First Impression (A Shadow Maven Paranormal) (9 page)

My face flushes. “I wanted—expected to be alone.”

Matt’s eyebrows furrow. “So you came to the school? Why didn’t you just go home?”

I clench my jaw and tighten my hands into fists. My glare burns into him. He wouldn’t understand. The last place I needed to be is home. The last person who needed to see me at my weakest was my stepdad.

He raises his hands in surrender. “Fine. None of my business. I can take a hint.”

The musical notes the rain makes on my umbrella slows down, and there is barely a drizzle again. My shoulders slump. Now what? The three of us were completely drenched. They were both going to keep following me until I went to the last place I wanted to be.

Matt snaps his fingers. “What if we go check out the Old Schoolhouse? Ben and I didn’t see what you guys saw, so maybe it will give us a hint as to what’s going on right now?”

The blood drains from my face and pools in my feet. I croak, “No way.”

Ben clears his throat. “I don’t think it’s a good idea right now. Our only option of getting into the building is to meet up with the custodian and ask him to let us in. He cleans the yard and building on Tuesdays.”

I stare at him.

Matt asks. “How the hell do you know so much?”

“I looked into it after the incident last week. I decided I’d like to see the place where all this happened for myself, but it was locked. Mrs. Campbell’s aide, Joan was very helpful.” The rain completely stops, and Ben withdraws the umbrella, shaking it out over the stoop before folding it back up.

I shake my head. “Who are you?”

He quirks an eyebrow and offers my umbrella back to me.

Matt folds his arms across his chest. “What, so you’re a detective now, too? Complete and utter know-it-all.”

I frown. This bit of cousin rivalry makes me feel uncomfortable beyond words.

Ben shakes his head and dismisses the event. “Don’t you think we all need to get dry? Since she doesn’t want to go home, we could invite her over to your house, right?”

“I don’t know if she’ll want to go there. It might be awkward since my dad’s not home.”

“She’s standing right here,” I say.

Neither boy seems to have heard me. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

Matt smirks. “It might be bad for her reputation. She’d go from dyke to slut.”

My cheeks burn, and I step forward, getting ready to deck him. But Ben cuts me off and grabs Matt by his shirt, lifting him off the ground so that his toes barely touch the step beneath him. “It’s unbecoming enough to listen to rumors. Ungentlemanly to spread them.”

The glare in Matt’s eyes burn into Ben’s. “What century are you from?”

Ben lifts him higher and then throws him backward off the step.

Matt catches his footing just before stumbling off the sidewalk. He straightens his shirt and sighs. “Fine. Whatever. Let’s go over to my house. I’m sure we can find something for Chira to wear while we throw the clothes in the dryer.”

“Um…what?” I ask. They expect me to get out of my clothes? I didn’t think my cheeks could burn more, but somehow the flame doubles.

Matt’s sister, Hailey, graduated last
year, and she's off studying at Georgetown. Her room became Ben’s, and in the back of his closet, he found one of her school uniforms.

I sigh.

Of course I’d be stuck in the green sweater and brown skirt on a Saturday. But I suppose that it’s better than wearing one of the boys’ oversized clothing. I check myself in the bathroom mirror. Amazing that Hailey and I are the same size. She’s pretty and was popular, and I would have sworn she would have been two sizes smaller than me, at least.

I step back out into the living room and find Matt playing
Call of Duty
with a headset on. He’s talking to one of the other online players while he hides behind a barricade on the screen and shoots something.

Two brown leather couches square off a Persian area rug in front of the flat screen TV. Different shades of brown intermingle through the room, from the furnishings to the carpet to the very light brown shade the walls are painted. It gives the room a masculine feel.

Ben sits in a leather chair with his feet on an ottoman, his Latin textbook in his hands. Studying on a Saturday? He’s more of a nerd than I am. As if that’s possible. Since neither boy acknowledges me when I walk in, I awkwardly sit on the couch behind Matt.

After a while of staring at the repetitive motion of the screen in front of me and tuning out most of what Matt says, I find my eyelids getting heavy. Just when I think I can’t take another minute of this boredom, a key jingles in the front door. I sit up straighter, and Ben sets his book to the side. Mr. Benson walks through the front door, in a navy blue striped suit and trench coat covered with water droplets across the shoulders. The top button of his shirt collar is undone, and he looks worn.

Matt sets aside his head phones and leaves his gaming console. “Hey Dad.”

Mr. Benson sets his tired gaze on each of us in turn. He blinks at me and then turns back to his son. “I’m really sorry about everything that’s happened today, but I really need to ask you a few questions about Donnie.”

I swallow hard.

Matt shrugs, his eyes wide. “Okay.”

Mr. Benson eyes Ben and me again. “Alone.”

Ben hops up from his chair and offers me a hand. “Let me show you something.”

I nod and take his hand. When my fingers touch his palm, vibrations trickle up and down my skin. And I thought his voice made me into a tuning fork. My face flushes. I stand, but he doesn’t release his grip. He pulls me gently toward the door Mr. Benson just entered through.  Breathlessly, I greet Mr. Benson as I pass. “Thank you for allowing me to come over.”

But Ben barely hesitates, he leads me to the stairwell, and I find us going up. A smile spreads across my face, because I know we’re going to the roof.

“Do you ever dream of
flying?” I ask.

We stand near the thigh-high edge of the roof of the four-story brownstone and watch the sky turning blue in the west. Fluffy white clouds are over us, and the dark ones that plagued us a moment before are dipping low in the east. The sun peeks out, and a full rainbow spreads from one side of the sky to the other against the steel grey backdrop.

“Sometimes,” Ben says, opening the door to the ten-by-ten-foot cage that houses his owl.

Steve burst through his confines and spirals up toward the sky. I envy his freedom. “He spends most of his time free, doesn’t he?”

Ben nods.

I bite down on my next question. He doesn’t really make me nervous, like boys I have crushes on do. With him, things are different somehow, and I don’t want to chase him away with my incessant questions, but at the same time, I want to hear his voice. But he just won’t oblige me with answers longer than one word today.

I frown, but another question bubbles up. “Do you think Donnie had a possession ghost?”

Ben’s gaze drops from Steve to me. He shakes his head. “I don’t know. It could be, but I won’t be able to tell for certain until I can get into the Old Schoolhouse kitchen and see what’s there.”

“Tuesday.”

He nods, and studies me for a moment, and then he asks, “Will you come with me?”

My heart sinks. No way. I don’t want to go back there. Without much thought, I shake my head.

Ben takes a step toward me, his false brown eyes studying mine. “I know you’re scared, but I need to see what happened. It would be a huge help if you came with me…and I could keep up with my bodyguard duties.”

“Do you ever take out your contacts?” I switch gears, hoping to throw him off.

He winces and then studies me again. With a nod, he turns around and bends over a bit, pulling the lens from each eye. When his eyes meet mine again, I’m struck by the brilliant colors, more impressive than the rainbow behind him. He continues to study me. “No. I don’t ever take my contacts out.”

It’s my turn to wince. “Why not?”

He looks away like he can’t stand to have me see him anymore. “My eyes are what caused me to lose my mother. They make me into a side-show freak that everyone takes notice of. Everyone either fears me or uses me for what I can do. I hate to even look at myself in the mirror when I don’t have contacts in.”

The note that resonates through my body at the sound of his sadness breaks my heart. “Then why did you show me?”

He gives me a sideways glance. “You’re different…guileless.”

I cross my arms over my chest and glower at him. “Thanks for noticing.”

“No,” he says with a laugh. “I mean that everyone has a shadow around them, some are stronger than others. Everyone tries to be something they’re not. But you…you’re different. You don’t hide your emotions…at least not well. You don’t pretend. You are what you seem to be.”

I shiver at his words. “I’m no different than anyone else. I have problems and I hide them.”

He smirks, the swirl in his eyes never ending. “Like I said, you try. But anyone who can read body language would see you as an open book. Animals are the best at reading emotional signatures. Even Steve knows that about you.”

Suddenly, his studying eyes make me feel naked. I turn away from him and watch Steve ride up and down on the wind without moving his wings. He stays steady in one spot.

“Everyone judges me,” Ben says. “When they see what I am they make a decision. Will they be scared? Will they try to use me to their advantage? When I saw how guileless you were, I had to know what you would think…how you would judge me.”

I gulp. I had said it was pretty. That was my gut reaction at the time. What a child I am. I shake my head.

“You didn’t change at all. Your feelings for me before seeing and after seeing were the same. That’s something that’s never happened to me before,” he whispers. His voice cracks.

My gaze darts toward him. He stands beside me, watching Steve rise and fall, his arms across his chest, in a position similar to mine. Then he turns his face, and his gaze meets mine again.

“What else do you see?” I blurt.

He quirks a smile. “You’ve changed.”

I blink hard. “What do you mean?”

“Your feelings for me have changed.”

“Changed how?”

“You care now. I’ve made it to the small circle of people that you care about, and that’s a very privileged place to be.”

My throat constricts, and even though I try to speak, I can barely breathe.

He smiles at me gently. “And you’ve broken into mine.”

Did he just say what I think he said?

The door to the stairwell swings open with a loud screech and bangs when Matt rushes out onto the roof. I stare at him in shock, but when my gaze returns to Ben, he’s already replaced his lenses and stands stiffly. His usual stoic mask has been replaced.

“I knew I’d find you guys up here.” Matt smiles in triumph, even though it doesn’t reach his eyes.

My breath finally returns. “Why were you looking for us?”

Matt shrugs and says, “Well, your clothes are dry.”

The wind picks up again and swirls around my hair, sending the dry strands into my face, while the wet ones chill the back of my neck. I pull the hair from my lips. “Thanks, Matt.”

We start back downstairs together, Matt in the lead and Ben in the rear. When we reach the third floor, and start for the door of their apartment, Matt turns and says, “This was actually really fun. We should hang out more often.”

I furrow my brows. “Why would a senior want to hang out with a couple of juniors?”

He shrugs and sidles up closer to me. “Well, I really meant only you.”

Behind me, Ben growls. Literally. Both Matt and I shoot a look back at him, but his expression is just the usual hard, but bored look he seems to have cultivated. He’s not even looking at either of us, but cuts between us and opens the door.

Matt and I stand in the hallway for a second, both of us still in shock at the sound we’d heard. Finally, I say, “I’m not interested in switching teams. But thanks for the offer.” And then I duck inside the apartment.