He kissed her softly, and she was just settling into his lap when a loud squack sound startled them. Phoebe glanced towards the noise, and watched with alarm as the ducks in the pond began to swim in restless circles, seeming to grow more and more agitated.
“Uh…Caleb?” Phoebe asked quietly. Caleb had pulled up his phone to look something up, and he choked on his own spit.
“What is it?” she asked urgently, trying to see the phone over his shoulder.
Standing slowly, Caleb kept his hand around Phoebe’s. “Walk backwards very, very slowly. Don’t make any sudden movements.”
“Caleb, you’re scaring me,” she said through clenched teeth as they began to retreat in tiny steps.
“Remember how I said this area was off-limits because of the ducks for some reason?”
“Yes.”
He gave a small cough and took another tiny shuffle back, tugging Phoebe with him. “Well, apparently, they’ve been giving the ducks hormones to make them more vicious depending on certain environmental stimuli.”
“English!”
“They’ve been programmed to think we’re prey, and that they’re the predators, instead of the opposite way around. Basically, they might try to eat us.”
Phoebe looked at him in horror. “WHAT?!”
The calm shattered, and a collective SQUACK came from the ducks as they hopped quickly from the water and began advancing in a frenzy. Phoebe screamed.
“Run!” Caleb bellowed, pelting away at full speed.
Phoebe struggled to catch up to him, casting a terrified glance behind her at their pursuers. Oh God, she wasn’t going to make it. She’d never imagined she’d go this way. Her parents would be so upset. Caleb shouted for her to run faster, but he was a soccer player, running was second nature for him. As for Phoebe, her running experience ended at sprinting to class when she was late.
“Caleb, they’re getting closer!” she screamed as she felt one nip at her heel.
“We’re almost there! Just hold on!”
Her foot caught on a loose clump of dirt, and as if in slow motion, she saw herself spiral to the ground, and white filled her sight.
“Phoebe!” she heard Caleb shout as her mouth was filled with feathers and beaks pecked at her. She writhed, kicking off a few of the bloodthirsty mammals. Suddenly, strong hands lifted her, and she was running again, this time with Caleb’s hand wound around her own.
As they weaved between the trees, it seemed like the ducks were getting slower the farther they grew from the lake. Phoebe panted as she outpaced the little monsters, and she could have wept with relief when she saw Caleb’s car.
He unlocked it and practically threw her in. He jumped into the drivers seat and switched the headlights on, illuminating the eerie glassiness of the ducks.
Phoebe emitted a bloodcurdling scream as a duck threw itself at her window. “DRIVE!”
Caleb reversed, scattering the ducks from the path of his tires as he burned rubber in his hurry to escape. Phoebe kept her eyes plastered to every window as they drove, prepared for another duck attack at any second. It wasn’t until they were on the main road and out of the woods that she let herself relax.
Both of them were silent for a few minutes, absorbing the fact that they’d almost been killed and eaten by small ducks.
They burst into laughter.
Albeit, it was hysterical laughter, but it was better than the alternative of strangling Caleb. Phoebe wiped at her eyes as she settled into her seat, a grin on her face. “Well that sure beats studying.”
Caleb nodded. “Exactly. And on the bright side, that can be the first entry in your diary!”
Phoebe just stared at him.
“What?” Caleb wondered.
“Next time I visit you at college, I’m taking you to meet toxic kittens."
Ashvy
“Man, get it together!”
Asher paused his pacing to scowl at his roommate. “Piss off.”
Dex rolled his eyes, setting aside his textbook and swiveling his seat to face Asher. “You’re so quaint when you’re nervous.”
“I’m not nervous. I’m just…tense.”
“Right, and my favorite past time is painting my nails and embroidering the days of the week on my thongs.”
“That was a really disturbing visual.”
“Good. Now, when are you going to pick her up?”
Asher checked his watch. “Two hours.”
Dex slumped into the chair, running a hand along his face. “Shit, I don’t think I can survive another two hours in your presence.”
Asher shot him the bird and sank onto the hotel mattress. He’d flown in from Los Angeles yesterday for Valentine’s Day, and he’d dragged Dex with him to South Dakota. It hadn’t been too difficult convincing him to come, since he’d been eager to meet ‘the girl that had him so whipped’.
“Why don’t you just go see her early? Spend all the time with her that you can?” Dex suggested.
“I told her I’d pick her up at seven.”
“So surprise her! Ash, dude, I think you’re losing it.”
“For the fiftieth fucking time, Dexter, don’t call me Ash.”
“Stop PMS-ing all over the room, the hotel charges extra for bitchiness.”
Asher took off his boot and hurled it into Dex’s stomach.
He howled and fell off the chair. When he’d finished being a pansy, he glared at Asher. “You’re such an ass.”
Asher opened his mouth to reply with something sarcastic when Dex suddenly lunged forward. He scrambled to the dresser and grabbed Asher’s phone, darting out of the room as soon as he had it.
Asher shot off the mattress and tried to pry open the door. “Dex, give me the damn phone!”
There was the sound of ringing-the slimy bastard put the call on speaker-and Dex’s high-pitched laugh. “Never! I’m so over your constant whining! Time to man up!”
“I’m going to kill you! I know where you sleep, you motherfu-”
“Hello?”
The familiar feminine voice shut them both up. Asher shoved at the door with all his might and watched it give as Dex struggled to keep it shut.
“Hey, Ivy, right? Great to meet you, I’m Dex, Asher’s roommate. We’re here in South Dakota, have been for like, a day. Sorry about the abruptness, my life is kind of on the line right-shit!”
Asher burst through the door and tackled Dex to the floor, wrestling the phone from his grip. He shoved it to his ear, keeping Dex’s head firmly against the linoleum bathroom floor. He kneed him in the gut when he tried to crawl away.
“Hey, Ivy!” Asher said casually, as if he wasn’t restricting his best friend’s air passage.
“Asher…what’s going on? You’re in South Dakota? Why didn’t you tell me?”
He squeezed his eyes shut and gave Dex’s head an extra shove for good measure. “I figured you’d be busy, with social events and everything…”
“Are you serious? You think I’d ditch you for ‘social events’? What social events?”
“What about school? You must be busy with classes.”
Ivy groaned, and Asher had to bite back a smile. He’d missed her exasperation with him. “I rescheduled all my classes to spend time with you, so come meet me at my dorm right now, and bring that poor, abused boy with you.”
“Dex? Oh, I doubt he’ll want to come. He’s…uh, he’s got a date.”
“Really.” Ivy’s skepticism wasn’t lost on him.
“Yup. He can even tell you himself.” Asher held the phone away from his ear and shot Dex a glare that dared him to screw around.
He freed Dex’s mouth and placed the phone near him. Dex gritted his teeth and hissed out, “I’ve got a date for Valentine’s Day, of course. With a Swedish supermodel who likes Calculus.”
Asher yanked away the phone and thumped Dex over the head before taking pity and releasing him. His roommate crawled from the bathroom as far as his knobby arms could carry him, only stopping to mouth
an, “I hate you,” in his direction.
“See? He’s busy.”
“With a Swedish supermodel who likes Calculus. I heard. Well, be at my dorm in an hour, I have to change. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my French stylist who believes in moon cheese is waiting.”
Asher chuckled as he hung up. Just from talking to her for a few minutes, it felt like a balm had soothed his anxiety, leaving him excited and content. He jumped to his feet and returned to the room, where he found Dex sprawled on his bed.
He eyeballed Asher as he neared. “I have an emergency button, you know, this entire building will know if you try to kill me.”
Asher laughed and sat in Dex’s chair. “Sorry about that. I didn’t know if you were going to tell her. And I didn’t actually hurt you, you big baby.”
“I was one shove away from spelling ‘HELP’ with my tears,” Dex drawled. “Not to mention, I would never tell her what you’ve got planned. I’m too young for intensive plastic surgery.”
“Well, thank you. She wants to see me in an hour, so I can spend more time with her. And that’s all that counts, honestly.” Asher scowled at his shoes. Why did they feel weird? He’d had to undo the laces three times.
Dex regarded him seriously. “Huh. You really are crazy in love with this girl.”
Asher snorted. “What gave it away?”
Dex smiled slyly. “The fact that you’ve got your shoes on backwards.”
Ivy was panicking.
She’d completely forgotten to get Asher a gift for Valentine’s Day.
Last year, she’d taken him to visit his father in prison, which wasn’t exactly an everyday Valentine present, and it had slipped her mind this year to get him something.
So, basically, she was screwed.
“Dana, what am I supposed to do?” she asked, pressing the phone tighter to her cheek.
Dana heaved a huge sigh. “Girl, I don’t know. Maybe you don’t have to get him a gift. Just, I don’t know, give him a cupcake.”
“You’re advice is to give him a cupcake? My boyfriend of two years? This is why it took Kyle all of high school to ask you out!”
“Oh shut up, at least you know how you’re spending Valentine’s Day. Kyle is taking me to some mysterious place.”
“I guess he didn’t get the memo about how much you hate surprises?” Ivy giggled as she pictured Kyle’s agonized face when Dana ripped him a new one.
“Guess not! Caleb took Phoebe to some isolated lake or something for a romantic picnic. Knowing him, he’ll probably fall in the water and take Phoebe with him.”
Ivy laughed as she extracted the dress she’d prepared for the day from the closet. It was an emerald green color with a belt that cinched under her chest. It flowed to her knees, and as she dressed, she twirled in the dress. She tied her new pair of ankle boots, hoping fervently that she wouldn’t trip in the two inch heels.
“What do you think I should do with my hair?” she asked, interrupting whatever Dana was ranting about.
“Since he’s coming in like ten minutes, put it in a high ponytail and leave two curly strands in the front. Your hair is naturally wavy, so you’re good.”
Ivy did as Dana advised and smiled at the result. She looked…pretty. She always felt intimidated when she stood beside Asher in public, because she was sure people wondered what a gorgeous guy like him was doing besides the girl that had Sharpie notes on her arm.
But dressed like this….she might actually be on his level.
“Makeup or no makeup?” she wondered.
“No makeup,” Dana answered decidedly. “You look beautiful without it, and whenever you try to put it on it looks like Macy’s exploded on your face.”
Ivy scowled, mostly because she wasn’t lying. A knock on the door interrupted her line of thought, and her nearly-forgotten panic returned with a vengeance.
“Dana! Dana, he’s here!” she mumbled loudly. She hadn’t seen Asher in two months, and a mixture of anticipation and nerves were swirling in her tummy.
“Good luck, Ives. Say hi to the jerk for me. Have fun!”
“No, Dana, don’t-” but it was too late. Her traitorous best friend had hung up.
Taking a fortifying breath, Ivy walked quickly to the front door and yanked it open, prepared to make a bad joke to break the ice.
Her words died on her lips.
Asher was dressed in a form-fitting black button down and it’s matching suit pants. His hair had grown a bit longer, and the tousled strands curled under his ears. He looked absolutely devastatingly beautiful.
Cobalt eyes met hers.
“You look…you look…” it was rare that Asher was at a loss for words, and Ivy laughed. Diving forward, she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her nose in his collar.
Asher tightened his arms around her waist, lifting her until her feet hovered above the ground. He smelled so familiar, like leather and spice.
“I’ve missed you so much, angel,” Asher murmured in her hair. Ivy’s heart clenched at hearing the endearment. It wasn’t like she and Asher didn’t talk and Skype almost every day, but there was just something about being in his arms, hearing his deep voice in person that nearly brought tears to her eyes.
People in the hall were starting to stare, and she wouldn’t have cared if she wasn’t worried they’d probably tattle to the matron. More than a few girls were blatantly checking Asher out, and she wanted to bare her teeth and hiss at them.
Extracting herself from his arms, she twined her fingers with him as she pulled him down the hall. Girls stared longingly at her boyfriend as they passed, and for a second, she was glad she hadn’t gone to visit Asher at Harvard. If she was this possessive from the girls at her school, she’d probably drop dead if she got a look at the girls he spent time with daily.
At the threshold to the dorm hall, a girl stepped into their path. “Hey, I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. My name is Emily, I’m the head of the Welcoming Council at the school. Why don’t I show you around campus, huh?”
Ivy’s jaw dropped. She knew Emily Warren, and she’d disliked the female from day one. She was even worse than Brenda. At least Brenda made it no secret that she hated Ivy and wanted to feed her to a hungry den of lions. Emily was all sugar to your face, until you pissed her off and she spray painted your clothes while you slept.
“No. I don’t go here,” Asher drawled, clearly bored.
“Oh, are you thinking of enrolling then? We have some really great programs here at South Dakota State.”
At this, Asher’s lip began to curl into a sneer. “Is that so?”
Ivy sighed as she watched the oblivious girl continue to flirt shamelessly with Asher on the pretense of ‘advertising the school’.
“He goes to UCLA, Emily. So just stop,” Ivy snapped, unable to help herself.
Emily grudgingly acknowledged her presence. “Hey, Ivy! You go to UCLA? Wow! That’s crazy! What’s it like over there?”
Ignoring her, Asher bent his head, placing his lips near Ivy’s ear. His breath sent tingles down her spine. “Ivy, this girl isn’t your friend, or someone you like, right?”
“Nope.”
Straightening again, Asher leveled an icy look at Emily that would freeze over hell. “Why are you still here?”
“E-excuse me?”
“Why are you wasting the time I have with my girlfriend with your babble? Actually, I think you owe her an apology.”
“You can’t be serious.”
Asher tilted his head, narrowing his eyes impatiently.
Emily turned to her with a barely concealed snarl. “So sorry I ‘wasted your time’, Ivy.”
Ivy tightened her grasp on Asher’s hand and tugged him past the seething Emily. She wasn’t looking forward to the next few days with that unstable female, but it was worth it to see her mortified expression.
“Are all the girls in your dorm like that?” Asher asked as he unlocked his sleek silver car. He held the door open for Ivy as she hopped
in and rounded the car to the driver’s seat.
“No, not all of them. Emily’s a special head-case. Anyway, it’s not like you’re unaware how attractive you are,” she teased.
“Good point.”
Ivy giggled, swatting at his shoulder as he drove. “Hey, do you see that?” she said suddenly, pointing at something.
“Clearly I don’t.”
“Well, smartass, it’s the drive-in theater you took me to. Remember the one where you forced me to watch Dirty Dancing? I was so surprised to find out you were a Patrick Swayze fan-boy.”
Asher shuddered dramatically. “Call me a fan-boy again and I’ll take you back to Eustace and Muriel’s house. It wasn’t too far from here either.”
Ah, that sweet old couple who’d given them a room to sleep in for the night. “Where are you taking us, anyway?”
“None of your business.”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “And if I recall correctly, that’s also what you said last time we were here.”
The dimpled grin Asher flashed her made staying in her seat and not crawling over the console and into his lap very difficult.
To distract herself from her hormonal lust, she began to interrogate him as they drove. “So, how’s Dex?”
Asher chuckled. “As nerdy as ever. Probably busy, though.”
Ivy made a disbelieving noise in her throat. “With the Calculus-loving Swedish supermodel, of course.”
“Of course.”
They were bordered by woods on either side as they drove, and Ivy ignored the fissure of unease in her gut. Something always went wrong when they were near or in the woods.
“How’re Dana and Caleb?” Asher inquired.
“Freaking out. Kyle is taking Dana-cheeseballs!” The car lurched to the side as Asher cursed, yanking on the steering wheel. They veered sharply to the left, into the woods, and Asher swerved hard to avoid crashing into the trees.
There was a screech and sputtering, and then everything was quiet.
“The engine died,” Asher grunted, shooting out of the car to the front. Ivy sat there in shock, unable to believe that the woods had thwarted their plans again. She was a supporter of nature, she recycled and fed stray animals-so why were these accursed woods intent on destroying her and Asher’s plans every time they drove by?
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