Mirror Image: Shattered Mirror Prophecies Book 1

by Bailey James

  Yes, I think, but that’ll only create more questions I can’t answer, so instead, I say, “No. Of course not. I’d like to see a movie with you.” I turn back and force another smile, wondering if it appears as fake as it feels.

  Apparently not. He breathes out a sigh and smiles. “Great. I hoped you’d say that.” He steps out of the car and bolts around the car where I’m already stepping out. “Here, let me,” he says, helping me out the rest of the way.

  Amused, I say, “Ty, I can get out of a car. I have a broken arm, not a leg.”

  “I know, but I’m trying to make up for my behavior.”

  “You don’t have to make up for it. We’ve been through this already.” I frown. The ever-familiar guilt weighs on me again.

  “Let me try? Please.” He gives me a sweet little puppy-dog look. “I feel horrible for not stopping the instant you asked me to.”

  I sigh and push a strand of hair behind my ear. “Yeah, okay.”

  I take his offered arm and let him lead me into the theater. While he buys popcorn, I slip into the corner and take a quick peek into my compact. When I only see my reflection, I bring the tiny mirror up to my mouth to ask for Jackson, thinking that because I’m not home using the usual mirror, maybe I need to ask for him, but Ty comes up behind me and kisses the back of my neck.

  I shiver, and I’m not sure if it’s because it feels good or because it doesn’t.

  “Ready?” he asks.

  I snap the compact closed and slip it back into my purse, mentally cursing. “Yeah. Just checking my lipstick.”

  He chuckles. “What is it with women and makeup?” he asks, and leads the way to the darkened room.

  It’s a familiar “argument” between us, and I fall into the old pattern. “We always want to look beautiful. Especially if we’re out with our guys,” I reply with a bat of my eyelashes.

  “You’re always beautiful to me.”

  Surprisingly, a blush burns my cheeks, and I can’t help the smile that tugs on my lips. “Thank you.”

  He kisses the side of my mouth as we look for our seats. The previews have already started, so it’s hard to see which seats are which. Finally, we find some near the back, and I’m grateful that Ty chose ones without anyone behind us. My fingers itch toward my purse, but I restrain myself. I’ll look a little strange looking into a mirror in a darkened movie theater.

  Only a few minutes into it, I can’t take it anymore, so I lean over to whisper in Ty’s ear. “I’ll be right back. I need to use the little girls’ room.”

  He chuckles. “Why didn’t you go when we got here?”

  “Didn’t know I had to,” I whisper back, smiling at yet another familiar “argument.”

  He laughs and I stick my tongue out at him, his eyes darkening with heat.

  Snagging my purse along the way, I make my way to the lobby and sit on one of the benches. I pull out my compact, but a voice calls my name before I can even open it. The voice is familiar, and I groan as Bridget—a sort-of friend of mine from school—dashes across the lobby. “Hey! Oh my gosh, what are you doing here?” she says.

  “Ty brought me.”

  “Oh, wow. That’s great.” She glances at my arm. “What happened?”

  “A run-in with a drunk driver, who decided my car needed a dip in a lake.”

  Her eyes widen, and her mouth forms a little ‘o.’ “That was you?” I nod, and she continues. “What movie are you seeing?” she demands, and waits for me to tell her. When I do, she says, “Great! That movie is longer than ours. We’ll finish at about the same time. Meet us here, okay? I’d like to catch up.”

  Great, now I’ll never get home.

  I smile. “Sure. That sounds great.”

  Someone calls her name, and she waves, saying, “Gotta go. I’ll see you after the movie,” and takes off without waiting for me to say anything.

  That girl has never liked me before. We’ve never fought, but you don’t have to fight to know when someone doesn’t like you. I wonder what changed?

  Frustrated, because I’ve been gone too long, and now I’ll have to go back without checking for Jackson, I head back to the movie. Ty hands me the popcorn and then whispers in my ear. “Everything okay?”

  “Yes,” I whisper back. “I ran into Bridget.”

  “How is she?”

  I shrug. “Fine.”

  He goes back to watching the film. A few minutes later, I decide to take a chance and open my compact. Ty’s pretty engrossed in the movie. He probably won’t even notice. Only my eyes stare back at me. Disappointed, I replace it, only to pull it out again a few minutes later. Again, nothing. I sit, tapping it on my thigh, before losing the battle and checking again. When I do it for the fifth time, Ty reaches over and takes it from me.

  “What are you doing?” he whispers.

  “Nothing.”

  I must say it too quickly because he raises an eyebrow. “Are you looking for Jackson?”

  Guilt and unease burrow into my belly, but I shake my head even as my stomach twists. “I have a weird feeling by this wound. It’s kind of itchy. I keep thinking I’ll find it bleeding.”

  Wow, I pulled that out of nowhere! I mentally pat myself on the back.

  His eyes roam my face before he nods. I can’t tell if he bought it or not, but he says, “It looks fine. Just enjoy the movie, okay?”

  “Okay.” I hold out my hand.

  “I’ll hold onto it for now. Just so you aren’t tempted.” He sticks it into his pocket.

  I narrow my eyes, agitation swirling in my chest. I want to argue but think better of it. A movie isn’t a good place for a fight. Besides, I know he’s just doing it to take care of me. It’s not his fault I’m a mess. Fidgeting for the rest of the film, I try relaxing by thinking of what I’ll say to Jackson when I saw him. Obviously, I’ll congratulate him, tell him how much it meant that he’d set up the television so I could see him race, and what he’d said at the interview. My smile blooms on my face as I imagine hearing his voice. I tremble a little at the thought.

  Ty leans over. “Cold?”

  “No.”

  “You’re shaking.”

  “Oh, uh, yeah, I guess I am. A little.”

  He pushes up the arm between us and slips his around my waist, where he traces circles over my stomach with his thumb. Typically, this would have soothed me, and I would have cuddled right into him, but it only makes it worse. It’s like with every stroke, he stokes my agitation. His touch almost burns me. Only my own guilt keeps me stuck in place. In order to relax again, my thoughts take me back to Jackson.

  Wrapped up in my thoughts, I don’t pay any attention to the movie. Tyler does, though, and talks my ear off about it afterward. Nothing new. We always talk about our favorite parts afterward, but it’s annoying as all hell today.

  Still thinking of Jackson and wishing desperately to go home, I let Ty walk me to his car. He’s still talking about the movie and seems more than a little disappointed that I don’t seem to share his interest, but that doesn’t stop him from talking about it.

  He drives straight to a restaurant, talking non-stop. I keep a smile plastered to my face and nod in the appropriate places, but I want my compact. I need to talk to Jackson. Finally, we reach the restaurant and, in the parking lot, I ask for my compact back.

  He smiles at me. “You don’t need it, beautiful.”

  I force a laugh. “Yes, I do. I need to freshen my makeup.”

  He kisses my cheek. “You look great. Don’t worry about it.”

  With a sigh, I shove down my aggravation and follow him into the restaurant. I’ll just use the ladies’ room. I tap my foot as we wait for the server to seat us.

  Come on, come on, I think.

  Finally, the server leads us to a cozy spot toward the back of the restaurant. I excuse myself to the bathroom aga
in, but Jackson doesn’t show up in the mirror, and when a group of girls my age comes tumbling in, I slip back out, taking my seat across from Ty.

  Ty starts talking to me about the movie again, but I tune him out, my mind focused on Jackson. Is he home? Probably. What is he thinking since I can’t get to him? Is he mad? Scared? Worried?

  Damn it. He just won an important race, and I can’t even congratulate him. He probably thinks I ditched him.

  Ty talks the whole way through dinner and doesn’t seem to notice my attention isn’t on him. When he walks me to the door, he kisses me sweetly, but I didn’t feel anything. “Do you want me to come in?”

  I shook my head. “No. Leah called earlier. I told her I’d go see her now that they’re back,” I lie.

  He looks slightly crestfallen, but then beams at me. “I’ll call ya’ later then.”

  “Sure. Sounds great,” I say, and let Ty kiss me again before I slip through my door and shut it between us.

  When I’m sure he’s gone, I run straight upstairs, not even stopping when Mom yells, “Lily? Is that you?”

  “Yes, Mom. I’m going to my room. I’ll talk to you later,” I call over my shoulder as I run through my door, locking it behind me.

  I stride straight to my mirror and cross my fingers. I release the breath I didn’t know I was holding. The portal is already open, and Jackson tosses something small and silver back and forth between his hands as he sits on his bed.

  “Hey,” I say, feeling a lead weight settle in my stomach when he slowly lifts his head to look at me.

  “Hey,” he replies. He doesn’t so much as smile at me.

  So, I smile at him. “Congratulations!”

  A smirk tickles the corners of his mouth. “You watched?”

  “Of course I did. I also saw your interview. Thanks for the shout-out.”

  His grin grows, and he pads over to the mirror. A few of the lead weights lift when he sits in his usual spot, and I join him. “When I didn’t see you when I got home, I worried you’d missed it.”

  “Nope saw the whole thing.” I scowl at him. “You dick! I thought you were going to lose. What were you doing, hanging back like that?”

  He chuckles, and the rest of the weights disappear as if they’d never been there. “Conserving energy. If I do as fast as I can the whole way, I’d never last against them. So, I do what I can to stay close behind them and then pour on the extra speed when I’m in the last leg.”

  I grin like the Cheshire cat I worried about a few days ago. Could it really have been only a few days? It seems like months. “I went crazy cheering for you. Scared my parents to death.”

  “Really?” He smiles but then frowns, dropping those lead weights back into my stomach. “Where were you?”

  I glance down into my lap. “With Ty. He took my compact because he was trying to stop me from obsessing about my face, so I couldn’t contact you.”

  Jackson’s hand strokes down the glass, bringing my attention back to him. “I was worried about you, Tiger Lily.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” His voice is emotionless, and it makes me feel awful.

  “I tried to get to you.”

  He lifts a brow.

  I push up to my knees to get closer to the mirror. “I did. Every mirror I could find I looked in. The side-view mirrors on the car, the bathrooms, even the windows that showed a reflection. Every single one.”

  His eyebrows bunched together. “Really?”

  I blush. “Yep.” I pop the ‘p’ to try to take away from how serious this conversation feels.

  He flashes his grin, and butterflies replace the lead weights. Giant butterflies that take joy in battering themselves around my stomach.

  “Good.”

  I frown. “Good?”

  “Yeah, now I don’t feel so bad for doing the same thing. I’m always looking into every mirror I can find just so I can at least see you.” He jumps up, pacing his room. My butterflies falter, unsure of whether or not to transform back into the weights. “This is so stupid,” he finally spits out.

  “What?”

  “I’ve never wanted to talk to someone so much in my life. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Oh.” I sit on the floor and smile to myself. I know the feeling. Even with Ty, I’ve never felt drawn to him like I am with Jackson. As if we’re two opposite magnets and we have no choice but to be close to each other. I never felt that I needed to just see Ty, as if everything will be okay if I can just hear his voice.

  Jackson continues to pace the room and then sits in front of me again, his hand reaching for the mirror. I bring mine up to meet his at once, and his eyes meet mine. I don’t have to read his mind to know he’s thinking the same as I, that if the only touch we can have is the pseudo-contact of our flesh against the glass—we’ll take it. We stare at each other for several minutes, both of us expressing more through our eyes than if we were speaking.

  He opens his mouth to say something, but my phone rings, cutting him off.

  Not taking my eyes off his, I answer. “Hello?”

  “Well, it’s about damn time you answered your phone,” Leah’s voice comes through the tiny speaker.

  “Hey, Leah,” I say for Jackson’s benefit. He smiles at me and nods his understanding. “How are you?”

  “Great! Noah and I are really hitting it off.”

  A genuine smile slides into place. “Oh. That is great. I’m glad.”

  “How are you and Ty?” she asks, in a way that makes me think she already knows things are a bit rocky between us.

  I hesitate, staring at Jackson for a minute before saying, “We’re good, too.”

  There’s a moment of silence where I have to look at my phone screen to see if we disconnected before she says, “Listen, I haven’t seen you much since your…accident. Why don’t you come over? We’ll catch up. I have a ton to tell you. We could make a night of it?”

  I frown, and Jackson tilts his head. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’d like to, Leah, but I think it would be better if I stayed home for now.”

  Understanding dawns on Jackson’s face, and he makes a sweeping gesture with his hands. “Go. You need to see your friends.”

  “What? You didn’t want me to go earlier,” I say to Jackson.

  “Who are you talking to?” Leah asks, and I wince. “Is Ty there? Tell him to shut up and let you go,” she says with a laugh. “You can be with him any ole’ time. We need to catch up.”

  “Don’t you want to spend time with Noah?”

  “He’s gone. In fact, why don’t I call him to take Ty off your hands?”

  “I didn’t want you with Ty,” Jackson says, answering my statement to him. “You need to spend time with your friends,” Jackson says, but his eyes are sad.

  “But I want to spend time with you, J—” I cut myself off.

  He makes a shooing gesture, but he’s smiling now. “Go. I’ll be here.”

  “You spend time with him all the time,” Leah says, her voice a mix between amusement and frustration. “If you don’t get your butt over here, I’ll be forced to come to get you,”

  “All right,” I say to them both, throwing my hand into the air. “I’ll be over in a few minutes.”

  “Great! See you then.” She hangs up before I can say anything else.

  “Jackson,” I say, setting down my phone.

  “I know what you’re going to say. Don’t. Just keep looking into mirrors. I’ll be here, waiting for you.”

  Part Three

  “I can’t go back to yesterday, I was a different person then.”

  ~Lewis Carroll

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Leah has taken it upon herself to not only invite me but Carly and Bridget. I don’t know why Bridget is here, but I don’t
know that I care since she’s being friendly. The three are chattering on like magpies, but my mind is still on Jackson. It seems he’s all I can think about. I don’t think I ever obsessed about Ty as much as I do Jackson.

  Even before we started dating, I didn’t think about Ty like I do Jackson. Ty had just been a boy I had hoped would ask me out. With Jackson, he’s in every daydream. Every waking thought. He’s my first and last thought, and sometimes it feels like if I don’t hear his voice, I’ll go lose my mind.

  I sit in Leah’s room and keep glancing up at the mirror above her dresser, hoping for even a glimpse of the boy who’s captured my thoughts so completely.

  “Lily? Are you listening?” Leah asks, drawing my attention back to her.

  I blink quickly. “I’m sorry. What?” I try to focus my mind on her.

  Leah huffs out a breath and rolls her eyes. “Bridget asked you about your accident.”

  I turn my attention to the girl in question. “Oh, what did you want to know?”

  Bridget rolls her big blue eyes, and I restrain myself from making a snarky comment. Leah rolls her eyes all the time, so it’s just par for the course, but for some reason, Bridget’s eye roll irritates the crap out of me.

  “I asked, what happened?” she repeats, her tone just this side of snarky.

  I fight my own eye roll. I’m so sick of telling this story. “I was driving, and the next thing I know, I’m waking up in the shallow end of the lake off I-4. A boy rescued me, but he was gone by the time the EMTs got there.”

  She leans closer, a sparkle in her eyes. “A boy rescued you?”

  I shrug.

  She leans forward. “Well, what did your rescuer look like?”

  “I don’t really remember. It was dark.” I look down at my hands.

  “Oh, come on. You must remember what he looked like.” She rolls her eyes again, and her pretty lips twist into a sneer.

  I fight the sudden urge to smack it off her face. I’ve never been a violent person. I’m not going to start being one now, no matter how clear it is that Bridget is making fun of me.