by Aiden James
I met a girl.
It would likely surprise no one at this point that I’ve known quite a few young ladies in my long lifetime… But none were anything like the raven-haired beauty I met that afternoon. Seriously, the air between us crackled with energy. And regardless of whether or not the connection was destined to be a lasting thing, it was powerful enough to make me take note. Not just about her, but of everything going on right then. Hence the inclusion of the actual June date this time, and not just another numbered day in my rambling journal.
I met her at the lone theater in all of Herschel County, called the Denmark Theater Eight. She was standing just inside the entrance to this quaint building from yesteryear, and…. Well I’m getting ahead of myself a bit.
“So, we’ve got it down to either the new movie with the Twilight chick or the latest Avengers’ flick…. Right?” I asked Alisia on the way to the theater.
It was just before two o’clock, and my sister’s turn to drive. Despite the sporadic rain showers we endured with the convertible’s top down—her choice, not mine—we were having a ball, cutting up with each other. In fact, it kind of reminded me of the movie trips we used to take once a month in Chicago.
“Ah, you think you’re pretty clever, huh Bas? …‘Twilight chick’ and ‘Avengers’ flick’?” She nodded playfully while her eyes remained glued to the road ahead. “I heard Kristen Stewart is really good this time, so I’d like to see her instead of a group of superhero wannabes desperately trying to save the world from annihilation for the umpteenth time!”
“And what reliable source are you referring to, Sis? Teen Beat?” I teased.
“Is that fan mag still even being published? Sheesh! And, for your information, her latest movie is a love story that got a pretty cool review on Entertainment Tonight,” she said, to which I rolled my eyes. “Look, Bud, you had plenty of time to pick something better for the past month, but never got around to it!”
“I was legitimately busy,” I said. “After all, who got the first reprieve from our weed pulling and mole scouting sessions?”
“Oh, for crying out loud, Bas, I got out of that shit less than an hour before you!” she replied. “Just for that, smartass, you should concede to my judgment for all the movies this summer!”
I released an exaggerated sigh, and then let her pick that afternoon’s flick. Hell, I really didn’t know much about any of the available movies in this town’s theater, or anywhere else, for that matter. Not to mention, I had made her wait nearly six weeks in Denmark to watch a movie together.
“Okay… you win, Ali,” I conceded. “Kristen Stewart it is, then.”
Alisia parked the car and we walked into the theater together. I didn’t see the other girl right away… but I felt a strange energy pulling my attention. She was watching my back while I paid for the tickets. Alisia noticed her at the same time I did, but apparently didn’t feel the intense connection commence when the statuesque girl’s gaze met mine.
“I’m just going to pick up a Coke and some Raisinets,” my sister advised, glancing over her shoulder at me. “Do you want anything?”
“No, I’m good.”
But inside I was more like ‘Hell, I’m not good at all!’ Nervous as hell, I should say, as my heart raced out of control. But I said nothing to the lovely girl dressed in dark jeans and a light burgundy smock. She smiled and looked away. Then she headed for the concession line and stood behind Alisia, who again seemed not to notice her presence. I envied my sister at that moment, and as if the girl could sense my thoughts and my ever-increasing attraction, she glanced in my direction several times. My heart thudded louder in my chest with each look my way, and my schoolboy response embarrassed me greatly.
I felt saddened when Alisia returned to where I stood, and this mysterious and alluring young woman, who seemed to be slightly older than my sister, kept her back to us as she ordered something from the attendant standing behind the counter.
“You ready?”
Alisia smiled knowingly, and I could feel the blood rush to my face.
“Yeah… let’s go.”
I tried to covertly steal one last peek toward the concession counter, and succeeded for just a second or two—long enough to catch the girl’s profile that only added to her strange allure. But she didn’t look at me with her gorgeous green eyes this time. Eyes almost as fiery in their emerald hue as any I had ever seen before.
I frowned at the thought that this could be my first encounter with the thing my grandmother liked to call ‘true love at first sight’. Worse, I worried I might never see this dark haired beauty again, despite only ten thousand souls residing in Denmark. Grandma often said that most people mistake mere animal attraction for the real deal…. Maybe I was foolishly wishing this to be true for me—the sudden appearance of a so-called soul mate. It’s just a lonely boy bullshit thing, Bas… so let it go! That thought brought comfort… until something inside my heart emphatically said this could be different, and it needed to be further explored.
But how?
It couldn’t be right then, as Alisia grew irritated when I slowed my pace to look back one more time.
“Why don’t you go say ‘hi’ to her and get it over with?” she suggested, sort of sarcastically and mostly in jest. We had just reached the theatre room showing the love story I would soon have to endure while fantasies of another love saga brewed in my mind and heart. “I’ll wait here for you, lover boy!”
“No… it’s nothing,” I assured her. “I’m ready to be your shoulder to cry on.”
“Very funny.”
“Good. I need a new reason to smile.”
And so we stepped inside the sparsely populated auditorium, and headed for seats near the front—Alisia’s preference again.
The images rolling across the screen seemed insufferably longer than I anticipated when I first agreed to forego the Avengers’ flick—and that was just for the previews for similarly torturous films to look forward to in July.
Oh frigging joy!
But, I was there with my beloved sis and needed to make the best of it. So, I broke a personal rule and let myself enjoy a sappy chick-flick. My eyes even teared up when Ms. Stewart’s leading man bit it in a Nicholas Sparks sort of way. Every tear-jerking moment, though, ran parallel to an endless stream of questions about the mysterious female who had totally rocked my world that afternoon.
Imagine my surprise when out of the dozen people occupying the auditorium she was one of them. Our eyes locked once more, and this time I could feel Alisia’s nervousness. Surely she now felt the intensity radiating toward me, too, as my legs suddenly felt like they might give out as we moved to exit the room. For a moment, the girl hovered near the door, like she was waiting for me to join her there. But then she turned to leave, as if a spell had been broken….
“What in the hell did you just do?” I asked Alisia, accusingly.
“Nothing,” she said, until I bore down harder with my glaring eyes. “Okay… maybe I sent her a little nudge to get the hell out of our way.”
I suddenly felt incensed—angry enough to more than simply rebuke my sister, my flesh and blood. Hell, even that furious emotion felt weird and unfamiliar to me. After all, I had long been sworn to protect Alisia, my only sibling—my sacred flesh and blood. Before I ended up saying, or doing, something regrettable, I ran out of the auditorium with my sister calling after me to wait for her.
When I entered the hallway leading to the theater’s main lobby, I didn’t see her—the girl—anywhere. Incredible despair filled my heart… incredibly bizarre and beyond silly to my mind.
“Hi,” said a sultry voice from behind me.
“Huh?” I whirled around, to find her standing where I thought I had looked and seen emptiness a moment before. I guess I missed her somehow… panic wasn’t something I dealt with often. “Oh, hello.”
Alisia stepped out, and stood to my left while I faced the mysterious female who in a matter of a few hours—counting mo
vie time—had completely vexed my heart.
“My name is Sebastian,” I said, fighting to stay cool, calm, and collected while she and my sister exchanged wary looks. It was like they sensed something about each other, but couldn’t define it. At least the fur had yet to fly. “We’re sort of new to the area.”
“Nice to meet you, Sebastian,” she said, still exchanging guarded looks with Alisia. “My name is Daciana…. And you are?” She extended her hand for Alisia to take.
“I’m Alisia,” my sister said, with a pronounced coolness in her clipped delivery. But she took the offered hand in hers.
“It’s nice to meet you, Alisia,” said Daciana, unaffected by Alisia’s suspicious demeanor. She smiled slightly, as if relieved to survive the introduction. “I’m still getting used to Denmark, too. People are different here… but they seem nice.”
Despite her compelling, and dare I say ‘bewitching’ presence, there was goodness. Alisia’s rigid defensiveness began to wane, and I took it as a positive sign.
“Where are you from, Daciana?” I asked, thankful that my pulse was no longer threatening to pound a hole in my chest or throat.
“From a place where there’s a lot more to do,” she said. “What did you think of the movie?”
She took a step toward the lobby, and we kept pace.
“I thought it was pretty good,” I said, smiling sheepishly.
“Bullshit, Bas,” said Alisia, laughing, and turning her attention to Daciana. “He was a good sport, and put up with a love story instead of watching a bunch of muscle-bound males trying to kill each other.”
“The Avengers’ Movie?” Daciana asked, to which we both nodded. “I heard it was good, too. My brother loved it. But, I’m glad I got to see Secret Affair of the Heart instead.”
“Me, too,” said Alisia, seemingly warming up more to this gal who had deftly moved from predatory girl to potential new friend as we reached the lobby. “And, my brother was my shoulder to cry on.”
“Bas?” she sought to confirm. “Do you prefer that to Sebastian?”
“It’s… it’s my nickname,” I said, feeling the pitter patter of my heart pick up again, almost in time with the return of my sister’s suspicious look. But, hell, if she was feeling slighted by a question concerning my family nickname, she shouldn’t have used it in a stranger’s presence. Right?
“But, which do you prefer?” Daciana persisted. Her penetrating gaze was unnerving… and yet, I would’ve bet everything I was worth that the attraction was mutual.
Before I could respond, I heard an angry male voice, telling us in Romanian to “get the hell away from my sister!” Alisia’s mouth dropped open in surprise as I whirled around to see who it was… although I recognized the voice.
“Daciana! …Get away from these Radu swine before you become infected by their disgusting stench!” shouted Serghei Matei. In an instant, he moved from the entrance to where we stood, fifty feet away. “No sister of mine will be caught dead with a Radu! Do you understand me, Sebastian?”
He grabbed her and pulled her behind him, lingering long enough to shoot me a hateful look. Alisia took a step, announcing her intent to go after him. But I stopped her, knowing she had surprised him in the confrontation in front of the Mays’ place. He wouldn’t be caught off guard again.
“No,” I told her, quietly. “This isn’t the time or place.”
“That’s right, Radus—take heed!” he called to us from the entrance. Despite forcibly grabbing his sister, who wept quietly—either from pain or embarrassment, I assumed. Or, because she felt the same sudden despair I fought to keep at bay. “Your time of reckoning is coming. Next time, Adrian won’t be able to save you!”
The theater employees seemed to instinctively understand this asshole’s depth of malevolence and allowed him to leave the theater with his humiliated sister in tow. She hung her head and wouldn’t dare look in our direction again… at least not until she reached Serghei’s Maserati. Just before he threw her inside the passenger side of his exorbitant ride she looked at me one last time.
Her eyes burned with the same allure… same desire. For me!
“It will never work,” Alisia advised.
She and I stood just outside the building’s main entrance, watching as the Maserati sped out of the parking lot.
“And, I won’t tell Mom, Dad, or anyone else, unless you want them to move to Texas by Monday.” continued my sister, when I didn’t respond.
“No… I don’t want that,” I said, my voice a subdued whisper. Much louder was the realization in my heart that my life had been changed forever.
“I’ve seen a few cute cowboys around here,” she said, patting me lightly on my shoulder. “Maybe they have sisters just as cute…. You, know… someone to have fun with, and not get serious about. If things don’t improve soon with the Mateis, we’ll be moving on anyway.”
I nodded and sighed. I wasn’t interested in possible cowboy sisters to roll in the sheets with. Not that I expected that to happen with Daciana—even if she wasn’t a Matei. I had been content with my loner life until then, and I prayed silently it wasn’t too late to get that treasured aloofness back. It would be a hellish punishment if what was awakened that afternoon couldn’t be reburied and forgotten someplace deep inside my psyche.
“What was that all about?” asked Alisia on the way home.
“I don’t know,” I said, still trying to sort it all out. “I’ve never felt anything like that before. I should’ve known it would be with someone like us.”
“I’m surprised to encounter a non-blonde Matei. But Magelelena’s hair is the same color. Same eye color, too, so anything’s possible…. Have you ever seen Daciana before?”
“No. Have you?”
“No… but now that I think of it, I’ve heard the name before,” she said. “Mom said it once, I think, when describing Magdelena’s kids. It’ hard to believe our parents hate each other so much. It wasn’t always that way… they used to be close.”
“Yeah. That’s what I understand,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound like a jerk, although here was my sis talking like she knew the story of what happened and I didn’t know shit. “I guess we’ll forever need to watch our backs with them. Otherwise, there will be only one family still standing.”
“Maybe that would be best,” said Alisia, drawing a surprised look from me. “One family would definitely be best for everyone, I think…. As long as it’s us and not them.”
Chapter Fifteen
The next week was difficult.
No, that’s not quite right…. The next week was a veritable hell, complete with levels of torment once described by authors like Dante and Milton.
My heart, mind, and soul were at constant war with one another. On the one hand, there were thoughts and images of her… Daciana. Lovely, and unfortunately immortalized by my heart’s desire to be with this mysterious and dangerous woman. And, I do mean woman in the full literal sense. Even my kid sister is truly a woman, despite looking all of sixteen at times. Walking the earth for eighty-seven years will bring a perspective that most people count as maturity. After all, it is the so-called ‘School of Hard Knocks’ that changes a person’s perspective from foolishness to wisdom—and it’s all just another name for ‘life’, is it not?
Daciana looks a year older than Alisia, so I’d say she is pushing one hundred at least. Not flattering for most human beings, but she is still in the first sixth of her life on earth, and technically thirty years younger than me, though I might appear to be two years older than her at most.
After spending a week fantasizing about impossible solutions that would bring Daciana and me together, and furiously hating the very essence of Serghei, I was more than ready to get away from Denmark—even if it was just someplace several miles away. Fortunately, my family’s decision to rent a cabin, pontoon boat, and pavilion for a huge Fourth of July bash proved to be exactly what the doctor ordered.
“Perhaps getting out on the water wil
l lift you out of the doldrums, eh?” Adrian asked, while we loaded up the Escalade mid-morning that Saturday. “Your mother says there will be other youngsters to mingle with.”
“If they’re like most of the college kids around here, and even the juniors and seniors from Herschel High School, I doubt we’ll have much to talk about,” I said, trying to think about raccoons and moles tearing up the yard—anything that diverted attention from my secret obsession with the youngest member of the hated Mateis. “But I promise to be a good sport about it. Being on the water sounds pretty fun.”
“Indeed, it does,” he agreed, eyeing me thoughtfully.
….Raccoons have bandit masks and humanoid fingers that make them look like Disney characters…. And moles are blind…blind and stupid… they eat grubs for Christ’s sake….
“Hmmmm…. You’re hiding something, Sebastian,” he said, studying me intently while my personal menagerie waltzed past my mind’s eye. “Why carry a burden in silence, when so young?”
“I’m fine,” I assured him, forcing a smile that I could tell from my distorted reflection in a side view mirror was a horrid acting job. I forced it even more, to where my cheeks began to hurt. “Just a little bored, is all.”
“Do you want to move to a city that has more to do?” he asked, fully knowing I didn’t want that. In fact, I had confided my growing comfort in this sometimes-shitty little town the night before I met Daciana. “I can push to move on to Austin, Texas, you know. Manuel and I own a majority stake in a ranch near there… and Austin is a great city with lots to do and lots of beautiful women to choose from.” He added a smug, confident, and knowing smile that I wanted to rip from his face.
….What in the…? Shit, he’s testing me! What if he has Mom’s ability to filter the truth or a lie from an aura’s bending light bands?! Shit, shit… SHIT!...