“That was fifth grade, Dad!” I screamed.
A muffled ‘uhuh’ issued from the kitchen followed by fake crying noises. Scowling, I rubbed Cooper’s ears again and kissed him on his forehead and pushed him off me. Walking upstairs, the warm feeling had finished coursing through my body and the biggest smile was on my face. One I haven’t seen in a long time on the hallway mirror. I’ve got to wear the perfect outfit.
I went into my room, looked at my closet and knew that it wasn’t there.
A Hero Arrives
The hands on the grandfather clock creeped along as if time had abandoned me. Even waiting for Christmas Eve as a kid didn’t take as long as it did for clock hands to reach nine o’clock.
After showering, I spent the rest of the evening trying on seven or eight different outfits, and combinations, and I hated them all. I finally settled on a cute blue sweater, that complimented my Mom’s necklace and the friendship necklace Brooke had given me. Dark brown jeans, and light brown fake fur rimmed boots finished the outfit. Dad complimented me on my cuteness. I stared at him mortified, before running back upstairs and changing three more times before returning to my original outfit. He kept silent this time when I came downstairs, except for a few teasing remarks about how somewhat attractive I was when I tried.
I stared at the clock with its hands move with agonizingly slowness towards nine, and wondered if he would be coming. He should be tired from his trip? I wouldn’t go if I were him.
“Could you stop your leg from bouncing? It’s annoying.” Dad commented from his reading chair.
My hand pushed on my leg to keep it from bouncing, a nervous habit I’ve always had, and gifted him with a snarl.
“Cooper, go keep her company.” Dad told him. “She’s obviously lonely. Prince Charming isn’t here yet.”
Cooper obediently got up from in front of the fireplace and came over to me. His side was super warm from the fire as I rubbed it. The warmth reminded me of Gabe’s eyes and the nervous butterflies sprang into my belly. I heard my Dad laugh.
“Oh, young love.” He chuckled again. “I can’t believe someone actually could make you look like this.”
Startled, I jumped up, “Like what?” I moved to the mirror by the door. It wasn’t until I saw nothing wrong that my Dad’s laughter grew in my consciousness. I turned on him and gave him the evil eye, which he immediately made the sign of the leprechaun; a quick shamrock followed by both hands coming together in a circle.
I waved him away.
“This is going to be so much fun.” He turned and set his paper down. “You know this right?”
“Ha, ha. It’s nothing. I won’t give you the pleasure of teasing me, cause there isn’t anything to tease me about.” I turned my head to look out the window hoping Brooke’s car had arrived. It hadn’t.
He clapped his hands together and rubbed them. “Oh, this is going to be good.”
Just then, Brooke arrived. I noted that Gabriel wasn’t in the car. My heart sank, but I put on a big smile. “See, he isn’t even in the car. You lose, old man.” Quickly checking myself in the mirror one more time - god my hair needs to be cut - and skipped out the door with my Dad’s words floating after me, “Don’t kiss him on the first date!”
I jumped in Brooke’s car and waved to my Dad, who stood in the window, waving and making kissy faces.
“What’s he doing?” Brooke waved to him and he waved back.
“He thinks he’s being funny.” I turned my head away from him and his continuing antics in the window.
“But he is funny.” Brooke remarked before driving away.
Music blared from the speakers as we headed up Broadway toward Mineral Ave. and down to the light rail station at Santa Fe.
Brooke bopped back and forth to the music and she seemed in a much better mood than earlier and I commented on it.
“Oh, that? Set is just a jerk sometimes.” She said. “He likes to push things all the time. He knows what buttons to press to get me upset. He’s just a jerk like that.”
“Oh. How did Gabe recognize me? How’s your arm? He punched you pretty hard.” I was trying to get around to asking if we were going to meet up with them, well Gabriel, without actually asking.
She waved her hand at me. “I sent him a picture of us back in ninth grade. He has a really good memory for unremarkable things.” She snorted at her joke.
“I really hate you sometimes.” And turned to look out the window.
“No you don’t. And Set hits like a girl.”
Only Brooke would say something like that. Cause most girls don’t hit like she does. “Are we meeting anyone?”
She frowned. “Like who?”
I played it off. “Oh, I don’t know? Did anyone call you?”
“No, did anyone call you?”
“No. I was just curious. I thought maybe Christian had called.”
She laughed. “Christian doesn’t call anyone.”
“I don’t know. He seemed awfully happy to see you at the airport today.”
Brooke pushed me, but I could tell her brain was racing. “I didn’t find him, so he’s probably holed up with his friend he picked up.”
Perfect, my opening. “And what about your cousins? Are they staying in?”
She nodded. “I believe so. Set went straight to bed after we got home and Gabe was talking to my parents when I left.”
I nodded trying to look happy. “Good, girls’ night out.” Though deep down I was really disappointed. I’m not sure why I was, I only just met him today. But there was just something about him. I filled my lungs with a deep breath, trying to smell the caramel corn, but nothing surfaced and I let it out as a long sigh.
“Sad?”
“Nope. Just gearing up for the celebration.” I gave her a high five.
The trip downtown was uneventful. The train was packed. People were already heavily intoxicated, and it was almost as much fun watching these drunkards as it was watching people at the airport. At each stop we stuffed more people in and soon, the stink of heavy perfume, booze, and just body odor was starting to overwhelm me. I edged closer to the door to try and catch as much fresh air when the doors opened as I could. We had just stopped at the Mile High Station, I moved to get out of the way of several revelers stumbling out of the door, when someone grabbed me from behind making me yell out in surprise.
Several people looked my way, when Alexa, Carly, Kennah and Laura came around front. Kennah had been the one to grab me. They laughed.
“Scared of something?” Laura asked.
I hugged them. “No, you just startled me. What are you guys doing down here?”
Alexa pushed me back onto the train as the conductor’s voice announce the train was moving. “Kennah’s boyfriend’s dad has a loft down on the mall. We’re heading there to watch the fireworks.”
Kennah’s boyfriend went to Valor, something that caused quite a ruckus among the other cheerleaders on the squad. But Kennah did whatever Kennah wanted. They greeted Brooke who returned the greetings.
“What about you two?” Carly asked, shuffling herself into an open area.
“Just going to watch the fireworks and the drunks.” Brooke told her.
“You should come with us?” Laura piped in. “Should be really good viewing.”
I shrugged. “I’ll call you if we do.” Brooke didn’t like any of the Valor crowd, and so it was best to keep her away from them.
“Ah, they aren’t that bad.” Kennah’s nasally voice rose above the din in the train. It was like she was always in cheerleader mode and her voice boomed.
Brooke scowled. “Maybe not your boyfriend, Kennah, but as a whole they suck.”
Kennah rolled her eyes and found something interesting to watch out the window. Soon we were at Union Station and the multitudes exited the train. We waved goodbye to them while we walked toward Wynkoop Street and then toward 16th Street. We laughed and joked about the different costumes of the people we saw and meandered up the str
eet. Well-dressed couples walked towards their destinations and I found myself watching them with a certain amount of envy. I couldn’t help but imagine myself and Gabe being one of those couples, going to some high class party put on by our friends or our work. How romantic.
Brooke looped her arm in mine and we continued our exploration of downtown. I loved downtown. The lights, the tall buildings, and the cool shops made downtown Denver great. We strolled in and out of shops, and bought some trinkets for New Years. Brooke bought a blinking tiara that made her blue hair even bluer in the lights of downtown. I purchased some wide brimmed glasses that had rotating lights around the rims and we both got some clackers. Several roving gangs of boys tried to engage us and we were invited to several parties, but we would just laugh, act like we were clueless, and moved on. It was really fun playing stupid.
As midnight approached, we wondered over to the 16th Street Mall and began our search for a good spot to watch the fireworks. In truth, there wasn’t really a bad spot, since they had fireworks at both ends of the mall. Brooke dragged me along behind her while she shoved her way through the crowd unceremoniously. My eyes continued to survey the crowds when I caught sight of him. My heart jumped. Gabe was on the other side of the street, heading in a determined manner back the way we had come. I tapped Brooke on the shoulder, “Over there.” I broke free of her grasp and pushed my way through the crowd towards the direction Gabe was going. Brooke’s protests were lost in the roar of the crowd while I ran across the street and jumped up and down to see where he had gone. I traveled along the street searching but couldn’t see him. I merged with the crowd again and made my way through until I came out near an alley. People were sitting on either side of the opening, drinking steaming hot chocolate, seemingly unaware of anything around them. Curious, I approached a couple on the left side of the alley opening and to my surprise they appeared frozen. Each appeared to have been stopped in mid-sentence and their eyes were glazed over. A man and his son on the other side of the alley were affected the same way. A tingling sensation started moving all over my body like ants. I took off my blinking glasses and peered down the alley. Two people were standing at the far end. In the dark, I couldn’t see if one was Gabe or not, though the build of one of them looked familiar. Swallowing my heart back down into my chest, I entered the alley and the noise from the street suddenly stopped. The stench of something really gross assaulted my nose. It didn’t smell like sewage or the sick horrible rotten egg smell of natural gas. I don’t know what decomposing dead body smelt like, but this had to be pretty close.
I pressed my back against the alley wall and my breathing sounded very loud in my ears. Walking as slowly and as carefully as I could, I heading for a dumpster, until coming within hearing of the two.
At first, I couldn’t hear anything, but when I crouched behind the dumpster, an odd sound began filtering towards me. Soft squeaks and clicking sounds, like dolphins chattering reached my ears. I put my back to the dumpster and tried to hear better. As the sounds continued, my body pressed harder against the dumpster in an effort to hear more, when the dumpster gave way. I slipped and the squeal of the wheels echoed down the quiet alleyway.
The clicking and squeaks stopped.
Holding my breath, I scrambled to the wall, pulled my knees up to my chest and tried to press myself into the alley’s wall. Moments passed. My eyes looked back down the alleyway to the entrance and as people walked by without looking down, I wondered how fast I could run to the end.
Just as I was about to make my move, the sound of something sniffing around began to grow in volume. I watched the edge of the dumpster with growing fear, until the tiniest finger reach around the edge of the dumpster. As my heart stopped and my body felt as weak as any nightmare I have ever experienced, the finger wasn’t actually a finger but grew into a flat flipper. It inched its way around the dumpster until the paddle shaped appendage moved along towards me. Frozen, my eyes stared at it and then a snout slowly appeared that grew into a black skeletal dog shaped head. Soft growls, like rocks being rubbed together, issued out of the sharp white toothed mouth. The head slowly turned towards me and I stared full faced into a beast from hell. Glowing green eyes pierced my brain, as another tentacle moved around from the side; its paddle shaped end suddenly sprouted thorns along its entire surface and looked like a cactus leaf. The other paddle sprouted thorns also and the high pitched scraping along the dumpster was worse than any fingernails on a chalkboard.
Horrified, my scream caught in my throat as fear; fear like I have never known, began shutting down my consciousness and my body tried to revert back to is primordial instinct of flight. My arms and legs pushed my body away from the wall with the intent of running towards the alley entrance, and with what little consciousness that remained, it began registering the pain traveling up my leg. The paddle shaped appendage had torn into my leg, spinning me into the alley and down on my back. Scrambling backwards, I caught a glimpse of the thing. A tiger’s body, black as night, stood in the alley with a dog’s face. Two tentacles sprouted from its back and whipped around in the air, like squid tentacles. Suddenly, each tentacle flared upwards and then shot towards me with blinding speed. I scrambled backwards while the two people who I had originally seen, watched the bizarre proceeding with glowing red eyes.
Before the last vestiges of consciousness forced me to flee, I began crab crawling backwards as fast as I could. But the flat paddles were almost upon me, ready to rip into my body, when somewhere from above, a giant alligator looking creature with wings landed and crushed the tiger creature in a gooey mess. The creature didn’t look back at me before charging the two people. I ran from the alley.
When I crossed the threshold of silence into the din of the crowded street, my scream finally found purchase and rang forth with the clarity of a church bell ringing on a Sunday morning.
And then he was there.
What was I thinking?
Gabriel grabbed me with strong arms and pulled me into his rock hard chest. His chest consumed my scream that moments ago would have brought any would be rescuer to my side. But since everyone could see I had found my hero, no one took noticed and continued on with their celebrations.
“Shhh.” His strong soft voice cooed, as my arms clung onto him as if he were the last person on the earth. I closed my eyes.
My heart thundered in my chest. His soft heartbeat through sheer force of will corralled my runaway heart and brought it under his control until they both beat in perfect harmony. His peculiar, distinctive scent penetrated the fear that had placed my body in a hypersensitive state and my mind began to slowly calm down. I pressed my head further into his chest until I could hear his blood flowing through his veins and the quiet, rhythmic inhaling and exhaling of his breath. His skin, through his cotton shirt, was smooth like a statue in the park.
“Is she okay?” Brooke’s concerned voice came from behind me.
I felt his head nod in answer to her question and then a peculiar thing happened. As my mind continued to come down off the adrenaline and the pain in my leg began to seep up to my brain, I felt small vibrations emanating from his chest. Pressing my head harder into his chest, the sound became more distinct as if he were making the sound deep within, like a cat purring, but more like the deep rumbling of a whale in the ocean. I had felt this one time before, when a friend of ours had placed some sub-woofers in his ride. You couldn’t actually hear the deep booming sound, but you could feel them as they pulsed through your body and that’s kind of what was happening. They penetrated my body, then stopped. Then again, and stopped. It felt like he was having a conversation with himself, but he wasn’t speaking. As the conversation continued, pain was becoming more and more prevalent until I couldn’t stand it any longer and cried out into his chest.
“She’s bleeding.” Brooke said.
Gabe whisked me effortlessly up into his arms and started to carry me off to an open area in Writer’s Corner, like a bride through a doorway. His stren
gth made me feel secure and before I knew it he was placing me down onto a bench. Disappointed the trip didn’t last any longer, Gabe lifted my bad leg and was examining the wound. In the light of the street lamps, his warm brown skin seemed to radiate heat in the cold night air, and like a mirage upon a desert plain, his body shimmered with heat.
Gabe turned his hazel eyes to Brooke. “Call Set, we need a first aid worker and some of the dust.”
Brooke nodded and walk off a short distance. She pulled out her cell phone, and placed it to her ear. I frowned.
“Hey, JJ.”
I looked down into his hazel eyes and felt myself being pulled into them again. He smiled and his white teeth shown in the light.
I nodded, transfixed by his beauty.
“You shouldn’t go stumbling around in dark alleys. You managed to cut yourself on a trash dumpster. You’ll have a nasty scrape.”
“You’ll fix it.” I heard myself say. I’m not sure why I had said it, but I felt it was true.
His smile grew and deeper I fell into his eyes. “Sure I will.”
“Brooke said you weren’t coming?” I whispered.
“Changed my mind.” His smile momentarily made me forget the pain.
“You okay?”
I involuntarily reached up and placed my hand on his face. It was warm, smooth, and incredibly strong. “I am now.”
Suddenly, pain shot up my leg, through my side, and lodged deep in my brain and stars filled my vision. I cried out in pain and when I reopened my eyes the ugliest woman had taken his place. Her bright colored safety jacket assaulted my eyes, her black hair looked like snakes in the grass and she smelt of beer and sweat. I wanted to retch to the side, but I kept the contents of my stomach down. Looking around, Gabe and Brooke were standing off to the side, watching.
“Nasty scrape you got there.” The First Aid Lady chuckled. “What did you do?”
Again pain shot through my leg and body. “Ow! What the hell are you doing, cutting it off?”
Dragon Amour (Dragon-Half Breed Book 1) Page 6