Both of the teams were still warming up when we took our usual center ice spots. Riley skated up and banged on the glass. He gave us a big grin and continued to warm up.
“I love that kid.” Caroline said.
“I was just thinking about the three of us today actually. You know, I’m surprised neither of us ended up with Riley.”
“Well, I always thought you would.” She said it so matter-of-factly that I was thrown off guard.
I turned to her. “Ha, yeah right,” I snorted.
“Yeah, I mean, after awhile I figured it wouldn’t happen, but at first I did. You know he was in love with you.” My jaw dropped as she turned to face me. Her smile was replaced with a frown upon seeing my reaction. “Why do you look surprised?”
“Why is this the first time you’ve said anything? I didn’t know you thought that.”
“Don’t you remember freshman year at all? I knew it after the hockey formal. Lillian had just broken up with him after he caught her cheating. We decided to make him feel better. We’d get dolled up and both show up on his arm? But, I got sick. Only, I wasn’t really sick. I figured if I dressed you up and stuck the two of you together, things would just fall into place. I stayed in and when he came carrying you upstairs at 3 am because you fell asleep in his truck, he spilled his guts to me. You showed up at his dorm room door and that was it. At least that’s what he said then. He jokes with you all the time about getting together. He has already said it multiple times already this year and we just got back.”
“He jokes with me, yeah, joke being the key word. This is a nice time to tell me that story. I thought you were team hang-in-there-for-James. And Riley is not in love with me,” I said as I pinched her arm.
“Ouch!” she yelped, rubbing at the spot I had just pinched. “What does it matter now? I thought you just wanted to be friends. Hence why I’d never brought it up before. But, with that comment, maybe you hadn’t thought about it. Have you really thought about it?”
Had I thought about it? Riley was my best guy friend. He was charming, kind, and handsome. He charmed everyone. It wasn’t like I was special and I had always just assumed I was treated the same as Caroline, but was she right? Was he in love with me?
I tried to think about how I felt about Riley. I would do anything for him. I told him almost everything. He knew almost as much as Caroline knew about me. I confided in him and I know he confided in me. If he was really in love with me, I doubt he would have dated every girl on campus like he did. No, I wasn’t in love with Riley. Did I love him? Yes. Was I in love? No.
“I do just want to be friends. That’s all we’ll ever be, just best friends.” As I said it, I felt strange. “Dang it, Caroline, now I’m going to over think everything! Why did you tell me this now? We’re about to watch a hockey game. This is a girls’ sleepover night topic, not something to bring up before a weekend with everyone!”
“I didn’t think it was a big deal. I didn’t think it was even something to think about. Ariya, do you not want to be just friends with Riley?” She was turned towards me now, trying to figure me out. Her eyebrows were raised inquisitively as if she was expecting me to give my final answer on the topic.
“I hadn’t even thought about it any other way until now,” I said, quietly.
“Well, you don’t have to make a decision. Riley hasn’t tried to be with you like that, seriously at least. Maybe he doesn’t feel like that anymore. I was just telling you he did a couple of years ago. Plus, James is in the picture now, so it doesn’t matter.”
I nodded. She was right. I didn’t need to over think anything. Riley was my best friend and he would always be there for me. Besides, she was talking about something that happened three years ago. The chances of him still feeling that way were minimal, if any. It was fine and Caroline was right, it wasn’t a big deal.
“You’re right. It’s just weird to think about.” Caroline smiled, realizing I’d made up my mind.
“Whew. Good. Now back to the main event! Go James!” she yelled, starting to clap her hands, and cheering. She was incorrigible.
I looked back to the ice to see if I could find James. He was still warming up, but he skated perfectly. Was everything he did perfect? He moved around on the ice like he wasn’t even touching it. He had a smile on his face the whole time, and watching him truly gave me butterflies. I was in trouble. All of the tough girl stuff was gone for a moment. I could pretend or try to pretend, but inside I had never, ever felt this way about a man before. I don’t care what I knew or didn’t know about him. I felt like I had been hit on the head, and even though none of it made sense, I was crazy about him. I needed and wanted to know more about him. I just liked it when he was around. He looked up and we made eye contact, making the smile on my face even wider.
“You’re screwed.” I glanced at Caroline, who was smiling in an annoyingly large and outrageous way.
“Oh, be quiet,” I grumbled.
The game started and it was so much fun to be back and watching the sport we’d grown to love over the years here. The boys were definitely pumped up and Riley scored in the first four minutes. They looked good this year. It remained 1 to 0 the rest of the period until James scored right before it ended. They all huddled up, high-fiving and hugging. 2 – 0 going into the second period wasn’t too shabby.
The second period was much like the first with two more scores coming from Riley. James assisted on both of them and I began to see what Riley was talking about. They were extremely good on the ice together. At the end of the second, it was 4-0.
“I’m gonna run to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
I got up to head out to the concourse. The restrooms were off to the side from where the students sat, a bit out of the way, so I headed towards the doors.
I was finishing up, washing my hands, when I thought I saw a shadow cross the mirror. I glanced up, but didn’t see anything strange. The lights must still be warming up, I thought to myself as I glanced up at them flickering. They had been switched off for the entire summer, after all.
I grabbed the door handle to leave when someone’s arm shot out, slamming the door shut in front of me. Before I could even turn around, I was shoved up against the wall with a strong, rather large hand grasping my throat. I almost couldn’t breathe. I opened my eyes to see I was staring straight into the face of Devon.
I clawed at his hand around my throat, trying to gasp in what little air was able to get through my windpipe.
“Not so protected now, are we?” Devon growled.
His eyes were glowing like they had been the night of Ashley’s party, when I’d caught them behind her building. His voice was harsh and his arm muscles were bulging. I thought to myself that there was no way it was possible for him to be holding me up like this.
“Listen carefully, Ariya. You are going to do exactly what I say or you are going to regret it.”
He lowered me and released his hand from my throat, then shoved both of my shoulders hard against the wall again. It knocked the wind out of me as I felt my head hit the solid concrete wall behind me hard. He was strong, painfully strong.
My vision started blurring from the impact. It felt almost unbearable to have that kind of strength pushing into my shoulders. I tried catching my breath, gasping as much as possible to regain some of the air that had been pushed out of my lungs so roughly.
“What are you doing?”
My voice was raspy and my throat was almost numb from the pain of having been strangled. The throbbing in my head was getting worse. How hard had I hit it? Sharp pain was causing even my eyes to hurt.
“Shut up and listen to me. I’m tired of waiting for you.”
There was something seriously wrong with this guy. He leaned into me, sniffing my hair, and I thought I was going to gag. How had I ever thought he was attractive?
“You’re so beautiful.”
He brought his lips close to mine. I wanted to back away, but he had me pinned against the w
all. Pulling on lessons learned in my self-defense class, I made a sudden movement to try to bring my leg to hit him in the balls. He was too fast, though, and he grabbed my leg.
“Shame on you, Ariya.”
I started to scream, but he brought his hand up to cover my mouth.
“Now, now. I’m not going to really hurt you. At least, not yet.”
He punched me in the gut swiftly, pushing all the breath I had managed to get back a moment ago out of me again. My mouth was open, trying desperately to gulp in air. My legs wanted to bend, but Devon shoved my shoulders back again, keeping me from falling.
“You are going to ditch Caroline, Nick, and especially James. You are going to come with me alone. Do you...”
He was cut off from the rest of his threat when the restroom door flew open. It was Caroline. I tried to call her name to tell her to leave, but had no voice to do so. Instead of being able to warn her and have her safe, I was trapped. She was going to be hurt if I didn’t speak. I went to say her name, but could only cough.
Caroline was standing in the doorway and I thought I could see Nick behind her as well. She ran through the door and rushed at Devon.
“Let her go, you wretched animal!”
She slammed into him harder than I would have ever thought possible. Devon roughly let go of me when Caroline ran into him. I crumpled, down onto the floor. I looked up to try to warn Caroline and to tell her that Devon was really strong. Nothing would come out of my mouth, though no matter how hard I tried.
My mouth throbbed. My whole back began to ache from being slammed, twice into the cement wall. My stomach felt like its insides were moved around in places they shouldn’t be. How was Caroline keeping Devon back against the wall so easily? Was this actually happening?
Devon started grinning widely and opened his mouth. He lunged at Caroline like he was going to bite her. I saw a whirl of dark color, which turned out to be Nick. I could finally see more clearly since things had stopped blurring for a minute.
Nick had moved Devon from the wall and was now holding him back away from Caroline. He had pulled Devon away from Caroline so quickly that none of it seemed real. It was like watching parts of a movie in fast forward. It looked strangely familiar, these blurs of color. I tried to focus on Caroline’s face to see if she was okay, but my vision was going in and out. From what I could see, she looked like she wasn’t fazed or scared at all. Was she smiling? Impossible. I brought my hands to my head to see if I could regain some balance.
“That’s enough.” Nick was growling in Devon’s ear.
I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. It felt like my mind was not able to correctly process what was happening.
“You’ve got your royal here to save her if she dies. Why not see if the rumors are true?”
Devon must have said something horrible in that sentence to Nick because Nick reached down and there was a loud snap and a crunching sound. Devon screamed. My vision was so hazy at this point that I couldn’t see anything of what was really happening. My eyes were heavy and my body slumped again. It sounded like Nick had broken something of Devon’s. What else could that noise have been?
Devon was done screaming and I could hear him say, “You’re going to be so sorry.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. My throat was still hurting and my body was shaking. I was nauseous and dizzy. I didn’t even care that I was on a filthy bathroom floor. My body, my brain, nothing seemed to be working right. I fell forward onto the floor and straight into a black hole.
I was drifting. Things were fuzzy. It was almost as if there was a black light pulsing somewhere, creating the flickering shadows I was seeing. I hurt. My back felt bruised. I could hear voices every so often. They were pieces of sentences that barely made sense.
“How…”
“She needs blood … heal her … make her forget ... protect her.”
I tried to get the voices to come closer. What were they talking about? Who needs blood? Me? When I tried to focus to speak more and ask my questions, pain came. A shadow approached.
Darkness enveloped me again.
Chapter 6
I stretched my arms out wide. It was the first time that week, as far as I could remember, that I hadn’t jerked awake.
The clock on my nightstand was flashing 9 am. 9 am? I did a double take and was surprised. I couldn’t remember the last time I had slept in that late. Self-defense class was not an option, seeing how it had started half an hour ago. Crap! I threw on some comfy clothes and headed out to the living room. I stopped suddenly, seeing Nick sitting there.
“Hey, Nick! When did you get here?” Nick glanced up from the book he was reading.
“Uh, late last night. Did you have a good time at the game?”
“Yes, I love that hockey started up again. James and Riley scored in the first period and then Riley again in the second…” I trailed off for a minute. “Eh, I don’t really remember much of the final period, but we won! It’s always exciting to win the first game. Have you heard anything about the transfer?”
My mind was going a mile a minute. I felt so alive, so rested. It had been over two weeks since I truly felt rested and I can’t remember ever having felt this great before.
“Yes, I did, actually. I heard Friday morning. I’m in. I just have to wrap up a couple more things and then I’m here for good.”
“That’s great, Nick. Really quick, huh? I didn’t know transferring was that easy. Caroline is probably so excited.” He grinned back at me.
Caroline came out of her room in her robe. “You seem happy.”
“I feel better than I have since we came back. I’m refreshed. Oh, I didn’t have the falling dream, the boys won, which means a night of celebrating tonight, and yeah, I think all of those are perfectly good reasons to be in a good mood this morning. It’s going to be a great weekend!” I was excited, clearly.
“Good.” Caroline smiled at me. She leaned over and whispered to Nick.
“Well, I’m leaving you two to a girls day while I go get to know your friends better.”
“What? You don’t have to leave! You just got here.” I frowned.
I didn’t want Caroline missing out on time with Nick, especially since he said he didn’t get here until late. This was her first serious boyfriend, and I didn’t want her thinking I needed her around every weekend.
“He bonded with James and Riley yesterday after the game, so they are all watching old sports movies or something today. I know, he comes to visit me and hangs with them. Whatever, we can have a girls’ day. It’ll be fun.” She seemed to know what I was thinking and went into her reassuring-big-sister mode instantly, trying to make me feel better.
“After the game? I thought he got here late.”
Caroline looked at Nick a moment and then back at me. “Yeah, you were asleep and Riley and James swung by since they were still amped up from the win.” She looked more comfortable as she spoke.
“Huh, you should have woken me up! I can’t believe I passed out. All right, if you’re sure it’s what you want, then I’m in. A girls’ day will be perfect!” I shook off the concern I had felt for a moment. Nothing was going to ruin my mood today.
Perfect is exactly what it was. We went on a run, watched Clueless while doing our nails, and decided around 3 that it wasn’t too early to make some mimosas and start enjoying our evening. About halfway through our second drink, Nick called, letting us know people were going to head over to Riley’s soon, so we got dressed and went over within the hour as well.
I still felt great. My high had not started wearing off at all. I felt powerful and strong. It was like I could do anything. We walked into Riley’s house and Caroline went directly to Nick. Riley walked over, gave me a hug, and asked what I wanted to drink. I made him keep bottles of wine hidden in his house for when Caroline and I wanted to have something a bit classier than the Natty Light that was usually served. He went to grab some for me upon my request. I noticed James standing behi
nd the couch. Since I was feeling so high and mighty, I decided to approach him and strike up a conversation.
“Hey.” I nudged into him. He looked surprised, but smiled.
“How are you?” he asked. He looked concerned for a moment, but it quickly vanished back into a smile.
“Great. Hey, good game last night! Sorry, I got a bit tired and we headed home at the end. You sure picked up hockey quickly, huh?”
It surprised me that my talkative nature from this morning hadn’t faded yet. Maybe that’s what came from not having rested for two weeks and suddenly getting the best sleep you’d ever had.
“I guess so. The other guys make me look good.” He turned to face me and I realized how close we were standing to each other.
“Do you enjoy it?” I tried to take a step back and began stammering. My powerful feelings had, momentarily, been brought to their knees in James’ presence.
“Hitting people and winning games? What’s not to enjoy?” He smiled. It was another one of his real grins that he didn’t always use. My body tensed. I wanted to talk more. All I had to do was keep thinking of topics.
“So, how have you liked being here in Mineral Point?”
“It’s very much how I imagined it would be. Small towns don’t change that much over time when they’re tucked away like Mineral Point is. It’s nice to see that some things in the world can remain constant.”
He spoke like he was much older than a college student. It was charming. It reminded me of my favorite leading men, the way they would get lost in their thoughts when they were speaking to someone. Of course it did. I read way too much and watch too many old, romantic movies. He was looking at me intensely. His eyes were beautiful. Earth to Ariya, I reminded myself, you’re staring.
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