Talisman (35 page)

Suddenly I jumped, startled by the sound of a toilet flushing.  One of the doors flew open.  Haley Hicks bolted out of
a stall, avoiding any eye contact with me.  She hurried to the sink, washed & dried her hands, and then quickly blew past me.  She opened the door and paused, just long enough to turn back and shoot me a “you’re
so
weird” look.

I thought I was alone in here.
 
Oh well…That’ll be a good one to pass around
.

I walked over to a mirror hanging
above one of the sinks. 
There’s that touch your nose thing
.  Focusing on the center of my face as I looked at my reflection, I lifted my right hand swiftly, and with accurate precision, it landed perfectly on the tip of my nose.  I tried my other hand.  Without fail, it did the same.  My hand-eye coordination seemed fine.

I shrugged my shoulders as I reached for the soap.
I made a mental note as I stood there washing my hands. 
Drunk, unlikely — Crazy, probably
.

I gave Katie’s work a quick check in the mirror.  Ev
erything still looked perfectly intact, so there wasn’t any need to freshen up a thing.  I started to grab my purse from the ledge under the mirror when I noticed my vision blurring.  I wiped my eyes carefully and checked my reflection again.  As I gazed into the mirror, an image of a woman began to emerge, but to my astonishment — it
wasn’t
me.
It was the kind, old face of Beatrix Sutherland
.

Mystified, my fingertips
traced every line on her face.  She was smiling and as always, her eyes were haphazardly shifting around without any guidance.  My fingers circled her chestnut brown eyes.  Several strands of her silvery hair had fallen onto her forehead.  I reached for the stragglers in an attempt to brush them back into place.  Then, from out of nowhere, a third-eye
“popped out”
and revealed itself abruptly —
smack dab in the middle of her forehead!
   It was a blazing gold color, as intense as her little topaz, and appeared just as glassy.  It certainly wasn’t like her other two eyes.  This one was contracting with the light and seemed to be focusing on me, following my every movement.  This eye wasn’t
blind
at all!

Aghast from the startling sight, I accide
ntally stumbled backward and crashed into the stalls.  The vision of Beatrix Sutherland started to fade, and by the time I ran back to the mirror, it had disappeared. 
My image
was the only thing left in its reflection.  I grabbed a hold of the wall-hung sink as I slid down to the ground, tears welling in my eyes.

“
WHAT’S HAPPENING TO ME?
” I cried out fearfully. 
Am I crazy?  Do I have some sort of freakin’ chemical imbalance?
 
If that’s the case, there’ll be no college for me.  The only institution I’ll be attending won’t be one of “higher learning”!
  My mind scrambled for any traces of mental illness in our family.

I jumped at the
creaking sound of the bathroom door opening.  Some girls were wandering in giggling, so I promptly sprang up, dabbed my eyes with a tissue, grabbed my clutch, and then rushed out into the hall.

I wandered
sluggishly back to the gym.  The janitorial closet door opened and two adults emerged, adjusting their clothes.  I thought they were teachers, but I didn’t even pause for a second to see exactly who they were.  I couldn’t have cared less. 
Why should I question the crazy acts of two random people, especially when my own “sanity” is in doubt?

I pushed my way throug
h the huddled mass of students gathered around a stage sitting in front of the dance floor.  Mr. Harless was preparing to announce the Homecoming King.

I wonder who “that” will
be
…

I made my way over to
the punch bowl to grab a drink (which I downed in one gulp).  Couples began to swarm the refreshment table, so I scanned the gym for a place to sit.  I just wanted to be left alone — not to be bothered by anyone, anything, or any
vision
.

As I maneuvered through the sea of tables, I
spotted Kara Leighton standing beside our principal on the stage.  Mr. Harless began to announce, “This year’s Homecoming King is…none other than our own Golden Knights quarterback, Mike Riverside.”

A ton of cheers erupted and a thunderous roar of claps filled the gymnasium.
 
Surprise, surprise
, I thought.  Mike hopped up on the stage.  He smiled, but oddly, he didn’t look too eager to get his crown. 
What gives?
  He just stood there scanning the crowd, not paying a bit of attention to Kara.

“Now,” Mr. Harless added,
“It’s time for our queen and her newly crowned king to lead us off with a dance to a song by
The Righteous Brothers
, which has been played for this very occasion, every year since I was a senior here in 1965.”

Kara
had to practically drag Mike out to the middle of the dance floor.  The lights dimmed and a single spotlight now illuminated the couple.  When the music began, she threw her arms around him and reluctantly, he shuffled her across the floor.  He may not have been in the mood for dancing, but by her suggestive movements,
she was
(and most assuredly, “something else”).

I
instantly thought about Chloe. 
She’ll be pissed when she finds out about this
.  My grin flattened as I watched her hands rub all over Mike.  My thoughts turned to Ty. 
For her to technically be his “girlfriend” or whatever, she sure is making a spectacle of herself.
  I looked around the gym.
By the way where is
…

“You were right,” a
familiar voice called out from behind me.

I turned around thinking,
Speak of the devil
…

“No one could ever
miss you
,” Ty said in a soft, deep voice that tingled more than my ears.

Seeing him standing there, I felt like I was back in my room looking at my own reflection for
the first time, only this sight was
way better
.  “Handsome” didn’t do him justice, not the way he looked standing there in a tuxedo that draped his broad chest like a taut glove. My gaze fell on his piercing blue eyes.  Stars couldn’t match the glow in them. His normally tussled hair was perfectly gelled into place, and his face was so radiantly smooth and flawless, nothing remotely like earlier, when it was apparent that he’d forgotten to shave.  I had an overwhelming urge to rush over to stroke my hand along every curve of it too. Right now, any care or crazy worry I’d had over the past few days had completely disappeared.  I thought,
A sight this fine can’t be real
, and I prayed it wasn’t a dream.

I blushed when I realized how long I’d been staring at him (and hoped my mouth wasn’t open).  Ty strolled over and took my hand.  He
glanced down at my wrist.

“Was your
date
too cheap for a corsage?” Ty asked.  Any nervousness I’d felt when he touched my hand subsided after hearing his joke.

“I told you…H
e’s
not
my ‘date’.”  I nodded over to the dance floor.  “
Her Highness
seems to be having a good time,” I noted uncomfortably.

I turned back to see him removing his boutonnière from his lapel.  He moved closer and tenderly swept a few strands of my golden locks behind my ear as he placed the
delicate red rose in my hair.

“
Well
…She’s not
my
queen
,” Ty whispered softly as the tips of his fingers lightly grazed my neck.  He found my hand and gave it a gentle tug as he motioned to me with his eyes.  “
Come on
…I’m here to collect on that dance.”

Needless to say —
I was floored
.

Ty laid my clutch on a nearby table and started leading me towards the dance floor.  I couldn’t stop trembling, not while he was stroking my hand tenderly as we
winded through the maze of tables and chairs.  My heart was pounding through my chest.  Mike and Kara were still the only ones out there.  We’d be the first ones to join them.  Hand in hand, we strode onto the floor with the chorus of the melody drifting from the speakers all around us.

As he led me out to the center of the dance floor, he whispered, “Oh, there was something I forgot to tell you about Bea.  Something some people might be
surprised
to know…”

As “in the moment” as what I was, I found myself intrigued by what he was about to
reveal. 
What could it be?
  I thought intensely.

“What’s that?” I asked.

Ty gave my wrist a quick and guided jerk as he pulled me to his chest.  “She loves to give guys
dancing lessons
,” he revealed and started leading me around the floor.  Instantly, I felt a rush of uncontrollable sensual energy as my body swayed with his to the music.

“Ms. Sutherland’s a good teacher,” I whispered back to him.  She really was.  He had all the grace of a professional dancer and the moves, too.

“I think she misses dancing.  So, some of the guys at the Helping Hands center
oblige
her.”  His smile grew wider.  “I’ll tell you what though…It’s really helped my game.”

“How’s that exactly?” I whispered.

“It’s improved my
dexterity
,” he grinned and swiftly extended his arm to fling me out to the side and then twirled me back into his chest.  The next thing I knew, Ty was lowering me into a long, sultry dip.

My head rolled back as my body lay suspended in his robust arms.  If this was a dream, I didn’t want to wake up.  The twinkling lights reflecting off the disco ball above us captivated me.  As I watched the light bounce off its
tiny mirrors, I sensed the music fading.  I found myself mesmerized by the mirrored sphere, helplessly fixated on it and drawn in by its brilliance.  The light started to become more intense, so brilliant I could hardly look at it directly.  I couldn’t even make out its shape anymore.  My eyes squinted, trying to regain their focus.  It appeared to have shifted from a sparkly ball into a long rod of some sort.

Whatever it was that now hung above me, it radiated a
scintillating light with an intensity I’d never witnessed before.  Now, it seemed to be hovering only a few feet above me.  I felt myself wanting to touch it —
needing to possess it
— in some way.  Impulsively, I stretched my hand closer to the gleaming object, desperately trying to reach it.  Before I could take hold of it, something suddenly halted my hand.  I looked over to see what appeared to be a man’s hand holding my wrist.  There was a shiny band of hammered sliver on one of his fingers that held a purple crystal in its center.  The gemstone on the ring was shining almost as vibrantly as the object above us.  Straightaway, I felt my dangling body being jerked up from its current horizontal position.  There, standing in front of me now and holding me in his arms was none other than mister beautiful stranger himself,
Tanner Grey
.

The light above us illuminated
the professor’s gorgeous face like an angel.  Awestruck, I looked deep into his eyes, his dazzling
amethyst-hued eyes
.  My pulse quickened as my hand softly trailed his heavenly features.  I caressed his chiseled jaw and then guided my fingers down to his chin with a purposeful sweep.  His fierce grip tightened as he pulled me even closer to him.  Gently, I brushed my fingertips over his perfect mouth, now feeling fully aroused and unshakably riveted.  Both our lips lingered for a moment, but before they could even touch, I spotted something on my fingers, something that appeared to be bright red and running down it.  Quickly, I pulled my hand back.  It was cascading down my arm, and it was blood —
my blood
.

Puzzled
, I jerked away to get a closer look at my hand.  Now there was
nothing there
.  Once the loud music had alerted my ears, I realized I was back in the gym, standing in middle of the dance floor, and
not
dancing with Professor Tanner Grey.

“Shiloh, what’s
wrong?
” Ty asked, standing there with a clueless look shadowing his handsome face.

I felt like I’d be
en woken from a dream with an ice-cold bucket of water.  My body trembled as I looked all around.  Ty appeared almost as confused as I was.  I couldn’t look him in the eyes, so I glanced up at he ceiling.  I noticed the disco ball was back to its spherical shape. 
The vision seemed so real
.  Instantly, I felt trapped and couldn’t catch my breath, like I was being smothered by the hordes of other couples now dancing all around us.