Double Life - Book 1 of the Vaiya Series

by Vaiya Books

  “Course I did.” Eddy chuckled. “That totally made my day.”

  Relieved upon hearing Eddy’s high praise where he’d expected a mild censure, Ian grinned as he gazed out the window at the bright stars. “So, what was the final tally?”

  Chuckling, Eddy pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and flipped the car light on. As Ian’s costume had been the talk of the night, Eddy had decided to ask everyone what they thought he looked like; he got varying responses: “Ten elves, six noblemen, four vampires, one druid, five unknowns, and … two elven princesses.”

  He sighed. “Tianna and Hazel with the princesses, I assume?”

  “Yeah, though you know they did it just to annoy you; I mean, you don’t like one or anything.” Eddy laughed as he turned off the car light and repocketed the paper as if it were an important memento. Then he looked at Ian, snickering under his breath, adding, “Though you kind of do smell like one.”

  Ian, expecting this comment from his friend, only experienced weak embarrassment, which he covered up with a laugh. After all, there was not much he could’ve done about the perfumed water, the rose wild berry shampoo, or the floral-scented elven garments. Not feeling responsible took much of the shame from him. “Thanks, Eddy. I feel really manly now.”

  Ignoring him, though still smiling, Eddy sat in silence for a few seconds and then, as if suddenly remembering something, punched Ian hard on the shoulder.

  The blow startled him. “Hey, what’s that for?” Sure, he sort of deserved it for all the times he’d done the same thing to his friend, but still...

  “You never picked up your phone,” replied Eddy, in a half-amused, half-annoyed tone. “What, did it die on you?”

  “Um, actually yes,” he murmured hesitantly. “It sort of lost reception which is why I never heard your calls. Not that I would’ve called you back when I was hiding anyway, but still--”

  “But you did call me,” said Eddy pointedly. “Three times to be exact. And you hate talking on phones.”

  “Yeah, I know,” he said in a hurried tone, biting his lip gently, heart beating faster, as he fought to keep his story from unraveling. “But I did that just to get your attention. I knew you wouldn’t actually answer me.”

  Shaking his head, likely confused by Ian’s logic, which could be surprisingly complicated at times, he backed away from that argument and got back to the simple facts. “So your phone lost reception?”

  Ian shrugged. “Yeah. All the clutter in there just sort of killed it.”

  “Clutter? All I saw was a bunch of weight stuff. How does that affect reception?”

  This wasn’t going well; he stuck his hands deep into his cloak pockets. “I guess I didn’t clarify myself; I’m talking about the attic.”

  “You were in the attic?” burst out Eddy, both amused and shocked. “Isn’t that off limits?"

  “Not when Hazel gave me permission to go in there,” replied Ian, more sure of himself now since he was actually telling the truth.

  Eddy wasn’t convinced. “Yeah right,” he said, as he chuckled like a sailor who’d heard a tall tale from his fishing buddy. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, man, but Hazel’s either going to hate you or love you. I hope it’s the first one.”

  “Hey!”

  “Ha! I’m just givin’ you a hard time,” said Eddy, laughing to himself, “but seriously, you’ve got to be careful around her. In case you haven’t noticed, she watches you like a hawk.” Smirking, he then added softly, “If I didn’t know any better … I’d say she likes you.”

  Ian’s cheeks blazed with heat. If he’d thought that wearing the costume would make Hazel like him less, he was completely wrong; after she’d seen him with it, her affection for him seemed to have grown even stronger--that is, if he were reading her emotions right, which he could never be sure of.

  Setting his face in a rather expressionless gaze in hopes of alleviating his embarrassment, Ian glanced casually at his friend. “Yeah, I had my suspicions.”

  Looking ready to respond, Eddy heard a shuffling sound behind him. Leaning over, he gazed at Darien in the back seat, one of his hands on the steering wheel. “Hey, what’s goin’ on, man? You’ve been awfully quiet.”

  “Just thinkin’ ... that’s all.”

  “Care to share?” Ian quickly threw himself into the dialogue, badly wanting to shift the focus onto someone or something else. It seemed he was doing this a lot recently.

  Darien, eyes clouded over with pessimism, paused for several seconds, before replying with an uneasy tone, “It’s about football. The game’s this Friday and we’re challenging a really tough school from Pontiac that’s only lost one game all season.” Words spoken, he sunk his head as if he’d already lost the game.

  Noticing Darien’s worried attitude, he grew disgusted. His friend had no reason to be so negative--if anything, Ian should be the one feeling sorry for himself. “Hey, have some faith, man; you’re an awesome quarterback. I’m sure you’ll do great.”

  Unfortunately, these reassuring words seemed to have little effect upon Darien, as his face only grew darker, his eyes narrowing with bitterness.

  After a bleak moment of silence, Eddy eventually spoke up, his tone both concerned and annoyed. “Come on, what’s really goin’ on, man? Football’s never gotten you so upset before.”

  Though the words were clearly loud enough for him to hear, it appeared Darien had turned into a statue as he sat motionless, a pained expression chiseled on his face. Just when Eddy was about to speak up again, Darien suddenly burst out. “Ok, it’s about Kenn,” he murmured, almost in confession mode, as his face took on the seemingly conflicting emotions of anger and sympathy. “I’m sure he means well, but he’s really starting to get on my nerves.”

  Though such a statement would be commonplace for most people, Darien wasn’t one to ever talk bad about anyone no matter how great the fault of character they possessed. Thus, to hear these words from him now, utterly astonished Ian, in spite of the fact that Kenn, more than anyone, deserved this criticism. “What did he do to you?” he asked, trying not to show too much curiosity, though he was dying to find out what Kenn could have done to disturb Darien so much.

  Darien shuffled in his seat, hesitating, as if he were trying to find the nicest way to phrase his reply. “I met him in the parking lot today.”

  After a stifled pause, Ian about lost it. “So what happened? Did he start a fight with you?”

  “No, he’s way too civilized for that,” he replied, his voice suddenly very weak as if ashamed. “He just handed me a pair of square glasses and told me that ‘a loser once … was a loser forever.’” Darien’s words fell hard upon Ian’s ears, rapidly poisoning his already bad image of Kenn. He could easily imagine Kenn and his cronies laughing and mocking Darien. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, and what’s worse is what he said to me after he beat me in the ping pong tournament.”

  Sickened to his stomach, Ian sat in suspense, cringing at the words he was about to hear. “So, what’d he say?”

  “I’m not telling,” he replied bluntly, as if too disgusted to share it. “I’m done with this topic.”

  Knowing how his friend could be, Ian just swallowed his anger, not forcing the point. He’d already heard all he needed to. Kenn was a monster. As much as he tried to find some good in the man, there was nothing to grasp onto. Only bad memories surfaced.

  Furious, wanting to further blacken Kenn’s reputation in his friends’ eyes, Ian was just about to tell them what Kenn had said to him after he’d lost at ping pong, when he glanced over at Eddy and saw a growing smile on his face. Confused and rather bitter for having his thoughts interrupted, he abruptly stopped what he was about to say. “What, Eddy?”

  Now that the spotlight was on him, Eddy didn’t waste any time moving on to a more pleasant topic. “Nothing much. I was just going to ask Darien what he thought of your costume.”

  A weak grin suddenly appeared on Darien’s sober face. “
Well, it amused me,” he murmured, his voice still hesitant. “My coz told me it didn’t seem anything like him--it totally surprised her.”

  Attentive, shoving his thoughts about Kenn aside for now, Ian leaned forward in his seat, pressing him for more information. “Did she say anything else?”

  “Yeah--she said it looked cute on you.”

  “Were those her exact words?” he asked, trying not to sound too curious.

  “I think so.” Darien laughed warmly, as if their conversation about Kenn had never happened.

  “So, she thought it was funny?”

  His constant questioning made Darien’s smile widen. “Yeah. She said it made her week.”

  A subdued smile on his face, Ian remained silent and stared down at the seat, quietly reflecting over these positive words, letting them wash away the dark stains caused by Kenn’s spiteful behavior.

  Looking amused by his response, Eddy picked up the conversation, turning towards Ian. “Hey, man. I need to get myself one of those costumes. The girls went crazy over it. So where’d you get it from?”

  Ian shrugged, his mind once again recreating the scene of the elven bathhouse, a scene he somehow couldn’t get out of his mind. “I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.”

  Upon hearing the last word, Eddy’s face contorted like he’d been stricken by the plague, distress tearing through his happiness. “You and your secrets,” he muttered.

  Unsettled, Ian solemnly stared down at his seat, while Darien picked up the conversation, focusing on Eddy. “Hey, don’t let it get to you, man,” said Darien, a bit of encouragement edging its way into his tone. “He’s just embarrassed that you’ll look up the site and find out how much it cost.”

  This simple explanation had a surprisingly good effect on Eddy. His countenance transformed from dark to light, bitter to amused. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right.” Eddy turned down into Ian’s driveway, a full-fledged smile now on his face, as he looked over his shoulder at Ian. “I bet that silver belt alone cost you a fortune, not even mentioning all the other stuff.”

  Ian grinned faintly, a mysterious glint in his eyes. “You’d be surprised.” Bending over, he picked up the black dress shoes beside his feet, before grabbing the black leather jacket on his lap.

  Parking his Mazda 3, Eddy laughed. “I knew it, man. You’re crazy. You’ll do anything to impress the girls.”

  “Yeah, you got me there.” Calmness in his eyes, Ian flung open the car door, his jacket and his shoes in his arms, his tone friendly, though unusually quiet. “Catch ya later, guys.”

  Walking inside as Darien took over shotgun, Ian gently closed the front door of his house and stared around him, his eyes numbed by the darkness. All the lights were off. Everyone was already asleep.

  Though he’d never been scared of the dark before, even frequently teasing his sister about her night phobia, right now he felt downright petrified, as if unseen phantoms were lurking in the stillness, ready to lunge at him and grab him by the throat.

  Making a mad dash from the kitchen into the living room, not even caring that his parents’ room was close by or that he could barely see, he then ascended the flight of stairs that led to his bedroom, his heart pounding with terror.

  Once safe inside his room, the door locked behind him, the light switch flipped on, he gazed at himself in the large rectangular mirror to the right of his old wooden lamp stand and stood in profound silence, his fear steadily being replaced by a dream-like haze.

  Aside from his elven clothes, his encounter in the other world could’ve just been his imagination. He couldn’t even remember how to speak the elven language anymore and even his vivid memories about Azadar and his companions seemed almost fake.

  Removing his elven clothes, which still gave off a light flowery scent, he changed into a white t-shirt and navy blue pajamas, and then hastily threw his cloak, tunic, belt, and boots in his large closet.

  Entering the bathroom and flipping on the light switch, he stood in stillness before the mirror, as his reflection stared back at him. Right now, nothing made sense. His otherworldly experience might as well be a nightmare, a dark memory he wished to shove far away into his mind, never to remember again. Yet no matter how much he wanted to forget that world, the haunting images would likely remain with him for the rest of his life. He’d just have to deal with it.

  Snapping himself out of his daze, trying to make the best of the situation, he proceeded with his nightly routine. After brushing his teeth and flossing, he returned to his bedroom, flipped off the light switch, and then sunk his head into his soft feather pillow while wrapping his black woolen blanket around his body.

  Avoiding any more stray thoughts about the other world, he calmed himself down with pleasant thoughts about the enjoyable euchre game that night with Eddy, Tianna, and Samantha. Eddy’s intuition to continually call the right suit, coupled by his almost clairvoyant ability to play the right card at the right time had given their team a maddeningly unfair advantage. Both the girls were more than a little annoyed when the game ended with them not getting any points, but he didn’t care. He was just glad to win something that night, having already lost at ping pong and chess, the foosball victories against Eddy not really balancing the score.

  Exhausted from another late night, re-envisioning the shocked look on Tianna’s face as she lost to his all-scoring loner, he soon fell into a deep and peaceful sleep, dreaming about Skyler miraculously recovering from his injury and Hazel coming out of an amethyst palace in a beautiful princess gown, affection ablaze in her blue eyes.

  Chapter 12

  “Hey, Ian.” William approached him, joy in his step, as he swung open his locker and carefully extracted his German II book as if it were an ancient relic. “Jimmy’s parents and older sister left today and won’t be back for a whole week.” With a tinge of envy, he proceeded, “They’re going to Hawaii.”

  “I bet Jimmy’s jealous,” said Ian, as he pulled open his locker adjacent to William’s, noticing for the first time the many scrapes and dents on his.

  “Yeah. It’s all he talks about anymore besides elves, dragons, knights, and, of course, girls.” He smirked sarcastically upon saying the last word, his Persian blue eyes twinkling with renegade laughter. “So, you still wanna do something with us tonight?”

  Ian grabbed his Spanish II book and kicked his locker shut. “Sure, what’s the plan?” Today would be better he’d told himself when he’d first arrived at school. No more of this fantasy or elf stuff. Yet now, since he’d be hanging out with Jimmy, as he’d promised to William yesterday and had somehow forgotten, he knew this topic would be quickly brought up and hard to put down. How annoying, especially since he’d made up his mind in the morning that he never wanted to think about the other world again.

  Now though, he’d have to relive the haunting memories over and over as often as Jimmy decided to live up to his many nicknames. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be that bad, and besides, it would give him a good reason to get out of the house away from his sister’s bothersome friend.

  As Ian’s internal monologue ended, William finally made up his mind. “Hmm … how about we eat out at Sparta’s Diner before heading over to Jimmy’s place?”

  “Sounds great. What time?” He glanced down at his Spanish book, all worn down and beat up, William’s German book looking brand new in comparison; for the first time, it bothered him. Was he really that destructive?

  “Five. Be ready for us to pick you up at five.”

  “Sure thing; you know where I live, Will?”

  He adjusted his glasses, appearing ever the scientist. “North Maple Street, right?”

  Ian stood visibly impressed. William was good; how could he possibly know where he lived? “Yeah.”

  Looking pleased with himself, William added, “Be outside at five; Jimmy hates tardiness,” before walking casually to class.

  Ian smiled in obvious relief, glad to have after-school plans, especially since Rowan Summers, Tianna’s younger si
ster, was coming over today and would likely bother him non-stop until he told her everything about the party last night and why he wore the costume and perfume. Rowan could be so immature at times.

  Worse than her pestering, though, was her clever wit which she had fine-tuned over the years. She had a way with words that could embarrass anybody, and to top it off, seemed to relish in awkward situations. The latter quality was of particular importance.

  One time, as he was just about to make his after-school run down the blocks, Rowan interrupted him and asked if she could join him. Of course, he told her no, but after she insisted, he realized she was being serious and said yes, being the diplomat that he was. Needless to say, it was one of the worst runs ever, and it wasn’t because of lack of conversation, rather, it was the conversation that made it so bad. She continued to ask him about anything that came into her mind, like what his favorite color was, which type of dog he liked the most, and all sorts of questions, which really bugged him. At one point she even asked him what people would think, seeing the two of them running together like this. He didn’t respond.

  Put all together, the best part of the event was that she’d decided to keep his fairly new pair of shoes that he’d loaned her for the run. As luck would have it, their shoe sizes were eerily similar even though she was a year younger than him and a girl. What could he say? His feet were small. It wasn’t that unusual; yet she’d never let him forget it.

  Sighing in relief again, thanking William inwardly for inviting him over so that he’d not have to put up with her antics today as he’d be gone before she came over at six, and she’d most likely be gone before he came home, he saw Coach Sandler strutting down the hallway and instantly knew what to do.

  Though today had already gone far above his expectations, he would make today even better. Remembering what he’d said about joining Sandler’s team if he ever got out of the other world, he sprinted up to the coach, who slowed down before halting altogether and turning his way. Ian greeted him warmly like a best friend: “Hey, Coach Sandler.”