"So, are you going to tell me what happened at lunch today?" A smile spread across Ty's face and I nearly dropped the tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream on my kitchen floor. Ty and I had met up after school. Since neither of us had plans, I invited her back to my house. She giggled, making the small leaf shaped locket she wore around her neck jingle softly against the chain. "And you thought you weren't interesting." She placed two small glass bowls with sparrows etched on them down on the counter. "You are so going to spill. So come on. Who were those dark and mysterious men?"
"They weren't that dark and mysterious." I placed the tub of ice cream down next to her and sat down on one of the hard wooden kitchen stools surrounding the island, trying to remain expressionless.
Ty's face told me I failed. "Uh, huh," she said. "This is even more interesting than I thought."
"I don't know what you're talking about." I decided to play dumb, filling my mouth with an oversized glop of mint chocolate chip. The cold stung my forehead making me wince.
Ty leaned across the counter. "So, which one is it?"
"Which one is what?"
I swallowed my bite down with a little effort.
"Which one's got the hots for ya?"
She didn't just say that.
"Just because Liam's been kind of following me doesn't mean he has the 'hots' for me, Ty. In fact, I think that categorizes him more as a stalker."
"Uh huh." She nodded with a strange expression that seemed part surprise, almost as if the name stirred some kind of recollection, and part impermeable curiosity. "So Mr. Mysterious has a name does he?"
Oops.
I watched her face become an unreadable slate. "Do you know him?" I asked.
She shook her head, making her short blond curls bounce. "Nope, but I want details. This is the most intriguing thing to happen in my small town life since I won the 4-H livestock photo contest in the third grade." I didn't know what to say. "Joking, Charlotte." She laughed.
"Aren't you going to eat your ice cream?"
"You are so not getting out of this one, girl."
"You're evil." I mock scowled and shook my head.
"Fine. Look. I'm eating." Ty held up her spoon with a nod as if to say 'see', and then took a bite. "Now who's Liam?"
My cheeks burned. "I don't know." I shifted in my seat. "He's just this guy I met at McGulliger's Campground just outside of town a few days ago. His friends were rummaging through our campsite at night and he made them leave." My brows twisted. That whole scene still didn't make sense.
"Wow," Ty said. "Handsome, mysterious, and saves the day. No wonder you've got the hots for him."
"What?" My spoon clanged into the tiny glass bowl. "I do not have the hots for him. I don't even know him, and who goes sneaking into people's schools and follows them around campgrounds at night anyway? The guy's got serious issues. Not to mention the fact, that if you say, 'hots' one more time I'm going to strangle you."
Ty shook her head, laughing. "Wow, you really are smitten."
I groaned and flopped my head down on the counter. "Okay, he's kind of cute." I couldn't look up. I could hear her giggling.
"You act like this is a bad thing, Charlotte."
"You don't understand. He doesn't make sense. He avoids questions, sneaks around following me, and don't even get me started on his weird eyes."
...and his smell.
"Weird eyes?" Ty asked, taking a bite of her ice cream.
I sat up and held my head in my hands. "I swear they turn different colors according to his mood, or something. I don't know. But I've seen them change twice now when he's gotten really...intense."
Ty's laugh fizzled. "Wait. Let me get this straight. They turn different colors? You mean like how hazel sometimes looks blue and other time's green?"
"No. I mean they are normally green and then become this really creepy gold color. They look animalistic." I shuttered and in my mind I was five again, hearing the wolves moving in the distance. I quickly pushed it away.
"Are you sure he doesn't wear contacts or something?"
"No." I forced myself to stay in the present. "It happened right in front of me. His friend's did too. That's why they had to leave the cafeteria. Well that, and they got found, so to speak. But Byron, his friend, looked right at me, and his did the same thing. Liam told me in the woods that the moonlight reflected off of them. That's what made them look different. But there is definitely no moonlight in the cafeteria."
Ty chewed her bottom lip as she processed what I said. She seemed to believe me. She hadn't bolted for the nearest exit, but she did seem nervous. Her hands fiddled with her spoon. I didn't want her afraid, but it felt good to tell someone. An uncomfortable silence wafted between us, until we simultaneously took a bite of our ice cream, swallowing hard.
"That's not it either," I said, surprising myself at my eagerness to go on. "He acts strange too. His body language is different. It's hard to explain, but when he first met me in the woods, he kept circling me and sniffing me like an animal."
He smelled like one too.
I shook off the thought.
Ty's fingers found her small locket, rubbing it between her index finger and thumb. "But he didn't do anything to hurt you, right?" Ty asked. "Didn't you say he helped you?"
"Yeah, I guess he did. More than once actually." I had to admit, it did seem like he cared. He didn't want his friend talking badly about me either. I laughed inwardly; as if that excused his cryptic behavior.
"Really?"
"Look Ty. Okay. I'll admit he's attractive."
"Attractive?" Ty asked with a grin.
I glowered. "But seriously, there's something not right about him. He's too secretive, even if he does have a knack for showing up at the right time to save the day."
Which is a little suspicious.
A trickle of goose bumps ran down the back of my neck and every tiny hair on my body stood. "Ty. Do you feel something?" A light sound found my ears, soft, still in the distance. "Do you hear that?"
Ty leaned on her elbow as she tried to listen. I thought for a moment she might have, but she shook her head. "I don't hear anything. Why? What'd you hear?"
I paused, straining my senses. It stopped, but the icy trail across my back hadn't left. "I know this sounds crazy, but I thought I heard...howling. You know, like wolves."
Ty's left eyebrow lifted precariously. "It can't be wolves. We're too far east for wolves." It looked like she wanted to add something, but she stopped. "Wait. I do hear something."
The howling returned, getting closer.
"When does your dad get home?"
I had to agree, this was getting creepy. The late afternoon sun had died down, covering my kitchen in a cascade of dull winding shadows. "Not until late. He's on call at the hospital tonight."
Ty forced a laugh, waving her hand as if that would push her fear away. "What are we doing Charlotte?" She laughed again, this one more convincing. "We're getting ourselves all worked up over nothing. So Liam and his friends are a little different." She shrugged and turned towards the large glass doors in the back of the open kitchen-living room. The sounds continued to get closer. "It's just some stray dogs. We're in the house, Charlotte."
Yeah, just dogs. Little did Ty know, that's what scared me. I wouldn't go back there. I wouldn't tell her about the haunting visions that followed me ever since...I stopped. They couldn't get us anyway.
"You're right. We're just being silly," I said.
The doorbell rang and both of us jumped. The prickling sensation on the back of my neck made me shutter and I slowly willed myself to stand up off my stool.
"Are you expecting someone? It's after dark."
I shook my head. "I have no idea who this could be."
"Maybe you shouldn't get it. You know, just pretend no one's home."
I nodded, when the doorbell rang again. "You know, I don't hear the dogs anymore. Maybe I'll just take a peek. I won't open it."
Ty gave me a face that clearly said I'd gone insane. I agreed with her, yet I found myself cautiously walking to the front door. Every floor board seemed to creep under my feet and my pulse slammed in my ears. Reaching up on my toes, I strained my neck to peer through the small peek hole high up in the large wooden door.
When my vision focused, my entire body went numb. I gasped, dropping my gaze. I couldn't believe it.
"Who is it?" Ty shout whispered from the kitchen. Apparently she was too afraid to move from the protection of her stool.
I couldn't find the breath I needed to say it. I had to be hallucinating. Maybe the milk in the ice cream had gone bad.
"Charlotte?" a voice said through the door.
My nerves went haywire.
"Who is it? What's wrong?" Ty whispered, still unmoving from her safety zone.
I swallowed hard and forced it out. "It's Liam."
Ty's features fell, reflecting the horrified shock I felt inside. She scrambled to my side, looking a little pale. "What?" She pointed to the door. "Are you sure?"
I nodded. "What should I do?"
Liam chuckled on the other side of the door. I quickly shook off the thought. No one could have heard us whispering through several inches of thick oak. Could they?
"I don't know," Ty whispered back. "Get the door."
"Have you lost it? How does he even know that I live here? I told you, total stalker."
"You didn't give him your address?"
"No."
"Well, you've got to do something. He's at the door."
"I know!"
It felt like I couldn't breathe. My mind blurred.
"Charlotte," Liam's said. "We know you guys are in there. We just want to talk, you know, about today. We feel really bad."
"How does he know we're in here?" I looked to Ty who appeared just as surprised to hear him calling through the door as I did. She shrugged, her face showing up blank.
"Maybe he saw us come in?"
"That was over an hour ago." I paused for a moment, realizing something else. "Did he say we?"
"I think so."
I stood up on my toes and braved another look through the peek hole, but Liam looked right back at me with that infuriating smile. I shot back down.
"What it is?" Ty asked.
"Nothing." I placed my head in my hands. "Do you think I should get the door?"
Ty shrugged with a look of resolve. "You have to now. He knows we're here."
I took a deep breath, exhaling slowly, and turned back to the door. With my face a twisted mass of lines, I fastened the chain, and unlocked the main part of door. It opened with a whine and snagged against the metal fastener. I tried not to look at Liam, but I failed miserably.
"Hi Charlotte," he said with a crooked grin. His green eyes danced down at me from under his ashen hair. My heart quickened and I furiously fought with my body temperature. I prayed he didn't notice, but from the look on his face, he knew exactly what he was doing.
Dark shapes moved behind him on the dimly lit lawn only illuminated by the singular low volt bulb Dad installed on the front porch. I strained to see them. Byron waved. I could guess the others.
Fantastic.
"What are you doing here, Liam?"
I held my arms with a vice-like grip around my chest. Liam chuckled.
"I'm glad you find this so hilarious, Liam. Why are you here? How do you even know where I live?"
This seemed to catch the attention of the other guys, for they stopped goofing around and wrestling in the dark. My poise didn't falter.
Liam leaned in closer to the small gap between the chained lock, blocking out my view of the others in the background. I wanted to move, but I refused. I would not give him the gratification of thinking his proximity affected me.
"You're kidding, right?" he asked, smiling down at me despite my efforts to inflict some sense of warning into him. How could he be so calm?
It was annoying.
"I mean your dad is the new town doctor, Charlotte. It's a small population. Everyone knows where you live."
I turned to Ty for backup, who failed me by returning an 'it's kind of true' shrug. Groaning, I focused back on Liam. "It still doesn't explain why you're here and why you snuck into the cafeteria today. You're following me, aren't you?"
Liam's eyebrows pinched into a twisted 'V'. He mumbled, "Maybe."
"What?" I took a step back, my temper flickering at the surface. "You are unbelievable! You can't just go trailing people around like some stray dog, Liam."
"Why not?" He chuckled. How he found humor in this was beyond me. I clenched my fists.
"Because that's stalking." I tried to shut the door, but he stuck his arm in the way. "Move, Liam."
"But we just got here."
"I don't care."
I grabbed his wrist in an attempt to move it from the crack, when a wave of electricity shot up my arm and a brush of musky scent lifted to my nose making me dizzy. A falling sensation surrounded me and it felt like something deep inside me grappled to Liam for life. To my surprise, Liam's face had gone flush. The cocky smugness had vanished and his lips parted as he audibly inhaled. His head flopped back against the door jam.
"Liam?" I whispered.
He tilted his chin down at me and his irises began to dilate. I dropped his arm and stepped back, almost tripping over Ty. "What are you?"
Had Ty seen it? I needed proof that I wasn't going insane.
"I just want to be near you, Charlotte," Liam said, voice low. "I can't explain it. I know you feel it too. Please let me talk to you. I just want to talk to you."
"And you do this by stalking me?" And how'd we get off the eye thing? I was clearly rattled.
"I'm sorry. I don't know how else to see you. I don't go to school with you. Tell me what to do. I don't want you to be afraid of me. Please, I'd never hurt you. I just want to know you."
"How do I know this isn't some ploy?" Am I actually contemplating this? "I don't know anything about you, Liam."
Understatement of the year.
The gold flecks that had been melting into his irises faded back to normal. A warmth surrounded him, as if the electricity I had felt still burned low under the surface of his skin. Part of me wanted to test it, to touch him. I furiously dissolved the thought.
"Charlotte," he whispered, still leaning his head against the door. "I've ran into you twice alone at night, not to mention in the thick of the woods. Don't you think if I was going to do something, I'd have done it then?"
He had a point.
I needed to think rationally. I had seen things I couldn't explain, things that terrified me, yet I couldn't deny a pull to him. The scent of his warm skin felt so comforting and familiar. Part of me wanted to melt into it. It didn't make sense. "Why are you so interested in me? You don't even know me?"
His head brushed across the doorframe until his breath ignited my cheek on fire. I couldn't move. As angry as it made me, I didn't want to.
"I know," he whispered. "But I want to change that."
Where'd everyone else go? Ty?
He brushed the tips of his fingers down my cheek and closed his eyes. I knew then that I had lost it. Everything in me wanted to touch him. I should have shut the door. I should have done a lot of things, but instead, I unfastened the chain, and let it swing wide.