Descended by Blood (5 page)

I turned onto my side and pulled my hair up to fan out over the pillow, so it wouldn’t crease. “Yeah, I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know who said it.”

“Me, neither,” Jaren chuckled, then sighed. “But sometimes, I think it would’ve been better for me to never have known that my dad could be a great dad. Now, I know that he has the ability to be an awesome dad, but he’s not because he hates me. That’s the absolutely worst part for me.”

“For me, it’s the not knowing. I hold onto that feeling of rejection that my dad left because of me, and I’m the reason he’s no longer with my mom. With your dad, his animosity is directed at you, but comes from someone else.”

“Wow,” Jaren said, voice thick with emotion. “I have tried to tell myself that before, but I have always been able to talk myself out of it. When did you become so wise?”

I smiled. I was giddy inside, and didn’t feel a tiny bit tired yet. It was like my mind was clear and my eyes were weightless.

“Sometimes, it’s easier to see from the outside.”

“Well, I’m glad that I have someone like you on the outside,” Jaren said.

“Are you saying you want to keep me at a distance?”

“No. You know what I mean.” We were quiet for a moment considering all that had been said. “What are you doing tomorrow night?” Jaren asked.

“Kaitlynn and I are going dress shopping with her mom. One of her cousins is getting married and her mom needs to find something pink.”

Jaren laughed. “Pink. That ought to be fun. Guess I won’t be seeing you after school then.”

“Guess not. That’ll be kind of weird,” I said, missing him already. I had Jaren’s jacket snuggled up against my chest, and I pressed my face into the leather and wool. It smelled like him, fresh and crisp, like a breeze blown over a river. He reminded me of summer. Warmth and lazy days. Juicy fruits and fresh cut grass.

“Are you still awake?” Jaren asked quietly. I must have lost myself in his scent for longer than I thought.

“Yes, I’m still here,” I said, pushing the distraction of his jacket a little farther away from my face.

“Are you getting tired yet?”

“Not really. Why? Are you?” I didn’t want to hang up unless Jaren was getting tired.

“A little bit. I should probably let you go. Just because you aren’t feeling tired right now doesn’t mean you won’t be exhausted tomorrow. I expect you fresh and witty in study hall tomorrow,” Jaren said with a stern tone.

“You, too, then,” I laughed.

“I’ll try. Sweet dreams, and see ya tomorrow.”

I snuggled his jacket closer to my face in an effort to comfort myself after we hung up. I fell asleep shortly after with Jaren’s fresh scent lingering in my nose and his phantom lips brushing over my mouth.

6

He Was There

When Kaitlynn and I pulled up to her house the next day after school, her mom was in frantic mode. She was a busy lady, an interior designer, which wasn’t a nine-to-five, so I could understand.

“Hi, Rhonda,” I said to Kaitlynn’s mom.

“Oh, hello, Brooke. You sure are looking lovely today,” Rhonda said. She put down some small boxes and gave me a hug and squeeze to the shoulders.

“Thanks. Are we still going shopping?” She looked really busy, and I didn’t know if she still had time carved out for shopping.

“Yes. I have to get this stupid dress, so I can stop fretting about it. One less thing to fret about is good, right?” She picked up her boxes and set them on top of the credenza in the office across the hall.

Both of Kaitlynn’s parents worked, so they had a nice house. It wasn’t very large, but the interior was high end, the floors either dark mahogany wood or Italian travertine, depending on the area in the house.

“Ladies,” Rhonda said, “we’ll take my car, if you don’t mind?” We followed Rhonda down the porch steps and into her Durango.

Buena Vista touted a quaint dress shop called Mary’s Boutique. The store was small, but Mary was able to fit a good selection of dresses between her store’s tight walls.

Rhonda began by walking around with Kaitlynn and me to search the racks of dresses, but eventually we got to the point of bringing her what we liked. We thought we would be limited because we were looking for a pink dress, but Mary assured us that she could dye any white dress to match any color of pink we wanted. She also mentioned that if the style didn’t come in pink or white, then she would order it in for Rhonda. Great for Rhonda, but that meant we’d be here all night; Rhonda could be particular about clothing.

“Girls,” Rhonda hollered from her dressing room, “no more banana Popsicle colors. I don’t care how much you like the style. They all look terrible on me.”

Kaitlynn and I chuckled. She put aside her newly started pile of dresses and set out to collect everything “banana Popsicle” colored. I had to walk to the other side of the boutique for fear of snickering too loud.

When Kaitlynn felt satisfied with her putrid pile, she scurried off to deliver it to Rhonda.

“Kaitlynn!” Rhonda squealed. “I said
not
to bring me anymore of these.” Rhonda handed back the pile of dresses and turned Kaitlynn around by her shoulders to send them back.

We must have gone through one thousand dresses or more because we were there until Mary had to close. Kaitlynn and I were ecstatic when we finally found the perfect dress for Rhonda. The length would have to be adjusted because Rhonda was short, and she didn’t fuss with heels, either.

I wanted to pass out from exhaustion by the time Rhonda finished paying for the dress and ordering the alterations. Jaren had been right about me suffering today for last night’s late chat. I stumbled out of the dress shop, triggering the bell on the door when I pushed it open. Mary waited behind us to turn the lock and close the shop for the night.

The air was crisp and had some bite. It jerked me out of my tired fog. I became alert enough that when I looked up and peered across the street, I recognized a figure silhouetted in the shadows. I blinked a couple of times to clear my eyes of any lingering daze, and found the figure to be a man standing in a crevice between two buildings. He wore the same trench coat as the man who sent the mountain lion after us, and his face was shadowed in the dark, but I was sure it was the same man.

“Kaitlynn!” I shrieked, tugging on her arm and pointing. “It’s the man who sicced the mountain lion on us!”

By the time Kaitlynn looked up and over at the buildings, the man had disappeared into the shadows. His creepy setup was almost perfect. The only thing missing was the fog and the eerie music. “He was just right there. I swear it—on us.”

“You’re tired. Let’s get you home so you can go to bed.”

“He was there.”

“Huh, ladies?” Rhonda asked, huddling close to our shoulders to get in on the secret. “What’s going on?” she asked as if we were whispering about boys.

“Oh, nothing. Brooke is tired. We should get her home,” Kaitlynn said, covering for me.

“I’m so sorry we took as long as we did,” Rhonda’s face creased with concern as she apologized.

“It’s perfectly fine,” I said, trying to hurry things up so she wouldn’t be apologizing all night, and we could get out of here. “We got you a great dress, right?”

She smiled. “We did.” She walked around the hood of the Durango and slid into the driver’s side.

As soon as I was in my room, I changed into my pajamas and plopped down on my bed. Warmth escaped me, even though I was underneath my blankets. The chill brought on by the thought of the crazy man following me drilled into my bones, smothering any heat that tried to kindle there.

Piecing together from Jaren’s pictures that the man was following me was quite a bit different from actually catching him in the act. I could tell my mom, but I wasn’t ready to move. No, Kaitlynn and Jaren were too irreplaceable to allow for any of my mom’s rash relocation decisions.

I wouldn’t say anything about my stalker unless he got closer to me. He’d mostly been spying from a distance, anyway. I’d have to be careful not to go out by myself anymore.

My exhaustion won over any concern I had for my own well-being, and I was asleep in minutes.

* * *

I startled awake when my cell phone vibrated on my nightstand. I picked it up and found Kaitlynn’s number on the caller ID. It was only eleven thirty. What could she possibly want? I had been with her two hours ago.

“Hey,” I said, wiping the sleep from my eyes.

“Sorry. I know you were sleeping, but my mom just got off the phone with Shannon. She told my mom that she saw Jaren walking with Tiffany in the park today.”

My stomach dropped, and I gasped. My mouth went dry.

“Well, did she say if they were holding hands, or kissing, or anything else?” I asked, trying to hold myself together. I was on the verge of a major freak out.

“She said that they were walking, but them being together can’t be good news for us, right?” Kaitlynn sounded really sick about this, too.

“Did Shannon say how long they were there?” I needed more information. No. I needed facts because my mind was playing
worst case scenario
with what I’d heard.

“She doesn’t know how long they were together. She was at the playground with her kids when Tiffany and Jaren walked around on the trail toward the parking lot. She didn’t go follow them or anything.”

“I hate her,” I growled. Kaitlynn knew I meant Tiffany. “She was so evil to Jaren before she knew he wanted me. Now, she wants him back all of a sudden because he can’t be with anyone else. I seriously HATE her,” I spit out and started to cry.

“Oh, Brooke. Do you want me to come over there? I am so sorry, hun,” Kaitlynn said, trying to console me.

“No. It won’t help, anyway. I’m gonna cry whether you’re here or not, and you don’t really need to see me being a blubbering mess tonight. I love you, though. Thanks for letting me know, but I’m going to go now, okay?” I sniffled.

“Okay. I love you, too. Try to get some sleep so you’re not stressing about it all night.” It sounded nice, but I wasn’t feeling like the universe was going to give me any “get out of jail free” cards on this one.

I lay on my bed going from furious at Tiffany, to heartbroken and betrayed by Jaren, to enraged at Jaren, then back at wishing terrible things would happen to Tiffany.

I knew she just couldn’t let me have him. I knew it. From the moment she saw him and I walking through the back doors at school, hand in hand, she wanted him back. How stupid could I be? You don’t get to be that big of a witch and still get to keep Jaren around for a whole freaking year unless you had some conniving tricks to keep him.

Ugh, I
hate
her. I clenched my jaw, grinding my teeth to keep from yelling.

Great.

Now, everyone is going to know what a fool I’ve been and that he and Tiffany are back together. I knew he was going to end up leaving me. Same as my dad.

My stomach twisted. My hands shook as I furiously wiped the tears from my face. I was further frustrated because my mom slept in the next room, and I had to keep quiet or she’d end up being another witness to my demise, wrapped in a pretty little pink bow, signed:

Truly yours,

Tiffany XOXO

Arrrrhhhh. Tiffany probably didn’t even want him back because she missed him. I bet her only motive was because she didn’t want me to have him.

I tried to focus more on my breathing and less on the internal monologue. I kept telling myself that I didn’t really know anything yet and needed to stop jumping to conclusions. Eventually, I tuckered myself out so much from all the tears and thrashing around on my bed that I passed out for the remainder of the night.

7

He Tarnished It

The next morning, I had to force my legs to walk to the bathroom. I tried to convince myself that maybe Jaren and Tiffany simply talked and not to jump to any conclusions. It wasn’t like they were going to get back together. Right?

Oh, man. My stomach hurt. I jumped into the cold shower trying to shock myself out of this terrifying train of thought.

Jaren and I had made plans before I left school yesterday that we’d meet up today at lunch. I wasn’t really sure what was going on anymore. I certainly didn’t want to call him and make a greater fool of myself by groaning to him about it. So, you can imagine my surprise when I saw him pull into my driveway with David’s Mustang. It must really be serious then. David didn’t let Jaren take his Mustang “just because.”

I was grateful that my mom had left to go show a client some houses. I didn’t want her getting involved in this.

I opened the door before Jaren could knock on it. My face contorted with anger.

“Hey,” Jaren hesitated. “Can I talk to you? Can we go for a ride or something, please?” Jaren’s face told me what he tried to hide in his voice—regret and urgency.

“Where do you want to go? The
park
?” I crossed my arms.

“That’s not fair. At least let me tell you what has been going on with me, okay? If you never want to talk to me again afterward, then I’ll accept that. But I can’t accept it if you won’t even hear me out.”

I grabbed my keys from the counter and slammed the front door behind me. “You’re driving.”

Jaren took Highway 60 and drove until we were out of town. We passed the point where we watched the meteor shower, and I squeezed my eyes shut as hard as I could, demanding they not water.

Jaren stayed on the highway until we were deep into the Blue Ridge Mountains. It would have been nice to have been coming up here with him under different circumstances. The leaves were now brilliant oranges and fiery reds. I loved nothing more about the East than its vibrant fall seasons.

Jaren turned the car into a pull-out. He shut it off and faced me. I met his eyes with daggers in mine.

“It really isn’t as bad as you think,” Jaren said, but I cut him off.

“Right, like you know anything about what I am thinking right now.”

“Okay, let me get this out, and then you can cut in all you want, please?” His eyes took on a pleading shine. I nodded my head in agreement.