The Monster Within (23 page)

Ethan came out of the kitchen and looked back and forth between Gloria and me. “Uh oh, looks like I walked into some girl talk.”

“Don’t worry,” Gloria said. “Samantha is a lady. She doesn’t kiss and tell. Your other school friends are a different story, though. They had plenty to say about that kiss.”

Ethan blushed. If it were his guy friends who’d said it, he’d be laughing and high-fiving. But coming from Gloria, it was totally embarrassing.

I took his hand, and we walked out to the car. “Let’s go somewhere where we can look at the stars for a while, okay?”

“You sure? It’s getting late. Don’t you have homework or something?” He opened my door for me.

“I don’t care. I want to be with you.” I sounded needy again, but I
did
need him. I needed to savor every moment I had with him because I wasn’t sure how many more there would be.

“Okay.” He walked around to his side and got in. “Mountain view or open field?”

“Doesn’t matter. You pick.”

He drove us back to the spot overlooking the river—the spot we’d stopped at the other night. It was perfect. Just big enough for the two of us. We reclined our seats and opened the moon roof.

“It’s beautiful,” I said, looking up at the stars.

“You’re beautiful.” He rolled over onto his side so he was facing me. “But there’s one problem with this arrangement.”

“What’s that?” I mimicked his sideways position.

He patted the center console between us. “I can’t get to you.”

“I have an idea. Follow me.” I got out of the car and climbed onto the hood, leaning my head against the windshield. Ethan did the same. My hair got tangled in the windshield wiper. “Ow. Okay, maybe I didn’t think this through.”

“Here.” Ethan untangled my hair and slipped his arm around my shoulders. “Now you can lie on me instead.”

I stared into his eyes. His beautiful blue eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He kissed me, and I pulled him closer. I wanted to feel every inch of his body against mine. His warmth, his love. I kissed him more passionately as the seconds passed. I could feel hot tears welling up in my eyes. I wanted to stay with Ethan forever. That had been the plan. My cancer had come between us, and he’d found a way around it. I wasn’t sure what was killing him now, but I owed it to him to find a way to bring him back.

Ethan pulled away and stared at me. “You’re crying.” He kissed my tear-stained cheeks. “Talk to me, Sam. What’s upsetting you?”

“I wish we could be together like this all the time. Now, tomorrow, thirty years from now.”

He pulled me closer, wrapping me tightly in his arms. “We can be.” He kissed the top of my head, and I breathed in his scent. “We will be.”

My insides ached at his words. He didn’t even know he was dying. Maybe that was a good thing, because knowing was killing me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

T
HE
next morning, I sat in Mr. Ryan’s class, staring out the window, thinking about Ethan. I’d tried to convince him to ditch school with me. I wanted to go for a long drive, like we used to. I wanted to spend the day soaking him up. But Ethan was Mr. Rational. He said we’d already missed the beginning of the school year, and there was no reason to get even further behind. I tried everything to get him to change his mind, but in the end, we just wound up being late for school.

Now here I was, unable to even pretend I was paying attention to Mr. Ryan or
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
. I thought about texting Ethan to meet me in the bathroom, but every time I reached for my bag, Shannon would turn around and watch me like a hawk. I knew she wouldn’t hesitate to get me in trouble with Mr. Ryan. I didn’t really care if I got in trouble, but I didn’t want to make Ethan’s last days—however many were left—anything but good.

“Ms. Smith?”

“Huh?” I turned to the front of the room where Mr. Ryan was sitting on the edge of the desk.

“I asked if you could explain the passage I just read.”

He’d read something aloud? “Um, sorry, but I’m not sure.”

Mr. Ryan sighed. “I’m certain you won’t find any answers out that window, Ms. Smith. And I can tell you for a fact that tomorrow’s test will count for twenty percent of the semester grade.”

The end of the semester was thirteen weeks away. Who worried about final grades this early in the year? I nodded and pretended to show interest in the rest of the class.

By the time I got to Sculpture, I only had one thing on my mind—finding out how Ethan had brought me back. Nora had asked me not to ask him, but maybe if I indirectly dropped a few questions I could get some clue.

Ethan was sitting with Beth when I walked into class. I wanted to talk to him right away, but Ms. Matthews assigned Ethan to first shift on the pottery wheel. He smiled at me and got a blob of clay for his project.

“So,” Beth said, sketching her design. “I was at the diner yesterday.”

“Yeah, I know.” I took out my sketchbook and pencil, pretending to work but really watching Ethan.

“It’s funny, but I didn’t see you there. You waitress right after school, don’t you?”

“Yeah, five days a week. Well, I work on weekends, too, but I go in earlier.”

Ethan dropped a large chunk of clay on the floor and was left with a tiny misshapen thing on the wheel. I heard him tell Ms. Matthews that he was working on an abstract piece about minimalism. She totally bought it.

“That’s what I thought.” Beth turned her sketchbook upside down and continued with the pattern she was drawing. “So I was surprised that I didn’t see you. I thought you could be my waitress. I was even prepared to leave you an insanely large tip.”

“Oh, well, that was sweet of you. I’m sure Gloria appreciated the tip.”

“She’s your boss, right?”

I wished I could find a way out of this conversation. Being cornered and questioned by Beth was not good. “Yeah. You know, I just remembered I forgot my—”

“She was running all over the place yesterday. It was like she was waiting on all the tables by herself.”

Because she was. “I’ll be back in a minute.” I got up and walked to the kiln. I fished through the finished projects and found mine. A small vase with uneven lines running around it. It looked hideous, and I was sure it would get me an F, but I loved it. The lines were made with Ethan’s and my hands when he laced his fingers through mine.

“You should keep your fingers together if you want a smoother end product,” Ms. Matthews said, walking up behind me.

“Actually, it’s exactly what I was going for.”

“Really?” She eyed me, waiting for an explanation.

I thought of Ethan’s minimalism excuse when he dropped his clay. “Yeah, I was going for the skewed perception of beauty in today’s society.” I wasn’t sure where I’d pulled that from, but Ethan walked over and nodded.

“I totally see that. Nice work, Sam.”

That was all it took. Ms. Matthews smiled. “Well done, Sam.”

When she walked away, I turned to Ethan. “I didn’t think I could pull that off.”

“There’s nothing to it. Pretend everything you do is entirely on purpose.”

My mind was swimming with thoughts. How could I turn this conversation into a casual inquiry about my existence? This was so much harder than I thought it would be.

“It’s pretty cool how you can bring something to life, isn’t it?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You can hardly call making a clay pot bringing something to life.”

This wasn’t going well. “I don’t know. It starts out as a lump of clay. It’s nothing. Lifeless. And then you mold it and turn it into something that’s full of life.”

“Have you been eating the school meatloaf or something? You’re acting weird.”

I sighed. It looked like Nora was going to get her way. I couldn’t figure out how to get information out of Ethan without sounding like a total nutcase. If only Ethan knew Nora was a witch. Then asking about what he’d done to bring me back might not seem so strange. Both were supernatural, right?

“Hey.” I put my hand on his forearm for no other reason than I wanted to touch him. I was trying to memorize everything about him. His smell, the feel of his skin, the shape of his face. Every detail. “I wanted to let you know I worked things out with Nora.”

“Nora?”

“Yeah, that girl I told you about. The one from the diner.”

He wrinkled his forehead. “Is she the one who skipped out on her bill?”

“That’s her, but it was a misunderstanding. She paid the bill, and she’s been really nice to me ever since. We’ve even talked about hanging out sometime.”

“That’s great. I’m glad you’re making friends. You should invite Beth along, too. She really likes you.”

Too bad Beth was too perceptive for her own good—and
my
own good.

“Nora’s kind of weird around people she’s never met. She’s home-schooled.” I didn’t know what made me say that, but it seemed like it could be true. She didn’t go to our school, so either she attended some fancy private school, which I doubted, or she was home-schooled.

“That’s got to get lonely.” Ethan squeezed my hand.

“I think that’s why she comes to the diner every day. To be around people.”

“But you said she’s shy around new people.”

“She is. That’s why I think it’s good that she’s trying to be more social. She talks to me every time she’s there.”

Ethan gave me a puzzled look. “Did you say she comes to the diner every day?”

“Uh-huh.”

“How have I never seen her?”

“You work in the kitchen now. You’re not on the floor with the customers.” I shrugged. “I can introduce you today if you’d like.”

“Sure. Call me out from the kitchen when she gets there. I’d like to meet her.”

I debated telling him right then that she was a witch, but when I looked up, Beth was staring at us. It probably wasn’t a good idea to mention the witch thing with her trying to listen in.

Beth didn’t say anything to me for the rest of the class, but near the end of lunch, she finally said, “I was thinking of stopping by the diner tonight.”

“Oh, yeah?” I tried to act casual, but I didn’t want Beth around when I was talking to Nora.

“Do you mind?” She eyed me over her chocolate milk.

“Not at all. I’ll buy you a piece of Gloria’s famous peach pie.”

“I don’t eat peaches, but thanks for the offer.”

I nodded, trying to be polite. I was probably being paranoid, but Beth made me jumpy. “Well, then you can choose the dessert.”

“Sounds good.” She got up to throw her lunch away, and I was relieved to be rid of her.

In my afternoon classes, I realized I hadn’t had an attack in over a day, and I hadn’t had a vision about Rebecca either. Draining the life and power from a witch was sustaining me so much better than I could’ve hoped. But I also noticed the feeling of bugs crawling under my skin had completely faded. Was that a sign? Was Rebecca’s magic wearing off?

I made sure no one was watching, and I texted Nora.

Magic is gone. Think I might have another attack later today
.

I waited for what seemed like an eternity. Where was Nora? I watched the clock on the wall tick the seconds away. How could time seem so slow and so fast at the same time? Waiting for Nora to respond was taking an eternity, but knowing Ethan was dying made each passing second fly by.

Finally my phone vibrated in my hand.

I’m on it
.

I breathed easier knowing Nora was taking care of things. I wondered who the next witch would be, and I couldn’t help wondering if Shannon was on Nora’s list.

We got to the diner a few minutes late thanks to a bus breaking down in front of us. Gloria was making a fresh pot of coffee when I stuffed my purse behind the counter and reached for my apron.

“You’d think a school that operated on bells would let the students out on time,” she said. As nice as Gloria was to Ethan and me, she could really attack people she didn’t know. She’d even fired the new dishwasher after one morning.

“They did. There was an accident, and we got stuck behind it. What do you need me to do? Take over your tables? Finish the coffee? You name it, I’ll do it.”

She turned around and stared at me. “Are you feeling okay? You’re all fired up.”

I realized my pulse was racing. What was that about? “I’m fine. I guess I had too much soda at lunch.”

“Caffeine. It’s wonderful in an exhausting, exhilarating way. You know what I mean?”

I gave a nervous laugh. “Yeah.”

I hoped Nora would come in soon. My body was behaving strangely, and I couldn’t help thinking it was some sort of withdrawal, maybe from the magic.

I zipped around the diner, handling my tables and Gloria’s. After a while, she sat down and let me have at it. I didn’t mind. I couldn’t stand still. Nora didn’t show up until seven.

“What took you so long?” I asked, the second she sat down.

“I had a little trouble with your next…” She paused as the door opened behind her. “Coffee, please,” she said, turning over an empty cup on the counter.

Beth walked in and came right up to the counter. “Hey, Sam.”

“Hi.” I poured Nora a cup of coffee and held the pot up to Beth. “Want some?”

“No, thanks. I’ll take a ginger ale.”

“Sure.”

Nora kept her eyes on her coffee, but Beth turned to her and stuck out her hand. “Hi, I’m Beth. You must be Sam’s friend Nora, right?”

Nora’s eyes widened. I knew Beth had been eavesdropping in Sculpture. Why did she have to be so nosy? I opened my mouth to say something, but Nora smiled at Beth.

“That’s right, and you are?”

“Beth. I go to school with Sam and Ethan. You must be home-schooled. I haven’t seen you around.”

I saw Nora smirk, but Beth didn’t seem to notice. Was it possible she had actually missed something for once? She might lose her reputation as Little Miss Observant.

“I do study at home, so yes, I guess you could say I’m home-schooled.”

I smiled. If only Beth knew what Nora studied. Witchcraft wasn’t exactly on the curriculum at our school.

“How long have you known Sam?” Beth continued with her line of questioning.

I wondered how long Nora would let her go on before she put a silencing spell on her. Was there even such a thing?