Velvet (20 page)

I grimaced. “They got you, too?”

She nodded sadly.

“Mystic, you have got to buy this.”

I snorted at Trish. “No way.”

Meghan looked at me like I simply didn’t understand what was going on. “Did you look in the mirror?”

“Yes, but—look, I wouldn’t ever wear this!” I protested. “Besides, there’s no way I can afford it.”

Trish looked at the tag. “You’re in luck, Mystic; it’s fifty percent off!”

“That’s still fifty percent I don’t have.”

“Fifty percent that works
miracles
,” Meghan countered. She grinned suddenly. “Besides, I bet Adrian would reimburse you. In more ways than one.”

I turned bright red. “Guys, I can’t spend money on myself at Christmas! I barely have enough to buy presents for my family.”

Trish frowned at me and then nodded. “All right, all right.”

I eyed her suspiciously, but she just looked defeated. A little too defeated. I headed back into the dressing room, closed the door, and looked in the mirror one more time. It did look good. But they didn’t understand that Adrian and I weren’t really dating. And even if we were, we wouldn’t … do … what they thought we would do. He was a freaking
vampire
. How would that even work? I mean, I guess it would work like it would normally work but, just, no.

But it did look good.

I struck a few stupid “sexy” poses just for fun, then rolled my eyes at myself and took it off, putting my comfy, oversize blue sweater back on. When I opened the door, Trish and Meghan had their heads together, whispering intensely, but looked up when they heard me set the Green Thing on the return rack.

“Are we ready to go?”

“Actually, I wanted your opinion on something,” Meghan said, grabbing my arm. She pulled me over to a table that held half a dozen dismembered legs.

“Do you like the diamond pattern better, or the fishnet?”

“Uh…” I wasn’t an expert on hosiery. But the diamonds looked a little less hooker-y. “Diamonds.”

“Really? Because I also kinda like the rosettes.”

We stood there for another ten minutes talking over the specific details of each pattern until I was ready to pick up the mannequin thigh and slap Meghan in the face with it. Finally, the rest of the girls walked up to us.

“Okay,” Meghan chirped brightly. “Thanks for your help!”

“Which one are you going to get?”

“None of them. I still can’t decide.”

I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. I liked to browse as much as the next person, but I had my limits.

“Let’s go!” Trish said.

I was so eager to get out of there I didn’t realize, at first, that I had turned left when everyone else had, apparently, turned right. For a few seconds, I stopped dead, looking around in panic as I blocked the walkway. The mall was packed, and I took shelter by a kiosk to stay out of the flow of rabid Christmas shoppers, trying to spot Stephanie’s signature knit hat, but I was jostled roughly by a passing shopping bag.

“I’m so sorry,” the man said, grabbing my arm to steady me. “I was trying to avoid that lady with the stroller and I ran right into you. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said, backing away. He was cute, five o’clock shadow, nice jacket, shopping bag from an upscale store—and he set off my danger radar big-time.

“Oh,” he said, looking down, “you dropped your list.”

He reached down at the same time I did, and his hand brushed mine. I snatched the list of stores and stood, feeling ridiculously creeped out. Which was stupid, because nothing about this guy was overtly creepy. He was probably just a normal Christmas shopper trying to be polite and apologize for bumping into me. Adrian was getting in my head too much. And despite him saying I didn’t have to be scared of all men, I
was
scared of all men. Which was bullshit.

“Thanks,” I said, smiling politely. I was about to open my mouth to say more when right behind me, I heard someone exclaim, “Caitlin! Is that you?”

I turned, and there in all her petite, chic glory, was Mariana.

“It
is
you!” she exclaimed, taking my arm and leading me away from the shopper man. Her smile was tight, her words were rehearsed. She looked so gargantuanly out of place, stuck in among the humans. As soon as we were out of earshot of the man—who was staring after me strangely—Mariana whispered, “We discussed your trip and decided I should come along just in case.”

I stared at her. “Was that
him
?”

Mariana shrugged, eyes constantly scanning the crowd around us. “I cannot tell. The number of people makes it impossible to determine if anyone is a void.”

Another new term. Yay. “What’s a void?”

“A being who does not emit emotional energy. Vampires cannot sense one another, or demons, just as demons cannot sense us. Crowds muddle our perception, which is why we did not want you coming to a place as populated as a …
mall
.”

My apologies, oh great Vampire Lady, for wanting to get some Christmas shopping done, at Christmastime. What an absurd thing for me to do.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “If it
was
him, do I need to be worried?”

Mariana shrugged, which was not comforting. “I doubt he would try anything here, and I will be watching you for the remainder of your time. Just try not to draw attention to yourself.”

I suppressed a smart reply. Draw attention to myself? Right, I would definitely do that, because I’m a moron.

Mariana melted back into the crowd just as Trish finally wandered back to me, craning her neck at Mariana’s retreating figure. “Was that Adrian’s aunt back there?”

Unable to think of a quick lie, I said, “Yeah—just ran into her. Crazy.”

“A lot of people from all over Warren County come here. Though it would have been really funny if she’d seen you in Victoria’s Secret.”

She grinned at me while I shook my head—and then realized Mariana probably
had
seen me go into Victoria’s Secret. We caught up with the rest of the girls and Laura kept us moving with her notebook of tasks, getting us to the food court by one thirty. Just as I was about to take my first bite of pizza, I thought I saw a man looking at me. I peered closer and realized that he was actually waving at someone behind our table who was walking over with a tray of food. But I soon found three other guys I swore were eyeing me creepily. Swallowing, I looked over at Trish’s shopping bags.

“So what’d you get?” I asked to distract myself from my hyperawareness of
men, men, everywhere men!

She wrapped her tongue around a string of cheese hanging from her pizza. “I got my parents a record player because our old one broke, like, ten years ago, and my dad’s got a ton of stuff on vinyl. I got Paul a new case for his rifle, I got Mark a new dartboard, and I got Jimmy a flask with his name etched on it. They’re all in college,” Trish said when I looked at her quizzically. “Paul’s the oldest, he’s about to graduate, and Mark’s a junior. Jimmy’s a freshman and he’s getting married this summer. I told him he’s crazy, and he just smiles and says he is in love. Speaking of love, well, let’s just say I got Ben’s present at our first stop.”

Meghan and Stephanie made an “oooh” sound. I was confused.

“Wait, Ben? As in, our class Ben?”

“Yep. Finally got the guts to ask me out at the Halloween party.” Trish smiled happily.

I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. “The big guy that never talks in class?”

“That’s the one.”

I couldn’t believe she’d been dating somebody for close to a month and I hadn’t known. She’d never said a thing about it. I made a silent vow to get my head out of my butt and start paying better attention to the one person who’d gone out of her way to befriend me.

“Geez, well, congratulations! Sorry I’m a horrible person for not knowing that.”

She laughed and shrugged. “We’re not exactly licking each other’s faces off in public or anything. Anyway, what did you get?”

I shrugged unhappily. “I got Norah this old hardcover of
Black Beauty
because she’s into horses, I got my aunt a new iron because our old one is about to bite the dust, and I got my uncle a bunch of wool socks.” For some reason, no one thought that was a crazy gift idea.

“Yeah, my dad’s always running out of them.”

“When you’re outside working most of the day, they get worn out pretty quick,” Meghan agreed.

“They’re nice. Like, Scottish wool or something,” I mumbled. I still felt bad for getting him socks, but he said he needed them.

“What did you get Adrian?” Meghan asked.

I looked up sharply. “Shit,” I said, realizing that I’d completely forgotten him. “I totally didn’t get him anything.”

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Meghan flinch, like she’d just been kicked under the table.

Trish smiled at me innocently. “I’m sure he’ll just be happy to see you on Christmas. He seems like the selfless type.”

“Yeah,” I agreed warily. She was up to something.

“Is there anywhere else anyone wants to go?” Stephanie asked.

Laura shook her head. “I’m finished.”

I felt bad not getting something for Adrian, but I couldn’t think of anything last minute, and it seemed like everyone wanted to leave. Maybe I could scrounge something up in Stony Creek later.

We stood up and gathered our things before heading out to the Suburban. The sun had disappeared behind low clouds and it looked like it might start snowing again. We all crammed in, throwing our purchases wherever they fit.

“I can’t believe I forgot to get Adrian something,” I muttered to myself a few miles down the road. I thought I’d spoken quietly, but apparently Trish heard me.

“Well, Mystic, we thought that since you’re so poor and all this year, and Adrian’s so …
Adrian
, we’d buy his Christmas present for you.”

All the blood drained out of my face. “You didn’t.”

Trish grinned. “We did.” She looked incredibly proud of herself.

“
We?
” I asked in disbelief.

“Yep, all of us.”

I turned to Jenny. “Even you?”

She smiled a very small smile.

Meghan turned around from the front seat looking smug. “And we’re too far away to go back and return it, and it was clearance, so you
can’t
return it.”

I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing.

“You okay, Mystic?”

When I was sure I wouldn’t kill anybody, I opened my eyes. “Thank you, guys. I appreciate your … efforts … on my behalf.” Either they missed the sarcasm or they chose to ignore it.

“Don’t forget to tell Adrian we said ‘Merry Christmas.’”

I smiled tightly. “I’ll pass that along.” Over my dead body.

“Look, guys, it’s snowing again!” Stephanie exclaimed from the driver’s seat. They all turned to stare out the windows at the falling flakes, and I took the opportunity to sink into the cushions red-faced.

“Do you really not like it that much?” Jenny asked. We’d ended up sitting next to each other in the back.

“It’s not that,” I said, letting out a breath. “It’s just … we’re not…” I waved my hands in the air as if that could explain the thing that we weren’t.

Jenny nodded. “That’s okay.”

I smiled at her tiredly. “Thanks.”

My thoughts were drowned out by the sudden blast from the speakers and everyone besides me and Jenny burst into song as “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” played over the radio.

When we pulled up to Stephanie’s house, a familiar black truck was parked in the driveway.

Trish grinned. “Don’t forget to tell him to have a Merry Christmas.”

I flipped her a mostly friendly bird in reply, which she laughed at.

We piled out and Trish stuck the Victoria’s Secret bag in my hand. Everyone overeagerly said good-bye and watched me climb into the passenger seat of Adrian’s truck. I set my packages on the floor, the bright pink Victoria’s Secret logo screaming for attention. Adrian started the engine and backed out of the driveway, but glanced down occasionally at my feet.

“What’d you buy?” he said with the hint of a smile on his face.

I blushed. “Just some socks and an iron and a book.”

“I didn’t know Victoria’s Secret sold irons.”

I crossed my arms over my chest in a classic five-year-old move. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

To his credit, I think he tried his best to suppress a smile, but he didn’t quite succeed and it was enough to throw me over the edge.

“You wanna know what I got at Victoria’s Secret?” I asked, ripping at the bag. I pulled out the Green Thing and held it in his face. “This! I got
this
. No,
I
didn’t get this, they went behind my back and bought it for me! No!” I corrected myself again. “They bought it for
you
!”

“Caitlin,” Adrian said calmly, “I can’t see the road.”

I took the Green Thing out of his face and slumped in my seat, shell-shocked.

“I take it shopping was a bit stressful?”

I kept staring in horror at the road. “They wouldn’t stop talking about it. How am I supposed to answer those types of questions? You’re the hottest guy in Warren County and now they know I’m
not
sleeping with you. They’ve taken it upon themselves to get us laid.”

I heard something from my left and looked over. Adrian had one hand covering his mouth, trying not to laugh.

“You think this is funny?” I asked him in a low, dangerous voice.

He glanced over at me. “Cait, you gotta admit—”

“
I had to try this on
,” I said in the same low tone. “Do you know how hard it is to hook those tiny little infuriating hooks?” I didn’t wait for him to answer. “
Really
hard. And now they expect me to actually
wear
it. For. You.” He turned the corner into the ranch’s long driveway. “How am I going to get it into the house?” I whispered in horror.

“Look, I don’t care what you tell them. If it makes it easier, tell them that you wore it. Tell them that I liked it. Tell them whatever you want. In the meantime, you can put it in here.”

He parked and handed me a brown paper grocery bag. I stuffed the Green Thing in it and scrunched down the top so there was no chance of anyone looking inside.