Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series) (10 page)

Brie finally looked at him, her eyes seeming slightly wetter than normal. "No. I like cheering."

He stepped in front of her, forcing her to stop walking. "Are you sure?" he asked, resisting the urge to rest his hands on her shoulders again. "Because I'm noticing that every time I bring up cheerleaders, you make a face."

"You notice a lot for someone who doesn't like me much." Her eyes met his, green and intense as ever.

Rykken dropped his eyes, hoping his Asian skin tone would hide how hot his cheeks were getting. "I don't dislike you. We just don't click."

Brie opened her mouth to say something, then shut it. She pursed her lips, causing her right cheek to dimple. "I like plays over books. And romantic tragedies. Like Oedipus and West Side Story. And Romeo and Juliet, obviously."

Rykken crinkled his nose. "At least it's not Jane Austen."

"I'm not
that
cliché."

Sometimes you are
, he thought. Other times, she surprised him.

Rykken looked up; the brilliant cerulean sky was clouded over. He shivered, little bumps appearing on his forearms. It
was
unusually cold out here. But he couldn't go back on what he said earlier without looking like a wimp.

"I thought you wanted something happy," he said. "Romantic tragedies are hardly happy."

"I never said happy. You did." They were near the end of the path on the beach, and Brie sat down on a large, smooth rock. "Fine, nothing overtly girly. What else you got?"

Rykken thought for a minute. "Not much I guess. Dante's Inferno. The House of Seven Gables..." he trailed off. He was drawn to something sparkling green about twenty feet away, peeking out of the sand.

"Dante's Inferno... that's the one about heaven and hell, right?"

"And purgatory," Rykken said, distracted. There was no one this far down the beach. He wondered if a tourist had dropped something valuable.

"Let's do that one," Brie said, drawing his attention back to her. "Are there any romantic scenes in Dante's Inferno?" Rykken gave her a look. "What?" she said, smiling. "We're compromising."

"Whatever," he replied. "The poem is pretty depressing, but there is a love story toward the beginning I think. We can look it up."

"Cool. So how do we create a modern version of the love story?" Her words sharpened him, and his eyes widened a little. She bit her lip. "I mean, how do we... well, you know what I meant."

"Right." He took a deep breath, wishing he could stop embarrassing himself in front of her. "So I was thinking, for the project, we could do something creative. Like write a song. Or something."

"A song?" Brie looked intrigued. "How would we do that?"

"I play guitar." He grinned. "And don't you have, like, a famous father who writes and performs music for international audiences?"

"Very funny.
I've
never written a song though."

"I have," Rykken said.
Plenty of songs that I would never in a million years play for you.

Brie looked up at him, shock on her face. "I had you pegged as a complete jock. Like Pilot."

Behind Brie, the woman with the white hair drove by them again on her jet ski.

Rykken laughed. "Just because we're best friends doesn't mean we're the same in every aspect." Out of the corner of his eye, he caught another sparkle from the dark green gem that lay in the sand, so close to him. He had moved closer to it as he was talking to Brie.

"I guess not. But I don't play any musical instruments, so I doubt I can contribute much."

Rykken was restless with their conversation again. "You can sing though, right? You'll be in charge of lyrics, and I can work on the melody."

"I can probably handle that." She might have smiled at him, but he couldn't really remember.

"Come here," he said, gesturing her to follow him. The sun reflected off the emerald glint mostly hidden beneath the sand.

"Wait. Where are we going?" He sensed the alarm in Brie's voice, but he couldn't understand why.

"I found something." The gem glowed brighter the closer he got to it—or at least it appeared to.

That doesn't make sense
, he told himself. It must have been the way the sun was beaming down on it—the reflection was glowing, not the actual gem. Rykken knelt down on the hard sand and picked the object up.

"Wait! Rykken, don't touch that." Brie ran over to him, holding the side of her head in her palm.

"Why?" He could see now that the gem was actually some sort of necklace, with three silver cords woven elegantly into a chain that held a pendant. The pendant was emerald with a silver crescent moon adorned in the center. Real emerald? He couldn't tell.

"Are you crazy?" he asked Brie. "This looks old, and the design is incredible. It could be worth a lot. I'm not leaving it here."

"Rykken, please. I have a really bad feeling about it." Brie sounded both desperate and weak. What a turnoff. Rykken grabbed the pendant with his whole palm to show her it was safe. The pendant felt solid, smooth, and cold against his sun-kissed skin.

"It's fine. See? Nothing happens when I touch it."

Brie took a step back. "Keep it away from me."

"Why? It matches your eyes." He held the pendant by its thick, knotted chain as he pulled her hood off her head. Her hair, which had fallen out of its ponytail, flew wildly around her face.

He tucked her hair behind her ears gently, letting his fingers trace her smooth forehead. Her locks felt supple and thick, falling in waves down her back. It was the kind of hair all girls wanted and some girls would die for, but Brie didn't even know how lucky she was.

Her face crumpled as he held the pendant up to her eyes, but absolutely nothing happened. "Open your eyes so we can compare." She squeezed her eyes closed tighter.

"Why are you freaking out?" he asked accusingly. "Calm down." It bothered him that she didn't see the pendant as the unique find that it was. Why couldn't she trust him?

Finally, Brie opened her left eye, squinting at the object reluctantly.

"Boo," he whispered next to her cheek.

Brie opened both eyes and turned to face him, holding her head in her palm.

With the sun behind a cloud, the pendant wasn't glowing brightly anymore, so Rykken pulled the chain over his head. He tucked the pendant into his t-shirt and let it settle heavily onto his chest.

"See? You didn't turn to stone or anything." The beach was dead quiet, except for the scuttle of the wind and the crunch of shells under his restless feet. He sneered at her. "Hope you're not too disappointed that magic isn't real."

Brie slapped him square across the face.

"Ouch!" Rykken put his palm to his burning left cheek. "What the hell was that for?"

"I said to keep it away from me!" Brie turned and jogged away from him, back toward the crowds on the beach.

*****

It buzzed with plenty of first-time visitors; the cooks clanged frying pans and the food sizzled behind the counter. Justin chomped loudly on his thick cut tonkatsu, while Pilot dipped his wafu tonkatsu in various ponzu sauces.

It was a little early for the lunch crowd, but the small restaurant still hopped with tourists—

honeymooning couples, retired couples, college-age kids, families with their children, and even a few surfers in board shorts and zori, grabbing a bite to eat after the early morning run.

There was one girl, however, who didn't fit in with any of the other customers. The girl, with a long spill of white-corn hair dabbed in silver highlights, sat quietly at her table eating a salad with avocado and shrimp. She was dressed in sheer black and was scrawling in a notebook. She looked up, tucking her hair behind her ear and revealing several piercings and a twisted, suggestive smile aimed right at him. Pilot's breath caught. The girl wasn't classically beautiful like his sister, but her face was interesting and her eyes were striking, boring into him seductively. Pilot gave a little wave, but dropped his hand quickly when he realized how dorky it was.

Justin noticed her staring in their direction and locked eyes with Pilot. "One word dude: Hot."

"Way to be subtle." Pilot looked back at the girl, but her hair had fallen in her face again, covering it. He leaned in. "Are you interested?"

"Nah, I have a girl picked out already." Justin wiggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

"Candy apple-colored eyes. Looks a lot like you actually. You might know her." Pilot's shoulders tensed.

"By the way, why didn't you go out with us last night?"

"To the football game?"

"Yeah. It was awesome, tied until near the end when we scored a field goal. I thought you would at least come out to see Brie's debut on the cheerleading squad."

Pilot hadn't talked to Brie all week, and he definitely hadn't received an invitation to her see her debut. If it weren't for Annie, Pilot probably wouldn't even know about Brie's new extracurricular.

"How did she do?" he asked Justin. He wondered if cheering was Brie's attempt to get James and him off her back. It seemed a little extreme though, even for Brie.

"She was cute. Super peppy and loud. And she did a ton of those back flip things."

"Tumbling?" Pilot asked. "Brie doesn't know how to tumble. She's never taken gymnastics."

"Trust me. She knows how to tumble. And she can do the splits."

Pilot glared at Justin. The dude always had to go there.

He tried to focus on the quiet blonde girl in the corner instead. Her food was half-eaten, pushed to the side of the table, and she was writing in her notebook with a strange intensity. He wondered what was so important that she had to write while eating.

"You should talk to her," Justin said.

"I'm going to." Pilot looked over again. He placed a tender slice of pork in his mouth, savoring the Asian spices and the gritty coat of breading.

"You should talk to her
now
."

"I will, dude." Why was Justin so irritating
?
"Just lay off. Let me think for a minute." But as the words came out of his mouth, a waiter came along and delivered the girl's check. She looked it over once and immediately laid a couple bills on the table. She packed her things into a purse and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

Justin shoved a salmon sushi into his mouth. "Idiot. You missed your chance." He chewed his food so loudly that Pilot wanted to reach across the table and smack him.

The girl walked out, but not before her eyes caught Pilot's. She rolled her tongue over her lips and gave him a wink, but she didn't come over to his table.

Pilot sighed. Was all that looking and flirting for nothing?

The waiter hadn't cleared the girl's plate yet. That's when Pilot spotted it—the notebook that the girl had been scribbling in was sitting on the table, left behind. Pilot wandered nonchalantly to the table to get a better look at the notebook. It was plain black leather, the size of a typical journal.

Pilot hesitated, then picked the notebook up. He flipped through the pages and was surprised to find they were all blank.

He shut the notebook in confusion and tucked it in his back pocket. When he walked back to his table, Rykken was sitting there, a little out of breath.

"Where's Brie?" Justin asked Rykken. "And why is your face red?"

Rykken stiffened. "Brie ran off after our meeting. She said she had cheer practice, so one of her friends probably picked her up."

"I thought she was getting a ride home with me," Pilot said, confused.

"I guess she changed her mind," said Rykken. He furled his brow, concentrating hard on the menu.

Justin threw his napkin on the table with a huff. "Well,
that
blows my plans of charming the pants off a cute girl today."

Pilot thumped his fist onto the table. One water-filled glass spilled into the candle holder, causing the flame to go out. "Stop with the innuendos, bro." He placed his napkin on the table to soak up the water he spilled. "I'm serious. Leave my sister alone."

Justin didn't even flinch. "I didn't mean it
literally
." He grinned. "It's a figure of speech."

"It's never a figure of speech with you." Pilot dipped his fork in ponzu.

"You're out of luck anyway," Rykken said. "Brie is wearing shorts today."

Justin looked up from his tonkatsu. "Weird."

"Yeah, no kidding."

Pilot glanced between the two of them, feeling a little lost in the conversation. "Are you getting something to eat?" Pilot asked Rykken. "We can wait for you."

"No, I can't afford this place." Rykken set the menu down. Pilot felt guilty for picking the restaurant, but he knew better than to offer to buy Rykken's lunch.

"Look what this girl left." Pilot pulled the notebook from his pocket, and a sheet of paper fell out. Pilot picked it up. The paper had contact information, written in the girl's neat, even handwriting.

"Look Rykken. She wrote her number down on this sheet of paper." Pilot's chest swelled—he wondered if she had written it down for him.

"Why would she leave you her number in a notebook?" Justin asked. "You didn't even have the balls to talk to her."

"Don't know," Pilot said. "But I'll have to call her to return this."

"Maybe she left it for the waiter, not you."

"Guess he's out of luck then, because I'm taking this with me."

"Guys," Rykken said, "never mind that. Look what I found on the beach." Rykken pulled something from the collar of his t-shirt. It was an old necklace, green with a moon in the center.

Pilot glanced at Justin, who seemed equally perplexed. "Uh. What is it?" Justin asked.

"I don't know. But it's pretty cool, isn't it?"

Justin laughed. "It looks like some chick's cheap costume jewelry. Why are you
wearing
it?"

"Shut up. It's a pendant on a chain, not a necklace. I think it's real, and worth something. It's heavy. Feel it." Pilot took the necklace from Rykken and held it in his palm. It was indeed heavy, but Pilot still couldn't see the value in an old piece of jewelry.