For Ever (15 page)

I stop, furious that I just said that out
loud. Clamping my mouth shut, I rush past him to the door. The air
inside the coffee shop is mercifully warm, so warm that I shiver.
Rubbing the feeling back into my hands, I get in line. When it’s my
turn, I ask the heavily pierced young woman behind the counter for
a hot cocoa.

“Would you like whipped cream on that?”

I shake my head and sift through my bag for
my wallet. As I’m about to pay, I look down and see a bill already
lying on the counter. Confused, I glance up at the cashier, who’s
staring over my shoulder with a look of blatant awe. I turn
slightly and find Ever Casey standing only inches to my right.
Turning all the way to face him, I find it extraordinarily
difficult to keep my expression flat as he holds out one long,
bronzed hand and gestures to the tables behind us. I stall and try
to decide what to do. When the man behind me clears his throat, I
relent and begin moving toward an empty table in the far corner.
Then I watch with horrible fascination as Ever pulls out a chair.
For me.

What? He’s suddenly the epitome of politeness
now?

Still debating whether to sit down, I look
over and catch the barista behind the counter staring at us. That’s
how mismatched the two of us are. I turn back and look straight at
Ever, determined to summon enough anger to ignore how ludicrously
perfect he is. But there’s a drop of water on his cheek, and I have
to make a fist to stop myself from reaching over to brush it away.
Still clenching my hand, I sit down.

“Why are you following me?” I demand, trying
to keep my voice to a reasonable decibel.

“A coincidence? Perhaps that would make more
sense than me
following
you,” he says, again aggravatingly
innocent.

His response stings. Like I’m not worth the
time. I’m just some girl who’s gotten into her head that her
school’s resident idol is stalking
her
.

“Well, that’s just great. Try to make me feel
even crazier than I already do. You know what?” I bite back the
curse that comes to my lips. “Forget it.”

Shaking my head in disgust, I stand up and
begin to storm out, not caring the least bit about my beverage.
Feeling a hand grip my wrist, I spin around, about to let him have
it, when my knees go weak. I lurch forward, wincing when he
steadies me with his other hand. Sinking back into the chair, I
look down at my wrist, which is buzzing with electricity. My heart
is racing, and I can’t
stand
the fact that one little touch
from him made me—what?
Swoon
? I shudder. God, I’ve always
hated that word.

Looking across the table, I expect to find
Ever Casey’s ubiquitous expression of indifference. It’s there, but
there are cracks I hadn’t noticed before. His jaw is perceptibly
clenched, and his eyes are like glass. I wait anxiously until he
seems to relax. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to do the same. When he
leans forward, I’m hypnotized by the sudden intensity in his
eyes.

“Why haven’t you told anyone about your …
hmm, shall we call it
talent
?”

His tone and expression are both perfectly
smooth again. Realizing that he’s talking casually about my biggest
secret, I lean forward, too.

“We’re not talking about me!” I whisper
savagely.

He spreads his hand out in acknowledgment,
and I can’t help staring from his long fingers to the muscles in
his forearms, all the way to the broadness of his shoulders. I
shake my head, trying to pull myself together.

“I’m simply trying to make a point,” he says,
jerking me out of my reverie.

After looking around to see if anyone is
still watching us, I start speaking quickly and quietly.

“Do you know what would happen to me if
anyone found out? If I got lucky, everyone would think I was a few
cards short of a full deck. Or I’d wind up in some top-secret
bunker out of a sci-fi movie and spend the rest of my life being
prodded like a lab rat by men in white coats.” I pause before
adding, “They would do the same to you.”

“So, given that logic, are you willing to
assume that some secrets are better kept?”

I nod carefully. When he stands up and walks
away, I stare after him. He returns moments later with my hot
chocolate. I hadn’t even heard the order being called out.

“Thanks,” I mumble.

Looking down at my cocoa, I feel like a
little kid.

“So? You know my secret,” I remind him. “And
I still know absolutely nothing about you. That’s not exactly
fair.”

He doesn’t say anything. Instead he studies
his long, bronzed hands, which are folded neatly on the table. I
shake my head, frustrated.

“All right. Can you at least tell me why
you’ve been following me? I mean you
have
been following me,
right?” I ask with less certainty.

While I’m watching him, his expression goes
vacant, like he’s suddenly somewhere else.

“
Hello
?” I wave a hand in front of
him.

“Your friends are looking for you.”

I jump when my phone buzzes in my pocket.
It’s Ashley’s number. I look over and watch Ever. His talent, or
whatever it is, makes mine look like a silly parlor trick. Is it
possible that he’s some kind of escaped government project gone
wrong? I frown at my internal musing, knowing that he’s most likely
listening to what I’m thinking. With a feeble effort, I try to
erect my mental wall. Taking out my phone, I send a quick text to
Ashley promising to meet them in a couple of minutes.

“Wren?”

My heart skips a beat at the sound of my name
coming out of his mouth. It’s only the second time he’s said it,
and it irritates me to death that I’m even counting. When I look
up, he’s staring at me.

“Could you not do that?” he asks. He sounds
less mocking this time, maybe close to earnest.

“Not do what?” I ask, keeping my tone sweet
and my expression innocent.

He frowns at me.

“It … bothers me when I can’t hear you.”

His admission stuns me into silence, but I
recover quickly, eager to gain the upper ground—for once.

“Get used to it,” I snap.

“I am trying to help you.”

“Yeah? How? By following me around and then
ignoring me?”

I hate that my tone sounds petulant and hurt,
but in my defense, I have tried to thank him on multiple occasions,
and he chose to ignore it.

“Can you please trust that things are best
the way they are? For you.”

He almost sounds concerned for me, which—like
everything else about him—makes no sense. Either way, I don’t want
to play this game any more.

“No!” I lower my voice when the guy at the
next table looks over his newspaper. “I can’t. Not until you tell
me why.”

Ever’s face turns cold again, emotionless. I
push back from the table, causing the chair to screech gratingly
against the tile.

“You know what? From now on, I’ll stay out of
your business, and
you
stay out of mine.”

My eyes stubbornly begin to burn with tears
as I stomp toward the door. Looking through the glass, I stop
short, horrified. Ashley, Lindsay, and Taylor are standing
shoulder-to-shoulder, all of them staring at me like I’ve just
grown a second head. Without the power to disappear at will, I
swing open the door and step outside.

“We leave you alone for ten minutes—and
you’re having coffee with
him
?” Lindsay gasps. “Way to
go!”

“Are you going home with him?” Ashley asks.
She stops, her cheeks turning red. “I mean, is he giving you a …
?”

She trails off, and I stiffen.

“Hello.”

The three of them freeze. When I look over my
shoulder, I see Ever standing just behind me. The smile on his face
makes him impossibly beautiful, his green eyes shining with warmth,
almost friendliness. At least
I
know it’s a trick. Turning
to my friends, I check to make sure that they haven’t fainted.
Ashley looks pretty close.

“I was going to give Wren a ride home, if
that’s all right with you?”

My head snaps around, and I gawk at him like
he’s a space alien who melts people’s brains.

“Sure, yeah,” Ashley says.

Stunned, I turn back to her. She just keeps
nodding vacantly until Lindsay nudges her.

“Um, Wren. Actually we were going to grab
dinner before heading back.” Lindsay gestures to a restaurant
across the courtyard behind her. “You … guys want to come
with?”

Her eyes dart to Ever, and I feel the color
draining from my face. I’m hungry, but I don’t know which is worse,
being interrogated by my friends over dinner—or Ever coming with
and then getting interrogated later. Neither option sounds
pleasant. On the other hand, the thought of getting a ride home
with Ever doesn’t seem like such a great idea, either. After all,
which alter ego am I going to get? Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde? After a
brief internal debate, my practical side wins out, and my limited
cash fund breaks the tie.

“My mom’s getting off work soon, and I should
get home anyway,” I say. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow?”

“We’re meeting up after school for the game,
remember?” Ashley says, recovering herself. I watch as her eyes
shift cautiously to Ever.

I had totally forgotten about the baseball
game they were talking about at lunch. I nod before turning back to
Ever, who holds out his hand, implying that I have some kind of
choice in going with him. Slowly I start walking, looking over my
shoulder once. The three of them are still staring. Lindsay mouths,
Oh my god
. Once we’ve gained some distance from my friends,
I turn and scowl at Ever’s perfect profile.

“What did you do that for? I had a ride home,
in case you hadn’t noticed.”

He turns toward me, unperturbed.

“
That
was why I offered.”

I wait impatiently for an explanation, since
I
can’t pull the answer out of his head.

“Your friend is not exactly the most skilled
driver, and given your history with moving vehicles—”

I throw my hands in the air.

“Yeah, since I got
here
. Besides, I
don’t get it. What do
you
care? I could drop dead tomorrow,
and it wouldn’t make any difference to you, right?”

I intended for my accusation to sound
dismissive. Instead, my voice cracks. Why do I even care what he
thinks anyway?

“Is that what you truly believe?”

He sounds surprised, but I can’t see why.

“Yes! No! I don’t know! I don’t even know
anything about you! You help me one second, ignore me the next. Go
ahead. Do what you want next time. Let me fall off a freaking
cliff.”

I spin around and start walking back in the
direction of the restaurant, my breath hitching in my chest.

“Did I say I
wanted
to do
anything?”

The stark bitterness in his response causes
me to stop, but when I turn to face him, he’s looking away from me.
I walk back a few steps and watch him for several seconds. When he
finally glances in my direction, I begin to wonder if whatever it
is that he’s hiding might be a burden he can’t share. Had I been
completely wrong about him?

He begins walking toward his car, and I
hesitate for a second before following him. He opens the door for
me, and I step in to the passenger seat, feeling awkward and
confused. Once I’ve buckled my seatbelt, I look over at him, trying
to reconcile his actions with the darkness I saw behind his
eyes.

“Look,” I sigh. “You don’t have to tell me
anything. Like I said, you have your secrets; I had mine. We’ll
leave it at that.”

He reaches out very slowly and pushes a loose
strand of hair out of my eyes. I freeze when his finger brushes
across my cheekbone. The trail of heat along my skin makes me
shiver, and I exhale unevenly when his hand drops away. For one
ridiculous second I had been sure he was about to kiss me, but I
force the thought from my mind as he starts the car.

I’m too confused to say anything, but every
few minutes I steal a look in his direction. Fortunately—for my
sanity—the ride home takes less than half the time it did to get to
the mall with Ashley driving. This is partially because the traffic
has cleared, but more so because Ever doesn’t seem to register the
fact that there’s a speed limit. Being from Southern California,
I’m used to crazy drivers, but his driving still scares me. When he
slices narrowly between two cars, I grab the door handle, and he
looks over at me, completely calm. The next time I look at the
speedometer, the car’s speed has decreased from ludicrous to only
mildly panic-inducing.

My nerves are completely shattered by the
time he pulls up in front of my house. I try to think of something
to say after the strangest evening I’ve ever had. My contemplation
is cut short by a flash of headlights in the rearview mirror.
Frozen, I watch in horror as my mom’s car pulls into the driveway.
I wrench open the door in a panic and jump out. By the time I reach
her, my mom is halfway to the curb. Looking over my shoulder, I
exhale when I see Ever’s car has disappeared.

“Was that your friend Ashley?” she asks, her
brow pinched in confusion.

“Actually, I got a ride home with someone
else.”

“A drug dealer?” she laughs.

I frown. The worry in her voice is thinly
veiled. I follow her inside the house, with an equally confused
expression on my face.

“I don’t get it.”

“Honey! We bought the house in Topanga for
less than that car costs.”

I frown, trying to recall the emblem on the
hood. It looked like Poseidon’s trident, a three-pronged staff.

Uh. Oh.

“That was a Maserati, wasn’t it?” I ask
weakly.

My mom nods.

“
Quattroporte
, if I’m not mistaken.
So
? Who was that?”

“Just someone from school.”