Wingless Book Series (book 1) (3 page)

“
Hey there
Vanessa!” my mother exclaimed, as if she hadn’t seen her walk in.
She wiped her hands on a towel and hugged Vanessa weakly, like a
forced
I am
doing
this to be polite
sort of thing. Vanessa
patted her back and looked over at me.

“
Yeah hey Ness,” I said,
smirking.

She came and sat on a bar stool
next to me. “I didn’t know you were having dinner, I’m
sorry.”

“
No, I didn’t either, but my mom
is fine with it,” I said, getting up and grabbing a jacket from the
hook on the wall. We headed out the door, without saying goodbye. I
didn’t know if she cared- I believed that she did, but I just
didn’t care, it was dinner, simply that.

We headed down to the creek
in the woods behind my house- they were huge and went on for miles
in all directions. There were all sorts of fallen trees and big
stones to sit on. This was my place; this was my escape. We came
here all the time since we were little to talk, to discuss whatever
we wanted without an over stuffy audience. I sat down on a boulder,
pulling my feet up. I poked at my toes- I always loved
pretty
toenails, so I always made sure to
paint mine some wild color.

“
I hope the summer is amazing, I
really need some form of entertainment other than just the typical
stuff that goes on around here,” Nessa said, sitting as well. She
pulled a flask out of her pocket taking a swig and passing it to
me. I never asked her what it was. She always said she stole it
from her dad’s stash. It was nice to drink, it made things so much
mellower, your body just let loose and was calm and limp like a
noodle. I never got crazy drunk, I was always just super chatty.
Nessa would get into her thinking moments and sometimes she would
just leave and say she had places to get too.

The sun started to set as we
got a little more relaxed by the boulders, the water gurgled and
rushed ahead of us, birds chirped and the only visible source
of
light came from a couple of the houses
just beyond the woods. Nessa sat up, her hair strewn with leaves;
she blew lazily at her bangs.

“
I got to head out.” She got up,
waved, and walked out of the woods, stumbling over a log or two,
then vanished.

I leaned my head back against a
big tree and stared at the sky through the trees. Well, what I
could see of it. I liked the silence- I wasn’t in that much of a
rush to get home. Jumping up, I went farther down to the creek,
stepping carefully from one rock to another, the water splashing my
feet and flip flops. My hair whipped around me. I moved quicker
from one rock to another and then another, keeping up pace, my
jacket sliding off of my shoulders.

Suddenly, the rocks shifted
beneath me and I fell into the creek. My breath came quickly as the
cold water hit me- it wasn’t deep and I wasn’t drowning, I was just
losing my footing from the current.

“
Ugh!” I yelled out, trying to
grab at the roots of trees to catch myself.

All of a sudden a hand
grabbed my arm, yanking me roughly out of the water. I
had barely gotten my footing before being dragged
onto solid ground. I figured it was probably Gray being nosy as
usual and was going to boast about how he saved me from stupidity
or something.

I grabbed my flip flop, flipping
my hair back on my head as I stood up on wobbly legs. But it wasn’t
Gray; it was a guy that I had never seen before- his eyes dark, his
hair a mess. Now that I was taking all this in, I realized I had
seen him before, at school. I had run into him.

“
What are you doing taking a swim
in a creek at this hour?” he asked me, his brow down with a stern
look on his face. I couldn’t tell if he was mad or freaked
out.

“
I wasn’t
swimming; no one swims….I lost my footing,” I said, shoving my flip
flop back on my foot. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and just
stared at me, probably trying to figure out this whole situation. I
was starting to feel very
stupid.

“
Why would you be out here in the
woods alone?”

“
I always come out here,” I said,
staring off into the trees to make sure that if I needed to make a
mad dash when he attacked me, I had a logical way out. But at the
same time, he was the size of Gray and probably could outrun me in
seconds, so I was starting to feel rather doomed if this guy was
about to murder me and leave me scattered.

Odds were against me. And it
seemed like a crazy way to go: drunk in the woods not too far from
your home. I backed up slowly, feeling him stare at me.

“
What are you doing?” he asked me
with a puzzled look on his face.

I tensed up shrugging my
shoulders. “I am just hoping you aren’t going to kill me,” I
blurted out.

His face looked alarmed. His
eyebrows rose as he scratched his head, coming over to me. I
winced, hoping he wasn’t about to end everything. Instead, like
normal people, he extended his hand out to me. I shook it, the
tense feeling draining out of me.

“
I’m Ace, I just moved in, not
sure if you remember me from campus earlier today.” He kept shaking
my hand as he talked- I couldn’t tell if he was nervous or hoping I
wasn’t going to fall again.

I let go, walking back to my
boulder and sitting down with a thud. He stayed close by but didn’t
sit down. I looked at his clothes- all name brand. His jeans looked
brand new, very GQ, I thought. His shirt sort of tight, or maybe it
was just his body- he seemed to be severely muscular. I wasn’t sure
what his age was but he was buff. I chuckled in my head; this was
the kind of
buff
Vanessa drooled over.

You could see his pecks through
his shirt. His neck was thick and muscular, too. I wondered if he
was on steroids. He clearly took pride in himself, that was very
apparent, and that made me wonder why he’d wandered out into the
woods. God forbid he mess up his bright white sneakers.

“
Eve,” I muttered, introducing
myself.

“
Not trying to sound like a jerk
but are you drunk?” he asked bluntly.

“
I don’t think I’m drunk, I think
I’m clumsy. I really don’t fall down in creeks all the time.” I
laughed out loud, feeling like such an idiot at having this guy out
in the woods seeing me flailing like a half dead fish in the creek.
He probably thought I’d lost my mind.

“
I would like to think not. Just
glad you didn’t drown or anything.” He shrugged.

“
Yeah, I’m glad too,” I said,
trying to think of something else to say. I wasn’t the best at
awkward. I usually never got like this.

“
Well I’m sorry
to have almost, uh died, it won’t happen again, thank you.” I got
up to go. Pulling my jacket up, I headed out to the clearing to go
home. I must of missed the log that I usually stepped over,
however, because the next thing I knew, I was face down in the
leaves and twigs covered in more dirt.

Maybe I was drunk; I was starting
to wish Vanessa had clued me in on what she was stealing from her
dad, because I wasn’t feeling too good. I felt like I’d laid there
forever before he lifted me off the ground.

“
Do you need help getting home?”
he asked, holding on to my shoulder.

“
I don’t know, I’m a mess. My
parents are going to go through the roof.” I swatted at the leaves
stuck to my legs and wiped some of the dirt off my
jacket.

“
There’s no cleaning any of that
off of you,” he laughed, shaking his head.

I tried to fix my hair some and
unzipped my jacket--at least the undershirt wasn’t so
bad.

“
I think I’m good.” I started out
of the woods, he followed along beside me. “So Ace, is that really
your name?”

“
Yeah, that’s my name.”

“
How old are you?”

“
Twenty-two.”

“
Oh wow,” I
said, blushing. He was actually
a year
older then Gray.

“
Wow? How old are you?” he asked,
looking me up and down as if my age was written somewhere on my
body.

“
I’m eighteen,” I said, heading up
to my house. The lights were all off so I figured I probably would
be alright to make it to my room without my family knowing what was
going on.

“
Okay, I was hoping you weren’t,
like, fifteen drinking alone in the woods, then I might have to
tell your parents,” he laughed, looking up at my house and
surveying it. “Nice, I guess your parents are doing
well.”

“
I’m glad I look so young to you.
And yeah, they do well enough. Thanks for the help, goodnight.” I
ran up the stairs careful not to trip for a third time in his
presence. He nodded walking off.

Chapter 3

Headaches

The light was blinding when
I opened my eyes the next
morning. I threw
off my covers finding myself dressed in only
my underwear and bra. I probably passed out before I found
pajamas, I thought idly. The smell of food downstairs, the sound of
cheerful talking, my dad’s booming voice echoing the hall every few
seconds
carried up to me- this was my
typical morning.

As I gathered my clothes, my door
flew open. I screamed seeing Mark, my sister’s husband. He stared
long and hard before backing out the door.

“
I’m sorry Eve;
your mother told me to get you. Breakfast is done,” he yelled from
behind
the door, as if I couldn’t hear
him. I threw on my robe before opening the door.

“
Thank you Mark, and thanks for
about killing me from embarrassment.” I pushed past him.

“
You don’t have anything to be
embarrassed about,” he winked, following down the
stairs.

“
Gross,” I said out loud, slamming
the bathroom door.

Everyone was in the kitchen
gathered at the breakfast table. Hannah looked up from cutting Mj,
my nephew’s, food.

“
Hey Eve,” she said,
smiling.

“
Hannah,” I said raising an
eyebrow as she smirked at Mark. Clearly he had told her what had
gone down. My face grew hot with anger.

“
What about the
fact that your husband saw me almost nude is funny?” I asked
quietly so my Mother
wouldn’t hear
otherwise
she surely would have slapped me
by
now.

“
I’m sorry Eve; we didn’t think
you would be in the nude. Most people sleep in pajamas,” she
laughed softly.

“
Yeah flannel
ones right? Like all seventy-five you have at home?” I said,
pleased with my insult. She wiped
MJ’s
face; he looked at me with no knowledge about what I had done. I
was more than pleased.

My dad
cleared his throat setting his paper down. “Eat up Eve,” he
prodded, looking at me over the rim of his
glasses.

My head was throbbing as I
took a big bite of a melon and grabbed some bacon. I tossed it on
my plate giving my dad
thumbs up with a
dry expression.

None of this was amusing to
me, they liked all this crap, I just wanted to eat in peace so my
head would stop throbbing. My Mother cooed at my niece,
Delilah. Of course, since she was a baby, she
giggled.
Right now she thought she was
funny; give it a few years I thought.

Gray shoveled his food
without a breath; he was in a hurry to go play basketball with his
friends or whatever he did. Some sort of sports. I think it made
him feel like a man. I stared at my entire family they all seemed
almost robotic and on a track heading all in the same directions.
My mother
caught my
gaze.

“
What are you thinking about,
Eve?”

“
Nothing.” I finished my juice
heading to the sink and tossing my plate in with a
clang.

Outside the world was my oyster.
The breeze soothed my headache as I sat on our porch swing. Leaning
back closing my eyes, I swayed rhythmically, listening to the
children giggle or scream every once in awhile.

“
Feeling better?” a voice that was
becoming more familiar asked from in front of me.

It was Ace. He was in yet another
well put together casual jean T-shirt combo.

“
No not really,” I sighed, sitting
up. I slyly smoothed my hair down without him noticing.

“
Did you take some aspirin?” he
asked as if he cared.

“
Yes I did, Doctor.”

“
Good.” He sat down on my porch
steps. “What’s up?”

“
Nothing much just swinging,” I
said as I swung.

Gray came out the door stopping in
his tracks. He stared at Ace then turned around and looked at me
with an irritated look. I shot him a glare.

“
Can I help you with something?”
he asked, coming down to stand in front of Ace.