“Hold on,” Barley said, clutching Chris by the shoulder. “Please tell me they know we’re coming. Please tell me we didn’t just sneak out in the middle of the night and risk getting arrested for nothing.”
Chris’s non-answer was all the answer we needed.
Hell, I thought. I turned to Barley, who jabbed a finger at Chris in astonishment. “You brought us here on false pretenses!” Barley hissed. “They’re gonna think we’re stalkers! What if they have mace? Or pepper spray? You remember when I accidentally sprayed myself with that stuff? I couldn’t see for hours, man.”
But Chris had walked away. Blowing out nervous breath, I got moving too.
Barley clutched my arm. “You’re not actually following him, are you? After this stunt? Those girls are gonna call the cops on us for sure.”
“If that happens,” I said. “Just pretend we’re in a James Bond movie. Only we’ll be getting away on a ten-speed rather than an Aston-Martin.”
Barley’s mouth worked for a moment, his hands flailing about in mute frustration. Then he said, “What if they get really mad at us? I hate it when people get mad at me.”
“Then we leave.”
I made to follow Chris, but Barley’s fingers clenched my arm tighter. “Will. What if they tell their parents? I don’t wanna spend the rest of my summer grounded, do you?”
I gave him a look. “My mom’s too lazy to keep me locked up all summer.”
For a moment he stared at me with something like pity, which was worse than any other emotion he could have exhibited. I yanked my arm free and followed Chris, who was already talking to the three girls. Her black hair curly and full, Kylie Ann Lubeck had on a tight pink tank top and a white tennis skirt, an ensemble that displayed her physical maturity to impressive effect. Rebecca Ralston’s blond hair was swept off her face and cascaded over one shoulder, a look I suspected she’d affected for Chris’s benefit. Rebecca was smiling, but Kylie Ann looked like she was about to summon lightning bolts from the heavens to smite us down.
As Barley and I neared, I took a moment to stare at Mia.
Though I’d seen her the night before, it was as though she’d aged three years since then. Her shortish black hair was gelled up in sharper spikes than usual. Her tanned, hard stomach showed between her black top and jean shorts, which were strategically ripped and tattered in several places. To me she looked like a less trashy version of a female rock star, and as I moved up next to Chris, she turned her vivid blue gaze on me.
Confidence, I reminded myself. Be like Chris.
“Hey, Will,” she said.
“I’m fine,” I answered.
She frowned.
I jolted. “I mean hey, Mia. How have you been?”
She giggled. “Good. You look like you’ve recovered from getting hit last night.”
My ears burned, and it took me a gargantuan effort not to grin like an idiot. “I’m a pretty fast healer.”
Rebecca said, “So what do you guys feel like doing? We can’t be too loud or we’ll wake my parents up.”
Mia looked at me. “There’s a creek a few blocks over. You guys wanna go swimming?”
I swallowed, almost mentioned I hadn’t brought swimming trunks. Then my thoughts shifted to Mia, who didn’t seem to be wearing a swim suit either.
The implications of this doused me like freezing water.
A little dizzy, I followed the others toward the road.
¨
I smelled the creek well before I spotted it, the scent like mud and crawdads and minnows. I inhaled deeply, the aroma cooling my nostrils. Mia was moving at the front of the group, she and Rebecca having taken the lead. Chris was next, followed by me and Barley and Kylie Ann, who sulked along a good ten feet behind the rest of us.
As I trailed Chris and the others through the forest, I experienced a powerful, half-buried memory from the second grade. Because my mom had to work a full-time job even back then, I’d been charged with getting myself to school on time, despite the fact that I was only seven. Mom had instructed me to leave the house by a quarter of eight, and since the school was only a short walk away, I usually arrived well before the eight AM bell.
The problem was our television. Or rather my secret habit of watching brainless TV before school. Oh, I still left by 7:45, but never before that, and on most days that wasn’t a problem.
But on one particular October morning I had to lug my chemistry set to school for show-and-tell. And not just any chemistry set, but a whopper of a chemistry set, one whose box was almost as wide as my wingspan. I was proud of that set because I’d bought it with my own money, and I couldn’t wait to show it off to my classmates. For once, I’d be the kid the other ones envied.
I left the house on time but quickly realized I’d underestimated how much the huge chemistry set would slow me down. I clutched the sides of the box in an awkward kind of hug, my backpack weighing me down from behind. At that age my legs weren’t all that long either, so by the time I hobbled into the school parking lot, sweating and terrified of being tardy, the buses were already pulling away and the last stragglers were filing into the school. Still, I figured I’d make it into Mrs. Nicholson’s classroom just before the bell rang. I was thinking this when my legs got tangled up and I sprawled face first onto my chemistry set, the miniature jars of powder and the test tubes within shattering in a heart stopping barrage of crunches and pops. Hot tears already stinging my eyes, I scrambled off the flattened box and peeled back the lid to assess the damage.
My chemistry set was destroyed.
Then the bell rang.
I sat there on my knees and stared down at the ruin of what had been the nicest toy I’d ever owned. I hated myself for crying, but I couldn’t help it. There’d be no show-and-tell today, no triumphant reveal. My chest started hitching, and the tears flooded my burning cheeks.
I don’t know how long I sat there like that in the now-silent parking lot, but at some point I became aware of someone standing next to me. I looked up, and though my vision was bleary, I knew right away who it was. The girl everybody made fun of because she’d gotten most of her black hair sheared off, the girl everybody teased and branded a little boy.
“I’ll help you,” Mia said.
I dragged the heel of my hand over my nose, looked away. “I don’t need help.”
When Mia didn’t move, I said, my tone harsher, “Go inside. I don’t want your help.”
But rather than doing what I demanded, the little girl with the boyish black hair got down on all fours and started collecting the splinters of glass from within the box and whisking away the spills of powder.
Wordlessly, I joined her in the cleanup. With both of us on the job, it only took about five minutes. But she was late now too. And her hands, like mine, had been lacerated in several places by the shards of glass.
She saw me eyeing her bloody palms. “It’s okay,” she said. “They don’t hurt.”
She smiled, and my insides went queasy.
I wanted to ask her a dozen questions, to point out to her that she’d be in as much trouble as I was, but all I could manage was, “Why?”
She fixed me with her striking blue eyes, and I could tell she was surprised by the question. She gave a tiny little shrug and said, “I was watching you from Mrs. Nicholson’s room, and I saw you fall.”
As if that explained everything.
Together, we slunk into the school. Together, we got in trouble, but not nearly as much as I’d assumed. And we didn’t say a whole lot more to each other for the rest of the school year.
But I was pretty sure it was the morning of the chemistry set debacle that I started to fall for Mia Samuels.
We emerged from the winding path and beheld a creek that was perhaps twenty feet across. It was really wooded there, and there was very little moonlight. But we could see well enough to get around, and from the look of the grassy banks, the water level was high. That wasn’t too surprising since May might as well have been a mo
nsoon season. We’d had six games postponed or canceled that month, and several more had been played in cold drizzle and mud puddles.
We were all kind of standing around staring at the water when Mia said, “Take off your shirt, Will.”
I blinked at her, certain I’d heard wrong despite the fact that the only sounds were the whispering breeze and the placid gurgle of the creek.
She smiled good-humoredly. “Well?”
“You want me to take my shirt off?”
“Isn’t that how guys swim?”
“I will,” Chris said, and peeled off his red T-shirt. He had on cargo shorts and sandals, and I might as well admit now I envied his build. Chris had a washboard stomach and pectoral muscles that stuck out a little. This was in stark contrast to my own chest, which was slightly concave. But I did have a decent enough stomach, and I figured my scrawniness wouldn’t scare Mia off completely. So I removed my shirt, kicked off my sneakers, and followed Chris into the water. It was very cool, and I paused after a few feet of wading to avoid getting my privates wet. I always hated that. Girls didn’t have to worry about their body parts shriveling up. At least I didn’t think they had to worry about it. The truth was, I’d never seen a girl in the water in anything less than a swimsuit.
Which was why I was so shocked when Mia peeled off her shirt.
She was wearing a bra underneath, of course, and it wasn’t the kind that revealed much of anything. But it was the fact of the bra that caught me so off-guard.
I turned and noticed Chris gawking at Mia and felt a pang of jealousy. That’s my girl, I wanted to remind him, though that of course was complete rubbish. She wasn’t anyone’s girl, least of all mine.
What about Brad Ralston? a nasty voice reminded.
Oh yeah, I thought, my heart sinking. I’d forgotten all about Brad. Shit.
A crude voice spoke up: Who cares about Brad? Mia’s in her bra right in front of you! For God’s sakes, enjoy it!
That was immature, I knew. And more than a little disrespectful.
But I looked anyway. And almost fainted, the sight was so glorious.
“I’m not taking my top off,” Kylie Ann said, her arms folded.
“Then don’t,” Mia answered as she waded into the creek.
I glanced at Rebecca, noticed she was her chewing her bottom lip.
Barley was standing a few feet from Rebecca and Kylie Ann. To Rebecca, he said, “You don’t have to take your shirt off. I’m not going to.”
I felt a wave of affection for my friend. Idiot though he was, he had a good heart.
Rebecca smiled at him. “Thanks.” And she stepped into the water.
Under her breath, but loud enough for us to hear, Kylie Ann said, “Like we’d want Barley to take his shirt off anyway.”
It was like someone had punched me in the gut. I looked at Barley in the desperate hope he hadn’t heard, but his stricken expression said otherwise. Kylie Ann would have hurt him less by taking a baseball bat to his head. She was an even bigger bitch than I’d thought.
I made a secret wish that she’d get attacked by leeches.
“How deep is it?” Rebecca asked.
Chris was backpedaling slowly, his hands making lazy eddies in the water. “It’s up to my chest, but I think that’s as high as it’ll get.”
A moment later he disappeared.
I took a shocked step forward, but then he breached the surface, spluttering and laughing. We were chuckling too.
“Holy crap,” he said, still spitting water. “I guess there’s a drop-off.”
“Better look out,” a voice said behind me.
I turned in time to see Mia disappearing below the surface and jetting in my direction. Her dark legs were scarcely visible beneath the surface, but I could see well enough the way the water churned over her gliding body.
Something grabbed my ankle and yanked me off-balance. I fell sideways, the cold water not only swamping my nether regions, but my torso and head as well. Under the water I grappled with Mia, secretly exhilarated by the silky feel of her arms, the dizzying brush of her fingertips on my skin. We emerged a moment later, laughing and splashing each other. Chris and Rebecca were similarly engaged. Only Kylie Ann and Barley remained apart from the festivities.
Apparently sensing the awkwardness of just standing there knee-deep in the creek, Barley bent down, cupped some creek water, and flung it on Kylie Ann.
And splashed her right in the face.
She stood there, horrified, her hands held up like she was stopping traffic, for a good ten seconds. Then she turned and glared at Barley.
He ventured a smile. “At least the water won’t feel so cold now, right?”
Her look was enough to wipe the smile from Barley’s face.
I turned to Mia, who was arching an eyebrow at Kylie Ann’s short temper.
My opinion of Mia rose higher.
Barley cleared his throat. “I was wondering, Kylie Ann…Have you ever heard of the Zodiac Killer?”
God. I turned away before my secondhand embarrassment became unbearable.
Mia and I picked up where we left off, Mia tickling me under water, me picking her up by the waist and hurling her backwards. My hand skimmed the flesh of her stomach and a powerful surge of heat rippled through my body. A couple of times the sodden cups of her bra yawned open, and though it was too dark to see much, the sight turned me on so much that my whole body trembled. Thankfully, the water concealed my erection.
The four of us continued to splash around in the creek, Chris and I hoisting Rebecca and Mia onto our shoulders, where they grappled like incredibly lovely gladiators until one or both of them would tumble off. After a time, Mia backstroked away from the group, moving upstream with an effortlessness I admired. I remembered that Mia had a reputation for being a great swimmer, in fact did it competitively. I swam after her and did my best to not look like a gangly eel.
“The water’s not so bad now,” I said, drawing closer to her.
She stopped backstroking and began to tread water. “The pool at the high school is usually freezing,” she said.
I moved in a gradual loop around her. She rotated slowly, her striking blue eyes never leaving mine.
“I heard you do competitions,” I said.
Her face broke into a smile. Her teeth were white and gleaming. “I love competing. I want to keep getting better.”
“Are you going for the Olympics or something?”
She laughed. “My times aren’t that good. You should come to a meet some time.”
“Why are you dating Brad?”
I froze. What in the name of God was wrong with me?
I braced for Mia’s inevitable anger and her demand for me to stay out of her personal life.
But she regarded me thoughtfully. “I wonder the same thing.”
Again, I spoke without thinking. “You’re too great a person to be with him.”
Her eyebrows went up. “You think?”
“He’s an asshole.”
“Is that right?”
I nodded.
“And what about me?” she asked.
I attempted to keep the nerves out of my voice. “You’re just right.”
“You don’t think I’m too forward?”
“Why? Because you’re swimming in a…” I gestured vaguely.
“In a bra?”
“Yeah.” I swallowed. “I think it’s great.”
She cocked an eyebrow.
“I mean, it’s great if you want to—”
She fingered the shoulder straps. “Most bikini tops are more revealing than this,” she said. “I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable.”
“I’m not uncomfortable!” I said, my voice too loud and high. I cleared my throat. “I mean, I’m happy if you’re happy.”
She smiled at that. Then her expression clouded. “I didn’t like the way Brad hit you last night.”
“I didn’t like it much either.”
“Did it hurt?”
> I considered lying. It seemed the manly thing to do.
But I said, “It hurt like hell. Check out this bruise.”
I moved into shallower water, half-turned to reveal the baseball-sized weal on my ribs. I’d inspected it in the mirror that morning. You could even make out the stitching from the baseball.
Mia made a sympathetic face, caressed the bruise. Something about the way her full lips pooched out made my stomach do a somersault.
She ventured nearer. Beads of water glimmered on her dark skin. “Where did the other one hit you?”
“The ball?”
She cocked an eyebrow. “No, the meteor from outer space.”
“Oh,” I said. “In the hip.”
Under the water, her hand closed over one of mine. “Show me,” she said.
This close, I could see the tiny droplets of water in her hair, in her eyelashes. There was a languid look in her eyes I’d never seen there before.
“Show me,” she repeated.
Feeling like I might puke all over the place but more aroused than I’d ever been in my life, I guided her hand to my left hip, which was still a little tender from the beaning Brad had given me. But Mia’s touch was so gentle, it didn’t hurt at all. The pads of her fingers slid over my bruised flesh, against the waistband of my cargo shorts, and somehow her face was hovering only a few inches from mine.
Kiss her! the voice in my head demanded. You’ll never get a better chance to kiss a beautiful girl!
But my body wouldn’t work. I was suddenly made of stone or steel or some other stupid, unyielding material. I stared at Mia’s depthless blue eyes and told myself to kiss her before she swam away. Or disappeared. Nothing would have surprised me at that point. We were the same age, had gone to school together for as long as I could remember, but at that moment she seemed ageless. Like some mythical creature come to life. A sea sprite, maybe. Or some figure from ancient Greece, like the Goddess of Unbelievable Hotness. I made myself lean toward her. I formed my lips into a pucker.
Her eyes shifted to something beyond me, something in the direction of the woods. She gasped, and then her arms were around me. But it wasn’t a passionate embrace.
It was terror.
“Mia, what—”
“There’s something in the woods,” she hissed.
Children of the Dark Page 4