Neither will I forget the smell of her famous spaghetti bolognese – that’s another secret I keep from everyone … even Kiara. I’ve memorized her recipe and whenever I feel down, I cook myself a bowl of her bolognese. It always does the trick.
It reminds me of the happy moment just as we opened the door, trying to slip in without her noticing ’cause we were grounded. At that very moment, as I stepped through the door, I was ecstatic – she was making my favorite food and I was starving.
It was a great moment and I wish I could stay right there.
Because, just a second later we froze at the sight of blood on the floor between pieces of broken glass, the room a chaotic mess. I knew something horrible happened … we all knew. Logan grabbed me and we formed a little duo of two scared kids, silently waiting for something we could not even begin to understand. I’m just glad we never followed my older brothers. My memories of her stayed all good, as she was, and were not trashed by images of her dead body.
In one night I lost both parents. Mom died and Dad … I don’t know what happened to him exactly. He could very well be dead too. I never saw him again. But sometimes I imagined him sitting in the back row of our school play, or shouting from the bleachers cheering me on while I was running, or standing proudly in a corner during a prizegiving.
I force my mind back to the present again. Why do I keep recalling the past tonight? But I think I know the answer – Damion. Although we’re talking about Ren my mind keeps drifting.
“If I haven’t fallen in love with him by the end of October, I might dump him and move on,” I eventually answer Kiara.
“Look, you know I don’t believe in the storybook shit … or true love for that matter … but I know you’re looking for that. However, my opinion is that you are looking for it in the wrong place. Or more precisely, with the wrong guy.” Maybe. But the right guy is an asshole. A donkey.
She clicks her tongue when she sees my what-the-fudge frown. What does she know anyway? Ren is my first boyfriend, she knows that. He could turn out to be the right guy … couldn’t he? Maybe my nuclei are just slow. Maybe the BAM moment is still coming.
But I know it doesn’t work that way.
“So are you going to have sex with him?” She seems a little agitated.
“Who? Ren? No.” She rolls her eyes. But she can judge all she wants.
She knows that I want my first time to be special. Yes, I know it’s cheesy, but it’s just who I am. In our senior year, Kiara started dating, Don, and they did it on prom night, like most typical teenagers. But I’m different … I’m waiting for sparks, electricity, love – name it what you want, that special someone who’s going to knock me off my feet.
And Ren is not him. And I don’t think he’ll ever turn out to be my happily ever after.
“That’s rather direct and definite.” Yes. I didn’t even have to think. But if she meant Damion … that I will have to think about for a while … hours … maybe even days. Because of the stupid pumped-up confused hormones – nothing else.
“And it’s got nothing to do with …. oh I don’t know …. some green-eyed bad-ass?”
Now, why would Kiara bring him into the conversation again? I just stopped thinking about him.
“Ug, seriously? He’s like a fungus or something I can’t get rid of. And anyway, he’s bad, mad, and crazy, and I’m officially sure he doesn’t have a heart, at least not a beating one.”
“You’re not still on that vampire train, are you?” I pout. I’m still not convinced that he’s NOT a vampire. I’ve seen TVD more than enough times to know that he has all the makings of one … sexy mysterious guy with alluring not-normal panty-wetting eyes … yeah he checks every vampire box in the book … even the jewelry. No ring. He wears a stud in his left ear – one with some funny blueish stone, that seems to change color. Now if that’s not a magic sun protector thingy, I don’t know what is.
“No, gmf,” I snort out a lie. Kiara is sooo not into fantasy. Like I said … a realist if you’ve ever seen one. She thinks Vampire Diaries is a bunch of crap. She doesn’t like any of my favorite stories. She’s more into stuff like Grey’s Anatomy, The Big Bang Theory, and Suits.
“I just mean he’s not exactly the sentimental affectionate type!” I try to correct my error.
“That’s true.”
Kiara is like my sister … well, technically she’s my adopted cousin. She came to live with Uncle John after her alcoholic mother dived from a five-story building when we were 5. And while her father is still alive, he’s been in jail on a murder charge since forever. At least she can occasionally see him … more than I can say about my dad. I don’t even know if he’s still walking among the living.
I get up and pour some coffee from my coffeemaker in the corner, before settling on the couch at this point. I take my time, slowly sipping my caffeine hit while observing Kiara piling more clothes on the already crowded bed. I swear her garments can fill a whole Target store and more – that’s why half of it is hanging in my cupboard. The kid has a serious problem.
There’s a small knock on the door and Axel’s face peeps in.
“I’m so glad you girls are back,” he says in a joyful voice as he collapses onto the sofa beside me. This past year his delicious swimmer’s body packed on even more muscles … in a very attractive way. And somehow his new cropped hairstyle highlights his profile and those hypnotizing eyes even more than before.
“So how’s the firefighting business?” I ask. He’s a fireman at Fire Station 34. Part of their coastal rescue crew. I guess having an Olympic gold medalist swimmer on the team can’t hurt.
“I enjoy it.” Axel’s never been one for many words. He’s always been the mysterious quiet kid in the corner. But it turns out all the rumors were false. He never killed anyone just to eat his liver. Neither does he glitter in the sun or turn into a beast when the moon is full.
All the marks and bruises he tried to hide under those oversized hoodies were from a rough family life instead. One I still know nothing about – except that he has an older sister, and his mom is still alive. And Uncle John helped him to overcome whatever he needed overcoming. A vandalized boy that grew up in a broken home … a child with no childhood. No wonder he and Jackson are so close.
For the past 10 years, he’s become an inseparable part of our family, since the accident at the haunted house.
“Do you guys remember that haunted house?” he asks out of the blue as if reading my mind. It’s kinda creepy how the boys do that – always know what’s in your mind. Kiara thinks it’s because they’re dysfunctional, I think it’s because their souls are broken.
“Yep, how can we forget,” I say calmly. “Been there, done that, got the scars to prove it.” Kiara broke her ankle and my bicep got impaled by an arrow in that house. I’m not sure what made our teacher more upset, the fact that we were able to slip away without her knowing or the fact that she had to drive us to the hospital.
“Well, just last week we got called there for a fire.”
“It burned down?” Kiara gasps. That would actually be a blessing.
“Nah,” Axel elongates his legs over my lap. “It was a small fire … a hobo fell asleep trying to stay warm.” He stretches out some more. “But you’ll never believe what we found.”
“The demon guard?” I shout out. Kiara rolls her eyes again.
“No,” he titters. “The dispenser that shot out the arrow that hit your arm.” I pull wide eyes and stare at him surprised. “It was empty of course … but still rather amazing to see. We also found some more hidden … eh … mm … security risks. It took us minutes to extinguish the fire but hours to clear the place.”
“I told you guys the place was booby-trapped. Jason Steward was the one who triggered it. He stepped on that loose plate.”
“Didn’t you say back then that Cupid shot you?” Axel giggles softly. Yeah, I did. I also thought I saw a unicorn. And a demon.
“Eh, I was in pain … and not thinking straight.” I know there are no such things as unicorns, but I’m still pretty certain I saw a demon. Or at the very least a very ugly man.
He glares at Kiara.
“Your hole is also still there – the one you fell into. The hobo used it as a toilet. It smells disgusting.” He wrinkles his nose.
“Maybe if I looked where I was going instead of my phone screen, I would not have fallen into that hole,” Kiara tops.
“It ruined my whole athletics career,” she continues. Axel snorts out a laugh.
“Eh, Kiara … you never had any shot at any athletics career … you’ve always been as slow as a sloth,” I sneer. She looks disgustedly at me and then at Axel.