Shifting Shadows (Sparks Collide Trilogy) (8 page)

Trent
looked to
Brandon
and said “Bumper Cars?”

“You know I’m down.”
Brandon
replied. Then he looked to me “Kira,
you gonna finish that?”

I’d only managed half of it and was
full. I handed him the plate “It’s all yours. Also, I want in on the bumper
cars.”

“Me too.”
Logan
said.

“Let’s hit it, then” Jay added and we
all went for it. Even Max tagged along to watch.

Three Hours later, the park employees
had to kick us out as the lights shut off and the park closed. They held it open
longer than they were supposed to anyway just for us when a basketball
shoot-out between Brandon and Will ended in tie after tie. Finally, during the
fourth rematch Will had won.

As a result, Demi now held a huge pink
gorilla under her arm. It matched the purple one and the green one I got from
winning at the squirt gun game, twice. Everyone was shocked when I won the
first time and the guys were too competitive for their own good. Thus, after
participating in the insisted rematch, I won again. I wasn’t about to tell them
that spells required you to have amazingly precise aim and focus, so I just
enjoyed my victories with a mysterious smile.

I ended up giving the purple one to
Mena when she and Annabella played Rock, Paper, Scissors for it. That surprised
me that Annabella thought she could beat Mena at a tactical game because I’d
gotten to know Mena a little and she was amazing at that type of thing. When I
said as much Annabella shrugged “I’ve beat her at it before.” She put an arm
around Mena, “she may be smart but I’m unpredictable.” Mena smiled saying “It’s
true, I really did win that out of luck, although I usually add other elements
to make it more challenging but simple works too.”

Overall we had eaten too much, or at
least I had, it didn’t seem to affect anyone else to eat mass amounts of junk
food. On top of the Elephant Ears, we had hot dogs, popcorn, pretzels and even
cotton candy. As per our agreement, Jay paid for mine, grumbling ineffectually
about cheating and never going easy on me again. As per a new unspoken
agreement,
Brandon
ate half of whatever I ordered. He was
always hungry and I was too full so it worked out nicely.

In the end we had ridden The Green
Thing, the others, minus Max, rode it again for us, along with almost every
other roller coaster in the park. Max and Logan hit the arcade most of the
night allowing them to remain intact.

Now we hung around the parking lot,
figuring out our next plans. “We could hit up that twelve year olds birthday
party, after party.”
Brandon
quipped.

“We would but I don’t think you’re
invited anymore after you almost crushed him into the wall with your bumper
car.” I joked.

“Yeah,” Annabella added “I don’t think
you’d want to run into his little sister again, she
did
crush you
against the wall.”

Logan
smiled and shook his head “Six year
olds today, man.”

“Yeah, yeah.
Shut it.”
Brandon
whined and we all snickered.

“Seriously though,”
Logan
said, pointing to the only three cars
in the lot, Max’s,
Trent
’s, and mine. “That Daniel kid’s got a
party going tonight and it’s only
10:30
. Shall we?”

I hesitated, considering. I was tired
and somehow the party scene didn’t feel right after a night like tonight. This
adventure seemed out of place in the real world and I was uncertain about
forcing them to collide. On the other hand, I had completed my first full week
here, had a great job, great roommate, and great friends. In general I had a
lot to celebrate.

That is of course, unless I counted my
possible upcoming attack. I frowned. Crap. I’d been doing so well with not
thinking about that till now. I’d dodged calls from my dad by texting him to
let him know I was fine but not actually picking up, in order to avoid the
dreaded conversation. Though I hadn’t harped on it, it was always in the back
of my mind. I’d felt paranoid all day. Even some of my friends had asked me
once or twice if I was all right when I couldn’t stop looking around. I knew I
was safe in a public area and there was no way for anyone watching to know what
I was unless I unleashed some of my magic. Still, no matter how much fun I had,
it was there. Still was.

Jay, noticing my frown, shook his head
at me “Kira, this day isn’t over. Not yet.” He knew where my head was at
somehow. Probably not the specifics but he knew that I was worried like I had
been at the pub earlier. He probably knew because maybe his mind was on his
problems too. He got it and he was trying to throw us both another lifeline and
at least a little more time.

I nodded, my eyes never leaving his and
metaphorically grabbed on. “All right, who’s in my car? If you want shotgun,
you should call it now.”

Jay nodded imperceptibly. While
everyone fought for that spot, Jay shouted “I’ll call shotgun of
Trent
’s.” This was followed by loud groans
because no else had thought of that.

Eventually my car held Mena, Will and
Demi with
Brandon
up front with me.
Trent
’s car held Jay and Annabella and Max
drove with
Logan
in his car.

Brandon
had me laughing hysterically with his
impressions of our friends while Will intermittently fed me the directions from
memory. When I caught a breath I asked “How do you know the roads so well,
Will?”

I was kind of curious but in truth, I
really just wanted to hear Will speak. At first I thought he was shy but I
realized that whenever he did speak, he spoke with purpose and confidence. I
reconsidered and found he was more about letting his actions speak for him. I
respected that. Still, I wanted to get to know him too.

He cleared his throat. “Driving calms
me and helps me think. The second I turned 16 years old I got my driver’s
license and I was out on these roads, going anywhere.

“Wow” I responded

“What?” Will said.

“It’s just… I totally get that. I feel
the same way about my home in
Boston
. I was home schooled, so driving
around could sometimes be my only freedom from being cooped up all day.”

“Yeah” Demi added “That’s just like
Will, though he got the added benefit of getting away from his crazy parents.”

There was an awkward pause.

“Basically, yeah.” Will said as he
slipped an arm around Demi, silently giving her support for her slip.

Brandon
changed the subject “What do you think
the odds are that there will be food at the party?”

Demi groaned loudly “You can’t be
serious. Even I’m stuffed and I didn’t eat Kira’s leftovers.”

Mena laughed “I doubt it’s that type of
party Bran but there’ll be plenty to drink. I’m sure you’ll be just fine.”

“I can deal with that but at
2:00am
when you’re all craving fast-
food,
I get to say I told you so.”

The car was full of eye rolls at that
one. “Turn right up at the next light and you’ll pull into the apartment
complex” Will directed.

I went into the right lane and watched
through my review mirror as
Trent
’s car did the same. Demi’s voice came
again from the backseat but it was hesitant and very unlike her. “Kira, was
Jay…was he ok?
Today?”

Aha, I knew they had been looking at
him funny. “Yeah, he was totally fine. I mean a little toasted when I found him
but I think he’d just been having a bad day.” I added the last part quickly “We
had fun, though. Why do you ask?”

Demi’s voice came out strongly again,
back to normal. “Oh no reason, I had fun too, didn’t you guys.”

“Yeah” parroted Brandon and Mena at the
same time. Wow, guys good cover up, not.

“Oh look,” Demi added “we’re here.” I
nodded as I found a visitor’s spot and parked.

The party was like the one from last
weekends except for a few key differences. One, the party was in an apartment,
not a house. Two, in place of a live band there was music blasting from
speakers hooked up to Mac laptop. Three, this one being most significant to me,
I had several friends this time and I even recognized many of the other faces
there. Had I really only been here a week?

As my group spread out, mingling with
others and doing their own things, I hung around and leaned against the
speakers, exhausted. A handsome guy came over to me and though he seemed
familiar, I couldn’t remember him exactly. “Hello Kira, you enjoying my party?”

I tilted my head, trying to place the
person who obviously knew me. “Sure, it’s great.” I smiled, trying to buy time.

“You don’t remember me, do you?”

So busted. “I’m trying to, I know that
I know you but I don’t remember where from.”

“Hmm, let’s see if we can refresh your
memory.” In a flash, he had me pulled close to his chest with his arms on my
shoulders. I looked up at his jaw and remembered.

“You’re the guy I ran into last week.
It’s, um, Daniel, right? I heard a Daniel was throwing the party but I hadn’t
made the connection.”

He spoke into my ear “Very good. And I
was right when I told you you’d be seeing me again.”

I backed up out of his hold quickly.
“So you did.” I dusted off my skirt for invisible specks of dust as I tried to
get a hold of the situation. “How are you?”

He eyed me closely “Great, now. Things
seem to be looking up, don’t they? Care to dance?”

I hesitated “I don’t know… I’m pretty
tired.”

“Kira, it’s
my
party, you won’t
dance to one song with me?” He flashed his Colgate smile.

The car ride had done me in. I’d been
happier than I’d been in months today and then I get in the car with my pack
mates and it all came crashing down on me. Here I thought I was done with the
roller coasters for the day. Guess not, lucky me.

Suddenly, I was too sober for this.
Funny how being sober hadn’t bothered me until now but regardless I needed a
drink A.S.A.P. From the second I got into the front seat of
Trent
’s car I felt the darkness pulling me
down like an anchor had attached itself to my ankles.

I hadn’t said a word the whole ride and
I barely noticed that we had parked until
Trent
tapped my shoulder. “Hey, dude, we’re
here.” I nodded and felt myself moving but was unsure about how I was doing so.
In a blink I was in the kitchen area, downing shots of some shitty flavored
vodka but I hardly tasted it.

When I felt that I could breathe again,
I looked around. Same old people, same old thing. Trent, Logan, and Brandon
were surrounded by girls in the corner of the room. Max was by the looks of it,
killing at the pool table that sat awkwardly in the middle of the room. Mena,
Kira and Annabella weren’t in sight so by my best guess they’d hit the
bathroom, girls always did that together for God knows why. Demi and Will were
playing beer pong a few feet away from me but they might as well have been on
another planet. I took another shot.

I knew everyone thought I was jealous
of them. They were wrong but I let people think what they want. I had to let go
of defending myself from other people’s bullshit a long time ago. They were
perfect for each other and always had been. I told him time and again to ask
her out when we were growing up and he always said no. What I wanted was my
best friend back, for things to be like they were between us. Will had left me
here. Then he came back and put an even greater distance between us.

In his head, he had to be far away from
me in order for him to feel right about loving our female Alpha. It was so
effed up. Losing my best friend and my, everything but blooded, sister on top
of everything else.

It wasn’t even Demi’s fault but she
wasn’t helping any either. I wanted the past. I wanted to go back so bad, for
so many reasons and it was a sickness inside of me. If there was one thing I
knew it was that the past was gone and things would never be the same again.
This particular day was a constant reminder of that and as of three years ago
always had been.

I felt dizzy and found a bar stool on
the other side of the kitchen counter, to stumble onto, bringing the bottle and
the shot glass with me. “Jay, do you want me to take you home.”

I didn’t even turn around. “Go away,
Will. You’re good at that.”

“Look, you don’t have to do this Jay.
You don’t have to do this alone.”

“Really, I’m pretty sure no one else is
dealing with this shit.” I lifted my glass and gestured around the room.