“Wow! You’ve just started inviting yourself, haven’t you?”
“Yep.”
“Yeah, same time. But it’s my turn to cook this week. You can come a little early if you wanna help.”
The phone clicked in my ear. Four minutes later, the doorbell rang. I laughed.
I guess he’s helping me cook.
I ran down the stairs while brushing my teeth. When I opened the door, I froze. “What are you doing here?” I asked around the toothbrush. Foaming toothpaste oozed between my lips.
“Not who you were expecting?” Xavier asked.
“No.” I opened the door and motioned for him to come in before running back upstairs to rinse my mouth and run a comb through my hair before Chay got there.
The doorbell rang a second time just as I stepped off the bottom stair into the foyer. I inhaled a large breath, stealing myself for what I knew was going to be dramatic fireworks.
Oh, this is so not going to end well. Chay and Xavier sitting around the same breakfast table is not a good idea. They barely make it through lunches at school without tearing into each other.
“Someone here?” Chay gestured to the car parked in our driveway.
I walked outside and closed the door softly behind me. “Chay, remember when we talked about the trust thing and you not getting jealous?”
Chay ran his hand through his hair, resting it on top of his head. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I don’t know why he’s here. Maybe my dad invited him. He doesn’t know you two aren’t on the best terms. He probably thought it would be good for you to get to know each other or something.”
“I’ll just come back later.” Chay turned and started down the front steps.
“Chay Roberts, don’t you leave.”
He froze, his back facing me. “I don’t think I can sit across a table with him, Milayna. Not when I know he’s got a thing for you.”
“He doesn’t—”
He looked at me over his shoulder. “Oh, yes, he does. I’m a guy. I know what other guys are thinking, and there’s more than one at our school who has you in their sights. You just don’t pay attention.”
“Stop.” I waved off his words.
“It’s true, and it’s also true that Xavier is here for more than just breakfast.”
“You’re delusional, Chay.” I laughed. “Besides, what difference does it make? Like you said, I don’t pay any attention. And you know why? Because I’ve got you.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and stood on my tiptoes to kiss his stubble-covered cheek. “If you’re so sure he has a thing for me, then don’t leave me. Stay. I want you to stay.”
He sighed and turned toward me, kissing my forehead. “This is a bad idea.”
“Probably.”
“Let’s go. You’re freezing.”
“Hey, there you two are. How’s it going, Chay?” My dad slapped Chay on the back.
“Hey, Chay,” my brother said, walking by and rubbing his eyes. He was more of a night owl than I was. “Wanna play video games after breakfast?”
“Sure, dude. I got to redeem myself from last week when you handed me my butt.”
My brother laughed. At seven, Benjamin idolized Chay. It helped that Chay didn’t treat him like a baby, but talked to him like a ‘big kid’ and played video games and remote-controlled cars with him. As long as he didn’t have to see Chay kiss me, Benjamin thought he was a cool guy. But, according to my brother, kissing his sister was almost as gross as picking gum up from the sidewalk and chewing it.
Chay helped me make breakfast, which consisted mostly of him standing in the kitchen and getting in my way. Not that I minded.
“Do you need any help?” Xavier asked, sitting at the table with my dad and brother, watching us cook.
“Nope, but thanks.” Chay gave him a tight smile.
When breakfast was finished, we all sat around the dining table to eat. I was wedged between Chay and my brother. Xavier sat across from me.
“So, I was wondering if you were busy today, Milayna,” Xavier asked halfway through the meal. Chay’s fork fell against his plate with a clang. I squeezed his knee under the table.
“Uh, actually Chay and I have plans this afternoon,” I said, not looking up.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” my dad said, and I glared at him. “Maybe the three of you could do something. It’d be good for you to get to know each other better.”
I pushed around the food on my plate with a fork. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Dad.”
“That’s okay. I wouldn’t want to intrude. You don’t need a third wheel.” Xavier wiped his hands on a napkin.
What was that? How could he even think about asking me to do something with him in front of Chay? Or at all?
Finally the torture—and it was torture—of breakfast was over. Chay and Benjamin went into the family room to play video games. I helped my mom clear the dishes and load the dishwasher.
My mom took a stack of dirty plates from me. “It’s not your day to clean up.”
“I know.”
“Why don’t you go visit with Xavier and Chay?”
“Chay and Benjamin are playing a game.”
“And Xavier?” she asked.
“I don’t know what he’s doing.”
“Ah. Don’t really care to know either, I’m guessing.” She looked at me with an arched brow.
“It’s awkward. I mean, didn’t you think it was odd that he’d ask me to do something with him in front of Chay? Asking me at all is bad enough, but in front of my boyfriend? Why did Dad invite him, anyway?”
My mom scraped the food from the dishes into the compost container. “I don’t know.”
When Chay went home to shower and change, I excused myself to do the same. By the time I went back downstairs, Xavier had gone.
“Xavier left this for you.” My dad handed me a piece of paper folded in half, my name neatly printed across the top.
If you change your mind, call me…
Wadding it up, I threw it away without writing down the phone number he included. I wouldn’t change my mind.
***
Chay and I met Muriel and Drew at a little restaurant for dinner before we went bowling.
“Man, I can’t believe you want us tagging along on your date.” Chay shook his head.
“It was Muriel’s idea. I’m just along for the ride.” Drew rolled his eyes.
“Get used to it.”
I shot Chay a dirty look. “Is that what you think? You’re just along for the ride?”
“No,” he answered quickly, his gaze darting to Drew as if to say, “See, what’d I tell ya?”
Drew laughed and turned to the rack of bowling balls, grabbing one for him and Muriel.
“What ball do you want?” Chay weighed two balls, one in each hand. I was too distracted by his flexing and bulging biceps to formulate a coherent answer. “Milayna?”
“Huh?” I looked up. A small smile tugged at his lips.
“I asked which ball you wanted.”
“Oh, yeah, I was examining them.” I tapped my finger against my lips.
“Really? That’s what you were examining, huh?”
I smiled and shrugged a shoulder. “Well, sorta. I can’t help it that your built like a Greek god. I get distracted. It’s not my fault.”
Chay laughed before he bent down and kissed me hard on the mouth. He lifted his head, looking me in the eyes. “If I’m a Greek god, then you’re a goddess. You’re beautiful.”
I gave him a quick kiss. “The purple one.”
“One what?”
“Bowling ball.” I laughed. “Now who’s distracted?”
“Come on, you two! Let’s play,” Muriel called.
“Guys against the girls, hey Drew?” Chay fist bumped Drew.
Drew laughed. “You know it.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll let you have ten freebie points just so you aren’t too embarrassed when we slaughter you.” I slipped on the absolu
tely ugliest pair of puke brown bowling shoes.
Ugh, who knows what’s growing in these things. I should have worn two pairs of socks to protect my feet from the fungus in the shoes. They even smell funky.
“Oooh, big talk over there.” Chay rolled our bowling balls on the ball return.
Muriel entered our names into the computerized scoreboard. She looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Okay, Milayna, you’re up first.”
“Me?”
Ick, I hate going first.
“Come on, Milayna. Show us your skills!” Drew called.
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered. I walked up to the lane, lugging my purple bowling ball. I heard Chay chuckle behind me.
Okay, I just need to keep it out of the gutter. Why is my stomach fluttering? It’s just a stupid game. Just throw the ball already. Aim and roll the ball. Oh, and hit some pins. Please, please, please, hit some pins.
I pulled the ball up to my chin, aimed it—sort of—swung my arm back and then quickly forward toward the pins. The ball flew down the super glossy aisle, spinning toward the ten pins at the end. It stayed on course and away from the gutter. Twisting my fingers, I waited to see what I’d get, completely amazed when I hit a strike. I stood there with my mouth open for a beat before I put my game face on and strutted back to my seat, blowing a kiss to Chay as I walked by.
“You just got lucky.”
I shrugged a shoulder. “We’ll see.”
We were about halfway into our game. We were having fun talking trash to each other, and Muriel and I were actually winning—barely. It was the most fun I’d had in weeks. But then, my stomach cramped so bad I doubled over and dropped my ball. It rolled over into the lane next to us. Of course, the vision had to happen when it was my turn to bowl and I was standing up at the lane where everyone could see me spaz out.
Drew got my ball and apologized to the people bowling next to us while Chay rushed to me and helped me back to the benches. I sat down bent over, my chest to my knees and my arms wrapped around them. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I tried hard not to cry out and draw even more attention to myself. Tears rolled down my cheeks, and I clenched my jaw so tightly it felt like someone had wired it shut.
“What do you need?” Chay asked.
I shook my head. There was no way I could speak. My head started to pound. My vision bounced in time to the beats. The people in the bowling alley looked like they were on a trampoline, bouncing up and down, up and down. I closed my eyes and laid my cheek against my knees.
“Do you see anything?” Chay’s voice sounded so loud, like he was screaming in my ear. All the sounds in the bowling alley were amplified and reverberated through my head, causing stabbing pain as they bombarded my brain, crashing from one side to the other.
“No,” I moaned.
A flash of the pin mechanism darted before my eyes. I heard the sound of it clicking and the metal screeching as it lifted the pins for the sweeper to move beneath it.
Another image flashed through my brain. The pins dropping into their slots before the arms lowered them down to the aisle. The machine clanged and creaked when the pins fell into position; the metal shimmied as it lowered to the aisle and dropped the pins onto the wooden floor before slowly rising.
I could see down the aisle like I was looking at it from where the pins sat. I saw Muriel and Drew sitting on the benches talking. Muriel giggled at something Drew said. He leaned over and kissed her. Chay rolled his eyes and turned to look at the bowling balls. I wasn’t there.
I turned and saw a small hallway behind the lanes and the machinery that moved and set-up the pins. There was a man in gray overalls working on the machines.
The sound in the alley grew quiet, the people frozen in place. Just the maintenance man moved. The machinery between us groaned and screeched as the pin holder rose after resetting the pins for the next bowler. But one pin jammed. The arm tried to retract, but the bowling pin blocked it. The machine whirred. The sound bounced off the cinderblock walls.
The man put down the tool he was using and stood. He pushed a button on the machine, but the pin stayed wedged in the holder. He pushed the button a second time. Nothing.
With a curse, he reached his hand inside. His fingers closed around the neck of the bowling pin. The arm of the pin setter gave way and dropped. The maintenance man’s hand was caught in the pin’s slot. The sharp metal edge sliced through his flesh. The weight of the metal pushed him to the floor. The machine landed on top of his wrist, breaking through the bone. He screamed in pain. His blood pooled on the polished wood floor. He yanked his arm from under the pinsetter, holding it close to his chest. His hand lay in the middle of the bloody mess on the floor.
I sucked in a breath and opened my eyes. The room righted itself, and the vision fizzled away.
“What’d you see?” Chay rubbed his hand up and down my back softly.
“There’s going to be an accident.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, rubbing my temples with the heels of my hands to erase the remnants of the vision. It was a particularly graphic vision. “The vision is gone. There’s nothing I can do now. Let’s just finish our game. Whose turn is it?”
“Yours,” Muriel said.
I grabbed my ball and stepped up to the alley to take my turn. It was after my second throw, when I turned around to walk back to the chairs, that everything turned sideways. I saw Muriel and Drew sitting next to each other. Muriel giggled at something Drew said. Drew leaned in and kissed her. Chay rolled his eyes and turned toward the bowling balls…
Oh, no. Oh crap.
I turned around. The pin setter was lowering to reset the pins for the next player. Hesitating for only a millisecond before running down the alley, I slid on my knees when I reached the pin setter. The machine was just starting to rise. I slid under it, reached up and grabbed the bottom of the pin that was stuck, and pulled. The machine pulled up and I pulled down—tug-of-war with a bowling pin. Not to mention that the machine could fall on me any second.
“What are you doing? Let go of that and get off the lane!” the maintenance man yelled, running toward me. He reached out to grab the pin.
“Don’t put your hand in there! It’s going to fall.”
The pin gave way, sending me flying backward. My head bounced against the lane so hard stars danced in front of my eyes.
I heard the pin setter groan and creak. When I looked up, I saw it shimmy. I rolled out from under it just as it fell with a loud crash. The force of its fall cracked the wooden floor.
I sat up and looked at the large, metal contraption that was lying on the floor where I’d just been. A strong wind blew in my face, the smell of sulfur unmistakable. I put my hand behind me to brace myself against the force of the air.
He’s here, Milayna. Your time is near.
Gasping, I scrambled backward, kicking my feet against the floor. I jumped when I heard someone shout my name.
“Milayna!” Chay ran down the aisle toward me. “Are you okay?” He folded me in his arms before he pulled back and looked me over. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
“What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t—”
“Obviously! You could have been killed if that had landed on you.” He hugged me tight against his chest.
“It was the vision, Chay. You know I don’t have control over them.”
“You kids get off the lane. What the hell were you doing running down here like a madwoman?”
“I’m sorry, but—”
“I think your night of bowling is finished. Get your things together and get on out before you get into any more trouble,” the maintenance man snapped before turning and walking back into his hallway behind the lanes.
Geez, I save the guy from losing a hand and he kicks us out of the bowling alley. Nice. Real nice. Just once I’d like to tell people what we’ve done for them. Doesn’t matter. They’d never believe it anyway.
&
nbsp; “Sorry, guys,” I mumbled.
“For what?” Muriel looked at me.
“I ruined the night.” I threw my arms up in the air, letting them fall and smack my thighs.
“What did you see in your vision?”
“He was gonna stick his hand in the machine to get the pin, and it was going to get stuck and sliced off.”
“Holy shit,” Drew whispered.
Muriel shuddered. “How can you think you ruined anything after seeing that?”
I shrugged.
“Geez.” Drew looked at me with wide eyes. “Are all your visions like that?”
“Like what?”
“So gruesome. I don’t get visions very often, but when I do, they’re about helping little old ladies cross the road or keeping kids from running out in the street, not about severed hands.”
“No, not all my visions are that gory. But the ones that are, aren’t the most fun.”
“No joke.” Drew shook his head. We’d gathered our things, turned in our bowling balls and the gorgeous shoes, and were walking through the parking lot to our car. “Well, I don’t think you ruined anything tonight, Milayna.”
“Me either. In fact, I think you deserve a big chocolate shake,” Chay said.
I smiled. Yeah, that does sound like a good idea.
“Oh, I could go for a visit to your uncle’s,” Drew said.
“Now that everything is over and that guy still has both his hands and all, I gotta say, Milayna, you looked hilarious running down that bowling lane. You plowed through like you were the bowling ball.” Muriel laughed.
“Don’t forget her fighting over the bowling pin with the machine. That was priceless,” Drew chimed in. “Too bad we didn’t have our phones out to get it on video.”
Chay wrapped his arm around me and squeezed. I looked up at him and smiled before breaking out into a fit of giggles. It was probably the stress of the vision, but I couldn’t stop laughing. I knew I must have looked like a fool running down the bowling lane and sliding into the pins like I was sliding into home base in a softball game.
Chay chuckled, which made me laugh harder. Soon, we were all laughing. The harder the three of them laughed… the harder I laughed, until my sides ached and cheeks hurt.
Milayna's Angel Page 11