Sarcastic me said “So what are you so excited about?” I don’t even know if he was, but he smiled and laughed and asked me “So do you like me or what?”
I froze and looked into his eyes. He scooted over on the couch so my back was against the arm of the sofa, my butt slid off his lap and hit the cushion, my legs still crossed his – I didn’t know what to say. He said “Well” and I said “What’s not to like...” He moved his face closer to mine, I didn’t move, he moved in even closer until he brushed his soft warm lips across mine. He pressed a little deeper and our lips parted…we stopped.
I said “…Besides your horrible mood swings.” Jett swung his legs out from under mine so he was vertical on the couch and pulled me down so I was laying on it and he was on top of me kissing me again. He was very good at this, I wanted to know if he practiced that move, he did it fast and smooth. Is he a player? I stopped kissing him back and squinted my eyes at him and said “Are you playing with me?”
My dad yelled down the stairs “Are you ready for dessert?” Faster than he had said it Jett was off of me and onto the floor with one arm propped on the couch pretending to watch TV.
I heard the door shut and looked down at Jett and said “What are you doing” He pulled me off the couch on top of him and we started where we left off.
When we finally came up for air I said “I need pie, how about you?”
He asked “With ice cream?”
“Is there any other way to eat it?”
“I like you Addie, a lot.”
“Good because I'm having your baby.”
He had to do a double take, the look on his face was priceless. Of course, we hadn’t but it took him a minute to register. “Psych” I replied.
“You are so sarcastic, but it’s all good” he gave me a hand up off the floor.
“I'm glad you think so. And by the way I'm having twins!” He chased me up the stairs.
Jett was a little tipsy by the end of the night. I had to help him into bed, Kit offered up his room for him. He was like a big fluffy teddy bear – without much control either. I tucked him in.... I couldn’t believe my parents asked him to sleep over and that he actually did, it could have been because he lived 40 minutes out, in any case I was excited about the whole ordeal.
When I woke at 3:17a.m., I wrote down another one of my silly dreams, this one seamed sillier than the night before. I remembered Jett at the top of the hill today; he almost mimicked my dream. Crap. Now I was nervous recording this one, I wrote: 'I had a dream that Dracula was sucking my blood.' I looked at the ceiling and laughed at myself and thought I'd keep this one to myself. 'He sucked the blood out of my neck while I was sleeping but I woke before he was done and ran after him.’ I thought that was unlikely. Everything in the room was dark, all the walls and comforter matched, I had never seen the room before but felt familiar. The dream cut off and picked up again, the second time I met Dracula, I was awake and I went to him willingly and when he took blood from my wrist he turned veiny then back to normal.'
CHAPTER 21
The next morning Nic came over early, she’d do that sometimes; she always fed her horses and lets them out every morning and afterward she’d get her mom to drop her off at my house. My mom was making a huge breakfast since Jett had slept over and we knew he had a good appetite. I answered the door in my pajamas and Nic asked me how last night went, so I dragged her to Kit's room, cracked the door and we peeked in at Jett, who was adorable even when he slept – Nic's eyes almost popped out of her head.
We went into my room giggling and I quickly grabbed some clean clothes, one of my notes and Nic’s hand and we flew into the bathroom and locked the door tight. I told her all the details of Jett being a grump and how he pulled the tree out with his bare hands and how I thought he was like the hulk in my dream and his shoulders, arms and whole body bloated; they amplified…. and then I handed her my note. I gave her a minute to read while I brushed my teeth and hair. She looked at me with her mouth open; I told her we could talk about it later. …. and I continued my story about my night with Jett and the great kiss after dinner. I also told her how totally fun it was to put him to bed. He was so relaxed and funny, he was like a huge teddy bear.
“Did you strip him naked before you put him in?” Nic giggled...
“No!” I said “He borrowed a pair of sweats and that's what he went to bed in - - but no shirt.”
“Yeah I noticed that.” Nic gave me a wink.
After I finished dressing, Nic and I went to check on Jett again. He looked so cute his hair was tousled and the blankets tossed. He moved and Nic and I closed the door quickly and bolted to the kitchen.
While we were chowing down on scrambled eggs, fluffy pancakes and some crisp bacon, my mom asked if we would both head up to the Richfield Reading and Speech Center with her, she was going to have coffee with her new friend who had a daughter she wanted to introduce us too. I looked at Nic and rolled my eyes, but she immediately said yes for the both of us. I gave her a dirty look, she said “Where's your sense of adventure?”
“In Kit's room of course” I whispered.
We had just finished eating when my mom walked back in the kitchen with keys and purse in hand and said “You girls ready?”
“Now mom? But Jett's still sleeping I feel rude just leaving him here.”
“We won't be but an hour; I'm sure he'll just be waking up by then – write him a note.”
So Nic and I wrote him a note and hustled my mom out the door to get this party started.
The good thing was we could walk there but we took the car so it only took us a minute to get there. My mom pulled into the empty parking lot but kept driving until she reached the back where there was a separate entrance. On the window it read 'Shelia's Future Diagnostics' and underneath in small letters read 'Fortune Telling and Horoscopes'. We went in and there she was; she looked different today then I noticed she had straightened her hair, she was wearing nice pants and a blouse. My mom immediately gave her a friendly hug and introduced us.
Sheila said “We've met, how are you two doing? Thanks for your help by the way.”
“Where’s your daughter Shelia?” My mom asked.
From behind us another girl walked in, she was slim and had long dark wavy hair. She was pretty but looked like a burn-out by the way she dressed and wore her make-up. Sheila introduced us to her daughter as Catalina; she was carrying in boxes of pastries. She acted like we’ve never met, so I went along. She seemed totally normal, at least from the outside. A couple other ladies walked in too.
Catalina handed me the boxes “We're running a little late. Can you two help me set up the pastry table?” She asked eyeballing Nic and me.
“I have two more boxes in my car.”
“Sure,” was all I said and she dumped the boxes into my arms and disappeared outside. Nic followed. I walked over to the table and started setting it up. My mom was helping Shelia set up the coffee table.
Nic walked up next to me holding some folding chairs, “Too bad we didn't know there would be food, we could have saved some room.” Nic said. I looked at Nic and then at the sweets, they all looked good. Catalina returned with two more boxes, she set one on the table and the other behind. We set up the table as quickly as possible, in silence, as others were coming in the door.
“Catalina” I said “I guess this is an open house, since you’re new in town.”
“Yeah” she responded “Promise free food and coffee and people will come, it’s from 9 – 1 so people can come before or after church so tell all your friends.” She said happily, “And by the way just call me Cat.” She stuck her hand out to shake Nic's hand and then mine. I held tightly and stared right at her and asked “You were there that night. Weren’t you?”
She gave me a cocksure smile, “I was, I overheard you were going to try a spell and I wanted to see if it would work.”
“What did you think?”
She smiled like she knew it did but her mom called
her so she walked away without answering my question.
I was satisfied with the look she gave me. I popped a pastry in my mouth, they were scrumptious. Nic gave me a crazy look, I just winked at her.
We finished setting the table, the room was crowded with ten of us in it, Cat motioned for us to follow her outside. Nic got really into it and started asking Cat all sorts of questions. “Can your mom really read fortunes and horoscopes? How much does she charge, what happens if she's wrong?”
Cat stopped by a car and opened the trunk. She took out some chairs and we took them from her, she pulled a small card table out. We set it up near the building under some shade and we all sat down.
Cat started talking and I thought it sounded more like a sales pitch for her mom “My mom is actually very good at fortune telling, we won the lotto recently from her predicting the winning numbers. She’s not supposed to use her 'gift' for herself, so when I turned 18 a few months ago I paid her and asked her for lotto numbers. She got five out of six of them correct so we won a hundred grand. We used the money to move here, and re-start her business. I also took some money and invested it for us.”
“Why don't you keep on playing the lotto, have your mom keep predicting numbers for you?” I asked.
“My mom doesn't want to 'jinx it.’ If we win too much, or use her gifts too much for our benefit we’ll be jinxed, she thinks her gifts will dry up or something bad will happen. Plus, she says we won't appreciate life if we don't work for it. She said we need to struggle a little to live a good life and enjoy what we have. She'd like to keep her good 'predicting' for her clients. We'll see though, we are trying the investment angle to try and keep our money working for us.”
“So how do you get the gift? Do you have it?” Nic asked.
“My mom and I are from a very long line of original gypsies, some call us witches, depending on what a person’s beliefs are. I don't have any psychic abilities yet, but my mom said I can develop them at any time. It usually happens around the age of thirteen but they can develop as late as your twenties. She has told me all the family stories 'that must be handed down' generation to generation.” Cat was a dandy smooth talker and I’m sure it came from the experience working her mom's business.
“We actually picked this location, my mom said, for two reasons. She’s predicting in the next ten years that this area will grow and will be the perfect town for us. But most importantly, a person, I mean a relative, actually a couple of relatives moved to this area that she'd like to be closer to.”
I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion. They followed someone here not relatives but they want everyone to think they are relatives.....?
Nic asked “What kinds of stories are you to hand down?”
“The accurate history according to us gypsies.” When she said gypsies she made her fingers scrunch in the air like quotation marks.
“Stories about witches, fairies and leprechaun’s?” Nic asked with a grin.
“Can you tell us the accurate history according to the gypsies?” I asked squinting my eyes at her.
“Well there are stories of what happened to people that were thought to be witches, or fairies but most rumors were about vampires and werewolves. As far as our tales go on vampires and werewolves they were all killed by one vampire in the late 1800’s and then he killed himself. In this century, they haven’t been witnessed by our group, but rumors did fly around in the early 1900’s. Our legend says a scientist went insane, and did experiments on people that went “wrong.” She said with her air quotes again. “These stories were kept in secret and not published in history books or anywhere, it was scandalous and a huge cover-up.”
“Sounds interesting” I said looking her in the eye, I like having direct eye to eye contact with people. My dad says it shows strength and honesty. “Can you tell us more about them?”
She let a slight pause go by then said “they, this scientist, was trying to make the perfect human or one that wouldn't get sick but the experiments didn't work the way they were intended. They were supposedly ahead of their time trying to heal lepers and other diseases. Some experiments changed appearances physically, and they didn't go back to normal either, for better or worse. In some instances, some were cured, but they grew hair all over their face and body and were unstable afterward – hence the werewolf syndrome and stories.”
“Anyway” Cat continued. “The rumors became vicious stories and the people became afraid of the so called monsters, vampires and werewolves, creating huge chaos in the cities. In the end, they were hunted down like animals. The scientists, all his notes and subjects were destroyed; everything was burned until every scrap of evidence was gone.”
“So although the stories of vampires and werewolves may have had some truth to them centuries ago, nothing really exists like that now. Nothing scary, like in the movies, has been documented in our journals this century, just rumors exploding. Rumors don't get out the same way they used to either, my Great Grandmother tells me. There are lots of new ways to communicate and get the 'word' or truth out. Now-a-days anyone slightly insane or considered mad are institutionalized pretty quickly or put in jail.”
“Well, that's the really fast version of the “history” I've been told a million times.” There went her air quotes again. She seemed really nice and her stories even make a bit of sense.
As Nic and I were walking home, we saw Jett's brother’s car pulling out of my driveway, they stopped in front of us. Jett asked me if I wanted to hang out at his house later. Of course I said sure, not even checking with Nic or my parents first. I looked over at her quickly and she said not to worry her family had plans and her mom was picking her up by Noon. “You better have eaten some food..... “ I started to say to the boys when Jett interrupted me by showing me the very full bag between his legs on the floor.
Jett replied “Tori gave us enough food to feed us all day.” I smiled and said “Good, what time should I stop by? “Any time after 1:00.” He pulled his arm in the car like he was ready to leave and I went to walk away but then pulled me back and said “What, no kiss?”
I was in high heaven on the way back.
“Sooo.....” Nic said....
”I know, she told us some odd stories, but then again not so odd according to my dreams.” I was thinking out loud.
“And what about the comment that they moved here for a person and then she changed her story and said it was a couple of relatives.” Nic commented.
“You caught that too” I said. “Weird, right?” I paused then closed my eyes took a deep breath and said “I got one more ‘weird’ thing for you, there’s been like a series of dreams I’ve been having that I haven’t told you about…” I told her all the details I could remember. She sat there contemplating what I just told her and concluded with “Did you write them down?” I shook my head.
“Well you better get them and I’ll read and sign them.”
My mom dropped me off at Jett's house just after 1:00p.m. Before we got there I realized I never met Cale's parents and never heard him talk about them except when he told me they went out of town, which isn’t normal now that I thought about it.
When I arrived no one knew where Jett was, his mom called around and sent me in the basement after him. I went down and found him working out. He was in fitted shorts and no shirt bench pressing some weights. If he was down there lifting weights to impress me, it worked because all I could do was stare. If he was lifting five pounds or a hundred I had no idea. I stood at his feet watching him and finally startled him with a “Hi.”
Clank! He dropped the weight down and said “Holy shit!” and sat up. “You scared me, is it one already?” He scooted himself to the end of the bench and grabbed his shirt from the floor and wiped his face and threw it on the stairs. “I'm sorry I was hoping to have taken a shower by now.”
I was thinking thank goodness he didn't, my heart was racing a little and my face went flush. I remained silent admiring him.
H
e looked at me and smiled, reached over and grabbed one side of my jacket and pulled me toward him. He put his other hand inside my coat and around my waist and pulled me down onto his lap. Facing each other, neither one of us spoke, I felt like he was giving me time to back out. I broke the silence in a hushed voice and asked him what he wanted to do today. He pulled my legs on top of his and then wrapped both his arms around my waist. I thought I would panic and squirm but the panic didn't come. He pressed his lips into mine parting them as we kissed. My face turned hot and my body was tingling. I slid my hands up his bare arms to his smooth bare neck and through his hair. He slid his hand up my back under my coat and the other slid down to my waist while pulling me closer to him pressing his chest to mine. One hand slipped under my shirt and touched my skin.
I immediately pushed him back. I felt claustrophobic with the onset of a panic attack and I tried to talk but what came out was barely audible. “I thought we were hanging out today.” He pushed back, he looked relaxed, however, I was still a little freaked out. He backed me up onto the bench next to him and he leaned back and crossed his feet and said nonchalantly “I need to take a shower, possibly a long one.” He kissed me on the neck, his lips were hot. “Come on” he said reaching out for my hand, I took it; his hand was very warm and masculine and felt good in mine.
His mom was at the kitchen table, she asked me if I was hungry. My face was still flush and I was a little embarrassed but sat down. She offered me a drink, I accepted. She was awesome to talk to and before I knew it Jett was done with his shower and dressed. His mom complained that he worked out but hadn't hauled the hay from the truck to the barn yet.
I chimed in “We can do that now” he looked at me very strangely and said “No way, I can do it later.” If our chores weren't done at my house we weren't allowed to do anything. “If we do it now, it's done, then we have all night to hang out.”
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