Dark Seraphine (The Seraphine Trilogy) (12 page)

She was right
,
though. And so full of herself with that smile she
gave me
. The same one that rocked my bones when I looked at her.
Today
wasn
’
t going to be the day
she would
get to me.

“
Want to explain some things?
”
I asked.

“
Why
,
Caleb
,
whatever do you mean?
”
she said with a sly smile
,
still not moving her eyes away from my face. Today
,
the color in them reminded me of something else. Honey
,
or maybe even that weird crayon in the big box called burnt sienna.

“
Don
’
t be like the rest of the girls around here. We have enough fake Polly Sues
,
okay?
”
I said.

Scoffing
,
she did a little movement with her head that tossed
the
black hair over her shoulders. And that crazy wild scent
,
the vanilla-lavender one
,
rushed around me. It almost made me think she
teased me
on purpose.
“
Well
,
Wave Rider
,
I figure somebody needs to keep an eye on you. We don
’
t want you to go washing away if you decide to go surfing again.
”

“
Haha. That
’
s so funny. At some point
,
I might even decide to laugh. What are you doing
,
Walker
? I mean
,
you
’
re not real.
”
You
’
re a girl from my dreams and damn if you don
’
t look hot in that ripped tee shirt.
I figured if I kept on saying that she wasn
’
t real
,
then maybe I
’
d start to believe my words.

“
Just leave it at thinking that you have a guardian angel watching over you
,”
she s
ai
d.

“
I thought that the word angel was on that none-of-the-above list of supernatural things I asked you about
, right
?
”
Gotcha!

Twisting her mouth
,
she glanced off to the side.
“
You didn
’
t listen
,
did you? I said that I was a creative mix of all those things.
”

Maybe not gotcha.
She had a point that I didn
’
t want to acknowledge so I decided to change the subject.

“
What kind of name is Gia? It
’
s fake
,
and you know it
,”
I blurted.

“
How do you figure that?
”

“
There
’
s no way a name so—well
,
uh
,
sort of
simple like
that
would hurt anything if I said it aloud.
”

“
Oh boy
,
Caleb. I do hope you
’
re planning a career in psychology with that sensitivity thing you got going on
,”
she teased.

“
That
’
s not your real name. I can tell
,”
I said
,
inching closer to her. She affected me this way. It was hard to describe what the pull between us was like
,
but I didn
’
t fight it.

“
Stop worrying about it. Anything is better than
Walker
. See you around,
Rider
.”
She smiled and strolled away toward the girl
’
s bathroom
,
leaving me hooked in a whirlwind of racing thoughts and questions.

* * *

We
shared our first and third period classes together
,
Gia Jones and me. English class where Gothic literature and poetry was the monthly focus showed me yet another intriguing side to her. She was well versed in
meter, sonnets, and
even
those haiku things
.

By the end of the week
,
the word about the skateboarding group had spread through the school. Yeah
,
sure
,
New Bern was a hip islan
d located just off the North Carolina coastline. Our hometown came c
omplete with
a big fancy movie studio
and stuff
like that
; but it was still southern.
So it wasn’t too long before
Mom
’
s yoga ladies were all
talking about Gia.

That Monday when we returned to
school
,
Kyle told me about how many dudes had paid him to write their English essays
last
week. Far be it from me to ruin a man
’
s money gig
,
so I kept quiet. I sucked at writing
,
so I knew that me doing something like that would never happen. Give me a surf board or a
Stan Lee internship
,
or give me nothing.

Kyle glanced behind me. He had this amused
,
but faraway look on his face. I followed his gaze. It was Gia
,
go figure
, strolling along the hallways, her fan club trailing behind her. A new sidekick walked among the group. It was a
girl
who reminded me of Taylor Swift
with dark blonde hair sweeping her shoulders. She was dressed in jeans and a green tee shirt with a smiley face on front. The
Rhianna
look
-
alike standing
beside her
was dressed the same way with the exact same colors
; but her high ponytail swept across the middle of her back.

In a strangely twisted kind of way
,
all three girls resembled one another even though their skin tones were different. I couldn
’
t quite put my f
inger on the reason.
The intrigue with the way they
looked so much alike
wasn’t only about their matching
outfits
.

A dude eased up behind Gia. I
’
m talking skyscraper tall with a slick of silver in the middle of his spiky dark hair. It was the giraffe again.

“
His name is Raze
,”
Kyle said.
“
They say he can Ollie over the thinnest stair rail.
”

I shrugged.
“
So what
?”
I could care less about watching dudes use a skateboard to jump over a ramp. Now watching
the
females do the same thing
,
well
that was
a different story.

“
You
’
re way too hard to impress
,
bro
,”
Kyle said.

The beanpole thin Raze slipped up behind Gia and placed an arm across her shoulders. I barely heard
what Kyle said next
. My mind was focused straight ahead
,
and
my gaze
locked
on what appeared to be the new competition. Hey
,
if Gia preferred the
hipster
type over the classy and stylish kind like me then dealing with that little issue was all on her.

I wanted to rip Raze
’
s hand off of her
;
but I forced myself to turn around and head to class. But damn if that nag in my chest wasn
’
t trying to make me glance back to where she stood.

You will not be weak.

You will walk to class without glancing behind you.
Did my pep talk work? Umm
,
nope.