First Kiss: The Ghost Bird Series: #10 (The Academy Ghost Bird Series)

by C. L. Stone

  “Huh?”

  “I can’t go when I think you’re listening.”

  “I’m not listening.”

  “Please?”

  He let out a small, amused groan and then one of the sinks started up. Then a second one. It was enough noise that I felt I could pee without him hearing. I might have let Gabriel in the bathroom with me, but none of them had been around when I was using the toilet, and it was too strange to do so with him so close.

  When I was finished, I flushed and walked out of the stall. The sinks were flowing at full speed across the room but Silas wasn’t there.

  I tiptoed out, suddenly fearful the ax murderer got him instead. “Silas?” I called. He wouldn’t have left me alone: he’d promised.

  Silas appeared at the far end of the room, at the shadowed area in the back. “Yeah?”

  “What’s back there?” I asked.

  “Showers,” he said and disappeared behind the wall again. “I was checking for spiders back there, too, just in case you wanted to take a shower tonight.”

  I turned from him, washing my hands, but mostly to hide my panic. I smothered a shiver. Worse than a shower was a creepy shower with rusted pipes and spiders. It made for a ready excuse to do hobo baths all week.

  At least the girls had separate showers, so it wouldn’t be a problem to do hobo baths out of the sink all week. I wouldn’t get super clean that way, but I’d have to do my best. It was camping, right? I’d have to deal with being a little dirty.

  Silas returned from his shower expedition. He rubbed his face. “This place isn’t that bad,” he said.

  I looked at the rust on the sink. “Really?”

  “Last place we were at, the showers were outside.”

  I spoke through gritted teeth. “You’re kidding.”

  “Bare ass to the world. The Academy girls had to take showers on the far end of the camp. Not that we’d bug them, but just because it was exposed and we weren’t sure if there weren’t other people around. First day, they rigged a setup to hang a shower curtain.”

  I smiled. “And you guys didn’t?”

  He shrugged. “Barely took a shower that week, from what I remember. Too cold. I think we just dealt with being dirty.”

  So that’s normal, I thought, relieved. I reached for his hand. “Come on,” I said. “Let’s go camp.”

  On the way back, I told Silas about the plan for getting Kota on the same page.

  He was quiet and before we got back, I stopped in the road, looking up at him. “Do you not think it’s a good idea?”

  “I don’t know what to think,” he said. “When you’re around, I’m fine. When you’re not here, I’m...I don’t know. I second-guess things.”

  I smiled, squeezing his fingers. “I do the same thing.”

  He lifted his head, a thick eyebrow going up on his olive skin. “Really?”

  “I worry,” I said. “I don’t want to make anyone mad or jealous.”

  His thick lips pursed. He released my hand then put his hands on my shoulders before he bent and gently kissed my lips once. “I feel guilty for asking you to stay with me if you’re interested in someone else. It’s stressing you out.”

  My lips parted and I stared at his dark eyes, at his dark hair dancing in the breeze. “I’m more worried about you.”

  He nodded once and reached for my hand, holding it firmly between his palms. “Sang, you’ve got a lot to think about besides us and this plan.”

  “Kota was worried about that,” I said, suddenly not wanting to talk about it now, worried it would stress him out more. “Mr. Blackbourne has a plan. He’s sure it’ll work.”

  “I’ve never seen Mr. Blackbourne fail,” he said. “But there’s always the possibility it won’t work out the way he thinks it will.”

  I breathed in deeply and then put a hand on top of his still holding my other one. “I’m staying,” I said, trying to look him steadily in the eyes steady, faking some confidence. “Silas, I’m staying with you and the others. Right now, I need to convince Kota, but this is what I want. I may need your help, though.”

  He pressed his lips together, swallowing. “You know I’d do anything for you, Aggele.”

  I nodded, sensing there was more to what he needed to say.

  He looked toward the woods. “I’ll do anything for you...as long as it doesn’t hurt you. If in the end, we’re hurting you more by keeping you with us, then I have to...” He turned his head away, his dark eyes storming.

  His words were familiar. “You were talking to Kota,” I said. “That sounds like what he’s been saying.”

  “He’s not wrong,” he said. “You wouldn’t want any of us to suffer just by staying together if it was the wrong thing?”

  I gritted my teeth and loosened my hand from his. Hurting them was the one thing I truly feared. “Would...am I making you suffer?”

  He lifted his head quickly, eyebrows up. “I just meant...I was giving you an example.”

  “I don’t want you to suffer at all,” I said. I pointed to my chest. “And I know I make things more complicated just by being around. You all have to work harder because of me. And you all wouldn’t have to even consider this...plan if I wasn’t here. It makes everything more difficult.”

  Silas reached for me and then dropped his shoulders. “I said the wrong thing. I’m not suffering.”

  I closed my lips, trying to swallow back my emotions. I breathed as steadily as I could. It was everything that haunted me at night, fueled my nightmares. The last thing I wanted was for them to be hurt.

  Silas stood by as all this went through my head, staring at his feet.

  I looked at him, at his tall, broad figure. I remembered the day I first met him. He’d been so scary at first, and yet just a couple hours after that, I’d been in trouble, and he’d come to my defense, protecting me. From that moment, I’d yearned to be his friend. Later, when he’d saved me from my stepmother by pulling me out of the shower, he was there for me. He was always there for me.

  Here he was, unhappy, but willing to give everything up if it meant protecting me again. Could I be selfish and ask to stay?

  I shivered and swallowed back a wave of tears. “Silas?” I said, my voice quivering.

  He reached for me again. “Don’t,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  I swallowed again, wanting to get the words out without crying. “If it’s the right thing to do, why does it feel wrong?”

  He rested his hands on my arms, but stood still, looking at me. “What do you mean?”

  I bowed my head, unable to look at him. “I’ve been trying to consider how it would work with you. But I was ignoring that maybe you all would have it so much harder. But...when I think of leaving, everything hurts.”

  He rubbed my arms, warming them with his big palms. “If it hurts,” he said softly, “then that is the wrong answer.”

  I breathed in slowly, tilting my head to meet his gaze.

  His eyes glistened but held mine steadily. “Mr. Blackbourne is right.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He told me once that if it hurts really bad, it was the wrong decision to make, and your body knows it.” He circled me with his arms, slowly picking me up off the ground.

  I let him pick me up and buried my face into his shoulder, letting his body warm me as I breathed in his ocean scent. It felt good, comfortable. “I like this,” I said.

  “I do, too.” His deep voice rumbled through to my bones. “Kota’s wrong. You shouldn’t have to leave if you want to stay. Not as long as everyone wants you with us, there’s no reason for you to go.”

  “What about all the trouble if I stay?”

  “We’ve already faced death and hell, Aggele.” He squeezed me tighter. “That might never change for us. Do we face it separated and miserable? Or together and stronger?”

  I sniffed, keeping my cheek against his shoulder. “Silas...”

  “It hurts too much to even think about letting you go off alone
or with another team. Before, I thought perhaps I was being selfish, but how can it be wrong if you really want to be here, too? It’s not just you who needs us. We need you here.”

  Did they? I sighed.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Don’t give up. Work with Kota. Bring him back to believing it will work with you here.” He slowly put me back down on my feet and looked at my face. “Don’t hurt.”

  I pushed a breath out through my lips slowly, trying to steady my feelings. “I’ll try.”

  Silas nodded grimly. He traced a couple of his big fingers across my cheek. “Let’s have fun. Do you want me to catch a spider and show it to Gabriel?”

  I smiled but shook my head.

  He put his hands on his hips. “What do you get when you cross an elephant with a kangaroo?”

  I cringed. “What?”

  “Great big holes all over Australia.”

  The answer was so surprising that I snorted before I could laugh.

  He smiled again and reached for my hand. “You were right; we’ll think of something. You’ll convince Kota. You just watch. If Kota can be on the same team as Mr. Blackbourne, we’ll all be fine.”

  I hoped so. “Where is Mr. Blackbourne?”

  “He’ll be here tomorrow morning. He was finishing up some things. The rest of the Academy wouldn’t be here until tomorrow. We’re early.”

  I breathed out slowly. I’d been trying to ignore the thought of other people being around the camp site. Academy people.

  I nodded and followed him on the path back to camp. I wished Mr. Blackbourne were here now. It would make it much easier just to get confirmation about what I should do. I could really use some confidence.

  Could I call him? I pulled out my phone while we were walking back. No signal. Maybe I could try to get a message to him later somehow. Even a text message from him might be enough.

  Maybe I didn’t have to convince Kota tonight. I just had to get him to open up a little to believing.

  I didn’t want to even think of what might happen if I failed.

  UNEXPECTED GUESTS

  When we returned, the guys were gone except for Nathan, who was pulling a few sleeping bags into the tent.

  Silas went in and I followed. Their big tent was one huge room, with a little extra tunnel-like space in the front for the entryway. At the opposite end of the door, along the largest length of tent wall, was a series of cots, foot to head parallel to the wall. More cots had the head facing the wall, the feet to the door, taking up space in the middle.

  “I thought Kota said to put them all along the sides?” I asked.

  Nathan rolled out a sleeping bag on one of the cots. “We had them all around the edges, but adding an extra cot made it more complicated.”

  “An extra cot?”

  “The one for you,” he said.

  I was going to say I was sleeping in my tent tonight, but then I realized later this week, I might need a cot in the big tent. They would have had to rearrange everything. I counted the cots. “There’s only eight.”

  “Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green have their own tent away from us,” he said. “Where family leads sleep.”

  “Shouldn’t Kota be with them?” Silas asked.

  “Kota wanted to stay here,” Nathan said. “He’ll join the family leads when it’s time.”

  “Kota’s a...” I broke off, not sure what it was okay to ask.

  Silas and Nathan looked at each other. Nathan shrugged and responded. “There’s two leads in a group,” he said. “Mr. Blackbourne’s our main contact for the Academy, he tracks the jobs we go on and lets us know what jobs are available.”

  “Then there’s a family lead and that’s Kota,” Silas said.

  “It used to be the doc,” Nathan said. “But when Dr. Green got into his final year of medical school and had to be away so much and then had to do his internship thing, someone else needed to take over. That was Kota.”

  “What’s a family lead?” I asked.

  “We might need to wait,” Silas said. “She’ll learn it all this week.”

  “It doesn’t matter if she learns some in advance, does it?” Nathan asked. When Silas shrugged, Nathan turned back to me. “A family lead is the person who keeps tabs on all of us. So like Kota checks in with Gabriel at home and makes sure things are running smoothly. He’d get groceries delivered to you if you were too busy with stuff that week. He makes sure everyone’s bills are paid on time and everyone that needs a job has one.”

  “It’s a lot of work,” Silas said. “If we’re too tired to do an Academy job, he’ll veto it, even if we say it’s okay.”

  “He rarely ever does that,” Nathan said. “He usually keeps us pretty together. And if we need help somewhere, he’ll go along rather than have us cancel.”

  There were more responsibilities on Kota than I had realized. No wonder he was so stressed. “He has to do that alone?”

  “He’s pretty good at it.” Nathan smoothed out the sleeping bag and then found a pillow. “Sang, North’s over by the beach. You wanted to go, didn’t you?”

  I nodded, trying to summon up some good feelings after the earlier intense discussion with Silas, and now learning about Kota having so much on his shoulders.

  “Go run on ahead. I’m almost done.”

  “Which way?” I asked.

  Silas moved to the small pile of items inside the tent, ready to be put into place. “Let me take care of this,” he said to Nathan. “You go and show her.”

  Nathan nodded. “Thanks, man.”

  We left the tent and Nathan walked with me from the campsite to the road, holding my hand along the way.

  We were quiet for the first part of the walk.

  “Did you get a chance to talk to Kota much?” Nathan asked.

  “Not yet.”

  “You’ll get more of a chance tonight,” he said. “I tried when you were at the bathroom, but he kept saying his was busy and would talk later.”

  “Gabriel said he doesn’t stop talking about me around him.”

  Nathan looked ahead, his blue gaze intense on the woods around us. “He used to be the same way when he spoke about you with me. But now, he’s not.”

  Maybe Gabriel wasn’t talking with Kota about the same things.

  He squeezed my hand and focused on me. “You’ve got all week to change his mind. Hang in there.”

  We had to walk a while before we got to a clearing in the woods where the gravel path turned into sand, stretching out between sand dunes.

  The beach.

  I jolted forward in excitement. I released Nathan and broke into a stumbling run, climbing the dune.

  The ocean met with a river to the north and the rest of the island to the south had really wide stretches of beach. This beach was much bigger than Folly Beach where I’d been before. The ocean rolled over on itself over and over in gentle waves. The breeze picked up, chilling my nose and face, so I zipped up my jacket again. I breathed in the salt and the moisture; it was so much better than the woods. Why couldn’t we have our tents out here?

  There was a picnic table on a dry patch of sand. Nearby, North stood next to a barbecue grill. He was bent over, opening up a bag of charcoal.

  I ran toward him. He saw me coming and tensed, shoulders rounding out, but he held still. I jumped onto his back, circling his neck with my arms, holding to him for dear life.

  “North Star,” I said, my legs dangling off of his back.

  “Sang Baby,” he said, and he lifted the bag of charcoal, carrying me along with it as if I were just a scarf around his neck and not a person.

  “Can I go touch the water?”

  “Hell no.”

  I pouted, but since I was behind him, he couldn’t see it. “Please?”

  “The last time I took you to the ocean, you fell in.” He shook charcoal from the bag into the grill. “I don’t want to save your ass today. The water’s freezing.”

  “I won’t fall in,” I said. “There’s no undercurre
nts here, right? Please?”

  “I don’t know that and no.”

  I released his neck, dropping to the ground. I heard other people coming and turned to find Nathan jogging toward us. Gabriel was a few dozen feet behind him.

  “Can I go if Nathan goes with me?” I asked North. If he was worried about my safety, maybe someone willing to go along might make it safer.

  North chuffed. “Only if he stays right next to you.”

  I grinned, running back down the path. Nathan saw me coming and broke out into a sprint toward me, arms open. When I was close, I bounced up, catching him around the shoulders. He caught me around the waist, swung me around in a circle once before wrapping his arms around me. He held me by my thighs as he carried me back to the beach.

  “Hi, Honey,” I said, feeling silly because we were just talking a minute ago.

  “Hi Peanut,” he said, grinning. “Miss me?”

  “Yes. Will you go with me to touch the water? North won’t let me.”

  “North said no or North said no unless I go?”

  “I can if you will.”

  Nathan smirked and glanced around. Gabriel was still struggling to get over the dune behind him and North was busy with the grill. He whispered to me. “I’ll do it for a kiss.”

  I leaned in, kissing his cheek close to his mouth. Then I gave him another on the opposite cheek.

  “Ah,” Nathan said. “A bonus. I guess you really want to swim.”

  “No swimming,” North said. He was opening the package of lighter fluid. “And don’t let her fall in.”

  He could hear even with the waves and wind blowing? His hearing was amazing.

  “I won’t,” Nathan said. He patted me on the thigh with his palm. “Drop down for a second, Peanut.”

  I did. Nathan sat on the picnic table, where he removed his shoes and socks and rolled up his jeans until they were about to his knees. He stepped back down again, his bare feet in the sand. He gritted his teeth. “Fuck. Even the sand is cold.”

  I took my jacket off. “I don’t want to get that wet.”

  Nathan put it next to his shoes and then focused on me. He bent over, hooked an arm around my back and then caught me around the knees with the other. He cradled me in his arms as he lifted me against his chest. “Let’s go.”