A Whisper To A Scream (13 page)

I lean back casually in my seat as Katie
gathers her things and as soon as she makes it the door the entire
classroom breaks out into a chorus of hushed whispers.

Wren taps me on the shoulder when Miss Winkle
faces the chalkboard. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me what
happened at the mall, “she whispers disappointedly. She looks down
and draws her eyebrows together.

“I’m sorry, Wren,” I apologize with a low
voice. “I was going to tell you I swear.”

“I tell you everything. Everything!” she
half-shouts, half-whispers. “The worst part is that Katie knew
before I did!”

“That’s because she saw it happening!” I
raise my voice.

Chalk screeches, cutting into the chalkboard.
The entire room winces and I face the front of the room, cringing.
“Do you have any plans after school, Miss Graham?” Miss Winkle asks
in a sweet yet deadly voice.

“No, Miss Winkle.” A terrifying, psychotic
look takes over her features. “Keep talking and you will.”

I take one last look at Wren. I can’t believe
she’s this mad about me leaving out one minuscule detail of my
life. She won’t even look at me. She twists her head to the left,
and folds her arm across her chest. I plead with my eyes for a
moment. She still won’t look at me. Then, I give up for now and lie
my head down on my desk.

After class, I wait for Wren by her locker,
standing in front of the door.

“Move,” she annunciates.

I slide to the left. “Wren, are you seriously
that mad about this?” She’s the last person I want to be fighting
with. Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t tell her. I trust Wren
with my life.

She completely ignores me. Reaching into her
locker, she grabs a few books, and stalks off down the hall. “Come
on!” I shout after her. “Wren!”

Aside from this one, Wren and I have only
been in one other fight. One fight during eleven years of
friendship has to be a record. Well, now two, but I still think
that’s pretty good. I also know how Wren reacts. She’ll fume for a
few hours, then we’ll talk it out and our BFF status will
resume.

This time is different.

In the cafeteria, I stare at our table and
neither Wren nor Molly is there. Molly is the third wheel. She’s
always following, so I assume wherever Wren is, Molly is probably
with her. I debate on whether I should stay in the cafeteria and
eat lunch alone or skip it. A loud, rumbling growl escapes from my
stomach. I’m starving. I hug myself trying to silence the cries of
hunger, but another howl slips out. As hungry as I am, spending the
period in the ladies room sounds more appealing than suffering
through the humiliation of eating alone.

Turning away, I sulk to the exit, when I bump
into Adam. He tilts his head to the side a beautiful, crooked smile
on his lips. “Where do you think you’re going?” he inquires.

“To the bathroom.”

He takes my hand and rubs his thumb over the
space between my thumb and forefinger. “Are you feeling okay?” He
sounds concerned and his eyes examine mine.

“I’m fine.”

“Here I thought I was going to get to eat
lunch with you.”

I sigh. Adam. My savior. Spending the period
in the bathroom is something I really don’t want to do. “You have
lunch this period? How come I’ve never seen you in here
before?”

“I’m the new kid, remember. I had stuff to do
with registration most of last week.”

I start toward the lunch-line and stop. “I’m
going to get in line. You wanna come with or do you want to stay at
the table?” It’s best to hop in line early before the football team
does. If they beat you to the line, then it takes forever to get
your lunch.

He glances toward the lunch-line. “I’ll come
with you.”

We walk to the end of the line and I place my
back flat against the plaster wall. “Why weren’t you in English
this morning?”

He shrugs casually. I bite my lip Even when
he’s being casual he’s sexy. “I was running late this morning.”

I think of what Katie said to me this morning
about him spending the night with her. “Late night?”

“No,” he says shortly. “I overslept.” The
line moves and Adam twists around checking out the cafeteria.
“Where are your friends? Don’t you hang out with Wren
Thompson?”

“She’s mad at me.”

“For what?”

“It’s complicated.” I don’t think he’ll want
me to explain the no-no’s of girl world. One of the biggest
no-no's, keeping secrets from your best friend.

The line moves a second time. We’re finally
inside the kitchen, standing in front of our lunch options for the
day. I turn up my nose. Ugh, Ham Au Gratin. I swear I’ve been
blasted with every disgusting lunch combo this school has to offer
over the last week. I put my finger on the window, pointing to the
cheesy slop behind it. “You don’t want that,” I tell Adam.

He looks at me oddly and raises an eyebrow.
“I don’t?”

“No you don’t.”

Picking up a muted brown plastic tray, I lock
eyes with the rotund lunch-lady wearing a hair-net. “Two french
fries.” She slides two cartons of thin, stringy french fries on top
of the metal counter and I set them on the tray. I slide down to
the cashier, she rings up the food and I pay her.

Adam and I walk back to the table. “I could
have paid for my own,” he insists.

“It’s no big deal. It’s just lunch.”

Before we have the chance to sit down, Katie
spots Adam from across the cafeteria. “Adam! Over here!” she yells,
motioning for him to come over there.

I narrow my eyes at him while he glances over
at Katie. I hope he doesn’t sit with them. If he does, I’ll have to
revert to my previous plan. Ladies’ room reservation for one.
Relief swims in my gut when he looks away from her and plops down
at my table. I stare at the table, puzzled. “Shoot.”

“What is it? Adam asks.

“I forgot drinks.”

He rises from the table. “I’ll get them.”

“I can get them.”

“You got lunch. Let me get the drinks. What
do you want?”

“All right,” I surrender. “Bottled water,
please.”

Before I can thank him, he’s jogging over to
the pop machine in the corner of the cafeteria. Katie follows him,
slithering up next to him like a serpent. Like an Anaconda, about
to squeeze the life out its lowly prey. This is agonizing, but I
can’t help but keep my eyes glued to them.

Katie gently places her arm on his shoulder
and my lungs refuse to work. My heart pounds and falls out of my
chest cavity into my stomach. I breathe and my insides flutter when
Adam peels her fingers off his arm, draws his eyebrows together,
and I assume snaps at her. Nanoseconds later, Katie is sulking back
to her table and Adam is jogging back to our table.

He hurls the bottle of water at me and I
catch it.” Thanks. What did Katie want?

“What do you think? She wanted me to sit with
her?”

We sit down and he takes his fries off the
tray. “So what’s the deal with you and Katie?”

I take a swig of my water. “We used to be
friends, but all good things come to an end.”

“You don’t regret your falling out?”

“Hell no. She’s one of the shallowest, vapid,
and egotistical bitches I’ve ever met. She was never a true
friend.”

Adam folds two french fries in his mouth. “I
guess I don’t know her that well.”

I nibble on a fry. “According to her, you
do.”

“Excuse me?”

“Katie said you guys spent the night together
last night.”

Adam is middle of taking a sip of his pop and
almost spews the soda out all over me. He swallows, coughs, and
then laughs. “You’re joking, right?”

“No. She also said that you told her I
drooled like a dog when I kissed you.” My cheeks flush. I didn’t
want to mention that, but I feel like he needs to assure me that
he’d never say that.

He tightens the cap on his pop and takes both
of my hands in his. His touch sends a thrill traveling at a high
velocity down my spine. “Ellory, I’d never say that. To be honest,
I don’t see Katie that way. She’ll never make me feel the way you
do.”

I cradle his words in my heart. I hope they
stay there. I hope remember them every day for the rest of my life.
“You mean that?”

He reaches out and grazes his fingertips over
my cheek. “You know I do.” A blaze whirls through me and I’m
overheated. “You are my one and only,” he tells me.

I’m breathless and filled with desire and
joy. I run my tongue over my lips. My legs are shaking. Thank God
I’m sitting down. Adam moves his fingers from my cheek to my chin.
He beckons me closer. I lean forward and receive a soft brush from
his lips. He amazes me. “Who are you, Adam Jacobs?”

He smirks. “I’m a senior at Logan High.”

Adam makes me feel alive. I’m bursting with
light inside. My wall has been demolished. I’m open—happy and I
love the way it feels.

He laces his fingers through mine. My hands
belong in his. The empty part of me has filled up. I’m whole. And a
second later I realize that Adam Jacobs has just become my first,
real boyfriend.

Chapter 14: A New Me

Ellory was changing Adam. Every time he was
near her he found himself thinking more about her, than his urges.
He’d reached the point where he’d become obsessed. Driving past her
house several times during the day, just to see if he could catch a
glimpse of her in her bedroom window. He’d even sneak over at night
and sit outside her window, listening to her move about in her
room. He’d even lucked out once when her blinds were open and he
was able to watch her sleep.

There was a small cabin on his property that
used to belong to the caretaker to the previous owners of his
house. When seeing Ellory in the flesh wasn’t possible, he’d go to
the cabin and use his photographic memory to bring her to life on
canvas. He’d her portrait at least a dozen times and he knew her
perfected every one of her features. After he’d finished her
portrait he’d stare at it for a moment or two then crumble it up in
a ball, chucking it at the garbage can. He wasn’t satisfied.
Staring at her portrait wasn’t like staring at her in person.

Days before meeting her, the urges were
getting so bad that he was certain he wouldn’t last a day here
without seeking out his next victim. He tried to do things to
occupy his time. He played the piano. He painted. He picked up a
can of red paint, splattering it against a white canvas. He tried
to tell himself that it was blood. He tried to pretend. But he
couldn’t. He wanted the real thing. His temperature overheated, his
palms started sweating, and his fingers trembled when he thought
about blood.

Since meeting Ellory, for the first time in
his life, he felt normal. He could look at her neck without seeing
blood. He didn’t think about killing. And he didn’t have to act.
Adam came to the conclusion that if Ellory made him feel normal,
then maybe, just maybe she could aid him in keeping the monster
inside of him at bay.

He hadn’t thought about killing anyone in
weeks. For him, that was an eternity.

There wasn’t a day that went by, in the past,
where he hadn’t thought about killing or blood. Now, because of a
girl, his sick fantasies were tucked away safely in a dark corner
of his brain.

However, he still had worries. What would
Ellory do when she found out what he really was? There were times
when the monster poked his head out, and Adam fought to put him
back in his place. Even though he had done well so far, if their
relationship progressed any further, he didn’t know if he would do
so well.

He couldn’t keep himself totally hidden from
her. Eventually, there would come a point where he’d have to tell
her about the other part of him—the monster inside him.

He blanched when he thought of her running
away from him screaming. With Regina, their relationship started
with a whisper and ended with a scream.

Somehow, Ellory didn’t seem like Regina.
Perhaps, he had met his match. The one girl who could accept all of
him for what he was. And that’s all Adam ever wanted. He didn’t
like being fake. But so far, in his life, that was the only way he
could get along. He thought back to a time when he was with Regina.
The topic of blood came up in a conversation they were having. Just
hearing the word mentioned made Adam’s insides tingle. “Do you ever
think about it?” he asked Regina. He was curious to see what her
answer would be.

“Think about what?” she asked.

“Blood.”

She looked at him, disgusted. “Blood?”

“Yeah, do you ever think about it?”

“No,” she scoffed. “Do you?”

Adam shrugged. “Sometimes.”

“What’s wrong with you, Adam? That’s not
normal. And that’s disgusting. I mean who sits around and thinks
about blood. Ugh, gross.”

I do. He wished he could have said it out
loud. “It was just a question, Regina.”

“Don’t talk about stuff like that. You’re
scaring me.”

It wasn’t long after that, that Regina found
out just how often Adam thought about blood.

Regina was the past though—Ellory was the
future. And there was one thing Adam was certain of: that Ellory
would never meet her demise at his hand. In fact, he knew that if
anything, he’d kill for her.

Chapter 15: Off The Market

I sit in the middle of Wren’s driveway and
trace the lines in the concrete. Some of the thin lines are rough,
some are smooth. It reminds me of how at any given moment emotions
can shift. One second everything goes the way you want it
to—smooth. The next something disastrous happens—rough. Then you
find yourself wondering how you let everything come to that
point.

A backfiring engine blasts and carries down
the street. Wren’s almost here. I stand slowly and wipe my pants
off as she creeps up the drive. She stops, hangs her head out the
window, and slits her eyes. “Get out of my way!” she cries.