Stolen (4 page)

“I’ll try.”

“Everything alright, honey?” she asks, smiling uncertainly.

“Yeah.” I hesitate. “Thanks for the advice earlier.”

“Advice?”

“When you told me to fight for Natalia.”

She nods, then gazes out the car windshield with a wistful look on her face. “Of course, I still like that Raine Marsden. But I suppose you can’t let me pick your girlfriends for you.”

I sigh, my good feelings toward her evaporating as quickly as they came. “I’ll see you tonight, Mom.”

“Don’t worry about me, honey,” she says, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll get a ride home with Louisa.”

She gets out of the car and I watch her head into her building before I drive away.

***

As soon as I get to school, I start looking for Natalia. I spot her walking over by the math wing with Adrianna and I’m about to try to talk to her, but when Adrianna spots me she gives me a look of pure disgust. Then she pulls Nat in the opposite direction and starts hurrying her away.

“Ouch!” Natalia yelps.

But Adrianna keeps dragging her down the hallway. “Come on,” Adrianna says, glancing angrily at me one last time.

Obviously Natalia told her what happened with me and Kaci. There’s no other explanation for why I’d get that kind of glare from Nat’s best friend.

I deserve it, though. I know that. Still, I have to at least try. “Hey, wait a second,” I call out.

Natalia hears my voice and freezes. Adrianna stops and puts her hand on her hip, glares at me again. “She doesn’t want to talk to you.”

“I only need a second.”

Adrianna starts to say something else, but Nat puts a hand on her arm, lightly, gives her a look. “I’ll be okay,” she says.

Adrianna looks back at her and something passes between them. Some kind of unspoken girl code, and Adrianna must get the message, because she sighs and turns to leave. “Fine,” she says, “but text me as soon as you’re done.”

And then she’s gone, leaving me and Nat alone. Nat’s watching me with eyes that are unfriendly and cold, so different than how she was even just a couple of days ago.

“Hey,” I say, wishing I could shake the feeling that this is a waste of time, that she’s just too mad for me to reach her.

“Just say what you need to say.” She shifts her purse on her shoulder and looks at me like she wishes I would just leave her alone.

“I can’t stand the thought that you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you.” But now her eyes drop to the floor and she can’t even look at me.

“What I did was wrong,” I say. “I’m sorry. I’ll do anything to make it up to you.”

Nat shakes her head. “There’s nothing you can do.”

“It just happened,” I say, hearing the slight desperation in my voice. “After your mom said all of those things—“

Now Natalia’s eyes narrow and her jaw sets. “Don’t blame this on my mom.

Don’t even
talk
about my mom. She tried to protect me from you. And she was right.”

She shakes her head, sighs. “Look, Cam, I don’t want to argue about that stuff. It’s in the past.”

“Okay.” I want to take her hand. I want to tell her I love. But I can tell nothing will make a difference. She’s decided I really am the bad guy her mother thinks I am. “I just—I just want you to know that I’ll always be here if you need me, Natalia.”

She nods but still can’t meet my gaze. “I need to get to class.”

“Sure. Okay.”

Nat turns and walks away and I stand there for a long time after she’s gone.

Minutes must pass by and I can’t stop thinking about what else I could have said, how I could have convinced her, what I could have done to make it come out differently.

“Dude, you really screwed up,” someone says, startling me out of my thoughts. I turn around and Brody’s standing there, looking at me with derision.

“Yeah, I did,” I say, not even caring that it’s Brody I’m admitting this to. “If you came over to rub it in my face, you don’t have to waste your time. I already feel like shit.”

He scratches his jaw. “I didn’t come to rub it in your face. I came to tell you to stay away from Kaci.”

I shake my head. “Don’t worry about it,” I say. “That’s over.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better? She likes you and you just use her and throw her away when it suits you?”

“I didn’t use her.” I start walking, hoping Brody will just move on but he follows right beside me. “You should stay out of it,” I tell him. “Why don’t you stick to stealing my girlfriend? You’re good at that.”

Brody shakes his head. “You just don’t get it, do you Cam? Yeah, I am good at it. Because I care about her and I don’t just think about myself constantly like you do.

You should stay away from Nat, she’ll be much happier. Not to mention safer.”

I want to say something back. Something that hurts him. Something about the fact that deep down Nat will always want me, that he could never know what we’ve gone through together, that he could never understand how connected the two of us are.

But nothing comes out of my mouth, maybe because I know that in a way he’s right. Natalia
is
better off without me. I
did
hurt her. And maybe if I’m not with her anymore, Raine will finally leave her alone and Natalia can have a little bit of a life again.

“Whatever,” I say. “Just take care of her.”

I don’t wait for his response, just push past him and head down the hall to homeroom.

***

Over the next few days, I do my best to try and get back to living my life. I’m somehow able to keep up with my schoolwork, to do my best at practice, to make sure my mom’s getting to work on time.

It’s all fake, of course. I’m miserable.

I miss Nat all the time, and I’m still exhausted from whatever it is that Raine did to me in the woods. But I drink lots of coffee and put a smile on my face, pretend to laugh at Aiden’s crazy jokes, even work with Brody on some new plays for the team.

Somehow I make it through the week, and when Friday afternoon rolls around I’m looking forward to going home and crashing. The thought of filling all those empty hours on Saturday and Sunday is intimidating, and I wonder if there’s any way I can just sleep through the whole damn weekend. That way I won’t have to wonder what Natalia’s doing, won’t have to drive myself crazy imagining her with Brody.

“You coming to my place tonight?” Lancaster asks as practice ends.

I pull off my helmet, shaking the sweat out of my hair. Today was a light day because there’s no game this weekend. Still, I’m tired. “Nah, man. I can’t make it.”

“Dude,” Lancaster says. “It’s going to be fucking epic.”

He loves saying that. Everything is epic with him. Eating a burger is epic.

Drinking a glass of water is epic. It makes it less believable when he tries to pump up his party.

“I’m sure it’s going to be great,” I say, “but tonight’s no good for me.”

He stares at me. “Is it because of what happened with me and your boy Aiden?

Because that shit’s over.”

“I know.”

“So what’s the problem?”

I just want to get out of here. “Maybe I’ll swing by.” Not.

He grins. “Sweet.”

I change into my street clothes and give Brody a nod when he says goodbye to me as I leave. Inside, my hate and jealousy burns white hot but I’m being a good little soldier.

When I get home, the house is quiet and I settle into the couch. The TV is on some stupid cooking show but I don’t even care because I’m not really watching it. I start to drift off, but I’m still thinking about Natalia.

Why don’t I just call her? Text her?

She told you it’s over and you need to respect that.

Somehow I start to fall asleep. The darkness comes, and with it, the dreams.

Natalia’s in trouble. She’s in that field again. The one with all the butterflies.

Only now it’s turning to night and the butterflies are turning black. She’s scared. She’s calling out to me, screaming my name. But I can’t speak. I can only watch as she wanders through the field.

And then there’s a phone ringing.

I realize I’m dreaming and startle awake. My new cell phone is buzzing and I see Aiden’s number.

The house is dark and it’s night outside. I’ve been asleep for a few hours, apparently.

“Hey,” I say blearily into the phone.

Aiden’s voice is full of hyper energy. “Cam, bro--you should come down here.”

“Where are you?”

“Lancaster’s party.” He lowers his voice. “Natalia’s here.”

I sit up. “She is?”

“She’s with Brody.”

I slump, remembering my pledge to respect her wishes. “Yeah, well. That’s her choice.”

“Okay. Just thought I’d let you know, man.”

We get off the phone and I sit there, thinking that I have to find some way to let it go. I’ve been doing okay so far. Actually, that’s not true. I’m doing fucking terrible. I can’t get her out of my mind.

My mom’s words keep echo in my head.
Fight for her.

I can’t give up yet. She needs me and I need her and I’ll do whatever it takes to win her back. I head upstairs to change. I’m going to Lancaster’s party.

Chapter Five

Natalia

If it weren’t for the plan to get Raine’s necklace, I would never have come to this party in the first place. I hate parties, especially parties like this one, which are thrown for no reason other than to give everyone a chance to get drunk and act like idiots.

“You ready?” Brody asks as he parks his car on the street in front of Lancaster’s house.

“You’re sure she’s here?” I ask. Now that we’re here, that this is really happening, I’m hoping maybe Raine didn’t show up. That way I can just go home, get into my pajamas, and watch something on Netflix.

“Raine? Are you kidding? She lives for this shit, she’s been talking about it all week.”

I nod, then press my face up to the glass of the car window. Lancaster has a nice house. It’s a big white colonial, with a huge bay window in front, and a winding cobblestone driveway. I wonder what his parents do to be able to afford a house like this.

I wonder if they know their son is kind of a tool. Probably not. They’re probably tools themselves.

Brody gets out of the car and walks around the back, then opens my door for me.

We walk up the driveway together, and the heel of my shoe gets caught in one of the stones of Lancaster’s driveway. I almost go tumbling down but Brody grabs my hand, steadying me.

“Stupid shoes,” I mumble. “I knew I shouldn’t have worn them.” My mom thinks I’m out at a movie with Adrianna, which meant I had to wear something that could double as an outfit for a movie or a party. I compromised by wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a chestnut-colored sweater that hits just below my hips. I tucked the jeans into a pair of soft brown boots, but they have a heel, and they’re hard to walk in. Not that it really matters what I’m wearing. But part of me wanted to make sure I looked good, just in case Cam was here. Which is ridiculous and pathetic, I know. I don’t want him back –

I just want him to realize what he’s missing.

“You look beautiful,” Brody says, and squeezes my hand.

“Yo!” Aiden says when we get into the house. He’s standing right in the hallway, wearing a Hawaiian lei around his neck, which is weird, because it’s not a Hawaiian-themed party. He looks a little uncomfortable. He’s probably worried that since I’m here with Brody, being nice to us would be kind of like betraying Cam.

“Hey, Aiden,” I say. I try to give him a friendly smile, but it feels forced. It has nothing to do with Aiden of course – I’m just tense.

“You guys want something to drink?” Aiden asks.

“Beer,” I say immediately. Not that I’m going to drink it. I’m going to need all my senses at full strength if I’m going to be able to get Raine’s necklace. But I ask for a beer because I don’t want anyone to notice that I’m not drinking. It’s been my experience that if you’re at a party and you don’t have alcohol in your hand, everyone keeps asking you why, and/or trying to get you to drink and loosen up. Annoying.

“Just water for me,” Brody says. “I’m driving.”

Aiden goes to get the drinks. There’s music playing from somewhere in the house, but it’s not too loud here in the living room, just a dull beat that vibrates the floor but doesn’t make it hard to talk.

“So what’s the plan, Stan?” I joke, trying to make light of the situation.

“Do you see her anywhere?” Brody asks, scanning the crowd of people loosely packed into Lancaster’s huge living room.

I look around, shaking my head. There are a ton of people from school here, but I don’t see Raine or the Triad anywhere. And then I hear her.

“Excuse me, boyyyyysss!” she yells, pushing through the crowd. She’s dancing, gyrating her hips to the beat of the music that’s pulsating from the other room. “Coming throuuugh!”

She’s dressed in skintight black pants, black high heels, and a silky black shirt that ties around her neck. The shirt is sleeveless and backless, and her skin sparkles under the overhead lights. Her long blonde hair falls in loose waves over her shoulders.

Around her neck, her butterfly necklace glows.

Practically all the guys in the room are staring at her, along with most of the girls.

The guys want to have sex with her, the girls want to
be
her. Even without anyone knowing the full extent of her power, she has a magnetism that’s unmistakable. She slides through the crowd, Teri and Becca trailing behind her.

They flop onto a couch over by the window, and then huddle together, talking and giggling. Raine’s sipping a drink and she bites on the tip of a curly yellow straw as she surveys the crowd.

“Jesus,” I say. Now that I’m here, that I’m seeing her, that things might actually start to happen, I’m afraid.

Brody squeezes my hand again. “You’re going to be fine,” he says.

I start to panic a little, that familiar tight feeling in my chest getting worse as I force myself to try and take slow deep breaths.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Brody says, but I shake my head.

“Yes, I do,” I tell him. “I just need to figure out how to get her alone.”