Gargoyle: A Reawakening (Briarcliff Series, #2) (6 page)

Evie didn’t hear “not a
problem” or even a grunt. No, the girl she had accidentally plowed
into lifted her brow and gave her an even weirder look, making her
feel even more self-conscious. What was with all the funky looks?
Did she look
that
bad? On a normal day, she would have at least given the girl
a dirty look in turn. But not today. Today she took it as another
mortal blow to her ego. First Colton—
wad
. Then the guy… the one she
kissed for a breathless moment ditched her too. Oh, thinking about
him made her want to cry. Now she was getting the hairy eyeball
from some girl.

Okay fine—it wasn’t like
she was just any girl. That probably wouldn’t have bothered her.
But this girl looked seriously cool. She had long jet-black hair
shaved on one side with feathers intertwined into the length.
Multiple earrings dangled from one of her ears and she had a small
hoop in her bottom lip. The jean skirt she wore was similar to her
own, with one exception. Fine. Two exceptions, she amended. Hers
was frayed at the bottom and she looked
really-really
, good in
it.

Fidgeting with the lid of her bottle, she
tried not to stare at the girl as she pulled a bunch of cords
across the front of the stage. It was hard though—she looked
really- effortless and so put together. She was wearing a sweet
pair of lace-up combat boots, paired with thigh-high, black and
white striped leggings and a torn half-t-shirt that fell off one of
her buff, tattooed shoulders.

Lifting her bottle, she titled it back,
preparing to take a big swallow but somehow ended up dumping it
down the side of her face. Sputtering, she wiped the water away
with the back of her hand, which was pretty- humiliating. However,
apparently her humiliation wasn’t yet at an end, cuz just then
another guy, walked past her. He too gave her an odd look.

What the hell was this… a
fucking parade
? She didn’t think her ego
could take many more weird looks she was at her limit. Glancing
over her shoulder toward the tree line, she wondered if she should
just slip into the woods until everyone left.

“
How’s it going,” another
guy said. She turned back around quickly, prepared to give him a
snarky look but this one, at least was actually smiling at her and
it wasn’t a crappy, you’re a freak smile either. It looked almost,
that is, if she wasn’t mistaken, like he may have thought she was
kind-of cute. Some of her tension eased and she smiled back
shyly.

“
Good, I’m doin good,” she
answered, playing with the lid on her water bottle, stealing
glances at him, trying to be inconspicuous.

One of the rubber mats thwapped loudly on
the ground as he dropped it. Kneeling down he pulled off a strip of
duct tape, the length fluttered in the wind before he pressed it
down onto the seam of the mat. Standing, he brushed off his jeans
and gave her a wink before moving on towards another part of the
stage.

Smiling at his retreating
form, she began to feel better than she had all day. At least it
bolstered her smashed ego, a little. Maybe she wasn’t a pariah
after all. She was starting to think the underside of a rock would
be a great place to hide like …
forever.

“
Check, check—one—two
–check,” rang out, loud, and clear as someone tested the sound. The
brisk breeze seized hold of leaves, ripping them from branches
above. They spun out of control, tumbling and whirling in the air
in a blur of bright colors. Another loud thud vibrated over to her
left as another piece of the stage was slammed together.

Moriah said the creepers decided to set
everything up outside since the vocals would sound better that way.
That was where all the bands would be playing. Apparently the
carload of guys that showed earlier, were with the creeps, hence
the name creepers.

A rattling noise sounded
behind her. She turned. Barnaby’s thick black curls, bounced up and
down as he trotted up the drive. The big-wheeled cart he pulled
wobbled back and forth unsteadily as he pulled it over the rocks,
making the bottles inside clank together loudly. He looked
wide-eyed and fresh-faced. Clearly, he was ready for the evening,
reminding her that she still needed to change and take a shower.
That didn’t matter right now though; she had some payback to give.
“
Jerk.”
She
stalked over across the drive and stopped directly in front of
him.

“
Hey Evie,” Barnaby said,
smiling down at her.

Evie looked up and gave him the crappiest
look she could manage and then punched him in the arm as hard as
she could.

“
Ow, Evie, what’d you do
that for?” he said, rubbing his arm, staring at her in disbelief.
Her bright green eyes flashed with anger. She looked hot when she
was pissed; he had to give her that.

“
What was in my drink,
Barnaby?” she asked, glaring into his wire-rimmed glass-covered
eyes.

“
Um, rum, assorted juices,
a little bit of everything actually.” He shrugged, eyeing her
warily.

Evie didn’t believe him for a second. She
narrowed her eyes at him. “What else?”

“
Um, I did inject the
cherries with grain. Why? Did you eat one?”

“
Well yeah, I was
starving,” she snapped, tapping her foot. “What kind of drugs did
you slip in my drink?”

He swung his head around and looked at her.
“Nothing—I mean it had a ton of alcohol, but no drugs,
promise.”

“
Right,” she scoffed, not
believing a word of his bullshit.

“
I swear, I wouldn’t do
that to you Evie,” he said, looking sincere. “Actually, I stopped
messing in that shit a while ago,” he said and shoved his hand into
his front pocket, pulling out her car keys. “Thanks for letting me
use your car,” he said, handing them to her. “I, um, got your
window fixed by the way.”

Evie snatched the keys
from his hand and stuffed them into her jean skirt pocket. She was
so mad. It took a moment for what he said to sink in. She shook her
head turning back towards him. “What?
Noway!
How’d you do
that?”

He lifted his hand and rubbed his arm. “A
friend of my cousin works over at the garage on the outskirts of
town. He had an extra window that would fit your car and he
installed it for me.” He shrugged like it was no big deal, even
though his cousin really had to hook him up for it. He owed him big
now.

“
Wow, Barnaby that was
really sweet of you. You didn’t have to do that, you know,” she
said, suddenly feeling like a big bitch for accusing him of
drugging her.

“
Puhlease
… it was no big deal,” he
replied easily, lying his ass off. “Thanks for letting me borrow
your wheels.” He gave her a lopsided grin, and then turned quickly
back towards the stage as one of the last pieces was thrown into
place.

She stood there a minute
running her finger along the top of her water bottle. “So,
you
really
didn’t
put anything in my drink that would make me, like, see things that
weren’t real?” she asked lamely, suddenly not feeling very
well.

He barked out a laugh. “Ah…no!” His hazel
eyes twinkled under the clear lenses. He shoved his hands back into
his front pockets. The wind tossed his black curls back and forth.
His eyes turned serious, watching her face go paler. “Evie, are you
alright?”

She bit her lip and shook her head seeing
the confused look on his face. He obviously didn’t know what she
was talking about. Not knowing what to do or say, she turned back
towards the stage.

“
What happened?” he asked,
sounding concerned and leaned closer.

Her mind was spinning. So
if he didn’t put anything into her drink, did all that shit really
happen?
Oh shit,
she really was going to be sick.

“
Evie…”

She turned back towards him. “Well… actually
some crazy shit happened last night… I thought I was drugged.” She
made a face and shrugged her shoulders.

He narrowed his eyes. “What kind of shit? “
Did Colton do something to you?” he ground out the question. “Wait,
did he do that to your face?”

“
Oh God no!” she said and
shook her head, touching her chin. Barnaby looked relieved. She
opened her mouth to speak again, but suddenly felt like it was too
much to relay. Besides, he looked really upset and she didn’t want
to go into all the Colton shit again. “Nah, it was fine. He left me
here, though.”

“
What the hell?” He shook
his head and shoved his hand through his hair. “Damn, I’m sorry
Evie. If I had known I would’ve come back with your
car.”

“
It’s okay. It’s not your
fault.”

“
Still…”

Evie didn’t like seeing him upset. Actually,
she couldn’t stand seeing anyone upset. She leaned forward and
picked a leaf out of his hair. “Don’t worry about it. I’m still
alive… see.” She lifted her brows up and down like Groucho Marx,
while rolling her eyes around, making stupid faces.

“
God, you’re so awesome,”
he laughed and then froze. He suddenly looked like he had just
stepped on a landmine and if he lifted his foot he would blow to
bits.

Evie pushed his arm. “So are you,” she
teased, smiling.

“
Right, yeah, I am pretty
awesome,” he said laughing like it was all a big joke.

“
Hey, we are both pretty
awesome.” She cleared her throat when he looked like he was going
to say something else. What that something might be, she wasn’t
real sure she had an answer to. So instead, she blurted out
something else, something she couldn’t even begin to imagine asking
anyone in a million years. “So what do you know about
gargoyles?”

“
Gargoyles?” he asked for
clarification, giving her an odd look.

She nodded her head.

“
Ah…you mean like stone
creatures that are stuck to the side of buildings?” he asked,
lifting his hand to brush his hair out of his face when the wind
pushed it forward.

“
Yeah, I guess.”

“
Huh? Decoration maybe?” he
answered and shrugged, lifting his shoulders like he didn’t know
what else to say. “Wait…” he said suddenly. “ I think they were
also used to divert water from buildings, back in the day too,” he
finished seemingly surprised by his vast knowledge on statuary.
“Why do you ask?”

Great.
What to do? Go all in or lie.
Oh,
screw it
! She was already half way in at
this point anyway. “Have you ever heard anything about them
coming…alive?”

He let out a whoop of laughter. “You’re a
trip.” He lifted his eyes to hers; swallowing back another peel of
laughter when he saw her face go paler then it had moments before.
“Serious?”

Ohmigod, why did I say
that?
She couldn’t believe she had even
said that. But now that the cat was outta the bag so to speak…
“Yeah, crazy-weird, right,” she added, scrunching up her
face.

Barnaby suddenly looked
like he had someplace to be. He shifted nervously on his feet and
then kicked a small rock, launching it in the air. It hit a tree
and fell back down to the ground with a small thud. He blew out a
breath and turned back towards her, raking his hand through his
hair, making his dark curls stick out. “
Ummm…
,” he trailed off awkwardly
looking suddenly fascinated with the dirt around his foot. A few
moments later he lifted his head and gave her a curious stare, it
immediately reminded her of the guy she met last night.

“
I know, I’ll ask my Mom.
She really digs that kind of shit, so I can ask her if she has
heard any legends or lore on the subject.”

She grabbed his arm. “Really—you would do
that for me?” she asked. He shook his head eagerly. “That would be
awesome.”

He lifted his hand, placed it on top of
hers, and then suddenly dropped it back to his side.

She dropped her hand too, feeling weird.

“
Hold on.” He reached in
his pocket and pulled out his phone. She was about to tell him not
to bother but who knew, maybe he had better service. She watched as
he punched a few of the buttons, shaking his head in frustration.
“Well, I would’ve called, but the cell reception here
sucks.”

“
Tell me about
it.”

“
You know what…” he said. “
I need to go back to town to pick up a few more things. I can ask
her then if you want.”

“
Really?” she
asked.

Again, he gave her a curious stare and shook
his head.

She stepped forward and wrapped her arms
around his neck, giving him a huge hug. She felt him reach around
and hug her back. Momentarily they stood there, pressed against
each other, and then she pulled away, feeling like a giant
dork.

Barnaby smiled, the act nearly splitting his
face. “No problemo, anything for you.” He lowered his eyes to the
ground quickly. “I mean… if I can help.”

“
I really appreciate it,”
she said, feeling better than she had all day. The tightness in her
chest lessened considerably. Barnaby’s mom would know something.
She was like crazy into antiques and shit. She would totally know.
She blew out a stream of air and then smiled up at him.

He gave her a warm smile in return. “Okay
then, let me just drop this off, then I’ll go.” He was about to
leave but stopped. “Wait, you wanna come with?”