The Firefly Effect

by Gail, Allie

  “Do you really think this hard-to-get act of yours is going to get you anywhere?”

  Startled, I blink at him speechlessly. Is that honestly what he believes? That I’ve just been playing hard to get?

  Not for the first time, I get the unsettling feeling that there is something really wrong with this guy. Something that goes way beyond mere stubbornness.

  He leans in so close I can smell the expensive designer cologne on his collar. And even though it isn't unpleasant, the scent prickles my skin with revulsion nonetheless.

  His breath is hot against my cheek. “I can appreciate the fact that you aren’t willing to stoop to the same level as those disgusting, promiscuous friends of yours. Virtue is an admirable quality. But I think it’s time for the games to stop. Really, it’s all so unnecessary. Avoiding me? Ignoring me? Reporting me? Did you think that was a nice thing to do, Melanie? Did you not stop to think how hurtful that might be?”

  “I reported you because you wouldn’t stop harassing me!”

  “Harassing you?” He furrows his brow, puzzled. “I don’t understand. Didn’t you like the gifts I sent you?”

  “Like them! Wasn’t the fact that I sent them back a clear enough indication? Jesus, Luka, whatever gave you the idea that lingerie and stilettos from Agent Provocateur are appropriate things to send to someone you barely know!”

  “Were they the wrong size?”

  I rub my forehead, shaking my head at his inconceivable obtuseness. “Good God. Are you…I don’t…I can’t even…”

  “You really shouldn’t drink, my love. Alcohol lowers your cognition and interferes with communication between nerve cells. That probably explains why you’re having trouble expressing yourself clearly.”

  “Trust me. You really don’t want me expressing myself right now, Luka.”

  “You’re right. We can talk on our way to Daytona tomorrow.”

  I swear to Christ, my head is so close to exploding right now it isn’t even funny. “Let me ask you a question. What do you hear when I talk? Is it monkey screeches or radio static or what? Can you not understand the words coming out of my mouth?”

  He smiles as his gaze drops to my lips. “I’ve dreamed about the things you could do with that mouth.”

  “Oh yeah? Well, keep dreaming, pal. Because the only thing this mouth is going to be doing is calling campus security if you aren’t out of here in about two seconds!”

  Finally – a threat that seems to be getting through to him. With a startled look, he tilts his head slowly to one side. “Why would you do that?”

  “Why do you think!”

  “I don't understand why you keep doing these things. Surely you must know how much it aggravates me when you act this way.”

  “Doing what things? All I want is for you to back off and stop stalking me all over the place! I don't think that's too much to ask!”

  The blue eyes narrow menacingly. “I’ve told you before how beautiful you are,” he murmurs, his voice hollow. “And you are. So very beautiful. But tell me, Melanie. Do you think this attribute gives you license to treat others any way that you like?”

  “All right. I’m done with this. You need to leave.”

  “I will. When I'm ready.”

  “No, by God, you’ll haul your ass out of here right this minute or–”

  My protests are silenced when, unbelievably, Luka smothers my lips with his while attempting to clumsily grope his way up my shirt. For a split second I’m too stunned to react. Frozen, I stare at his closed eyes in amazed disgust while he grinds himself ineptly against me.

  The first thing that pops into my head is that this guy has probably never kissed a girl before in his life. His lack of experience borders on pathetic.

  The second is that he’s a lot stronger than he looks, and pushing him off me takes more strength than I would have expected.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing!” I swipe the back of my hand across my mouth, trying to get the taste of him off me. All I can smell is his overpowering cologne. What did he do, take a bath in the stuff?

  Leering at me through glazed eyes, he whines, “Oh, come on. Don’t be like this, angel. I’m tired of waiting. No one’s here – this is the perfect opportunity. I want you. You know you want me. You belong to me, and you owe me for everything you’ve put me through.”

  Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me! This dipshit has lost his scrambled mind. I went on a pity date with him once and that makes me his? I owe him?

  For everything I’ve put him through?

  That’s when I reach the breaking point. My slow-simmering temper finally boils over and before I have time to think about what I’m doing, I draw back my hand and slam the heel of my palm into his nose. Hard.

  And I finally get why Dad sent me and Madelyn to that self-defense class.

  Because, damn – that move really works!

  Yelping like a wounded animal, Luka stumbles backward and covers his nose with both hands. His voice is high-pitched and muffled. “You hit me!”

  “I’ll do a helluva lot worse than that if you don’t get your psycho ass out of my room right now!”

  “Why did you do that? Why did you hit me? Look at this!” He pulls his hands away just long enough for me to see the damage. “My nose is bleeding!”

  “Good. I hope it hurts like a bitch.” Skirting past him, I crouch down to dig through the pocket of my discarded jeans in search of my cell phone.

  His eyes widen. “Who are you calling?”

  “Take a guess!”

  “No, wait – wait, don’t call anyone. I’m sorry. I’m leaving. I’m going. Right now.” He starts backing away as I eye him suspiciously. “Please don’t tell anyone. I’ll…I’ll lose my scholarship. Don’t do this to me, please…I’m going now, okay?”

  “Don’t come back,” I warn him.

  “I won’t. I promise. Not until tomorrow,” he has the audacity to say. “I’ll let you get some sleep and we’ll sort through all this tomorrow.”

  “No! We most certainly will not!” This has got to stop. I’ve tried to be understanding about his infatuation, but this shit has gone too far. “Listen to me, Luka. And listen good, because this is the last warning you’re going to get. If you come anywhere near me again, if you so much as speak to me, I’ll report you so fast it’ll make your head spin. You’ll be tossed out of this school on your ass and I’ll get a restraining order against you, and if you think I won’t have you locked up, you’re even crazier than you look. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to hear from you. I don’t want anything to do with you. LEAVE. ME. ALONE. Am I making myself clear?”

  Stunned, he just stands there looking at me for the longest time. Or maybe it hasn’t really been that long, maybe it just seems that way. The thing is, I have no way of guessing what he might be thinking. I’ve never met anyone so irrational. So unpredictable. And that scares me.

  At last, to my relief, he gives a terse nod before turning to walk out. I follow at a safe distance with the intention of securing the door behind him. I still wonder how he got in. Maybe Shelby just forgot to lock it. She’s not the most responsible roommate in the world.

  He pauses at the door to give me a look that sends chills down my spine. I figure he’s got something to say, that he intends to have the last word. As usual.

  But he doesn’t say a thing. He doesn’t have to. That look says it all.

  I’ve never been so glad to see the back of someone in my life.

  Closing the door, I lock it. I double-check it. Then I check it again.

  Satisfied that no one can get in who doesn’t belong, I go brush my teeth vigorously before crawling into bed and pulling the covers up to my chin. There is a sensible part of me that knows I should call campus security and report what happened. But incredibly, even as rattled as I am, there is still a little part of me that feels sorry for him. I don’t want to be the reason for his expulsion. That’s not something I want on my conscience.

&
nbsp; I just need to get away for a few days. Maybe by the time the summer term starts, he’ll have come to his senses. Surely after this, I must have gotten the message across. He has to give up sooner or later, right?

  My nerves are so strung out, I wonder if I’ll be able to sleep at all. Just in case, I set the alarm to make sure I’m up at the crack of dawn. I still need to pack a few things for my trip back home.

  And I intend to be long gone by the time he comes around again.

  ~ Chapter Twenty-Two ~

  “Listen. You hear that?”

  Cocking her head to one side, Melanie hesitates before giving me a puzzled look. “What? I don’t hear anything.”

  “Exactly my point.” Jumping to my feet, I take a quick peek through one of the narrow windowpanes beside the door before jerking it open. The wind has died down to a mild breeze, and the low-hanging clouds have parted to make way for strips of blue sky. There’s no more rain – it’s stopped altogether. The leaves on the azalea bushes are bright green and glistening with beads of water that drip onto the soaked grass.

  If it weren’t for the fallen branches littering the ground and all the water gushing down the street into the storm drains, it would have been easy to pass this off as the remnants of just another summer storm.

  From behind me, I hear Melanie commenting, “Well. That was abrupt.”

  I move out of the doorway so she can step out on the stoop with me. “I know. I didn’t even realize the rain had stopped.”

  “So that’s it? Huh. I thought it would last longer than this.”

  “Don’t worry, it will.” Looking down at her, I smile. “Thought you were getting off easy, didn’t you? I hate to tell you this, but we’re smack dab in the middle of Elliott. This is just the eye. I’d say in about fifteen minutes or so we’ll start getting hammered with more of the same. Only from a different direction this time.”

  “Oh. I didn’t even think about that.” Scanning her surroundings, she takes in the scene with an expression of awe. “I’ve never been in the eye of a hurricane before. It’s so still out here. Weird – the sky’s even blue in places.”

  “Proof that Mother Nature’s one bipolar bitch.”

  “Hey, look – there’s Mr. Sutton.” Raising an arm, she waves to the elderly man who is across the street, three houses down. He is standing in his front yard, inspecting the damage to his formerly impeccable landscaping. Mr. Sutton is retired and spends a lot of time tending to his flowerbeds so I can’t imagine him being all too happy about his yard being turned into a swamp.

  Catching sight of us, he flutters a hand in response. “Y’all holdin’ up all right over there?” he hollers in a raspy voice.

  “We’re fine,” she calls back before I have a chance to respond. “Everything okay with you?”

  “Oh, yeah. Yard’s a damn mess.” Pointing to the sky, he warns us, “This ain’t over yet. Stay put now, don’t y’all go wanderin’ off nowhere.”

  “I was just about to suggest the same thing to him,” I mutter under my breath.

  “We won’t,” Melanie assures him. “Do you need anything?”

  Waving dismissively, Sutton shakes his head as he turns to lope up the cobblestone steps toward his house. “I reckon not. Ain’t much I need to get by in the first place. Y’all better get on back inside now. Take care.”

  “You do the same.”

  We both stand there watching as he makes his way inside. Neither of us speak for a while as we listen to the water dripping from the eaves. There is something in the eerie stillness that makes us oddly reluctant to disturb the silence.

  When Melanie finally speaks, her voice is hushed. “Is it just me or does it feel weird out here to you? I know this sounds crazy, but the air just doesn’t feel right.”

  “No, I know what you mean. Could be the low barometric pressure, I guess. Or maybe the sudden quiet after listening to the wind all morning.” She’s right, though. It really does feel queer out here. Like the world has been thrown slightly off balance somehow.

  “Ugh. I was hoping we were about done with the humidity,” she complains, fanning herself with a hand. “I’m sick of this heat. Fall needs to hurry up and get here.”

  “Wouldn’t hurt my feelings any. You ready to go back inside?” Even with the power off, it’s still way cooler in the house. Besides, off in the distance I can see a hazy wall of rain approaching. We’re about to get a visit from the ass end of Elliott.

  The first thing Melanie does after we’re back inside is kneel down and start putting the game pieces back in the box. I, on the other hand, have other things occupying my mind besides cleaning the damn house. There are things I want to know, and time is running out. If I can just persuade her to open up, maybe I can get some idea of what I’m dealing with here.

  Dropping down beside her, I pull her hand away from the scattered cards she’s trying to collect. “Leave it. I’ll help you straighten up later.”

  Arching her eyebrows, she slides her hand down to my crotch with a coy grin.

  “Oh, hey now…” I scoot back out of her reach, albeit reluctantly. This girl knows exactly what to do to distract me. “Don’t give me that look, you dirty-minded little minx! I wasn’t trying to initiate sex. Not right now, anyway. What I want is to talk about what you said earlier.”

  As I expected, her face instantly clouds over with a wary expression. Already she’s trying to close me off. “What about it?”

  “I thought maybe you’d like to tell me what happened.”

  I fully anticipate a solid no, but that’s okay. I’m prepared to keep badgering her until she gives in and talks. I want the full, unabridged story before I leave here. How else am I supposed to know what steps to take next? I want to pursue this relationship, but I can’t walk on eggshells wondering every minute if I’ve inadvertently said something that reminds her of her past.

  A past I know nothing about.

  Like when I called her an angel. The look on her face – it was as if she’d seen a ghost. Why did that simple endearment bother her so much? It upset her, and I don’t know why.

  I need to know why.

  Sitting back on her heels, she bites her bottom lip while scanning the room distractedly. I can tell she’s trying to make up her mind. Either she’ll relent and open up, or I’ll spend the rest of the afternoon nagging her until she threatens to lock me outside with Elliott.

  I really don’t want to have to do that. Not saying I won’t, mind you…just saying I’d rather not.

  To my relief, she finally looks back at me with a sigh. “All right. If you really want to know, I’ll tell you. But just remember, you asked.”

  Outside, the wind has picked up again, and an all-too-familiar roar indicates that the rain has returned with a vengeance.

  Crossing my legs, I make myself comfortable and give her my undivided attention. “I’m listening.”

  “It’s kind of a long story.”

  “That’s okay. I have nowhere to be.”

  “It’s kind of off-the-wall, too.”

  “I’m hardly in a position to judge. Go ahead. I’m all ears.”

  “Okay. Well…” She twists a lock of her hair absently. “I’m not even sure where to start. Um…you remember me telling you that I dropped out of college, right?”

  I nod wordlessly, having no intention of distracting her from her mission.

  “It was Flagler, in case I didn’t mention it before. Oh, wait – you already knew that, didn’t you?”

  Once again, I nod.

  “Don’t get me wrong, I loved it there. It’s a first-rate school and the faculty is amazing. That wasn’t why I left or anything. As a matter of fact, I would have gone back except after what happened…well, I don’t know why but after what happened I started having this social anxiety. So for a while there I just sort of shut myself off from people. That’s when I first started writing.

  “But back to the beginning – like I said, everything was fine at first. I made a lot of
friends and I was doing fairly well in all my classes. Life was good. Then it all went straight downhill. So fast I never saw it coming. See, there was this guy…”

  Ah, yes. I knew there would be.

  “We were in the same sociology class. His name was Luka. Luka Martelli. To describe him…well, that would be something of a challenge. All I can say for one hundred percent certain is that he was different. And by different, I’m not talking in a good way. He was strange. I really didn’t know how strange at first – I mean, the way he acted, I just figured he was shy. He hardly ever said anything and nobody ever talked to him. I always tried to make a point of smiling and saying hello because nobody else bothered to and I felt bad for him. He just seemed so out of place. At the time I thought it was pretty shitty that everyone ignored him, like he was invisible or had a contagious disease or something. In retrospect, maybe it’s just that I wasn’t perceptive enough. Because clearly they all sensed something I didn’t.

  “So anyway, when he came up to me and asked if I would have dinner with him, I accepted. Just to be nice, you know? It was only one date, I figured it couldn’t hurt. And to be honest the evening wasn’t that bad, just…not what I expected. At all. It was a very bizarre experience.”

  Melanie grows silent as she gazes off into space, and I gently prompt her by asking, “Bizarre how?”

  “It’s hard to explain. Just the way he acted, I guess. The things he said. It struck me as odd that for someone so introverted, he did nothing but talk about himself the whole time. Like he was trying to prove how much smarter he was than the rest of the world. And he was highly intelligent, that’s true, but he had this narcissistic personality, which totally surprised me because it didn’t make sense for someone who’d always been so quiet and withdrawn. It’s like everything about him was inconsistent. Nothing added up. I couldn’t figure him out.”

  I feel a knot tightening like a belt around my gut as I wonder exactly what it is that this Martelli character has done to her.