Paranormal Realities Box Set (41 page)

"Why? It would solve everything if
you would just come back to our school."

"Even if Dad would send me, I'm not
going back to that toity Academy and its hoity students. I'm happy where I am.
And it'll be my personal pleasure to make sure my brother never sees the end
zone let alone a UGA scholarship. Liam's ass is grass—or in this case
Astroturf— on Friday."

* * * * *

The next day— Thursday—I
spent most of the morning trying to get Liam to talk to me with no luck. He
remained furious. In all the years we'd known each other we'd never stayed mad
for more than a few hours. I felt completely unsettled. The earth was off its
axis and all I could do was list around helplessly.

I'd gone through the denial phase, then
the anger phase, and then started bargaining, but nothing worked. Every time I
managed to touch Liam...nothing. No vision of a new and different death. He was
still on course to die at Keagan's hands during the game. With so little time
left, how was I going to stop Liam from playing in that game if he wouldn't
even speak to me?

In a depression, I escaped to the girls'
room and locked myself in the middle stall. I sat down on the seat and put my
head in my hands.

The bell for fifth period rang. The
chattering of the girls who'd been washing their hands and putting on make-up
trailed behind them as they left. The outer door swooshed shut and just as
quickly swooshed open again.

"Are you okay, Tara?" My
friend, Juliette's voice, high-pitched and dripping in placid concern, echoed
against the tile walls. "You've been acting weird. I'm worried about
you."

"I'm okay. Go on," I said.
"You'll miss class."

"No," she replied. "I have
an appointment with the guidance counselor and she said it was okay to ...
anyway, I don't have to go."

As she chattered I glanced up. The
graffiti carved on the inside of the door screamed out at me: Tara Sucks.

Lashonda had carved those words into the
stall on the first day of the school year when I'd refused to join a group of
the cheerleaders in a drinking party. She seemed certain I could pass for
twenty-one and buy them a supply of beer. I refused, as did Juliette.

"You and Juliette," Lashonda
had groused. "Just a couple of goody-goodies. You both suck."

But in the end it was only my name that
ended up on the stall door. Juliette was too nice. Too sweet. Nobody wanted to
hurt
her
feelings.

The words on the door, even if not true
then, were certainly true now. I did suck. I sucked big time. Reaching into my
purse, I got out a ballpoint and scratched in an exclamation point next to
Lashonda's carving.

But defacing public property didn't make
me feel any better. Had I expected it to?

Sabotaging the football stadium briefly
seemed an option to saving Liam, until I acknowledged that I had no idea how to
do it. Maybe calling in a bomb threat would...but no. The mania about football
was so high around here that it might cause a delay while they checked for a
device, but it wouldn't cause them to cancel the entire game.

"Come out and talk to me,"
Juliette said, knocking with a delicate rap on the metal door. "I want to
help."

"Can you set fire to the Astroturf
in the stadium for me?"

"What? No. Of course not,"
Juliette sputtered but I barely heard her.

Grabbing the phone out of my purse, I did
a quick Internet search. The answer about synthetic grass being pretty much
nonflammable made me toss the phone back into my bag in disgust.

"Damn Astroturf!" I shouted.

"What is this about?" Juliette
asked. "Why are you so angry at the fake grass?"

"Fake grass?" I cried.
"That's the least of my worries."

"Okay," she said. "But I
thought you hated it."

Keagan's words came back to me:
Liam's ass is
grass—or in this case Astroturf— on Friday.

"Shut up about the damn Astroturf!"
I cried.

"Whatever you want," she said.
"Maybe I should get the guidance counselor."

Something else Keagan had said shot into
my mind:
I'd
have jumped at that offer in a heartbeat.
He was saying he'd miss the game
for a chance to have sex with me.

Why hadn't I thought of it before? Keagan
was the other half of the equation.

If he didn't play the game on Friday,
then he couldn't be there to kill Liam. The fact that someone else could
replace Keagan and make the death-dealing tackle remained a possibility.
Nothing was certain. But that wasn't likely, I told myself. Only Liam's brother
had the heated drive to stop his brother at all costs. The other team members
were just playing a sport. Most likely if I could stop Keagan from going to the
game, I could save Liam.

Suddenly, I did have a chance to change
fate, but only if Keagan had meant what he said. And even if he meant it, would
I be able to carry through? I was too inhibited to have sex with Liam. Could I
cheat on him with his brother? Of course, Liam would never forgive me. But in
the end, which was worse, betraying Liam in a way that he would never forgive
or allowing him to die?

Bolting out of the bathroom stall, I shot
past a shocked Juliette and out into the hall. I made it out of the school
without anyone stopping me. As I strode to my Camry, it occurred to me that
this was the first time in my entire school career that I'd skipped out,
leaving school before my last class. I'd be missing cheerleading practice too
but I didn't care if I was thrown off the squad.

"Who cares if I get in
trouble," I muttered. "Where has it gotten me to be good?"

A parking ticket rested on the
windshield, which I grabbed and promptly tore to pieces before throwing on the
ground. After a few moments fumbling in my purse, I managed to grab the key
ring and unlock the car. I jumped inside, fired the engine, and peeled out.

 
Keagan's school was to the south of the downtown and I
shattered many a traffic law getting there. Now that I had a plan, it seemed
imperative to put it into operation before I chickened out. Or before fate
conspired to put some other blockade in my way.

When I turned the corner to approach his
school, Keagan and two other guys were lounging next to the dumpster, smoking.

Rolling down the window of the old Camry,
I shouted to him. "Hey Keagan. Can I give you a ride home?"

For a mille-second, surprise widened his
eyes and slackened his jaw. He tossed the cigarette butt to the pavement and
ground it under the heel of his boot. Then a casual smirk replaced surprise. He
muttered something to his companions, causing them to laugh and shoot me a leer
as Keagan sauntered my way.

"What are you doing here,
Goody?"

"Don't call me that." The
nickname set my teeth on edge. "Do you want a ride or not?"
Great. What a way
to start a seduction
.

"Oh yeah," he said, pulling
open the passenger door. "I definitely want a ride."

His statement was loud enough for his
friends to hear. From their nasty chuckles I knew they were reading in a double
entendre, as Keagan had no doubt meant them to do.

Once he was inside, I set off but
couldn't think what to say. We drove along in silence. My hands clenched and
unclenched on the steering wheel while Keagan sat in his seat, staring at me
with that horrid smile. A glance at him and my stomach churned as if somebody
had installed a roulette wheel inside me.

"Put on your seatbelt would
you?" I said, finally.

"Concerned about me?" he asked.

"About the ticket I'll get. Since
I'm underage I could lose my license."

He didn't answer, just snorted and
reached for the strap. He jerked it down and buckled himself in.
"Happy?"

So far from happy that happy wasn't even
a speck in the distance.

When I didn't answer, he spoke again in
that too knowing drawl. "What's this about? I don't imagine you're giving
me a ride for my convenience."

I'd have to tell him sometime but somehow
I couldn't force out any words. This had all seemed like such a good idea in
theory but in practice my seduction techniques reeked.

"Well?" he asked.

"Ummm."

We pulled up in front of his house and I
stopped the car but kept it idling.

"Okay, then," Keagan said with
a fake cheerfulness, as if he knew I was struggling to come out with something.
"Thanks for the ride."

He pulled on the handle and the passenger
door swung open. Keagan had one foot out the door when I put a hand on his arm.

"Wait," I said.

He relaxed back into the seat and shut
the door while I switched off the ignition.

"Youwannagooutwithme?" The
mumbled words tumbled out of my mouth.

"Huh?"

Straightening my shoulders, I sucked in a
deep breath. This ninny act of mine just wouldn't do. I turned and faced him.

Staring Keagan in the eye, I said,
"A date. You and me. How about it?"

Except for a few blinks, Keagan's
expression didn't register any reaction. Why had I never noticed before what
long lashes he had over those gray eyes?

"You want to go on a date. With
me." He pronounced every word distinctly.

"Yes."

Now his eyebrows arched and he pointed at
himself. "With me?"

I nodded.

Shifting to turn away and stare at the
floorboards of the car, he said, "Sure. Tonight?"

"No. Tomorrow night."

"After the game?" Keagan looked
up at me and a smirk twisted his lips. His eyes twinkled with a cynicism that
cut at me. Somehow he already knew what I would say. I said it anyway.

"No. During the game."

"Do I get the same deal you offered
Liam," he joked. "You'll go with me to the reserve?"

"Yes," I said, swallowing a
lump the size of the hope diamond. "If that's what you want."

"Why?" He asked.

"Maybe I just want someone to care
enough about me to give up the
big game
. You heard Liam. I'm a manipulative tease."

"That just doesn't seem like
you," he muttered. He shook his head as if trying to clear it of
confusion. "There has to be something else—"

Interrupting him, I squeezed his arm.
"The important thing is you said you'd have taken the deal."

"You were joking." His eyes
bored into mine with their intensity. "So I was teasing you."

"I'm not joking now." My gaze
didn't waver from his. "I want to go out with you. You've been telling me
to go wild. Now I have."

"I don't believe it," he said.
" Something is going on and I just don't know what."

The thoughts in his head almost screamed
out of his furrowed brow, thoughts that would have him backing out. I had to
stop those thoughts.

Acting on impulse, I lunged forward to
plant a hard kiss on his lips. When I pulled back, slightly breathless myself,
his eyes had widened and his mouth had shaped into an "o".

"Wha—" He touched a
finger to his lips.

"There. I want your awesome body. I
want to go out with you. Satisfied?"

His face relaxed back into his cynical
smirk. "Okay," he finally said. "I'll go out with you."

"Good—"

"But if we're going to the reserve,
we go tonight."

When I would have protested he added,
"And tomorrow night. Two dates. You spend the night with me at the reserve
tonight and I'll go out with you tomorrow night during the game."

My mind spun as I nodded.

"But there's one more thing you have
to do," he said.

Nodding again I said, "I'll do
it."

"Don't you even want to know what it
is before you agree?"

"Whatever it is, I agree."

 
In for a penny, in for a pound. Even if it was a pound of my
flesh, what choice did I have? How much worse could it be anyway?

* * * * *

When I arrived at the Ellsworth house
promptly at six, as Keagan had demanded, I switched off the car engine but
couldn't quite bring myself to go in. After about five minutes, I pushed the
handle mechanism, swung the car door open, and got out. I then grabbed my
purse, to sling the strap over my shoulder and across my chest, before
straightening my pink cardigan so the buttons wouldn't bunch.

"Stop stalling." A thump of my
fist to thigh didn't produce movement. "And stop talking to yourself or
somebody will think you're crazy."
What do you mean somebody? You are crazy.

Eventually, dragging in a deep breath, I
set off. The walk up the path to the house was like the walk to the gallows—
not to be overly
dramatic or anything
. Every step of my clogs on the cement seemed to echo.
I was about to fulfill Keagan's condition for the date and it had been worse
than I thought.