The Lost Boys

by Lilian Carmine

  “No, that’s fine. You don’t need to walk me, I’m not a baby,” I snapped again. “I mean, I’m fine here. Your friend is calling you, you can go.” I waved him away. This headache was putting me in such a foul mood.

  He looked uncertainly at me, and nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you after classes, then,” he said, walking away.

  When I turned around to walk to my next class I spotted a wild-spiked redhead bouncing around in the middle of the crowd. “HARRY!” I yelled, to get his attention, and flinched with the sharp pain that resulted. Curses! No yelling, Joey.

  “Hi, Joey! What’s up?” Harry asked, all innocent, when he reached me.

  I grabbed his arm and pushed him against the wall, where we could have a more private conversation.

  “Don’t go all ‘Hi, Joey’ on me, Harry!” I grunted. He looked startled at my harshness “Have you heard what people are saying about us all over school? Did you have anything to do with it?” I interrogated him.

  He raised his eyebrows, curious now. “No! I haven’t heard anything! What’s going on?”

  I looked into his green eyes. He wasn’t lying; he really had no idea. I’d noticed Harry never lied to me. That was … kind of sweet of him. I shook my head, trying to get back on track. “Okay. So … you haven’t heard people are saying we hooked up at the party? That you won the bet, and all …”

  A wide grin spread across his face then. “Get out of here! Really? All right!” he said, all smug.

  “No. No. No. Not ‘all right’, Harry! Stop grinning. This is not funny!” I said, real upset.

  “Come on, Joey! It’s a little funny. Well, for me it is,” he said, chuckling. “I can’t believe I won the bet!” He jumped up and down, making a squeaky voice. “Wait! What have I won, exactly?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You didn’t win any stupid bet, Harry. And it was a week of Dwight doing your physics homework. Just so you know what you didn’t win,” I said, grabbing him by the arms, making him stop his little excited jumps. “I already told them we didn’t hook up!”

  Harry looked crestfallen, pouting his bottom lip. “Awww, Joey! You took a whole week of physics homework from me? That’s just so wrong of you!” he said, crossing his arms, upset. “Couldn’t you just lie about it, just this one time? I really hate physics!” he whined.

  “No! I could not! And you’d better start telling people the truth, Harry!” I said, glaring menacingly at him.

  “All right! All right! Don’t need to use the Evil Eye on me! I’ll tell everybody, don’t worry! You need to take a chill pill!” he said, uncrossing his arms and giving me a worried look. “Are you okay? You look awful, you know?”

  I let out a heavy sigh, hunching my shoulders down. “Thank you, Harry. You sure know how to make a girl feel better,” I muttered, in a bad mood; being told I looked awful twice in one day was doing nothing for my self-esteem. “I’m just having the worst day. And my head is killing me. I guess I’ll go to the infirmary, grab some aspirin. I’ll see you later.” I walked away tiredly.

  On the way to the infirmary, I watched Tiffany pass by me, pretending she was deeply engaged in a conversation with Caroline. I felt awful. I never realized how much Tiff’s cheerful mood and positive presence meant to me. Now that I didn’t have it, I missed it so much!

  I badly wanted to tell her the truth about me and Tristan. Then I would never have to worry about pretending I didn’t like him in front of her, and I could talk to her about it, and stop with all the lies. I was so lost in my gloomy thoughts that I didn’t pay attention to where I was going as I bumped into someone, hard. I staggered back and looked up in surprise to see a pretty brown-haired girl giving me a scared look.

  “Oh, sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” I began, but the girl interrupted me, taking a small frightened step back.

  “Gray!” she exclaimed in shock, as if my name was some sort of curse. “P-please don’t hit me!” she squeaked, panicking.

  “I— What?” I stammered. “I wasn’t going to hit you!” She seemed not to hear what I was saying. “It’s not my fault, you know! You don’t need to hit me just because of Harry! He never told me you guys were together! I should have known, no boy that pretty is good news!” she said in a crazy rant. “I swear I didn’t know he had a girlfriend the night of the party! He’s such a man whore!”

  Oh. I see. I remember Seth telling me Harry and Josh were still partying somewhere that night, and how girls never resisted Harry and his innocent good looks. Innocent, yeah, right! Apparently this was the girl who’d had him “occupied” that night. She was pretty. Harry had good taste.

  “And now everybody’s giving me crap about how you’re going to kick my ass!” The girl continued to freak out, stepping away from me. “Because Harry is yours and you’re some judo queen and you even kicked Bradley’s ass, and now you’re going to kick my ass. And all the cheer squad is scared of you, and … please don’t hurt me!” she rambled on, clearly terrified of me.

  If my head hadn’t been throbbing that much, I would have found this thing amusing, but I guess I wasn’t in the mood for any enjoyment. And what about the way people were acting? Like I was some sort of scary bully that beat people up all the time! I’d never touched anybody in this school, for God’s sake! I just stood up for myself when I had to, and I didn’t take crap from anyone! Is that such a bad thing?

  “Look … you.” I didn’t know her name. “First. Harry is not ‘mine’. I’m not his girlfriend. We’re just friends,” I stated seriously. “Second, he’s not a man whore. He was only with you that night. We didn’t hook up at the party. Third. I’m only going to kick ‘some ass’ if anyone dares to make bets on me again. And fourth … I’m not going to hit you, so please stop flinching, for God’s sake!” I huffed, by now annoyed with the frightened girl.

  She blinked uncertainly at me. “R-really” she stuttered. “So … Harry likes me?”

  I frowned as an unsettling jealousy lurched unexpectedly inside my chest. Where did that come from? “I didn’t say that,” I snapped. “I don’t know, do I? But we’re not together, that’s all. And I don’t go around punching people, you know? I’m actually a very mellow person!”

  She snorted loudly, then coughed, trying to cover up her lack of faith in my mellowness. “Hum, yeah, yeah. Right. Everybody knows you’re … very … mellow.” She attempted a serious expression.

  “Oh, shut up!” I said, aggravated, and stormed away, leaving a very relieved, frightened girl behind. My head hurt too much to keep trying to be nice.

  I was almost at the infirmary door when Bradley passed by me, smirking.

  “Gray! Looking good! Heard about you and Harry! Did his lip ring feel good?” he said, making a disgusting move with his tongue before walking away, laughing.

  I growled viciously at his retreating back and headed for the infirmary’s door, my headache pounding twice as hard now after his gross gesture.

  I got some aspirin from the nurse and stayed at the infirmary for the rest of the morning, just resting. It took some time for my head to stop throbbing. But I still felt like crap. I was sure people were still gossiping non-stop about me; Tiffany still wasn’t talking to me; Tristan still wanted to talk about something, and it didn’t sound like it was going to be a good thing.

  At least I had finally got rid of my stabbing headache.

  I realized that the final class of the morning had ended a couple of minutes ago, so I headed to the school garden to meet up with Tristan, but he caught up with me before I could even reach the end of the hallway.

  “Hey, Joey! I’m glad I found you,” he said, but his eyes looked worried.

  “Yeah, I was just heading to the oak tree where you said to meet you,” I said, returning to my nervous state.

  “Great! Come on, I wanted to talk to you as soon as possible. I don’t want you going to our room just yet …” His eyes darted around the hallway. “You haven’t seen Seth today, have you?”

  “No. I’ve been
in the infirmary most of the morning, why?” I asked as we walked outside with him.

  Tristan paused, looking at me in alarm. “Infirmary? What’s wrong? I knew I shouldn’t have left you earlier today! You aren’t well!” he said, stopping in front of me and putting his hands under my chin, studying my face with a frown.

  “I’m fine, Tris. It was just a headache,” I said, feeling my cheeks tingle at the contact between his fingers and my skin. “It’s gone now. I’m much better.”

  He stared at me for a few seconds, trying to see if I was being honest.

  “I swear I’m fine, Tris!” I smiled at him. The fact that he still cared about me warmed my heart. He wasn’t mad about the rumors surrounding me and Harry. I felt so relieved that I blurted it out before I could stop myself. “I’m glad you’re not mad at me …”

  He frowned again, his gray eyes sparkling with a hint of curiosity. “Mad at you? Why would I be mad at you?”

  “Well, you must have heard people talking …”

  “Talking?”

  “About me … and Harry?” I probed cautiously. “They’ve been saying that Harry and I hooked up.”

  He frowned, but then a small smile played at the corner of his lips. “Yeah, I heard about it.” He grabbed my hand and resumed walking towards the oak tree. “Harry was the one who told me, actually. He was worried that, and I quote, ‘I might hear from someone else and get mad and go berserk on him.’ He was a little miffed that you couldn’t play along and get him out of a week’s homework, though. He kept repeating that part. Over and over again.” Tristan chuckled.

  When we arrived at the big oak tree, Tristan kept checking to see if there was anyone around, and then he turned to me, anxiety pouring off him. “Good, we’re clear! So, listen, I really need to ask you something, Joey. It’s very important,” he said in an urgent tone. “And you really need to agree on this,” he pleaded. “Because if you don’t, you might have to go out with Seth and that would be really, really bad!”

  “What are you talking about, Tris?” I asked, amused. “What’s this nonsense now? First I’m hooking up with Harry, now I have to go out with Seth. This day is getting really weird!”

  He let out an exasperated breath and swept his hands through his hair in agitation. “I’m serious, Joey. Do you think I’d joke about something like this?”

  “About what, for crying out loud?” I said, throwing my arms up in the air.

  “We need to tell Seth the truth! About you and me!” he blurted out.

  “What?” I managed to say.

  “We need to tell Seth that you’re not my sister. That I’m not your brother. And we are … you know.” He mumbled the last part, blushing a faint shade of pink.

  I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Actually, I don’t know. What are we again?” I asked with a smirk. This ought to be good to hear.

  The faint shade of pink turned into a deep, fierce crimson. “I– I, we, I, you know,” he stuttered, and then got all flustered. “What is with people trying to hassle me today? Are you all trying to make me lose my mind, is that it?” he said in a despairing voice.

  I patted his shoulder, trying to calm him down. “Okay, okay! All right, sorry about that. Stay calm, I’m just teasing you!” I said, smiling at his flushed face. “Now, please, tell me about this going out with Seth thing.”

  He pouted at me. “This isn’t funny. Seth’s been on my back all day, you know? Asking about you, what you like, what you don’t like. He wouldn’t shut up about you!” Tristan exclaimed, getting all worked up again “Then he told me he’s going to ask you out today. On a date. So you see, we need to tell him. It’s the only way out of this. He said he wouldn’t take no for an answer; he was pretty set on taking you out. And he can’t!”

  I looked at Tristan’s flustered face. He was so cute having a jealous fit!

  “He can’t? Why is that?” I asked, leaning against the trunk of the oak tree, teasing him again. I just loved so much seeing him blush that I couldn’t help myself!

  He stared at me and his eyes darkened to a deep gray. A lascivious smile quirked the corner of his mouth, and he leaned closer to me until his body was pressed dangerously close to mine. I guessed he was done being shy!

  “Can’t you tell why? Maybe I should just show you, then.” He put a hand either side of my head on the oak trunk. He looked around again, just in case there was anyone watching, and then edged his face, slowly, closer to mine, making my throat go dry in a second. Okay. The teasing came back to bite me in the ass! He wasn’t stuttering or blushing any more. Now he was smiling sexily, and leaning really close, and smelling really great, and I was the one blushing fervently while he licked his soft lips, his mouth slightly open, hovering only an inch away.

  “What?” he whispered in a husky voice. “No smart come-backs now?”

  My heart was beating so fast I was sure he could hear it! Which made me blush even more. And he wasn’t actually doing anything. He made me react like that just by standing close to me.

  Then we heard a girl shouting from not far away, and I jumped, snapping myself out of his wicked spell. “Tristan! People can catch us here!” I whimpered, scared. He gave me a playful smile. Then he winked, and leaned back, stepping a little away from me. He crossed his arms over his big chest and raised an amused eyebrow.

  “You look cute when you blush. I shall try and make you do it more often.” He smirked sexily. “So, do you agree? We’ll tell Seth about us today?” he asked once again.

  I cleared my throat and tried to slow my heartbeat before I answered him. “Hmm. Okay. But only if we can tell Tiffany too. Seth and Tiff are our best friends. I think we can trust them. And Tiff knows I’m keeping a secret, and she’s really upset that I don’t trust her. I don’t want to lose her friendship! We tell Seth only if we can tell Tiffany as well. That’s the deal. Take it or leave it,” I said, crossing my arms too.

  “Your mom is going to be upset with us for telling everybody about this,” he pondered.

  “They’re not everybody. They’re our best friends! I know we can trust them. Mom doesn’t even need to know about this,” I argued. “Can you manage not telling her this on all your frequent phone calls to her?” I remarked sarcastically.

  “Okay. Deal. We’ll tell them,” he said, with a huge grin on his handsome face. “Can we do it now? I can’t wait to wipe that smirk off Seth’s face every time he mentions you!”

  “Okay. I’ll get Tiffany. We’ll meet up in our room! Wait for me so we can tell them both together!” I said, running off to get Tiff.

  In just a few minutes I had a disgruntled Tiffany by the arm and was dragging her to my room, despite her harsh complaints. I pushed her inside and saw Seth lounging on his bed reading a book, while Tristan waited for me on his bed, pretending to be breezy but unable to conceal from me the anxiety flashing in his eyes.

  Seth looked up curiously from his book as I walked in after Tiffany, locking the door behind me.

  “Okay, Joey. I do not appreciate being man-handled like that all the way down here,” Tiffany complained, crossing her arms, really upset. “I’m not in the mood for games. And I’m done with the pretending-to-be-friends act. So, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of things to attend to …”

  “Tiff, will you sit down and listen, please! We have something to tell you guys.” I pushed Tiffany on to my bed and went to sit by Tristan’s side. “Seth, could you come over here. We want you both to hear this.”

  Seth raised his eyebrows and went to sit by Tiffany’s side on my bed, facing us.

  “So, since you two are our best friends, we reckon it’s time to tell you the truth. You were right, Tiff. I was hiding something from you, and you’re my best friend, and I really trust you. We both trust you guys,” I said, looking them in the eyes.

  Tiffany squealed, grabbing Seth’s arm. “I knew it and I told you, Seth! I told you if we worked together we could squeeze the truth out of these two!” she exclaimed, beaming proudly at her Sherloc
k insights.

  “Working together?” I asked in surprise.

  Seth rolled his eyes at Tiffany. “Well, we were doing quite well until you blew our cover just now, Tiffany! They haven’t actually told us anything yet, you know.”

  She looked at us, startled. “Oh. Right. But they just admitted they have a secret. You are still going to tell us the secret, right, Joey?” she asked cautiously.

  “Yeah, Tiff. But first, what’s going on here?” I asked, pointing at her and Seth.

  She smiled again, and nudged Seth in the ribs. “Well, we’ve been talking a lot these days, and we both have been suspicious about you two. You are always acting really weird around each other, and all the silent glances and whispered conversations made us wonder something was up. So we come up with a plan,” she said, putting her arm around Seth’s shoulder. “Seth here was going to push on the ‘dating Joey’ thing. That would put a pressure on Tristan to tell him what’s going on between you two. If that failed, I was going to bring out the ‘best friend card’ with you, Joey. We expected you or Tristan would crack soon. And it worked!” she said, making a “Voilá!” hand gesture.

  “So, what’s this big secret of yours?” Seth asked, smiling reassuringly at us. “We do appreciate you telling us, even though we had to force it out of you. But you can really trust us. We’ll keep your secret, we promise.”

  “We had a guess about what it could be,” Tiff continued, deeply into her detective role play. “We figured you two used to have a crush when you first met, but you didn’t know you were related back then, but then you found out and it’s all very forbidden and you can’t tell anybody of fear of what people might think! It’s very soap-operary of you …” She rambled on excitedly.

  I rolled my eyes at her guess. Then I frowned, making a face. I mean, seriously? Forbidden love? “Okay. Tiff. No. No! And, ew! You were really thinking that about us? Ew. No! So, here’s the thing,” I said, taking a long breath. “Tristan is not my brother. Not even my half-brother. And I’m not his sister. We had to lie to get him enrolled at the school with me. We’re not related. He’s … a good friend of my family,” I said, looking at Tristan. I thought the ghost story could wait a while longer. One big revelation at a time.