Love Storm (33 page)

The sound of wonderful piano playing filled my ears, and I knew instantly it had to be Zack. He was a pianist through and through; only he would have thought to give me a cassette tape of his playing.

"Forest Murmurs" was beautiful. It was passionate, sad, and happy at times…I didn't have the proper words to describe it. Probably only a musician could have described it well enough. It sounded amazingly complex and difficult, and I could understand why it had taken him weeks to perfect it.

While it rained outside, I stayed in my room for the next two hours, listening to the cassette all the way to the end. Zack was an incredibly gifted artist. It didn't take a genius to figure that one out.

After the tape was over, I popped it out and fingered the slip of paper, turning it over and reading the address of his new school, which was located in Milan. What in the world would I write to him about?

I decided to ponder this question later. On a spurt of reignited bitterness, I pushed all this aside, shrugged out of his jacket and my pajamas, and changed into a pair of jeans and a hoodie, deciding that Zack was gone, yeah it really, really sucked, but what could I do about it? Nothing for now, anyway. I resolved firmly that I would mull all this over later, and that today would not be a complete loss. Because today was the day that Eva and I were going to crack the case of Tristan's mystery girl. Eva and I had not been able to carry out our little reconnaissance over Christmas break because in a last minute change of plans, Eva had spent most of the two weeks at her mom's house in Hampton. Closer to Tristan's work, but still, it wasn't the same if we couldn't do it together.

"Hey," I said twenty minutes later, climbing into her car. She had gotten her driver's license, and had received an old but well-maintained Toyota sedan on her birthday from her aunt.

"Hey," Eva grinned, sparkly and energized despite the rain. "Ready to rock and roll?"

"Let's do it."

It was simple. We had found from Martin that everyone who worked at the store had one day off per week. Tristan had chosen Saturday, Martin had Fridays off, this guy we didn't know whose name was Scotty T had Mondays off, and the only two girls who worked at Payne's took their break on Wednesdays and Thursdays, respectively – the rest of the people who worked there were irrelevant to our investigation. So we figured if we went on the day that Tristan had a break, we might be able to figure out which of the two girls was the one he was madly in love with.

The bell jingled when we walked in, and immediately I was accosted by Martin, who had been fixing one of the window displays.

"Winter!" He nearly tackled me into a hug, and I hugged him back, embracing his tall, muscular frame as best as I could. I couldn't even reach my arms all the way around his broad shoulders.

"Hi Martin," I laughed. "Long time no see." Already I was feeling a little better – with both Martin
and
Eva, there was no way I could stay completely down in the dumps.

"You can say that again," he said, grey eyes twinkling with happiness. "What are you doing here, babe?"

"Just a little reconnaissance work," Eva said, winking at him.

"Ah. You must be Tristan's lovely younger sister, the one and only Eva Westley." Martin grinned. "Nice to meet you. You and Tristan look remarkably alike." He grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it with a great flourish.

Eva giggled, sending a look towards me that said, 'Is this guy for real?' Not in an unkind way though. I could tell she was beginning to like him.

"And you must be Martin," she said, smiling.

"That I am. So what can I do for you today, ladies?" he asked, wrapping an arm around both of us and leading us towards the center of the store, where an interesting hexagonally shaped check-out counter was situated.

"For starters, it'd be great if you wouldn't mention this little visit to Tristan," Eva said. I silently agreed, sending her positive vibes. Good thinking, Eva.

"Sure thing," Martin replied. "Oh, hey, have you guys met Scotty T before? T, this is Winter –" He inclined his head towards me. "– and Eva, Tristan's little sis."

Scotty T was a tall, lanky guy with electric blue hair, a lip ring, and a brow bar, and was dressed in faded jeans and the Payne's Sports blue polo. He nodded at both of us and said pleasantly, "Nice to finally meet both of you."

"Likewise," Eva said. She carefully extracted herself from Martin's strong grasp. "I'm going to have a quick look around, if that's alright. I'll be right back. Winter?" She sent me a meaningful glance.

I shook my head. "I'll just hang out here with Martin and Scotty T," I told her, sending her a subtle wink and mouthing over Martin's shoulder, 'Distraction.'

She got it and wandered off.

"Hey Martin, I'm going to go find Forest," Scotty T said, "See if I can get her to work some of her magic on the thermostat, because it's freezing in here."

"Wanna grab me my coffee thermos while you're at it?" Martin called to him as he walked away. The manager gave a backwards wave to show he had heard.

I hopped up onto one of the counters. "So how've you been lately, Winter?" Martin asked, leaning against the counter also and resting his hands on the edge of the polished wood. I shrugged, thinking about the question seriously instead of answering with the automatic "Good" that usually escaped my lips.

"Could be better, I guess," I replied eventually, not really meeting his eye.

He lifted a shoulder and lowered it again absently. "How so?" he said, then seemed to realize something. "It's that Zack person again, isn't it?" he said. "I knew it," he said angrily when I nodded. "That
jerk
. I'm going to kill him. What'd he do this time? That little punk."

"You're going to have to fly halfway around the world to kill him, though," I said listlessly, "So good luck with that."

Martin looked at me, clearly wondering if I was trying to make a joke, and I exhaled. "He's gone and moved to Italy," I explained, suddenly impatient and resentful again.

"You're
kidding
," he said loudly. Several people turned to look at us and Martin glared at them.

"I'm
not
," I said hotly. "He's really moved to Italy. Attending some American school or other."

"Well, good riddance then," Martin said tartly, seemingly immune to my tone of voice. "How can he still be bothering you then if he's on a different continent?"

I shrugged, unhappy now that the subject had been breached. This was supposed to be a
fun
afternoon, not a therapeutic session with my football-playing-track-sprinting-jock-extraordinaire of a substitute shrink. (Tristan was my regular counselor, though I would never call him that to his face.) "Dunno," I replied moodily, the anger draining out again. These mood swings really were not fun. "But he is." I didn't really want to tell him that Zack and I had kind-of-sort-of made out, because then I'd really have to be afraid that Martin would get on the next flight to Milan to beat the living daylights out of Zack. "He came to my house last night," I said, more to myself than anyone else. "And he gave me a going away present."

"What was it?" Martin's previously coiled up stance relaxed a little.

I glanced around the store, vaguely noticing that Eva was lurking around the soccer section and sending glances at one of the female workers. I couldn't see the girl's face, but I saw a head of red hair that happened to be just the color that clashed horribly with the Payne's Sports polo. "Some music," I said finally, wondering if that was Tristan's love interest.

"Really."

"Yeah," I said, not bothering to go into detail. Scotty T was back now, rubbing and blowing on his hands to warm them up and telling Martin to go do some inventory work or other, and Eva was making her way back towards us. I met her halfway, muttering something along the lines of "Be right back" to Martin.

"So?" I whispered to her, pushing aside my conversation with him.

Eva was smiling broadly. "Success," she said back in a low voice. "There's Possible Number One," she nodded in the direction of the girl with the red hair. The girl had turned now and I saw that she had pale freckles and even paler skin. I raised my eyebrows and Eva smirked.

"…and there's Possible Number
Two
," she finished. I followed her gaze to a really pretty Chinese girl who was helping someone pick out a pair of shoes at the back of the store.

I gasped a little. "Eva! That's Victor Lin's sister. I think her name's Katherine."

Eva's eyes lit up. "No
wonder
she seemed so familiar. I knew I'd seen her somewhere before. Cool."

"So?" I asked her again. "How goes the vote?"

Eva considered for a moment, running a hand through her straight, blonde hair. "I'm banking on Number Two."

"Ha!" I said triumphantly. We slapped a high-five. "Me too. Number Two it is."

"Tristan is in for the ride of his life," Eva murmured as we watched Katherine Lin disappear into the back shoe room to find the right size hiking boots for a customer.

I sighed, unable to keep my thoughts away from my inner turmoil for very long. Suddenly our victory didn't seem as great as I had thought it would be. "I suppose," I said softly.

"What's wrong?" Eva asked, concerned, studying my face. I couldn't quite look her in the eye.

"Nothing," I said. "Everything. Thanks for asking. Later, okay?" I tried to give her a smile.

She nodded understandingly. "When you're ready, of course," she said, touching my shoulder gently, and this time I gave her a genuine smile.

xxxxx

"Hi Tristan," I said sweetly later that afternoon, plopping down into one of the kitchen chars while Eva used the bathroom. "What's up?"

He was instantly on guard from my tone of voice. "Nothing," he said suspiciously, ruffling the newspaper a bit and looking up from the Sports section. "The Kings won last night. You?"

"Same," I said, quickly reverting back to my normal self. It wouldn't do to have him so wary of me so early on in our conversation. "Nothing, I mean. How was your day off?"

"Good," he said, still not looking entirely convinced that I wasn't trying to pull one over his head. He rolled up the paper and tossed it into the recycling box. "Had pizza for lunch with some of the boys."

"Let me guess. With Tyler, Ryan, Eric, and Roddy," I said. These were the names of some of his more decent friends. "Oh, yeah, and Martin," I said, feigning ignorance.

"Nah," Tristan said, "Martin had to work today. Though why is still a mystery to me."

"What do you mean?" I said curiously, forgetting my plan with Eva for a second.

"Haven't you ever wondered?" Tristan asked me, arching his spine and tilting his head backwards, stretching luxuriously. "Martin's got money. His parents are probably pretty well off – he drives a BMV, for god's sake. So why is he working at some little sports store for just over minimum wage when he could be doing something else with his time?" He looked me in the eye, now done with his stretch. "Something to think about."

"I don't know," I said slowly, realizing what he said was true. "Maybe he just likes it."

Tristan shrugged. "Maybe." He took a swig of water just as Eva popped into the kitchen.

"Hey guys," she said, grabbing Tristan's water bottle and stealing a sip. He groaned.

"I hate it when you do that," he grumbled, snatching it back from her.

"I'm
hungry
," Eva said, rummaging around in the cabinets. "Whatever happened to that box of Chips Ahoy I've been hiding from the kids?"

"So that's what happened to it!" Tristan said accusingly, now sitting up straight in his chair. "I've been looking for that box."

Eva offered him a grin and held up the said carton of chocolate chip cookies.

"Gimme one of those," I said as she sat down at the kitchen table in her spot, next to Tristan, who also reached for one.

Suddenly Anthony slid in. "Hey everyone," he said. "Hi Winter. You're in my seat again."

"I know," I said, "Sorry. It's just
such
a wonderful spot though, I couldn't resist." I winked at him. It was an ongoing joke we had, because every time I came over to Eva's house, I sat in his regular seat at the dining table.

"Hey!" Anthony cried. "Is that the box of Chips Ahoy? I've been
searching
for those! They've been missing for five days now. I thought Matty and Emily had finished all of them. I want some." He sat down next to me and took two. I was almost done with my first cookie and was close to going for a second, but I got interrupted.

"Winter!"

I whipped around and smiled.

"Hey Emmy-baby," I cooed, giving Emily a gentle hug as she dashed into the kitchen, into my arms. "How are you?" I petted her soft, fine hair.

"Good. Hey, cookies! Now I'm better than good. Matthew! We've got cookies!" she called back to the living room, where Matty was. Tristan chuckled – Emily had recently been calling Matty by his full name, which usually got him pretty cross, but at the mention of a sweet snack, he didn't seem to mind all that much. He pattered into the kitchen shortly after, eyes lighting up when he saw the blue wrapping of Chips Ahoy.