Double Life - Book 1 of the Vaiya Series (20 page)

“Um, actually yes,” he murmured hesitantly.
“It sort of lost reception which is why I never heard your calls.
Not that I would’ve called you back when I was hiding anyway, but
still--”

“But you did call me,” said Eddy pointedly.
“Three times to be exact. And you hate talking on phones.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said in a hurried tone,
biting his lip gently, heart beating faster, as he fought to keep
his story from unraveling. “But I did that just to get your
attention. I knew you wouldn’t actually answer me.”

Shaking his head, likely confused by Ian’s
logic, which could be surprisingly complicated at times, he backed
away from that argument and got back to the simple facts. “So your
phone lost reception?”

Ian shrugged. “Yeah. All the clutter in there
just sort of killed it.”

“Clutter? All I saw was a bunch of weight
stuff. How does that affect reception?”

This wasn’t going well; he stuck his hands
deep into his cloak pockets. “I guess I didn’t clarify myself; I’m
talking about the attic.”

“You were in the attic?” burst out Eddy, both
amused and shocked. “Isn’t that off limits?"

“Not when Hazel gave me permission to go in
there,” replied Ian, more sure of himself now since he was actually
telling the truth.

Eddy wasn’t convinced. “Yeah right,” he said,
as he chuckled like a sailor who’d heard a tall tale from his
fishing buddy. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, man, but
Hazel’s either going to hate you or love you. I hope it’s the first
one.”

“Hey!”

“Ha! I’m just givin’ you a hard time,” said
Eddy, laughing to himself, “but seriously, you’ve got to be careful
around her. In case you haven’t noticed, she watches you like a
hawk.” Smirking, he then added softly, “If I didn’t know any better
… I’d say she likes you.”

Ian’s cheeks blazed with heat. If he’d
thought that wearing the costume would make Hazel like him less, he
was completely wrong; after she’d seen him with it, her affection
for him seemed to have grown even stronger--that is, if he were
reading her emotions right, which he could never be sure of.

Setting his face in a rather expressionless
gaze in hopes of alleviating his embarrassment, Ian glanced
casually at his friend. “Yeah, I had my suspicions.”

Looking ready to respond, Eddy heard a
shuffling sound behind him. Leaning over, he gazed at Darien in the
back seat, one of his hands on the steering wheel. “Hey, what’s
goin’ on, man? You’ve been awfully quiet.”

“Just thinkin’ ... that’s all.”

“Care to share?” Ian quickly threw himself
into the dialogue, badly wanting to shift the focus onto someone or
something else. It seemed he was doing this a lot recently.

Darien, eyes clouded over with pessimism,
paused for several seconds, before replying with an uneasy tone,
“It’s about football. The game’s this Friday and we’re challenging
a really tough school from Pontiac that’s only lost one game all
season.” Words spoken, he sunk his head as if he’d already lost the
game.

Noticing Darien’s worried attitude, he grew
disgusted. His friend had no reason to be so negative--if anything,
Ian should be the one feeling sorry for himself. “Hey, have some
faith, man; you’re an awesome quarterback. I’m sure you’ll do
great.”

Unfortunately, these reassuring words seemed
to have little effect upon Darien, as his face only grew darker,
his eyes narrowing with bitterness.

After a bleak moment of silence, Eddy
eventually spoke up, his tone both concerned and annoyed. “Come on,
what’s really goin’ on, man? Football’s never gotten you so upset
before.”

Though the words were clearly loud enough for
him to hear, it appeared Darien had turned into a statue as he sat
motionless, a pained expression chiseled on his face. Just when
Eddy was about to speak up again, Darien suddenly burst out. “Ok,
it’s about Kenn,” he murmured, almost in confession mode, as his
face took on the seemingly conflicting emotions of anger and
sympathy. “I’m sure he means well, but he’s really starting to get
on my nerves.”

Though such a statement would be commonplace
for most people, Darien wasn’t one to ever talk bad about anyone no
matter how great the fault of character they possessed. Thus, to
hear these words from him now, utterly astonished Ian, in spite of
the fact that Kenn, more than anyone, deserved this criticism.
“What did he do to you?” he asked, trying not to show too much
curiosity, though he was dying to find out what Kenn could have
done to disturb Darien so much.

Darien shuffled in his seat, hesitating, as
if he were trying to find the nicest way to phrase his reply. “I
met him in the parking lot today.”

After a stifled pause, Ian about lost it. “So
what happened? Did he start a fight with you?”

“No, he’s way too civilized for that,” he
replied, his voice suddenly very weak as if ashamed. “He just
handed me a pair of square glasses and told me that ‘a loser once …
was a loser forever.’” Darien’s words fell hard upon Ian’s ears,
rapidly poisoning his already bad image of Kenn. He could easily
imagine Kenn and his cronies laughing and mocking Darien.
“Seriously?”

“Yeah, and what’s worse is what he said to me
after he beat me in the ping pong tournament.”

Sickened to his stomach, Ian sat in suspense,
cringing at the words he was about to hear. “So, what’d he
say?”

“I’m not telling,” he replied bluntly, as if
too disgusted to share it. “I’m done with this topic.”

Knowing how his friend could be, Ian just
swallowed his anger, not forcing the point. He’d already heard all
he needed to. Kenn was a monster. As much as he tried to find some
good in the man, there was nothing to grasp onto. Only bad memories
surfaced.

Furious, wanting to further blacken Kenn’s
reputation in his friends’ eyes, Ian was just about to tell them
what Kenn had said to him after he’d lost at ping pong, when he
glanced over at Eddy and saw a growing smile on his face. Confused
and rather bitter for having his thoughts interrupted, he abruptly
stopped what he was about to say. “What, Eddy?”

Now that the spotlight was on him, Eddy
didn’t waste any time moving on to a more pleasant topic. “Nothing
much. I was just going to ask Darien what he thought of your
costume.”

A weak grin suddenly appeared on Darien’s
sober face. “Well, it amused me,” he murmured, his voice still
hesitant. “My coz told me it didn’t seem anything like him--it
totally surprised her.”

Attentive, shoving his thoughts about Kenn
aside for now, Ian leaned forward in his seat, pressing him for
more information. “Did she say anything else?”

“Yeah--she said it looked cute on you.”

“Were those her exact words?” he asked,
trying not to sound too curious.

“I think so.” Darien laughed warmly, as if
their conversation about Kenn had never happened.

“So, she thought it was funny?”

His constant questioning made Darien’s smile
widen. “Yeah. She said it made her week.”

A subdued smile on his face, Ian remained
silent and stared down at the seat, quietly reflecting over these
positive words, letting them wash away the dark stains caused by
Kenn’s spiteful behavior.

Looking amused by his response, Eddy picked
up the conversation, turning towards Ian. “Hey, man. I need to get
myself one of those costumes. The girls went crazy over it. So
where’d you get it from?”

Ian shrugged, his mind once again recreating
the scene of the elven bathhouse, a scene he somehow couldn’t get
out of his mind. “I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.”

Upon hearing the last word, Eddy’s face
contorted like he’d been stricken by the plague, distress tearing
through his happiness. “You and your secrets,” he muttered.

Unsettled, Ian solemnly stared down at his
seat, while Darien picked up the conversation, focusing on Eddy.
“Hey, don’t let it get to you, man,” said Darien, a bit of
encouragement edging its way into his tone. “He’s just embarrassed
that you’ll look up the site and find out how much it cost.”

This simple explanation had a surprisingly
good effect on Eddy. His countenance transformed from dark to
light, bitter to amused. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right.” Eddy turned
down into Ian’s driveway, a full-fledged smile now on his face, as
he looked over his shoulder at Ian. “I bet that silver belt alone
cost you a fortune, not even mentioning all the other stuff.”

Ian grinned faintly, a mysterious glint in
his eyes. “You’d be surprised.” Bending over, he picked up the
black dress shoes beside his feet, before grabbing the black
leather jacket on his lap.

Parking his Mazda 3, Eddy laughed. “I knew
it, man. You’re crazy. You’ll do anything to impress the
girls.”

“Yeah, you got me there.” Calmness in his
eyes, Ian flung open the car door, his jacket and his shoes in his
arms, his tone friendly, though unusually quiet. “Catch ya later,
guys.”

Walking inside as Darien took over shotgun,
Ian gently closed the front door of his house and stared around
him, his eyes numbed by the darkness. All the lights were off.
Everyone was already asleep.

Though he’d never been scared of the dark
before, even frequently teasing his sister about her night phobia,
right now he felt downright petrified, as if unseen phantoms were
lurking in the stillness, ready to lunge at him and grab him by the
throat.

Making a mad dash from the kitchen into the
living room, not even caring that his parents’ room was close by or
that he could barely see, he then ascended the flight of stairs
that led to his bedroom, his heart pounding with terror.

Once safe inside his room, the door locked
behind him, the light switch flipped on, he gazed at himself in the
large rectangular mirror to the right of his old wooden lamp stand
and stood in profound silence, his fear steadily being replaced by
a dream-like haze.

Aside from his elven clothes, his encounter
in the other world could’ve just been his imagination. He couldn’t
even remember how to speak the elven language anymore and even his
vivid memories about Azadar and his companions seemed almost
fake.

Removing his elven clothes, which still gave
off a light flowery scent, he changed into a white t-shirt and navy
blue pajamas, and then hastily threw his cloak, tunic, belt, and
boots in his large closet.

Entering the bathroom and flipping on the
light switch, he stood in stillness before the mirror, as his
reflection stared back at him. Right now, nothing made sense. His
otherworldly experience might as well be a nightmare, a dark memory
he wished to shove far away into his mind, never to remember again.
Yet no matter how much he wanted to forget that world, the haunting
images would likely remain with him for the rest of his life. He’d
just have to deal with it.

Snapping himself out of his daze, trying to
make the best of the situation, he proceeded with his nightly
routine. After brushing his teeth and flossing, he returned to his
bedroom, flipped off the light switch, and then sunk his head into
his soft feather pillow while wrapping his black woolen blanket
around his body.

Avoiding any more stray thoughts about the
other world, he calmed himself down with pleasant thoughts about
the enjoyable euchre game that night with Eddy, Tianna, and
Samantha. Eddy’s intuition to continually call the right suit,
coupled by his almost clairvoyant ability to play the right card at
the right time had given their team a maddeningly unfair advantage.
Both the girls were more than a little annoyed when the game ended
with them not getting any points, but he didn’t care. He was just
glad to win something that night, having already lost at ping pong
and chess, the foosball victories against Eddy not really balancing
the score.

Exhausted from another late night,
re-envisioning the shocked look on Tianna’s face as she lost to his
all-scoring loner, he soon fell into a deep and peaceful sleep,
dreaming about Skyler miraculously recovering from his injury and
Hazel coming out of an amethyst palace in a beautiful princess
gown, affection ablaze in her blue eyes.

“Hey, Ian.” William approached him, joy in
his step, as he swung open his locker and carefully extracted his
German II book as if it were an ancient relic. “Jimmy’s parents and
older sister left today and won’t be back for a whole week.” With a
tinge of envy, he proceeded, “They’re going to Hawaii.”

“I bet Jimmy’s jealous,” said Ian, as he
pulled open his locker adjacent to William’s, noticing for the
first time the many scrapes and dents on his.

“Yeah. It’s all he talks about anymore
besides elves, dragons, knights, and, of course, girls.” He smirked
sarcastically upon saying the last word, his Persian blue eyes
twinkling with renegade laughter. “So, you still wanna do something
with us tonight?”

Ian grabbed his Spanish II book and kicked
his locker shut. “Sure, what’s the plan?” Today would be better
he’d told himself when he’d first arrived at school. No more of
this fantasy or elf stuff. Yet now, since he’d be hanging out with
Jimmy, as he’d promised to William yesterday and had somehow
forgotten, he knew this topic would be quickly brought up and hard
to put down. How annoying, especially since he’d made up his mind
in the morning that he never wanted to think about the other world
again.

Now though, he’d have to relive the haunting
memories over and over as often as Jimmy decided to live up to his
many nicknames. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be that bad, and besides, it
would give him a good reason to get out of the house away from his
sister’s bothersome friend.

As Ian’s internal monologue ended, William
finally made up his mind. “Hmm … how about we eat out at Sparta’s
Diner before heading over to Jimmy’s place?”