Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance (3 page)

“Get in the car
and drive,” Jimmy said.  He leaned forward to talk to George and as his head
got nearer to the girl, he could smell perfume on her, but had no idea what
kind it was.  Perfume was more of the foreign language that women spoke and he
did not understand.

She laughed and
suddenly put a hand on Jimmy’s knee.  He felt his heart skip, and he looked
into her eyes again.

“My name’s Jimmy,”
he said.  “Jimmy Parker.”

“My name’s
Sapphire,” she said.

“Like the color of
your dress,” Jimmy said quietly.  Again, his internal monologue had suddenly
come right out of his mouth.

She nodded. 
“Exactly.  Blue’s my favorite color.”

George climbed
back into the car and shifted into drive.  Jimmy thought, George looked a bit
irritated until he looked at Sapphire. 
Something about her must melt hearts
,
Jimmy thought, because George’s features suddenly softened and he smiled.

“I’m George.”

She smiled.  “I’m
glad you guys came along.  You never know who you might meet around here,
especially at night.”

“Why are you
walking?” George, ever the detective, asked.

“It seemed like
such a nice night,” she said.

“But where were
you headed?” George persisted.  “I mean, you weren’t out on the road hoping to
get picked up by two losers from Knorr High to go to the prom, were you?”

“Two losers?” she
said, dodging the question with one of her own.  “I don’t think you two are
losers.”

George laughed. 
“You are definitely not from this part of town, then.”

“No,” she said
quietly.  “I’m not from this side.  However, there are parts around here that
are sort of thin.  Things can get through, and it was such a nice night.”

George gave Jimmy
a puzzled expression.  Jimmy was transfixed by Sapphire.  When he looked up at
George and saw his expression, he just shrugged.  Jimmy turned back and stared
at Sapphire.  He did not want to take his eyes off of her.  There was something
so odd about her.  Her skin was so pale that she almost glowed in the dimming
light.  Her dress was a dazzling blue.

“Why do you say
you’re losers?” she asked.  Jimmy did not realize for at first, that she had
directed the question at him.

“We just are,” he
said.  “We are not among the popular kids in school.  Why do you think we’re
headed to the prom stag?”

She looked from
Jimmy to George and smiled.  “I guess it was luck I ran into you.”

Jimmy laughed. 
Again, it was too loud given the nature of her statement.  “Yes, I guess it
was.”

“Do you like to
dance?” she asked, staring directly at Jimmy.

Jimmy was at a
loss for words.  No, he did not like to dance.  He never danced.  When he was
younger he had attempted to dance in the seventh grade.  The mockery and
laughter that had followed confined him to holding up the walls at all future
dances.  However, as he stared into the deep pools of green that were
Sapphire’s eyes, the idea of dancing suddenly seemed perfectly reasonable.

“I love to dance,”
he said. Once again, he was surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth.

“You do not!”
George exclaimed as he rounded another curve way too fast.  For the first time,
Jimmy realized that he had not been as terrified of George’s driving after they
had found Sapphire.

“I like to dance,”
Sapphire said, still staring intently at Jimmy with her intense green eyes.

“We’ll dance,”
Jimmy said quietly.

“Man, what the
hell is wrong with you?” George said, laughing.

“George?” Jimmy
said questioningly, his eyes never wavering from Sapphire’s face as he studied
her eyes and stared at the hint of a smile on her lips.

“Yeah?”

“Shut up,” Jimmy
said.

Sapphire laughed. 
She held up one hand as if to stifle the laugh.  George turned his attention
back to the road and fumed.  He reached out with one hand and turned on the
radio, and then stepped hard on the gas.  Loud rock and roll filled the car,
interspersed with loud blasts of static.  The boat of a car had a terrible
radio and a terrible antenna.

“Oh, I like that,”
Sapphire said.  “This is good stuff to dance to.”

George tapped his
fingers on the steering wheel in time with the music.  Jimmy did his best to
snuggle closer to Sapphire without trying to look like he was doing so.  She
smiled at him and tapped her hand on his knee in time with the music.  His face
flushed and the blood rushed to his ears. 

“Are you cold?” 
Jimmy asked, and he noticed a strange quaver in his voice that he didn’t recognize.

She nodded.  “A
little bit.  It’s a little cold tonight.”

George let out
another of his laughs.  “It’s about seventy degrees.”
“George,” Jimmy said harshly. 

George turned
towards him and shrugged, as if he had no idea what Jimmy was talking about.

“We’re almost
there,” Jimmy said.

Sapphire nodded. 
“Great.  Do you think your friends will like me?”

Jimmy laughed a
short, snorty laugh.  “My only real friend is George here.  Despite his
rudeness, I think he likes you. And the few other people I know will be so
amazed that you’re with me, I don’t think they’ll care.”

Her smile faded. 
“You don’t have a girlfriend?”

Jimmy shook his
head after shooting another warning look at George.  “No.”

“Why not?” she
asked.

            “As I
said,” Jimmy replied, “we are not exactly the most popular kids in school.”
            She laughed, and a chill went up Jimmy’s spine.  “You’re a very
nice young man, Jimmy.  I think you sell yourself short.  I think both of you
do.  Most people probably would have just driven past me.  You stopped to make
sure I was OK.”

Jimmy blushed in
return.  George just shook his head.  The car barreled through the remaining
roads, up the steep hills and back down, taking the sweeping curves at speeds
that would normally have left Jimmy in a puddle on the floor.  Jimmy barely
noticed. He felt invincible.  Something about Sapphire had him dazzled.  His
heart hammered loudly in his chest.  He felt something he had rarely, if ever,
felt before.  It was much later that he realized that that feeling was
self-confidence. 

They pulled into
the school parking lot.  The lot was jammed with cars, every one of them, even
the lowliest, looking better than the one George drove.  They found a spot at
the far end, amidst the gravel and almost in the football field behind the
school.  As soon as the loud engine and thumping rock and roll had ceased, they
heard the music from inside the gym.  When Jimmy looked back at the building,
he could see pulsing lights emanating from the windows set high in the gymnasium
wall.

“Sounds like the
party has already started,” George said.

           
“Yeah,” Jimmy said.  “You go in first, George.  I’m going to follow behind you
with Sapphire.”
            George paused and opened his mouth to say something, but then he saw
the look on Jimmy’s face and shrugged.  He reached into the backseat and found
his jacket, put it on and closed the driver’s side door. 

Jimmy listened to
George’s feet crunching on the gravel as he walked away.  He finally pulled his
gaze away from Sapphire’s face and looked around to confirm that George had,
indeed, entered the gym.  He turned back to Sapphire.  Her eyes bore into him.

“Are we going to
dance?” she asked.

Jimmy nodded. 
“Sure.  First, though, I have to ask you something.”
            She nodded, her eyes never leaving his.

“Who are you?” he
asked.  “Is this all a joke?”
A look of pain crossed her face.  “What would make you say that, Jimmy?”

Jimmy laughed. 
“Because this is supremely weird.  I mean, really.  Think about things from my
side.  I am one of the biggest losers in the school.  I am attending my senior
prom with my equally dismissed best friend and we are driving in the oldest,
ugliest, and loudest car in the town.  Then, from out of nowhere, you appear on
the side of the road.  You give us only your first name, make some strange
comments, and then decide to go with us to a dance at a school that, evidently,
you do not go to.”

He stared at her
for a moment, catching his breath.  She continued to stare at him intently, as
if she had only one gear for looking at people and that was intently.  He
thought he saw tears forming in her eyes. 

“Then there’s the
fact that you are, without a doubt, the most beautiful girl I have ever laid
eyes on,” he said.  Again, he was unaware of where these words were coming
from.  “And you seem to like me.  You even seem romantically inclined towards
me.  That never happens.  None of this ever happens.  So can you see why I am
dubious about this?  It all seems like an elaborate hoax, set up to make me
look foolish. I’ve seen that movie with the pig’s blood, and I don’t have the
power to strike back like that girl did, so please spare me getting played for
a fool tonight.”

Her eyes had
brightened when he told her how beautiful he thought she was, but they darkened
again when he finished.  Sapphire looked down at her hands for a moment.  Jimmy
thought she was either about to cry or reveal that this was all a joke.  He
braced himself for the humiliation.  Then, suddenly, she looked up at him
again.

“Jimmy,” she said,
“you are too hard on yourself.  Maybe, just maybe, sometimes good things happen
to nice people.  Learn to accept a miracle when one falls into your lap.”

She leaned forward
suddenly.  Before he even realized what she was doing, her lips were pressed
against his.  Jimmy’s eyes opened wide and, at first, he tried to pull back. 
When he did, she pushed forward, keeping her lips on his.  He finally relaxed
and let himself kiss her back.  Her lips, at first, were very cold, like ice
and then they warmed at his touch.  He felt a tingling start at the very tips
of his toes and wash over his body and felt sweat spring out on his forehead. 
He lifted his right arm and put it on her shoulder and, with his other hand
felt her skin beneath her dress.  He heard music, from somewhere, and it
sounded like old-time music from some forgotten era, like a memory or a fading
radio station.  It was faint, in the background, but enough to drown out the
sound of the music from the gym.  Then, even more faintly, he heard something
that sounded like a scream.  He pulled back. 

“Let’s go dance,”
she said, and smiled.

Jimmy nodded and
opened the passenger door.  His legs felt weak and his muscles felt as if they
had been ripped out and replaced with over-cooked pasta.  He managed to get out
of the car and stood next to the open door and held out his hand to help
Sapphire.  When she was out, she turned and put her hand in his while he closed
the door.  When he walked, he felt as if he was floating about six inches above
the asphalt.

“Let’s dance,” he
said.

When
Jimmy and Sapphire entered the gymnasium, the music nearly bowled
them over.  The bass was thumping and the walls were vibrating.  Jimmy was
almost ready to head back into the parking lot and then he looked to his left
and saw that Sapphire was smiling and she turned to look at him.  The colored
lights washed over her face and he was lost.  That feeling came over him again,
and he suddenly had the most powerful urge to dance.

It was then that
he looked around and noticed that most of the people in the gym were looking at
them.  George was standing in the middle of the room; gathered around him were
what appeared to be several members of the football team.  George looked as if
he was in mid-speech.  All of the football players were staring at the door
Jimmy and Sapphire had just walked through.  While there were several students
still dancing as if their lives depended on it on the dance floor, most of the
dancers had stopped, as well.

“I think our
entrance was noticed,” Jimmy said.

Sapphire’s smile
managed to get wider. “Let them watch.  Come on.”

She grabbed his
hand. For an instant, her hand was ice cold, and then, suddenly, it was warm,
and then hot.  She pulled on his hand and led him onto the dance floor.  The
crowd on the floor parted to let them in, and Sapphire led them right to the
center of the floor. 

Jimmy was not
normally a dancer.  In fact, he had the coordination of a tree with Dutch Elm
disease.  As such, he normally avoided going anywhere near the dance floor.  If
he could be coaxed to the dance floor, he stayed near the edge of the swaying
throng and tried to move as little as possible.  Normally, Jimmy just moved
back and forth to something resembling
the beat and did his best to not look like an
idiot.

But something came
over Jimmy when Sapphire grabbed his hand.  It was like a shot of electricity
ran through his body, from the tips of his toes to the top of his head.  The
world seemed to disappear behind them, fading out like an old television
signal.  Her eyes captured his, and he soon found himself moving along with her
in a way he had never moved with anyone else.  In moments, he was lost.