Falling into Forever (11 page)

“Finally,” Alexandra mumbled as Courtney and Michelle turned their attention away from her and toward the teacher.

Alexandra did not look at either of the twins the rest of the class; but when they waved goodbye to her at the end of the lesson, she mustered a smile.
Gossip fiends
, she thought, forcing a fake smile across her face as her stomach rumbled loudly.

Following the smell of French fries across campus, Alexandra neared the doors of the cafeteria and spied Taylor lingering outside impatiently with her arms crossed.

“It's about time, Alex,” Taylor squawked as Alexandra came up beside her. “I'm going to buy you a decent watch, something big and expensive that you might not lose. And maybe a GPS, too. Daddy owes me some presents. I haven't touched his American Express since I got back from Italy.”

Too hungry to argue, Alexandra steered her friend toward the lunch line. Taylor grabbed an apple and a bottle of water, then she ordered her lunch: “Two soft tacos, please. Hold the chicken. Hold the cheese. And no sour cream.” A cafeteria worker handed her two tortilla shells filled with lettuce.

“Looks yummy,” Alexandra joked, looking at the plate. “A cheeseburger and extra fries for me, please,” she ordered, as hungry as a ravenous animal.

Following Taylor into the noisy lunchroom, Alexandra heard her name shouted across the cacophony of teenage chatter. Turning anxiously, she saw Pete Evans waving for them to join him.

“That's
so
not happening,” Taylor said firmly as she nudged Alexandra toward a glass door at the back of the room. “Pete doesn't even have a car!” she reasoned emphatically, much too closely to Alexandra's ear. “As if!” She rolled her eyes at him once more before she stepped outside into the bright daylight of the quad.

In the sapphire sky above their picnic table, little clouds began to gather slowly, threatening an afternoon thunderstorm. Alexandra felt a pang of relief. Benjamin was nowhere to be seen as she hungrily shoved her food into her mouth. Across the table from Alexandra, Taylor picked at her taco plate and rambled on about her morning classes.

“I don't know how you stay so thin eating the trash you do,” said Taylor, a look of jealous disgust spreading across her pretty face.

“Just lucky, I guess,” said Alexandra, setting her soda back down on the table as she belched out loud.

“Obviously,” Taylor observed, “there is no need in asking you to hurry so I can go have a smoke.” Taylor scanned the crowd of students sitting around the grassy quad. “Where do you think Benjamin is? I know he said he had lunch this period.”

“Maybe he's not hungry.” Alexandra shrugged her shoulders as she glanced behind her back.

“It's getting late,” Taylor said, reading the time off her cell phone before dropping it into her handbag. When she did, her fingers lingered inside the bag, searching for something else. A cigarette appeared conspicuously, and she put it to her lips unlit. “Let's go, then. If you're done, that is.”

Hesitation kept Alexandra seated, and Taylor read it in her eyes. Agitated with her friend, she asked, “Do you have something better to do? Or someone to see?”

Alexandra ignored her as Taylor gathered her book bag.

“Fine, then,” Taylor said as she stood up from the hard wooden bench. “You'll miss me,” she warned as she stomped away from the picnic table toward Drake Hall.

With Taylor gone, Alexandra noticed how badly her head ached. Closing her eyes, she crisscrossed her arms on top of the picnic table and rested her head down on her arms. Laughter and gossip swirled around her. But curiously her thoughts faded to a single face: the chillingly handsome young man in the park, the one who played the guitar.

Maybe I'll say hello today.
The thought flittered through her mind, and her lips smiled nervously as her cheeks rested against her arms.

“Alex!” Taylor shouted harshly across the quad.

The handsome face dissolved into a fog as Alexandra's eyes popped open and adjusted to the daylight.

“Alexandra!” Taylor shouted again impatiently.

What would she do without me?
Alexandra mused as she gathered her book bag to follow after Taylor.

Behind Drake Hall, Taylor lit her cigarette while Alexandra crawled up to sit on the stone wall. Just beyond was the cemetery.

Taylor idly watched a gray-haired man raking leaves among the headstones. In her skirt pocket, her cell phone beeped. Checking the cell, Taylor giggled and poked her bottom lip out in a fake, practiced pout.

“Look,” demanded Taylor, holding the phone up to Alexandra's face. “Ben sent me a picture of himself eating pizza.” She read the text aloud to Alexandra: “‘Where r u 2?!'”

“Let's go!” Taylor ordered, scraping her cigarette on the ragged stones on top of the wall and tossing the butt into the cemetery.

“You smell hideous,” Alexandra advised her as Taylor popped a piece of chewing gum into her mouth.

“And you need to get some sleep,” Taylor hissed at her and stomped away swiftly, leaving Alexandra alone.

A soft breeze rustled her long hair. She thought that she smelled a whiff of smoke. Peeking down the side of the wall, she saw Taylor's cigarette butt burning through a dry, brown leaf on the ground. Hastily, she jumped down from the wall on the side of the cemetery and stomped the smoldering fire out with her foot.
Terrific job, Taylor
, she thought as she bent to pick up the cigarette butt.

The man Taylor had noticed in the cemetery had watched Alexandra from nearby. He walked up behind her silently and tapped her shoulder as she bent over the ground. Startled, Alexandra whipped around and stared into the dark eyes of a gray-haired old man, his skin darkly tanned and deeply wrinkled from the sun. A scruffy, grizzled beard covered his chin.

“You scared me,” gasped Alexandra, her heart pounding.

The old man's nose twitched as he took a step closer. He pulled his thin lips back into a smile over his yellowed, gnarled teeth. “I'll take that,” he said, holding his fingers out for the cigarette butt in Alexandra's hand.

His fingers lingered over her palm too long. A shiver ran down her back as he took the piece of trash from her hand.

“I have to go,” she mumbled. “Sorry,” she said, taking a step backward as she put her hands inside her skirt pocket. A blue hair ribbon fell from her fingertips to the ground.

“Where'd you get that necklace, girl?” the old man called out to her gruffly as Alexandra hiked up the stone wall.

Grabbing her book bag from the ground on the other side, she sprinted back down the overgrown path toward campus. In the cemetery behind her, the old man picked up her hair ribbon and held it to his nose before he shoved it into his pocket with the cigarette butt.

On the cemetery ridge behind the old man, the limbs of a magnolia swayed in the warm breeze. There was a figure watching from behind the wide tree. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. “You are bold, demon,” the figure said in a low, firm voice. “But you will not harm her,” he promised, closing his eyes.

Lifting his nose to the breeze, the old man lingering by the wall dropped his rake to the ground and turned in the direction of the magnolia tree. As a beastly growl came from the old man's throat, the figure behind the tree opened his eyes.

“You can run, demon,” the figure warned, “but I will always know where you are.” Before him there stood a brown mongrel, a wild and hungry wolf that raced away toward the cemetery entrance and the city streets before he could approach.

9
Swoon

Alexandra's long legs did not stop racing until she reached Mrs. Simmons's literature class.
Geez, what else could happen
today?
she wondered anxiously as she collapsed into the safety of a wooden chair. Panting hard, she stared at a worn paperback copy of Dante's
Inferno
, resting on top of the desk. Using her blazer sleeve, she dabbed at the sweat beading on her forehead. She sighed heavily, the feeling of the old man's fingers still lingering on her skin.

A few stragglers wandered into class behind her after the final bell. So Mrs. Simmons launched into a lecture on the consequences of tardiness. Alexandra ignored the warning. Casually, she picked up the book and flipped through its pages. She became engrossed in examining its black-and-white engravings of Hell.
These pictures,
she thought,
remind me of the drawings in Uncle Joseph's journal.

When the bell rang at the end of the period, Alexandra breathed a sigh of relief.
It's finally time
, she thought as she hurried to history class to meet the mysterious replacement for Mr. Frost: Dr. Sean Callahan.

A crowd had gathered outside the classroom by the time she had arrived. She spotted Taylor and Benjamin standing together by the door.

“What's going on here?” Alexandra asked, tapping Taylor on the shoulder.

“Check it out,” Benjamin grinned and pointed to a note taped to the closed door. “It's locked,” he said, twisting the door handle.

Alexandra read the new teacher's scribbled words.

Greetings, young scholars!

I am eager to meet you all. But this room is not the proper setting for our introduction. I await you at the cannons. Hurry!

S. Callahan

“Seriously?” Taylor whined. “I'm not hiking all the way across campus again in these heels,” she said, lifting her foot in the air.

Leaving Taylor, Alexandra and Benjamin followed the rest of their class down the hallway. “Wait up,” squealed Taylor as she peeled off her shoes and scampered behind them. Squeezing between them, she took Benjamin's arm as they stepped outside.

“I like this guy already,” Benjamin announced as they strolled through the quad. “Is he talking about those massive cannons by the flagpoles in front of the administration building? Is that where we're going?”

“No, we're meeting him by the cannons inside the gym,” replied Taylor in jest. “Maybe tomorrow we will have to meet him in the cemetery behind campus. That would be the best day ever.”

Benjamin overlooked her sarcasm. “Too bad the cannons don't work anymore, right? That would bring a whole new meaning to expulsion,” he said, chuckling. “How long have the cannons been there?”

Alexandra offered, “I heard they've been here since before Collinsworth was built. Way before, actually.”

“Why doesn't somebody just move them?” Benjamin asked.

“I think it's some kind of superstitious thing,” Alexandra said.

“Cool,” Benjamin enthused, smiling at her. “Hey, Taylor, is there really a cemetery behind campus, like you said?”

Taylor ignored his question. They joined the rest of their class already gathered outside Collinsworth's main administration building. Dr. Callahan leaned casually against one of the cannons, waiting patiently for everyone to arrive.

Alexandra noticed that the sky had grown considerably darker since lunch, and thunder rumbled in the far distance. The stirring wind tossed a strand of her auburn hair across her face.

Fighting against the breeze to pull the hair from her eyes, she heard Taylor whisper in her ear: “What is going on with your birthmark?”

“What do you mean?” asked Alexandra, touching the mark lightly with the tips of her chewed fingernails.

“Nothing,” said Taylor, who was now straining for a closer look at Callahan. “I feel really bad about Mr. Frost being on leave and all, but this guy is seriously hot,” she pronounced approvingly to Alexandra. She slipped her high heels onto her feet.

Dressed head to toe in black, his body stood tall and lean against the backdrop of the quad. A button-down shirt with a loosened collar lay underneath his blazer, and dense, black hair fell around his face to his chin. Blue eyes peered from his ruggedly handsome face.

His eyes danced over the silent, staring faces of his class. His gaze eventually locked upon Alexandra. Noticing his stare, Taylor eased herself closer to her best friend until they stood shoulder to shoulder. A smile spread across his face before he turned his head. The back of Alexandra's neck tingled.

Placing his hands in his pockets, Callahan strolled with graceful urgency around his students. Alexandra tried to avoid his eyes. Glancing sideways at Taylor, she took a step backward only to stumble into one of her classmates. She struggled to keep her balance, and two hands reached out to grab her arms and steady her back onto her feet.

“Sorry,” Alexandra mumbled to her rescuer. Turning to apologize, Alexandra's eyes met two broad shoulders and trailed slowly up to Benjamin's amused face. An urge to flee swept through her, but his arms gripped her firmly.

“Are you okay, Alex?” he asked, with sincere concern in his blue eyes. “You're a little pale all of a sudden.”

“I'm fine,” she answered, but she thought perhaps the day had left her dehydrated. She remembered a water bottle in her book bag. Fumbling for it through her books and binders, she finally located it and sipped greedily.

“I have been awaiting our introduction with much anticipation,” Dr. Callahan finally spoke. “Dr. Sullivan promised me that you're among the best and the brightest here at Collinsworth. Please call me Callahan. Formality is not necessary.”

A boy with wild, curly brown hair raised his hand as Callahan paused to clear his throat. “Why did you want us to meet you way out here?” the boy asked without waiting for Callahan to acknowledge him.

Callahan considered the question. “Shortly before noon today, the air conditioning unit in my assigned classroom let out a sputtering death rattle and now waits in peace for its final journey to the nearest junkyard. To hold class outdoors seemed a logical solution, particularly with such props standing by.”

He placed a hand on one of the cannons and patted it gently. “This one has a nickname, I believe. What do you call it?” Callahan read the faces of his students for a volunteer.