“No.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.” Her eyebrows rose over her designer glasses.
Truthfully I was sick of talking about it too. The discussion that I had with Tyson Crawford, her on again off again boyfriend, last Friday about why he just quit talking to her was enough to wear me out and I still didn’t understand after the conversation was over. I’d relayed every confusing detail to Irelynn that night which had brought on a new round of her fury. This is why I stick to painting and movies, I thought to myself. Her boy drama during the past three years of high school was enough for the both of us.
I guessed now would not be the right time to bring up my recent discovery at the Inn. I couldn't help but think about William Dalca. His eyes were burned into my brain. For the split second we actually did lock eyes, I was sucked in.
"You look like crap, by the way," she complimented me, pulling me back to reality.
"What?" I laughed.
"What's up with the do?"
"Gee, thanks." I looked at my reflection in her vanity mirror. With all the dampness in the air, my hair had fluffed out at least two inches from the time I'd checked it in my car.
"Fabulous."
I was now rethinking seeing William again. He was not smiling to flirt with me. He was probably trying not to laugh at me. I was suddenly deflated. Why would I even think that he was flirting? Annoyed, I pulled my books out of my bag.
"Ok enough about my freaking hair." I faked a laugh. "I've gotta get some work done."
"You mean I have to get some work done."
"Whatever," I muttered. That was one of the only words that could make my grandmother go from zero to sixty, in two seconds. If your vocabulary is so limited that you can only express yourself using that word, your school system has failed you, young lady! She would huff at me. I rolled my eyes at the recollection. Whatever.
I read through the chapter in my physics book only to have to go back and read it again. How could I focus on physics, something I cared nothing about, when there was a mysterious guy stalking around town? Could the answer to his mystery be found in this book? Absolutely not.
"Oh hey," Irelynn interrupted, further squashing my concentration. "Did you hear about Townie’s new guest? Stacey said he is gorgeous." Her eyes were wider than her smile, if that was possible. Apparently I wasn't the only one who'd noticed.
"Yeah," I replied, casually.
I recounted my afternoon at the Inn, leaving out the detail about being in a trance when I looked at him.
"Ooh," she said, pinching her eyebrows together. "Sorry about the whole looking like crap thing. You looked fine." She was not a good liar.
"It's okay," I mumbled.
"Is he really as good looking as Stacey said he is? I wonder about her taste sometimes.”
Irelynn was right, when it came to having a certain "type," Stacey's picks did not fit any mold. "He's cute. But I’m pretty sure he knows it, too."
"That’s no good. Probably a jerk.”
“Probably.”
She thought for a moment, letting the information sink in. "So, William, huh. Wonder if anyone calls him Willy?"
"Oh my god!" I sputtered. He was most definitely NOT a Willy. It took a moment for me to compose myself after an imaginary red-haired and freckled face boy named Willy popped into my head. "Maybe you should ask him."
The contemplative look reappeared on her face. "Maybe I will."
I went back to my book, again not able to concentrate. My self-diagnosed ADD was kicking in. Stacey was right. He was gorgeous.
I would have to wait to get more information about William. High school is the number one source for good gossip and that was one of the perks of being best friends with Irelynn. If there were anything I wanted to know, she'd have the answer. She had the knack of finding out anything about anyone.
2
I woke up the next day with the same enthusiasm as the Sunday before. I closed my eyes and prayed for a snow day. But then I remembered that it was still technically summer and grabbed my pillow, trying to smother myself with it. There's definitely something wrong with me, I thought. Sometimes I wonder how I even made it through the day without getting hauled off the to the psych ward, although my friends found my insanity entertaining.
In the midst of musing about my psychosis, his face flashed into my mind. Ah! Stop it. I jumped out of bed, maybe too fast. I scurried off to the bathroom trying to outrun the dizziness. A hot shower would wake me up and clear my head.
Dorothy was already preparing breakfast when I got out of the shower. A quick pang of guilt for my behavior yesterday twisted in my stomach. I ran downstairs after getting ready for school. She was standing at the counter with my usual weekday morning feast ready. Hot toaster pastries. I grabbed them out of her hands and gave her a tight hug.
"I love you, Grandma!" I shouted. She mumbled something about Prozac when I ran out the door.
The bewildered look on her face kept me smiling all the way to Irelynn's porch. I heard the pounding of her stumbling down the stairs, probably running late again. The front door flew open.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Yeah, just a sec.” She ran back in her house to grab her bag.
I started humming to myself while waiting for her. Just a sec to her meant ten minutes to the rest of the world. When she finally came out the door, she paused and stared at me.
“What’s this all about?” she questioned, waving her finger at me.
“What?”
“You...humming...smiling? Did I miss something?” she asked skeptically.
“Nope, I’ve decided to try something new this week.”
She raised her eyebrow. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“Good mood,” I fluttered my eyelashes. The truth was the curiosity about William was absolutely killing me. We needed to get to school so she could work her magic and fill me in on the details.
A blank expression stared back at me. She was not used to seeing me this cheerful. “Never mind,” I scowled.
Valley High School was within walking distance from our block. When the weather was decent, we would walk instead of drive. Irelynn had become extremely active in the “Go Green” campaign at school, which meant no unnecessary driving.
As we rounded the last corner, Irelynn stopped. “Ooh. That must be him.”
I spun around to see if she was right, but I was standing too close to her when I turned. My forehead smacked right into her chin, knocking us both backward.
“OUCH!” she cried, grabbing her face. I could already feel the knot rising at the edge of my hairline.
“Oh crap!” I winced, trying to look around to see if anyone noticed.
“Cami! What the heck is wrong with you?” she blubbered. Her mouth was now streaming blood. “Gross!” she cried at the sight of the blood on her hand.
I was so horrified by what I’d just done to my best friend that I didn’t notice a black truck pull up next to us. Nor did I notice the door open.
“Here,” said the deep, silky voice coming from behind me. My body stiffened. Although I’d only heard that voice laugh, I knew whom it belonged to. I looked behind me to see William standing there with an outstretched hand. It was full of what looked like toilet paper. Toilet paper? Why did he have toilet paper?
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Irelynn grabbed it out of his hand and crammed it into her face.
She was now fully saturated by her own blood as well as the charms of William Dalca. If I hadn't been there to witness it, I would not have believed it. She was, for the first time since I'd known her, speechless. I had never seen this expression on her face either. I was sure this was a first for her too. She was the one who had always been on the receiving end of this kind of ogling. Her thin, five-foot-nine inch, frame topped by a large mass of blonde locks and emerald green eyes was a natural male magnet.
Her swollen mouth hung open a second before she nodded mindlessly at him a
nd turned to me. "I'll thee you layer, Cawm," she managed. She jogged back to her house clutching her face.
“That was impressive,” William mocked when we were alone.
My heart clenched tight in my chest.
“Toilet paper?” was the only moronic thing I could think of to say.
He shrugged. “You never know, right? Is that how you treat all your friends? Head butting and all that?” He was smiling again.
It was hard to not be mesmerized by his amazingly perfect white teeth. I shook my head and looked at the ground. “Nope. That was a one-time thing.”
“I see. So I shouldn’t worry about wearing a helmet around you?”
“Might not be a bad idea.”
“Right.” He looked past me to a crowd of kids with backpacks walking in the direction I had been. “So, are you off to school then?”
I nodded, unable to speak, from fear of what other idiotic thing would come out of my mouth.
“Do you need a ride?”
Yes! “I don’t usually get into cars with strangers.”
“Oh. Of course, smart girl.” He held out his hand again, minus any toilet paper. “I’m Will.”
That took care of Irelynn’s “Willy” query. I shook his hand lightly. “Camille.” I said, almost shouting. What was wrong with me? "Actually, just Cami."
He was still holding my hand. “Nice to meet you...eh formally.” Oh jeez, he did remember me from yesterday. I had hoped that because at least my hair was tame today, he wouldn’t recognize me from my circus act yesterday.
I subtly ran my hand over my hair to calm any fly-aways. “You too.” We stood there staring at each other (or at least I did) before I remembered why I was on the sidewalk. “I have to get to school now.”
“Ride?”
“No thanks, I’ll walk.” I was impressed by my own restraint.
“Okay. Well it was nice to meet you, Cami. See you around?”
The last half of that comment caught me by surprise. Was he asking to see me again? Maybe. Was I reading way too much into this? Definitely.
I bit my lip. “Yeah, sure.” I had to turn my back to him so I could conceal the smile forming on my lips.
As I suspected, Irelynn did not make it to school at all that day. However, her absence did not stop the gossip of the day from circling around the two of us. I didn't think anyone other than Will had witnessed the smack down I delivered earlier...I was wrong. By lunchtime, I'd been asked a million times how she was doing, as if she'd been hospitalized. For a fat lip?
I was able to talk to her at lunch and thankfully, she wasn't mad anymore, just sore. I spent the entire time consoling her, assuring her that her fat lip was not as bad as she thought it was although I couldn't see it.
My stomach churned as I walked through the doors at three o'clock. I was glad this day was over. My phone call at lunch had taken the entire time and I was hungry.
The afternoon sun and a light breeze hit my face as I walked down the front stairs. The rest of the students began to trickle out of the school and the warm weather had caused an impromptu game of football.
This weather made me wish for a fast winter. The past two years this area had been pounded by snow. Good for the ski resorts, bad for those who despised it, like me. On the other hand, spring meant the end of the school year, and graduation. I wasn't ready for deciding what I would do for the rest of my life yet. There was so much that I wanted to do. Why did I have to decide so soon? Why couldn't I have a vacation from learning? Like Will.
That was three hundred fifty three times I'd thought of him.
I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, letting the crisp, pine-scented air fill my nose. And then my stomach twisted again. I need food...I thought. I decided to take the long way home and stop at my favorite little market around the corner for a snack.
"Camo!" the bright redheaded woman behind the counter sang. I hated when she called me that.
I faked a smile. "Hey Juanita." She didn't know my name because we lived in such a small town; she knew it because I had been coming to this store since I was born. Juanita was one of Jillian's best friends. She was also my grandmother's second pair of eyes.
"Something healthy for you today?” She smiled expectantly. The downside of her owning this market was that she wouldn't let me splurge on junk food. Of course, all I wanted right now was a giant bag of chips.
I leaned against the counter. "What have you got?”
She reached for the basket behind her and pulled out a small bar wrapped in plastic. "It's a fruit bar," she said. "Homemade."
"Mmm." I smelled the package. "What kind?"
"Huckleberry," she beamed. “No special ingredients.”
Something caught her eye outside, causing her to squint through her thick glasses to see. Curious, I followed her gaze out the window.
A familiar black truck pulled up to the curb. Will jumped out and walked around to the other side. What is he doing here? I looked back at a smiling Juanita.
"I'll be right back." I tossed the bar on the counter and tried to mask the truth as I walked toward the door that the sight of him made my heart pound.
The sound of the bell ding when I opened the door made him look up. He stopped. "How's your friend?"
"She'll live...What are you doing here?"
"What?" he shrugged. "Am I not allowed to get something to eat?" He asked, pointing at the store.
Juanita’s market wasn’t a convenience store loaded with deli sandwiches and other processed goodies. Her customers mostly consisted of people that tried to use only organically produced products, which made her store unpopular with people my age. No one just randomly wandered into it hoping to get a meal, so I was not going to accept Will’s lame answer; even if it did sound fantastic coming from his lips.
"All right," he confessed when I didn’t respond. "I saw you come in here so I followed you.” His blue eyes flashed up.
That wasn’t the answer I’d expected and didn't know how to respond, so I just stood there gawking at him like and idiot.
"Um. Stay," I ordered. I spun around and went back into the store.
Juanita was standing behind the counter, her smile now stretched ear to ear. "You have an admirer."
"What, him? Nah." I tried to pass off my confusion about why he had followed me. I made a complete dummy of myself on the previous two occasions our paths crossed. Maybe that's what was different about him. He came back for more of the freak show that was me.
She slammed her empty hand on the counter making me jump. "You like this one.” Her smile stretched wider than I thought possible and she tossed the huckleberry bar to me. "It's on me, but I want all the details later!"
I grunted. She told me many times that she was reliving her youth through me, although I never understood why. She had been all around the world with my mother, while I had never even been out of the northwest.
"It's a deal."
The wrapper was already off the fruit bar by the time I reached the door, the cramp in my belly was getting worse and I decided to take the chance of getting a seed stuck in my teeth over having my stomach rumble in front of Will.
"So you followed me here." I squinted when I looked up at him. The sun was shining so intensely behind him that it burned my eyes to look for more than a second. I was thankful for that because it forced me to concentrate on what he was saying rather than getting entranced by his face.
"Is that okay?" He asked.
His question was not meant for me to answer with a yes or no. There was more behind it...as if he thought I really didn't want to be seen with him. How was I supposed to respond to that?
"It's a little weird," I had to admit.
He laughed. "Yeah, I guess it is. Sorry. I was out running errand for my uh-uncle. I saw you come in here, so I thought I'd say hi. So...hi.” He waited for me to respond. His smile made me dissolve into a puddle of lameness on the sidewalk. I was glad no one was around to see me. Except for Juanita.
> I took another bite.
"Hi," I said, careful to not spit anything out as I spoke. Dorothy would be horrified to see me speaking with a full mouth.
He seemed amused at my lack of interest, and totally oblivious to the fact that my nerves were strung tight. I was completely and totally unsure of what I should do next. I had him there. He had followed me. And all I could do was let him watch me inhale the fruit bar?
"So, do you like the valley so far?" I asked.
He was leaning against his truck again satisfied that I wasn't going to run off in the other direction. He ran his fingers through his messy curls. "It's not too bad. Small, but the people are interesting." He smiled, flashing his blue eyes at me again. He's got to stop doing that! I considered going back in the market and buying him sunglasses...and a baseball cap.
"Well, if you consider farmer's markets and high school football games interesting, you should fit right in," I muttered. I had been tortured year after year with the small town lifestyle. Someday, I reminded myself, I would be free.
"I'm more of a soccer fan," he teased.
"Sorry to disappoint.”
He smiled. "No worries. There's enough going on around here to keep me entertained while I’m here.” His eyes flickered to the window behind me. I turned to see Juanita conveniently washing the same spot on the window over and over.
I could feel my face flush. "Yes, small town life can be very amusing."
"You'll have to show me."
I tossed the uneaten portion of the fruit bar in the garbage can while my heart fluttered yet again. I tried to settle it by assuring myself that I was reading more into this than he was intending.
"I'm not that exciting. I'm on my way to the library," I quickly lied. Actually, I was on my way home, the most boring place on earth, to be the most boring seventeen year old on Earth.
"Great," his face lit up. "I love libraries. Mind if I come?"
"Errands?"
"They can wait."
I shrugged and grabbed my bag. The library excuse wasn’t a complete lie. My English class had just received the instructions for our final project, so I would have to go at some point.
The Valley Page 2