Made to Love (14 page)

“
Sure,” Rich said. 
“We can go any time you'd like, clown boy.”

“
Clown boy
?”
Octavius hissed.  I could see the edges of his wings appear
behind his back.  It looked like I was right about the fragile
ego.

I gave the papers back to
Octavius and turned around.  “Apologize right now!” I
demanded.

Rich crossed his
arms.  “Why should I?”

“
Because...you're being a
jerk!” I said.  I realized it was feeble, but I still thought
I was doing better than Octavius.  At least I wasn't going to
go siren on a poor human, dumb though he may be.

Without warning, Rich
leaned in and laid a peck on my lips.  I jumped back and wiped
my mouth on my sleeve and did my best to ignore the tingle that
started there.  Or the fact that my knees were wobbly. 
Or the fact that my stomach dropped.  Or...

Before I could catalog
everything, Octavius slammed my papers to the ground and lunged for
Rich.  I crouched on the ground to pick up my papers with a
sigh.  I had definitely reached my quota of guys fighting
around me, and I just wanted a little normalcy.

By the time I had most of
my things back – and much soggier than before, I noted with a loud
exhalation – Octavius and Rich were standing apart, their chests
heaving.  Even as sick of it as I was, I couldn't help but
notice how particularly masculine both of them looked.  And
sweaty.

I needed a slap across the
face.  Or a cold shower.  Possibly both.

Without looking at either
of them again, I stormed toward the building and went inside. 
I wasn't surprised to see that neither of them followed
me.

But I was a little
disappointed.

Chapter
Thirty-Five

Octavius went into a sulk
and disappeared for lunch, leaving me with a group of people who
suddenly had no idea who he was.  I decided to waste the
terrible, boring half-hour that was lunch without him by writing
poetry on a bench outside, enjoying the first break from the rain I
had seen all week.

It all has
changed

My life, my soul

Pain

Sorrow

No reason to
live

A fading dream

I sighed.  Misery
suited me—it helped me write great poetry.  The preoccupation
Byron and Octavius provided, though, was keeping me from my
depression.  I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. 
Probably not.

“
Hey, Cal!  What are
you doing out here?”

I looked up to see Rich
approaching, and I sighed, shutting my notebook.  “I was
trying to have peace and quiet,” I said.  “What are
you
doing out here?”

He plopped onto bench
across from me, propping his chin up on his fists.  “Looking
for you,” Rich said.  “I wanted to talk to you about this
morning.”

“
What about
it?”

“
You know.  My fight
with Octavius.”

My eyes widened.  With
the siren nowhere to be found, nobody should have known of him,
even if they had been tussling  with him.  It was a
defense mechanism.  That way he could be gone for weeks at a
time doing whatever it was sirens did, and still come back to an
unsuspecting school.

Had he come back
already?  I cast my gaze around, searching the school grounds
I could see, but Octavius was nowhere to be seen.

“
What are you doing?” Rich
asked, laughing at my paranoid expression.

“
Nothing,” I said,
“nothing.  Sorry Octavius attacked you.  He just loves me
so much.  He has to protect me.”

“
I was just messing with
you,” he said, reaching across the table to nudge my elbow. 
“So I guess since you’re hanging around him so much now, you know
the truth, huh?”

I stared. 
“What?”

“
You know.
The
truth
.”

“
I have no idea what
you’re talking about.”  Rich couldn’t possibly know that
Octavius was a siren, could he?  His family did run Coos
Bay.  Maybe they knew everything.

“
He hasn’t told you?” Rich
looked surprised.

“
I don’t think there’s
anything to tell,” I said.

“
Someone
must
have
told you what you’re destined to do by now,” he
persisted.

“
What
I’m
destined
to do?”  I stood, gathering my notebook and pencil. 
“You’re acting weird, Rich, and I have no idea what you’re getting
at.  I’m going to go skip my last class and go home.  I
don’t think I feel very good.”

He got up, too, following
me as I hurried toward the parking lot.  “I’m not trying to
freak you out!” Rich insisted.  “But you have to know the
truth about yourself sometime!”

I spun on him.  “And
who’s going to tell me?  You?”

Rich shook his head. 
“I’m not allowed.”

“
Who’s telling you what to
do?”  My phone rang, and I sighed, pulling it out of my
pocket.  “Hello?” I asked, wandering away from Rich so I could
hear better.

“
Calliope, it’s Mom. 
How are you?”

“
Fine,” I said
cautiously.

“
Do you think you’ll be
all right alone for another night?”

Another night?  A
whole extra day to work on the Byron problem?  I tried not to
sound too excited.  “Yeah, Mom,” I replied, “I think I can
manage that okay.  How’s that thing going?”

“
Not as well as we had
hoped,” she said.  “Hopefully it shouldn’t take much longer to
hash out all these details.  We’ll try to be back tomorrow
afternoon.  I’m
so
sorry we can’t be there for you
right now.”

“
That’s fine,” I
said.

“
Love you,
Calliope.”

I rolled my eyes. 
“Love you too, Mom.”

She hung up, and I turned
back to Rich, but he was gone.

You have to know the
truth about yourself sometime!
  What in the world could he
have meant?  There was nothing secret about me.  I was
just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill seventeen year old with a
monster in her basement and a siren boyfriend.  No
big.

As if summoned by my
thoughts, Octavius pulled up on his jet-black Kawasaki.  He
jumped the curb and stopped at my side, placing a foot on the
ground for stability.

“
You want to ditch last
class and go home?” he asked.

“
Do I ever,” I sighed,
pulling on my helmet and hopping on the bike behind him, wrapping
my arms around his waist.

Jana and Rita stood in the
entrance of the high school, gaping at me as I gave them a
wave.  Jana was fuming.  I wondered if she had the hots
for my boyfriend.  I couldn’t blame her; he
was
really
sexy.  But he was mine.

“
Hold tight,” Octavius
said, and we rode off again.

Chapter
Thirty-Six

I was getting to be a pro
at this motorcycle thing.   It didn't even make me dizzy
anymore.

We pulled up to my house
within a few minutes – everything in town was no more than ten
minutes from the high school – and parked.  I was about to
further defy my parents, and the thought gave me the warm
fuzzies.  So did the thought of getting away from
Rich.

Why did everything have to
get more complicated?

Byron was still charging on
his table when we went in.  He opened his eyes and looked at
me.

“
I didn't think you were
going to be back for a while,” he said  “I was
worried.”

Octavius moved to scowl in
a corner, and I stepped forward to Byron.  “Worried about
what?  You knew I'd come back.”

“
We don't have much time
to work today.  And...”

“
It's okay, my parents
won't be back until tomorrow,” I said.

Byron smiled.  He
looked so gentle.  I pushed back a lock of hair from his face
and heard Octavius growl in the corner.   My eyes rolled
before I could stop them.  Boys.

“
I wasn't just worried
about that,” Byron said, his face growing serious.  “I heard
noises outside all day.”

“
Outside?   Like
in the rest of the house?   You know the maid comes in,
don't you?” I knew she'd been there.  Things had been
straightened and cleaned, almost as if by magic.  Having hired
help was great some days.

Byron shook his head. 
“Outside.  I heard rattling.”

I turned a worried face to
Octavius.  “You don't think there's more giant octopuses out
there, do you?”

“
Octopi,” Octavius
corrected.  “And no, I don't.  Were there voices, or
anything?”

Byron considered the
question, then shook his head.  “It was just a lot of
commotion, like something was trying to get in.”

Octavius shrugged. 
“It sounds like an animal to me.   I wouldn't worry about
it.”

“
He's been down here a
while,” I said, wringing my hands. “He probably knows what sounds
are weird and what sounds aren't weird.”

Something flickered on
Octavius's face.  He said, “You know, you're probably
right.  We should go look around, make sure there's nothing
here.”

“
Why don't you go?” I
asked, patting Byron's head.  “We have work to do.  I'd
feel a lot safer knowing that you were looking into it.”

Octavius looked like I'd
just killed his favorite puppy.  “I don't know your place
well.”

“
You know it about as well
as I do,” I said.  “You've been here nearly every day I
have.”

I found his stricken
expressions very endearing.  It was good that it was so easy
to torture him; I liked seeing him like this.

“
It's not like you're
going to help, anyway,” Byron said.  It sounded as if he was
trying to be nice, but I knew Octavius wouldn't take it that
way.

He didn't.

“
I've already beaten one
guy today,” he snarled.  “I'd be glad to make it
two.”

“
What?” Byron said. 
His eyebrows disappeared into his hairline.  “When did this
happen?”

Great.  Just what I
needed.  I decided it was time to diffuse the situation as
best I could, so I went up to Octavius and laid my lips on his
cheek.  That one action seemed to mollify him
slightly.

“
Do whatever,” I
said.  “But we do need to get to work, okay?”

“
Fine,” Octavius said
after a moment.  “What are you going to do?”

I put a hand to my
chin.  “Probably assemble the motor.  It's the easiest
part; it shouldn't take more than a couple hours to do.”

“
You promise that you
won't do more right now?”

I knew what he was alluding
to. I nodded.  “Scout's honor.”

Octavius moved toward the
door.  “I guess I'll make a couple of circuits of the
place.  But I'll be back shortly.”

“
Scream if you hear
anything,” Byron said.  He snickered.

A dark cloud seemed to move
over Octavius's sunshiny face, but he slipped out the door
anyway.

I poked Byron.  “Be
nice.  He's trying.”

“
He's not the one for
you,” he said.  “He can't love you like I can.”

I rolled my eyes for what
felt like the millionth time that day, but I felt my insides go
mushy regardless.  “Let's talk about this later, okay? 
We have work to do.”

Byron nodded and unplugged
from his charger.  He sat up and looked around the lab. 
“There's some scraps back here that should work.”

We set to the task with a
purpose.  It wasn't difficult, but it was involving; we had to
do a lot of fitting, welding, and testing.  I was so invested
in the building that I almost didn't notice Octavius's
return. 

Almost.  His gaze
burned through me like a forest fire did a forest.  It made it
a little hard to concentrate, but then, so did the occasional
brushes of skin and meaningful looks between me and
Byron.

It was enough to make a
girl crazy.

Chapter
Thirty-Seven

“
Calliope.  You
should see this.”

I looked up from my work to
see a very dusty Octavius standing near the stairs down to the
lab.  He was holding a shovel.  “Where did you get that?”
I asked.

“
Come here.”

I glanced at Byron, but he
was deeply focused on the work I had given him, leaning in to peer
at the motor through a standing magnifying glass.  It turned
out he had very nimble hands – although not quite as nimble as mine
– and he was good at working with the tiny pieces.

“
I’ll be right back,” I
told him, and he nodded without looking up.

I followed Byron up the
stairs.  “You should brace yourself,” he said.  “You may
be… unpleasantly surprised by what I’m about to show
you.”

“
What is it?” I
asked.

He led me out to the back
yard and through the orchard to the back fields, where I never
bothered to explore.  It was just a whole lot of pasture, and
not too interesting.  Under other circumstances, wherein
Octavius was not nearly so grim and withdrawn, it might have been
nice to get to walk across the grass hand-in-hand with the man I
loved.