Soulsearch (Teen Paranormal Romance Series) (The Soulmate Series: Teen Paranormal Romance Book 2) (8 page)

“A single scoop of Chocolate Peanut Butter in a waffle cone for me, please,” Rachel answered.

“Two scoops of Raspberry Lemon with sprinkles in a sugar cone,”
 
said Paige.

“Can I have a sample of Sriracha Swirl?” Rider asked, suddenly questioning his own desire to be adventurous.

“Oh, that’s a great one, young man,” Mr. Pasquetti declared emphatically.
 
“One of my very favorite creations.
 
Hot and spicy and cool and creamy all at the same time. It’s a masterpiece if I do say so myself!”

Rider took the tiny spoonful of ice cream and touched it gingerly to his tongue.
 
His eyes bulged out as the hot pepper flavor hit his tastebuds, but the creamy aftertaste soothed the sting.
 
“Wow, that is….amazing, Mr. Pasquetti.
 
I think I’ll have a scoop of that in a cup, with a scoop of Key Lime, too.”

“You got it, kid!”

Meanwhile, the cashier was totaling their order and Rachel was digging in her wallet while Paige was ogling the boy with the broom.
 
When Zach looked up and caught Paige staring at him, she offered a hesitant wave.

“Hey, you’re Zach, right?
 
I’m Paige.
 
We go to school together, don’t we?” Paige asked nervously.
 
She wasn’t in the habit of approaching cute boys and she wasn’t confident that he had ever noticed her, despite how many times she had noticed him.

“Uh, yeah, I suppose so,” he replied, staring at her oddly.

That was stupid, Paige thought, cringing inwardly.
 
There was only one high school in Allendale.
 
Of course they went to the same school.
 
“Aren’t you on the wrestling team?” Paige asked — a slightly less obvious question.

“Yeah.”

Knowing absolutely nothing about wrestling, Paige didn’t really know where else to go with the conversation.
 
“You look like you’d be good at it,” she offered, hoping a bid to his self-esteem would help move things along.

A slight smile broke Zach’s stoic gaze.
 
“Yeah, I am pretty good at it.”

“So when’s your next competition?
 
Maybe I should come watch it,” Paige suggested, unconsciously inching closer.

“Season just ended.
 
You’ll have to wait till the fall.”

“Bummer, I’d really like to see what you can do sometime,” Paige lamented, boldly reaching out to touch his biceps.
 
Meanwhile, Rachel and Rider sat at a nearby table bug-eyed, watching Paige flirt.
 
“So what do you like about wrestling, Zach?
 
Isn’t it…painful?”

Zach chuckled.
 
“Not if you know what you’re doing. You have to know how to take control over your opponent from the beginning.
 
Then you just have to be strong enough to keep him down.”

“So you like the feeling of control, then?” Paige asked, surprising him with her directness.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Zach smiled, revealing a menacing line of shiny white teeth.
 
He had never thought about it that way before, but it made sense.
 
He was always struggling for control in real life, so maybe he liked wrestling because it let him have it.
 
He stared curiously at this little firecracker of a girl who had figured him out in less time than it took her to eat her ice cream.
 
He wouldn’t have given her a second look if she hadn’t approached him.
 
Short, with soft curves and wild, curly black hair, she wasn’t the type who would have normally caught his eye, but her spunk was appealing and so was the rest of her, the closer he looked.

“Zach, why don’t you take a break, since your friends are here,” his uncle offered, handing Zach a double scoop of Salted Caramel Fudge Ripple.
 
Mr. Pasquetti thought the boy spent way too much time wrestling other boys and not nearly enough time entertaining ladies.
 
He was thrilled to see his nephew talking to a cute girl for once.

“Why don’t you come sit with me and my friends, Zach?” Paige suggested, pointing towards the table where they sat.
 
With a shrug, Zach followed her.
 
“This is my best friend, Rachel, and her boyfriend, Ride….I mean, Cameron,” she said, “Guys, this is Zach.”

“I think I’ve seen the girls around school before, but you don’t look familiar,” Zach asked, siting down across from Rider, his eyes doing a double take as he realized who the girls were.
 
He had heard the rumors at school about crazy Rachel and her friend, Paige.

“No, I don’t go to Allendale,
 
I live in Indianapolis.
 
Rachel lives there now, too.
 
We just came to visit Paige for her birthday,” Rider explained.

“Today’s your birthday?”

“Yup, sweet sixteen!” Paige chirped happily.

“Happy birthday.
 
Are you having a big party to celebrate?”

“Nah, I don’t have that many friends,” Paige replied self-depreciatively, a smirk on her face.
 
“I just had a sleepover last night with these two losers and today I’m helping Cameron with a school project.”

“Hey, maybe you can help us out!” Rachel piped up.

“Yeah, can I ask you a couple survey questions?
 
It won’t take long,” Rider asked.

Zach glanced back at the front counter and saw his uncle surreptitiously watching him while pretending to wipe the counters.
 
The smile on his face made it clear he didn’t mind Zach taking a few minutes to chat.
 
“Sure, I guess so,” he replied with a shrug.

“Great!” Rider exclaimed, then launched into the same line of questioning he had used with Jessica Reynolds.
 
Zach’s response, however, was totally different than hers had been.

“I think there’s all kinds of weird stuff going on that we don’t know about,” Zach replied emphatically, a dark look on his face.
 
“People hide, try to look normal, but everybody has their secrets.”

Intrigued, Rider leaned closer and delved deeper.
 
“So what do you think causes some people to be…different?”

“Who knows?
 
I think they’re just born that way,” Zach replied, dropping his eyes and fiddling with his ice cream cup.

Just then, a horde of giggling teenage girls entered the store, each dangling a sparkly dress wrapped in plastic from their freshly manicured fingers.
 
Their tresses had been curled and twisted into extravagant masterpieces held in place with rhinestone-studded pins and noxious amounts of hairspray.

“Must be prom night,” Rider deduced.

“Aren’t you going to prom, Paige?” Zach wondered, realizing her plan for the day had not included a spray tan or a mani/pedi.

“No, I don’t have a boyfriend or anything…,” Paige muttered awkwardly.

“We could’ve gone with you if you wanted!” Rachel exclaimed.
 
“Why didn’t you mention it?”

“You have Cameron now;
 
I would’ve been the third wheel.
 
No thank you.
 
I’m perfectly fine just hanging out at home tonight.
 
Sequins make me itchy, anyway.”

“Zach, are you going to prom?” Rachel asked, an idea percolating in her mind.
 
She was pretty sure he didn’t have a date either, and after five minutes of watching Paige watch him, she was pretty sure Paige had a little crush.

“Nah, I didn’t really have anybody to go with….”
 
Just then, Zach figured out what Rachel was suggesting.
 
He glanced slyly at Paige, but he wasn’t fluent enough in teenage girl to have any idea what she was thinking.
 
Rachel could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he processed the situation and she nodded encouragingly when she caught his eye.
 
“Unless, maybe….uh, we could go together, Paige, I mean, if you want to….,” he managed to mumble, hiding his red face in embarrassment.
 

Paige glanced awkwardly between Rachel and Rider who were emphatically nodding their heads, and Zach, who looked worried that she would say yes and terrified that she would say no.
 
“Well, it might be more fun than watching Netflix all night,” Paige replied with typical nonchalance, but her happy smile gave away her excitement.

“Oh my gosh, Paige, we have to find dresses!
 
All I brought was jeans!” Rachel exclaimed, all of a sudden realizing the magnitude of this decision.
 
“And you guys need tuxes, or at least suits.
 
Zach, when do you get off work?”

“Uh, I can get off anytime I guess; my uncle will be cool with it.”

“Okay, let’s split up, then.
 
Paige and I will go find dresses and you two guys find suits.
 
Text us when you’re done, okay?
 
Zach, what’s your number?”

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Fifteen minutes later, Paige and Rachel were scrounging through the picked-over racks at Macy’s, desperately searching for something decent to wear to the prom.
 
They had resorted to grabbing everything in their sizes, hoping something would look better on them than it did on the racks.
 
Arms laden down with piles of silk and crinoline, the girls schlepped their choices into the largest fitting room and stripped down to bra and panties — Rachel in a set of pale blue lace from Victoria’s Secret and Paige in faded, mismatched cotton, a grinning green frog on the back of her bum.
 

“Whoa, girl, what’s up with the fancy panties?
 
You shooting an underwear commercial after this or something?” Paige teased, snapping Rachel’s bra with a painful thwack.

Rachel’s face turned red as she dropped her eyes to examine the sexy lingerie.
 
“Well, you know, I wanted everything to be special when…,” Rachel stammered.

“Whoa, you mean, you plan to go all the way TONIGHT?!”

“Well, yeah, I mean, I guess.
 
How many more chances are we going to have to spend the night together?”

“Rachel, don’t you think it’s a little soon?
 
I mean, Rider JUST got his own life.
 
Who knows what he’s going to do with it?”

“I know, Paige — that’s what worries me.
 
Look at this quest he’s on to find out about his past.
 
And the other day he was talking about going to college in Arizona!” Rachel wailed, plopping down on the dressing room bench.
 
“He’s a year ahead of me now.
 
What if he goes off to school and meets someone else?
 
I feel like I’m losing him!
 
I just want to give him a reason to stay.”

“Rachel,” Paige soothed, scooting closer and wrapping her arms around her best friend in a giant bear hug, “Rider loves you, whether you have sex with him or not.
 
Yeah, he might end up making different choices than you do, but I don’t think having sex is going to prevent that, it’s only going to make it that much harder on you both if he does.
 
Right now I think you have to let him stretch his wings a little, find his own path.
 
I’m pretty sure that path will lead back to you eventually.”

“How’d you get so smart, Dr. Phil?” Rachel sniffled, wiping her arms across her watery eyes.

“It’s easy to see the solution to other people’s problems, it’s just your own that get a little cloudy,” Paige explained with a grin.

“I’m sorry me leaving messed up your life so much, Paige,” Rachel sympathized.
 
“I wish I could still be here all the time for you.”

“It’s okay.
 
It’s probably good for me to get out there on my own and make new friends — learn how to fit in with people.
 
You probably wouldn’t have stuck around forever, anyway, right?
 
What are you going to do after high school?”

“Oh wow, who knows?
 
I haven’t even learned how to drive yet!” Rachel exclaimed.

“Do you think the boys are sitting naked in a dressing room somewhere, waxing existential like we are?” Paige teased, suddenly aware of the weirdness of the situation.

“Uh, I am absolutely positive they are NOT,” Rachel giggled.
 
“We better get busy if we’re going to find something decent to wear before they start bugging us to get out of here!
 
How do I look in aubergine?”
 
Grabbing the first dress off the hook, Rachel held the purple monstrosity up to her face and gagged at her reflection in the full length mirror.
 
“Eww!”

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“What just happened here?” Zach asked Rider, a look of bewilderment turning his face into a caricature.