“What! Yes, of course!” Beth exclaimed. “What are you trying to say?”
Crystal stepped closer to the car and leaned down to stare through the open window. “Level with me. Do you love me?”
Beth hesitated and then said, “Duh, like I haven’t told you that a million times?”
“That’s not what I mean and you know it.”
“This is crazy,” Beth protested. “You’re my best friend. Even when you’re sucking the prom queen’s face and making me feel like shit. Yes, I love you. I don’t always like you, but I love you.”
Crystal straightened and glanced up and down the road. Sleepy weekday mornings after everyone was already headed off to work left the roads empty. She sighed and reached down to open the door. She slid in and sat down. “Let’s go.”
“That’s it?”
“You said we were going to be late.”
“Oh, hell no,” Beth said. “You started this—you can’t just drop it.”
“I’m not gay,” Crystal said. “You mean the world to me but I can’t be that way.”
Beth gasped and stared at her. She turned away and shook her head. This time when her shoulders shook it wasn’t laughter. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you. It’s natural. I mean, I think it’s natural.”
“No! That’s not it!” Beth said. “I’m not like that. It’s just you.”
Crystal turned away and stared out the front window. She didn’t know what to say. “Is it what’s happening to me?” she wondered aloud. “Me being, um, in heat?”
“No,” Beth said. “I’ve felt like this a long time.”
“So you’re in love with me?”
Beth shrugged and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I don’t know. I mean, I just want to be with you. I don’t feel like I’m whole when I’m not with you. I don’t want to touch your boobs or anything. I just want you to need me like I do you.”
Crystal sighed. “You should have told me this a couple weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“Things were different then. I was different.”
“What’s that mean? Now that you’re turning into a werewolf, you don’t need me anymore? I’m not cool enough?”
“That’s not it!” Crystal snapped. “Damn it, Beth, this isn’t easy for me. None of it, not talking to you and not going through what I’m going through. Do you have any idea what this is like? No, of course you don’t. How could you?”
“Tell me,” Beth offered. “Talk to me.”
Crystal stared at her and then groaned. “I don’t understand it well enough to explain. I’m hot all the time. Burning up sometimes. Gwen talked me into going for a run with her in the woods yesterday. Naked, I mean. It was weird but it felt so good! I felt the woods around me and it made me feel like I was a part of nature.”
“You were running naked through the woods? With Gwen? She’s the old one, right?”
“She’s not old,” Crystal defended her friend. “Well, okay, she probably is. They don’t get old as fast as we do.”
“The naked in the woods part?” Beth reminded her.
Crystal sighed. “It wasn’t about sex. I only lose control of myself like that around a few people.”
“Stephanie?”
Crystal started to shake her head but shrugged instead. “I don’t know. That was special. I mean, I opened myself up to that. I didn’t feel it before. No, the only person I really feel that way around is Hank.”
Beth grunted. “He’s a good-looking guy,” she admitted.
“He’s perfect,” Crystal gushed. She bit her lip and then broke into giggles when Beth rolled her eyes. “Sorry,” she said.
“No, it’s cool. This is what I’ve been missing. You’ve been so quiet and private since this started. I was worried that you didn’t need me anymore.”
Crystal smiled. She didn’t need her, but she did like having her around. The problem was she couldn’t spend her time stressing about keeping Beth happy with all the stuff she was dealing with. Especially if she was going to die.
Beth read her mind and reached over to squeeze her hand. “Crys, from what I heard the other night, you’ve got a two in three chance of not being around for a long time. I’m scared for you, and I’m scared for me. What do I do if I don’t have my best friend around anymore?”
Crystal shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m doing everything I can to make it, though.”
“Then let me be there with you. I promised I’d be there no matter what. I meant it. Even if you have to kiss Stephanie in front of me again.”
“Ugh.”
Beth laughed. “Come on, we’re late for class.”
Chapter 12
Crystal sat her tray down at the lunch table and slid into the hard plastic seat. She had a double cheeseburger and some fries on her plate. It was the least disgusting option she’d seen and she was starving after skipping breakfast.
Beth sat down on the opposite side of the four-person table and smiled. “I missed you yesterday.”
“This again?” Crystal asked as she peeled the soggy bun off the cheeseburger. She grimaced and muttered, “Didn’t know they were serving roadkill.”
“Looks more like a cow patty to me,” Beth offered before turning to her slice of pizza. “Then again, this could be nine parts wax or plastic and I couldn’t tell.”
Crystal nodded and used her fork to pick up one of the patties. She looked at it and sniffed. She could pick up some faint traces of animal in it. Enough to satisfy her that it was edible.
“And I didn’t mean anything like what we talked about earlier,” Beth added in a hushed voice. “I just meant that I missed eating with you. Lunch, that’s all, not eating anything else, you sick-o!”
Crystal chuckled and took a bite. Beth’s eyes widened and she hurried to stare back at her pizza.
“So, uh, anyhow. Whenever I think about myself growing up, you’re always there, you know? Not living with me, but being my BFF forever. Having kids together—different husbands, not adoption—and all that stuff.”
Crystal swallowed down the burger patty and took a drink before responding. “I did too,” she admitted. “But now…things are different. It’s not that I want them to be; they just are.”
Beth nodded and looked away as Crystal took another bite of the burger.
“What’s wrong?” Crystal asked.
Beth glanced up at her and blushed. “I’m sorry. It’s just kind of scary how you’re eating that thing.”
“No bun?” Crystal asked. She glanced down at the burger. She hadn’t even considered eating the bun; it just seemed natural to push it aside. “My mom was kind of surprised when I pushed the spaghetti noodles aside and went for the meatballs last night too.”
Beth opened her mouth to respond when someone walked up beside them and asked, “Hey ladies, mind if I join you?”
Beth’s mouth slammed shut and her eyes narrowed. Crystal looked at Stephanie and felt a tickle on the back of her neck. She sniffed the air again and managed to pick up the fresh scent of Stephanie among the aromas of the lunchroom. It reminded her of being close to her yesterday and she had to fight to keep from shuddering. It did nothing to stop the flutter in her belly that warmed her.
“Why?” Crystal asked.
“After yesterday?” Stephanie asked. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” Crystal said. She turned to look at Beth and for a brief moment she saw the pain in her friend’s eyes. “I’m with Beth.”
“I see that, but there are four chairs here,” the blond said. “I just wanted to talk about yesterday, that’s all. And maybe about us.”
“Us? There is no us,” Crystal snapped. “Unless you mean the us where you teased me and built me up, and then used me and made fun of me.”
Stephanie’s cheeks flushed under her makeup. Crystal lifted her eyes to Stephanie’s hair. It looked flatter than usual and her makeup wasn’t as polished. Was Stephanie being af
fected by Crystal’s condition too? Could she be giving out pheromones that affected people?
“That’s kind of what I want to talk about,” she muttered. She glanced around and then pulled the chair out and sat down. “People are staring,” she explained.
“You get used to it,” Crystal retorted.
Stephanie dropped her eyes to the table a moment and then nodded. She lifted them up and saw Crystal’s plate. “You’re not eating the bun?”
“I’m low carbing.”
“Oh, cool. Is that how you’ve lost so much weight? You’re looking really good. I’m proud of you.”
“Oh, Christ,” Beth muttered.
Other than a glance from Crystal, the other two girls ignored her outburst.
“Doesn’t seem to matter what I want, you’re here,” Crystal pointed out.
Stephanie grinned. “I usually get what I want.”
“So what do you want?”
Stephanie lifted her head to stare into Crystal’s eyes and said, “You turned my world upside down yesterday. I mean, really. I’d kissed you before but like you said, I was just kind of messing around. I really was trying to apologize. I mean, look at you. Look at what you’ve done and how smart you are. It’s pretty stupid of me to think you’re a nerd or a loser when you can obviously take care of yourself.”
“You have no idea,” Crystal said.
Beth proved she couldn’t take anymore by leaning forward and saying, “Wait a minute, aren’t you some holy roller with a daddy who sleeps with a Bible under his pillow?”
Stephanie glanced at her and shrugged. “Crystal opened my eyes,” she said before turning back to look at Crystal. “And—I’m sorry, have you always had those gold flecks in your eyes? They’re so pretty!”
Crystal’s eyes widened and she leaned back. Her mom had complimented her eyes too. She turned to Beth and saw Beth glaring at her. Beth nodded just enough so that Crystal knew the glare wasn’t for her.
“Sorry, I got distracted,” Stephanie apologized. “Anyhow, I just wanted to say we should hang out. You too, Beth. You’re a good friend. I can see that now. Before I thought you were just bitchy and mean. I get it, though—Crystal’s your friend, and I was kind of a hag.”
Beth gasped and stiffened, and then her eyes narrowed all over again. Crystal had to fight to keep from laughing at her friend’s mood swings. It was an easy fight considering Stephanie was still there irritating her.
“Great, maybe we can do that sometime,” Crystal said. “I’ve got a rough month ahead of me, so let’s try next month.”
“What? Oh, um, okay,” Stephanie said. She looked as confused as she sounded. “This isn’t, like, a period thing, is it?”
“Oh my God!” Crystal and Beth groaned at the same time.
Stephanie jerked back and then laughed. “Sorry, I just wondered.”
“School and some chores at home,” Crystal explained.
Stephanie nodded and stood up. “Cool. Well, um, thanks for listening. I meant it, all of it. Even the part about you, Beth.”
Beth smiled too-sweetly at her.
“There you are!” Chad’s voice bellowed across the lunchroom. “You ruined my car, you bitch!”
All three of them, and everyone else in the lunchroom, turned to see Chad storm over to their table and point his finger at Crystal. “You’re going to pay to fix my car!”
Beth stared at Crystal, with her jaw trying to reach the table.
Crystal felt the heat from the night before sweep through her again and realized she’d been wrong when she thought her earlier confrontation with Beth was similar. This was different. This was dangerous. “Only thing wrong with your car is the driver.”
“What about when you punched the dash and broke it? Or how you keyed the side?”
Crystal stood up and glared at him. Her hands were curled into fists and she felt her fingernails digging into her palms. “You slammed me into the dash when I wouldn’t let you rape me,” she growled loud enough for everyone to hear. “And I didn’t key your car. I don’t even have car keys!”
Chad realized they were the center of attention and glanced around. “I was giving you a ride home,” he hissed back.
“Yeah, your home.”
“Those scratches and the dent weren’t there before you slammed the door!”
Crystal hesitated. She hadn’t scratched it, but she’d slammed it shut. His Mustang had a metal door, though; she couldn’t dent that with her hand. She shook her head at him and took the offensive. She pointed her finger at him and said, “You’re lucky I didn’t press charges or break my fingers.”
His eyes rounded as he looked at her hand. “Wait, I thought—”
Beth stood up. “Come on, Crys, let’s get out of here.”
Crystal glared at him and nodded. She turned and walked past him, leaving her tray on the table. He reached out and grabbed her arm. “Wait a minute, I wasn’t—”
A flash of heat unlike anything before burst through Crystal. She spun around and swung her arm, slapping Chad across the face hard enough that he staggered back into the table and fell on top of it. It tipped under his weight and dumped them both to the ground, complete with trays of uneaten food raining down on him.
Crystal stood amid the thunderous silence of the lunchroom. Her chest heaved as she fought to control her breathing and slow her hammering heart. Everywhere she looked, she saw red until she blinked her eyes and the colors faded back to normal.
“She’s been working out,” Beth said before she grabbed Crystal’s hand and pulled on it.
Crystal went with her, stunned at her behavior. This was what Gwen had made her promise not to do. She stared down at her hand as Beth tugged her past Stephanie, out of the still stunned lunchroom crowd.
Chapter 13
“That was awesome!” Stephanie said as soon as Crystal emerged from the afterschool detention room.
“Jesus!” Crystal blurted even though she wasn’t surprised to see her leaning against the wall and waiting with Beth. It wasn’t that she’d expected Stephanie to be there; rather that she’d smelled her blend of honeysuckle shampoo and perfume. She didn’t know the name of Stephanie’s perfume; she just knew it made her want to sneeze.
“It wasn’t awesome. It was—” Beth argued.
“No, it was awesome,” Stephanie said. “He needed someone to put him in his place.”
“His dad’s a lawyer!” Beth argued.
Crystal held her hands up. “Stop! Please. I need to get out of here.”
“Come on,” Beth said.
“Um, can I get a ride too?” Stephanie asked.
Beth and Crystal turned to stare at her. “You have a car,” Beth pointed out.
“I didn’t drive today.”
“How’d you get here?” Crystal wondered. She didn’t see Stephanie as the type to walk. Aerobics, Pilates, yoga, and cheerleading sure, but walking was for lesser people than the queen.
“A friend dropped me off.”
Crystal raised an eyebrow and then let it drop. She looked at Beth and saw her friend roll her eyes. “Fine, whatever.”
They walked through the school and out to the parking lot before anybody said anything else. Once they were outside, Beth was the first to speak. “Did he say anything to you in there?”
Crystal snorted and remembered how he’d come into the room and turned away from her immediately. He wasn’t quick enough to hide the four red scratches from where her fingernails had got him, though. “Not supposed to talk in detention. But he wouldn’t even look at me.”
“You knocked him on his ass,” Stephanie gloated. “It was awesome! Maybe he’ll learn not to mess with girls anymore.”
“Mess with girls?” Crystal asked.
“Didn’t you know?”
Crystal and Beth exchanged a confused look.
“Yeah, Chad uses his nice car and house to trick girls into thinking he’s all that. Then he screws them and dumps them.”
“What?” Bet
h breathed. “How?”
“Well, maybe saying he dumps them isn’t right,” Stephanie conceded. “I mean, it’s not like he’s in a relationship with them in the first place.”
“I thought you and he were a thing last year?” Crystal asked. “You mentioned something about it earlier this year.”
Stephanie smirked. “Yeah, a thing. He figured out his nice stuff didn’t knock my panties off so he had to work harder until he lost interest. I found out what he was doing behind my back and we split up.”
“I don’t remember any drama,” Beth said.
“No, we agreed not to make a fuss out of it,” she said.
“Jesus,” Beth muttered. “Rich protecting the rich!”
Crystal opened her mouth to protest but Stephanie spoke first. “Pretty much,” she agreed. “But that just goes to show that we protect each other. Even if we don’t like each other.”
“That’s messed up,” Beth stated.
Crystal agreed but kept her thoughts to herself. They reached Beth’s car and without thinking, Crystal went around to the passenger side and opened the door. She stopped, remembering Stephanie, and turned to look at her.
Stephanie smiled and opened the back door. “You can have shotgun. I don’t want you to punch me.”
“Oh my God!” Crystal sputtered amid a rush of blood to her face. “I slapped him, I didn’t—”
“You knocked him on his pompous ass,” Stephanie declared. “Slap or punch, he was down.”
Beth opened her door and slid into the driver’s seat. She waited for the other two and then turned to look at Stephanie. “I don’t get it—if you think he’s such a douchebag, why are you nice to him most of the time?”
“And why tell us how you really feel?” Crystal added.
Stephanie slid over to the middle of the seats and put her hands up on the backs of them so she could lean forward. “Because of you. You pushed him out and now you’re in.”
Beth started her car and glanced in her mirror. “Out and in?”
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