Siren's Song (6 page)

As Patricia carries out her homemade chocolate cheesecake, my cell phone rings in the foyer.

“Probably your dad, Jule,” Richard says as I jump up.

“Julietta?” Dad asks, as if he isn't sure I'd be the one answering my own cell.

“Yeah, Dad.”

“Where are you?”

I glance at my watch. Eight-thirty, oops. “Sorry, Dad, I thought I'd be home by now. I'm having dinner with the Ashes. Carly brought me right from the hospital.”

“It's getting late.” His voice sounds off, worried, and the old uneasiness climbs up from my stomach.

“I'll be home in fifteen minutes.” I don't feel like eating dessert, anyway. Not with that guilty, creepy feeling surfacing like a bad burp.

“Sorry, but I have to go,” I apologize to the table of Ashes. “Dad's home and I didn't get to talk with him much earlier.”

“Of course,” Patricia says and grabs my plate. “We'll just make this to go. I'll cut a piece for Max, too, and some lasagna for tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” I mumble. I run upstairs to grab my book bag and turn.
Crap!
Eric blocks the doorway. For a split second I feel trapped. My heart takes off again. Fight or flight? I shift from foot to foot.

“Hey,” he says and gives me a lopsided grin. He looks into my eyes, but then his gaze shifts to my chin. “Um, I was wondering…would you like to go out sometime?”

My mouth opens, but only a silent exhale exits. I suck in. “Like, go out, go out?”

“Uh, yeah. Pizza or a movie. You could come by and see my new apartment.”

“Geez, Eric.” What should I say? I mean, he's Eric, like a brooding big brother to me. It's kind of…
ick
. Granted, he has definitely filled out. He's huge, really. He has to be to play football for a large university. And he has the Ashe good looks. He probably has sorority sisters throwing themselves at him. Why would he bother with me?

“I k-kind of, well, think of you as my b-big brother.” I stutter through the excuse, lame but true. “I thought I was just a little sister to you.” Not to mention the possibility of his family hiding a shrine to me somewhere in his house. Could he have been taking pictures of me and my mom?

He smiles then, and his gaze rises to mine. “Well, you've kind of grown up.” His eyes travel down my shirt. “You'll be eighteen next year. Legal, you know.”

Ooooh, ick! Legal for what? “Um…thanks, I think. But I don't think it would be a great idea. At least not until I forget that you put a frog in my sleeping bag at Carly's fourteenth birthday party,” I say, trying to lighten the heavy feel to the air between us.

He chuckles. “Well, just think about it, okay?”

“Ah, okay.”
Not
.

He follows me down the stairs. “Bye, Ashes.” I glance at Carly and she starts to stand.

“I'll drive Jule home,” Eric says. Carly freezes mid-rise, her eyes questioning.

I become a statue and she lowers herself back down. Richard smiles wide and waves us out the door while Patricia hands me two perfectly-folded paper bags. Eric and I walk to his Camry in silence. Each footfall on the gravel is obscured by the thumping of blood through my ears.

He turns out onto the road. “So, you still thinking of going all the way to Boston for college?”

“Ah, that's the plan, but I'll have to see how things are going with my mom. And BU might not accept me.”

“If they hear you sing, they will.” He drives in silence for a minute. I count the street lamps until he reaches my dark road. “I was thinking that I might want to play for Boston,” he murmurs.

My head snaps toward him. “But you're doing great at State. You're in your second year there.”

He shrugs. “Boston's been doing really well this season and they have a strong business program.”

I feel my throat clog. Would he really follow me all the way to Massachusetts? He pulls into my driveway. “Thanks for the ride,” I manage to whisper. I open the door, but his hand closes around my wrist. I tug against his hold.

“Just think about it,” he says. “Coffee sometime.” And he releases me.

4

“It's choice—not chance—that determines your destiny.”
~Jean Nidetch

“You smell nice—flowers with a hint of chocolate.”

Luke's voice is like an epinephrine shot, direct into a main artery. I glare around the open door of my locker and talk over my ricocheting heart. “You don't do surprises, but you sneak up on people.” He wasn't in homeroom, so I hadn't been expecting him.

He opens his locker without even turning the combination. “And you lose yourself in the details.”

“What?” I stare at the dark hair that brushes his strong jaw line. A rough outline of a beard and mustache shadows his face, like he forgot to shave. Testosterone must be cranking in his lean, sculpted body.

“I make the same amount of noise as other people.” He turns to me and shrugs, a teasing grin on his perfect mouth. “You're just engrossed with the details of life, so you didn't notice when I walked up.”

“You mean the thrilling details of my utterly bland locker?”

He glances inside the narrow metal cage. I haven't even had time to hang a mirror or pictures. “Perhaps you're engrossed with whatever is whirling around under that thick mane of rich, dark silk.” He sifts his fingers through my hair and lets it drop.
Rich, dark silk?
Who says that? I forget to breathe as I engross myself in the minute details of how his lips formed those words when he was looking at me with those midnight-blue eyes.

“Very well. I'll try again.” He pulls his face back around to his side of my locker. “Hey, Jule,” he practically yells and pokes his head around. “You smell nice.”

I stare open mouthed. “Uh…it's lilac something.”

“Like that tree off your porch. It's lilac, isn't it?”

“Yeah, I like to sit near it when I do my homework. The fresh air after being in school all day is refreshing.” Oh God! I'm babbling now.

He slams his locker shut with a cocky smile and walks beside me toward chemistry. “Aye, fresh air. Ye should feel it coming off the mountains. No amount of coffee will wake ye up like that.”

I squint at Luke. Did he just rattle off a Scottish brogue like a Highland native? “Where are you from?” But before Luke can say anything else Matt Kenzie jogs up like he's been looking for us. His usual playboy smile is muted by a serious set to his jaw.

“Hey, Luke,” he calls. Matt looks directly at me and his grin broadens. It's the grin I've seen him release on a girl he's trying to impress. It certainly worked on Carly. “Hey, Jule.”

“Hey,” I mumble back and keep walking. He falls in line with us.

“So, Jule.” He said my name, so now I have to look at him or be a rude beyotch. I balance on that decision for a moment before turning to him. After all, Carly doesn't seem to hate him, at least not consciously. I wait impatiently for him to talk.

“You want to go out this weekend?” Matt asks. Shock must have twisted my face because he chuckles. “We haven't given
us
a chance.” In the periphery I see Luke snap his teeth shut. “There's a bonfire near the golf course, Saturday night. We could, you know, go together.”

“Mathi–Matt,” Luke says softly. It sounds like a warning. My gaze ping-pongs between them.

But Matt holds up his large paw. “I just want her to know she's got options here.”

What the hell? Options?
Is he serious? “Um, geez, Matt, thanks, but I'm already going to the bonfire with my
best friend
, Carly. You know Carly…Carly Ashe.”

“God, yes, I remember Carly Ashe.” Matt smiles and holds his hand to his heart like he is remembering the love of his life. “Carly Ashe has the sweetest little a—”

“Enough, Matt,” Luke says and shoves him. Matt must weigh close to two hundred pounds, but his body flies across the hallway into a set of lockers. Matt comes back, a casual strut at war with the anger building like a nuclear mushroom in his eyes. He doesn't seem hurt at all.

Luke stares him down. “Coming back for more?”

Several teachers step into the hallway at the commotion. Students gawk, a few stepping up to fill the teachers in on the tense situation.

Luke's face ices over.

“Maybe later,
brother
,” Matt draws out the last word. He smiles at me despite the sharp glint in his eyes. “Just think about it, Jule. You've got options.” Matt saunters off. I let out a little huff in bewilderment, my eyes wide.

Matt is the second guy telling me to “think about it” in the last twenty-four hours. Options? What the hell does that mean? Did Luke say he liked me? I don't think Luke's given me an option. What would I say if he did? The thought clenches in my stomach, sending a ripple of adrenaline out through me in all directions. It's the same thrill you get at the end of the slow, jolting trip up a rollercoaster as it crests, just before you plummet toward possible death.

I walk numbly into the chemistry room, my body overloaded with nervous energy. Once again, all eyes seem to be on me. Soooo what I don't need. Taylin stares me down as I take my seat next to Kiara. My knee bounces up and down rapidly under the desk.

“Whew,” Kiara whispers loudly. “What was that about?”

I shake my head as Mr. Perkins begins a lecture about not loitering in the halls before class. “We have a no-tolerance policy toward violence at Cougar Creek, or even threat of violence.” Everyone might be glancing toward the back where Luke sits against the wall with Taylin, but I know Luke's staring into my back, where I swear my skin warms.

Chemistry drags as I try to concentrate on the information Mr. Perkins jots on the board. In the end, I just copy everything he writes. I don't even know what the topic is. Apparently, my absorption of details doesn't pertain to chemistry.

At the tone, I bolt out of my seat and stride toward the girl's bathroom. It's bad enough Luke will be in my next two classes, I don't need to walk with him, too. He brings way too much attention to me at a time I'd like to just blend into the pale concrete walls. Forget that he's gorgeous in every way I can think of. Forget that he said I smell like flowers and have silky hair. Forget the soft feel of his fingers along my cheek when he touched me. He is too complicated. My life is way too complicated already without worrying about a guy with a temper problem bringing every set of eyes toward me.

After splashing water on my face, reapplying my lip gloss, and ignoring the triumphant, faux-pity stare of Rachel Manx, I head out to grab my English notebook and run to class. As I round the corner to my locker, Luke and Matt are standing toe to toe. I freeze. Taylin turns to pierce me with a thorny stare. She grabs Luke's wrist and the two guys turn my way, but I've already decided to go to English without my notebook. Maybe I need to start carrying the contents of my locker with me all day.

* * *

Luke doesn't say much to me the rest of the day, and I make it to drama without any more “options,” dark stares, or murderous body language. Derek plops down next to me on one side and Madison on the other.

“So, I hear Matt and Luke almost broke into a fist fight over you this morning,” Derek says.

“Actually, Luke was defending Carly.” Not that I want to give details, but I need to stop the gossip that this was about me.

Madison shakes her head. “I was there. Even if Carly's name came up, the whole thing was obviously about you, Jule. How'd you manage to bag the interest of the two hottest guys in school?”

“Hey, what am I?” Derek asks indignantly. He sits up straighter and flexes his modestly impressive biceps.

“Number three hot guy,” Madison fires back. “That's not bad out of a student body of thirteen hundred.” Derek looks placated and props his feet up on the seat in front of him.

“Have you all thought about what roles you'd like to audition for?” Ms. Bishop asks. Her eyes scan the seats, pausing briefly on me. A few students answer while I stay mute and as small as possible. “There's a star in every one of you,” she continues. Derek snickers like he doesn't believe that the rest of the class could possibly have star quality like him.

“Today we will work on learning some of the songs,” she continues. “For some of you, this will be a repeat, I'm sure.”

Oh yeah, I've been hearing the songs from
Phantom of the Opera
since I was a baby.
Don't sing
. My promise to my mother grips my throat and I sigh. For the next hour I'll just follow along silently. Ms. Bishop watches me with narrowed eyes. She knows I can sing every word.

When the tone sounds, I leap up and out the doors. I don't need her questions. I round the corner to my locker, holding my breath. I release it when I see Carly, only Carly, waiting there. She had a dentist appointment at lunch, so I haven't seen her since this morning. My shoulders relax.

Her gaze scans the hall with overly large eyes. “I swear, Jule, I'm nearly freaking out,” she says as I throw books into my bag.

“What's up?” I try to sound casual. Could anything more have happened I don't know about?

“Kiara said that Matt and Luke were fighting over you this morning, and that Luke punched Matt into the lockers. And then Hunter saw the two of them arguing at Luke's locker.” She thumps said locker. “Hunter couldn't hear what they were saying, but Matt was talking a lot, and Luke was scowling like he was going to punch Matt again.”

“Luke didn't punch Matt; it was a shove.”

“Across the hall!” she hisses. I see the lines of hurt around Carly's eyes.
Shit
, she still likes the Neanderthal.

“Carly, I don't like Matt. I don't think he likes me, either. I'm just someone he hasn't…” I am going to say “screwed”, but luckily my brain kicks in. “…someone he hasn't gone out with yet. And he seems to be real close to Luke. He called him brother again. Maybe they have a rivalry going on. Matt's never looked at me twice before, and I didn't just become supermodel quality overnight. Which is what he usually goes for.” I indicate Carly's adorable, shapely, yet slender build. “When I mentioned you, he seemed to… well, remember how gorgeous you are.”