Love Storm (52 page)

Like I said, pointless.

xxxxx

"Woah," I said softly, amazed, as I entered the Westley household on Friday afternoon.

Anthony, who had just walked past me, muttered moodily, "Eva's stressed."

I nodded in agreement. It was the only reason why it looked like a tornado had swept through the kitchen and there were so many delicious aromas wafting through the house. Whenever she was stressed she cooked.

"Wow," I said nonchalantly as I picked up a piece of focaccia and bit into it. It was delicious – Eva is a good cook. "What's wrong this time?"

She whirled around from where she was adjusting the temperature on the stove.

"Winter! God, don't scare me like that," she said under her breath, turning back to the contents of the sauce pan. "Nothing's wrong." Her face was flushed and her hair was in a messy, sweaty ponytail. She had obviously gotten home from basketball practice not too long ago.

"Tsk tsk Eva, you know lying is a sin," I grinned, stepping up next to her. "Did you just get back from practice?"

"Yeah. Largo was being a dick."

I nodded understandingly. Her coach had a reputation for being tough. "What is that?" I pointed at the creamy contents of the pan.

"Risotto," she said shortly.

I sighed. "I'm sorry. What's wrong?" I asked again, gently this time.

"I told you," she snapped. "Nothing's wrong, I'm just making a nice dinner. We're having company tonight. You better not stay."

I flinched, hurt. "I just came to say hi and to see if you were okay. You haven't been answering my calls. We haven't talked in like a week now."

"Well I'm fine," she retorted as she started grating some cheese. "Thanks for coming by." She didn't mean it, I could tell.

"Eva!" I said, exasperated.

"
What
?" She rounded on me angrily. "I'm trying to make dinner, okay? I'm kind of busy right now. If you wanna talk, call me later. I really have to finish making all this stuff." Eva gestured to the different dishes she was making, all of them in different degrees of completion. She was busy again, adding the cheese to the risotto.

I stared at her back, then said quietly, "Okay. I'll call you later. Nine o'clock sound good?"

"Yeah, whatever," she said impatiently.

I sighed. "Answer this time, alright?"

No response.

I turned and left slowly, looking over my shoulder one last time at my best friend. I shook my head worriedly. What was going on? Maybe Anthony could tell me.

I trotted upstairs and knocked on his door.

"Yep," he called. "Come on in."

"Hey Tony," I smiled, opening the door and poking my head in. "You busy right now?"

"Uh, well, not really, just working on this huge report that's due tomorrow and stuff. It's okay, what's up?" Crystal blue eyes regarded me curiously from where he was situated in front of his computer.

"Oh, never mind then," I said. "You're busy. I don't want to bother you."

He shrugged. "It's alright with me. You sure?"

"Uhm…." I tilted my head to the side. "Well I'm going to talk to Eva tonight, but if she doesn't tell me what I want to know, can I ask you?"

"Of course," Anthony said, running a palm over his light brown, spiked hair. "Hey, you alright?"

I forced a laugh and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for asking though, you're such a sweetie. I swear you get more and more like Tristan every time I talk to you. You got a girlfriend yet?" I teased, bringing the subject away from myself.

He smirked. "Eh, not yet."

"Got your eye on anyone though?" I grinned. I automatically relaxed and leaned against the doorway. I loved it when Anthony and I got along. It was true that he could be the moodiest of the Westley children, but random bad moods aside, his personality was so good it was almost to the point that it was saintly – deep down, he was honest, kind-hearted, and definitely more noble and selfless than you would think from a first glance at his punk exterior.

"Trisha Collins," he replied promptly in answer to my question.

I laughed again, this time genuinely. "No way – Tyler's little sister, right? She's a sophomore this year? She's really cute."

"Yeah, tell me about it," he replied, chuckling.

"Okay, well, I'll leave you to it," I said, drawing back reluctantly.

"Hey, it was nice seeing you again. You don't come over as often as you used to," Anthony said. "You should come visit more."

I smiled weakly. "Thanks," I said. "At least I know I'm welcome when you're here, eh?"

He frowned. "What?"

"Nothing. I'll see you around." I turned to go.

"Winter," he called.

"Yeah?"

"You
sure
you're alright?" he asked, looking kind of concerned.

I bit my lip. "Yeah," I said, giving him my most convincing smile. "I'm good. Thanks Anthony. You rock my world."

He grinned. "See ya," he waved as I closed his door.

"Yeah," I sighed softly to myself as I went down the stairs. "I'm good."

xxxxx

I called Eva's cell phone at nine that night. She didn't pick up. I called the house phone. Emily picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi Emmy, it's Winter. Is Eva there?"

"Eva? She's…busy."

"Busy? What's she doing?"

"She's being busy."

"Okay. Can I talk to Tony then?"

"Nope," she said cheerfully. "Bye."

She hung up on me. Can you believe that? A little fifth grader hung up on me.
What
is this world coming to?

I hit the redial button.

"Emily Heather Westley, you get Anthony on the phone this minute for me!" I said angrily when it was picked up.

I heard laughing. "Hey Win, nice to hear from you again."

I gasped. "Tristan!" I screamed. "What the hell are you doing home?! Why didn't you call me earlier? You
loser
! What the
f
–"

He was laughing again, harder this time. "You wanna talk to Anthony, right? Just a sec."

"No, I want to talk to you so you can tell me why you were being such a loser!" I yelled. Then I broke out laughing too. "Oh my god, I missed you Trist! How've you been? What are you doing home?"

I could hear a grin in his voice. "Oh you know, just wanted to visit the family…and stuff…And I'm going to visit Kath at Stanford tomorrow."

I arched an eyebrow. "Oh really? Hey…do you want to fill me in on something?"

"I'll try my best."

"What's wrong with Eva? I visited earlier and she was pissed to high heaven."

"Oh, I don't know," he said lightly. "She's been kind of edgy lately. Don't know what's going on with her."

"Oh," I said, kind of disappointed. Tristan and Eva were close; I had been hoping he could give me some insight. "Alright. Eva said you guys had company for dinner. What was that all about?"

"Oh," Tristan said. "Yeah, that. It was nothing important."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Eva was breaking out the fancy stuff. Risotto or whatever."

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Like I said, it was nothing important."

"Okay…" I trailed off. "All right then. Can I talk to Eva now?"

"Uh, hold on, let me see if she's available…oh, wait. She's busy right now. In the shower. Should I have her call you back?"

I sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, have her call me back. Do you have time to visit little ol' me before you go back to San Diego?"

"Oh, god, I'm sorry, but I'm leaving first thing tomorrow to see Katherine, then I'm driving straight back to school. Unless you want me to come over right now…"

"Oh," I said, disappointment settling in even deeper now. "No, that's okay. I'm sure you had a long day if you drove up here. But I'll see you the next time you come home, right?"

"Next time," Tristan promised.

"Alright, I'll let you get some sleep now."

"Okay. I'll call you soon, Win."

"Alright. Night."

"Bye."

I hung up, feeling very odd indeed. Why did I get the feeling that the Westleys were keeping something from me?

xxxxx

I slammed my binders down on my desk on Monday morning. I was in a Towering Temper, and not to be disturbed.

I had gone to sleep late last night, and overslept and missed the bus. My dad was out of town, my car was in the shop for maintenance, and I had no one to get a ride from, so I had had to practically sprint the two miles to school. And I was still late for first period Calculus. Luckily Mr. Raskin loves me so he didn't yell at me, but I still had to go to the attendance office to report my tardy. I shook my head as I sat down. My mom would have a fit when she heard. Like I really needed to give her more material to nag me about than she already had. I had an essay for English due today too, and I hadn't finished it yet. I would have to go to the computer lab at brunch to finish it. Damn. Not to mention that I was exhausted because we had had a weekend tennis tournament at a location two hours away and I hadn't gotten home until eight last night. Which was why my mom had yelled at me again. Which was why, being the proud person that I am, I had gone to bed without eating dinner. And now I was regretting it, because I was starving – obviously I hadn't had time to eat breakfast or pack lunch.

And
there was still the feeling that Eva and Tristan were hiding something from me. Eva had never called me back, and I had a suspicion that Tristan hadn't driven eight hours to come home just to "visit the family…and stuff." If he had really driven up to visit, he would have stayed for the whole weekend, and he would have come to see me too. Something was going on. And they weren't telling me.

And that hurt.

And of course, me being me, any kind of blow to my feelings gets transferred into anger.

Ugh. Could the day get any worse?

But of course. As Mr. Raskin went about his daily lecture, lost in his ever-jovial mood and the wonderful intricacies of Calculus, I felt a headache coming on. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment and pinched the bridge of my nose. Nope. I guess it was here to stay. I stifled a groan and rested my forehead in the palm of my hand as I tried to take notes.

Shit
. I just realized something. One more thing to add to my beautiful list of things gone wrong this morning: in my haste to get to school I had left my tennis gear at home. Ugh. Coach Burling would be pissed. Shit, shit, shit. Yea, that sums up my life right now. I wanted to scream or something. And after that scream I wanted to go to sleep. Because I was exhausted. But I couldn't go to sleep. We had an exam in this class on Wednesday which meant I had to pay attention now or I'd really be screwed. Argh, and I had to think about my English essay while I was at it, because my thesis was crap.

I take it back. "Shit" is not a strong enough word for the moment.

Fuck
. There, much better.

I somehow survived through first block. Why, oh
why
do we have block scheduling at Branner High School? An hour and forty eight minutes of one class is really hard to sit through. When the bell rang I sighed and buried my face in my hands. Oh no, I had to get out of this room. If Mr. Raskin saw me like this he would definitely start asking me if I was okay. I did
not
feel like going through that this morning.

I grabbed my binders and left the room. I walked slowly to my locker and deposited my stuff. I stopped there for a moment to collect myself and grab a sip of water from my water bottle. Not that it helped my headache much. My stomach growled and I popped a piece of gum in my mouth, hoping it would help my hunger, knowing it wouldn't.

"Hey," someone said softly in my ear.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. When I saw who it was I relaxed. "Hey Zack," I sighed, closing my eyes.

He rested a hand on the small of my back, his presence suddenly calming me. He was standing so close, right in my personal space, so that my shoulder brushed against his chest, but I didn't care. I was too tired to care about anything. "You okay?" he asked quietly. "You don't look too great."

"What are you talking about? I feel just hunky dory," I muttered sarcastically, rubbing my temple. "
God
this headache is killing me."

"I'm sorry," Zack said, pulling me into a hug. I didn't even have the energy to resist him. Instead I leaned into him and hugged him back, hard, wrapping my arms around his lean shoulders and burying my face in his shirt as people walked by us in the hall. It was brunch, so we had some time before third block.

God, why did he always have to smell so good? Zack stroked my hair, the other hand rubbing circles on my back. He rested his cheek on top of my head, saying nothing, his presence more comfort than any words could be. I realized that all the stress had finally caught up to me, because, to my horror, I felt the backs of my eyelids prickling. I took in a deep shuddering breath.