Chasing After Infinity (13 page)

I tug myself away, remembering him holding me and the memory burns. “If you think that
your
being so charming and sensitive is going to work on me, tough luck there, buddy.”

Adrian half-smiles.
“I’m not putting on an act here.”

“Yes, you are!” I say, staring defiantly at him.

He leans in so that his breath is at my ear. “So what if I am?”

Annoyed, I push him away. “You’re just so--”

“
Shh
,” he coaxes, pressing a finger to my lips. I scowl.

“Really, what are you trying to pull here?” I finally push off his arm and glare at him then his friends watching us like we’re on some stupid soap show. Valerie Fieldings, the girl I’d met earlier in the library is gazing at us in a peculiar way.

A smirk edges along the side of his mouth. “I know that you have feelings for me, monkey. Don’t deny them.” His voice is like melting butter.

I stare, gape-mouthed, at him. Finally, I burst out, “Are you out of your mind?”

Losing my appetite, I start toward the exit doors before I get pulled back by his hand.

“Don’t leave yet.”

“What right do you have to boss me around?” I snap.

“Shut up and listen.” His voice is calm and cool.

“You want to get into another fight?” I smile sweetly at him. “Or do you want to let the hell go of me and we’ll pretend this never happened?”

Adrian laughs, his lips quirked up as he watches me.

“Let me just make one thing clear.” I narrow my eyes. “I’m never, ever going to date you, Huntington. In fact, I’ll rather just contract HIV instead of just getting it from you. Point short: I don’t have feelings for you.” I enunciate each word carefully.

Adrian’s laugh turns into a suave grin. “Well, monkey, all you need to do is persuade
me
, not
yourself
.”

I hesitate for a second before stubbornness takes place. “What do I have to do?” I ask defiantly.

 
“Kiss me.” His eyes are mockingly teasing me.

Valerie steps up. “Adrian, this is going too far--”

“If she says she doesn’t then she needs to prove it,” he cuts her off.

The blood rushes to my face as anger flares in me. When he steps forward, I also take a step until our faces are only centimetres away. I don’t want to feel it. I just want to keep my distance. But now, this whole scene is a challenge and if I back down, I’ll forever remain a coward.

All resistance melts away until all there’s left is a heavy determination. It’s what makes me step closer to him, grab his shirt, and pull him to me so that our faces almost touch.
 
 
 
 
 

“This is more like it,” Adrian whispers in my ear, his breath ruffling my hair.

“Just shut up,” I hiss.

Moving closer, I can see the individual green flecks of his eyes. Then I stand on my toes and slowly inch up until all I can see is his face.

Our eyes lock.

Then he says, “
Nevermind
.” With an easy smirk, he lets me go with my cheeks burning. “You passed the test.”

Now I’m the one gawking after him, baffled, as he walks it out.

Boiling inside, I clench my hands. That guy…I swear. He’s playing with me!

Ψ
Ψ
Ψ
 

Autumn is really here. I can see it in the window that is the gray sky, the withering trees and the reddish brown leaves being raked over as I pass the open-aired corridor to my calculus class. As I walk in the room and sit in my seat in the back, there is a note left for me lying on my desk with scrawled letters
Meet me at the beach at five.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I throw the note away. If he thinks that I’d actually go, then he’s an idiot.

Hayden gives me a ride home and in the car, tension blooms. He still has a bruise on his cheek and I touch it gingerly and he winces slightly. “Hurts?” I ask.

“Nah.
Just sore,” he says.

“The living undead is still alive,” I remark as he turns the radio on and proceeds to relax.

He turns his gaze to me. “I heard Huntington challenged you to kiss him at lunch a couple of days ago.”

I blink. “Where did you hear that from?”

“A load of sources,” he replies, smiling.

I don’t answer but just stare straight ahead.

“You know what I think?” Hayden continues.

“What?”

“I think that…Huntington likes you.”

He smirks, his eyes on me. I glare back.

“You’re talking BS,” I say.

“Woe is me,” he answers, that smirk still on his face.

“You are such an idiot,” I reply.

“And you are a pain in the ass.”

I look away. Adrian
…seeing
me as another one of his conquests? I’d die before I become another one of his puppets to play with.

I get home and immediately get cracking on homework. I was behind on French and
precalculus
and desperately needed someone to tutor me. For now, I just have to rely on my own brain. I sift through my math textbook and my eyes get almost blurry as the words and numbers on the pages almost slide into each other. The textbook falls from my lap but I don’t pick it up.

I rub my eyes and settle down, falling half-asleep.

The dream itself is kind of distorted like I’m looking at something at an angle. Shapes and light reflect my vision and for a moment, I feel like I’m floating.

By the time I wake up, it’s already 6:32 p.m. For a moment, I feel like there’s something missing that I had forgot. Then I remember.
The beach.
Adrian.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I look out the window and see rain pouring down like there’s no tomorrow. Thunderstorm clouds streak the violent sky and for a moment, my heart stills. What if he’s out there?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I shake my thought away. I’m stupid for thinking that crap. That belonged in romance novel fluff and not in real life. I’d bet Adrian purposely set me up to go to the beach and he’d be no show. I’d just keep on waiting for him until finally I give up.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Trying to focus on my
french
essay on the danger of tabloids, I can’t help but feel this nagging in my chest. What ifs keep on popping into my head and I can’t seem to shove them away. Finally, after glancing at the red alarm clock that reads 7:14 in bright neon, I sigh and grab my coat and an umbrella, heading out.
Anything to get that conscience thing off my back.
Just to check.

The air is chilly and frigid as I start the car, working feeling into my hands. Damn car. My dad gave me his crappy Corolla after approving that I’ve been lenient to his set curfew for the past week. Start, I plead to the car.

The engine finally ignites and I sigh. I put it in drive and back out of the driveway, splashing puddles everywhere. The windshield wipers are going crazy here, swiping fast back and forth. I can barely see the road properly because of the downpour.

It’s been raining constantly nowadays and getting colder every week. It’s a quick autumn in Connecticut, it’s like you see red leaves on tree branches one day and snow all over the tree the next. Snow hasn’t fallen yet but October is an early month even for this city.

Fog rolls into my vision and I make a sharp turn for the Verona Shorelines. Now I’m
jut
hoping that Adrian will be there after all the hassle that I’m going through. I’d kill him if this is only a prank.

I look in the car clock and see 7:22. I get out of the car, putting up my umbrella, the wind blowing into me, almost flipping the umbrella. I clutch to it, trying to find him. On the deserted beach, I can see no one.

It’s just foggy rain and the wet, clay-like sand beneath my soaked sneakers. Anger rushes through me and I ball up my hands. So he thinks that this is funny, huh? Having me here in the pouring rain, looking like an idiot for actually caring?

I stalk past the empty hot dog stands and the stretch of beach. And while I’m walking, I just want to cry.
This vast miles and miles of beach and me, so small and insignificant, wandering in it, so lost.

Then suddenly, I notice something.
A silhouette deep down the beach, near the water.
My heart stops.

I walk closer and squint. Disappointment settles in me as I realize that it’s only a half-blown off sandcastle.

Not who I was looking for.

Then I turn and I see him.

Walking towards me, holding an umbrella and with wet, almost black
hair,
is Adrian.

“Dammit!” He curses, his green eyes flashing. “So you decide to
fucking
s-show up now?” He is icy wet, droplets clinging to his lashes and jacket.

I stare at him, disbelieving. He’s actually here. Just when I thought—

“Quit staring and get me somewhere warm!” He spits, teeth chattering.

Almost numbly, I take him in my earlier direction, leading us back to the parking lot. He settles down in the car seat, visibly shaking a little. I turn up the heat air conditioning but the stupid car is just warming up. He’s shaking out his damp hair. The strands were shiny and reflected gold by the faint light pouring through.

“You were—?” I don’t want to say anything more.

He tries to warm himself by the AC but it’s too cold. “Are you going to start the car or not?”

I put the key in the ignition and twist it. The engine sputters, revving but a second later, it dies. “Shit!” I say, trying it again but again, the engine does not roar to life.

“Come on,” I try to persuade it, “come on come on come on.”

But my motivating it does not work. Finally, I sit back, dumbfounded, both of us looking at each other.

Rain pelts against the windshield noisily.
Another blinding white-blue lightning flash streaks
across the angry sky.

And again, I’ve managed to get myself in a deep mess.

chapter
eleven

AVENA

“So I guess we’re stuck here until the car warms up,” I say.

Adrian doesn’t reply and when I look across to him, he meets my eyes. “Why did you come then?”

“What?”

“Why would you decide to come even if you were dead set against it?”

I swallow, looking away from that penetrating green gaze.

“So my earlier thought was right.”

I glare at him, barely holding back a snort. “No, I just had to get your stupid ass off the beach because if you died, it’d be all on my head.”

“Whatever you say.”

He closes his eyes, a small smirk on his face. I get irritated fast; it’s the smirk that does me in.

“You’re such an asshole.”

I huff, turning away, facing the window where I see the rain trailing down the glass.

“You know, sometimes I don’t know why I’m like this either,” he murmurs after a pause. He laughs shortly. “Maybe it’s the genes.”

Slowly, I face him. On his face is the look of something that I’ve seen just too many times.
Looking back at myself, in the reflection.

“Hey, truth or dare.
Is your dad a prick too?” Adrian’s voice is sluggish.

I think about my own. Who works overtime and who I can barely see, besides at rushed
dinnertimes.
Who I can barely relate to.
Would I say that the neglecting parent is better than the jerk dad? “I don’t know,” I reply.

“Well, you must have something that you’re afraid of.”

I decide to retaliate. “What about you?
Afraid of the dark?”
I snip.