Forks, Book Two

by A. E. Davis

“Missing your boy, Jason?”

  “Not really.”

  He laughed stupidly.

  I ignored him, or tried to, but then he stepped in my way. “What are you doing?”

  “I wanted to ask you something.”

  “I’m late.”

  “It will only take a second.

  I stopped and exhaled. “Yes.”

  “A group of us are going to the pumpkin patch tonight…”

  I lifted my brows. “And…”

  “And I wanted to know if you wanted to come with us?” His face turned red as he blurted out the last part.

  “Ah…”That threw me for a loop.

  “You know, since your boy is indisposed for an interminable amount of time,” he added quickly.

  “I already told you,” I gritted. “He’s not my…oh, just forget it.” I stepped in the mud anyway, to get past him. My sneakers slid on the pavement as I fast walked away from him.

  “Hey,” he called. “Wait up.”

  I ignored him and kept walking. “Donkeyhole.”

  He ran up and jumped in front of me, walking backwards. “Listen,” he said. “I was just kidding.”

  “You’re a riot.”

  “Come on,” he coaxed. “It’ll be fun.”

  “It’s a school night,” I said lamely.

  His brows creased. “Well, whatever. I just thought you might like to come out with us.”

  “Well, thanks for thinking of me…”

  “Vincent’s coming, too.”

  What did he expect me to do? Magically agree since Vincent was coming—even though, deep down, I did kind of want to go, now. “That’s nice.”

  “Come on, new girl…err, I mean,” he gave me a sheepish look. “What’s your name again?”

  “Amber.”

  “Right, I knew that.”

  “Sure you did,” I deadpanned, annoyed.

  “Hey,” I heard from behind me and immediately knew who it was.

  “What’s up my man,” Curtis said, and did some fist- bump- hand- slap thing with Vincent.

  “What are you two doing?”

  It sounded like an accusation, not a question.

  “I was just asking your girl here, if she wanted to come to the pumpkin patch with us tonight.”

  “I’m not his…”

  An arm slipped over my shoulder. “And what did my girl say?”

  “She said it’s a school night.” Curtis rolled his eyes and then took a reflexive step back, looking nervous suddenly.

  I didn’t know why, but this pleased me immeasurably.

  Vincent pulled me closer and tingles shot up all over my body. I could feel the heat coming off him along with the distinct smell of cinnamon.

  “How about Friday?” Vincent asked suddenly.

  “Ah…” I didn’t know what to say. Wasn’t he still mad at me?

  “Friday works for me,” Curtis was saying.

  “Cool, it’s a date then.”

  I didn’t know what was going on. Was I excluded from the “date” now?

  The bell rang.

  “Cool. See you Friday.” Curtis turned and took off down the sidewalk towards school.

  “What did you just do?” I turned and looked up into Vincent’s smiling green eyes.

  “Looks like I just made plans for you Friday night.”

  “With just you and Curtis?” I asked with an ample amount of disbelief.

  “With me…”

  “But Curtis said…”

  “I could give a shit what Curtis said.” His eyes flashed.

  “Okay.” I felt unaccountably pleased suddenly.

  His grin grew. “Cool. It’s a date…oh right, you can’t date.” His jaw hardened. “What am I allowed to call it?”

  “Ah…hanging out,” I somehow managed.

  “All right,” he said, his smile returning. “We will hang out, then.”

  “Sounds good,” I said before I could stop myself.

  “Yeah, it does,” he agreed. His eyes flickered over my face and my heart jumped into double time.

  He tensed and looked over his shoulder.

  I looked too, but I didn’t see anything.

  “I gotta jet,” he said quickly.

  “Oh—kay,” I said slowly.

  He winked at me and then took off.

  I walked into school in a daze. What did I just agreed to?

  The rest of the day was a blur. All I could think about was going to the pumpkin patch with Vincent, alone. Then, wondering what would Viktor think if he found out. Then I berated myself for even caring. He didn’t own me. In fact, he hadn’t even spoken to me since that night at the lighthouse when he stole my breath with his kisses and then in the same instant he turned around and called me gullible.

  Reading a text from Mom, I hung outside my last class. She needed me to go to the store after school. Typical. I was postponing the inevitable as long as possible. I wasn’t sure if Viktor had heard about my “date” with Vincent or not.

  Two cold hands slid over my eyes.

  I jumped and dropped my phone.

  “Gotcha,” Glinda giggled hysterically, reached down, and picked up my phone off the floor.

  “You scared me.” I took my phone back and shoved it into my pocket.

  “I know.” She laughed harder.

  “Not funny.”

  “Oh, come on. I was just playing.”

  “Fine,” I grumbled.

  “I can’t wait,” Glinda said excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

  “What can’t you wait about?”

  “Going to the pumpkin patch, Friday,” she said.

  My eyes widened. “With who?”

  “You silly.”

  “Who told you that?”

  Curtis told me.”

  “Oh…cool.” What?

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” She hit my arm—hard.

  “I forgot.” I rubbed the sting from my arm.

  “It’s going to be sooo much fun,” she gushed excitedly. “We can have some cider, pick out pumpkins, and go through the maze. Then we can go to the Psycho Social, Saturday.”

  “I’m not sure I want to go there.”

  “Why ever not?” She gave me a weird look.

  “I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem like much fun.”

  “Are you kidding me? She grabbed my arms and shook me. “You have to go.”

  “Okay, okay, I’ll go.”

  She let go. “I knew you’d see it my way.” She gave me a sly grin.

  “I still have to ask my mom.”

  “Well, I’m sure she will let you go.”

  “Yeah, probably,” I sighed.

  “What’s wrong?” Her expression became serious. “Has Jason called you again?”

  “No.” I shook my head.

  “Good.” She turned around and looked down the hall.

  “Hey, I thought you were going to call me last night and tell me about Evelyn.”

  Not answering, she kept looking down the hall as she absently traced her bird tattoo on the inside of her left wrist.

  “Glinda…”

  She glanced back at me with a strange look on her face. “Huh?”

  “What were you going to tell me about Evelyn?”

  “Oh…right…” She leaned to the side, looking past me into the classroom.

  “Well…” I prompted her when she didn’t say anything.

  “The teacher is waiting for us. Come on.”

  I ran my fingers through my hair a few times, took a bracing breath and prepared myself to see Viktor.

  Following behind Glinda, I walked into class. My eyes went immediately to his chair and my heart plummeted. He wasn’t here.

  twenty eight

  Pulling into the lot at Thriftway, I threw Peggy Sue into park and killed the ignition. The car sputtered a few times and then after a loud car-farting backfire she finally cut off. A small shaft of sunlight was trying to push its way through a bunch of fat bellied clouds but it
wasn’t working very well. Grabbing my wallet, I climbed from the car and headed inside. The doors swished open and the smell of steamed shrimp wafted on the warm air from the back of the store. Deciding to forgo the noisy cart, I grabbed a hand basket instead.

  Mom only wanted a few toiletries, like shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, and toothpaste. I grabbed some cinnamon mouthwash for me since I’d been out for a while. Looking at the shelves, I tried to find Mom’s brand of shampoo and conditioner. She was very picky. Of course, it was on the top shelf, one I couldn’t reach.

  Setting my basket on the floor, I stepped up on the bottom shelf. I was in mid-reach…

  “Hey!” a sharp voice yelled from behind.

  Startled, my foot slipped off the shelf. The momentum carried me backwards, into something hard. That something grabbed me a little too tightly. Turning, I looked right into a pair of blue unsmiling eyes. My heart jumped into double time and not in a good way. “Sorry,” I mumbled and righted myself again.

  Clarke stared at me, his expression stern. “Oh, it’s you,” he scathed.

  Prickles rose on my skin.

  “You can’t stand on the shelves.”

  “I was just getting…”

  “I don’t care.” He turned and headed down the aisle.

  “Donkeyhole,” I muttered under my breath.

  He stopped abruptly, like he heard me, which couldn’t be possible and turned to look back at me. He made a snorting noise, almost like a laugh and then disappeared around the corner.

  Making sure the coast was clear, I climbed back on the shelf and grabbed the shampoo and conditioner that I needed.

  Almost to the checkout my phone bleated. I pulled it out of my pocket and groaned. The list had grown considerably. Heading back down another isle, I picked up some coffee, filters, bottled water and then headed to frozen foods for a package of chicken, cheese, and broccoli Lean Pockets. Mom’s other go-to food, which sucked because now I knew Ken wasn’t cooking. For a little variety from Chunks Sirloin Burger soup, I grabbed a Hungry Man Salisbury Steak dinner, for me, and headed to the register.

  Standing at the back of the line, I waited while Clarke rang up another person. I tried not to look at him but I kept feeling like someone was watching me. Lowering the magazine I was holding, I looked over the top and sure enough, good old Clarke with his volcano pimples about to explode on his ruddy face was looking right at me. I lifted my magazine higher to block him out.

  Once I heard the register slam shut, I unloaded my groceries on the belt.

  “Paper or plastic?” Clarke glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

  “Plastic is fine.”

  Lifting the bottle of shampoo, he gave me an accusatory look, like he knew I climbed on the shelf anyway. Well, too bad. It wasn’t my fault they put the bottles of shampoo on the top shelf.

  “I’m surprised to see you,” he said, suddenly.

  “Really, why’s that?”

  He shrugged and rang up another item, dropping it into the bag with little care. “I thought they would have gotten rid of you by now.”

  Chills climbed over my skin. “Wh—at do you mean?” I stammered stupidly.

  A slow grin slid across his face, revealing his overlapping front teeth. “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “It’s just an observation.”

  “Well, who asked you?” I snapped.

  “No one,” he said. His eyes glittered strangely under the fluorescent lights. “I was just making small talk. It’s my job.”

  “Don’t bother on my account.”

  He laughed. It was brittle sounding like he didn’t do it very often. “You’re funny, Sunshine.”

  I did a double take. “Why did you call me that?”

  “It’s where you’re from…right?” He leveled me with an icy stare as he dropped another item in the bag.

  “How do you know?” An uneasy feeling swept over me.

  “Small town, people talk.” He shrugged again.

  That was the same thing Viktor said to me. What the…

  “My sister came back,” he said suddenly.

  “Why isn’t she working then?” I couldn’t help asking.

  “She’s not doing too good,” he said ominously.

  “What’s wrong with her?” I asked.

  “She has…” he started but another person came up behind me in line and he stopped again.

  He finished ringing up my stuff. “That’s sixty seven dollars and fifty two cents.”

  I slid my card through the reader.

  He punched the buttons on the register and then ripped off the receipt. “You want your receipt in the bag?”

  “Sure.”

  “Your boy came to see her?”

  “What?” My heart broke into a gallop.

  He laughed again, harder this time. “Yeah, I didn’t think you knew.”

  I wanted to ask what he meant but the line was getting longer. Lifting my bags, I turned to leave.

  “Hey, Sunshine,” he called after me and even though I didn’t want to, my curiosity made me turn back around.

  A strange gleam was in his eyes. “Watch your back.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” I whirled around and headed towards the doors. His creepy laughter followed me out.

  Looking both ways, I crossed the street with my bags in tow. The sun that had been trying to break through the clouds had obviously been smothered to death because it was now dark and gloomy. Picking up my pace, I wove through the lot to my car. There was an eerie vibe in the air. I tried to ignore it and quickly unlocked my door and jumped inside, half expecting Vincent to somehow be waiting for me but he wasn’t.

  Once I was in, I relocked my door and started the car. It sputtered to life. Feathering the gas, I got the idle up and put the car in drive. As soon as I pulled out of the lot, it started to rain. Figures.

  The entire way home, I couldn’t shake the creepy feeling I had from Clarke even though I tried to tell myself he was just a freak, but something just didn’t make sense. Like why he even told me about Sandy, and more importantly who was he referring to when he said “my boy.” Was it Vincent, or Viktor, or someone else? I just didn’t know. But one thing was certain, I was going to tell Ken that Sandy was back and maybe he could find out why she wasn’t doing too good. Whatever the heck that was supposed to mean. Did she have the flu or something else…something dire?

  The clouds opened up and rain pounded down on my windshield. Turning on the wipers, they protested, squeaking loudly as they shoved the water off the glass. My mind was going a mile a minute with unanswered questions. Like how Clarke knew where I was from? It’s not like it was common knowledge, after all. I didn’t even think I told Glinda where I was from. In fact, the only person that did know was…Ken.

  Surprisingly, when I pulled into the driveway Ken’s squad car was parked out front which seemed weird. I thought he wasn’t coming over tonight but was glad since I would get to tell him about Sandy.

  Jerking my hoodie up, I stepped out of the car and grabbed the groceries from the backseat. The rain was pummeling against me and my jacket did little to deflect the deluge of water from soaking me through. By the time I made it inside the house even my pants were wet. I shut the front door and set down the groceries while I took off my coat.

  “Amber, is that you?”

  Who else would it be? “Yep, it’s me.” I hung up my jacket and turned. I promptly screamed.

  “Whoa, Kiddo…” Ken held up his hands.

  “You scared me.” I had my hand plastered to my chest.

  “I didn’t mean to.” Ken gave me an apologetic look.

  “It’s okay.” I dropped my hand and picked up the groceries.

  “I wanted to talk with you, if that’s all right.”

  “Sure, let me just put these away real fast.” I lifted the bags up.

  “Oh, sure. You want some help?”

  “Nah. I got it.” I carried the bags to the kitchen and unloaded them and set the toiletries on the table
to carry upstairs later. After drying off with a dishtowel, I grabbed a bottle of water and headed out into the living room. Mom was sitting cross-legged on the couch and Ken was tossing some wood on the fire. It crackled and hissed but gave the room a nice cozy feel.

  “Hey, Mom,” I said, leaning against the couch.

  “How was school?”

  “Just peachy.” I twisted the lid off my water and took a sip.

  Her brows creased. “Did something happen?”

  I was sure she was referring to what I told her last night about Viktor and Vincent. “Nah. Just have a lot of homework. I got your stuff from the store, though.”

  “Good. Thank you.”

  “No problem.” It was weird. I wasn’t sure what all the small talk was for. Everything seemed a bit stilted like something was going on. My pulse picked up pace as I looked between Mom and Ken, who was now standing by the fireplace looking at me. I patted my hair, and looked down at my clothing. Everything seemed to be in place. “Is something wrong?”

  Ken’s eyes darted to the side.

  I looked at Mom as she was pulling a piece of yarn from the afghan she made and was twirling it into a ball. At the rate she was unraveling the afghan she would have a ball of yarn and no afghan. “What’s wrong?” I asked again, feeling a sickening lump form in my chest.

  “We found Sandy,” Ken said, using his official police officer voice.

  “Oh, great,” I said relieved he brought it up. “I was going to tell you about that.”

  Ken gave me a strange look and Mom looked at me like I had three heads. “What?”

  Ken’s brows creased. “What were you going to tell me?”

  “Ah, that Clarke said she was back.”

  Ken promptly pulled out his little notebook from his pocket protector along with a pencil. “Who is Clarke?”

  “He’s her brother.”

  “When did you see him?” His brows were now in a straight line.

  “Ah, at Thriftway. I stopped on my way home from school.”

  “Why did you do that?” Mom asked, looking freaked.

  “You asked me to stop, remember?” Didn’t I just tell her that?

  “Oh, right.” She looked at Ken. “I did ask her to stop.”

  He nodded his head and jotted something down in his little book.