3 Conjuring

by Amanda M. Lee

  I glanced at the empty room across the hall from where Brittany and Paris were setting up shop. “Michelle isn’t here yet?”

  “No,” Paris shook her head. “I don’t know when she’s coming.”

  “It’s completely irresponsible,” Brittany lamented. “How does she expect to get a good education when she waits until the last minute?”

  “Classes don’t even start until Monday,” I reminded her. “That’s days away.”

  “She has to get her books,” Brittany shot back.

  “Most people get their books on a Kindle or tablet these days,” I replied blithely.

  “Only geeks buy textbooks to underline them. You know, save a tree and all that.”

  It was a pointed jab. Brittany had a rainbow of highlighters she liked to utilize when studying. I was so glad I wasn’t sharing a room with her this year. I would miss Paris, though. Thankfully, she wasn’t that far away.

  “What about your roommates?” Paris asked. “How are things going there?”

  “Their stuff is in their room, but I haven’t seen them yet,” I shrugged. “Maybe they’re just wandering around.”

  “I saw Kelsey about two hours ago,” Paris said pointedly.

  “Yeah? Was she doing something funny?”

  “Her parents were moving her in,” Paris started. “And she was complaining in the hallway, really loudly by the way, how it wasn’t fair that you and Laura got the big room.”

  I smirked. I wondered if that would become an issue.

  “She was here when the dorm opened at 8 a.m. and she thought she would be able to claim the big room. Imagine her surprise when she walked in there and found that you’d already moved some stuff in and claimed it. How did you manage that, by the way?”

  “Aric told me that they would let you claim a room early if you paid fifty bucks,” I replied. “It seemed like a good investment to me. So we drove down here two weeks ago with a small load of stuff and I claimed the room.”

  “Aric, huh?” Paris raised an eyebrow. “You two are together now, I’m assuming?”

  “We haven’t really defined it,” I hedged.

  “They’re a couple,” Laura said knowingly. “They’re annoyingly cute. I’m a little jealous. He’s so big and handsome and he dotes on Zoe.”

  “I can’t figure out what he sees in Zoe,” Brittany mused.

  I glared at her.

  “Oh,” Brittany said hurriedly. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

  “How did you mean it?”

  “I ... so, what’s everyone doing tonight?” Brittany nervously changed the subject.

  “Well, Aric knows of a party for us to go to,” I suggested.

  “That sounds fun,” Brittany chirped. “That sounds like a lot of fun.”

  “Maybe you can ask him why he’s slumming with me in person,” I suggested helpfully.

  Brittany frowned. “I see the summer hasn’t matured you.”

  I opened my mouth to utter a cutting retort, but Laura swooped in. “Zoe Lake is a happy person,” she reminded me.

  I snapped my mouth shut and glanced at Paris. “You’re going to have a really long year.”

  Two

  After returning to our room, Laura and I managed to unpack and shower before Matilda and Kelsey returned. Matilda greeted me with a warm smile – but Kelsey’s facial features were more akin to an angry turtle’s than anything else.

  “How was your summer?” Matilda gushed, brushing her curly brown hair away from her face excitedly. “Mine was great.”

  “It was good,” I replied nonchalantly. “You know, work and sun. Just the usual.”

  “Still, no classes is always a bonus,” Matilda pressed. “Days at the beach, nights at the club.”

  “Definitely,” I agreed, even though there weren’t a lot of clubs in northern Lower Michigan. “Did you do anything fun this summer?”

  “I worked at the water park down in St. Clair Shores,” Matilda explained. “It was like one long wet T-shirt contest. I met a lot of guys.”

  Huh. I didn’t know how to respond to that so I decided to ignore it. “How was your summer, Kelsey?” Maybe she was just shy?

  “I worked,” she replied.

  “You guys weren’t here when we moved in.” Laura wrung her hands nervously. “We weren’t sure where you were.”

  “We were down visiting some friends on the second floor,” Matilda said, exchanging a wary glance with Kelsey. “We were surprised when we got here to see that you had already moved in some stuff.”

  She was trying to be diplomatic. “Oh, yeah,” I replied breezily. I was going for conversational and not confrontational. No, really, I was. “I paid the fee and moved some stuff in a few weeks ago.”

  “I didn’t know you could do that,” Kelsey said darkly, her green eyes shooting daggers in my direction.

  “Yeah, well, I was going to be down here anyway, so I didn’t see the harm in it.” She really needed to get over this.

  “No,” Matilda said hurriedly. “I would have done the same thing. I honestly didn’t know you could do that, though. They should advertise it or something, so everyone knows.”

  “I didn’t realize it was an option either, not until Aric told me, anyway.”

  “Aric?” Matilda asked, her eyes sparkling with warmth for the first time since she’d seen me. “Isn’t he that really hot guy I saw you with in the university center?”

  “He is,” I nodded.

  “Is he your boyfriend?”

  “We really haven’t defined it,” I stated carefully.

  “He’s her boyfriend,” Laura supplied. “In fact, he’s picking us up in about half an hour to take us to a party. Do you want to come?”

  “That sounds cool,” Matilda replied enthusiastically. “It won’t take us long to get ready.”

  “I’ve got stuff to do,” Kelsey interjected hurriedly. I couldn’t help but dislike her, despite my new mantra.

  “Oh, come on,” Matilda complained. “We could both use a good party. Let loose a little bit.”

  “I don’t want to go to a party,” Kelsey said pointedly. What she really meant was that she didn’t want to go to a party with us.

  “Fine,” Matilda said, pasting a thin smile on her face. “I guess we’re staying here.”

  Kelsey looked triumphant – which, of course, irked me.

  “Just because Kelsey doesn’t want to go that doesn’t mean that you can’t,” I offered.

  Kelsey frowned, which I guessed was her perpetual facial expression.

  “That’s true,” Matilda mused. “I’ll get ready.” She breezed past Kelsey into the bedroom, leaving me to deal with her pout and obvious wrath.

  “I think paying money to move into the dorms early is cheating,” Kelsey finally said.

  “Really? I think it’s smart.” I wasn’t backing down.

  Laura shifted nervously at my side. “It’s done. Why don’t we just let it go?”

  “I got up at the crack of dawn so we could get the big room,” Kelsey explained. “I was counting on it.”

  “Huh,” I smiled brightly. “Bummer for you, I guess.”

  This whole new happy Zoe Lake thing was turning into a great big burden. The old Zoe would have had a snarky retort and some vigorous hair pulling to back it up – which might be immature but sounded a lot more fun than this fake diplomatic thing we had going on now.

  “It is a bummer,” Laura agreed sympathetically.

  Kelsey shot her a dirty look and flounced back into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

  “Well, she’s a barrel of laughs,” I grumbled.

  “I think she’s just shy,” Laura said.

  “Yeah, that’s it.”

  “We should make more of an effort to include her in stuff,” Laura suggested.

  “I think I’ll pass.”

  “We want to make friends with her,” Laura said.

  “We do?”

  “Can’t you just try? For me?�
�

  I considered her request but didn’t answer right away.

  “Zoe Lake is a happy person,” Laura reminded me.

  Crap.

  “SO WHERE are we going?”

  It was almost forty minutes later and Brittany, Paris, Laura, Matilda and I were all crammed into Aric’s Ford Explorer as he drove across campus.

  “My friend Tony is having a party at Armor Ridge,” Aric replied. “Just some people and a keg. Nothing big.”

  “Those are apartments, right?” I asked pointedly.

  “Yes,” Aric smirked. “No house. No frat house. Just an apartment party.”

  “And is your friend Tony a ... .” I broke off; Matilda wasn’t in on the big supernatural secret.

  “He’s just a guy I met at the gym,” Aric said smoothly. “Just a normal guy.”

  “Is he hot?” Matilda asked from the backseat. She always went straight for the obvious question.

  “I’m not sure if I’m the right one to judge that for you,” Aric said uncomfortably.

  “Does he look like you?” Matilda asked pointedly, refusing to give up.

  “He’s blond,” Aric replied. “And I think his eyes are blue, but I’m not sure. I don’t exactly spend hours gazing into them.”

  “Does he have muscles?” Matilda pressed.

  “He works out a lot.” Aric didn’t look like he was thrilled with Matilda’s enthusiastic boy chasing.

  “Sounds good to me,” Matilda said.

  “Me, too,” Brittany giggled.

  “I saw him first,” Matilda replied.

  “No one has seen him yet,” Paris complained.

  Aric exchanged a bemused look with me but he didn’t speak. Once we got to the apartment complex, everyone climbed out of the vehicle and waited for Aric to lead the way. When we got to the apartment, I was surprised to see a familiar face open the door.

  “Rick!”

  “Zoe,” Rick No. 1 stepped out of the apartment and greeted me with a warm hug. “Hey, Brittany, Paris and Laura.”

  Matilda waited for him to acknowledge her, but the greeting never came.

  “I didn’t know you guys were coming,” Rick said as he ushered us into his apartment. “I wasn’t even sure how to find you guys this early in the year.”

  “Actually, we’re here because Aric has a friend who lives here. Some guy named Tony.”

  “Oh, yeah, Tony,” Rick said. “He’s a great guy. How do you know him?” Rick looked Aric up and down curiously. Aric does make an imposing sight at 6 feet, 2 inches and more than two hundred pounds of solid muscle. A lot of guys are nervous around him.

  “We met at the gym,” Aric replied easily.

  “I bet,” Rick said, puffing his chest out in an effort to look bigger. “Oh, um, the keg is over there. I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

  Once he was gone, Matilda turned to me furiously. “He didn’t even say hi to me.”

  “Maybe he didn’t recognize you,” I offered lamely.

  “How is that possible?”

  “You’re really tan. It looks great, by the way.”

  “You’re really tan, too, and he recognized you,” Matilda pointed out. “And thank you, I worked really hard to get this dark.”

  “Yeah, but he lived across the hall from me last year, so he saw me all the time,” I reminded her. Even I had no idea what point I was trying to make. I guess distraction was my only option.

  Aric must have decided to save me, because he was at my side and linking his fingers with mine a few seconds later. “Come with me and I’ll get you drunk,” he offered.

  “You just want to take advantage of me,” I sighed.

  “I don’t need alcohol for that,” Aric winked.

  He had a point.

  Thankfully, the keg was in the opposite direction from Matilda – which was the only thing on my mind at the moment. Once we were there, Aric introduced me to Tony, who was just as impressive as Aric, at least on a superficial level. Only he was much fairer. After a few minutes of chatting, though, I realized that the similarities died with the muscles. He was as dumb as a post.

  “So then I told him, dude, you have to eat the ice cream really fast for that to happen,” Tony wrapped up his really long story happily. “That’s the only way you get that cool brain freeze thing.”

  “That’s a great story,” Brittany smiled dreamily, hanging on every word from Tony’s mouth. “You should write that one down.”

  Tony looked confused. “I guess.”

  I glanced at Aric tiredly. “You want to get some air?”

  “Sounds like a good idea,” Aric agreed, grabbing my hand and leading me in the direction of the balcony.

  Once we were outside, I turned to Aric questioningly. “So, how good of a friend is Tony?”

  Aric looked nonplussed. “I didn’t say he was a great thinker. He’s just a good workout buddy.”

  “He’s a little ... different.”

  “Different isn’t always bad,” Aric hedged.

  “I agree. If I’m keeping you from getting a good ice cream buzz, I apologize.”

  Aric smirked. “So much for happier Zoe.”

  “I am happy,” I pouted.

  “Yeah, that was obvious by the look you had on your face when Tony was telling his story.”

  “And what look is that?”

  “The one where you wished you had a rock to bash into his head.”

  “I was thinking more along the lines of a baseball bat,” I replied simply. “However, a rock would do, too.”

  Aric smiled and leaned in to kiss me. He didn’t make it the whole way, though. We were interrupted by a shriek that sent shivers down my spine it was so shrill.

  “Aric! Omigod! You’re here! I can’t believe it’s really you!”

  I turned as a wall of dark hair and big boobs pushed me out of the way and threw itself on Aric. For his part, he seemed surprised – but not annoyed – which immediately put me on edge.

  “Jessica, hey,” Aric said, giving the girl a quick hug and then taking a step back. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  “I can’t believe you’re here,” the girl, Jessica, purred as she sidled up to Aric and plastered herself against his chest. “I’ve missed you so much.”

  Aric met my gaze over Jessica’s head and uncomfortably pushed her away. “Um, it’s great to see you, too,” he said finally.

  Jessica looked confused. “You don’t seem happy to see me.” It was almost as though she couldn’t believe anyone wouldn’t fall at her feet because she deigned to bless them with her presence.

  “It’s not that,” Aric said hurriedly. “It’s just that ... um, have you met Zoe?” Aric took a step back in my direction, sliding his arm around my shoulders and pulling me in tight at his side.

  Jessica frowned. I returned the facial expression as she looked me up and down. “I don’t believe I’ve had the honor,” Jessica said finally, although she said the word honor like I would say the phrase cow poop. “I’m Jessica.”

  “Zoe,” I said blankly, shifting slightly under Aric’s heavy arm.

  “So, you guys are a couple?” Jessica asked. I could feel her looking me up and down, trying to sum me up. She didn’t look thrilled with the outcome of the equation.

  I opened my mouth to utter my usual response and then froze when Aric answered for me. “We are,” he said. “A happy, happy couple.”

  “Since when?” Jessica narrowed her brown eyes suspiciously, shifting her gaze between the two of us.

  “Why do you care?” I asked pointedly.

  Jessica ignored me, though. “For how long?” she asked Aric directly again, as though I had suddenly been rendered invisible.

  “Since May,” Aric replied. “A whole blissful summer.” I had no idea whether he was trying to press that point on Jessica or me.

  “Really?” Jessica looked surprised. “That’s like four months. I thought you were a month-long type of guy? Isn’t that what you told me?”

&n
bsp; I glanced up at Aric curiously. He seemed uncomfortable with Jessica’s line of questioning. “Is that what I told you? Well, I guess I’ve grown up a little,” Aric shrugged helplessly.

  “You dated her?” I asked him pointedly.

  “We were in love,” Jessica replied.

  “We were not in love,” Aric said hastily. “It was just a fling. Last fall.”

  Jessica frowned. “Until he told me that he couldn’t date a woman for more than a month. He said it was physically impossible.”

  I hiked an eyebrow as I regarded Aric. “Physically impossible?”

  Aric merely shrugged.

  Jessica turned back to me. “Are your parents rich or something?”

  Well, that was a weird question. “No,” I shook my head. “I mean, we’re not poor, but we’re not rich either. What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Well, I just figured you were some girl Aric’s father set him up with,” Jessica smiled haughtily. “There has to be a reason he settled for you. I mean down with you.”

  “Hey!” I took a step forward – or tried to – but Aric snapped me back and kept me at his side.

  “Jessica, don’t you have somewhere else to be?” Now he looked aggravated. Better late than never, I guess.

  “I guess not,” Jessica said with a pronounced pout. “Unless you have some place you’d like me to be.”

  Yep, that pretty much did it. I was reaching for Jessica’s long brown hair without even thinking about what I was doing when Laura joined us on the balcony. “Oh, there you are,” she said. “I’ve been looking for you.”

  Aric was busy trying to rein in my hands, but he still found the energy to answer Laura. “Yeah, we were just getting some air.”

  “Oh, I was talking to Jessica,” Laura said shyly. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, too. I’m always happy to see the two of you. I don’t want you to think that I’m not happy to see you two.” Laura broke off lamely as she regarded me nervously.

  “How do you know Jessica?” I asked pointedly, changing the subject from potential murder to the mundane.

  “Well, we just met actually,” Laura replied easily, although I could tell she sensed there was something else going on between the three of us. “We’re both computer majors, though, and I found out we have two classes together this semester so we were talking about starting a study group.”