Orion (33 page)

I straightened.  “You
’ll help me?”  I watched Calum as I listened to Maze’s proclamation and begged for her to be honest with her vow.  Calum usually hid his intelligence.  He was using his big words in front of her.  It didn’t scare her off.

“Well, blabbering about your Val butt sounds much better, but I don
’t think I could live with myself if something did happen to any of you and I did nothing.  So yes, I will kick some other species butt for you, whoever that may be.”

I jumped up and hugged Maze as she twirled me around in the parking space squealing and moaning the whole time.

When we stopped turning, we looked at both gawking at us.  Maze had to give her two cents worth of sarcasm.             

“What?  Wanna piece?   Get in line.  If you
’re waiting for us to dance with glee, you’ll have to wait till some girlie vamp dudes wanna give a demo.”

“Don
’t play with a fire you can’t put out, chica,” Calum muttered curtly. He was just mad he was so dense and never figured it all out alone.  He’s quick, but apparently intelligence doesn’t give you insight into the less obvious.  I would be too with the way his father lied to him.  Oh wait, mine did too.

Chests puffed out, they chided us wit
h grunts and head bobs. “What, don’t want to twirl with me?”  I snickered and looked towards Maze at my insertion of sartastic humor.  All three were staring at me now too.  Lee was as dropped mouth as I’d ever seen him.  Then it turned to a glare, but mixed with a very guarded blush.  Guessing I’d said the wrong thing again I replayed my statement in my mind.  Oops!  That sounded too much like I wanted to...but I just meant what it was.  One day I would catch up to the innuendo mistakes.

I rolled my eyes in discomfort and hid my own embarrassment, “Let
’s get back.”  The boys stood and walked to the car. I stopped Maze with my hand to the crook of her elbow and with sincerity said, “I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”

“Save it.  Let
’s just save your scrawny non-Hunter butt from certain doom.  At least now I know how you impressed the famous Calum Green on the first day.  Valkyrie charms are said to be deadly.  And my best friend is one.  He could have never resisted.   What else can you do?” Maze was all about the skills.

“
I don’t need to eat much.  I power up.  At least that’s what I call it.  Sugar is my friend.”  I could afford a few secrets at a time.  Maze had to be overwhelmed already.

“That explains it.  At least that makes me not think your bulimic now.”

“You thought that?” I prompted.

“We all did.  We tried to catch you purging all the time.  Now I know why we didn
’t catch that either.  You don’t eat anything?”

“Well, yes. My favorites.  Italian food anything...chocolate....more chocolate...but I don
’t need much.”

Maze giggled.

Amidst the doom of deciding what the plan was for Saturday, Calum felt the need to cook for me.  Pizza.  All four of us were inseparable for the next two days.  We mostly wanted to keep an eye on each other for safety and to keep from anyone slipping information.   I still kept it in the back of my mind that Calum had secrets.  He was leaving a lot out that was more than likely truths, un-truths, and mixed-truths.  But who would fill in the gaps and who would tell me what to believe about any of it?

The following day, Lee stopped me in the hallway to apologize again for leaving me that day years ago.  Not sure what to say, I stared too long.

“Save it!” Lee skilled his face in another direction to not make eye contact.

“Why did you really looked surprised by my marks if you knew?”  I asked him.

“Because I
’d not known about the sun until recently.  You have the sun also.  And I’ve never seen for sure, only heard.”

I
’d wanted to know what it meant for so long.  Maybe I would know now.

Reading me he said, “Stace, I
’m not an encyclopedia.  And I can’t tell you everything I speculate on because your mind will make choices you’re not ready to make based off on half truths.  What if I’m wrong?  There are bigger things at work here.”

I was angry, but knew that he would cave when I needed him too.  For now, I sensed a crowd walking closer to us and let him walk away.

We met in Calum’s dad’s personal kitchen.  When Calum asked me to come, I was hesitant thinking of my father’s bugged house.  He assured me we would just hang out and worry about our “doom” later.  I still protested but he persuaded me otherwise and that’s why now, I’m here.

I was sitting on one of the bar stools beside Maze pilling pepperonis, mushrooms, black olives, and everything we could find in the fridge. 

“You two actually went to the grocery store?  Together?”

“Yes, Maze.  We cave men can hunt,” Calum retorted.  “Lee and I do know how to follow a list.”

I chuckled.  Have I just stepped into the devil’s lair?  The oven of death!

“What is that, Miss G
iggles?  No belief in me?”

I swung off the stool, walked around the bar to the stove Calum now stood in front of with him watching me intently.  Every step.  I raised my hands in the air just enough for him to assume I was about to wrap them around him,
but reached for the jar of sauce instead, turned around, and leaned on the bar beside him.  Only I could hear the sigh he released.  He stepped up behind me and whispered, “I can play dirty too, Miss Giggles.  Don’t play with a fire you can’t put out.”

I
’d never been allowed plain fun like this without chaperones.  I’d always had a bodyguard sorely missing out on everything all these years.

His hands wrapped around my waist and he began to tickle everything on me he could reach standing in front of two other people.  Before it could get too out of hand Lee shouted across the bar, “Okay, you two.”  Calum didn
’t stop.

“OKAY!” Lee screamed.

Calum stopped, backed up and we both stood watching Lee and Maze watching us.  I didn’t know why I should be embarrassed.  I shouldn’t be.  We finished building our homemade pizzas and all four of us sat around the bar chatting about nothing at all.  I briefly thought about the fact that I was playing a very dangerous flirting game with said Hunter boy, but I’d never been allowed to do this and it was...fun.  It’s not like I’m going to marry him or something.  And he was flirting
too
.

At one point the conversation lulled.  Maze “ummed” me a few times and finally whispered, “Do we want to go with the sneak out tomorrow night? We can hang out.  We will probably have pizza leftover.”  Saying it was useless since we would all have gone anyway, but we needed the conversation.

“Sounds great.”  I peeked behind me and saw the sofa in the corner of the room.  The TV was on playing a movie I recognized.  “That’s one of my favorites.  I want to fly one of those so bad. ‘
Tower, this is Ghost Rider, requesting a flyby.’”

“That is
not a chic flick!  No dice.”  Calum made his voice sound like a girl, but he wasn’t very effective at it. 

“Yes Calum, it is.  And I
’d be a better pilot than you.”  He was a little miffed, I could tell.  “But then again, you can be my Goose.”  He was confused.  Ha!  So much for the “chic flick” talk.  “Co-pilot!”  I helped him thinking this would give him the hint he needed.

Lee was laughing enjoying Calum
’s confusion.

Calum glared at him.

“She used to watch it all the time.  She has every line memorized.  As well as about ten other movies the last I knew.  I was never allowed to watch what I wanted.  She’d say she needed her ammo to keep my trivia on the bottom end.”

Calum looked back and forth from Lee to me.  He didn
’t like it when Lee shared exclusive information about me much less the fact that he now, was no doubt, picturing us watching movies together.

Calum
’s smile softened a little and asked, “What other movie quotes?”  The vein in his forehead smoothed out.  He’d changed his course for some reason.

I stood and walked to the sofa, patting the seat beside me.  “I feel the need…” I pointed at Calum.

“The need…for speed.”  He squished up his face knowing this one.  “This is really odd behavior.  I don’t know this girl.”

“Well, get to know her.  She
’s right here.”  He sat down next to me.

“So, what other movies are included in your list?”

“Where is your collection?  Let me see yours and I’ll show you mine.”

Calum
’s eyes went to the audience still at the table, leaned in front of me blocking my view of Maze and Lee, and reached for his belt buckle.

My hands flew to my face covering my eyes and mouth in total embarrassment.

He chuckled, beseechingly.  “Told ya not to play with fire!”

I stood and hit him over and over across the chest.  He just laughed.  I wanted to use the force I knew I had, but he needed to feel important right now, not defeated.

Lee and Maze came over to sit on the love seat after she checked the minutes left on the oven.  I resumed my seat beside Calum in battle mode not caring how close or far he was from me.  I wanted to win.  Never had I had this much fun.

“
Robin Hood!”

“Okay
.  Any last words before I have you run through?” Calum shot out.

My eyes bugged.  “Well, well.  Who surprises who?”  I countered, “Um!  Follow the white rabbit!”

“Well, well Neo!” Calum responded.

“
Impressive!” I threw him.

Lee and Maze just listened.  I risked a look over at them.  They were whispering to each other.

“Care to share?”  I asked them both.

“Just guessing your list before you reveal.  Up to three now!  Seven to go!” Lee smirked and Maze rolled her eyes.

“Oh, really!”  I threw a little maroon pillow at Lee. It matched the sofa and walls.  He caught it and hit Maze instead seeing little bits of maroon fluff from the velvet corners on her face.  She had one in my face before I could react.  We soon had blurred maroonish bullets flying every direction.  I held my hand in front of my face to block and felt my feet sweep from under me.  In any other situation my reaction would have been to fold and attack, but my attacker was a 5’11’’ gorgeous Hunter boy whom I truly felt I could not go on without in this world of pending doom, so I laid there like a scared kitten and let him curl around me, caging me in on the sofa.

“
Pinned ya!”

“Pinned!”  I purred with my tongue fluttering aloud, maroon fluff still stuck in my teeth.

He smiled and pecked a kiss on my forehead, jumped back pulling his hands through his hair. 

“You okay?” I asked a little worried at his fast retreat picking at my face for fluff while he helped me.

“You have no idea,” he leaned into my ear as I jumped up beside him, “Not one idea what affect you have on people.”

I smiled, but it scared me a little.  This was way new territory for me.  I didn
’t mean to
affect
people.  We joked some more then Lee broke the odd tension in the air.

“Now you name the movie
, genius,” Lee challenged me.

“Hit me with your best shot,” I batted my eyes. Calum and I sat on the front edge of the sofa.  He rubbed his hands together accepting the challenge.

Lee shouted with a finger pointed at me, “YOU can’t handle the truth.”

“A FEW GOOD MEN!”  We both shouted.  Calum high-fived me.  I was loving this.

Lee shouted, “Pop quiz.  Airport, gunman with one hostage.  He’s using—

“Shoot the hostage!” I screamed bumping Calum
’s shoulder.

“
No, no, no!  Doesn’t count!  Speed!  You just answered with another line, not the title,”  Calum raised his hands in the air.

“
Poor loser!” I pouted.

“Those eyes won
’t work when I’ve been challenged to beat you at a game I know I can win.”  Calum was smiling even with his eyes.

“OH, okay then. I
will
win then.”  I rubbed my hands together.

“Wanna bet?” Calum rubbed his own and sat even closer to the edge of the sofa.

“Yeah, I do!” 

He laughed the amazing devil laugh that boiled me over.  I swallowed now scared of what he might say next. 

“I win, you carry my books around tomorrow everywhere for all to see.  You win…” Calum paused thinking with his hand to his cheek.  He flicked his finger out.  “I let you give me another bow and arrow lesson.”

“No!  I win, I get to fight you in a four walled fight with everything I have.  Everything.  I
’ve been itching to unleash.  You win, you can carry my books and…and make me a picnic under the stars tomorrow night and I’ll still make good on the bow and arrow lesson.” I recanted the original idea.

“Deal!” he smiled.

This.will.be.interesting. I turned to Lee, “Fire away!”

Maze was wide-eyed and laughing at all of us.  “You all have lost your freaking minds.  I
’m checking the pizza.”

“Hakuna matata!”  Lee said fast getting into the movie part of it.

“LION KING!” we both shouted together.  Calum leaned fast and justified his answer louder than I hoped he meant to, “Pinned ya and I’ll do it again!”  I blushed.  These were
my
favorites, right?

Lee didn
’t miss a beat.  “God creates dinosaurs.  God destroys dinosaurs.  God creates man.  Man destroys God.  Man creates dinosaurs...”  Lee made his best girl voice now, “Dinosaurs eat man.  Woman inherits the earth—

“Jurassic Park,” we both chorused together.  Another high-five.  Calum and I were rocking.

“An Anastacia favorite.  Saw it over fifty times in one week.”

Calum bugged his eyes at me.  “You memorize them or something?”

“Something like that.  I have my favorite parts.”

“And since all of us seem to give her exactly what she wants...she gets,” Lee felt compelled to add.  I gave Lee a shut the crap up face.

“Someone’s gotta lose!” Calum said to my cheek ignoring Lee.

“Yeah, you do!”  I said facing Lee to have him get started again.  “Go on, Dy…
Lee.”  Oops!  Hearing old movies put me in the past a little.  We used to stay up hidden in Szar's TV room watching movies and eating popcorn till one of us woke up and made ourselves go to our own rooms.  Calum caught the blunder, but didn’t say anything.

Lee continued.  In an attempt at a scary accented line he held his neck back and in his best Russian-like bass toned voice, “Hey, Ryan, be careful what you shoot at.  Most things in here don
’t react to well to bullets.”

“
Red October!” Calum bellowed.

“Hunt for Red October!” I corrected.  “
Doesn’t count.  He didn’t say the whole title.”

Lee cocked his head to the side.  I harrumphed
just as his face gave off an devilish glow.  I knew that look meant something was in store.  “You had me at hello!”

Maze shouted with me, “Jerry Maguire!”

“Uh!  No!  Man, you called a chic flick,” Calum waved his head and hands back in forth in protest.

“Baseball movie.  And one of her favorites,” he was giving Calum his full disclosure of just how much he knew me that I myself didn
’t realize Lee knew that much about me.   

“Alright.  But doesn
’t count.  We are not competing with one timer movies,” Calum rubbed his chin again.

“
One-timer?”  I asked.

“Not watch again movie,” he clarified.

“Fine.  This time,” Lee scowled and I watched him dare me to speak.