The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (5 page)

“
Half a bottle. Nice,
right?”

“
You smell like gasoline.
And your hair looks ridiculous.”

“
It’s called ‘bedhead’,
genius. It’s a real thing and chicks love it.”

They turned onto Third Avenue toward
Melrose. Colton had only been to that area once or twice, and he
looked around at all the buildings as Reece hurried down the
sidewalk.

“
What’s the big rush?”
asked Colton, jogging to keep up.

Reece looked at his watch. “It’s
almost shift change and we might miss her.”

“
This is about a
girl
?”

“
Of course it’s about a
girl! You think I would buy all of these crappy clothes for no good
reason? Give me a little credit.”

“
Gee, I just thought maybe
you wanted to, you know,
exercise
?”

“
We both know that’s not
gonna happen. Wait! There it is.” He stopped and pointed to a
building across the street. Independent Records sold used albums
and the latest indie releases, and attracted a wide variety of
clientele, from business executives who had never expected to grow
up and become nine-to-five office workers to young, tattooed,
pale-skinned teenagers who laughed at the thought of one day
wearing a suit and conforming to an establishment.

“
She works in there?”
asked Colton.

“
Maybe say it with a
little less disgust next time.”

“
Oh, give me a break. Can
we just get this over with so I can go home? I’m
starving.”

“
Okay,” said Reece,
turning to face him. “Her name’s Jenna. I have it on good authority
that she likes guys who exercise, but also guys with a little bit
of a bad streak.”

“‘
Good authority’? You
just described every girl, ever.”

“
So you’re my wing-man.
Whatever I say to her, just agree, even if it’s a huge lie. And try
not to act like a nerd. And don’t hit on her. I got
dibs.”

“
What are you going to
say?”

“
I dunno yet, but I’ll
think of something.” He waited for a break in traffic and jogged
across the street.

Colton imagined Reece getting clipped
by a passing car—not enough to seriously injure him, but enough to
make him want to abandon his scheme. It didn’t happen, so Colton
hurried over to the other side of the street and stood next to the
front door of the record store.

He looked at Reece and gestured
inside. “After you.”

Reece winked at him and held two
fingers up to his neck, pretending to check his own pulse as he
walked into the store. Colton shook his head and followed
him.

7

H
aven lay in her bed fully dressed, blankets pulled up under
her chin. She stared at the glowing red numbers on her alarm clock:
9:17 p.m. Her parents were still awake; still walking around
downstairs, opening and closing cabinet doors and turning the
kitchen sink on and off. Haven groaned in frustration and sat up to
look out the window. Kayla was sitting in her car—a rusty,
twenty-year-old Volvo—in the shadows near the end of the street,
waiting for Haven to sneak out of the house.

9:17.

The party of the century had already
been raging for nearly twenty minutes. Haven tried not to think
about all of the girls throwing themselves at Jason, begging him to
pick them instead of some girl who didn’t care enough about him to
show up on time.

She smiled when she
remembered their conversation during lunch. The embarrassment of
her blushing face and stupid comments (“
Uh, fine”
) dissolved into the
background when she focused on the fact that he had asked her to go
to the party.

Haven fell back onto her pillow and
wriggled her head impatiently.

Then she heard it: the
unmistakable sound of her parents’ bedroom door closing. The
latch
clacked
into place loudly and was followed by nothing but sweet
silence. She quickly threw off her covers and picked up a pile of
dirty clothes. She laid them on her bed in the shape of her own
sleeping body. Haven covered the clothes with the sheets and
fluffed up the shape to make it look a little more realistic. She
looked at it and shrugged—good enough.

Three soft knocks sounded from her
bedroom door.

Haven froze and was about to throw off
the clothes on her bed and climb under the sheets before she
realized that she hadn’t yet done anything wrong. She could always
just say she was having trouble sleeping and was organizing her
room.

She smoothed down the front of her
shirt as she walked over and opened the door. Noah stood in the
hallway rubbing his eyes sleepily. His dinosaur pajamas were
twisted sideways on his small frame.

“
I had a scary dream,” he
said.

Haven knelt down next to him and
placed her hands on his shoulders. “Aw, Noah,” she said. “I’m
sorry. It’s over now.” She pulled him close and hugged him, then
twisted his pajama shirt back into place. “Do you want me to sit
with you for a little while?”

He nodded and walked back to his room.
Haven quietly closed her door and followed him. Every once in a
while he would get woken up by a nightmare, and the only way to
calm him down was to stay by his side until he drifted off to
sleep.

Haven said a mental apology to Kayla
as she sat down on the edge of Noah’s bed and pulled his covers up
to his chest. His chore that day had been to clean up the floor of
his room by moving all of his toys into the dedicated toy chest
sitting in the corner next to the closet. He had managed to get
most of them into the container, but a few of his favorites were
still scattered around the floor.

Small glow-in-the-dark stars were
stuck to the ceiling directly over his bed. Noah looked up at them
while Haven patted down his wild hair.

“
I don’t think you’ll ever
have to worry about going bald,” she said.

“
You mean like
Daddy?”

She laughed. “Right, like
him.”

“
His head’s
shiny.”

“
Like a cue
ball.”

He chuckled. “Yeah!”

“
Just don’t tell him
that,” she said.

“
No problemo.”

He held up his right pinky finger and
waited. Whenever one of them asked the other to keep a secret, they
made a solemn oath of silence by sealing the promise with a pinky
swear.

Haven wrapped her own little finger
around Noah’s and shook once, then bent down and kissed his
forehead.

“
You going to be okay,
squirt?”

He nodded and turned away, yawning as
he settled into the bed. Haven stood and walked to the door. She
stepped into the hallway and left the door to Noah’s bedroom open a
few inches so he would have a little light if he woke up again.
Before she even reached the end of the hallway, she heard him
quietly snoring.

She padded down the stairs quickly and
tiptoed to the front door. Before her father got home from work
earlier that day and while her mother was upstairs trying to get
Noah to clean his room, Haven found a small can of WD-40 in the
kitchen cupboard and sprayed the sliding deadbolt, thumb latch, and
hinges on the front door. There was no sound as she slowly unlocked
the deadbolt and pressed down on the thumb latch to open the door.
She smiled as it swung open silently.

After she closed the door
behind her, Haven carefully inserted her key into the lock and
turned it until she felt the
click
of metal hitting metal. She stuffed the key in
her jeans pocket and hurried across the lawn, looking back over her
shoulder at her parents’ bedroom window to make sure they weren’t
peeking out at her from behind the curtain.

“
About friggin’ time,”
said Kayla as Haven hopped into the passenger seat and gently
closed the car door.

“
Sorry! They stayed up
late and then Noah had a nightmare.”

Kayla fired up the engine and winced
at the loud, metallic squeal as it warmed up. “That’s why it pays
to be an only child, like me.” She put the car into gear and turned
around in the middle of the street.

“
Because you turned out
perfect.” Haven rolled her window down a couple inches and closed
her eyes as the cool night air blew through her hair.

“
That’s
what you’re wearing?” said Kayla. Haven opened
her eyes to see that her friend was sneering at her simple t-shirt
and faded blue jeans.

“
What’s the matter with
this? It’s a classic combo.”

“
If you don’t want to get
laid, you mean.”

“
Hey! Gimme a break. This
is only our first date. And excuse me for not showing the whole
world what my body looks like underneath my clothes.” She pointed
at Kayla’s low-cut blouse. The hem around the bottom of the thin
garment went down only as far as her belly button. Haven didn’t
want to give her friend the satisfaction of knowing she looked
great in what she was wearing.

“
Maybe that’s why you’ve
only had one real boyfriend,” said Kayla.

“
Like that’s a bad
thing.”

“
Isn’t it?” She turned a
corner sharply, tires squealing on the pavement.

Haven sighed and looked out the
window. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“
Well, at least find out
how many kids Jason wants before you give in. If it’s more than
two, I say don’t do it. You should see what having three did to my
Aunt Charlotte’s body. Whoo, man!” She puffed out her cheeks and
crossed her eyes.

Haven laughed. “I just want to have a
little fun tonight, you know? I just want to relax.”

“
Hey, now! Miss Perfect
Grades wants to have a little fun! Everybody watch out!”

It took another ten minutes before
Kayla turned away from downtown Scottsdale and drove slowly through
the wealthiest neighborhood in the city. Haven thought that her own
house was nice, but it was a shack compared to the mansions lining
both sides of the street.

They passed a sprawling two-story home
on the left. Cars were parked on the perfect lawn at angles that
would make them nearly impossible to move later.

Kayla drove by the house with her
mouth open, staring through the huge glass windows at all of the
people inside. “Oops,” she said. “We’re here.” She pulled her car
into an empty spot on the side of the street a block away, then
opened her door and started to get out.

“
Wait!” said Haven. “What
if my parents wake up and find out I’m not there? What if Noah has
another nightmare?”

“
Oh, come on. It’s a
little late to be thinking about that now, isn’t it? You’re just
nervous about Jason. Forget about it and relax.”

Kayla got out of the car, and before
Haven could say anything else, she disappeared into the
house.

8

“
T
here she is,” said Reece, nodding to the counter.

Colton saw a petite young woman with
short, dark hair and heavy eyeliner. She was reading a magazine
that must have been extremely boring because she looked like she
was about to fall asleep standing up.

“
Not bad, actually,” said
Colton.

“
Not
bad
?!” said Reece. “What an insult!
Like I’d do all this for anything less than ‘amazing’.”

“
Okay, fine, she’s
amazing. Now what do we do?”

Reece stretched his arms. “Follow my
lead.”

He walked over to the counter and
waited until the girl looked up from her magazine. “Yeah?” she
said.

“
Hey,” said
Reece.

She waited for him to say something
else.

“
I just got done working
out,” he said. “Now I’m gonna go work out some more.” He turned
around and looked at Colton, who was hanging back out of
embarrassment. “Right, Colton?”

“
Hm? Oh yeah, he works out
all the time.”

Reece seemed happy with his response
and he turned back to the girl. “So, I was wondering if you have
any music that’s good for that.”

“
Good for what?” she
said.

Reece scratched his neck
nervously.

“
You know, exercising,” he
said. “Keeping the old heart rate up. My parents are rich, by the
way.”

“
Excuse me?”

“
Nothing.” He turned
around and whispered to Colton. “Plan A is a dud. Move to Plan
B.”

“
Plan
B
?” whispered Colton.

“
I can still hear you
guys,” said the girl.

“
Grab and go!” said Reece.
He snatched a handful of CDs from a stack next to the register and
ran toward the exit.

“
Hey!” said
Colton.

“
Hey!” said the
girl.