“Hey, you two, get a room,” someone called out from behind us.
He released me, and I stepped away. Barely able to catch my breath, I turned and saw Jenna Holley there, decked out in what I guessed was supposed to be a poodle costume. Floppy ears, pom-pom tail, a crystal-studded collar around her throat.
Aidan laughed, then reached for my hand. “Nice touch, Jenna,” he called out.
“Yeah, I could say the same of you.” She smiled sweetly at him, but I also detected hostility, maybe, mixed with something else, something I couldn’t put my finger on. A wave of jealousy washed over me. There was something between Aidan and Jenna — something I didn’t know about.
Neither did my friends, or they definitely would have mentioned it.
“Don’t you have somewhere to go?” Aidan asked her, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
“Yeah, I better go find my pack,” she joked.
Speaking of packs, there came mine, and they were headed our way — Cece, Sophie, Kate, Jack, and Marissa.
For a second there I actually considered grabbing Aidan’s hand and running off toward the woods where we could pick up where we’d left off when Jenna had so rudely interrupted us. Instead I allowed common sense to reign, and I raised my hand and waved.
As they approached, I reached for Aidan’s hand and held it tightly in my own. This was our first public outing as a couple, and I really wanted it to go well.
“Hey, was that Jenna Holley?” Kate asked, once they’d caught up to us.
“Yeah,” I answered, watching the poodle disappear into the gym, her tail swinging behind her. “The one and only.”
Sophie readjusted her pointy hat. “Is she actually dressed up as a dog?”
“A female dog,” Cece put in with a giggle. “How appropriate.”
“Meow,” said Marissa.
“Hey, are we going in, or what?” Jack seemed impatient.
We weren’t inside for more than fifteen minutes, all of us clustered together around the refreshment table, when a man I’d never seen — obviously a teacher — made a beeline for us, his mouth drawn in a tight line.
“Mr. Gray,” he said. “A moment, please.”
“Wait for me,” Aidan whispered against my ear, and he followed the teacher to a corner of the gym. They stood there talking, the man gesturing wildly with his hands. Aidan was very still and stiff, and I could sense that something was wrong. Very wrong.
A minute later he was back at my side, his face a complete and total blank. “I’ve got to go,” he said, his voice tight. “I should be back soon. Stay with your friends; I’ll find you.” And then he was gone.
“Where’d Aidan go?” Cece yelled above the din of the music, reaching for a Diet Coke.
I watched as Jack led Kate out to the dance floor. “I don’t know. Who was that guy he was talking to? Do you know?”
“I think his name is Dr. Hughes. A chemistry teacher. What’d he want?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. Do you mind if I just hang with you till he gets back?”
“Course not.” She nudged me in the ribs. “Don’t look now, but there’s the shifters. Maybe one of them will ask you to dance.”
“Hey, that’s not funny.” I still felt bad for them. They couldn’t help what they were, any more than I could help having visions. It didn’t seem fair that they were outcasts in a school like this, a school where kids should be more sensitive to people’s differences — even if their “gift” was a little out there.
Kind of like carrying someone a quarter mile in the blink of an eye, I reminded myself, then shuddered.
Marissa and Sophie sidled up beside us, and I was glad for the interruption. “Hey, guys, I think Todd Moreland is checking out Cece,” Marissa said, her little cat nose twitching.
I glanced over at Todd, a dark-haired guy I knew from a couple of classes, and yeah, he was definitely staring. A few minutes later, he elbowed his way through the crowd and asked Cece to dance.
Next went Sophie, off with the same guy she’d gone out with last weekend, Jack’s football friend. I couldn’t even remember his name, but he was pretty cute. That left Marissa and me. Of all my newfound friends, she was the one I felt the least comfortable with.
“I cannot freaking believe that Kate and Jack coordinated their costumes,” she said, tipping her head toward where the couple in questionpirate and wench — stood swaying, their bodies plastered together on the dance floor. “I mean, how lame is that?”
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug, wishing Aidan would hurry back. “I think it’s kind of cute.”
Marissa made a gagging sound.
“You don’t like Jack very much, do you?”
She was still watching them, staring intently. “Eh, he’s okay, I guess. Why?”
“I don’t know.” Did I really want to get into it with her? “It’s just that you’re always making these little digs about him and Kate.”
“Don’t tell anyone I said this, okay?” she demanded, and I nodded before she continued on. “But Kate’s mom was only eighteen when she had her, and her dad was already long gone by then. I just. ” She trailed off, shaking her head. “I worry that Kate’s headed down that same path, that’s all. She’s convinced that she and Jack are going to be together forever. I mean, what are the chances of that happening?”
That was not the answer I had expected, and I wasn’t even sure how to reply, so I just shrugged.
“Anyway, where’d Aidan go off to?” she asked, glancing around the crowded room.
“I don’t know. Somewhere with a chemistry teacher, I think. He said he’d be back,” I added lamely, taking a sip of the now tepid Coke I held in one hand.
“I guess you two are getting pretty serious?”
I shrugged, scanning the dance floor, looking for Cece and Todd. “Maybe. I don’t know, he’s kind of hot and cold. Here one minute, gone the next.” I have no idea what loosened my tongue like that, but it felt kind of good, saying it out loud.
“Yeah, well, he’s never even given anyone else the time of day, so you must be doing something right. I hope you two can work it out,” she said, and my gaze shot back to her. After what she’d just said about Jack and Kate, I really wasn’t expecting that.
Marissa was full of surprises today. Truth was, she had always intimidated me — even when she was being nice. But. I don’t know. I was starting to think that beneath her tough exterior, there was something soft, something vulnerable.
“You really like him, don’t you?” she continued, still watching me closely. “And no, I didn’t use any sixth sense to figure that one out. It’s written all over your face. You can’t take your eyes off the door.”
“I’m just worried. It’s been, what, almost a half hour now?” Maybe more. I wasn’t wearing a watch, but it felt like forever.
“You didn’t answer the question. Do you think you really like him, or is it just an extreme case of the Aidan effect?”
I had asked myself that same question more than once, and I always came up with the same answer. “Yeah, I do. Really like him, I mean.” Way too much. Which was more frightening, really, than some freakish hormonal reaction.
“Well, then, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think you should go find him.” She wrapped her arms around herself, and I saw her shiver. “I think something’s wrong. He’s. angry or something. I don’t know exactly. But I think he needs you.”