Darkly Sweet
Page 22
They all looked in the bags and Viney immediately unwrapped one of the dozen of tiramisu ones and popped it in her mouth. She sucked on it and drank her coffee at the same time. The girl was going to have a heart attack.
Drake pulled me down on my chair. “Enough, lollipop girl. Eat before your eggs get cold.”
I beamed at him. “You sound like a grumpy grandpa. Drake, you would be such a cute grumpy grandpa. I hope that you have fifty grandkids and they all have your red
hair and green eyes.” I focused on eating and didn’t notice everyone staring at me for a long time. I shook my head and gave Drake a pointed look. “See, so uncomfortable when people stare at me while I eat.”
Zach laughed. “I think we’re staring at you because you just offered to give Drake ten children.”
I cocked my head while I analyzed my last sentence. “I did not.”
“Who else has the right genetics to give Drake red-headed kids? Your hair is light red.”
I felt suddenly sick. I gripped the edge of the table and stared at the half-eaten muffin crumbling across my plate.
“Zach, you’re such an idiot. You’re going to make her faint again. You know that Drake freaks her out. She can’t even go to a dance with him without losing it.”
I smiled at Viney. “It’s fine. I just ate too quickly or Drake poisoned the food, or the thought of having ten kids kind of…”
Drake put a hand on my shoulder, gripping it tightly. “I don’t want any kids. My parents sucked and I’ll probably be even worse than they were. If you have ten kids, it won’t be with me.”
I nodded, but I’d lost my appetite.
After that, I left Lilac Stories with Viney and climbed into the back of a limo to go shopping. Wow. Bon-bons and truffles, ding-dongs and ho-hos. Not that I’d ever had ding dongs or ho-ho’s. I tried on a hundred pairs of jeans to find two that were perfect, both of them so close in style I couldn’t tell the difference. Bras were worse.
Viney sat outside the changing room and had me model various bras like a general, ordering me to turn and bend over and jump up and down. I ended up with a dozen bras, one of which she insisted I wear right away, but it made my clothes fit wrong. It kind of pushed everything out and up and who knew I had anything to push out and up.
The bra lady measured me, not like that wasn’t ridiculously awkward. I sucked on a dirt-flavored lollipop desperately while the stranger wrapped her measuring tape around my chest and said how lucky I was not to have to get a serious jogging bra.
Viney kept eating Tiramisu lollipops. She was going through those at a crazy speed.
It made me smile to see her walking around with her black skull bag that I’d made for her. When she dragged me into the salon, I kind of freaked out because I was not chopping off all my hair however loud Viney got.
I agreed to one inch off the bottom, and then they straightened my hair, not permanently, but it still took forty-five minutes while Viney sucked on lollies and read magazines. I listened to my Chinese while the poor woman given the task to tame my mane struggled with the beast.
By the time we climbed into the back of the limo that would take us to school, I looked a lot more like the other mall shoppers than when I’d gone in. We only had a few hours before the guys Viney was setting us up with arrived to take us to Fairfield and the cool hang-out I’d never been to.
Back at Lilac Stories, Zach and Drake were sitting on the couch playing guitars.
“Aren’t you losers doing anything today?” Viney walked past them with her shopping bags while I inhaled deeply and my pushed up breasts shoved against my blouse. No breathing.
“What happened to your hair?” Zach stared at me while Drake kept strumming, keeping his attention on his fingers while they plucked strings. He was incredibly good.
Zach had not taught him to play that quickly.
“Do you like it?” I swished my hair and it actually swished across my arms, not just poufing out like normal.
He stared at me for a little while before he nudged Drake. Drake glanced up at me, his green gaze catching mine like a tractor beam.
“It’s nice. I personally prefer tangled with leaves, but I have eclectic tastes. Black cherry?”
He stuck his tongue out and I saw the color stained on it. Apparently he’d eaten a few of those. I bit my lower lip and edged away from him. “It’s not quite right. I think it needs a little bit of blood or something. Anyway, I’ve got to get changed.”
I hurried to my room and flung myself on my bed, sending it rocking while my head spun and I unwrapped a black cherry lollipop. I closed my eyes and enjoyed being alone until Viney pounded on my door.
“Put on the uncomfortable bra and jeans. And one of the t-shirts. Don’t forget your heels.”
Like I wasn’t tall enough. “Bon-bons and eclairs,” I muttered as I rolled off my bed. I changed quickly, pausing in front of the full-length mirror to check out the new and improved me. My hair swished, really, really long without any curl, almost to my knees like it had been coated in pitch. Maybe I should chop it all off. Poppy and I had sworn that we’d never cut our hair. I shook my head and put on another coat of pink lipstick and dark brown mascara before I grabbed my new denim jacket and walked out of my room.
Viney scowled at me. “You took long enough, but at least you look normal. Doesn’t she?” She turned to glare at Zach and Drake.
Drake still sat on the couch plucking strings faster and faster, his fingers mesmerizing before he looked up and flashed me a smile that froze as he really looked at me in my
skin tight jeans, and perfect t-shirt that showed off how my breasts were now unnaturally round and stick outty. The t-shirt had a character from Zach’s favorite video game. Was he paying attention? I turned around and beamed at him.
“I am not going to tell you how many pairs of pants Viney made me try on. She has more stamina than I imagined possible.”
Viney snorted. “You’re the one who kept me hopped up on lollipops. That reminds me, I need more. Zach, say something positive. Hard to believe, but Penny is nervous about wearing pants.”
Zach blinked and nodded before giving me a slight smile. “Your jeans are nice. Your legs look nice, too.”
Drake slugged his shoulder. “Not nice, Zach, edible, tantalizing, exquisite, desirable, sensual…”
Zach’s linguist brain kicked in. “Libidinous, alluring, provocative, arousing, tempting, titillating…”
I giggled a little bit. The jeans were working! “Thanks, Zach.”
“You look practically normal,” Drake said, giving me a wink before focusing back on the strings.
Something about the way he said that made me feel kind of stupid. Viney was shooting for normal, but he was saying even with a complete makeover, I still didn’t make the cut. “Thanks. I guess I’ll see you guys later.”
“Call if there’s a problem.” Drake didn’t look up, but his lips tightened.
I nodded, staring at him, his hair falling over his face while he stared at the strings.
He’d brought me breakfast. Maybe I should have picked up something for him at the mall. Probably not a bra. Viney grabbed my arm and we were off.
A silver car waited in front of the pillars at the bottom of the steps, and two guys stood looking drop dead everything. They both smiled at Viney and kind of knocked over themselves opening the front and back door like she needed options. She nodded at them and slid into the backseat. I bumped past the black-haired guy, sliding in beside her instead of ending up in front. Not a chance.
Viney gave me a weird look and I smiled back at her. “This is going to be so fun.”
“That’s right. We’re so excited that you called, Vineldra.” The black-haired guy spoke in a well-modulated voice that could have oiled a car.
“And that you brought your friend.” The blonde one looked at me with a gorgeous smile that didn’t touch his eyes, and that was the last time anyone looked or talked to me for the rest of the night.
Chapter 22
We were in booths, the guy across from me trying to subtly put his arm behind Viney, and the guy next to me leaning across the table, gazing into her eyes, or at least he would be if she bothered looking away from her phone.
I ate, but then they were talking and talking, and I said that I was going to the restroom, and Viney glanced up and nodded, but the two guys didn’t seem to hear me, so I went, and as I came out for some reason I wasn’t drawn compulsively back to my fabulous date. I didn’t even know which guy was supposed to be my date. I was wearing jeans, and that meant I should play pool or basketball or something. In my heels?
Whatever.
I wandered over to the pool table, stood back and watched them play. There were more guys than girls, and the girls were kind of cool messy hair, jeans and t-shirt girls who teased the guys, leaning provocatively over the pool table.
I had a favorite girl, a red-head in black boots who flirted and sassed. I clapped along with everyone else when she made a spectacular shot.
“Do you want to play?”
I glanced over at the guy who had come to stand next to me, a bottle of golden liquor in his fist. His eyes were brown with golden flecks like his bottle, his hair very short which showed the sculpted perfection of his head. He was so pretty. His lips weren’t too big, but perfectly balanced beneath his straight nose. He was taller than me even though he slouched in his t-shirt and jeans.
I smiled at him and shrugged, focusing back on the players. I was aware that he was watching me, not looking at me like a weird thing but like guys looked at Witley.
He cleared his throat. “I like your t-shirt. Do you play that game? Stupid question. Do you come here often?”
I glanced over and raised my eyebrow. “Are you flirting with me?”
He smiled slightly. “I am. Badly. You make me nervous.” He gave me a half shy, half teasing smile.
I really wished for a lollipop, but it didn’t really go with the jeans and t-shirt thing. I settled for smiling down at my hands and wishing I had a bottle in them to hold, or a hand, a Drake shaped hand. This guy was really nice looking, no better than nice, much better.
“Come on.” He handed me a pool cue and turned to an empty table, taking off the black triangle around the balls.
I held the cue awkwardly, as I slowly eased closer to him. I really did want to play. I wanted to be that cool girl who knew how to make other people laugh. “I’ve never played before.”
He glanced at me with a raised eyebrow and I licked my lips because something about the way he looked at me reminded me of black cherry. I wanted to smell black cherry not his scent, something sandalwood and citrus.
He moved slowly over to me, put his bottle on the edge of the table and rested his hand on the cue above mine. “You hold your hands like this. Can I show you?”
I nodded and expected him to demonstrate with his cue, not to step behind me and put his arms on either side of me, his hands on my hands and his chest against my back.
I swallowed down my innate urge to slam my elbow back into his body when he leaned forward, bending me over the table with the slightest pressure.
“You slide it through your fingers like this, then strike through your shoulder, like so.”
His voice was low, silk, and his scent more sandalwood than citrus as he shoved the cue forward and it hit the white ball, sending it into the triangle of balls which shot out in every direction with a resounding crack.
He stepped away from me, giving me a toothy smile before he took a long drink revealing the perfect column of his throat above his t-shirt, the movement showing the sculpted muscles of his chest beneath the fabric along with nipples. I blinked away from him, tightening my grip on the stick before I bent over and hit a ball, knocking it a few inches, not the satisfying thud that this guy had done.
“Your turn.” Did I sound flirty and cool or homicidal and terrified?
I forced a smile at him and he half smiled before he turned to the table and did a shot that knocked three balls into holes. Pockets. Or was that a billiards term? His arm had a muscle on the back center that flexed as he made the perfect shot. What would Drake’s arms look like if he was the one leaning over the pool table, the wooden shaft in his capable hands?
My mouth watered as I bent over and focused on making my fingers slidable before I pushed the cue and hit a ball, sending it flying off the table with way too much velocity. The guy moved fast, reaching out to snag the ball before it could hit the cool redhead. He held the ball and studied me, his eyes strangely emotionless.
I swallowed held the pool cue like a weapon. “Sorry. Am I disqualified?”
He glanced down at my fingers, like he could tell exactly what they were doing.
“Excellent trajectory, but I think you’re breaking a few rules. You’re supposed to keep the balls on the table.”
“Oops. Nice catch.”
He smiled slowly as he took one step towards me, then another. He put the ball in my hand, pressing my fingers around the sphere. “This is just a warm-up. Do you want a drink? What do you like?”
“Whiskey.” Why did I say that?
He raised an eyebrow and his smile widened while I tried to look calm and not like I wanted to light something on fire and run as fast as I could out of this place. I did not like whiskey. I did not drink whiskey. Drinking, me, in public was quite possibly the worst idea in the entire world. But he was so pretty, and maybe he wasn’t a mage. Maybe he was a normal guy who wanted to talk to a normal girl in jeans.
“There you are. I thought you were flushed down the toilet.” Viney came up to me, glaring.
I glanced from her to the guy. “I’m sorry. I should have told you where I was but I got sucked into watching them play. After that, this guy showed me how to hold a stick.”
“I bet.” She whirled around, the whip before the lash, but the guy didn’t flinch away from her attack, instead he smiled like he found her amusing. “Listen, jerk face, before you hit on someone, you should probably…” Her voice trailed off as she stared at him and her expression went from somewhat angry to white and bugged out furious.
He smiled at her widely. “Have we met? We must have. I get that look a lot.”
She swelled with visible rage until I took her hand and tugged her away from him.
“Hey, Viney, let’s go get coffee, okay? I saw this cute little shop a few buildings down that I’ve been meaning to try.”
The guy’s eyes snapped from my face back to hers. “Viney, right. It’s been a long time. How are things?”
So he was a mage. No wonder I found him so good looking. He was probably completely evil, too. Viney swallowed like she was trying to choke down a sack of poodle poop. “Ian. It hasn’t been long enough.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way. I have nothing but the fondest memories of you. Are you going to introduce me to your friend?”
The words were a challenge and Viney was going to accept it with the pool cue, him at the end of it.
I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and kind of tugged her away from him. “Hey, I bet they have tiramisu. My treat.”
They guy’s expression changed as he eyed my arm around her. “You’re together?”
Viney inhaled sharply and then bared her teeth at him. “Obviously. That’s right. We’re here on a date.”
I stared at Viney while her eyes plead with me. Okay. Um. “Right. We ate and I was distracted watching the cool girl, but enough of that. We should get dessert.”
Viney dragged me away from Ian who watched us looking amused. He clearly was far less upset at seeing Viney than she was to see him. After we
were out the door Viney shrugged my arm off her shoulder. “From all the dressing up you do, I expected more.”
“Wow. I’m sorry to disappoint you, Viney, but that was my first date ever. I kind of got thrown at the end. So, he’s a mage. That explains it.”
“What?”
“Don’t you think that mages have that glowing kind of attractiveness about them?”
“Ian, alluring? You mean like Drake. Yeah, they’re the same kind of mage, but Ian is so far beneath Drake, I can’t even...” She sputtered and glared at me like I’d talked to Ian on purpose.
I took a deep breath. I didn’t know how to smooth things over with people. Pets, sure. You just gave them food and spoke in a calm voice. “What happened to the guys on our dates? Will they notice that we took off? Also, if the point of pretending to be with me so you wouldn’t look stupid for not having a date, wouldn’t it be better to show off those two very nice males instead of me?”
Viney sighed and pulled out her phone, texting rapidly. I put my hands in my pockets and tried to walk normally in the heels. They were stupid and I was already tall enough.
“Come on.” She hurried me along, her own sensible boots way better for walking than my heels. We stood in line at the café, a glass case full of the most delectable desserts, even tiramisu, which made us both exchange glances and smiles. All right, I smiled. Viney looked a little less grim. After we’d ordered hot chocolate for me, coffee for her, and an entire pan of tiramisu, we settled in a corner.
Viney took a big drink of her coffee before scowling at me. “Ian is vile.”
“Okay.”
She frowned at me. “He’s like Drake only less particular. That makes him so much worse. You’re right about the allurement. He looks at a girl and she gets stupid. It’s like his superpower. I thought if he knew I was with a girl he wouldn’t use it on me.”
I studied her while I blew on my hot chocolate. She crouched over her cup of coffee with her eyeliner smudged messily beneath her poky hair. She wasn’t pretty like Wit.