Captivated (An Affliction Novel) (5 page)

The pencil I was absent-mindedly playing with accidentally slipped out of my hands and landed on the floor between Dean and me. Without looking, I lowered my hand and felt around for it.
There was a hand already down there. I directed my attention to it and as I glanced up the muscular arm, an uncomfortable chill ran through me. There I was, face to face with Dean. My eyes landed on his, and they were penetrating mine with extreme intensity. His lagoon green eyes were dark and widening as if he was witnessing something spectacular. I couldn’t look away from him. I had never seen him with any expression on his face other than coldness. My eyes traveled across his face in examination. Yup…freckles, but they were faint. I saw that he had a large scar on his cheekbone, the kind of scar that didn’t even remotely diminish his appearance. In my opinion, it made him more attractive. His eyes sparkled and were somehow a brighter shade of green. I felt a tide of joy wash over me. An electrifying force surged through me and it wasn’t painful at all. In fact, it felt amazing! Like nothing I had ever experienced before. But, why? I tore my eyes from his and looked down at my hand. It was set on top of his. He had left it there, touching mine, and it made my heart soar.

The bell rang. I quickly grabbed my pencil from beneath Dean’s hand and slipped it in my book bag. I still felt his eyes boring into me. I hesitated to look as I stood up and headed towards the door. But from the corner of my eye, I saw him staring at me still. Summoning up some bravery, I turned my face completely at him to let him know I was aware. Usually, guys turned away quickly when caught, but not Dean. His face was etched in desperation.

I met up with Markus at the door. Once again, I glanced back. Dean was standing that time, still looking my way and his eyes were pleading as if he didn’t want me to leave.

What was more unbelievable to me, was that the second I moved my hand away from his…an emptiness had crept inside me.

he week went by fast
and it was now Friday, Tanya and I walked into first hour just as the bell sounded. Mr. Shapiro had switched everyone’s desk around to avoid as much chatter as possible, as a result, putting me towards the back.

“Good morning.” Mr. Shapiro stood in front of the class with his hands inside his pant pockets. He glanced over at the time and looked at the door. A moment later, Shane strolled in.

“Late as usual, Shane.” Mr. Shapiro announced. He huffed out and gave Shane an aggravated glare.

“But always here for you, sir,” Shane retorted. He threw the teacher a crooked smile and leaned back in his seat. He quickly noticed me and winked. I rolled my eyes at him while turning away.

After what seemed like hours of Mr. Shapiro going over problems on the board, a crumpled paper landed on my desk. I quickly grabbed it and held it in my fist so Mr. Shapiro wouldn’t see it. I carefully opened it on my lap when the coast was clear. The note read…

You wanna go to The Impulse with me tonight?

I looked up and scanned the room to see who had thrown it towards me. When my eyes met Ayden’s, he showed me a brave smile and tilted his head forward as if he were asking me again. I looked back down and began writing…

No thanks, I have plans.

I had to end it with him already. Ever since Shane and Markus brought it to my attention, I haven’t wanted to do the whole friends-with-benefits deal. It really was stupid. Since we weren’t technically going out, I guessed I didn’t really have to tell him it was over, right? I could just brush him off?

I crumpled the paper back up and threw it at him. Instead of letting it fall on his desk, he caught it in an exaggerating motion that grabbed the teacher’s attention. Mr. Shapiro walked up to him with his hand extended out. Ayden regrettably handed him the paper.

“Such a dive for a piece of trash.” Mr. Shapiro said. He opened up the crumpled paper and walked back to the front of the class. All the students had their attention on Mr. Shapiro. “Ayden over here wants me to read this out loud.” He took a look at Ayden, “I wouldn’t want to be rude while he’s trying to say something…” Shapiro continued, “…so I’ll make sure that he gets his point out. Apparently, he wants to go to the club with Mindy and she rejected him. The end.” Mr. Shapiro crumpled and tossed the note into the trash next to his desk.

Ayden sunk into his seat and peeked over his shoulder at me. Embarrassment flooded his face.

“I’m sorry.” I mouthed out to him.

“Burn!” Shane laughed out. All the students laughed along with his remark. He leaned his upper body on his desktop to get a better look at Ayden. Shane threw him a taunting smile. It was similar to the one he always gave Dean.

I covered my face with my hands and sunk in my seat. I felt so horrible. I basically rejected Ayden in front of the whole class.

“I’ll let you guys escape a few minutes early today. Have a safe wee
kend.” Mr. Shapiro announced, then dismissed us with a wave of his hand.

The class swarmed towards the door in excitement. Ayden stayed in his desk and as the students passed him, they playfully stroked his head, messing up his hair. After all the students passed his desk, he followed with his head down. I collected all my books and tried to catch up to him.

“Ayden! Ayden, I’m so sorry!” I called out to him. He didn’t turn around. He
must
have heard me though, I wasn’t that far away. I guessed he really was embarrassed. He just kept walking and I didn’t follow.

Amazingly, the day went by pretty fast for a Friday. And everyone was raving about The Impulse. I had only been there once. I would describe it as a lounge, but with no age restrictions. Security guards made sure to catch the underage drinkers. They sometimes had bands there trying to promote themselves. Markus and Tanya were dragging me there tonight. And I really hoped I didn’t end up bumping into Ayden there.

“Pick you up at eight?” Markus asked. He pulled up to my house and parked in front of the driveway.

“Yeah. Eight is good.” I answered.

“Not eight thirty,” he continued, “eight.”

“Yes!” I assured him. In my head I was telling myself seven thirty, so for sure I wouldn’t be late. I lifted the car handle and tried pushing the door open. It was stuck. I started rocking the car as I pushed harder in an attempt to escape. “Markus?” I turned to him, exasperated.

“Aw, not again.” He jumped out of the car and tried opening my door from the outside. “Freakin’ door,” Markus muttered. He pulled something that looked like pliers out of his pocket and started messing with the handle. The door finally creaked open, slowly. I couldn’t hold my laughter in any longer, but at least he bashfully laughed along with me.

After Markus helped me out and began backing out of the driveway, we heard a rumbling across the air. It was a very distinct sound that came from only one motorcycle that I knew of; Dean’s. On top of the purr it gave off, it also had the deep growl of a vicious animal, warning that it was about to attack. The roar got louder and louder as he neared. I began to shake
nervously. Flutters swarmed in my stomach.
Is he looking at me? Is he looking?
I tried to fight the urge to sneak a peek at him. I must not have had good will power because before I knew it, I was gawking. His black shirt clenched against his skin in the wind as he passed by us without even looking my way. I was a bit disappointed. And just then, when he should have sped off, he slowed the bike down to a creep. My heart skipped a beat, and then another. Slowly, he turned his head back at us, locking his eyes with mine. They were dancing. That was enough to send me soaring to the heavens. When I came back down, he was gone. Out of sight.

“What was that all about?” Markus yelled out the open window of his car.

I shrugged my shoulders when what I really wanted to do was laugh with joy.

“See you at eight.” Markus confirmed. He drove off and I went inside and threw myself onto my bed. After watching some TV, I was fast asleep.

I woke up to the blaring phone. I crawled across the bed to reach the phone and flipped it open. I had several missed calls from Ayden and a few from Markus. I didn’t really feel like talking to Ayden, so I dialed up Markus’ number.

“You ready?” he asked. No
hellos.

“It’s not even time yet.” I drawled out.

“I know. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” He hung up the phone.

“What?” Still groggy, I looked over at the time. What! He was right. I dropped the phone and rolled off the bed. I did what I could with my hair before he arrived.

Markus picked me up before Tanya. I volunteered to sit in the back seat even though I knew it would be cramped. I didn’t even think the shoe was made to have people in the back.

Driving up to The Impulse was challenging. The small intersections that ran up and down Sixth Street were packed with cars. We ended up parking in a nearby garage and walked a few streets to the club. Tanya was having a har
d time walking in her heels. I intelligently wore some boot-like dress up shoes that were much more comfortable. Tanya wrapped her arm around mine to help her with her balance. The sidewalks were busy with different people of various age groups roaming in every direction. On every corner, there was someone doing magic tricks, selling something, or playing instruments. The melodies being played by the talent were blending together in an off-beat harmony.

When we arrived, I saw that Shane and Jennifer were standing outside of the club. Jennifer had on a tight tank top and a short skirt that would sh
ow off part of her butt…that was, if she actually had one in the first place. She had a cigarette in hand and took a slow puff. I had seen that puff before, some model on a cigarette commercial making smoking look sexy performed it, but what I saw before me, made me want to gag. Even though I had a look of disgust on my face, Shane smiled at me. It was the kind of smile you gave to someone if you knew something that they didn’t. Very mischievous. Jennifer caught him looking my way and turned to give me an evil glare. If looks could kill!

We entered the double doors to the club, lounge, whatever it was called. The lights in the dark atmosphere were dim enough to hide everyone’s flaws, but there was just enough to see who you were talking to. The music was blaring; everyone spoke to each other by yelling. We slowly made our way through the maze of people on the dance floor. We found an area where there were couches. There was only one empty one and we quickly scurried to it.

“Hey! Check out that guy over there.” Tanya pointed at a young man nervously pacing back and forth. It looked like he was fiddling with something in his pant pocket. He would periodically look up at a girl sitting by herself at the bar, a petite brunette. A group of his friends were watching him stumble his way to the girl. As he slowly approached her, he mumbled to himself, as if he were going over what he was going to say. When it seemed he finally got some guts, he marched right up to her and opened his mouth to speak. She looked up at him and he immediately shut his mouth and reached over for the bowl of nuts in front of her. After he grabbed a handful, he swiveled around and paced himself back to his friends who were laughing and clenching their stomachs.

“EPIC FAILURE!” Tanya and Markus threw themselves back on the couch and laughed out loud. At first I felt bad for the guy, but that quickly went away and I joined them in their laughter. All of a sudden, Markus froze and stared straight ahead, narrowing his eyes.

“What is it?” I asked and turned my eye in the same direction. Dean was in front of us, standing still. He was wearing a black leather jacket with dark jeans. His face was marked with a predatory expression. His eyes weren’t glimmering as they had before; they were venomously cold. His body was stiff, like an animal stalking its prey. Dean was focusing intently on something in our direction. Was it me? It was too dark to be sure. A wave of acid welled up in my stomach. I hoped that it wasn’t me because I did not want that coldness aimed at me. I straightened myself up.

“There’s something about him.” Markus said loud enough for me to hear.

“Maybe he’s on drugs or something,” Tanya hinted, “I should offer him some rehabilitation.” she giggled.

I gave her a warning look that she didn’t take notice of.

“No. It’s something else.” Markus said.

“Psychotic?” Tanya asked.

“Well, even the nicest guy in the world could be a psycho. There’s something else about him. I can’t put my finger on it.” Markus shook his head as to shake the conversation away. He stood up and stretched his arms out. “You girls want something to drink?” he asked us.

“Yeah! Can you get me some soda?” I threw him a wide smile, “Thanks!”

“I thought you quit?” he asked.

“Eh, one taste won’t kill me.” I calmly said as I shrugged my shoulders.

Markus headed towards the bar, passing Dean’s statue. He didn’t make a single movement, his eyes were still focused. His arms were down his sides and I realized then, I was gawking at him again, so I quickly turned away. But I couldn’t help it. I still watched him from the corner of my eye. Markus headed back towards us with the glass cup filled with ice and soda, napkins and straws in his other hand. When he passed by Dean, Dean quickly whirled around and dashed towards the back exit, bumping into Markus in the process. The soda slipped out of Markus’ hand and splashed on his shirt and pants. The glass cup shattered on the floor in front of him and he released the straws to hurriedly pat his pants with some of the napkins. Tanya and I ran up to him and grabbed some napkins from him to help with his shirt.