Sun Poisoned (The Sunshine Series) (4 page)

“
Hey,” I say, though instead of looking at me, she's looking at Evan. “Nice to meet you.”

Slowly, her deep, dark brown eyes meet mine. She smiles nervously.
“Hello.” Her voice is soft, and I can only hear it because Honus is between songs.

Evan picks up the conversation again.
“Your family came to see you,” he points out, gesturing toward the crowd below where my band mates, Stevie, Jade, and Laura are dancing around to the bumping pound of the drums, piano, and trumpets of Honus starting up again.

I laugh.
“Yeah, they're here.”

“What were they shouting while you were on stage?” Myles asks.

“
Lines from
Spinal Tap
.” I laugh again.

To my surprise, Ava lets out a small laugh too.
“I thought so.”

“
It's a movie?” Evan asks her, and then they go off into their own conversation.

The song changes to something slow, but in Honus' style. I'd describe it as something like big band mixed with punk, the front man having a voice like Tom Waitts, and the instruments sound sad, yet upbeat at the same time. I recognize the song they’re playing because I heard it my first night here. This one’s about Teen Wolf, but they have other ones about The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Frankenstein’s Monster, and of course, Dracula.

“You guys were really amazing tonight,” Myles repeats. It’s not as loud on the balcony, but he still has to talk into my ear. It gives me good chills every time he speaks.

I stare down at my feet and I can't help smiling.
“The lead singer of Honus wants me to play piano for one of their shows.”

He's smiling when my eyes return to his face, and a carved out crescent shape appears near the corner of his mouth.
 ”That's great.”

“
I don't know if I want to do it,” I say in my normal tone, figuring he can hear me and my throat is too raw for anything else anyway.

“
You should,” he says in my ear. “Manny rarely invites other musicians on stage with him.”

“
Manny?”

He nods in the direction of the stage.
“He’s one of the few people that know about us here.”

This isn’t a surprise. From the moment I started coming to the club, I’ve made a mental note of who was and wasn’t in on the huge secret. Manny goes in the “in” column now, I guess.

The lead singer has his hand around an old style mic as he sings his funny and sad lyrics about a werewolf:

I wanna find a shirt that doesn’t rip when I turn

Around the moon and I need new shorts

I wanna shave my face and not have it grow

Back and hour later.

I get it, baby, you don’t want me to meet your father
. . .

“
Oh,” I say like a dumbass. I didn't even know the guy's name.

“
Yeah.” He laughs before changing the subject, speaking into my ear again. “I'm sorry Alex and Adrienne introduced you to Evelyn so soon.”

I don’t take my eyes off of the stage when I shake my head.
“You don't have to explain.” I say. “At least. . .not now.”

After a few seconds, Myles asks,
“Would you like to dance?”

We practiced dancing for the Winter Formal, yet still have not actually
put our skills to use. Tonight it has to be put off again.

“
I can’t,” I say. “I have to go work the merch booth for a few hours.”

When we were signed on to play here, we had to fill out some paperwork about when we’d be willing to play, when we preferred to use the practice spaces, and if we would want side jobs working the merch booths for other bands. Myles told me that I’d be making enough money playing, but as someone who has no car because of a certain
“accident” and wants to get a new one as soon as possible, I signed up.

I stand.
“It was nice meeting you,” I direct toward Evan and Ava, who smile at me for a second before returning their gazes to Honus.

“
I’ll come with you,” Myles offers.

As tempting as that is, I don’t want to be that girl who needs her boyfriend around every second of the day.
“No way,” I say. “Watch the rest of the show. I’ll meet you when it’s over.”

He smiles and leans in for a hug.
“Okay. Have fun.”

I spend the rest of the show with a decent, if not far away view of the stage, handing over shirts and counting out change. I’ve had worse jobs.

When the last band is saying thank you and goodnight, there’s a rush of people, and I only get a short goodbye from my family and Boo and Trei as they buy buttons with the rest of the crowd. They also inform me that Stevie, Jade, and Laura are sleeping at
their
apartment. The plan was to have them at mine, but it’s suddenly changed.

“
Oh, come on,” Boo says, lingering at the edge of the wooden booth. “You and Myles need some alone time.” He wiggles his eyebrows. I know he’s joking, but I throw his t-shirt at him anyway before he joins the swarm of people as my friends and family funnel out of Club Midnight.

When the crowd has cleared and the only people left are a few stray band members, Myles finds me. Jamie comes around to each booth and separates the tips. I pocket my portion, not even bothering to count it because it’s a huge wad of singles.

It’s close to two AM when we’re finally back at my apartment.

“
Do you want to come in?” I ask Myles, who walked me home.

I swing the door open, ste
pping inside so he can follow.

“
Aren't you tired?” He takes a step inside.

I shrug.
“I'm kind of wide awake after tonight.” I start to pull the pins from my hair.

Myles sits on the
couch watching me as I sit next to him. “Your chest is sore,” he says.

I turn toward him and he shrugs.
“I asked Evan,” he explains.

“
You asked Evan if my chest was sore?”

“
I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“
I'm fine.”

“
Are you sure?”

Absently, I touch the top of the long vertical scar on my che
st over the fabric of my dress.

“
Yeah. It just feels a little raw. I guess I'm not used to singing like that.”

I let my fistful of bobby pins fall onto the surface of the coffee table and run a hand through my hair.

“Did you have fun tonight?” he asks, turning toward me so our thighs touch for a brief moment.

“
Hell yeah.” Besides the little weird parts, hell yeah.
              I run my fingers through my hair. Myles brushes it from my shoulders and I stop what I’m doing.

“
You look nice,” he says.

“
Right.” I snort. “Sweaty makeup and messy hair must be a good look on me.”

His eyebrows knit together.
“It's not funny.”

I close my eyes and his hand cups my jaw.

“You look beautiful,” he murmurs. When I open my eyes again, his nose is touching mine. My pulse pounds in my ears. “May I?” he asks.

He means kiss me.

I swallow and I nod.

And he does.

Nightmares: The Musical

Chapter 2

“I was so excited to do such normal things with you.”—The Dresden Dolls

I'm running through the woods.

It's dark, the moon is full, there are trees stretching their arms up to the night sky, and there’s a lake, not far from where I am. The water is black, but there are solid chunks of ice floating in it. The ground under my feet is wet and cold, and dead blades of grass bite into my bare ankles like snakes.

My chest feels heavy, and I can’t keep from coughing . My lungs aren’t working the way they should. My breathing comes in and out in raspy tremors. The clothing I’m wearing is thin and flimsy. It looks like it was once a white nightgown, but there’s brown and red stains on it now.

There's no one following me, but I'm afraid there will be.

I trip on something and my face hits cold, hard ice. This part of the lake is frozen.

Cracking under my weight.

***

“
Hey, Sophie?”

My eyes take a few seconds to adjust to the light in the living room.

Light blue eyes meet mine. “Myles?” My voice is hoarse and I can't catch my breath.

I take his hand, which is on my face, and place it on the co
uch next to me so I can sit up.

He adjusts himsel
f so he can give me some room.

“
Are you okay?” he asks.

I glance at the clock on the cable box; it's ten in the morning.
“Did you stay here last night?”

He shakes his head.

I try to replay what happened last night in my head. I came home from Club Midnight with Myles. We were kissing and then we weren't. I got a text from Manny asking what time he wanted to practice today. Then after I freaked out in excitement for a while, I got changed into my pajamas and we started watching a movie. I don't remember falling asleep.

“
I came back just now,” Myles says.

I sit up slowly.
“Why?”

He shrugs.
“Had a feeling.”

It happened again.

At first, the nightmares were memories of the accident. I would think I was being force-fed pills, or my arms were being broken. But they were always something that happened.

These aren't. I’ll have dreams about Michael and him hurting—killing—people I don’t know. Sometimes I’ll be asleep and think I’m awake, that it’s all real and he’s there, talking to me.

“Why didn't you tell me the nightmares were this bad?” Myles asks like he doesn't want to upset me.

He knew I was having them sometimes, but I didn't want to worry him with nonsense.
I shrug. “I've had them before.”

Myles rests a hand on my shoulder and I glance at him before returning my attention to a blanket that's be
en thrown over my legs.

“
About what?” he asks.

I decide to start with the lighter of the dreams.
“When I was little my mom took us to the park. I used to get nightmares of when I first found out about my sun allergy.”

He nods.

“Then after Stevie and Jade's prom. . .” I can't finish it.

“
What was this one about?” He changes the subject either because he's uncomfortable or doesn't want me to be.

“
It's not important.”

I convinced myself a while ago that maybe my dreams have just changed. It doesn't have to mean some big, weird thing; people dream about crazy, scary crap all the time.

Myles’ lip twitches, but not in a happy way when I look at him. “Tell me?”

I take a deep breath and let it out.
“I've been having dreams about things that haven't happened to me,” I say.  “Usually, my nightmares have been about stuff I wanted to forget.”

Myles nods once.
“I thought so.”

“
What do you mean?” I try to keep my voice calm.

“I don't want you to get upset.”

“
Well that's a way to start a conversation that won't be upsetting at all.”

“
Okay,” he says, taking a long time to continue. “Blood. . .carries memories and emotions.” He leans in closer and I rub my eyes with the back of my hand.  ”That's important for you to know.”

I nod.

“Michael’s blood was in your body, and so was mine.”

“
So. They're your memories?” I ask. “One of you?”

He shrugs.
“They could be. What was this one about specifically?”

I relay the dream to him in short, clipped sentences.

“That has to be one of Ava's memories.”

An instant knot forms in my stomach.
“What?” I more mouth than say.

“
Our blood carries our own memories as well as the ones of those we have bitten.” He shifts uncomfortably on the couch.

“
So you—”

“
No. Never,” he interrupts. “
Michael
bit her.”

I can tell there's more that he's not saying, so casually, I stretch my stiff arms in front of me and glance at the clock again in a failed attempt at using the excuse that it's too early
to talk about these things. Ten-twenty. Damn it. “Okay. Tell me.”