Midnight Runes (The Bestowed Ones) (6 page)

I closed my locker and turned to find Elyse standing there. Normally I’m grateful to see her. This bizarre morning was an exception.

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked, anxiety filling my stomach.

“I was really hoping you’d let me borrow your calc homework.”

I gave her a look.

“I worked on it,” she said. “I really did! There are only a few problems I couldn’t figure out. I have to get as many points from the homework as possible to help my grade.”

“Why didn’t you call me last night so I could help you over the phone or come over?” I said. “You know how I feel about handing my work out. It wouldn’t be good for either of us if you got caught.”

“Oh, you worry for nothing. I’m the best at not getting caught. And besides, I’ll call next time…I promise,” she said. “Please?”

“Okay, fine.” I reopened my locker, reached in, and picked out my calc binder. Just as I pulled last night’s homework out, she leaned in.

“Oh, my,” she said, interest coloring her words. “There is a super yummy guy over there.”

I glanced to my right, already knowing who she meant. Landon was heading toward us. Dread filled me. I sighed. This was exactly what I wanted to avoid.

“He is
HOT
!” she whispered so loud she should have spoken it. “He’s staring this way. Do you know him?” She didn’t have to express her hope for me. She gave me a look.
The perfect distraction
, it said.

“New kid,” I said and put on a big, fake smile. “I’m the lucky one who was asked to show him around.” I thrust the papers at her. “Here.”

Landon reached us and I let them introduce themselves. He wasn’t anyone I had to introduce to her.

“You’re hardly a kid,” Elyse observed.

“I can be kid-
ish
,” he replied.

She gave me a sly smile and turned her attention back to him. Quick wit was on her checklist of approvable guys. “Where did you move from?”

“New Mexico.”

“Why did you move to Michigan?”

“My dad was relocated.”

“You are super hot. Do you have a girlfriend?”

If he was surprised by her blunt question, he didn’t show it. “No girlfriend.”

“Oh, really?” She jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow, and I restrained myself from jabbing her back, harder. I shot her a look, but she was too focused on him to notice. “Since you’re starting here three weeks into the school year, ask Brynn you if need any help catching up. She’s on the honor roll and everything.” She winked at me, radiating satisfaction with how easy it was to embarrass me…I mean, set me up.

I flashed a nervous smile. I had to hand it to her, she never lost her directness. It was a great quality, especially since she had wanted to be a journalist since middle school and searched for the story beneath the story. But it wasn’t nice when I was the story she focused on. It left me sweating bullets.

She’d already insinuated enough, and I didn’t need her going into specific details of my personal life, which bordered on the pathetic, and I could feel the conversation going there. The last thing I needed was for her to like Landon.

“She may not want to help me,” he correctly guessed.

“He’ll do just fine on his own,” I countered Elyse, ignoring Landon.

“I don’t think Brynn thinks very much of me,” he said mockingly.

“Sometimes it takes her a while to warm up to someone new. What’s not to like?” she flirted for my benefit. It was her way of letting him know that if he wanted to ask me out, she’d support it.

I’d had enough of them talking about me like I wasn’t there. “Okay, well Mr. Newland asked me to show him to his locker—check—and also to his first class, which happens to be the same as mine. We’ve got to go.” As I walked away, I called over my shoulder, “I’ll catch up with you at lunch, Elyse.”

I swiftly walked toward the stairwell, leaving Landon behind. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
Hey, sink or swim
, I thought, but Landon caught up to me in a few strides. I had to think of a new topic quick because I didn’t want to continue the same one I had left behind.

“Are you always this abrupt?” he asked.

“No,” I shot back.

He laughed.

“I’m not always this abrupt. I’m capable of expanding my answers, but at this particular time, I choose not to.”

He laughed again. “Look, I get it if you don’t like me.”

“I don’t know you enough to decide if you’re likable or not. So far, you’re not off to a good start.”

“Exactly. You should give me a chance. We have a lot in common.”

“The only thing we have in common is that we know the same person,” I retorted. “And if I remember correctly, he wasn’t all that excited to see you and your friends at his house, so that makes me not want to give you a chance.”

“At the risk of sounding obnoxious, we also go to the same school and we’re in the same grade, so those are some other things we have in common. But that’s beside the point. In reference to the party, they are associates, not friends, and he didn’t do what he said he would, so we had to follow up.”

“That is obnoxious.”

“That’s alright. Trust is something that has to be earned.”

Since I didn’t feel rude enough to tell him that it only mattered to me that I trusted family and friends with my personal thoughts, not random people—the category he fell into—I took in the atmosphere of the busy hall. I guess when you see the same people day after day, year after year, you really notice someone different. In this case, I happened to be walking next to that someone different, and it attracted a lot of unwanted attention. Groups of girls looked at him in awe and turned to each other to smile and whisper. Their excited looks irritated me more than they should have.

I glanced at him to see if he was smug and loving it…or embarrassed and not wanting it at all. Surprisingly, he was completely unaffected.

I don’t know why, but that earned him a tiny bit of credit with me. I resigned myself to be somewhat welcoming. As much as I could be. After all, there was information I wanted, and you get more flies with honey than vinegar.

“You’ll like Mr. Lewton. Each year he’s voted one of our favorite teachers. He runs his English class as a Socratic seminar. He encourages us to discuss our views and opinions on current events, then write about them. But he’ll probably make you introduce yourself in front of the class.” I glanced up at him to see if I could determine how he felt about public speaking. I gave him a superior grin. “So consider yourself warned.”

He seemed much less concerned than I’d hoped. “There are worse things in life than public speaking. Like having a best friend who can’t tell—or doesn’t care—that she’s making you uncomfortable.”

“Hey, it’s not like—”

“You tell her everything?”

I hesitated. “Mostly.”

He thought that over. “But not everything.”

“No, not every single detail of my everyday life or every thought I have. What’s your point?”

“She doesn’t know we’ve seen each other before.”

I looked at him questioningly.

“She didn’t grill me about it. I think that would have been her top priority,” he said dryly.

“Are you saying I should have pointed to you and said, ‘He’s one of those guys who showed up at Trevor’s party, ticked him off, and ruined one of the rare chances I have to talk to Trevor.’?”

“Are you going to tell her?” he pressed.

“Why do you care?”

“I might lose her support. I like having it.”

I rolled my eyes. “She’ll find out eventually.”

“The more she’s given the chance to like me, the easier she’ll let it go.” We walked a few steps in silence. “But she’s really intense, though, you can’t argue that.”

I shrugged. “That’s Elyse. She’s been that direct as long as I’ve known her, and it’s been since middle school. The first time she saw me she asked if I’d failed a grade. Her reasoning was since I was so much taller than she was, I had to be older.”

He smiled. “Never mind genetics. They play an important role.”

The classroom was at the very top of the stairs, the first door on the left. “She likes to point out the obvious, obviously.” I walked up to the door. “Here we are,” I said, presenting it like a game show prize.

He looked amused and examined me. I shifted my weight under his gaze.

Zach rushed past us into first hour, too preoccupied to notice the new guy. I followed him. Landon approached Mr. Lewton’s desk to introduce himself.

“Hey, are you ready for the econ test?” Zach asked me. At least I thought he was talking to me. He was too busy pulling books and papers out of his bag to look up.

I silently thanked him for the distraction. “As much as I can be. I did pretty well on the homework and the quizzes so far. You?”

“No, I’m not ready at all. I hope I don’t get called on during class because I’ve set that aside as study time. Don’t call me out or I’ll get even.” He flashed his playful grin and sat in his usual seat. We didn’t have specific seats assigned, but it’s just our nature to sit in the same seat as we did on our first day. It was a strange we-survived-one-class, we’ll-survive-the-rest mentality.

Mr. Lewton gave us a few free minutes at the end of class, so the more daring girls tripped over themselves asking Landon questions, including if he needed one—or all of them—to walk him to his next class. He shocked them—and me, too—by announcing that I had already offered. They shot me daggers while I furiously packed my backpack. Their disappointment was tangible. I hated being the focus of their jealousy.

“Okay, see you around. We’re bound to have another class together,” one of them said as they left.

“Definitely,” he said dismissively.

I glared at him, pulled my bag over my shoulder, and turned away. He trailed me out into the busy hall.

“Why did you say that to them?”

“It was the only thing I could think of to get them off my back. I don’t need all that attention.”

“Where’s your next class?”

He gave a sly look and handed me his schedule.

“Right next to mine.” That was good and bad.

We walked a few steps in silence. The stares weren’t as bad as this morning, but enough to make me uncomfortable.

“What, no questions for me?” I asked.

He laughed. “Why so quiet in class? You’re more opinionated than you lead people to believe.”

“Only about certain topics. I’m vocal about things that matter to me.” I changed my tone so he’d get my point.

“That’s not the whole reason. You want them to like you. I’ve only talked to you this morning, and you tell me your opinion of me, or lack thereof, without much preamble.”

“Again, it’s easy to speak your mind when you’re personally involved. And what’s so bad about wanting to be liked?”

“Ah. So political correctness ranks higher than making your stance known.”

We reached his classroom. “That’s not it at all,” I said. “Here’s your class.” I gestured to the open door, not hiding my relief my duties for the day were over. “Have a great rest of the day,” I taunted as I walked into the room next door.

“Oh, I intend to,” he replied.

L
andon fell into step with me as I walked out of my second-hour classroom.

“Seriously?” I asked. How many more girls were upset with me now?

“I was on pins and needles all class anticipating your reasoning for not speaking your mind.” I didn’t like him being sarcastic. I was the only one who could be.

“You purposefully came here to drive me crazy, right? It’s working, so you can stop.”

“It’s not the entire reason. Just a bonus.”

I narrowed my eyes. “So you admit you have an agenda.”

He studied me. “That’s far from a confession.”

“I’m going to figure out what you’re doing here.”

“A threat and a promise, all in one.”

That was the wrong answer. “Usually the villain says, ‘You don’t want to know,’ or ‘I wish you wouldn’t try,’ or ‘You’ll regret it,’ then they laugh evilly.”

He laughed, but it was with amusement, not wickedness. “I am neither the villain nor the hero.”

“Where to now? Your guide anxiously awaits.”

It turned out our next classes were next to each other…again. After that class finished, I wasn’t surprised to see him waiting for me.

I held out my hand for his schedule. After he gave it to me, I asked, “I probably should just keep this, huh? I’m sensing a pattern.”

“Isn’t lunch now?”

“We have the same lunch hour?”

“Yes, Elyse invited me to sit at your table.”

“Unbelievable,” I muttered. I was so distracted with his persistence that I’d forgotten Elyse’s schedule. They had the same third hour.

“Hey, girlie.” Speak of the devil, she appeared.

“Ready for lunch?” I asked sweetly.

She knew what I was implying and ignored me. “Landon’s going to join us today,” she cheerfully said. “He told me he hasn’t had too much of a chance to meet anyone else because you took the position of official tour guide.”

So that was how it was going to be. “It was just supposed to be his locker and first hour,” I complained. “All of his classes are either the same as mine or right next door. It’s not my fault he’s stalking me.”

“If I was a guy, I’d stalk you too, hot stuff.”

“Don’t encourage his behavior.”

“I don’t need encouragement,” he chimed in. “Shall we, ladies?”

Elyse hooked her arm with his. I fell in place next to Elyse, putting as much distance as I could between my hands and his neck.

We made our way to the lunchroom and approached our usual table.

I could feel that the guys were more apprehensive of him than I was, and that said something. They regarded him as he took a seat at our table. Did they see him as a threat? It wasn’t as if he could steal
all
the girls.

Apparently, he was a big car guy. He injected himself into their debate over what was wrong with Zach’s car, and he quickly won them over by asking the right questions about the car’s performance. Based on the answers, he narrowed it down to the problem. Before my eyes, they transformed from coolly regarding him to enthusiastically including him.

As expected, the buzz about the new guy filled most of the time before the start of classes. The girls who had seen me with him bombarded me with questions about him. They must have assumed that I was as straightforward as Elyse because we were best friends. How much did they think I could find out about someone in five-minute increments? Besides, usually I didn’t get brave until I knew the person a little. That didn’t apply in this case, but they didn’t know that. Why was everyone enthralled with him? I was beginning to feel like a pariah in my own school.