13 Ways to Midnight (The Midnight Saga) Page 16

  I remember the look on my mother’s face when the casket was placed in our family’s mausoleum on that rainy day in late September. It was an obvious pain, not unlike my own. Hers, selflessly harboring the loss of a child, mine, the loss of my twin sister, Midnight.

  I grabbed the paper, ready to crumble it up and toss it aside when the doors swung wide open, and Mattie appeared, eyeballing the room like a kid in a candy store.

  “Shut the front door.” She muttered, and I closed the book and grinned at her. I meant to call her back sooner, but Thorn. In fact, that will soon become my moniker.

  But…Thorn.

  It could become an excuse for everything in my life if I didn’t get this feeling that I had for him under control. To be honest, I didn’t know if I wanted to. The quiet, calm side of myself feared how he made me tremble, but the other side…the one that was awakened by his touch, the darkness, it churned and boiled, begging to be released.

  I hoped inviting her over to hang out in the library would smooth things over.

  My stomach tightened, and I watched her stroll into the room and turned her head from side to side.

  “So this is it, huh?”

  I nodded to her, and she came up to me and sighed, placing a hand on her hip and looking me over. “I think we need to get a few things straight before we move forward here.”

  My nose wrinkled, and she went on without allowing me to respond to her. Her finger jetted straight up, and she wagged it. “Number one. You are not allowed to die. I forbid it.”

  I laughed under my breath, and she cocked her head to the other side, swinging that thick blonde ponytail until it rested on her shoulder. “I’m serious. I’m not interested in becoming friends with someone who thinks it’s okay to go falling down hills and busting their heads open on a whim. That is an investment I am just not willing to make.”

  I straightened my shoulders. “I wasn’t…”

  She interrupted me. “Ahhh, I’m not done. Number two.” She made a peace sign and grinned at me. “Hugs every time I see you.”

  “I’m down with that.”

  She nodded. “Oh, yeah?”

  I stood up, using the table to help brace myself and she came around and hugged me. I moaned, and she eased up. She turned me and stared at my shoulder. “Oh, that sucks.”

  I glanced back at it. “It looks worse than it feels.”

  “Well, no more. I mean come on, I just transferred here, and I don’t want to go to class alone.”

  I laughed. “I see how it is.”

  She kissed me on the cheek, and I closed my eyes. One more gentler hug and she stepped back and held her arms out to her sides. “Can I?” she said as her eyebrows shot up.

  “Have at it.” I sat back down and watched her race along the walls, staring at each book she passed by. Finally, she came to a halt and turned back to me, holding her hands to her chest. She took a deep breath. “It smells amazing!” I nodded. “I know, it’s great isn’t it?”

  “Books, books, and more books. It’s heavenly.” She cooed.

  She turned back and finally found a book and pulled it out, swinging it up and clutching it to her chest. She raced over to the table and sat down in front of me. She placed the book on the table, and I eyed the gold lettering on the black leather cover.

  “Dracula.” She leaned in, staring at it with wide eyes.

  “Big vampire fan?” I asked.

  She let out a sigh. “Fan? More like freak. I love vampires.”

  I fingered at the cover of my journal and pulled it toward me. I tilted my head and watched as Mattie opened the book and her face lit up. I grinned.

  “So, where’s Daniel?” I asked.

  She kept her eyes on the book refusing to look at me. “No comment.”

  The wrinkle between my eyebrows deepened. “Is he okay?”

  She sighed and lifted her green eyes, still refusing to meet my inquisitive stare. “If you call having bad judgment okay, then yes. He’s fantastic.”

  I reached out and touched the book. She leaned back and let out a defeated sigh. I could tell that she wasn’t happy. “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “He’s dating that red head now…what’s her name, oh yeah, Tailor.”

  I removed my hand. “Oh, really?”

  She leaned forward and pursed her lips. Then she spoke quietly. “Seriously, WTH? With double hockey sticks and just add some exclamation points!”

  I tucked my hair behind my ear and shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe it’s true that opposites attract.” I thought about Thorn, and I knew it was true in our case. We had done nothing but annoy each other, but now, well now I couldn’t stand being away from him.

  Her voice went up an octave. “Opposites? More like alien. That girl is nothing like us at all. Nothing, not even close.” She waved a stiffened hand.

  I rubbed the side of my neck. “To be fair, we don’t really know her.”

  Mattie crossed her arms over her chest. “I know of her, trust me. I asked around, and what’s with the sudden change of heart? I thought she annoyed you, too?”

  “You can’t base anything on that, and she does, I mean, did.”

  Mattie tilted her head. “Wasn’t she rude to you, not once, but a few times?”

  “Twice, kind of. I guess she was just territorial.”

  Mattie smiled. “We aren’t animals.”

  “Aren’t we?” I asked in all seriousness. Mattie and I had never had this conversation, but I wasn’t exactly religious, and neither was my family. We based every faith we had on hard evidence which was blanketed in science.

  “No, we’re human, although I wouldn’t mind becoming a vampire.” She looked back at the book and pretended like she was reading.

  I snorted, and her eyebrow shot up. “Vampires,” I mumbled under my breath.

  She eyeballed me, so I switched gears. “You know, if it bothers you this much you should just say something to him.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Awkward!”

  “Well yeah, but how is he to know if you don’t tell him?”

  She bit her lip and closed the book. “You suck, suck in a smart way, I mean.”

  “I try to suck daily; it’s a goal that I have.”

  She grinned and reached out to me, taking my hand. She rubbed her thumb across the top of my skin, and I returned her smile. “I’m really glad you’re okay, I mean that. I care about you, as a friend, a best friend. We are best friends, right?” She asked in all seriousness.

  I looked down and then back up at her. Best friends were supposed to confide in each other.

  “Speaking of which, Thorn,” I spoke in a half whisper, and she leaned in.

  “Yeah?”

  “We, um. You know.” I shrugged my shoulder.

  “You did it!” She yelled.

  I shook my head and immediately turned red. “Oh my God….no! We didn’t do that.”

  “Then what, what did you do?” she replied, still holding my hand.

  “I think we’re together now. I think. Like dating.”

  She wiggled her nose and narrowed her eyes. “How could you not know?”

  I looked at the door and back to her. “He came here, to my room…today.”

  “What!?” she yelled again. I could die. I shushed her, and she squirmed in her chair.

  “You need to chill, can you do that, please?” I asked her and she reached up and started to twirl the end of her ponytail with her fingers.

  “Totally chill, all the way…go….spill it. Tell me everything. Every detail.” She spoke quickly with wide eyes.

  I sucked on my bottom lip, finally releasing it. “He was on the ledge.”

  She shook her head. “Wait, where? In your room?” She pointed down.

  “Yeah,” I whispered.

  She leaned up a
nd focused her full attention on me. “How the heck did he get up there?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “He must be a good climber.”

  “So he scurried up the side of this house like Spider-Man with no equipment?”

  I let out a sharp laugh. “I don’t think scurry is the right word, but okay.”

  She waved a hand. “Whatever…go on.”

  “So anyway, he asked me to invite him in.”

  She snapped her fingers and turned the book toward me, pointing at the text. I stared at it.

  “What?” She tapped her finger against the page. “Read!”

  A vampire cannot enter a dwelling without being invited in.

  I snorted. “What? No. Thorn is not a vampire.”

  She wiggled her eyebrows. “What? A hottie vampire with an obsession for you? A beautiful young girl…innocent, a virgin? Right? You are a virgin.”

  The words struck me, and I cleared my throat. Yes, I was a virgin, but it wasn’t anyone’s business. I stuttered. “I’m….I’ve done stuff, I’m not a child.”

  She winked at me. “Stuff? Like what?”

  “Stuff and things, you know.”

  She bit her lip. “It’s okay, I am, too.”

  I perked up. “Really? I mean, you’ve never?”

  She smiled while letting her ponytail go. “Well, I’ve done some pretty heavy making out in the back of a car, but no…I’ve never done that, not yet.”

  I sat there stunned, and she looked agitated. “What?” she asked.

  “I…no, I just thought maybe you…”

  She stood up and walked the book back to the shelf and pushed it in. She turned back and crossed her arms over her chest. “So you thought I was like that? Thanks, Echo.”

  I stood up, bracing myself on the edge of the table. “Mattie, I didn’t mean anything bad by it, you just seem so mature, and I shouldn’t have assumed anything, my bad. I told you I suck.”

  She cracked a smile. “You did say that. You totally said you sucked.”

  I sighed and stared down at the table. “Anyway, he kissed my shoulder on the bed.”

  She rushed toward me and slammed her hands on the table. I flinched. “What?!”

  I nodded. “Yeah, and he told me that I scare him. Me, can you imagine that?”

  She let out a sigh and dropped in the chair. “Oh my God, how romantic.”

  “Yeah, I guess it was.”

  “So did he fly out the window or what?”

  I let out a loud chuckle, and she grinned. “Shut up…no,” I said as I fought through laughter.

  She tapped the table. “I think I should stay over, what do you think?”

  I immediately chimed in. “Yes.” I couldn’t agree with her more.

  Nothing scared me as much as thinking about seeing Thorn Vega on my ledge in the middle of the night. Who knows what that would lead too and it wasn’t the thought of it as much as my willingness to see it happen that frightened me most of all.

  21

  I enjoyed a peaceful night’s sleep.

  No nightmares, no cold sweats. No visions in the blue mist.

  I woke up with Mattie spooning me, not unlike Midnight had done on many a night in the past. I brushed my teeth as she showered, and then we switched. She blow dried my hair, and I returned the favor.

  We entered the kitchen, and my Aunt Luna sat on the phone, talking quietly into it. She lowered it from her ear and placed it on the wall then turned to face us. Her expression was one of worry; a frown threatened to compromise her otherwise flawless skin. She wrung her hands and then walked to the stove, continuing her assault on the bacon as it popped in the black skillet. The whole room smelled of it and my mouth watered.

  I limped up to the kitchen island without my crutches. I was determined to leave them behind. I hate depending on anything, let alone something to help me stand when standing should be the least of my worries. Mattie leaned into my side and then took a stool, and I followed. Plates had already been laid out before us with small blue flowers lining the edges. They matched the coffee cups that were both filled to the brim, with steam rising into the air curling over itself and then dissipating.

  “Everything okay?” I asked as I sipped on my coffee and Mattie did the same. My aunt hesitated and then turned, placing the bacon on a plate and snatching up two eggs.

  “James hasn’t called me back.”

  I leaned forward and set my cup down. “Did something happen?”

  She shook her head. “No, nothing. I mean, I’m sure it’s nothing. He goes off sometimes and does his own thing, to clear his mind. I can understand that.”

  “Mr. Jenny?” Mattie asked, and I smiled while raising an eyebrow and nodded toward my aunt. Mattie Oh’d without making a sound. We both turned back to look at Aunt Luna when she approached the table with the eggs. “Oh, look at me. I didn’t even ask. Sunny side up okay with you girls?” We both nodded, and she slid one onto my plate and gave the other one to Mattie.

  I picked up my fork, and she returned with the bacon, setting it down on the table and taking a seat. She was clearly preoccupied and it was to be expected. She had admitted to loving him, and I could understand how it disrupts everything in your life. Even when it happens so suddenly like it had for me.

  I finally placed my fork to my yolk and when I broke it my plate filled with blood. My eyes widened, and Mattie groaned. “Oh, gross!” she muttered, and I grimaced, but for some reason, the blood intrigued me.

  “What?” my Aunt asked before she finally looked at my plate.

  “No!” she yelled, and she snatched it from me and rushed it to the sink, scraping it down the drain and ran the garbage disposal. I sat there with my fork in hand, and she turned and straightened her hair and then rubbed her forehead with her open palm.

  “I’m sorry, I get jumpy when he does this, and very superstitious.”

  Mattie chewed on her eggs. “Yeah, blood is bad in an egg, isn’t it?” she asked, and I eyed her and then sat my fork down. “Is it?”

  My Aunt smiled nervously. “Don’t be silly.” She added a wave of her hand.

  Mattie jabbed her fork in the air. “No…it means death, I think. Is that right?”

  “Like someone’s dying?” I asked.

  She stopped chewing and faced me. “But it’s all bull; you know that.” She swallowed and nodded to me.

  “Yeah…yeah, I don’t believe in that stuff at all.”

  My aunt approached the table. “No, you shouldn’t, we should leave now or you’ll both be late for school.”

  I stood up and shook my head. “I wanna walk. There’s no way my leg will get stronger if I keep sitting and getting carried all over the place.” I heard a meow and looked down.

  “Bela?”

  “Ahhh!” My aunt yelled out, and she swooped in and picked him up, giving him a thousand sloppy kisses on the head. He stared at me like an enemy, and I gave him the stink eye. I hadn’t seen him since I arrived, and quite honestly, I had totally forgotten about him with everything else that had been going on. He gave out a huge meow, and she let him go. He hit the floor with a graceful thump and rushed off and out of the kitchen.

  “I totally forgot he lived here.”

  She sighed. “He comes and goes as he pleases, like most people in my life. Sometimes staying gone for days on end. Sometimes weeks. I have no idea where he goes off too, but he’ll be locked up tight for a while now, won’t you my sweet baby?” She called out, but there was no response.

  The sad words lingered in the air between us. Then she produced a less than enthusiastic smile, still not completely herself. I felt bad for her. Mr. Jenny and Bela seemed to practice the same things on her. Coming and going at will. It was unfortunate and totally unfair. My Aunt was a loving and caring person. Completely devoid of obsessive compulsive behavior, like my ow
n. She may be whimsical, but at least she didn’t spend every waking hour thinking about a blonde haired, blue eyed boy who haunted her thoughts and dreams.

  I blinked and studied her expression. She seemed distant…maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we’re exactly the same.

  I heard a faint humming noise and Mattie pulled her phone out and stared at the screen. She held up one finger and walked away from me, pressing the button and speaking into the phone. She returned only a minute later and lowered the phone from her ear. She had a blank expression on her face.

  “What?” I asked, and she blinked a couple of times.

  “My mom, she’s here. At my Aunt Polly’s.”

  “Okay?”

  She sighed and bit her lip. “She wants to see me.”

  I hobbled to the right so I could face her. “About what?”

  She had a blank stare. “I, well. She was on a business trip when I sort of transferred here without asking her.”

  “You what?”

  She let out a sigh and rolled her eyes while tapping her phone in her open palm. “I asked my dad, and he said ask your Mom, I tried…she never answers her phone, so I jumped the gun and told him she said it was ok.”

  “Oh, crap.” My aunt said as she placed her hand on the kitchen table and tapped it a few times.

  “Yeah, crap. Deep crap. I…I have to go, I’m sorry, Echo. I’m sure I’ll be there, later on, today. I just have to explain this to my mom, and everything will be fine.”

  My aunt narrowed her eyes and shot a look at me, and I shook my head and turned back to Mattie. “Yeah…I’m sure it’ll be okay. Just go talk to her.”

  “Okay.” She gave me a quick hug. I placed my hand on her back. She stepped away and then quickly turned, sprinting out of the kitchen. I heard the front door slam behind her.

  “I wouldn’t count on seeing her today, love.”

  I glanced down at my sling and wiggled my fingers. The pain shot through my shoulder blade and made me hiss. She leaned in. “Are you sure you want to go today? I would be happy to collect your assignments and bring them home.”

  I adjusted my stance and refused to give in. “No, I need to go back to school. I actually like it. Big shocker, huh? Don’t tell my parents; I’ll never hear the end of it.”