Riley's Curse, A Moon's Glow Prequel (16 page)

I have always
felt like an impostor in my own life, sticking out like a sore
thumb amongst my friends and family. All anybody sees when they
look at me is an eighteen-year-old girl, wearing designer clothes
and driving a shiny red convertible. I’m a Banks, rich, spoiled,
popular, and given everything I want. But that is far from the
truth. How can I have what I want, when I don’t know what that
is?

For as long as
I can remember I’ve felt something missing from my life, and
sometimes believed it was a connection to another person. The
closest I’ve come to that feeling was with our cook and gardener.
Did that even count? Would they even be in my life if they weren’t
paid to be?

Of course I had
friends, although I wasn’t sure if they’d still be here if I had a
different last name. Would I be a cheerleader hanging out with the
captain and hunky football players if my father wasn’t senior
partner in his law firm? Would my friends want to visit me if we
didn’t have a pool, hot tub, and tennis courts? Sometimes my life
felt so foreign, I expected to wake one morning to my true family.
Go downstairs, have a real conversation with my parents, eating
cereal and arguing with my siblings. My father would actually look
up at me from behind his newspaper and smile as I stole a piece of
his slightly burnt toast that my mother had made for him. Instead
of the cook, who really was a substitute for my biological
mother—who wouldn’t be caught dead out of bed before noon.

“Megan, are you
coming?” my best friend, Mandy, asked as she leaned into my bedroom
doorway, disrupting my thoughts.

I was staring
at myself in the mirror, brushing my hair, letting my mind wander,
and I forgot she was waiting for me. “Yes.” I stood up to grab my
purse off of my bed. I turned once more to the mirror, and,
satisfied that none of the lettuce from dinner was stuck in my
teeth, I ran out of my room to catch up with Mandy.

As I bounded
down the large, sweeping staircase, Mandy, who was ahead of me,
slipped out the door and into the night. I didn’t quite make it
before I heard a clicking sound coming down the marble hallway. I
glanced over to see my mother heading toward me in her shiny,
silver, spiked heels, wearing a skin-tight red designer dress.

God knows why
she had to look as though she were a fashion model just sitting
around her own house. But there was no point in trying to figure
out why she did anything. I gave up a long time ago.

“Where are you
going, Megan?” Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard, shrill and
annoying. I wanted to say “like you care,” but even after all these
years of my parents abandoning me for their charity events, spa
trips, and eighty-hour work weeks, I still hoped one day we could
be a close family like we were when I was little.

I stopped in my
tracks, whirling around to confront her. The overwhelming smell of
her perfume struck me as much as her beauty.
Too bad her
attitude didn’t match her appearance.
I watched as her soft
blue eyes narrowed and glared at me, waiting for me to answer the
question. She had her hand on the stair railing, her perfectly
manicured nails tapping the top impatiently. The sound reminded me
of a drum beat.

“I’m spending
the night at Mandy’s.” Without waiting for an answer, I turned,
descending the rest of the stairs, and rushed out the door.

I heard her
yell something about not giving me permission, but I left anyway.
Since when was she so concerned about me?

“So, where to?”
I asked Mandy, who was waiting patiently, playing with the car
stereo. She glanced up and smiled after I climbed into the driver’s
seat of my convertible. Since there was a chill in the air at
night, the top was up. It was April and soon enough we’d be able to
drive with it down.

“The football
field. Brandon, Chris, Shane, and the rest of the team are meeting
us there, but we have to pick up Jenny, her car is in the shop. Her
father won’t let her use his because she got two speeding tickets
last time he lent it to her.”

I laughed.
Jenny didn’t care about other people’s belongings. To her it was
her father’s duty to give her whatever she wanted, simply because
she was his child. She was a little shallow, self-centered…and
annoying. I asked myself often why she was my friend.

I pulled into
Jenny’s driveway, which was just down the road from my house, and
honked the horn.

“Don’t you want
to go in?” Mandy asked me. Her hand was resting on the door handle,
about to open it.

“No, if we go
in she’ll take forever. Do you want to wait or hang out with the
guys?” I leaned over to the stereo, flicking through the songs on
the car’s mp3 player.

“That’s true;
she isn’t one to rush when people are waiting.”

I rolled my
eyes at that. She was the kind of person who would take her time
because
we were waiting.

Twenty minutes later Jenny strolled out of her
house. Like mine, hers was a mansion, but while my family’s home
was old and understated, with beautiful gardens and landscaping
that wrapped around the classic architecture of the grey stone
house, Jenny’s house screamed, “Look at me, I’m rich.” The outside
was a salmon-colored stucco. The gardens were beautifully done but
overshadowed by dozens of tacky sculptures. The worst was the
cherub holding a bow and arrow. It stood in the centre of their
fake pond, peeing. Classy, I know.

“Hey, guys, I hope I didn’t keep you waiting,” Jenny
said sweetly, climbing into the back seat. She shoved Mandy a bit
harder than necessary when she pushed the front seat forward.

“Oh, of course
not. We’ve only been sitting here for twenty minutes,” I said
coldly, annoyed with her already, and the night had barely
begun.

“What’s your
problem? I didn’t know you were here.” Jenny’s voice took on a
defensive tone as she looked into her small makeup mirror. She
fluffed her shoulder-length blond hair and scrunched up her lips,
adoring her reflection in the mirror.

“Yeah, right,”
I mumbled but decided to let it go. Mandy gave me a pleading look,
begging me not to pick a fight with Jenny tonight. I nodded at her
and pulled out of the driveway.

Jenny tucked
her mirror into her clutch purse and asked, “So where are we
going?”

Mandy turned in
her seat to face Jenny. “The football field with the guys. I told
you already when I called you to say we were on our way.
Remember?”

“Oh, right, I
forgot. I got into it with my dad again. He’s still refusing to pay
to fix my car. He was going on and on tonight at dinner about being
responsible if I want to have a car, this was my third accident,
blah, blah, blah. I tuned him out after that. God, he’s getting so
annoying, like it’s the end of the world because I’ve had three
accidents. I can’t believe he thinks I should pay to fix it.”

I rolled my
eyes. “Oh yeah, life is tough, isn’t it? How can he expect you to
take responsibility for your own actions?”

“
I know,
right
?”

Apparently,
sarcasm was lost on her. I opened my mouth to tell her off, but a
look from Mandy silenced me. For some reason, Mandy liked Jenny,
and since Mandy and I were best friends, and had been since her
father started to work at my dad’s firm ten years ago, I had to put
up with Jenny, even if it killed me.

Five minutes
later, I pulled into the nearly empty school parking lot, next to
Shane’s enormous black SUV. God, it was obnoxious, but then again,
so was Shane. No wonder he and Jenny were a couple; they were
perfect for each other.

I tossed my
purse in the front seat of the car, locked the doors, and followed
my friends through the back of the school to the field.

“Look who’s
finally here.” Shane sauntered up to Jenny, wrapping his arm
possessively around her. “It took you long enough. Let me guess,
Jenny kept you waiting,” he asked me, but his girlfriend started
speaking before I could.

“Don’t
encourage her. She’s already pissed at me, just because I took a
little extra time getting ready. I had to look my best for you.”
Her lips puckered into a pout as she leaned up to kiss him
hungrily, almost making me gag. I had to turn away from their
disgusting PDA before I hurled right there on the football
field.

“Okay, that’s
gross,” Brandon said, walking over to stand next to me.

“Really, guys,
if you want to be alone, go in the bushes. We really don’t need to
see it.” Chris approached us, wrapping his arms around Mandy. They
had been going out for six months, and they were so cute together.
They even looked alike with their black hair and blue eyes. There
was quite a difference in size though. While Chris was almost six
feet and broad shouldered, Mandy was short with a tiny frame, and
her pixie haircut just made her appear smaller.

Shane pushed
Jenny away but wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “So do any of
you girls want a drink?” Shane gestured with his hand to a cooler
with what looked like a twenty-four of beer inside. It was sitting
on the grass in front of the bleachers.

I passed on the
beer, climbing up the benches to sit down on the bleachers about
four rows up. Jenny and Mandy helped themselves to a drink,
choosing to sit down on the first row.

“Megan, you
want one?” Brandon asked, holding a brown bottle up for me.

“No thanks, I’m
driving,” I said, wondering why I came.

“So am I, but
you don’t see me being a downer and saying no,” Shane said,
twisting the cap off of a bottle.

“You’re right.
I don’t ever see you saying no.” I stared at Shane coldly, unable
to hide my irritation.

He glared at
me, his jaw locked. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked,
taking a few steps toward the bleachers, his chest puffed out in a
sign of aggression.

Brandon grabbed
his shoulder. “I’m sure she didn’t mean anything. She was just
agreeing with you.” He looked up at me, his eyes pleading. “Right,
Meg?”

I decided it
was a waste of time to give Shane a lecture on drinking and
driving, so instead I gave him a fake smile. “Right,” I said with a
nod.

Jenny, ignoring
her boyfriend’s outburst, turned and glanced up at me. “So Megan,
did Mandy tell you that I changed practice from ten on Sunday
morning to two? My parents are having some brunch thing for my
father’s work, so we can all meet at my place then, okay?”

“Whatever.”
God, I hated cheerleading practice. I joined first year with Mandy,
but slowly grew tired of it. I wanted to quit a few times, but
Mandy always offered an excuse as to why I shouldn’t. The latest
one was that I was needed for the cheer competition next month. So
I would stick it out, but come June, I was free. I hated dressing
in our skimpy uniforms and shaking our butts in front of hundreds
of people. I felt like I was putting myself on display, and
honestly hated being in the spotlight.

“Hey, Shane,
will your shoulder be better by Friday?” Chris asked him while he
sat down beside Mandy. Last Friday night at their weekly game of
touch football with some of their teammates, it got a little
rough.

“Yeah, I’ve
been working on it, it’ll be fine.” He rolled his shoulder to
demonstrate.

Jenny grabbed
Shane and pulled him toward the corner of the bleachers so they
could make out in semi-private.

Chris took
Mandy’s hand, leading her toward the school.

Great, I was
alone with Brandon again. This was what usually happened when we
all got together: we paired up. But the problem was, Brandon and I
were not a couple. Not that he didn’t want to be, I just didn’t
like him that way. He was a good guy, but I didn’t think of him as
anything more than a friend.

Brandon bent
down and pulled out a beer. After opening it, he threw the cap in
the cooler, and it made a pinging sound as it hit a glass bottle.
“Do you mind if I join you?” he asked, staring up at me. His voice
was deep and in the silence sounded loud.

“Sure, but you
know how I feel.”

“I know, don’t
worry.” He climbed the bleachers two at a time, plopping down on
the bench next to me.

“Where’s the
rest of the team?”

“I don’t know.
We didn’t ask them to come. Why?”

I shook my
head, realizing Mandy had lied to me, knowing I wouldn’t want to
come if it was just the six of us. “Never mind.”

“Why do you
always push him like that?” he asked, leaning his elbows back
against the bench behind him, nodding his head to the back of the
bleachers where Shane and Jenny were giggling.

I sighed. “I
don’t know. Both of them are so selfish and irresponsible, they
drive me crazy.”

“Then why do
you hang out with them?” I raised my eyebrows at him. “Okay, let me
rephrase. Why do you hang out with Jenny?”

I leaned my
head back, staring up at the star-filled sky. Out of the corner of
my eye, I could see him gaze at me, waiting for my answer. “Mandy
likes her. God knows why. And Mandy’s my best friend, so I put up
with Jenny’s crap. Barely,” I added when he laughed.

Looking away
from the twinkling stars, I turned my head to face him. “So why do
you hang out with
him
? You’re not as obnoxious as he
is.”

He laughed.
“
As
obnoxious? Was that a compliment?” he asked. I nodded
with a grin. “The three of us have been friends since grade school.
Shane started acting like this our second year of high school after
his parents got divorced. Chris and I have been friends with him
for so long it seems habit now. We just ignore him when he acts
like an ass.”

I knew they had
been friends since they were young, but I never understood the
dynamic. As I leaned my head back, staring at the stars again, I
felt him lean against me. I pulled away and heard him sigh.