“So,” I started, when I was getting impatient with the silence we were keeping between us, “you probably know why you’re here.”
There was no reply.
I stood directly in front of him and said, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Colin. I told you that if you didn’t give back my black notebook, I’d take things to more extreme measures. This is just the beginning.”
Apparently I was talking with the wall because the answer that bounced back to me was silence. I cleared my throat and crossed my arms. “You want it that way, huh?” I said, trying to sound intimidating, “so be it.”
Still, Colin had no words to say to me. A full minute passed before I snapped. “Hey, I’m talking to you!” I shouted, fisting my hands. I took a step forward and pulled the box off his head.
The moment the light touched his red hair I realized that having amazingly good looks held a lot of advantages. One was that people who were affected in any way by these said good looks could be easily manipulated. Take me, for instance.
Colin had had his eyes closed under the box but, once it was off, he slowly opened them, focusing those beautiful green orbs on me. His hair was matted to his forehead with sweat but somehow he could pull it off. His exercise had left his cheeks flushed and the light made shadows dance across his face, engulfing his whole body with a magnificent aura.
And then the jerk just had to smile up at me.
Of course, silly old me just stood there, staring at him with my mouth agape.
Quick as lightning in that moment, while my guard was down, Colin stood up, raised his arms, and wrapped them around me, caging me in against him. He broke into an evil laugh. “I’ve got you now, Seven!”
The sudden movement surprised me and I stumbled, causing my ankle to twist slightly to the side. I could feel sharp pain in the still healing wound there but I could do nothing to stop it. I was stuck.
“Ouch!” I said, trying to push him away with my hands but the rope around his wrists was so tightly tied that I couldn’t break free. “Colin, let me go!”
I wriggled like a worm in his arms, trying to squeeze myself out, but all that did was press my chest against his. I looked up at him and, to my surprise, I found him staring down at our bodies, the laughter dying on his lips and his face slowly reddening.
For some reason, he suddenly became flustered. He tugged at his own arms, trying to get away from me, but something must’ve messed with his head because apparently he’d forgotten that he shouldn’t pull his arms away but lift them off me. He stepped back in panic and our legs got tangled, causing the both of us to fall—we’d been falling down together a lot recently, I’d noticed—and land on the red beanbag.
With a loud oompf, its fillings shot out of the rip and fell softly down like the feathers of an angel that had just passed by.
I was sitting on Colin’s lap, his arms around my waist and our faces so close that I could feel the heat radiating off him. Though a part of me was so embarrassed and simply wanted to get off him, another wanted to linger just a little longer. I stared into Colin’s eyes and noticed from the corner of my eye the pink blush across his cheekbones.
Somehow I knew it wasn’t there because of his exercise anymore.
He swallowed nervously as his eyes trailed down to my lips and stayed there. My heart pounded, accelerating with every second that passed as Colin slowly parted his lips and bit his bottom lip.
“Colin?” I whispered. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind in that small space of time and they could all be summarized in one sentence, one question: is he going to kiss me? Colin had tilted his head and leaned close, his nose brushing mine, my breath mingling with his, our eyes fluttering close and our lips merely inches apart. But I didn’t find out the answer to that question because the basement door opened with a loud bang and Neil came in, panting, to announce, “Sev, your parents are back.”
Colin and I jumped apart and, when I couldn’t get out of his embrace because of the rope, only then did he realize that all he needed to do to release me was to lift his arms. Once there was some distance between us and I wasn’t feeling as if I were inside a sauna, I noticed Neil scrutinizing us disapprovingly.
Fortunately, for once, he didn’t say anything about whatever he’d just seen.
“Come on,” he said after a while, “your parents are going to be opening the garage door”—he pointed at the metal gate before us—“any minute now. Nate and Nick are stalling them as we speak.”
“What about Colin?” I asked, gesturing to the person in question without looking back at him.
“We have no choice,” Neil said, reaching for a pair of scissors and using it to cut off the ropes around Colin’s wrists, “we’ll have to say that he’s a visitor.”
I nodded and, as Colin rubbed his slightly red wrists, he cleared his throat. When I saw his uncomfortable expression, I felt my heart sinking.
Was he looking like that because of the near-kiss? The blood drained from my face when I considered the possibility that it wasn’t him who shortened the distance, but me. Could it be that I’d moved without knowing, that my mind had mixed up my imagination and reality? Why did I always have to ruin everything?
“I just want to ask,” he said and then cocked an eyebrow at Neil, smirking, “what makes you think I’m going to go along with this after what you guys have just done to me?”
Now there was the Colin Stillman I knew.
Seeing the normality of things, it was easier for me to speak to him, but I didn’t get the chance. I was just opening my mouth to try and convince him to oblige, but Neil was ahead of me.
With a knowing smile directed at Colin, he said, “I don’t think it’ll be a problem. From what I saw just now, we don’t even have to force you.”
At that, Colin’s smile faded away and he knitted his eyebrows in confusion. I was pretty confused myself, but we didn’t have time. Neil took me by the elbow and assisted me out of the garage as fast as I could go. Colin had no choice but to follow us.
Just as the door swung shut behind us, I heard the sound of the garage door opening.
We darted towards the living room where the three of us plopped down on the cushions and I quickly placed a pillow under my foot on the coffee table in front of me. Neil grabbed the remote control and switched on the TV. Colin relaxed his position, crossing one leg over the other, and turned to Neil, who’d expertly started to say, “You know, this is a really good show. The theme song’s pretty nice too and—oh, there you are, Uncle Sean, Aunt Julie. You’re back earlier than we expected.”
“That’s what Nate was just saying,” my mom said, looking at my eldest cousin weirdly as she entered the basement door, “again and again, I might add.” Nate grinned guiltily at us from behind her.
“Thanks for watching over Seven, guys,” my dad said, nodding at Nick, who nodded back with a smile.
“I don’t need a babysitter, Dad, much less three,” I said, repeating my earlier dialogue and rolling my eyes.
“Yes, but—” my dad suddenly stopped when he saw Colin, who’d straightened up the moment my parents came in. He turned to me with a frozen smile. “Seven, who is this?”
“Um, Mom, Dad, this is Colin, my friend from school,” I said, gesturing to the boy who nearly stole my first kiss, “Colin, these are my parents, Sean and Julie Warrilow.”
Colin immediately sprang up from his seat and extended his hand to my parents. I turned to look at him and saw that he’d flashed his best smile at them. “Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Warrilow,” he said.
“Oh,” my mom said, a little breathlessly as she stared at Colin. “Oh my, please call me Julie. ‘Mrs. Warrilow’ makes me sound so old.”
“Oh, don’t worry, Mrs. Warrilow,” Colin replied smoothly, “it doesn’t, but calling you by your first name would certainly make me feel awkward.”
My mom took his hand and shook it. “Alright, then,” she said and then giggled.
I raised my eyebrows at my mom. I couldn’t believe she’d just giggled and at Colin, of all people. But I knew my mom; she probably found Colin just as handsome as most girls—including her own daughter—did.
My dad obviously wasn’t impressed by his charm though. He narrowed his eyes as he took Colin’s hand and gripped it. I could see Colin’s smile faltering just a little bit at how tightly my dad held his hand, but after a lengthy staring contest, my dad said, “It’s nice to meet you, too. Your name’s Cody, am I right?”
He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “It’s Colin, sir.”
“Right, so, Cody,” my dad continued on as if Colin hadn’t said a thing and I rolled my eyes, “what would be the reason as to why you’re currently in our living room?”
“Sean,” my mom hissed under her breath at my dad, lightly slapping him on the arm.
I opened my mouth to answer, “He—um, he just came to visit me, Dad. You don’t have to act so gruff, you know.”
“I’m not, kiddo,” he said, his features softening as he patted my head and kissed me on the forehead. He turned to Colin, who was looking so out of place, and was probably going to say something else but my mom quickly cut him off.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Colin, how rude of us! Sit down, sit down and I’ll prepare some snacks for you kids. What do you guys want?” my mom said in a rush, ushering Colin back to his seat and hurrying to the kitchen.
Nate grinned at my mom and said, “We want some of your cookies, Aunt Julie.” He almost sounded exactly the same as he did when we were still kids.
“Alright, let me just reheat the ones I already made. And I also made some milkshake last night—would you like some, Colin?” she asked, beaming at Colin, who nodded meekly and said, “Anything will be fine, Mrs. Warrilow.”
My dad, frowning at how little he could do against my mother, glumly crossed his arms and sat down on the couch beside me.
Eight minutes of absolute awkward silence existed between the six of us. Nate was watching a football game live on TV and whooping in excitement every now and then; Nick had his nose stuffed inside one of the books I’d finished in the past few days while I was cooped up in my room, and Neil was rubbing his chin in thought as he stared quizzically at Colin, who in turn seemed to be fascinated with his own hands. My dad was also looking at Colin with wariness; as for me, I looked at each of their faces and bit my lip nervously.
This lasted for eight agonizingly slow minutes—until my mom finally came back in with our snacks.
She laid the tray out on the coffee table, and Nate and Neil’s hands immediately shot out to grab one of the warm, crunchy-but-meltingly-soft-in-the-mouth cookies—but my mom was faster and she slapped both of their hands away and as they whimpered like whipped puppies. She told them sternly, “Where are your manners? We should let our guest eat first.” She then turned to Colin and smiled at him lovingly. “Cookies?”
“Um, sure,” he said, his eyes darting anxiously at Nate and Neil who were both glaring daggers at him as he took a cookie off the pile.
As my cousins helped themselves to the cookies, my mom sank down on the couch beside Nick and elegantly crossed her legs. “You know, Colin,” she started, “I think it’s really sweet that you made the effort to visit my daughter.”
Colin glanced at me from the corner of his eye before turning to my mom and replying, “Oh, it’s no big deal, Mrs. Warrilow. I actually wasn’t planning on visiting Seven today but before I knew it, in the next second, bam”—he clicked his fingers together as he spoke—“I was already here.”
I choked on my cookie and coughed, reaching out for my glass of milkshake. I hurriedly took several gulps and cleared my throat.
My cousins noticeably paused in their ravenous eating but quickly resumed, so as to not look obvious to my parents.
“But still,” my mom insisted, “we really appreciate it. Don’t we, dear?” My dad didn’t say yes or no, he just grunted.
“So, are you Seven’s classmate? She never really talks about her friends from school that much,” my mom said. “It’s always been about books, books, books.” I shot her a sharp look and noticed Nick glance up briefly from the book he was reading.
Colin chuckled softly and responded, “No, I’m a year older than Seven, but we have a few classes together.”
My dad suddenly spoke up, “So, Cody—”
“It’s Colin, sir.”
“Same difference,” he said dismissively. “Are you involved in any kind of groups?”
Colin looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, you know, gangs, occults, illegal societies—”
Mom said, “Sean!” at the same time I said, “Dad!”
“What?” my dad asked defensively. “It’s a valid question.”
To his surprise, though, Colin looked worried and answered, “I guess it’s time that I come out with the truth.”
Everyone stopped what they were doing and slowly turned to Colin, hoping that they’d heard wrong. My mom laughed nervously and asked, “What do you mean?”
He closed his eyes, pressing his thumb and forefinger to his eyelids and sighing, as if the situation was so hard on him. “The truth is…I am part of a, you could say, group but it’s not the kind that you’re all thinking of.”
At this we were all leaning in close to him to hear more.
“I…I belong to an organization,” he said and let go of his breath as if a great weight had been taken off him. “It’s…” He shook his head and said, “Sorry, I—just forget I said anything.”
“What is it, man?” Nate asked impatiently, curiosity winning him over.
Colin looked pained as he laced his fingers together in front of him. “You guys wouldn’t believe me.”
“You’ll never know unless you try,” I said, dropping my foot to the floor so I could get close and listen.
He released a deep sigh and said, “Alright. I suppose it’s too late now.” All of us held our breaths in anticipation. “I…belong to an organization that was made to fight against aliens and other extraterrestrial beings.”
For a second we just stared at Colin with shock mixed with confusion and incredulity. And then Neil voiced out the word we were all thinking: “Huh?”
By then Colin couldn’t hold it in anymore. He suddenly laughed, his smile almost as bright as the sunlight streaming into the room through the window. “I’m just kidding!” he admitted.
Did I forget to mention that he was notorious for never taking anything seriously?
At that moment, I was torn between wanting to smack him upside the head or laughing at how easily we were fooled by his great acting.
I chose the former.
I grabbed the pillow on the coffee table and hit him several times with it. “Ugh! You’re crazy!” I said, “I actually believed you for a second there!” But despite my words, I had a smile plastered on my face.
He shielded himself with his arms and laughed. Neil, who was beside him, took hold of his arms and said, “Here, Sev! I’ll hold him and you attack! Go!”
As I continued my attempt at murder with a couch pillow, Colin shouted, “No! Have mercy!” Everyone else was laughing at the scene in front of them—even my dad—until I stopped because my ankle was complaining. I fixed myself back in a comfortable position as Colin did the same.
“But pushing all jokes aside,” he said, as if he wasn’t the one who started it, “I’m not part of any groups, Mr. Warrilow, never been, never will.”
I turned to look at my dad’s reaction and was surprised to find him eyeing me carefully. There was something about his look that made me feel as if he could see right through me. I wondered if this was how the criminals he faced almost every day at court felt like whenever he’d look at them.
My dad shifted his gaze to Colin and cracked a smile. “I see,” was all he said.
From there, the topic ranged from school to what Colin planned on ta
king in college and somehow to horror stories until it became a debate between who was the best of the best in the Avengers.
“It’s definitely Thor,” I said, contradicting Neil, who said it was Iron Man. “Iron Man’s nothing without his suit!”
“The guy’s got brains, Seven,” Nate countered, siding with his youngest brother. “Do you think Thor could build a suit that can fly, shoot rockets, and is bulletproof with scarce resources and limited time? I don’t think so.”
“But Thor’s a god! He doesn’t need to build a suit!”
“I think Captain America’s stunning,” my mom commented.
My dad sent her a look I knew all too well. “No, he’s not,” he said. “All he has for power is a shield.”
“If his opponent is a woman, that wouldn’t be the only power he has over her.”
“Well, most of the time, it isn’t.”
“I said if.”
Right on time, Nate glanced over at the clock and started to get up. “Well,” he started loudly, catching everyone’s attention, “it was nice meeting you, Colin, but I think we need to go back home for lunch.” He gestured to his brothers, who nodded in agreement.
As they pushed themselves off the couch, Nick said, “Goodbye, Uncle Sean, Aunt Julie. Thanks for having us.”
“Our pleasure,” my mom said, smiling. “And thank you for taking care of Seven this morning. I hope it wasn’t too much trouble.”
The three of them shared a knowing look. “Nah,” they all said together, contrary to the way they mischievously grinned at my mom. She didn’t seem to notice, thankfully.
I watched them get up, expecting them to head to the door and leave, but Neil walked right in front of Colin and said, “Why don’t you help Seven up to her room so that her parents won’t have to escort her themselves?”
My dad, of course, automatically opened his mouth to speak, “Actually I—”
“Uncle,” Neil said quickly, wrapping a firm arm around my dad’s shoulders and steering him away from Colin and me, “I heard that you’ve been really busy at work—lawyer stuff and all. Is it really that hard?”
The Black Notebook Page 10