“And what were we talking about today? My water bottle, I suppose.” He lifted his eyebrow and turned in a circle.
“Forget the water bottle. Where are your crutches?” I asked, wanting to hug him and not quite sure if I should. Was he steady enough to walk without crutches?
“Gone. Don’t need them. The doctors said they’ve never seen someone heal so fast from such life-threatening wounds. They want me to come back in for a few more tests tomorrow. They are going to try to bring in some specialists.” He stepped closer and took my hand.
“Oh,” was the only thing that came out of my mouth. My mind kept flip-flopping in between what Melissa had just said and the fact that he was holding my hand. “Do you really need to? What can they do if you’re already better?”
“Try to figure out how I did it, mainly. They want to see if they can figure out how so they can duplicate it,” he said as he squeezed my hand and started walking me toward class.
“But to duplicate it, don’t you have to be hurt?” I said, my thoughts moving completely to, they’re going to put us both in Area 51, and we’ll never see each other again. I was going to be a pincushion for the rest of my life. Thing like this never turned out well in books or movies.
“That’s what I said, and then they got a little vague, and I said I’d have to think about it. But they’ve got my mother worried, and so she said I should go in.”
“Yes, it’s the vague part that has me vaguely worried,” I responded, adding an eye roll.
“Try that on my mother. Maybe my princess with the hiking boots can convince her of it,” he said as he reluctantly let go of my hand at my first class.
“I can try if you want.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” he said before turning to leave.
“Tyler, please don’t tell them about, well, you know,”
“Your water bottle is safe with me,” he said, giving me a mocking bow before leaving.
I shook my head and stepped into the class. Melissa glared at me from her desk across the room. She couldn’t have heard anything, could she have?
The second class was out, she was on me like a vulture over a fresh kill. “His crutches are gone,” she said before I could open my mouth.
“Yes, and it gets worse. The doctors want to do more tests to see how he healed so fast. They want to bring in specialists,” I hissed as we pulled up beside the water fountain and waited for some students to pass.
“What can they do? Besides, they don’t have the water bottle and it's not like they can recreate it by hurting him—can they?”
“No. And he promised not to mention it, so it's not as bad as it seems, I think,” I said, almost more to convince me than her.
“It’s going to be fine, then,” she said before stepping away from me and drifting off into the stream of students before I could say anymore.
I wish I felt as confident as she did that everything was going to be alright. I didn’t wish back what I had done to Tyler, but I hoped all of this would go away.
.o0o.
The next day, the clock ticked by so slowly, I was convinced all the batteries must be low. I checked my cell phone so many times, the battery died and my phone turned off and I was stuck using the wall clocks.
Tyler hadn’t shown up to school this morning, and all I could think was What if they find out? At best they’d think I was crazy. I couldn’t let myself think of at worst. I glanced back up at the clock again and cringed. Had it only been two minutes? I could watch crystalized honey drip faster than the time ticked by.
When he wasn’t there for school to get out, I began to get worried. I went for my phone and growled when it refused to turn on. Completely my fault but beside the point. I needed to track down Melissa. She would let me borrow her phone. She probably still had his phone number from the double date.
Where would she be right now? Probably the practice fields, working with the cheerleaders on teaching their bodies new laws of physics. I almost believed they believed that if they were peppy enough, they could fly. There she was, giving some poor girl the tongue-lashing of her life. I did not envy her. I wanted to turn around and go back, but she caught sight of me and pointed her finger. I could take that as a sign of disrespect and walk away, but I needed her phone. I needed to reach Tyler and know that everything was okay.
I was almost to her when I saw movement off to the side. I don’t know what caused me to look over in the first place, but once I did, I couldn’t look away. Caitlyn was standing over the water cooler, and she looked way to gleeful to just be peeking inside it. She was definitely up to something.
I waved at Melissa and started for Caitlyn, but she was already screwing the lid back on the top and walking away.
“Caitlyn,” I shouted, picking up the pace.
She sneered at me, then jogged off the practice field. “Caitlyn, I know you heard me,” I shouted a little louder, blushing as people started looking over.
“Lilly, get back here,” Melissa called from behind me. I glanced forward and behind, trying to decide what to do—call Tyler or see what Caitlyn was up to. Why would she be messing with the team’s water anyway? I’ll look at it after I talk to Melissa, I thought before stopping my pursuit and going back to Melissa. One look on Melissa’s face and I almost wished I had gone after Caitlyn after all.
“Can I borrow your phone?”
“Why? It’s in my locker, and I’m in the middle of practice,” she snapped. The cheerleaders cringed, but I wasn’t going to give in.
“Tyler hasn’t come to school today,” I replied, trying to keep my voice low so it wouldn’t carry.
“So,” she said, shaking her head at me. A few girls laughed and I blushed harder.
“So, he was supposed to go in for some tests today, and my phone is dead. I just want to make sure everything went okay,” I said, looking firmly at the ground.
“Anyone have a pen?” she asked. Now it was my turn to shake my head. One water bottle and here I was thinking she would help. Too much to ask. One of the girls ran a pen over. Melissa snatched my hand and wrote a set of numbers on my palm. “This combination does not get out,” she added before turning back to the squad.
I nodded, though I didn’t know why since she was no longer looking, and took off for the door back to the gym and the locker room.
.o0o.
The phone rang several times before going to voicemail. I went to leave a message and realized I didn’t know what to say. Hope things went well? Hope they didn’t lock you up and make you a lab rat? Hope to see you soon?
I dialed his number again and let it ring. This time, it went straight to voicemail. Now my stomach was churning. What did this mean? “Hi Tyler, this is Lilly. My phone died and I’m using Melissa’s. I hope you’re okay. Just checking. Could you call me back? Hope you like the new water bottle.” I hung up before I blurted anything else out. I cringed and put the phone back in her locker, then spun the dial.
There had been something else I was doing before getting nowhere with Tyler. The bright orange water jug flashed back to mind, and I hurried out of the locker room. I could just dump it out and refill it. Make some excuse, like there were bugs in it or something. Melissa would cover me when I told her I had seen Caitlyn lurking around it.
Outside, my nerves sang even higher. In front of me, the football team had taken a break. They were standing around the water cooler, sucking up the liquid like there was no tomorrow. Besides, whatever Caitlyn was going through wouldn’t cause her to hurt someone, would it? It was probably just a harmless prank, but despite what I told myself, it did nothing to calm my nerves. Next time I saw her, we were going to talk.
Chapter Twelve
I meant to drive home. At least that’s how it started out. But every time I went to take a turn that would take me closer to home, I found myself turning another way—taking me in the direction of Tyler’s house. I glanced down at my phone for the third time and hoped I remembered his parents’ name cor
rectly so I wasn’t pounding on the door of some stranger.
I turned another corner and stopped. Before me stood a gated community. My old grey Honda stuck out like a yellow daisy growing between a row of perfectly manicured rose bushes. I should have tried calling, I thought as I inched toward the guard booth. If you keep driving this slow, he’ll probably think you’re casing the place. It was now or never. The guard walked out. I swallowed and pulled up next to the booth.
“Can I help you, miss?” asked the elderly guard who could have doubled as Mr. Rogers. I kept waiting for him to say, “Won’t you be my neighbor.” Behind him, expansive lawns and expensive mansions told me those words would never come.
“Yes, I came to check on my friend Tyler. Tyler Marrin,” I said. I smiled, hoping he’d ignore the car and just let me in without saying anything more.
“What’s your name? I’ll check the guest list.” He stepped back into the booth and grabbed a clipboard.
“I’m not exactly on the list, but I need to see him.”
“Let me just call over.” He nodded and picked up the phone. If I were James Bond, I could shoot him with a dart gun or ram the gate and speed past him. Instead, I was stuck waiting for him to call ahead to see if I was worthy enough to enter. Open Sesame didn’t work on gated communities. Ugh, this wasn’t starting out very well.
The gate swung open with little to no sound. The guard waved me forward.
Ten ten, ten eleven, ten twenty, I counted as I pulled up to what I guessed to be his house. I wasn’t sure if anyone was home. All the blinds were pulled tight and there wasn’t even a crack of light. I knocked on the door, then shook my hand. That thing had to be solid wood; my knuckles smarted from it. Doorbell, much better approach.
The guard had called ahead, so there must be someone home to answer, right? There, from further off, I heard the clink, clink, clink of footsteps on tile coming toward me. I sighed. Please let him be home. Please let him be okay. You’re probably just way overblowing this, I told myself. Don’t freak until you know for sure.
“Can I help you, miss?” asked a short woman who looked like a maid. She wore a black dress and white apron. She even held a feather duster. Maybe I’d fallen into a game of Clue.
“Hi, I’m here to see Tyler.” I rubbed my hands across my jeans and smiled, trying to feel a little less shabby in the surroundings.
“Tyler is not home yet. Can I leave a message?” She edged the door shut.
“Is he still at the hospital?” I shoved my hands in my pockets to stop myself from fiddling again.
“Yes, ma’am.” She pushed the door, leaving little more than a crack left.
“Can you tell him Lilly asked about him? Have him call me when he gets home.”
“Yes, ma’am,” and then the door was shut. I stared at the towering wood door and laughed. No one tells the version of the story where Cinderella saved the prince and gets kicked out of the castle by the maid. I needed to figure out what to do next, but I didn’t even know which hospital he had gone to for the special test, much less if it was the smartest thing for me to go to that hospital. Why wasn’t he home yet?
I called, and it went straight to voicemail again. “So, I don’t know if your maid will give you a message. I stopped by your house since I haven’t heard from you. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Please call me, no matter how late.” I hung up before I could blabber any more. Nothing’s wrong. It will be okay, I told myself one more time before getting in the car and driving home.
.o0o.
The phone rang about one in the morning. The beeping merged into my dream and became the most annoying bird call ever.
Once my brain put together what was happening, I grabbed it, hoping it was Tyler. I groaned when I saw Melissa’s name. “Yeah,” I mumbled when I hit answer.
“Did you speak to Tyler?”
“No. He didn’t answer his phone and when I went to his house he wasn’t there.” I yawned.
“I just saw, like, three cars pull in next door,” Melissa whispered.
I perked up a little more. “Wait, you live next door to him?” Life was so unfair.
“Well, a couple of houses over, not right next door. Yes, I think one was his parents’, and one was their lawyer’s, and I didn’t recognize the other one.”
“Lawyers?” I shouted, then went quiet to make sure I hadn’t woken anyone up. “How do you know it’s their lawyers?” I whispered.
“Because he’s our lawyer too. He plays golf with my dad all the time.” She sounded a bit annoyed. Why was she annoyed at me? Why did Tyler need a lawyer at one in the morning?
“So what should we do?” I hovered between excuses. What if he’d told them? I could say Tyler hit his head too hard. That was true, so maybe I’d pass a lie detector test. Would they even give me a chance to take a test or just shove Tyler, Melissa, and me in an underground facility where we’d never be seen again? I should be grabbing all my stuff and running for it. I took a deep breath. First things first. “Did you see Tyler get out of the car?”
“I couldn’t tell. It was too dark. I say we do nothing for now until we know what’s going on.”
My gut dropped more at her tone than her words. She didn’t sound her usual confident self. Dare I say she sounded scared?
“Okay. Should I call him again?” Why was I even asking her this? I was totally giving her fuel to destroy me.
“How many times have you called?”
“Two, and I’ve left a couple of messages.” I squeezed my phone tighter. This was the way I should be talking to Caitlyn. The run-in with Caitlyn earlier came to mind, and I resolved to tell Melissa before we hung up.
“And you told him to call you back?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s enough then. Go to bed. We’ll see if he’s in school tomorrow. And do not call him again until he calls you.”
“Melissa, there’s one more thing. I don’t think it’s something big. Probably just a prank. But I saw Caitlyn slinking around the football team’s water cooler earlier.”
“She can’t do that stuff you can do, right?” she asked after a moment’s pause.
“No.”
“And you have the water bottle?”
“It’s hidden.”
“Double check.” Yep, that was definitely fear in her voice.
“Just a second.” I crawled out of bed and used the light on the phone to stumble over to my closet and check in the back. I sighed when I saw the purple one stacked next to the broken blue one. The water looked almost black in this light, and I shivered. “It’s still there,” I sighed in relief. I needed to find another place to hide these things. Just in case.
As if echoing my thoughts, Melissa said, “We need to get rid of them. Hide them somewhere they won’t be connected to us. And you still need to talk to your friend and see what she’s up to. It’s obviously something. If she hurt Jacob, I don’t care what she knows. I’m going to pour that water down her throat myself.”
“I’ll take care of it soon, okay? I need to figure out if Tyler is okay first and then I’ll check on her. Did you see Jacob before you left? Did he seem okay?”
“Yeah, same as always.”
Somehow her words didn’t comfort me. Caitlyn was different, but she wouldn’t knowingly injure someone, would she? What reason would she have anyway? I shoved the worry down again for the more immediate one.
“So tomorrow we check on Tyler and stash the water bottles. If I can’t get to him at school, could you go to his house?” I asked her.
“I can do that.” The phone went dead. No goodbye, no sorry for calling you at one in the morning and freaking you out, just silence.
.o0o.
“I saw him leaving the house this morning,” Melissa said the moment I opened my car door. Had she been waiting for me in the parking lot?
“Have you seen him here?”
“No. I was looking. That’s why I’m out here.” She glanced toward the entrance to the lo
t.
Well, that answered my earlier question.
“Did you bring the bottles with you?”
“No, they’re still hidden in my closet.” As I started for the school entrance, I found myself glancing back as many times, if not more, than Melissa to see if his car had snuck in. Still no sign of him. I glanced at my phone, but it remained quiet. Maybe he’d planned to talk to me about it at school if he’d ever show up.
“If we don’t see him today, I say we go to his house right after school.” She glanced around and leaned closer. “I think we could go back up that trail and hide them in a bush nowhere near the accident. We had a hard enough time finding his, and we knew where we were going, so I don’t think anyone else would find if we hide it up there. After we’ve stashed it, we can write down the coordinates from our phone.”
“And then they could look at our phones and know exactly where it is. No phones, just landmarks.” She looked at me wearily. “What? I read a lot of spy novels.” I felt like despite everything I’d watched and read, I would make a terrible secret agent.
Julia, her friend, started toward us. “After school, and then I check on Tyler,” Melissa said before waving at Julia. I gave them a few seconds to put some distance between us, then started for class. My last glance back did not reveal Tyler as I had hoped, but only an empty hall. The bell rang and I growled. Great. Now I was late.
.o0o.
I had planned to go after Caitlyn after we got all this figured out, but who was lounging against my locker after third period but my old friend herself. The way we had met a million times before she lost her mind. And it was all my fault.
I slowly walked up to her. “Hey,” I said when she made no move to speak.
“What were you talking to Melissa about earlier? I heard Jacob’s name.” She cut straight to the chase. I blinked, not even remembering her being in the hallway while I was talking to Melissa. How had I missed her?
A Touch of Water (Touch of Magic Book 1) Page 8