Breathe (4 page)

“We’re gonna have to run for it.” He grinned and grabbed my hand. We ran all the way to his car laughing like crazy people. I felt like I was ten again, playing in the rain with my friends after school. Some more of the heaviness of the past two years lifted. I could see a future for one brief moment in which not every part of my life was covered by the cloud of Daisy’s murder.

As we reached his car, lightning cracked, and I could smell the sulphur. I yelped and he laughed. He opened my car door and ran around to his side and got in. After he closed his door, he shook his head like a dog. I tried to hold my books up to block the water, but it didn’t really matter. I was already soaked. “Aargh!” I laughed.

He grinned at me, and I saw the resemblance to Trenton. Except Easton was beautiful, and Trenton was only a shadow of his brother. Maybe in two years Trenton would be amazing too, but right now there was no comparison. He started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

“So, I’ve been wondering.” He looked over at me. “The other night at Wal-Mart…”

Here we go on the train back to Freakville.

“The fainting, you mean?” He nodded. “It just happens sometimes if I get really startled. No big deal. Unless I hit my head on the way down…” Well, that helped me not to sound like a complete loser. There were two things I did not want to talk about with this guy and this was one of them. I mean, I really didn’t want to tell him that my fainting was also related to my menstrual cycle, blood loss, and anemia. Wouldn’t that put a lovely picture in his head? Time to change the subject. “So, are you going to the pep rally tomorrow?” He looked over at me and smiled like I wasn’t fooling him by trying to change the subject.

“Yeah. Well, if I don’t, I would get benched, so…”

I nodded. Silence settled over the car, but it wasn’t the kind of silence in which no one knows
what
to say. It was the kind where someone is figuring out
how
to say it.

“So, if you faint when you are startled, why didn’t you faint by your locker today? Instead, you were running like the Devil hisself was chasin’ you.”

My skin went cold and then hot. This was my ridiculous life. Here I was with Dream Guy, and I couldn’t even enjoy it. If I told him about my sister now, he would just feel sorry for me. Pity is not attractive. He may think I am nuts right now, but the truth would be worse.
Half-truth it is.

“Um, I think I just got spooked, not startled like when Trenton came up behind me. I watched something scary last night, so…” I had watched the house phone, scared it would ring again. No lie there.

“Oh, huh.” He looked out the windshield and seemed to be deciding something. The weirdest part of this whole wet car ride was that I didn’t want it to end, and I couldn’t wait to get out of the car. “So what was up with the flowers?”

And there it was. The big question I didn’t know how to half-truth my way out of. I needed to be careful here. I felt this weird need to spill my guts to him. Something about him made me want to just crawl in his lap and tell him everything about my life. If I did that, though, he would never look at me the same way. I wasn’t sure why he wanted to know, but it wasn’t worth the risk.

“Oh my gosh, I have to call the twins. I’m sorry. I’m totally late, and I need to be sure they got home okay.”

I rummaged around in my bag for my phone again. Now that I was thinking about it, I really did need to make sure they were all right. I checked my phone. No missed calls. I speed-dialed Lily. Straight to voice mail. Wait. What? I took a breath and hit the number three again. Voice mail. If she’d let her phone battery die, I was going to let her have it. I told myself not to panic. I pushed four. One ring. Two rings.

“S’up?” Caedan popped his
p
.

“Where’s Lily?” I barked.

“Downstairs doing homework and being an overachiever. She probably asked for extra work.”

“Why is her phone off? You guys are supposed to keep them on, charged, and with you all the time. Even in the house, Caedan.”

“Well, I have mine, don’t I? Brainiac got hers broken when some doofus threw her backpack and her phone got smashed in the front pocket. Mom’s gonna be pissed!”

“Don’t say pissed. Is she okay?” This was why I always called Lily first.

“Looks fine to me.” He was so not helpful.

“Never mind, I’ll talk to her. I’m on my way home.”

“Whatever,” he grumbled.

“Love you.”

“Love you too, freak.”
Click
. One improvement in our lives since Daisy’s murder? We never, ever, hung up the phone or said good-bye without saying I love you. Even when we were mad.

I sat back in my seat and sighed. “Ugh. Sorry. You gotta love twelve-year-old boys.”

Easton laughed. “Yeah, little brothers are a challenge. Trenton is like a puppy on steroids. He goes one hundred miles an hour forever, and then all of a sudden he’ll just pass out and sleep like the dead. It’s all or nothing with him.”

I grinned. “I can totally see the puppy thing. He’s very energetic.” We were turning onto my street. I pointed out the house. When we stopped in front, I saw the drapes in the front window twitch. Great.

“Thanks for the ride.”

As I went to open the car door, he gave me a look and said, “Wait.” He jumped out of the car and came around to my side. By the time he got to my door he had his jacket off. He opened my door, saying, “Sorry, I forgot my umbrella. Here.” He held out his hand to help me out of the car and held the jacket over my head.

“You don’t have to walk me, I can just make a run for it.” It felt so awkward having him open my door and protect me from the rain. I was used to doing things for myself.

“Ma’am you are in the South now, and a gentleman walks a lady to her door.” He grinned.

“I have noticed a strange tendency towards politeness since I’ve been here.” We walked hunched under his jacket. As we stepped up onto the porch, he continued to hold the jacket over our heads, and it seemed like we were in our own little bubble.

“Thanks for the ride and soft landing.” I looked up directly into his eyes and lost the ability for coherent thought.

He grinned down at me. “Absolutely my pleasure, Jasmine. No more scary movies for you. I may not be there to catch you the next time.” He winked at me and walked back to his car. Holy Cow, was I in trouble.

As soon as I got inside, the interrogation began.

“Who was that boy, Jas?” Lily asked, her eyes narrowed. “You are not supposed to get rides from strangers. You know better!” She was practically hyperventilating. Her breath was coming out in bursts, and she was shaking.

“Lily, it’s fine. I know him from school. I missed the bus, and he offered to give me a ride. He is not a stranger.
Really
.” I tried to calm her. I gave her a hug. She wiggled out.

“No, Jas, you only just started school, so how well can you know him? He could still be dangerous. What are you thinking?”

Which one of us was the oldest here? Time to reassert some authority. “Lily, cut it out. You are being completely ridiculous. You don’t need to worry about it. And what about your phone? What happened at school?” Apparently, not the reaction she was looking for. Next stop, Krakatoa.

“If you aren’t going to tell me, I don’t have to tell you anything. You don’t even care about me or anybody but yourself. He could be really bad, and you wouldn’t even know it. I am telling Mom, and you are gonna be grounded! See if I care how
you
feel, Jas!” She ran up the stairs, wailing as she went.
Wait for it.
And
… the door slam. Crap. I followed slowly. Of course, the next bright spot to my day popped his head out the door across the hall.

“You’re soooo busted!” I got the grin and another door slam.

Well, I was pretty sure that even if I talked Lily out of outing me, Caedan would do it just for the entertainment value. So I was going to have to head my mom off at the pass. But before that, I had to do some damage control.

I knocked softly on the door and opened it. Lily was lying on her bed sobbing.

“Lily.” I sat down next to her and rubbed her back. “I’m sorry I worried you.” As I sat there rubbing for a few minutes, the crying started to subside a little. “I really do know him from school. I know his brother too.” We had moved on to the sniffles. “You know what else? The reason I don’t think he is a bad guy?”

A small muffled “why?” could be heard from the direction of the pillow.

“He is kind of a captain on the football team.” I saw one eye peek out from the pillow.

“Football players can be creeps too, Jas.” But she looked a little appeased.

“Well, I’m pretty sure if he was, he wouldn’t have caught me when I fainted in the parking lot of Wal-Mart the other night.” Lily sat up. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye.

“No way. You fainted?”

“Yup. I woke up, and he had caught me before I hit the ground and cracked my head open. He’s really nice, Lily. His brother is really nice too. His brother is really funny. He reminds me of Tigger. He bounces all the time and never stops talking.” Lily giggled. Time for some straight talk. I looked her right in the eye.

“Lils, not every boy is a creep. I’m really careful. Other people say how nice Easton and his brother, Trenton, are. I would never get in a car with someone I didn’t know or wasn’t sure was nice. I wouldn’t take a chance like that. Not ever.” The sniffles were back, but not as serious. Disaster averted.

“I was just so worried when I saw you with that boy. I thought maybe you weren’t thinking, just because he was cute. I think Daisy did that. I think she maybe thought he was cute, and that’s why she went with him.” She looked up at me with her big blue eyes and her lip trembling. She really looked so much like Daisy. I was starting to feel guilty for worrying her. I sucked at this. I was never going to be the sister to her that Daisy had been. I wasn’t going to measure up, ever—but I had to try.

“Lils, Daisy didn’t get in the car with him because he was cute. She must have been forced. She wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t have done that. He was an evil man, and we really don’t know exactly what happened. Don’t start guessing. You know Daisy wouldn’t have left us on purpose, right?” Lily nodded.

We had told her this before, but she still ran a lot of theories around in her head. Not knowing was a problem for her. “You don’t have to worry. I’m going to tell Mom about Easton, okay?” That was the part I wasn’t sure about. Would she overreact too? This was not good. I was not ready for Mt. St. Rose. Sigh… Wasn’t one volcano a day enough?

I spent the rest of the afternoon figuring out the way to tell my mom about my ride home, to get the best reaction. I still had the situation with the flowers haunting my mind, but one thing at a time. I was definitely a compartment girl, and that one was going to stay locked down tight until I saw how my mom dealt with the ride home.

When she arrived, she looked distracted. I got dinner on the table. Before I called the twins, I decided now was the time. Just get it out before Caedan could add his two cents. “I just wanted you to know I got a ride home today. Don’t freak out. It was from a boy from school. He’s really nice.” I looked at my mom and waited.

“All right.” She was putting away the groceries she had brought home. Then she looked up and said, “Can you call the twins for dinner?”

Huh? Well that went exponentially better than expected. “Sure.” I ran to the bottom of the stairs and yelled. “Dinner!”

When I came back into the kitchen, my mom was serving the enchiladas I had made earlier. I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, when the twins came scrambling into the room.

“So how many years are you grounded for, Jas?” Caedan smirked.

I smirked back. “I’m not.” I raised my eyebrows at him. Take that in, Son! I took my little wars with Caedan seriously. Left undefended, these things could get out of hand. You could never let him think he had the upper hand. He would make you miserable, and there would be no end to the torment. There were not many things in my life that gave me joy, but besting my little brother was one.

We had an understanding. Lily was pretty much off limits. She was too sensitive, so it was no fun to spar with her. He, of course, would still give her a hard time, but he was her twin and knew her limits far better than anyone. Caedan and I, we enjoyed our little battles. We gave no quarter and took no prisoners. We loved to find ways to torture each other.
Punk’d
had been our favorite show, and before Daisy died we had come up with some elaborate ways to get each other. It made my mother crazy, but in many ways it made us closer. No one else really understood it. At the end of a good battle, Caedan and I would always end up laughing together like a couple of hyenas.

“Why would Jas be grounded?” my mom asked, perplexed.

“Uh, duh, because she let some random boy
drive
her home?” Caedan pointed out.

“Jasmine and I will be having a discussion about that after dinner, but it does not involve you, Caedan.” My mom looked at him pointedly. He was looking down at his plate. When he was sure my mom was looking away, he wiggled his eyebrows and proceeded to stomp on my foot. I reached my hand down to my leg and made an
L
with my thumb and pointer finger.