“He’s been doing some digging?” I asked.
She shrugged. “He just ran some casual questions by him . . . But Elyas didn’t get into it. Even though I know full well,” she added, treacherously, “that Elyas talks about things like that with him!”
“Alex, why would they tell you that Elyas has only one thing on his mind? Not to mention you’re the biggest blabbermouth on earth.”
She squinted to glare at me.
“Plus, you can’t talk if there’s nada to talk about. ¿Comprendes?”
She dropped the subject and grumbled as she returned to wood collecting.
After ten more minutes, we had made it back to the clearing with plenty of firewood in our hands. The others had arranged a big stone circle for the fire. Elyas, Andy, Sebastian, Domenic, and Jan were sprawled out on blankets, listening to French reggae. The first round of beer had already begun.
“Well, ladies?” I said to the guys as Alex and I arrived, tossing the wood next to the stone circle. I received grumbly male whines in response, which made me smile.
It was still too light out to light the fire, but we sat around in a cozy circle, eating the delicious sandwiches Sophie had made for everyone.
Sebastian and Alex were to my right, and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other, even while they were eating. To the other side of me was Domenic, who chatted my ear off about something technical. I had no clue about it, and didn’t want to have a clue about it. But polite as I was, I nodded at all the right spots.
Sophie acted neutrally toward me, which was an improvement, but the same couldn’t be said for Yvonne and Jessica. They looked at me while whispering with each other. Jessica gave me the impression she had placed a bomb in my tent and couldn’t wait for me to turn in.
I kept as much distance between us as possible. Andy’s hand appeared in my field of vision as he grabbed for a fifth sandwich. There was no end to how much he could eat. Whenever he wasn’t chewing, he was gulping beer, and whenever he wasn’t gulping beer, he was laughing so loud the ground shook.
I set my bottle of water next to me and freed my cheese sandwich from its plastic wrap. I took a bite and then noticed Elyas watching me, yet again. He was two spots away from me, evidently with nothing better to do than sneak peeks at me. Whenever our eyes met, I quickly looked away.
“I’m getting another beer,” Domenic said, standing up. The boys had submerged the case in the lake to keep it cool.
He had hardly taken two steps when Elyas scooted over and smiled at me suggestively. “Hey, baby. How much for that sandwich?”
I suddenly lost my appetite. “Does anyone want the rest of my sandwich?” I asked the circle of people, irritated.
Andy laughed, but when he realized my offer was serious, he crawled toward me and took it.
“You’re such a pig!” Sophie told him.
“What?” Andy replied, chewing, and Sophie rolled her eyes.
“I didn’t mean to spoil your meal,” Elyas said with a smirk.
“Why did you do it, then?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s your lips . . . They captivate me.”
I moaned. If Sophie thought she had it rough with her pig, Andy, she should try seeing how rough it was with a stalker.
“Sorry, Elyas, but you’re sitting in my spot.” Elyas and I looked up to see Domenic over us.
“There’s plenty of room,” Elyas said.
“That’s great. Go find yourself some, then.”
“I was thinking more of you.”
“Stop with the drama, Schwarz. Stand up.”
“You know what?” I said, interrupting them as I pushed myself up. “Domenic can have my spot.” I walked two spots over and sat beside Jan. I was in no mood for nursery school games.
Once the sun had been swallowed by the horizon, we lit the campfire. Great orange-yellow flames blazed up, and glowing sparks swirled high into the nighttime sky. The fire crackled and hissed, and a pleasant wave of warmth washed over me like a blanket. The fire lit up the smiles on everyone’s faces, and laughter punctuated the conversations. You could tell a fair amount of beer had been drunk since late afternoon. I was one of the few who were still sober. Not because I didn’t like beer, but because it made me have to pee, and the huge, dark forest around us wasn’t the kind of toilet I wanted to visit any more than absolutely necessary.
Alex and Sebastian had disappeared a while ago. Where to, no one knew, but maybe it was better that way.
Andy and Sophie danced, holding each other tight, near the fire. His hands were on her butt, and her arms were around his neck. I had overheard earlier that they were engaged and getting married the following year. A little young for that, in my opinion, but to each his own.
I looked at Elyas, who was sitting kitty-corner from me, trying to burn a hole through me with his eyes.
I didn’t understand it. Why didn’t he get tired of this? Most days, a quick glance in the mirror was enough for me to know that any second more would be masochism.
Elyas noticed I was paying attention to him, and he seemed about to get up. Then Domenic moved to sit by Jessica, partially blocking Elyas’s view of me and interrupting his plan. Now he was watching Jessica and Domenic. The muscles of his face grew noticeably tenser.
I couldn’t figure out why he was reacting that way. Domenic and Jessica were just talking—nothing more.
Was Elyas jealous? Did he like Jessica? Or . . . did he like her more than he liked me? I had noticed a certain closeness between them all day. I had chalked it up to their being good friends.
Now Yvonne was staring at Domenic and Jessica, too, and trying to establish eye contact with Elyas.
I looked at Domenic, and realized he had laid his arm around Jessica. She nestled into him, lowering her chin and smiling.
Elyas’s face darkened. It was the same look as seven years ago, when it had been meant for me.
Domenic bent down to Jessica’s ear and whispered something that made her giggle. They talked for a few minutes like that, until Domenic stood and pulled Jessica up. She was obviously drunk. He took her hand and pulled her toward him. They found a spot off the blankets, he took her hips in his hands, and they started to dance. If Elyas’s look could have killed, Domenic would have been dead five minutes ago.
Alex and Sebastian returned to the circle and sat down, holding hands. But as Sebastian caught sight of the dancing couple, the smile vanished from his face. He looked first at Yvonne and then at Elyas.
Everyone seemed so tense, and I didn’t know why. Only Andy and Sophie were oblivious to what was going on. They were much too focused on each other to notice.
Once Domenic’s hand glided from Jessica’s hip to her butt, things got crazy. Elyas was on his feet in a flash, rushing at the two of them. Sebastian let go of Alex, jumped up, and followed his best friend.
“That’s enough!” Elyas yelled. He grabbed Jessica’s arm and pulled her away from Domenic.
“What the hell is your problem, Schwarz?” Domenic said.
Elyas didn’t respond and instead brought Jessica back toward the fire ring.
“I asked what the hell your problem is, Schwarz!” Domenic repeated. He walked toward Elyas and shoved him from behind. I put my hands over my mouth.
Elyas spun around as though he had been struck by lightning and laid into Domenic, roughly pushing him back. “I told you to keep your dirty fingers off her, you goddamned bastard!” Elyas took a step toward Domenic, his whole upper body poised to strike.
“Don’t butt into things that don’t concern you, you loser!”
I froze. What should I do? Jump up? Yell? Stand between them? Ideas raced through my head, but my body had turned into a chunk of concrete. Sebastian stayed calm and stepped in. “Hey, take it easy, you two, OK?”
Jan appeared, put his arm around Domenic
, and tried to draw him back, but Domenic didn’t want to be touched. Sebastian put his hands on Elyas’s chest and pushed him backward. “Calm down, man,” he said. Elyas snorted as his whole body trembled.
Elyas might be an ass, but this kind of aggression wasn’t at all like him. He must like Jessica a lot to snap into such a rage over her.
I nervously drew up my legs and watched. With a lot of back and forth, Jan had managed to get Domenic to back away and was walking with him to the edge of the lake. By the time he was out of view, Elyas had also calmed back down. He and Yvonne then turned to Jessica. Her cheeks were covered in tears, and her hands were shaking. Elyas took her under his arm, hugged her tight, and stroked her hair.
I was feeling queasier and queasier.
But Alex was completely flipping out. Sebastian took her hand and led her a few yards away to calm her down. I couldn’t make out what exactly he was saying.
I looked around. I was the only one still sitting at the fire. But I also couldn’t find any conversation going on that I wouldn’t have been intruding on.
“Don’t cry, Jessica,” I heard Elyas saying. “That idiot isn’t worth one tear.” He hugged her even more tightly.
It felt like my ribs were tightening.
“Do you want to go inside the tent?” Elyas asked. Jessica gave an almost imperceptible nod. “OK, then let’s go,” he said, putting his hand around her waist for support. Yvonne didn’t hesitate long before she followed them.
I was all on my own, watching the jerk go into a tent with another girl. I didn’t want to imagine how he would console her . . . I closed my eyes and shook my head. For the first time, I realized how far gone I was. The exact thing I had wanted to avoid had ended up happening anyway. I had allowed Elyas way too much space, and now he’d hurt me. I hung my head and watched my hand slowly sweep over the tips of the grass.
“It’s not what you think,” came a soft voice, making me wince. Sebastian.
He sat beside me and looked at the tent, which is where I had been looking without thinking. Alex’s stupid attentive boyfriend . . .
I turned my eyes away from it. “So . . . what exactly just happened here, if it’s not what I think?”
He sighed. “It’s complicated.”
“You don’t need to explain it if you don’t want to.”
“Yes I do,” he said. “I’m just wondering how to put it so Domenic isn’t cast in a completely contemptible light. But I’ll try.”
I nodded hesitantly.
“OK,” he said, gathering his thoughts. “I’m sure you picked up on how Jessica isn’t that into talking to you. She’s upset that you rode here on Domenic’s bike and sat with him in front of the campfire.”
The angry looks had been because of Domenic? I frowned.
“I noticed some stinkeye, yeah,” I said.
“Well, Domenic is . . . how should I say . . .” Sebastian opened his hands and closed them again. “He’s not a guy who hangs around waiting for things to happen. So sometimes he won’t say no when the other person has strong feelings but he doesn’t.”
I started to clue in to what he was hinting at, although it didn’t explain what Elyas had to do with any of it.
“Jessica has been in love with Domenic for ages and Domenic knows it, but he doesn’t feel the same way about her. I’m not trying to make him out to be the bad guy—that’s just how things are in life sometimes.
“But I do blame him for how he acts toward her. He plays games with her and gives her hope, only to drop her like a hot potato time and time again.”
I understood what he meant about giving her hope.
“The rest of us are caught in the middle because Domenic is Sophie’s brother, and he’s been a friend of ours for years . . . But at some point, he took things too far. He treated Jessica like shit.” Sebastian sighed. “Jessica, to her credit, sees through it all. But the sad thing is she always runs to him anytime he comes calling.”
Sebastian had been playing with a little piece of wood, which he now tossed into the fire. “We have tried and tried,” he continued, “to talk her out of him and make her see how she’s degrading herself and how self-destructive she’s being, not just with Domenic but in other ways, too. But it’s been no use. She keeps going back to him.”
I wrapped my arms around my drawn-up knees. “What about Domenic, though? Have you tried talking sense into him?”
“More than a few times.” Sebastian exhaled. “But you can’t talk to him about things like this. He doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with how he’s acting. ‘It’s her own fault if some bitch is that dumb and gets into it,’ he said. That’s a quote, actually. Verbatim.”
My eyes grew wide. “Did you tell Jessica that?”
“No,” he replied, rubbing his neck. “We didn’t need to. She was there and heard it herself.”
My lips formed an O shape, and Sebastian nodded. He looked into the flames for a moment before continuing. “It hit her incredibly hard. She shut down and ran off. We tried calling her, but she wouldn’t answer. We got more and more worried. After two hours, Elyas and I drove over to her place . . .” Given how thin he had pressed his lips, the memories were difficult to relive. “When we got there,” he continued, “she was downing a cocktail of prescription medications.”
I was shocked.
“Mostly painkillers,” he said. “It wasn’t a real suicide attempt; it was more an act of desperation, a cry for help. She would have survived even if we hadn’t gone over. But you take it just as seriously. Before that, we had been preoccupied with who had done what to whom. None of us had noticed how badly Jessica was actually doing.”
I fingered the hem of my pants. Everything was starting to make sense.
“From then on, Domenic stayed away from Jessica. He finally understood he had gone too far. He’s been leaving her alone—until tonight.” Sebastian exhaled. “It’s so frustrating, you know?” he continued. “This was about six months ago, and we’d been thinking it was all behind us. Jessica has sworn up and down she’s over him.” He shrugged.
“She lied,” I said.
“Yeah, she did . . . but it’s much worse that Domenic didn’t learn anything.”
“Elyas just lost it with him . . . ,” I mumbled, putting the puzzle pieces together in my head.
“Yeah, that’s how it is,” he said. “I can’t hold it against him.”
“But there’s one thing I don’t understand,” I said. “Why is Domenic acting that way? I don’t know him that well, but I’ve never had the impression he would act like that.”
Sebastian gave a melancholy smile. “We don’t know why, either. He’s a nice guy and a good friend. But when it comes to women . . .” He shook his head. “Domenic has never had a girlfriend. He’s never been in love . . . Something’s off with him, but I’ve never gotten to the bottom of it.”
I didn’t say anything for a while. “Maybe he just has two sides. A lot of people do.” Sebastian looked at me, and I turned my face from the fire. I could feel his eyes on me, studying me.
“And some people,” he finally said, “hide behind a mask because they’re afraid of being hurt.”
What—or whom—did he mean by that? Jessica? Domenic? Me? Elyas? Some random girl I’d never heard of?
I couldn’t be sure. But I suddenly felt ill at ease.
“Sebaaastian!” a high voice called across the meadow. We both winced.
There was no mistaking Alex.
“Come help me! Should I wear the red or blue sweater?” she yelled.
Sebastian and I grinned at each other as he got up.
“Have I ever told you how grateful I am that you’re her go-to person for these things now, instead of me?” I asked.
“No, but you owe me.” He laughed.
“Well, I did warn you.”
“Y
es, and you were right,” he said with a shrug. “I still like her all the same.”
“I know what you mean,” I sighed. “You can’t help loving her.”
He nodded. “Please excuse me. Apparently, I’m urgently needed elsewhere.”
I grinned. “Of course.”
He winked at me, gave my shoulder a friendly pat, and stood up. I watched him walk off, then looked back at the fire. His words replayed in my mind, like an old, scratchy LP.
CHAPTER 20
. . . STILL CAMPING
I sat by the campfire, lost in thought. Sophie and Andy were keeping me company, but there wasn’t a trace of anyone else. How long could it take for someone to decide on a sweater? Sebastian and Alex had disappeared more than half an hour ago. I was sure they weren’t choosing clothes anymore and had moved on to other activities. Maybe they were even experiencing their first time with each other.
Jan and Domenic had reappeared, silently grabbed a couple of beers, and then withdrawn somewhere far away again. I was still processing what Sebastian had told me. Although I hadn’t ever considered Domenic to be the guy for me, I hadn’t found him anything but nice. Now I was wondering how I could have been so deceived. It didn’t help that I wasn’t the only one, either.
By contrast, nothing should have surprised me about Elyas anymore—as proved once again tonight. I was seeing a very strong protective instinct in him. That would explain why he had shown such kindness and taken such good care of me after my parents’ accident.
I pulled out a blade of grass and ran my fingers over its smooth surface. Elyas was so full of contradictions. I couldn’t fit all the pieces of him together. He was like a book that raised more questions than it provided answers.
As I went to pull out another blade of grass, I sensed movement out of the corner of my eye. In the darkness I made out a tall, slim form approaching the fire. The movements were so fluid and lithe that it could be only one person. I looked away.
“Well?” Sophie asked as Elyas made it within earshot of us.
“She’s asleep. Yvonne is staying with her.” His voice sounded muted, although as familiar as always.
Cherry Red Summer (Emely and Elyas Book 1) Page 30