by Tate James
“Kit, are you okay here with Caleb for a bit?” Worry discolored Lucy’s tone. “I need to go and disconnect my computers so they don’t get fried if there’s a power surge.” Her concern made sense; it had happened before. She’d lost a huge amount of data, and it had taken months to recover.
“Go,” I whispered and hated the strained note in my voice, but I didn’t move from where I curled into Caleb’s hard body. He rubbed soothing circles on my back. Slowly, my shaking subsided, but relaxing took a while. Every time the thunder cracked, I flinched despite my best efforts to keep it in check.
Eventually the thunder and lightning eased, leaving torrential rain and howling wind to continue raging alone.
“Are you okay?” Caleb asked quietly, his mouth near my ear. “Do you want me to go and find some candles or flashlights or something?”
I shook my head against his chest. “I’m good. I don’t mind the dark; it’s just the thunder.”
He slid an arm under me and pulled me the rest of the way onto his lap, hugging me tightly. “Do you want to tell me about it? That was a pretty strong reaction for an ordinary fear of storms.”
I said nothing for a while, chewing my lip and debating how much to say. On the one hand, I felt absurdly comfortable with Caleb. Much more so than I should have after only knowing him less than a week. While I didn’t get along with his brother, something about Caleb screamed that he was trustworthy. Almost as loudly as it shouted that he was trouble. On the other hand, some memories were just better off dead. I settled on a middle ground and said, “It sounds exactly like the crack of a whip.”
Caleb was silent, maybe waiting to see if I would elaborate, but I could feel the tension in his muscles. I said nothing more, and he didn’t push. Neither of us moved from our embrace, and he continued to rub circles up and down my spine until Lucy returned with an armload of candles and a box of matches. Of course our school would have candles but not flashlights; God forbid they enter the twenty-first century.
She glanced at me as she placed the candles then lit them. Aware of her concern, I nodded. Once the room was bathed in candlelight, Lucy retrieved a Monopoly box. “We need a distraction until the power is back on.”
I groaned because I was useless at Monopoly, but reluctantly climbed out of Caleb’s lap and selected the little dog as my playing piece. I used a different one every time in the hopes that one would give me good luck, but it had yet to happen and I was on an uninterrupted losing streak against Lucy.
“Also, Kit, on my way back I saw that fox lurking around again outside your room. I warned you not to feed it.” She was trying to scold me, but I knew she was just as amused as I was that a wild fox, of all animals, had seemingly adopted me.
“The same one we saw the other day?” Caleb asked, and I nodded.
“I went back later and left him some food. I figured he must have been pretty hungry to be out in the day, and now he keeps coming back for more.” I quickly sorted out the game cards and put them in place on the board, then passed Caleb the dice. “Your roll.”
For the next two hours, I managed to hemorrhage money to the Monopoly bank and Caleb gave Lucy a solid run for top spot, but she eventually won. She always won at Monopoly.
Bitch.
I was definitely not a gracious loser when it came to board games. The lights popped back on halfway into our second game. The clocks blinked, but it was after midnight and probably a good time to call it a night.
Lucy and I walked with Caleb to the dorm lobby where he high fived Lucy then grabbed me in a tight hug, lingering just a fraction longer than a platonic friend hug. Letting go, I read the twinkle of mischief in his eyes, but all he said was, “I’ll see you on Monday.” Then he was out the door and sprinting through the rain to his car.
We watched him drive away before Lucy turned to me and snickered. “You’re in so much trouble.”
Not disagreeing, I groaned, and we headed upstairs for our own beds.
5
The weekend ended far too quickly, as always, and when classes started again on Monday morning, I found myself trying to smother a flutter of excitement that my first class of the day was with Caleb. Deep down, my resolve to steer clear of him was really not all that strong. Especially if he made good on his offer to show me the rest of his ink.
Fuck, Kit, it’s too early to be drooling over your imagination. I snickered quietly at my own scolding and, with my hip, pushed open the door to the class, as my arms were full of books and a thermal coffee cup. I was way too early, which was entirely unlike me, but the prospect of seeing my green-eyed friend had driven me out of bed much quicker than usual.
“Good morning, Christina.” The husky voice seemed to come from nowhere, and I almost dropped my coffee.
“Jesus, fuck! Austin!” My heart was beating so fast it was halfway into my throat, and my temper flared. I hated being surprised; it made me feel vulnerable, and that was the last thing I ever wanted to be again. Despite their identical appearances, there was no way Caleb would have called me Christina. “Maybe warn a person when you’re about to scare the shit out of them? Fucking hell, I almost lost my coffee!”
“Aw, poor little Princess would have had to go without coffee! The travesty of it all!” His mocking smirk didn’t help my temper, and did he just call me Princess? Pretty sure that was meant as an insult. Rude.
I huffed and chose a desk as far from Austin’s as possible. God only knew why we had gotten off on such a bad foot, but he was making no attempt to rectify it, so why should I?
“Why are you here so early, Austin? Class doesn’t start for another twenty minutes.”
“Why are you?” He countered, and I rolled my eyes at his childish response.
I made an attempt at taking the higher ground by not replying, instead pulling out my textbook and stationary. His fingers drummed noisily on the desk, and I ground my teeth together to stay quiet.
“So, what did you and my brother get up to Saturday night?” Apparently Austin was in the mood to chat. “We were supposed to go out with our cousin, but he said something urgent had come up. Wouldn’t tell us what.”
That struck me as a bit odd; it wasn’t like pizza and a movie was anything to keep secret. Maybe it was just an excuse not to go out with the cousin? To Austin I just shrugged, “What makes you think he was with me then?”
“Please. You must think I’m stupid. He came home after midnight with a huge dopey grin all over his face, and given how he can barely shut up about you, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who he’d been with.” His words were spat with a level of disgust that made me frown. What the hell was his deal?
“What’s your problem, Austin? I thought maybe you were just pissed about being at a new school, but I saw you with your hordes of admirers at lunch on Friday. You’re nice to them. So what the fuck did I do to piss you off?”
“My problem,” he started, but cut off when another student entered the classroom. Candace Watson was pushing hard to beat Lucy for valedictorian, so it was no surprise she was arriving early to class. She sat in her usual seat, directly in front of the teacher’s desk, and started meticulously lining up her pencils with an OCD level of precision.
As Austin glared shards of ice across the room at me, making my skin tingle, I turned my attention to Candace who was carefully lining her notebook up perpendicular to her pencils and totally unaware of the conversation she’d interrupted. She was so lost in her own world she probably didn’t even realize we were in the room, and she definitely didn’t notice how close her can of energy drink was to the edge of her desk.
“Candace, watch out—” My warning came too late as her wrist bumped into the can, sending it flying and soaking her bag with sticky yellow liquid. The poor thing let out a horrified scream, diving to grab the can, but the damage was already done. I could already see the drink pooling on top of her perfectly color-coded notebook.
“No! No no no no no…” She sobbed, frantically trying
to shake the book dry, and I rushed over to help her dry it off with my cardigan. It was warm enough inside the class not to need it, and I could get it laundered later.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I soothed when her panicked breathing sped up enough that she might hyperventilate. “Look, it’s not too bad. Just take it down to the restroom and pop it under the hand dryer?” My suggestion was apparently not enough to calm her down as her eyes began welling up and her chin trembling like she might burst out crying any second.
Out of nowhere, the glass fishbowl sitting on the teacher’s desk behind where I was crouched exploded. The back of my head was showered with glass as the water gushed out, carrying Sushi and Roll, the class goldfish, out onto the floor where they flopped around desperately. I sat stunned for a moment, trying to work out what the hell had just happened, while Candace screamed and took off out of the room in tears.
“What the fuck was that?” Austin asked from above me, having smoothly scooped up Sushi and Roll and dropped them into a vase of flowers on the windowsill.
“I have no idea.” But weird, unexplained crap like this was becoming far too frequent. This was definitely not just in my head.
“You must have bumped the desk or something, you klutz,” he sneered. “You should really be more careful; that glass could have hurt someone.”
With almost comical timing, the rest of the class began showing up at that moment, cutting off my angry retort. Caleb stepped into the room with Lucy and gave me a confused look. I didn’t blame him either; it probably was a bit strange to find me on my knees in a puddle of water and scattered glass with Austin glaring at me from above with folded arms.
“Fuck it. I need to get this glass out of my hair,” I grumbled, taking Caleb’s hand when he offered it to pull me up, “Let Mrs. Williams know I will be ten minutes late?”
“Sure thing…” he murmured. “I take it Austin can fill us in?”
Austin snorted. “Nothing to fill in. The Princess is a major klutz and knocked over the fishbowl.”
I rolled my eyes and flipped him off before leaving the room to get cleaned up. I knew I hadn’t knocked that bowl over, though. No one had.
With the fish bowl incident happening so soon after I thought I saw Mr. Gregoric’s eyes change, I found myself spending the rest of the week on edge. I was constantly looking too closely at everyone and everything and jumping skittishly at every loud noise, which didn’t go unnoticed.
Austin seemed to always be around with a snide remark if I flinched when a door banged too loudly or chalk squeaked sharply on the blackboard. I was still questioning whether it had been my imagination. Had I actually bumped the fishbowl? It was beginning to make me feel paranoid. Not knowing what had caused my abilities made me worry what side effects there might be on my brain, and if I actually was imagining all this weird shit, it didn’t look good for my mental health.
By the end of the week, my patience had worn dangerously thin, and I didn’t think I could handle another hour of playing nice with Austin for his brother’s sake. For whatever reason, he had decided I was public enemy number one, and I was done with voluntarily taking his shit. In the interest of avoiding conflict with Caleb, I decided to simply avoid them both and take lunch off campus.
The first half of the day went smoothly; I didn’t share any classes with either of the twins before lunch and managed to duck out of the main building as most students filtered towards the cafeteria. I took the long way around to the student car park in order to avoid the lawn where we often ate, in case Lucy spotted me. I was leaving her behind as a sacrificial lamb because she owed me for the stunt she’d pulled last weekend on movie night with Caleb, telling him I had asked her to chaperone. Talk about killing my game, or what little game I had left these days. Caleb, and even Austin to a lesser extent, seemed to have brought out the awkward in me.
Just as I came around the back of the science building, Caleb’s familiar voice trapped me, and I pulled up short.
“—really, Austin?” He snorted. “You’re hardly one to talk about taking liberties; you’ve had your tongue so far down Anna Greengate’s throat this week you’re practically breathing for her.”
“Hey. I will have you know that she’s extremely useful, which is more than I can say for your little girlfriend.” Austin sneered this last part, and I could almost picture the look of disgust he so often wore. “What’s going on there anyway, bro? I seriously hope you’re hitting that because from where I’m standing, she doesn’t look useful for much more.”
“Shut the fuck up, you ass. You’ve just got your panties in a bunch because she reminds you of Peyton.” Anger tightened his voice, and I wanted to give him a high five for sticking up for me. Who the hell was Peyton?
Austin growled, then spat, “Peyton has nothing to do with this. I just think you need to stop thinking with your dick and focus on why we’re here. Now, why don’t we cut out of afternoon classes and spend some time in Anna’s dorm room? She’s been begging for a bit of King Twin Treatment.” Ugh, gross. He wasn’t serious, surely?
“Ugh, no.” Caleb echoed my disgust in his grunt, making me proud.
“Come on, bro. It’s been ages... just this once? She’s been hinting that she knows something interesting but won’t give it up until she gets some.” Austin, the dickhead, switched tack and tried cajoling. “Think of the greater good, man.”
Caleb sighed heavily. “Fine, I just need to stop by and see Kit first, and then I’ll meet you there.” What?
“Atta boy.” The satisfaction in Austin’s voice made me want to hit him. What a pig! And Caleb agreeing to whatever the ‘King Twin Treatment’ was, although it was not hard to imagine... Gross. The idea of both luscious twins in bed didn’t turn me on... Not with their ripped bodies and gorgeous ink. I’d bet Austin had tattoos, too...
Woah, where the hell did that come from?
Shaking my head, I snapped myself out of that weird mental safari. The last thing I planned to do was lust after Austin. Then my heart sunk. Caleb planned to get freaky with Anna. It was stupid; it wasn’t like we were dating or anything. Guess all the flirting and banter meant nothing. I’d been friend-zoned and the idea somehow made me sick to my stomach. Okay stop it, Kit. This is a blessing. You knew you needed to keep your distance from him anyway.
Fighting the crushing disappointment, I checked to verify the coast was clear then strode to my car. Time to get the hell out of here.
6
Caleb
Rolling my aching shoulders, I cracked my neck and rubbed a hand over my eyes. Fuck me, it had been a long day. I can’t believe Austin talked me into that crap with Anna. All I wanted was to go and hang out with Kit. I had spent an insane amount of time with her since arriving at CFA, but it never seemed enough, despite Lucy jokingly calling me their third musketeer, which was pretty flattering, considering.
“Oh quit it, Cal. It wasn’t even that difficult, and you know it.” I loved my twin, I swear I did, but sometimes I honestly wanted to deck him. The “King Twin Treatment,” as Austin liked to call it, was nothing quite as bad as it sounded. We had discovered a year or so ago that loads of girls fantasized about having a threesome with identical twins, but when push came to shove they rarely went through with it. The anticipation and lead up, the flirting and dirty talk, always seemed to be enough to have girls spilling their guts on any questions we managed to subtly slide in.
“It was exhausting. It always is, putting on a show like that. You know I’m not as good of an actor as you. And her information wasn’t even worth it! What did we learn? That the gym teacher turns a blind eye to students cutting class if they pay him and that Mr. Gregoric is using a false identity? That could be for a million reasons. She gave us shit, and you know it.” I was constantly snapping at Aus these days, even without meaning to. Ever since we’d arrived at CFA, he had been acting like a total dick. The way I’d heard him speak about Kit made me want to throttle him. The reaction concerned me, considering it was a pre
tty extreme feeling of protectiveness for a girl I barely knew.
“Whatever, bro,” Aus muttered, but I could tell by the tightening of his mouth that he was disappointed.
“You know she’s probably going to tell the whole school that she slept with both of us.” I shuddered at the thought. Not that I didn’t like occasionally sharing with my brother—we shared DNA for God’s sake—but I would just never go there with Anna Greengate. Something about the high-pitched, screeching sound of her voice made my skin crawl. The fact that Aus didn’t seem bothered by her spoke volumes to how messed up he still was from Peyton’s bullshit. Austin was already walking a thin line by making out with Anna in public, but at least I knew my brother had enough standards not to have actually followed through on half the shit she was bragging about.
“So?” My dickhead other half put on a mulish look. “Why are you suddenly so concerned with what these people think of you? We will hopefully be gone from here soon, so what difference does it make if they think you’re a man-whore? Or is it a certain clumsy, airheaded redhead that you’re worried about?”
I punched him in the arm, a bit harder than playful but not hard enough to make him hit back. Asshole had a point; I was worried about Kit hearing Anna’s bullshit. I had looked for her at lunch, but Lucy had said she was studying. Clearly a lie, but I couldn’t call her out on it without being a dick.
“Whatever, bro,” I repeated his line back at him, not wanting to have yet another argument about my friendship with Kit. We had done that enough since meeting her, and it was getting old. I knew we wouldn’t be in Cascade Falls for long, but I also didn’t see the harm in enjoying myself while we were here.