Manifesting Shadow, #1

“Oh, yeah, with Miss G?” Cain asked.

  “Oh, no, but I had it,” she professed with a wide smile.

  “Ugh, come on. I’m bored, let’s go get something to eat,” said Alicia. Bailey took Trish’s hand, dragging her away.

  “Oh, okay. Bye, Cain. See you later,” she said, waving.

  “Bye,” he said, returning her wave. “She’s nice.”

  “Yeah, I think so too.”

  “Bailey on the other hand,” he laughed, “She can be unpleasant . . .”

  “Yeah, I would have to agree.”

  “I like your hair, by the way, it looks great,” he said as we began making our way around the carnival.

  “Oh, thanks,” it was weird engaging in a near flirtatious conversation with a boy, but Cain seemed so kind-hearted, it was impossible not to like him.

  “Looks like my brother finally got to Peyton,” he said, “He’s been talking about her since she came into town last year.”

  “It seems that way,” I agreed.

  “Are you with anyone?” he asked candidly.

  “Ha, uh . . . no.”

  “I feel for you on that. I feel like I’m never going to find someone,” he said.

  “Well, Trish just loves you, apparently a lot of girls do,” I said, thinking he really couldn’t find it that surprising.

  “Really? Hmmm. I guess you never really know if people notice you until they say something.”

  “Yeah,” I said, wondering if I should have said what I had about Trish, maybe it was a secret. I suddenly felt nervous. I didn’t want to be perceived as the person who couldn’t keep a secret.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t tell her you told me,” he promised. “You looked worried.”

  “Thank you,” I said with relief.

  “It’s good to see Peyton hanging out with more down-to-earth people and not just space cadets,” he said laughing.

  “Yeah, who knew,” I replied thinking it was somewhat unbelievable for someone on the outside looking in.

  We sauntered around a few more times before we wound up back where we started and found Peyton and Abel waiting for us.

  “Hey,” Abel called, waving his arms as if we might have difficulty spotting him. We joined them.

  “Hey, it looks like it’s going to rain, you want to head home?” Peyton asked.

  “Oh, yeah, sounds good,” I hadn’t expected to head home together since our homes weren’t exactly close to each other.

  “Wait, where’s your car? We can give you guys a ride home,” Abel offered.

  “Thanks, but I think we’ll just walk,” she said, “It was good seeing you.”

  “All right, well if you change your mind about the party tonight, swing by.”

  “For sure,” Peyton said with a nod. “Ready?” she asked me.

  “Yup,” I said, then turned back to Cain, “It was nice meeting you, see you around.”

  “Definitely, it was nice meeting you too,” he said, smiling. Abel was clearly puzzled.

  Peyton and I left the carnival and started heading homeward.

  “Sorry about my friends, and getting caught up in conversation with them,” she said.

  “It’s okay.”

  “And sorry about leaving you.”

  “That’s okay too.”

  “And sorry —” she started.

  “Don’t worry about it. I had fun,” I interrupted, smiling.

  “So I see, seems like Cain took a liking to you.”

  “And Abel to you.”

  “Yeah . . .”

  “Do you like him?” I asked, curious because she didn’t seem to care for him at all.

  “He’s nice, he’s good looking. I just have other stuff going on and I don’t know if I’m ready for all that,” she said.

  “Well, maybe it’s better to not go through stuff alone,” I suggested.

  Peyton smiled and slipped her arm through mine.

  “That’s what you’re here for.”

  It occurred to me we weren’t taking the quick way home; we were following the route that passed through the park. It was secluded at this hour. Then, rain drops started falling.

  “We should find some cover,” I said as the rain started coming down harder.

  “What’s wrong? It’s just water,” she extended her hand to catch some. I didn’t know how to respond to that.

  “All right,” I said shrugging my shoulders.

  It quickly began to pour. Peyton stretched out her arms making sure as many rain drops fell on her as possible. We became drenched in minutes. Like a child, Peyton began jumping through every puddle.

  “Come on,” she said, grabbing my hand. She led me to one of the park’s playgrounds. Letting go of my hand, she ran up the ladder to one of the slides, and slid down, creating small waves as she descended. It looked like fun. She began ascending the ladder again, and when she reached the top, she waved for me to follow. I reluctantly climbed the ladder. It was actually a really high slide that swirled as it went down. There wasn’t much room at the top. When I joined her, there was little space between us, so I was able to get a good look at her. She was drenched. Her hair had become wavy and stuck to parts of her face. She didn’t wear much makeup, which was good because the little eyeliner she was wearing had run slightly. Her hoody was unzipped, and her T-shirt had become see through, which I tried not to notice. It seemed she didn’t notice and didn’t care.

  “Your turn,” she said smiling.

  “Uh . . .” I started.

  “Go,” she said, pushing me forward. I sat down on the slide and slid down. It was a mini-rush on the way down, similar to a water slide. I came to a stop at the bottom, realizing I wanted to do it again. Then, suddenly I felt Peyton’s body smack against my back, hitting our heads together and knocking us both off the end of the slide. She fell on top of me laughing hysterically. I laughed too.

  “What were you doing?” she said still laughing, “You’re supposed to get out of the way.”

  “Oh,” I said on my back, laughing.

  I glanced toward the merry-go-round thinking that would be fun. Peyton caught my glance and began to get up to run toward it. I grabbed her, pushed her back toward the slide, and began running.

  “Oh, hell no!” I heard her laughing from behind me. She caught up to me in no time and plopped down on it first.

  “Track star baby,” she said winking, “You push first.”

  “What?” I said laughing but impressed.

  The merry-go-round was a big circle that had bars extending from the end toward the middle for kids to run around and hang on to.

  I grabbed one side and began running around it as fast as possible, trying to make her dizzy. When it began to slow, I jumped on the side, throwing it off balance slightly, but it still continued to spin rapidly. She laughed as I jumped on and leaned her head back.

  “Your turn,” I said as it slowed to a stop. She got off and commenced running around it as fast as she could, which was obviously faster than I managed. I felt dizzy almost instantly. It began to slow down. I saw Peyton grab it with both hands, and jump up, but her foot slipped. She took a nasty fall, right on her butt.

  I stopped the ride as fast as I could.

  “Are you okay!” I asked, worried. She was laughing again.

  “I’m fine, oh man, I forgot . . . It’s raining!”

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Wait,” she said clutching her ankle, “I think I twisted something, oh man.”

  She looked to be in pain.

  “Oh man, you’re going to have to carry me home,” she said, extending an arm.

  “I don’t think I can carry you. Should I call someone?”

  “No, no, no, just here,” she said beckoning me with her hand, “My house is like a block away from here, just give me a piggy back ride.”

  “Oh, okay,” I tried to help her up, as she avoided putting pressure on her ankle. I turned around so she could get up. She wrapped her arms around my shoulder
s and gave a small jump. I caught her legs with my arms and leaned forward. She was exceptionally light, thankfully, because I would have felt bad if I needed to take repeated breaks.

  “That way,” she whispered into my right ear, as she rested her head on my shoulder, pointing to the road. I felt a chill of nervousness and excitement rush through my body.

  Although she was light, and her house wasn’t that far, it was still quite exhausting having to carry another person on your back in the rain, soaking wet. It was weird having someone so close in proximity to me. Other than Cindy, I had almost never touched another non-family member. I could tell she was a track star because her legs felt taut against my hands, and her arms gripped tight across my shoulders. She rested her head on my shoulder and I could feel her breath on the back of my neck. In that moment I felt like I could walk five miles.

  We arrived at her house in less than ten minutes, and I let her down at her front porch. Her house was massive. Her parents had money, and lots of it. It reminded me of Christian’s house, but with class.

  “Are your parents going to be mad that I’m here,” I asked. Not wanting to wake them up or disturb them, considering I had never met them.

  “Um . . . they’re not here . . . Actually, they’re never here,” said Peyton in a sad voice, and looked back at me with an insecure expression as she unlocked the door.

  “Oh,” I said thinking back to the hospital, how her parents never came for her.

  “Yeah,” she stepped into her house. It was definitely what you would picture for rich people, chandelier in the entry, huge staircase, beautiful marble, and perfectly clean as if no one lived there. In fact, it was hard to believe anyone did actually live there. There were no family pictures or anything else on the walls. I stood close to the entrance door, not wanting to make tracks in the house.

  “Come on,” she said starting up the stairs much too quickly.

  “Wait a second, I thought your ankle─” she adopted a ‘caught in a lie,’ expression, and laughed.

  “Oh, my God, do you have any idea how exhausting that was?!” I said laughing, but not regretting it.

  She ran up the stairs and I followed her. Her room was huge, modeled to fit her, even including its own bathroom. It had trophies for track, pictures of her and her friends, a huge four poster bed.

  “This is my room,” she said extending her arms.

  “Wow,” is all I could think to say.

  “Yeah. it’s something else.” She took off her shoes, and hoodie, “I like it?”

  “Yeah,” I said, thinking I should take off my shoes, too, and followed her lead.

  “I think I got some stuff that might fit you,” she said, pulling out a pullover, hooded sweater, and some track shorts she obviously used for working out. She handed them to me and continued to undress. She removed her top, and I averted my eyes, till something caught my attention. She had two discolored marks on her sides that extended round to her back. I couldn’t avoid staring at them and she noticed immediately.

  “You want a closer look?” she asked.

  “Oh,” I said, shaking my head, “I’m sorry.”

  “No, really,” she came closer to me, “They’re my only souvenir from the accident, I’m not really sure what they are. It doesn’t hurt, it’s just there. They are lighter now.”

  That piqued my curiosity. As much as I tried, I couldn’t drag my eyes away. She approached closer to me, running her hand across the blemishes. Her stomach was perfectly sculpted from running, which also did not escape my attention. The marks looked more like light bruises than scars. She reached down and grabbed my hand and ran it over one of them. They were smooth. I hoped she couldn’t feel my hand shaking in hers. As she turned, one went horizontally across her back, the other more vertically reaching just to her neck.

  “Crazy right?” she said grabbing a shirt and putting it on, “Do you have one?”

  “Uh, no, I don’t think so,” I said, changing my clothes quickly while her attention was averted.

  “Any?” she asked.

  “No.” I thought it was unusual.

  “You’re telling me you don’t have any scars?”

  “Nope,” I said.

  “Well, I like mine, reminds me of that day.”

  “I try not to think about it,” I said honestly.

  “Sometimes it’s all I can think about. What do you think really happened to us? Do you think we died?”

  “I sure hope not, but this next life doesn’t seem so bad if we did.”

  “No, it’s not so bad,” she said.

  “Well, I guess I should let you sleep, and head home,” I said, “Thanks for letting me borrow the clothes.”

  “Oh, yeah, well, I have my car, I can give you a ride home, or you could just stay.”

  I was left with the distinct impression Peyton feared I would say no. I looked at her, assessing her expression, and noticed a distinct emptiness in her eyes that wasn’t apparent before.

  “Oh . . . all right, just let me call my parents and let them know.”

  When I called, my mom answered. “Danielle? Where are you? Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine, I’m at a friend’s house,” I said.

  “Is it that boy I saw you were talking to at the carnival?” she asked, “He’s cute, Dani.”

  “What? No, why would I be at a boy’s house? And if I was, why would I tell you? Actually, I’m at Peyton’s house. Can I stay the night?”

  “Is it okay with her parents?”

  “Uh, yeah, they don’t care.”

  “Aw, a sleepover, you never sleep-”

  “Is that a yes?” I asked, not wanting my mom to expand on how I have no social life.

  “Yes, just call me if you need a ride home,” she said.

  “Okay, love you, bye,” I wanted to get off the phone fast.

  I returned to Peyton’s room. She was now fully dressed, and halfway dry.

  “Yeah, they said I could stay,” I said.

  “Awesome,” she beamed, obviously delighted.

  We spent several hours talking and getting to know each other. I enjoyed listening to every story she told, the good and the bad. I just wanted to know everything there was to know about her. We laughed for hours and finally got ready for bed. Her bed was big so there was plenty of room for probably four people.

  “Here, you can have one of my pillows,” she threw one to my side.

  “Man your bed is so nice, I bet people love staying over here,” I said, anticipating possibly the best night’s sleep ever.

  “I wouldn’t know. No one else has ever stayed here.”

  After some time, I fell asleep. In the middle of the night, I felt Peyton back into me and grab my arm and place it around her. I felt her shaking softly against me and could hear her breathing heavily. I wrapped my other arm around her and held her, her body slowly began to relax against mine and she drifted off to sleep.

  * * *

  “What was it about you that she clung to you so much, you guys really seemed to connect from what you say,” Doctor Joy remarked, as she soaked up the story.

  “I wish I knew the answer to that,” I confessed.

  “She seemed to have a lot of issues, I fail to understand what would draw someone in.”

  “What do you mean?” her words puzzled me.

  “She just seems so . . . broken,” she replied, appearing almost ashamed at these words.

  “Her beauty was in her brokenness,” I said.

  Dr. Joy paused for a second and looked at me in the most unusual way. I thought I caught a glimpse of admiration, but she quickly broke eye contact and changed the topic.

  “And what were her parents like?” she asked, “What did you think of them?”

  “I don’t see why that matters.”

  “Indulge me,” she said.

  “Hmmm, well, I guess I would describe her parents as ungrateful.”

  “Explain.”

  “Well, they had everything. A n
ice home, cars, money. Not that any of that matters, but they had safety and security. They had a family that had the potential to be happy, but they never appreciated it. They always wanted more things, more money. They never even saw each other, never talked to one another. I wouldn’t even call them parents. Peyton did everything for herself. I met her father once in a little less than a year, and her mother, well, I never saw her at all. I think she only remained married as a duty. I think she’d found someone else she thought would make her happy. She’ll never be happy though.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Everything she could ever need to make her happy was waiting for her already at home, but she was too damn blind to see it.”

  “You said you never met the mother and met the father once. Did you ever stop to think that maybe there were things about them that you didn’t know? Perhaps there were things about Peyton that you didn’t know either?”

  “I knew everything about her,” I asserted defensively.

  “Just like she knew everything about you?”

  This stumped me. It was a circumstance I had never considered.

  Chapter Seven: Everything About You

  “Wow, nice place,” said Peyton parking in the driveway. I found out after our walk to the carnival that Peyton had a car, a Mercedes. It was beautiful, but it seemed Peyton only drove it when she thought there was no alternative. In fact, she still rode the bus to school; something I went along with but found rather unsettling at times.

  “Yup . . .” I said, starting to feel sick to my stomach with anxiety.

  “Relax,” Peyton said reaching over and giving me a small smack on the arm, “I won’t do anything to embarrass you.”

  “That’s not what I’m afraid of.”

  “My favorite niece!” Christian materialized with his arms outstretched. I still did not enjoy this inside joke but gave him a hug, happy to see him.

  “Hi, Christian,” I then hugged Cindy. Was it my imagination or did she cling longer than usual? “Hi, Cindy.”

  “Wow, who is your friend?” Christian asked.

  “This is Peyton, my friend from school,” I said.

  “Hi, nice to meet you guys,” Peyton said, shaking both of their hands.

  “You’re so pretty,” Cindy conveyed the smallest hint of bitchiness, that I think only I caught.