Cherry Red Summer (Emely and Elyas Book 1) (7 page)

I was surprised when I heard the first few beats of “It Was Written” by Damian Marley. It was one of my favorite songs.

Several days ago when Elyas wasn’t home, I had visited Alex and browsed through his music collection in the living room. He had a lot of vintage CDs and LPs. I found a few albums I would never have thought he would be into.

I had rather eclectic tastes in music, from reggae to black metal. When I realized Elyas had a similar, though not identical, mix in his collection, I was surprised.

And now this.

I kept my happiness about the song to myself and instead sat back. Elyas had turned the music up, so we didn’t talk during the drive. I just enjoyed the feeling of racing through the twilight-darkened streets of Berlin in a Mustang. The entire situation, with the music and the awesome car, was pretty freaking epic.

The epic portion of the evening came to an end after just half an hour, though, when Elyas parallel-parked on a side street near the club. I would have preferred waiting in the car to going in with them, but Alex got out and held her seat forward for me, so I reluctantly mustered up the will.

“Where did you get that black cardigan, anyway?” she asked once I was standing next to her.

“Some shop somewhere at some point. Why?”

“Because I’ve been looking for something like that for myself for a while. You’ve got to show me where the shop is.”

I nodded with a little surprise.

“Do you think something like that would look good on me?” She took a step back and studied me.

“Sure, why not?” I replied.

“I’m not convinced yet. Hey, do you think I could try it on?”

I should have been suspicious, but good-natured as I was, I shrugged, slid the cardigan off, and held it out to her.

Then everything happened fast.

She balled up the cardigan, shouted “Elyas!” and threw it over the car to where he stood on the driver’s side. He was in on whatever plan this was, because he caught the cardigan in midair, tossed it fast as lightning into the backseat, and then locked the car.

Everything had happened so quickly that I had no time to react. Instead, I stood looking like a complete idiot. It took me forever to understand what had happened as they high-fived each other and laughed.

“Screw you guys,” I said, crossing my arms.

“Believe me, Emely,” Alex said, still laughing. “That cardigan was butt-ugly. You look a lot better without it.”

“But I like it! I hate how you’re always trying to force your own personal style on me.”

“It has nothing to do with forcing anything on anyone. As a good friend, it is my obligation not to let you run around in something so ugly. And since you would never have voluntarily taken the cardigan off, I had no other choice. I was forced to do this.”

“Oh, right.
You
were forced.” I snorted. “May I please have the car keys?” I said. They both laughed and shook their heads.

“Come on,” Alex said and ran off.

“I think you look better without it,” Elyas added.

“Yay, another argument in
favor
of it,” I grumbled as I walked past him toward Alex. When I caught up with her, I gave her a serious shove for her secret operation. She giggled again.

The club was only a few yards ahead. It turned out to be part of a huge complex of modern buildings on a square-shaped lot, the kind of chic new construction that was popping up all over Berlin. Though it was still on the early side, there was a long line at the entrance, and we had no choice but to wait. Elyas kept glancing at me, which did nothing but bother me, and I assume that was exactly the point. Since he was the last person I wanted to let in on how well it was working, I stared sullenly in the other direction.

After we made it to the door and got past the beefy bouncer, Elyas stepped to the side to let me go first.

“Ms. Winter,” he said, holding the door open with a smile. I acknowledged it with, “What century do you think this is, jerk?” as I moved past him.

The club was two stories. On the first story, there was a huge dance floor with long bar counters on either side. There was a high stage in the middle, where the DJ spun his discs as he casually held his headphones between his cheek and shoulder.
Oh, sure,
I imagined saying to the DJ.
You can put on your headphones to block the noise while I’m stuck having to listen to this shit.

The second floor was in the form of a gallery, open in the middle so all the people could look over the steel railings at the crowd on the dance floor below.

Stepping into the room with the main dance floor reminded me why I avoided places like this. The loud, throbbing music didn’t bug me, nor did the crushing mass of people—as long as I remained uncrushed. Even the flickering, flashing lights weren’t unpleasant. What bugged me were the swarming fakesters saying, “Oh, it’s so great to see you here”—
kiss on the left cheek, kiss on the right cheek.
Not to mention I always left these places with some kind of wild-game aftertaste that, weirdly, most girls, unlike me, seemed to enjoy.

Elyas pushed his way ahead and then turned back to point us toward one of the bars. We nodded, and I felt Alex’s hand take hold of mine and squeeze tight so she wouldn’t lose me on our way. We fought through the crush of gyrating bodies until we all made it to the bar. Elyas looked around and then headed for a small group of people trying to hold their position at the counter amid all the pushing and shoving. Alex squeezed my hand tighter with excitement. I followed her gaze and wondered which of the four men standing there was her guy. When I noticed one of them had a boy-band face and curly blond hair, I knew instantly.

Otherwise, I found myself surprised by the looks of Elyas’s friends. I couldn’t say exactly what I had been expecting, but they looked shockingly normal. There were a couple of pretty boys, of course, but, all in all, they didn’t seem arrogant or superficial like Elyas.

He was saying hi to each of them as we reached the group. I stood back, watching and occasionally looking over my shoulder because I didn’t know what else to do. Alex smiled until her brother was done with his hellos—which, to my amazement, didn’t involve the kiss-on-the-left, kiss-on-the-right routine but just a simple handshake for the guys and a brief hug for the three girls with them. These people seemed to
like
Elyas.
Unimaginable
, I thought.

“Hey, let me introduce you to my captivating little sister,” Elyas said, smiling and pointing at Alex. We could halfway hear him when the music got softer for a beat.

“Hi,” she said to the group with a little wave.

“And next to her,” he began, taking a step toward me with a big smile, “is the wonderful Emely. She can be a little uptight, but we like her anyway.” When he put his arm around my shoulder, I suppressed my gag reflex and grabbed his hand to gently, but demonstratively, remove it.

“Hi,” I called out to the unfamiliar faces.

“Hi, I’m Domenic,” one of them said, shaking Alex’s hand and then mine, like a well-raised German boy. The first thing I noticed about him was his friendly brown eyes. He was skinny but attractive, and seemed to be younger than the others.

“Jan,” said the guy next to him, with a hesitant nod. He seemed to find the whole introduction procedure as awkward as I did.

I shook hands with the next guy. “Andy,” he said, smiling. Unlike the others, he was black. He was also at least six foot three and all muscle, with a waist twice as big around as mine. Although his physical presence was intimidating at first glance, it took only one look into his eyes to see he was a peaceful soul.

“This is my girlfriend, Sophie,” Andy said, introducing the blonde girl under his arm. She had striking features and full, fire-red lips. I thought she seemed nice, but I reconsidered after watching her give Alex a warm hello and me nothing but a fake smile.

All righty, then. For unknown reasons, Madame Sophie evidently can’t stand me.
Not that I cared. After tonight, I knew I’d probably never run into her again.

The introductions with the other two girls didn’t go any better. Yvonne and Jessica each gave me a nod, which I returned just as unemotionally. Jessica had shoulder-length black hair and a little bump on her nose, while Yvonne was blonde with slightly plump hips.

Well,
I thought,
after this cool reception what else can I expect from Elyas’s friends?
I noticed Alex rocking on her feet when we turned to Sebastian, the blue-eyed, curly-haired blond.

“Hi, Alex,” he said with a suspicious glint in his eyes.

“Hey,” Alex replied awkwardly.

Alex? Awkward?
I had never thought I would use that word in connection with her, so it was strange after umpteen years of friendship to finally have an occasion to do so. Alex was definitely full of surprises.

“You must be Sebastian,” I said with a grin as Alex poked me in the side with her elbow.

“Yup, that’s me. Nice to meet you, Emely,” he said, smiling, and held out his hand.

Unlike the girls, the guys all seemed nice.

“What can I get you to drink?” Elyas asked me, leaning down so I could hear him.

I groaned. Why couldn’t he just let me be?

“I can get something myself,” I said.

“I’m sure you can,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to cast doubt on your competence; I just wanted to know what you’d like to drink.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed in resignation. “A Coke,” I said. There wasn’t any point in debating it with him. He grinned, nodded, and made his way to the bar. As I flashed a look of annoyance after him, I noticed the boy with the brown eyes again. Our eyes met; he smiled and waved me over.

“You’re Domenic, right?” I asked.

He nodded and said something, but with the loud music I couldn’t make out a single word. “Sorry?”

He leaned over to me. “Don’t mind my sister.”

“Your sister?”

“Sophie. She’s always like that with Elyas’s female friends. Don’t take it personally.”

“Then you can tell her to relax, because the last thing I am is a friend of Elyas’s. I’m just here with Alex.”

As Domenic leaned in to respond, I felt someone tug my arm. I turned to find Alex, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Let’s dance,” she said with a pleading face.

I sighed. There were people who could dance, and then there were people like me whose movements more resembled someone in the grip of an epileptic seizure. Finding the level of enthusiasm in my face wanting, she pulled out the big guns.

“Please,” she said with a saccharine smile.

God, she was a miserable little shit sometimes. But then I noticed Elyas returning with the drinks and, suddenly, dancing seemed like the better option. I raised a finger to signal to Alex to wait and turned to Domenic, who leaned back over to hear me.

“I have to go dance with Alex. When Elyas comes back, tell him to set my Coke next to you.”

“Sure,” he promised.

“And if he slips in anything suspicious, please tell me!”

Domenic laughed softly and nodded. Alex impatiently grabbed my hand and dragged me into the crowd on the dance floor.

The second we were far enough from Elyas’s friends, she stopped and stared at me, wide-eyed. “So? Tell me! What do you think about Sebastian?”

“He seems really nice,” I yelled over the music, making her beam. Satisfied with my answer, she dragged me a bit farther until she found a free spot where we had enough room to dance. Alex started moving right away, holding both of my hands and tugging me around until I finally cast off my inhibitions and started making as big a fool of myself as possible.

Alex was one of those people who could really dance. Dancing next to her, unfortunately, made me look even more ridiculous. At least five hundred people were gyrating around us, mostly doing their own thing. Still, I wished I had more talent. It’s not that I was stiff or lacked rhythm, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I just didn’t look good.

After a while, the first beats of Sean Paul’s “Get Busy” sounded—for once a song I didn’t totally hate. Alex was behind me, grinding her pelvis into my butt, dirty-dancing style, forcing me to bend forward and dance lower and lower with her in little circular hip motions. It was definitely not my style to dance like copulating animals, but since Alex was having so much fun, I just went with it. At least until my quads started to buckle and we could only laugh at ourselves.

“Thirsty?” she shouted at me over the noise.

I nodded, my throat dry as dust.

“Good. Don’t leave this spot. I’ll be right back.”

“See you in a second,” I said, watching her disappear into the crowd. All I could do now was hope no one would snatch her up and that she’d return safe and sound.

I stayed put, as agreed, but started looking around. I felt uncomfortable by myself on the dance floor, so I decided to find a spot by the wall, where I could see Alex when she came back.

As I headed in that direction, I did a double take. Elyas was leaning against the wall at my intended destination, and it looked like he had been watching us the whole time. Suddenly my foray onto the dance floor bowled me over with embarrassment, but I didn’t let on how I felt. I found a spot to wait for Alex a few yards from Elyas. Though the distance between us should have made it abundantly clear how I felt, Elyas came over anyway.

I made a point of crossing my arms. “What a coincidence,” I said.

“Yeah, huh?” he said, smiling and leaving me no other choice than to roll my eyes. Neither of us said anything for a while, but that was no reason to relax, since he seemed excessively interested in my cleavage; his eyes remained glued to my collarbone.

“Did you enjoy the show?” I asked, referring to his watching us dance. God, why was this jerk always staring?

“I’d say so,” he said. “If there had been fewer clothes on your part, it would have been perfect.”

I grumbled, regretting even asking him the question. Yet again, Elyas was taking extreme pleasure in making fun of me, for reasons I could not explain.

“Will you dance with me?” he asked with a seductive smile.