Luminescence (Luminescence Trilogy) (12 page)

“Maybe it’s your dreams,” he suggested. “Especially if they’re of me. I could see how that could be disrupting.”

I choked on his words. “Maybe,” I conceded thinking about the dream I had of Lukas and the kiss we shared.
God if he only knew
, I thought in embarrassment. Better yet I was glad he didn’t.

“They’re probably keeping you up.”

“You’re probably right,” I agreed starting to get a little uncomfortable with this topic. I didn’t want to talk about Lukas with Gavin.

Memories of my dream, I started thinking about Gavin and I. What I couldn’t figure out why Gavin had picked me from all the girls at this school. Surely I wasn’t his first choice. What was so special about me? He’d said that once to me. Maybe some of Sophie’s abrasiveness was rubbing off on me. It was the only excuse I had for blurting out my thoughts.

“Why did you pick me?”

“What do you mean?” he replied and stopped walking.

This was going to go well. Why couldn’t I just let things be? We were in a good place after last night it seemed, why did I have to go and put tautness between us again? I thought maybe I was trying to sabotage whatever we had going on purpose. “There are hundreds of girls in this school, why did you pick me?” I repeated. A few students passing by on their way to class glanced our way.

“Why is it so hard for you to believe?” He raised his voice an octave.

He answered a question with a question – that was so nerve racking. I shrugged, feeling more exposed than I thought possible and defeated. What kind of admission had I been expecting? That he was madly in love with me and couldn’t live without me?

“It just is,” I argued.

He ran a frustrated hand through his midnight hair, the leather cuff on his wrist slide with the movement. “We have something in common,” he finally admitted.

“What?” I asked taken by surprise and even though I wasn’t expecting a declaration of love, my heart faltered a tad.

“Isn’t it enough that I am attracted to you?” He disputed evasively.

I don’t know, was it? His words affected me, giving me a river of thrilled sensation. I stared at his eyes, waiting to see some form of deceit. They were clear, blue and honest. The bell sounded through the hall announcing the beginning of third period. For now it would have to be enough because we were both late for class and I was too exhausted to continue.

I don’t know how I made it through the whole day. But as soon as last period ended I went home and slept like the dead – dreamless.

Chapter 12

THE NEXT DAY AFTER SCHOOL Gavin came over to study for the upcoming chemistry group test we had the following day. By group test, I meant Gavin and me. While I planned on studying, Gavin was another matter entirely. Honestly I would have preferred to study without him sitting across the bed from me; he was a distraction from even the simplest thoughts, let alone a chapter of science that didn’t make a lick of sense. But he had asked me and I had yet to refuse him anything.

I had the textbook open and a spiral with bare minimal notes spread out around us on the bed. Biting the end of my pencil, I flipped through our study guide Mr. Burke had given us. It outlined the points in the chapter that we would be tested on.

“Are we really going to study?” he asked complaining.

“Yes,” I replied exasperated. “I have to pass this class. So do you.”

He grumbled beside me, doodling on the notebook.

I yanked it out from underneath his pen. “Hey,” he protested. “I wasn’t finished with that.”

“Chemistry remember… we are supposed to be studying.”

“You are a slave driver,” he stated, fumbling with his pen cap.

“You are a slacker,” I contradicted.

“Ouch, can’t we take a break?” He was bordering on whining and I felt like I was babysitting a two year old.

I laughed. “We just started. Here look up question ten in the text.” Hoping that giving something to do would get him involved. I peered at him over the top of our study guide. He was flipping through the pages of our textbook looking so handsome. It was hard to believe that he was here in my room with me. When I imagined dated, I never pictured someone like him – dark, edgy, or with so many pierces. But now that there was a chance that maybe we could date, I didn’t want any other boy at my school. He ruined all other prospects for me.

Yesterday’s tizzy in the hall was forgotten. We couldn’t seem to stay upset with each other and easily forgave our snags – snags that seemed to be me mostly my issue.

Biting the end of my eraser he looked up and caught me staring at him. Of course my cheeks stained pink, he smirked and I quickly went back to our study guide. Now my concentration was all out of whack.

“You’re not studying,” he playfully scolded.

I kicked him light from across the bed. He grabbed ahold of my leg before I had the chance to escape his reach.

“Hey,” I screeched.

“Just remember you started it.” He pulled me by the leg towards him. I was laughing and squealing at the same time. As soon as he had me in his grasps, he picked me up effortlessly and tossed me to the other end of the bed on a pile of pillows. My laughter peeled out over the silence of the empty house, so much for studying.

Sometime
later I looked over at the clock on my nightstand. My stomach rumbled in response as I thought about dinner. My aunt wasn’t due home for a few more hours and it was my turn to make dinner. Even with her gone most of the time, she insisted on trying to make sure I had a balanced diet and was well taken care of. I know how much it grated on her that I was alone some much. On her nights, she usually had something in the fridge ready to be cooked or a cold pasta salad.

Tonight the menu was Italian.

“I’m starving.” My stomach protested with my admission. “Do you want to stay for dinner? I’m making lasagna.” I didn’t really want to eat alone and there was always so much, no matter how many nights I ate leftovers.

“You’re cooking?” he asked and scrunched his nose.

I tossed my pencil good-naturedly at him. “I’m a good cook, I’ll have you know.”

He caught the pencil mid-air before it had a chance to hit its target and smirked at me. “Sure, under one condition,” he countered.

“What?” I replied narrowing my eyes cautiously.

“You let me help.”

“Deal. Let’s go before I pass out from hunger,” I said grinning and climbed off my bed, the litter of notes forgotten.

We walked into the kitchen and I preheated the oven. Going to the pantry I started to pull out what I needed, pasta sauce, noodles and spices.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked behind me seated at the island in the middle of our kitchen.

“You can make the salad,” I instructed, setting down the stuff from the pantry I went to the fridge. Pulling out the hamburger and vegetables I placed them on the counter. I handed him a knife from the butcher block. “Can you handle this?”

He lifted his brow. “You haven’t seen anything.”

I went back to the stove, put the hamburger in a pan and set a pot of water to boil. Turning on the burner, I began breaking apart the ground beef and browning it. Looking over my shoulder I checked to see how he was doing chopping the salad.

“You did not just cut up all the vegetables,” I declared mystified by the impossible. There was no way in the time that I turned my back he could have made an entire salad.

“I told you not to doubt me,” he said grinning, so sure of himself.

“What are you a chef? You’re practically failing chemistry, yet you can create a salad in under a minute. What gives?”

“Talent. Do you need help over there?”

“Yeah, boil the noodles smarty pants.”

We worked together in a seamless rhythm. It was like harmony and completely domestic. There was something so homely about having him in the kitchen with me. Maybe it was from growing up without a male figure or maybe it was that he was so familiar with cooking, either way it was nice to not be alone. Cooking for two was not only boring and lonely but lacked the sense of family I missed out on. With the lasagna baking in the oven, we sat at the table, kicked back with the radio on low.

“Where did you move from?” I asked wondering lately where
he
came from.

“We lived just outside of Chicago, till my dad got the job offer in Jacksonville.”

I was surprised. I didn’t know how many job opportunities there were for a historian. Let alone exactly what a historian did.

“What was it like there?”

“Busy. Windy. Cold.” He grinned.

I rolled my eyes. Those were all things I already knew about Chicago. “Do you miss your old friends?” I asked, secretly wondering if he also had an ex-girlfriend there as well.

He slouched back in his seat and smiled. His whole face relaxed “Yes, sometimes I do. Chicago was where I was born. It was really hard to leave. My friends understood me in ways people here won’t be able to.” His smile drooped and he looked a little lost in the past.

My heart went out to him, I couldn’t even think about leaving Holly Ridge. Starting over somewhere foreign, making new friends, for the socially awkward like me that sounded disastrous. But there was no denying how glad I was that he was here with me instead of in Chicago were we would have never met.

The buzzer sounded on the oven pulling us each from our own thoughts. Dinner was done. Getting up I dished out our plates and brought them to the table. It was so strange having a guy over for dinner – just the two of us. If I wasn’t careful this was something that I could get use to and want more of – time alone with him.

“What makes the people so different here?” I had to ask. And did that include me?

He shrugged, forking a heap of lasagna into his mouth. “Culture I guess, except you. I felt a connection with you the first day we meet. I remember thinking,
finally someone who will get me
.”

I bit into my garlic bread and thought about the first time I saw him. Maybe I judged him to harshly that day for skipping out on class. I never really thought about what he was going through being the
new
kid. Or what he had to leave behind. My heart beat a little faster at his admission of the connection we both felt.

“Is that why you ditched on your first day?” I blew off on a bite of steaming lasagna before putting into my mouth.

“Partly,” he admitted. “Mostly I was pissed at my parents, but running into you that day changed my mind about small towns. It’s one of the reasons my mom was so happy we met, helping her angry son make the new town slightly more bearable. You wouldn’t have recognized me had you seen me before that day. I was rebelling every way possible. I don’t think my mom could’ve thanked you enough. She absolutely adores you,” he said polishing off his plate in record time.

The feeling was completely mutual. “I’m sorry it was hard for you. I can’t imagine leaving the only home I’ve ever known.”

“Surprisingly I think it worked out for the best. I never would have thought.”

When we finished dinner, I walked him to the door. “Thanks for staying.”

“Anytime,” he agreed.

“You know that we are going to fail that test tomorrow,” I told him. Group test or not we were doomed.

“Have a little faith Bri. I’ll get us through it,” he smugly assured me.

I rolled my eyes and shut the door after him.

Chapter 1
3

MADAME CORA’S WARDROBE WAS A costume establishment packed with plenty of flair in Wilmington. Austin decided to tag along for the thirty minute trip and was riding shotgun with Sophie and I in the back. Tori convinced him that it would be fun if they dress-up as a pair.

Both Tori and Austin had adopted Sophie instantaneously. They absolutely loved her and I think that grated on Gavin’s nerves a tad – to have his younger sister hanging around all the time.

Walking into Madame Cora’s Wardrobe was like being transported back in time. A tall woman with long curly cinnamon hair sat on a stool behind an enclosed glass case. She was decorated in more dangling silver jewelry than I thought one woman she wear – or own. Her every move jingled in music. She had bold red lips – an extreme contrast to her ivory skin and hazel eyes. She smiled at us as we walked through the front door, a whimsical chime resounding through the shop announcing the arrival of guests.

The shop had mannequins dressed up in full gear – wigs, shoes, make-up, masks. I saw Jack Sparrow, Medusa, Queen of the Nile, the guy from Saw – he still gave me nightmares. A Halloween melody pumped in the store from speakers near the doors.

“Well hello my lovelies,” she greeted in a voice of a seductress. I don’t know who the she thought she was going to seduce since Austin was the only guy and he defiantly didn’t swing her curvy way.

“Hi.” The four of us said in unison.

“Is there something I can help you look for,” she offered, never losing the deep sexy quality to her voice.