Inevitable (18 page)

She stared at me, mouth agape, for a full five seconds, and then burst out laughing. “Oh, girl. Fabulous story! And I was feeling bad for drinking. How many have you had?”

“What?” I blinked. “Dana! I haven’t been drinking! Are you insane? I’m telling you the truth!”

She shook her head, her lips compressing into a tight line. “Forget it, Jayne. I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I’m officially annoyed. See ya.” She flounced back to Chad, ostentatiously avoiding my eyes.

I curled my hands into fists. Well, what had I really expected? That she’d just believe me?

I’d hoped, anyway.

Fighting tears, I turned around to see Aaron standing a few yards away. In the flickering firelight, leaning against a thick tree trunk with his hands in his pockets, he looked like Clark Kent, reincarnated. Just needed a pair of round glasses.

I took a deep breath and stumbled toward him, twisting my ankle on a dead branch. I bent to massage my leg, hoping he couldn’t see the moisture in my eyes.

“What’s going on?” he asked softly.

What was I supposed to say? If Dana didn’t believe me about my Sight, Aaron certainly wouldn’t. I decided to go with gut feelings. Nobody could argue with those. “Something doesn’t feel right. About those boys Dana’s hanging out with. But I couldn’t convince her to leave them.”

Aaron touched my forearm, a brief gesture that left a bubbly feeling in my chest. “What don’t you like about them?”

I hugged my torso. “The way they touch her, the alcohol, their ages—they don’t care about Dana. She’s going to get hurt.”

“Dana seems like a smart girl, Jayne. She’ll be careful.”

“She’s drunk.” I spat the words out, anger washing over me again. “She’s not being careful. She’s not acting like herself at all.” Dana, a flirt, sure. That’s who she was. Dana, getting slammed at parties and going home with strange men—that was not her.

“Tell you what.” I could tell Aaron didn’t think my doubts were warranted. But I knew he was searching for a way to appease me, as well. “Let’s go to a coffee shop, get something to drink. We can invite Dana.”

I put my head in my hands. He’d never want to see me again after tonight. I must look like such a psycho to him: coming along to a party, getting in an argument with my ex over who kissed who, spazzing out on my best friend, insisting that the guys with her were nutty... yeah, I’d probably never want to see me again, either. “Sure. Whatever. It’s worth a try.”

I watched through my fingers as Aaron walked over to Dana and talked to her.

She shook her head, gestured to the people around her, then waved. Aaron trudged back, his brown shoes kicking up small clouds of sand.

“Well, she doesn’t want to come. Shall we go?”

I nodded, the taste of defeat bitter on my tongue. I followed Aaron through the sand, my heart heavy. What was going to happen tonight? Was that the last time I would see Dana?

I stopped walking. What was wrong with me? I couldn’t give up like that. This was her
life
we were talking about! “We have to make her come with us, Aaron.” I turned around and ran back.

Before I got to Dana, though, Hank stepped into view. He had his own ditzy chick on his arm. I switched directions and converged on him. “Hey, you! What’s the matter with you? How can you be here giving beer to high schoolers? And then you think you can drive after this? You’re freaking drunk!” I shook with anger. At least he didn’t smell like lemons anymore.

He glanced at his friends and then started laughing. “I like ‘em feisty, but you take the cake, baby. Cool yourself in the water and then come back.”

I shook my finger in his face. “You listen to me. You’re not driving anywhere tonight, and you are certainly not taking her”—I shoved a thumb toward Dana, who turned to watch the conversation—“with you!”

His eyes roved to Dana. “She don’t have to go anywhere she don’t want to. She’s a free woman.”

“Jayne!” Dana’s face turned bright red. “What are you doing?”

I turned on her. “You’re drunk. And being stupid. Let’s go now, before I call your parents and tell them where you are.”

I thought the parents card would be a trump, but I was wrong. Dana sputtered a moment before marching toward me. “You dare, Jayne Elizabeth Lockwood, and I will never speak to you again. Never! I’m not leaving with you, so go!”

I was ready to drag her away forcibly, but Hank intercepted me. “Now, one thing’s pretty clear, spaz girl. She don’t want you here. So go ahead and exit the scene. Nice and pretty. Good girl.” He patted my rump and gave me a shove.

“Don’t you touch her!” I don’t know where Aaron came from, but suddenly he was there, fists clenched, ready to fight for my honor. As touching at that was, now wasn’t the place.

“Let’s just go.” I grabbed his wrist and tugged him backwards. My hands shook with frustrated anger. I wasn’t going to lose this one. Somehow, I had to find a way to change it.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A
aron started the car in silence. I didn't want to talk about what had just happened, either, so instead I pulled out my cell phone. My fingers trembled as I dialed Dana's house phone. Sure, she might never speak to me again, but at least she'd be alive.

“Hello?” The deep, groggy voice of Dana’s father answered on the second ring. I glanced at Aaron’s car clock and my heart skipped a beat. Twelve eleven. Almost a quarter after midnight.

“Mr. Sparks, it’s Jayne.”

He cleared his throat, and I knew I’d waken him. “What’s the matter, Jayne?”

“It’s Dana.” I gripped the phone tighter, trying to control my tremors. In my peripheral vision, I saw Aaron looking at me. “She’s at a party, and she’s with a bad crowd. I couldn’t get her to leave.”

“Is she in trouble?”

I almost said no but changed my mind. “Yes.” I closed my eyes. I’d doomed her. Her father would either call the police or personally retrieve her, and Dana would be caught. She’d hate me.

“What’s the address?”

I fed it to him before hanging up my phone, letting my hand drop into my lap. Tears leaked from my eyes, and I stared out the window. I brushed the tears away as they rolled down my cheeks.

“What’s going on, Jayne?”

Aaron’s soft voice broke through my reverie, and I looked at him. “I can’t really explain it. But I know something bad is going to happen. Dana’s got to leave there, and not with those guys.”

I saw the way he studied me, intense blue eyes flicking over my face. “She’s going to be well angry with you.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I had to, though.”

The car gave a sudden lurch, sped up, and stopped. I stared at the road in front of us, not comprehending why we weren’t moving.

Aaron sat for a moment before hitting the steering wheel and throwing the door open. “I just bought this two bob car! What a mug! What’s wrong with it now?”

I climbed out as well, the air a lot nippier without the bonfire. My face felt stiff where the salty tears had dried. “Now? Does this keep happening?” I looked over the dark green BMW, wondering how something so expensive could be faulty.

Aaron popped the hood. “Last time it was the battery. Replaced it. Then it was an oil leak. In England you’d get nicked for selling a bad car!”

“Here we have someone inspect it before we pay,” I tried to joke. Aaron pressed his lips together, obviously not amused.

“Yes, well, let’s see where the problem lies this time.”

I fished around in my purse. “We can just call a tow truck. I’m covered for emergencies on my parents’ insurance.”

“Give me a minute,” Aaron grunted.

I waited while Aaron messed with the car. Every time he started it, the engine turned over, but that was it. It didn’t respond to any attempts to go forward or backward.

I didn’t know anything about cars, but I felt like a useless log sitting inside, so I got out and hovered by Aaron, pulling his jacket close around my shoulders. It smelled like him.

“I give up.” Aaron closed the hood. “Guess we’ll use your emergency card.” He climbed back into the car and sat there, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel and gazing out the window.

I made the necessary call and joined him. “All right.” Out of habit, I ran my hands in front of the vents, which, of course, weren’t on. “They should be here in about twenty minutes.”

He nodded, still not looking at me.

Well, that was that. I’d managed to freak him out. The night was black outside the windows, the trees flanking the road noisy with crickets and frogs and whatever else was out there.

I leaned against the seat and heaved a sigh, my chest feeling like someone had put a leaden ball in it.

“Hey, sorry.”

I moved my head, looking at Aaron when he spoke. “Why are you sorry? I’m the one who ruined everything.”

He blinked. “Did you put cooking oil in my engine? If so, then yes, you owe me an apology. And plenty of money.”

I tried to smile. “I ruined our evening. I ruined—” I thought of Dana and squeezed back tears.

The phone in my hand rattled, and I looked down. Dana’s father. “Hello?” I answered nervously. Certainly Dana wouldn’t call right now to tell me off.

“Jayne,” his deep voice boomed in my ear, “we went to the location of the bonfire, but Dana was already gone. She left her car there. Do you know where she went?”

Already gone.
The words echoed around my mind. I pictured the street I’d Seen them driving on. It wasn’t familiar to me. “I don’t. But I think they said something about maybe going dancing.”

He exhaled into the phone. “All right. Will you call me if you hear from her?”

I swallowed past a lump in my throat. “Yes. Of course.” I dropped the phone and put my head in my hands. Failure. Again.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Aaron asked softly.

“I...I...” Dang it all, now I was crying. “Something bad is going to happen to Dana.”

“What is it?”

“Those guys she was with. They’re really drunk. They shouldn’t be driving.”

“Maybe they have a designated driver.”

I knew what he was trying to do, but I was in no mood to be comforted. “They don’t.”

“How do you know?”

Somewhere in this car was my bag. I turned around and fished through it, trying to find something to clean my face. All I came up with was a napkin from the bagel shop. I dragged it under my eyes. “I just know, okay? Sometimes when something bad is going to happen, I know it ahead of time. But no matter what I try to do, I can’t change it. I’m such an idiot.”

“What do you mean, you just know? Are you psychic?”

I didn’t answer.

Crazy Jayne, Crazy Jayne.
The middle school taunts whispered in my ears. When I was ten, my father took me to a psycho-therapist because I told some people about my visions. He diagnosed me with schizophrenia and put me on tons of medications. The only way I’d escaped the nickname was switching schools and not telling a soul about my curse.

“Okay,” Aaron said with the attitude of a parent who is playing along with a child. “So what do you think is going to happen to Dana?”

The way he phrased that question irked me. “Nothing. Just forget it.”

“Just tell me.”

“There’s going to an accident.” I flinched, seeing the car wrap itself around the light pole in my head. “Somebody dies.”

“Who?”

“The driver. I don’t know who else.” I couldn’t meet Aaron’s eyes. Why had I told him, anyway?

Lights flashed behind us, and we both turned around to see a tow truck. Aaron got out and conversed with the driver, gesturing emphatically at the car.

The tow truck driver nodded, threw down a cigarette, and came over to investigate. He walked around the car, then called Aaron over to look at something.

Aaron listened to him, nodding his head, and then got back in the car, looking chagrined. His cheeks were rosy. Flushed from the chill outside?

“Well?” I asked.

“I’m out of gas. Either the light indicator on my console is burnt out, or the gauge in the tank is broken. Bloke’s going to fill us up and we’ll be on our way.”

I wanted to laugh. Gas? That was it? But I could tell from Aaron’s face that he was embarrassed. “At least it’s an easy fix. And it wasn’t because of the cooking oil I put in your engine.”