Serial Hottie (7 page)

Monday afternoon Angela spent a good half an hour sitting on Seth’s front porch flirting with him over sodas. I’ll admit to watching this, but not because I was spying on Seth. I just found it amusing to watch Angela fail miserably at her attempts to snag the hottie—however creepy—across the street.

Seth seemed to enjoy her company well enough, but he didn’t act toward her anywhere near the same way he acted toward me. He talked, he smiled, he laughed, but he didn’t touch her or crowd her. In fact, from where I stood he almost seemed like a normal person. Almost.

Just as I was considering the possibility that maybe I’d overreacted to him, Angela was whisked off by a group of her friends. I could tell that she’d invited Seth to come along, but he glanced up at my bedroom window and then turned her down. He waved as the car Angela jumped in drove off, and the second it was out of sight he immediately headed toward my house.

My heart raced as I ran downstairs. I told myself again that I’d overreacted and that he was normal, but for some reason I still hesitated to open the door when the doorbell rang. I stood there debating, my hand about to turn the knob, when his silky voice called out to me.

“El-lie,” he sang. “Come out, come out, wherever you are! The cat’s finally away. Time for the mouse to come out and play.”

Instead of opening the door, as slowly and as silently as I could manage, I locked it. Then I crept back up to my room hoping to catch a glimpse of his face as he went back home. I peeked out the side of the shade and waited for him to cross the street, but instead a dark shadow appeared in front of my window. I leapt back and flattened myself against the wall just as Seth knocked on it.

“Ellie,” he called, without the playful singing this time. “C’mon, I know you’re in there. I also know you have a weakness for ice cream. Come hang out with me and we’ll go to Dairy Queen. My treat.”

My mouth watered at the thought of a Heath Blizzard and I nearly opened my window. Except… How did he know about my ice cream addiction?

“At least tell me you found my note.”

Note? What note?

Seth sighed and then, as if reading my thoughts, said, “Look at the high scores on
Skateboard Pro 2000
.”

Of course I checked. How could I not?

I was admittedly relieved when I saw my score still at the top of the list, but the next score was only one point below it and the following eight each one point lower than the next. As baffled by the impossibility of the scores as I was, I was even more surprised by the names claiming them—or words, rather. The top ten names on the high score list now read:

1. Ellie

2. You’re

3. The

4. Only

5. Reason

6. I

7. Don’t

8. Hate

9. Living

10. Here

I blinked. Then I read the message again. Then I had to sit down. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me, and definitely the closest thing to a romantic gesture I’d ever received. I could feel the flush in my cheeks, but while my heart was thumping my brain was only processing fear. How had he done this? And
when
? Those scores had been normal the last time I played this game, and that was
after
the day I’d waken up to find him in my room.

“Ellie?”

Startled, I quietly went back over to my bed, sat there, and just waited. After a minute more I heard Seth get up and leave. I peeked out the window and watched him scale himself down the big tree next to my house.

He went back home and as he walked past the punching bag in his garage he took an angry swing at it. He started to go inside and then turned around and punched the thing again with his other hand. Then, suddenly, he was beating that bag to a bloody pulp. He pounded it for a solid five minutes with punches so fast I swear I couldn’t even see half of them. When he finally stopped to catch his breath he shook his hand and examined his knuckles. After that, with one last glance my direction, he disappeared into his house.

The next day I went to the park to get in on a pick-up game and I noticed Seth watching me from a distance. After that, I spent the rest of the week in my room and I was really starting to go crazy. I was lying on my bed reading a
Spiderman
comic when I heard a car start up. It sounded too nice to be any of my neighbors’ minivans. I looked out my window just in time to see Seth drive off in his BMW.

I didn’t waste a second of this opportunity. I threw my window open, cranked up my stereo, and put on my skates. I’d pulled out my hockey net and had just sailed my first ball through it when a voice behind me said, “I
knew
you were avoiding me.”

I was so startled I nearly fell on my butt. “Where did you…?” My voice trailed off as I searched for the BMW I never heard return.

“I drove around the corner and parked,” Seth said, understanding exactly why I was confused. “I knew you wouldn’t come outside unless you thought I was gone.”

I tried not to blush. I’m not sure how well it worked. “I’m not avoiding you,” I said. Lying through my teeth of course. I looked down and slapped another ball into the net.

“I’m not mad at you, you know,” Seth said.

“Mad at me?” I asked, startled. “Why would you be mad at me?”

“Oh, let’s see. You called me gay. You stomped on my foot. And you’re avoiding me for no reason?”

“You deserved to get your foot stomped, and I did not call you gay,” I said, but my cheeks were burning again. “I called you pretty.”

“You’re still avoiding me.”

“I am not avoiding you.”

Seth clearly didn’t believe me.

“You make me uncomfortable,” I blurted before I could stop myself.

“Because of the intense attraction between us,” Seth said, one hundred percent serious. “That’s natural.”

My mouth gaped.

“You’d get used to it if you’d quit avoiding me.”

Seth took a step closer to me, and my breath caught.

“I am
not
attracted—” I stopped. He was giving me that look again, not believing a word I said.

If he was trying to make me angry, it worked. I shoved him back and shot another ball into the net. Seth watched with a frown. “Aren’t you supposed to be using a puck?”

“When you’re on the ice,” I explained. I couldn’t help my eye roll. Apparently I was right about him not having any game. “But a puck won’t exactly sail down asphalt. In street hockey we use these.” I smacked the last orange rubber ball and it flew directly into the center of the net.

“Teach me how to play,” Seth said suddenly.

“You?” I asked doubtfully. I looked him over. Even now he was clean, his hair styled, not a single wrinkle in his clothes. “You want to learn how to play hockey?”

Seth shrugged. “It seems to be a prerequisite for making friends around here.”

“Angela and her friends don’t play.”

Seth smirked. “Teach me to play,” he said again.

“I don’t think so.”

“I’ll make it worth your while,” Seth said. “We could trade.”

“What do you mean, trade?”

“Trade services. You teach me to play hockey and I teach you something in return.”

I didn’t want to know what he meant by that, but the words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. “Teach me what?”

The wicked grin that flashed across his face confirmed my suspicions. “I can think of a million things I’d like to teach you,” he said in that dangerously silky voice of his.

He reached up and tucked a wild strand of hair behind my ear. I trembled beneath his fingertips. He looked satisfied to have made me shudder and that stab of fear returned in my chest.

“I’m not interested in learning anything you have to teach me.”

“How about self-defense?”

Even though the thought of self-defense training seemed like a wonderful idea—especially with Seth living across the street now—I was sure it involved a lot of physical contact. Not something I was particularly interested in getting into with him.

“I’m not your average wimpy girl. I can take care of myself,” I said and then skated away from him.

I quickly picked up the balls I’d shot and as I reached for the net I was yanked off my feet. Seth grabbed me so forcefully it nearly knocked the wind from me. I gasped and then started to shout. “What are you doing? Let me go!”

I struggled as hard as I could, but he had my feet off the ground and my arms locked at my sides. Unlike the last time he’d held me, his muscles didn’t feel soft. His body felt like steel against mine and I couldn’t break free from the cage his arms created.

“Let me go!” I screamed again.

“Calm down, Ellie,” Seth whispered in my ear. “I’m just trying to show you something.”

“That you’re a psycho?” I yelled. “I’ve already figured that out!”

I kicked my legs behind me, but it didn’t seem to have any affect on his shins, not even with the added weight of the skates.

Seth’s mouth was soft on my ear but his grip didn’t give an inch. “You’re so tempting.”

His lips pressed against my neck in the smallest of kisses. The goose bumps it rose on my skin infuriated me. “Stop it!” I demanded, throwing my head back. “Get your creepy pervert lips off me!”

My headbutt attempt failed and Seth whispered in my ear again. “Look at you right now. I could do anything I wanted to you, and you couldn’t stop me.” He kissed my neck again just to prove his point. “Do you like feeling so helpless?”

I really didn’t. I was more terrified than I could ever remember being. So terrified that water welled up in my eyes. And I. Do. Not. Cry.

“Let me teach you how to defend yourself,” Seth said.

“Put me down!” I demanded, horrified when my voice broke.

He released me then, and I shoved away from him as hard as I could. I blinked away the moisture in my eyes before it became actual tears. No way was I going to let him see just how much he’d scared me.

“You’re insane!”

“I was just trying to prove a point. You need me Ellie.”

“Stay away from me you freak!”

A look of anger swept across Seth’s face, but he didn’t lose his cool. He opened his mouth to say something, but Angela came out the front door. “Ellie, what are you screaming at? Oh, hey Seth! You ready to go?”

Go?
I was confused.

Seth shot me a look I couldn’t read. Then, like a light switch, he flipped on a bright smile for my sister. “I’m ready whenever you are. And might I add, you’re looking particularly ravishing this afternoon.”

Seth took Angela’s hand and kissed it. I would have protested the gross flirting going on before my eyes except that Seth had never acted like that toward Angela before. His sudden odd behavior toward my sister creeped me out.

“So how far away is this place?” Seth asked. After another quick glance my direction he added, “I hope it’s a ways. I’m looking forward to having you all to myself for a while.”

Angela could barely string a sentence together she was so overwrought with ecstasy. “Actually, it’s almost two hours away.”

“Is that all? Well, we may just have to take a detour—get lost along the way.”

At this point, if Seth wanted to attack Angela she’d probably want him too. She had no idea that he was secretly deranged. I may hate my big sister, but I’m not about to let some psycho have her.

I watched Seth open the door to my dad’s car and help Angela into the driver’s seat. After he shut the door for her he walked past me with a wink. “Enjoy the rest of your day, Ellie,” he said with a hint of danger in his voice. “I’m certainly going to enjoy mine.”

Seth opened the passenger door and before he slid into his seat I was already in the back buckling my seatbelt. Both Angela and Seth turned around at the same time to look at me. Angela looked incredulous but Seth was smiling like he just got what he’d wanted. I was beyond freaked, but I didn’t trust him alone with my sister, so I didn’t have a choice.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Angela finally asked, breaking Seth and I from our staring match.

“Coming with.”

“I don’t think so.”

I turned my anger on my sister. “Try and stop me.”

Angela didn’t know how to respond. I think she was more surprised by the fact that I wanted to come with her than she was horrified by the thought of having to bring me. Her eyes narrowed as she looked me over and then she huffed. “Well, you’re not going like
that
.”

“Like what?”

“It’s a Lake party and you’re in ratty jeans and a baggy jersey.”

“Your point?”

“Lake party? You’re supposed to dress in swimwear.”

“Tough nuts. I don’t even own a swimsuit.”

Seth snickered and I glared at him so nastily that he actually threw up his hands in apology and wiped the smile from his face.