The Mirrors of Fate (14 page)

He opened wider now and claimed her mouth with more urgency. His tongue played with hers, stroked it and flicked it with an expertise that made her knees weak. How experienced was he? Her fingers splayed over his back and soon she realized she had no control over herself, nor did she want any.

He brought his hand to her waist and touched the flesh of her stomach underneath her blouse. She could feel him reach up and gently touch the fabric of her brassiere. His touch lingered there slightly, as if asking permission to go further. Two fingers slipped underneath and then without warning Maria felt a swoop of dizziness rush into her head when the claim upon her body and emotions was abruptly snatched away.

He had completely drawn away. Disappointment flooded her and she stared up at him. She wasn’t prepared for the look she saw written on his face.

“
W-What’s the matter? Did I do something wrong?”

He was staring at her as if he wasn’t sure what had come over him moments ago. Shock and confusion looked to be flooding into his veins. She stared back, not at all understanding why he looked so troubled, almost as if...upset with himself.

“
What is it? What’s the matter?” she persisted.

“
S-Sorry,” he finally said after a long, torturous moment. “No...you didn’t do anything wrong. I just got carried away, that’s all,” he explained. He was trembling.

“
Oh, well, it’s okay.” Her cheeks heated slightly. “I really didn’t mind.”

“
I...I have to go. You take care, okay?”

But he said it too fast. Much too fast. He must have seen the confusion and hurt surfacing on her face. He changed his tone and held her face in his hands.

“
Wait a minute, I’m sorry, okay? Don’t think I’m weird or anything. I just think we got a little carried away too soon, that’s all. I don’t make it a habit of molesting girls on first dates, and in broad daylight like this.” Another breezy grin crossed his gorgeous face.

“
Oh, I get it,” she said, finally understanding, but only to a degree. She breezed things over by brightening up with a grin. “Don’t worry about it. You’re still in good with me, you know.” Feeling strangely comfortable enough to do so, Maria brought a hand to his face and tenderly held his cheek in her palm. “Thank you for today. Next time we go out you should—”

Suddenly she grimaced before she could finish. Her fingers felt what her eyes did not see clearly. She grazed what felt like rough, bruised skin on a face that looked soft and smooth.

“
What’s this?” Maria traced her fingers down a rough line of skin on his cheek. She bent in toward him and squinted until she could make out a barely visible scar. “Is that a scar on your face?”

Alan quickly moved her hand. “It’s nothing. Just something I got a long time ago.” A friendly smile was all he gave her, enough to dispel the confusion she had felt a moment ago. “I’ll call you later, okay?” He leaned in and left a tender, lingering kiss on her cheek. “Take care babes.” He slowly made his way down the steps from her house. He waved to her and she watched him disappear down the road.

Well, that was strange
. Strange but still more amazing than she could have hoped for. That was her first real kiss. This one, most definitely.

Before she went in, the beautiful sun stole her attention with its warm orange color burning the sky. She couldn’t help but smile, grateful for the celestial witness to her happy day.

Someone should have told the Devil there wasn’t a single dark cloud in the sky.

* * * * *

CHAPTER FIVE

A new day and a new boring lecture. The English classroom was high ceilinged, mainly white-walled with wide windows to the front and back of the room, with two large fans that were always going. Through the window, she could see not a single cloud in the sky, only a wide expanse of blue that went on for miles. All these details she noticed—her tendency when her mind drifted away without rule.

English was the last session on Monday afternoon, and whatever lesson was being taught was going in one of Maria’s ears and coming out the other. The only thing allowed any space at the forefront of her mind was Alan. She wondered why he hadn’t come to school today.

Alan. Alan. Alan. She was convinced there was something wrong with her now. Just recently there wasn’t an
Alan
. There wasn’t an
anybody
in her life. But now, instead of spending every free moment writing poetry, cascading hot water over her body or peeling the skin off her fingertips, she was preoccupied with thinking about him.

His smile. His voice. His gestures. His words. He was perfect. For the first time she was barely able to put into words how she was feeling. Last night they had spent a long time speaking on the phone together. Though at times he seemed a bit distant, she still had laughed so hard tears came to her eyes, and she had felt so comfortable she nearly fell asleep with her cellular phone to her ear. Her conclusion was a quick one to come to, but this person was the something she had been needing. Their connection was everything she had written about in her romantic poems:

Day
is here and I am awake,

But it’s only in my dreams I can clearly see;

His shadow emerges from the light of the sun.

He comes with something for me.

It is himself that he brings,

And when he comes, he comes with things to repair.

Hammer and nail, tape and string,

He repairs the void which has grown wider than the sea;

Please dear God...

Let him fix that void within me.

“
Okay you all, is everybody clear on what to do? Maria?”

Maria jerked to attention. The class snickered.

“
What?”

The old, slightly hunch-backed woman gave her a look of exasperation and sighed. “I’ll be right back after the staff meeting. Maria, please, just
surprise
me this time and
do
the work. No daydreaming.”

Maria gave the teacher a mocking smile when she left the room. As soon as the door closed, Maria could feel heat burning the back of her neck. She turned in her seat to get a glimpse at those around her, and as she had expected, eyes were upon her.

Some students blatantly stared and others subtly looked out the corner of their eyes. Her ears picked up conspiratorial whispering from the back of the room. Ellie and Gina spoke secretly to others, with their hands over their mouths. A few students leaned over in their seats to hear what they were saying.

Maria stared at Gina until Gina looked her way, but she merely smiled and continued whispering.

Quickly the whisper became a plague.

One person caught it, another, and then another. One by one the other students began chattering amongst themselves. A virus was spreading and claiming victims rapidly, but Maria quickly learned that she was immune, because no one included her in the whispering.

She was about to be sacrificed. Nothing could convince her otherwise. But if sacrifice was on the agenda, she might as well face the slaughtering table and try to wring the knife out of her killer’s hands. Though she didn’t realize the truth before at the Square, maybe because she didn’t want to, these two girls were not her friends. They never were.

If their actions then didn’t reveal the truth, this virus being intentionally spread by them now declared their malicious intentions. She’d been battered and bruised by them for too long, and stupidly took every single hit. No one else would have been able to abuse her like that and get away without at least a few spicy tempered words. But when it came to Gina and Ellie, passivity controlled Maria’s spirit. When it came to those two, their opinions mattered. She’d wanted so badly to hang on to the only two people who had taken her under their wings when she’d arrived at the school. But now...things could never be the same.

“
Is there something you’d like to share?” Maria asked Gina, who sat at the back of the room, four seats behind her.

“
If I wanted to share something with you I’d be beside you right now, wouldn’t I? Ellie and I were just giving a little interesting information to the class.”

From the row beside them, Ellie turned her head to the side and laughed that distinct high pitched and deliberately taunting laugh of hers. Her hybrid, hyena-horse noises seemed to incite the growth of more murmurs around the classroom.

Before Maria’s very eyes, the faces of people she thought she knew became distorted. Familiar faces were not so familiar anymore. Rough, yellow-green scales began dotting all over their formerly human-skinned bodies; voices were no longer human, only reptilian. These were the true forms of her classmates, finally visible for the first time. She shouldn’t have been surprised. They were all conniving demons.

“
He banged her in the bathroom?”
The statement floated around in the air.

The blood drained from Maria’s face.

“
Most girls usually have more decency,” Ellie spoke conversationally to a girl next to her. “But sometimes
others
can be really loose, you know.”

“
We didn’t know she and the new guy were going together until we saw them at the Square this weekend,” Gina explained to her minions. “And then obviously you can put two and two together. Ellie and I were just like ‘
Oooh something’s going on here.’”

When Maria’s jaw fell open in disbelief, the others took it for what they wanted it to mean—shock at being discovered. The murmurs grew hotter.

Maria trembled in her seat. So now this was fact, was it? All these lies were fact because it was their words. This was now gospel because it came from the mouths of two girls who had the title of “popular” backing them.

Maria left her seat, ignored the jelliness of her knees and came to stand over Gina, still seated.

“
So, what ‘two and two’ thing can they put together Gina? Huh? Tell me.”

The middle of her lips pouted while the corners drew up. “Obviously it wouldn’t take a genius to figure it out. You’re dating Alan already. He
just
came and there have been lots of prettier girls he’s talked to since he’s been here.”

“
So what? He’s talked to prettier girls, so what?”

“
Well, nothing.” Her smile was innocent as her hands flamboyantly gestured. “It’s just hard to believe that he’s exclusively dating
you
all of a sudden when he’s barely paid much attention to anyone else.”

Many nodded their heads in agreement, accepting Gina’s words for themselves. Maria ignored them all and the increasing heat building behind her ears.

“
Why don’t you just come out and stop beating around the bush?” Maria’s fist clenched in waiting. Gina glanced at it.

“
I’d rather not.”

“
If you can say it to them, you can say it to me. What? You can’t say it to my face all of a sudden? Go ahead, since you like to talk so much. Go ahead!”

Gina studied her face, almost measuring whether or not it was smart to continue. But with affected boldness she said, “Ellie and I both know you spread eagle on Saturday. You probably gave him a blowjob too. Probably that’s why you look so happy this morning. He did say at the Square that he hoped to see more of you that night, right? Am I making
that
up?”

Maria’s finger found its way to Gina’s face. “You know exactly what parts you’re conveniently making up!”

Gina pressed her duck lips together arrogantly. “Whatever. It’s just your word against mine, but we can see the stretch marks around your mouth. Whore.”

Ellie smiled and raised a hand. “I’m a witness, not to the blowjob part, however.”

This time the rush of murmurs was deafening. She didn’t know what to do and looked at Gina for an answer to this betrayal. They stared at one another, encasing each other in a wall of silent communication.
So it’s come to this
, was what Maria sent to her.

Gina’s toothy smile and contemptuous stare were unrelenting.
This is what you deserve
, was the bile Gina sent back.

Ellie raised her hands for attention. “So anyways girls, the moral of the story is you too can get the hottest guy in school, so long as you spread your legs.” Her annoying trademark laugh followed her harsh statement.

Someone tapped Maria’s shoulder.

“
But Maria,” said a wide-eyed, genuinely curious male student with freckles and flattened-down hair. “I thought you were a lesbian.”

Ellie cackled, but her laugh stopped shorter than expected. She wasn’t aware of the straw that had touched the camel’s breaking back.

A sea of gasps filled the air when Maria found herself drawing Ellie from her seat.

Ellie’s scream echoed down the hallway.