’t have a
specific room in the house
, like Thaddeus, so I stand at the bottom of the stairs and talk to the air.

“I’m going to a movie with a friend. Please listen out for Pop—he’s having an off day.”

It’s not like there’s much she can do for him, but I still feel better knowing that someone is paying attention while I’m gone.

She appears in front of me with a smile.

“Well, that sounds fun. I’m happy you’re finally getting out and making friends. It’s not good for a girl your age to stay cooped up all the time with no socializing’. Make sure and have lots of fun.”

“I will,” I lean in and pretend to kiss her on the cheek.

I go
to the library to say
goodnight to Thaddeus, but he’s nowhere to be seen.

“Thaddeus?”

I hear the jingle of
his pocket watc
h chain and I know he’s there.

“You look mighty nice tonight
,
Miss Mage,” h
e whispers in my ear. He steps
around me
taking in my new style. “
I’ll tell ya
’
, if I had a pulse I’d
take ya’ out myself,” he smiles and winks
. “It’s like watching my very own dear
,
sweet
,
daughter go out into the world for the fir
st time. Where’s my hankie?” he pretends
to wipe away a tear.

I giggle. “You’
re too much! Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome
darlin
’
. Y’all have fun now
, ya’ hear?
”

And
then he’s gone.
Thaddeus always makes me
feel so much better. Here I am worried that I look
awful and he procee
ds to fill me with compliments
. Leave it to him to put a smile on a girl
’
s face. I bet he was quite the ladies man in his time.

“Goodnight,” I whisper into the empty room before
shut
ting
the door behin
d me.

Waiting for Bernie, I si
t on the porch with my notebook in hand.
These days
, my writing has
taken a bit of a turn. I used to write about dark and dreary things, but recently it’s all
sweet and dreamy stuff. Adam’
s had quite an eff
ect on me, that’s for sure.

Come to me my sweet and let me fill your head.

Give your heart to me—awaken
mine that is so dead.

Say my name so softly and take my breath away.

Vow to stay with me, my love, forever and a day.

Bernie pulls up at exactly six o’clock—If only she could be that punctual when it comes to school. It’s already dark outside so I squint when her headlights blind me.

We drive
to a little Chi
nese restaurant in town and eat
dinner.

“Ever
wonder
what these people are saying about us in Chinese?” she sips her sweet tea.

“Oh, I’m sure they have plenty to say about me,” I joke.

“Oh, whatever!
You’re totally full of awesome sauce. Trust me, I know awesomeness when I see it,” she sticks her tongue out.

I tell her about
run
ning into Adam after school on Friday. I make sure not to mention anything about him getting pushed over the side of the water tower. How would I explain why he’s not dead when she sees him in school on Monday?

“So, who were they?” she asks when I tell her about the fight.

“I don’t know. Some guys he works with or something. You should’ve seen them fighting. It was crazy.”

“Man, I wish I could’ve been there. That’s way
cray-cray
! I always miss the drama,” she rolls her eyes while she plays with her straw.

She doesn’t push for more information and starts talking about boys as usual.

“So, there’s this dude in my Algebra class. His name’s Kale. Oh my God, he’s totally hot. Seriously, I caught him looking at my boobs the other day. You should’ve seen me trying to poke these bad-boys out,” she demonstrates by poking her chest out. “Hmmm, I just want to do bad things to him.”

We laugh loudly and the little Chinese waiter shakes his head.

“Pre-
vert
,” I chuckle.

“What the hell is a pre-
vert
?” she giggles.

“You haven’t graduated into a pervert, yet. So, you’re still a pre-vert. We can still save you!” I joke.

“Oh, whatever!
I’m a total pro-
vert
!” she throws her fortune cookie at me.

We burst into a fit of laughter.

After we stuff ourselves with sweet-and-sour chicken, we go to the movies
.
I react like a child when I see the brightly colored theater and Bernie laughs at me. Making friends with her was the second best thing I’ve ever done; s
aving Adam’s life
being the best.

I slouch against the brick wall of the theater as we wait in the ticket line. Seeing all the people lined up laughing and talking makes me smile. People actually have lives, who knew? It’s
goo
d to see people out and living, o
ther than in school of course.

There are
two guys standing in
front of us. One of them turns around and starts
t
alking to Bernie. When the other turns around I find myself face-to-face with Adam, again.

“Mage
,
t
his is Kale…we have Algebra
together,”
Bernie says with a wink
.

Okay, so I’ll give it to Bernie on this one…
Kale
is really cute. He looks exactly as she’d
described him earlier at the
Chinese restaurant. He’s almos
t as tall
as Adam, but with a much
stockier
build—definitely high school wrestling team material. I’m sure he’s the captain.

His shirt is pulled tightly across his muscled chest and his arms are twice the size of the other guys his age.  Shortly-cropped,
sandy blonde
hair bleeds into his long sideburns that lead to the little patch of fuzz on his chin. Baby blue eyes pop against his dark skin and I smile when I see them light up at the sight of Bernie.

He’s completely adorable—for Bernie, of course. No one’s more attractive than Adam in my opinion.
I put on
my best friendly face and smile
at Kale.

“
It
’s nice to meet you,” I say before turning to Adam. “Hi.” It sounded rude, but it was the only word that would come out of my mouth once I saw his face
.

“Oh
,
that’s right
! Y
ou guys know eac
h other already,” Bernie smirks and lifts a brow like she knows
a dirty secret.

Adam and I
gr
in at each other as he nods at me—no one needs to know that we actually do
have a secret.

“Y’all should come see the movie with us,” Kale says as he looks Bernie up-and-down.

And that’s all it takes. Bernie decides we should
see the action comedy
movie the guys are going to, instead of the chick-
flick we were suppose
d
to see.
Works for me! I would much rather
spend my time watching
a comedy than some sappy chick-
flick.

Bernie and I sit
next to
each other and the guys take it upon themselves to sit on either side of us—Kale’s idea I’m sure. It looks
like a planned
double date, which makes me so nervous my palms start to sweat. I wonder to myself if Adam realizes it looks like we’re on date.

My
hands
start to ache because they’re clasped to the armrest of my seat so tightly. It’s like I’m on some scary rollercoaster ride. When I see my fingers turning white I let go. The theater goes dark and the previews start. I jerk a little when Adam leans over and whispers in my ear.