I turned the corner in the hallway and crashed into something so big and solid I nearly bounced away and onto the floor.
I would have, if a hand hadn’t reached out and grabbed me.
It was Dante.
“Where you headed off to with such a full head of steam?”
I took a moment to steady myself, before answering.
“I’ve got science.”
“You must like it an awful lot, being in such a hurry to get there.”
“Sorry,” I said.
“Ain’t no reason to be sorry,” Dante said with a wink. “Not like it bothers me to be in close contact with a pretty girl like you, even one on a tear.”
“What the hell is that supposed to even mean?”
“It means,” Dante continued, “that you look pissed. Who made you so mad?”
I crossed my arms. I didn’t want to tell him. If I was going to tell anyone this story, it shouldn’t be Dante.
“Payne,” I said finally.
I’m so weak.
Dante just looked at me for a moment, then he did something I didn’t expect. He hugged me, and I let him. I even let myself linger in his embrace for a moment too long.
When I pulled away, I looked him in the eye. “You and your sister hug an awful lot.”
“We’re affectionate people,” he answered. “C’mon.”
He pulled me into class. Our usual science teacher, Mr. Berger, was out. The substitute was a young, nerdy looking guy who I’d seen before. He pretty much let you do whatever you wanted as long as you stayed in your seat, didn’t set anything on fire, and kept all your clothes on.
I took a seat in the back row of desks, next to Dante. Before long, I was telling him all about the fight. When I was done, I expected him to take my side and try to make Payne look bad.
“I understand how he feels,” Dante said.
“What?” I managed to say.
“Imagine if one of your cousins did something really stupid and hurtful. You’d get mad at them, but eventually, you’d forgive them. That’s what family does.”
“Yeah, well,” I scoffed “He’s not my family.”
“No,” Dante agreed. “But he’s part of your boyfriend’s family, and if you really care about Payne then you have to care about his family, too. You can’t expect the guy to just abandon them.”
“I know Payne’s always been close to them, but Blasé has been such an idiot. I’m told he’s not always, but I can only go from what I see. And,” I added, “by the way, Payne isn’t my boyfriend.”
“Ah. So does that mean that I can ask you out?”
I folded my arms. “No, it does not.”
Dante let out a laugh. “You can’t blame me for trying.”
We kept talking. The teacher handed out a worksheet for the class to complete, but most of the kids were ignoring it in favor of talking to their friends.
“How did you and Payne meet?” Dante asked, as we were talking about my move from New York to Spirit.
“Um . . . ” I hesitated. I couldn’t exactly tell Dante that I’d been dreaming of Payne for my entire life. Or that when we finally met, it was because I thought Payne had run into his cousin who had in fact been a ghost for three years. That wouldn’t go over well.
“It’s complicated,” I said.
Dante just stared at me, and for a moment I felt like he could read my mind.
“Sugar, I bet it was.”
”What?” I asked.
Dante smiled and winked at me. “What? You don’t like me giving you nicknames?”
I blushed and sputtered as I tried to talk and fill the silence. “You know I’m with Payne. He’s wonderful. When I met him, my parents had just been killed in a car accident. They were about to get a divorce. We weren’t a close family. So I guess I have issues with the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing.”
Dante was still studying me.
“I know how Payne feels about me. I know how I feel about him. There’s no reason to rush into anything, and Payne is very good about not rushing me.”
“Well, then,” Dante said. “Good for him.”
“What about you?” I asked. “Anyone in your life?”
Dante shrugged. “Not since getting to town.” He gave me a suspicious look. “Why? You one of those girls that needs to try and fix everyone up? Or are you just trying to get me involved, so I’m not a threat?”
“A threat?” I repeated. “Why would I think of you as a threat?”
“I don’t know, sugar,” Dante answered. “But you sure look like I frighten you.”
That hung in the air for a moment, with Dante refusing to break eye contact, even when the bell rang, indicating the end of class. The room slowly started to empty, but neither of us moved. We just kept looking at each other.
“Look,” I finally said. “There’s no threat. Payne and I are good. But maybe if you had someone in your life, you wouldn’t be so interested in making eyes at me.”
“I like making eyes at you,” Dante said. “It don’t mean nothing. Just you and me having a good time.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Get it through your head: There is no ‘you and me’. Got it?”
Just then, I heard someone clear their throat.
“Well, isn’t this pretty as a picture.”
I looked up to see Priscilla standing at the front of the classroom, sneering at us. “I wonder what Payne will think when I tell him how cozy the two of you are getting.”
“Payne?” I laughed. “Go ahead and tell him. Payne knows that he’s got nothing to worry about.”
“Really?” Priscilla answered. “We’ll see.”
I watched her go and felt my blood boil.
Priscilla’s nasty rumor about Dante and me managed to spread around the entire school before the end of the week.
Of course, none of my friends believed it. If anything, they found it funny, not that this was helpful. Maggie kept calling me a hussy, her eyebrows back in full wiggle mode like they had been when Payne and I first met. Bryan kept shouting, “I’m not kissing you, I’m your cousin,” throughout the hallway when we walked to class together. Scarlett wondered out loud whether she’d be labeled a Jezebel if she kept hanging out with me.
It was both annoying and heartwarming. Not once did I have to try and convince any of them that nothing happened.
I felt bad for Payne, because he was getting ribbed nearly as bad as I was, but he just laughed and let it roll off his back. He made it a point to stay friendly with Dante, to show that he didn’t care what Priscilla was saying. It didn’t faze Payne in the slightest. He trusted me.
Maybe it would have been nice if Payne had gotten a little jealous. Maybe we could have had a fight where he told me not to spend any more time with Dante, and I could have said that I could spend time with anyone I wanted, and we’d argue until we started to share heated kisses.
Very few people took Priscilla seriously. Certainly nobody I cared about.
Strangely enough, I also found that I was seeing more of Dante than I was of Payne. Payne and I didn’t have any classes together this semester, plus he was working three weeknights and every Saturday at the hardware store with Bryan.
Dante seemed to be more than happy to be seeing me as much as he was. He’d taken to calling me sugar on a regular basis, in part I think because it annoyed me. It was hard to really get angry with him, since he said it in such a cute way. I was the only one he called that, as none of the other girls had any issue with Dante calling them “darling’.” Maggie loved it. She giggled with glee every time he said it.
“Why do you call Bristol sugar?” Zach asked Dante.
It was a Friday. I’d gone to Scarlett’s after school with Maggie, which was becoming a regular pattern. Dante had driven me home. Then, somehow, he managed to get himself invited to dinner.
Zach kept talking. “Is there like a funny story involving sugar and Bristol? Is it emb
arrassing? I bet it’s really embarrassing. Can we hear it?”
“Sorry, little man,” Dante said. “It’s just a term of endearment, is all.”
“A term of what?”
“Endearment,” Dante repeated. “Like sweetheart, or honey, or something like that. It’s what a gentlemen uses to refer to someone of the fairer sex.”
“Why are girls fairer?” Zach complained. “I know this girl in my class, Susan Bigby. She’s not fair. She cheats at everything. Nobody likes to play with her because of that. Well, that and the fact that she still eats her own boogers.”
“Zach,” Uncle Mark said, “No booger talk at the table, please.”
“What’s the big deal?” Zach asked. “It’s not like I’m plucking out a big, juicy one and asking if anyone wants it. That’d be gross.”
“Zach,” I pleaded. “Stop, before I puke all over you.”
“How come she gets to talk about puking?” Zach asked, turning to my uncle with a frown.
Uncle Mark just buried his face in his hands.
Eventually, and with no small effort, the conversation managed to be steered away from boogers and puking. All Simon wanted to talk about was Skyler.
“I tried telling her that it wasn’t her fault, but she just gets upset. I don’t know what to say to her.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t say anything,” Dante offered.
“Why not?” Simon asked. “How is she supposed to know I’m her friend if I don’t talk to her about it?”
“If you care,” Dante pressed on, “maybe what you need to do is listen. Skyler doesn’t need you to tell her your thoughts. She needs you to listen. Don’t try and tell her how she should feel. Just listen.”
“Listen?” Simon repeated, as if the thought had never occurred to him.
“It’s good advice,” Uncle Mark said.
Simon looked like he was thinking over the last few weeks of conversation with Skyler, and realizing how off-track he’d been.
Later that night, I walked Dante out to his car.
“That was really good advice that you gave Simon.”
Dante just shrugged. “I’ve been known to know a thing or two. Not much more than that, understand.”
“Yeah,” I said, “well, your dad should be proud.”
“Nah, I get that from my mom. Dad’s the counselor, but Mom used to be the better listener.”
“Used to be?” I asked.
“I like to think she still listens,” Dante said. “I still talk to her. I guess you think that’s weird.”
“Why would I think that’s weird?” I asked. “She seems like a nice woman.”
Dante laughed, but it wasn’t his normal, full chuckle. This laugh was filled with sorrow and grief.
“Courtney’s my step-mom. My parents divorced when I was four. My mom, my real mom, was killed when I was eight.”
“Oh no,” I said, stunned. “I’m so sorry.”
I was leaning against his truck, facing him. I could see the pain wash over his face.
“I remember my dad dropping me off,” Dante went on. “I had spent the weekend with him and Courtney. Her husband had been killed a couple of years earlier. A mugging, I think. Anyway, I had the keys, so I opened the door. I should have realized something was wrong. It was the only time she wasn’t at the door waiting for me.”
He stopped talking for a moment, but I remembered his own advice to Simon earlier. I just listened.
“I saw the jewelry box first,” he said. “It was lying open on the kitchen floor, with its lock popped off. I knew something was up. Then there was the box she kept the good silver in. You know, for when we had company over. It was pried open and empty. I looked across the room and saw the TV and the computer were gone. That’s when I started to call out for her.”
He paused again, looking up to the sky.
“Of course,” he went on, “she didn’t answer. I kept looking for her. It never occurred to me to call my dad, or the police, until I found her in bed. She was . . . well, you know. It wasn’t pretty. Not sure how long I stood there. She was covered in blood. Finally I called 911.
“They never caught the bastard,” he said. “Never will, I guess.”
“They might,” I told him. “Payne had a cousin. Jared. He disappeared a few years ago. They didn’t find out who killed him until recently. Sometimes, it still happens, even after several years.”
“Maybe,” Dante said. “I’d love for them to catch whoever did it, but it still won’t bring her back.”
I reached forward and put my hand on his arm.
“Courtney was great,” he continued. “She was really there for me. She never tried to take over for my mom. After a couple of years, when we moved, I even asked if it was okay to call her Mom, which was easier. People think Scarlett and I are fraternal twins. I don’t have to explain things to anyone.”
I realized this wasn’t something he liked to talk about.
“Do you think it’s weird?” Dante asked. “Talking to her? I mean, it’s not like I believe in ghosts or anything silly like that.”
“No,” I told him. “I don’t.”
“Have you ever, you know, talked to your parents?”
“Yes,” I answered. Ironically, my parents were the only dead people I’d spoken to who didn’t—or wouldn’t—talk back to me.
I stepped forward and gave him a hug. I held him for a moment and when I stepped back, he was looking into my eyes. I couldn’t quite pin down what I was feeling before we were interrupted.
“Don’t let me stop you,” someone said.
Payne was walking up the driveway. I hadn’t realized he’d pulled up. He looked dangerous, with his fists clenched and his eyes narrowed as he stared daggers at us.
Dante smiled and waved.
“We were just talking about ghosts,” Dante said. “No big deal.”
Dante took a deliberate step back. Payne came over and put his arm around me.
“Really?” Payne asked. “You being haunted?”
“Me?” Dante replied. “Nah. I don’t believe in ghosts.”
“That a fact?” Payne replied. “I do.”
Before I could say anything, Payne leaned into me and kissed me. Hard. I could feel the possessiveness of his kiss.
I pushed him away just as Dante climbed into the driver’s seat of his truck.
“Bristol, I’ll see you Monday,” Dante said as he started the engine. We gave a wave and watched as he pulled out of the driveway and down the block.
Then I turned on Payne.
“What the hell was that?” I demanded.
“I’m sorry. Did I come between you and Dante just as things were getting interesting?”
“Payne,” I yelled. “We were talking. I thought you trusted me!”
“I do trust you,” Payne countered. “But you do realize he’s falling for you, don’t you?”
“Oh please,” I said. “He’s flirty. So’s his sister. It doesn’t mean anything. Maggie practically swoons when he calls her darling.”
“Yeah,” Payne continued. “I notice he calls most of the girls that. Except you. You’re sugar.”
“That’s just because I told him not to call me darling,” I retorted. “It’s what Jay used to call me. Besides, this isn’t about him calling me anything. He and I were talking about something personal. Nothing romantic was happening.”
“Yet,” Payne said. “Look, I’ve known that he likes you. That just means he’s got good taste. But there was something else going on tonight. I saw the way he looked at you and I saw the way you looked at him.”
“That’s nuts,” I said. “Why would you think that? We were just talking about something emotional, not romantic.”
“Bristol. He cares about you. Dante is falling in love with you.”
“What?” I said, moving away from him. “You’re crazy. How could you possibly know that?”
“I know the way he wa
s looking at you. That’s how I look at you. It’s one thing for him to wish he had a shot. But he’s falling in love—he’s going to want to fight for you.”
“Fight for me?” I said. “What the hell am I? Some sort of prize?”
“No,” Payne said. “You are the most amazing woman in the world. You are the entire world to me. You are the woman that I love, and I sure as hell know that I’ll fight for you.”
“Is that what that kiss was about? Fighting for me? Because it felt more like a dog marking his territory.”
“Bristol, what the hell do you expect? I love you. I don’t have a problem saying it. I have a problem not saying it. We belong with each other. You know it. You just won’t say it. Why?”
I stood there, silent. True, part of me wanted to say it, but I sure as hell wasn’t about to be emotionally blackmailed into it.
“You want to hear three words from me?” I asked. “Good night, jackass!”
With that, I turned and walked into my house, slamming the door behind me.
I’m not sure how long Payne stayed outside. Maybe he drove off right away, or maybe he stood in my driveway for hours.
I didn’t let myself look outside my window.
- six -
The Snake Strikes
“Of all the pigheaded, chauvinistic, stubborn, arrogant, brainless, narrow-minded, egotistical, pigheaded . . . ”
“You said that one already,” Eric interrupted from my bed.
It was Monday morning. I had been avoiding Payne’s calls and texts all weekend. He had been smart enough not to try showing up here to apologize, but it was almost time for me to go to school. Uncle Mark had made it very clear he wasn’t about to let me stay home to avoid seeing Payne.
“Well, it fits,” I replied with a scoff. “Really well.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a little hard on Payne? Dante has been spending more time with you than he has . . . ”
“Whose fault is that?” I asked.
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