Shift (The Neturu Chronicles) (46 page)

               
For the rest of their walk, Damien shares details about his family. When they
finally make it back to Jackson’s yard, Kayla stops walking and looks at
Damien. “Your family sounds nice.  I always wanted siblings, but that
wasn’t in the cards, I guess.”

               
“Growing up with an older sister was horrible sometimes, but I adore her
nonetheless,” Damien replies. His eyes flicker to the house behind her. “Oh,
there are your parents.”

               
Kayla’s mom rushes toward them and wraps her arms around Kayla, crushing Kayla
against her.  “You scared us half to death!”

               
“Sorry,” Kayla mutters.  “Once I got going, I kind of just…ran.”

               
“Why would you try to change into a form you aren’t used to?” her mom exclaims.

               
Kayla shrugs. “I didn’t really think about it.  I just wanted to be fast,
so I thought of a cheetah.  I didn’t think it would really work.  I
thought I was just going to morph into a dog.”

               
“Ugh,” her mom exhales, grabbing the bridge of her nose.  “You are going
to be the death of me.”

               
“Sorry.”

               
“Honey,” her dad interjects, putting his hand on his wife’s shoulder. “It’s a
really big accomplishment.  I mean Kayla is shifting while running and has
already taken two forms.  She is light years away from where she should
be.”

               
Kayla grins. “Thanks, Dad.”  He smiles back at her.  “I don’t mean to
change the subject, but I’m starving,” she exhales.  “I need to eat mass
amounts of food.”

               
“Why don’t I cook us all dinner?” Damien suggests.  “I can make some
chicken Parmesan.”

               
“That sounds so good,” Kayla moans.

               
Damien grins. “Then let’s get started.”

               
Everyone stands in the kitchen and talks while Damien cooks.  Kayla
watches him with a smirk on her face.  Every once in a while, she notices
Jackson staring at her but when she catches him, he quickly looks away.

               
After dinner, Kayla’s parents leave so she can do her homework.  This time
she takes her books into her own room and lays everything out on the bed. 
Picking up her history book, she starts reading.  An hour later, a light
knock sounds on her door. “Yeah?”

               
“I brought you a cup of tea,” Damien says, walking in with a mug in his
hands.  “I’m not here to bother you.  I was just making some tea and
thought you’d want some.  I drink it when I’m doing my homework.  It
calms my mind so I can study better.”

               
“Thank you.  You are too good to me.”

               
He smiles. “No big deal.  I thought you’d like it.”

               
“I do, very much.”            

               
“Your car is coming tomorrow.” Damien sighs.  “They called me a little
while ago, apologizing up and down.  I told them it didn’t really
matter.  It wouldn’t be driven for a week or so.”

               
Kayla moves her backpack to the side and pats the bed next to her.  “Come
sit down, help me do my calculus.”

               
“Oooohhh okay,” Damien draws out.  “If I must.”

               
“Please,” Kayla emphasizes.

               
Damien hops onto the bed. “Show me what you’ve got.”

               
“Here,” Kayla says, passing him her book.  “These are the questions. I get
how to do them, but the calculations are coming out wrong, so I know I’m
missing something.  It was probably explained in class, but obviously I
can’t be there right now.”

               
“I can help.”  As he reads them, Damien says, “My sister wants to have a
video chat with you.”

               
“Courtney, why?”

               
“No, Victoria.” Damien chuckles.  “She wants to give the okay for us to be
serious.”

               
“Awww, that’s so cute.  I didn’t think she knew about me.”

               
Looking up at her, Damien replies, “I have to talk to Victoria every day,
otherwise, I’m in the doghouse, big time.”

               
“It’s nice that you’re so close to your sisters.”

               
“I kind of always wanted a brother.  The closest thing I have is
Jackson.  We have a ton of girls in our family, but only two boys.”

               
Curious, Kayla inquires, “Why don’t you and Jackson get along better?”

               
“I have no idea.  We have always butted heads.  He didn’t like my
playboy lifestyle, and I didn’t care.  Now we throw you in the mix and
it’s even worse.”

               
“I don’t know why I have anything to do with it,” Kayla whispers. 
“Jackson isn’t interested in me like that.”

               
Damien raises an eyebrow. “Do you actually believe that?”

               
“What do you mean?” Kayla asks.

               
“He likes you, even if he doesn’t want to,” Damien mutters, looking back down
at the textbook.  “That’s fine.  You’re a gorgeous girl, both inside
and out.  A guy would be a fool not to care about you.”

               
Kayla touches her hand to her chest, her heart warming with his words. “Thank
you for saying that.  As for Jackson, it’s nothing you need to worry
about.”

               
Silence descends on them before Damien whispers, “It bothers me that you guys
always find yourselves kissing each other.  I realize it happens when you
come out of shifts and everything, but it still bothers me.”

               
“I’m sorry.  I don’t mean for it to happen.”

               
“It’s fine.  We aren’t boyfriend and girlfriend.  You’re free to do
whatever you want.”

               
She looks at him. “Yeah, but I would freak if you were kissing another girl, as
much as I freaked about that phone call.  At least it shows that I really
do like you.”

               
“That’s true,” Damien responds with a smile.  “It’s good that we care
about each other.”

               
“Yup. Let’s get started on my calculus homework before it’s too late.”

               
With a nod, Damien moves the book over and explains how to solve the
problems.  About an hour later, Kayla huffs. 

“What’s wrong?” Damien
laughs.

               
“I love school.  I love to study.  I’m great at it.  I just
don’t like calculus.  I’m allowed to not like one course, right?”

               
“Neither do I really, but it’s one of those things you have to do if you’re
going to excel in school.”

               
Sighing, Kayla says, “I know.  Stupid wanting to be the valedictorian, why
can’t I be a normal teenager?”

               
“Because we’re a much smarter species.  We are driven to strive and be
better.  It’s what we do.”

               
“Humph,” Kayla pouts.  “I want to go back to being human.  Then I
could be normal and slack if I wanted.”

               
Damien sits back and chuckles.  “You can slack if you want to.  I’ll
support you.  You can sit around and eat chocolates all day.”

               
She gives him a look.  “Do I really seem like the kind of girl who would
sit around and eat bonbons all day?”

               
“Not at all, but I could see you sitting on Facebook for hours.”

               
“I do that now.  Oh, we need to be friends!  Wait, do you have girls
writing romantic stuff all over your page?”

               
Damien clicks his tongue. “Kind of.”

               
“Then maybe we can skip the Facebook connection.  That would be awkward.”

               
“I can put that I’m in a relationship with you,” Damien suggests with a smile.

               
Kayla raises her eyebrow.  “You would do that?  We aren’t even
exclusive.”

               
“I don’t plan on dating anyone else, so I
am
in a relationship with you,
even if we don’t use titles to define it.”

               
Looking at him carefully, Kayla says, “Well, wait on that.”

               
“Come on, let’s go become friends.”  Damien grabs her hand and pulls her
off the bed.  They run up to his room.  He grabs his laptop and sits
down on the bed.  “Have a seat, I want to check your profile page. 
Are there embarrassing pictures of you?”

               
“Oh, yeah, Tracy tags me in everything,” Kayla groans.  “She’s very big on
candid shots, awful candid shots.”

               
“Excellent.” Damien laughs as he starts his computer.

               
She turns to him.  “Are there a million pictures of you with girls on
there?”

               
“I usually take them down,” Damien mumbles.

               
With a smirk, Kayla asks, “And why is that?”  Damien types in his info but
doesn’t say anything.  Leaning closer to him, Kayla asks again, “Why is
that Damien?”

               
“Hmmm, it makes the other girls jealous.”

               
Kayla rolls her eyes.  “Oh please, I think you need to post a picture of
us on there.  Let them stew on that.”

               
Damien sets his computer down next to him and reaches in his pocket.  He
takes out his phone and holds it up.  “Say cheese.”

               
“Don’t you
dare!
” Kayla exclaims.

               
“Too late, gorgeous picture.”

               
“Let me see, you jerk,” Kayla snaps, grabbing the phone from him and looking at
the picture. “I’ll kill you if you post that on your page.”

               
Damien grabs the phone back.  “Then smile nicely so I can take your
picture.”

               
“I look like crap.”

               
“You’re beautiful.  Now, if I’m going to put you as my significant other,
I need a picture to go with it.”

               
“My picture is on there. Use that one,” she says, pointing to the screen.

               
He grabs her and pulls her onto the bed farther.  “Lay on me,” he
instructs.

               
“What?” Kayla laughs.

               
“Come here,” Damien says, holding open his arms.  Apprehensively, Kayla
crawls into them.  “Lie down on my chest and look up at the camera.”

               
Kayla smiles. “Your phone has a camera on the front.”

               
“Yup, so now you can see the picture,” Damien replies.  He moves the phone
so they are both in the picture.  “Okay, wave to all the other
insignificant girls.”

               
Kayla giggles. “You aren’t serious.”

               
Putting his lips on her head, Damien murmurs, “Deadly serious.”

               
With a snort, Kayla waves at the camera.  Damien quickly takes the
picture.  “I love it,” she says, jumping up with his phone.  “You’re
kissing my head, but you can still tell it’s you.”

               
Damien sits up next to her.  “So, here, go into this menu and hit share and
then choose Facebook.  It will load to my page.”

               
“Awesome,” Kayla squeals in excitement.

               
He grabs his laptop and puts it on his lap.  “Let’s tag that.”

               
Kayla leans over and looks at the screen.  She laughs. “That’s a cute
picture.”  The profile picture is of a young girl sitting on Damien’s
lap.  He’s wearing a birthday hat, and she’s laughing. 

               
“Oh, that’s Victoria,” Damien replies.  “It was her birthday a few months
ago.”

               
She looks at him.  “Does that picture get the girls?”

               
“What, you expected me to have some picture of me without my shirt on?” Damien
inquires with a grin.

               
“A little.”

               
“Nope, my family means everything to me.  I’m very protective of
Victoria.  I mean, Courtney too, but Courtney is tough and can handle
herself.  Victoria, on the other hand, is the picture-perfect ten-year-old
girl.  She still loves dolls and playing with horses.  I have to
watch out for her.”

               
Kayla nudges him with her shoulder. “You’re a good brother.”

               
“I’m not a bad guy.  I just got a little lost for a while.”

               
“Can I ask you a question, a question I’m really scared to know the answer to?”
Kayla whispers.

               
Damien raises his eyebrows. “Uh-oh, this can’t be good.”

               
“Exactly…how many girls…has it been?”

               
Damien is silent as he stares at her.  “Like, how many girls…have I had sex
with?”

               
“Yeah,” Kayla replies.  “My curiosity is getting the best of me.”