The Immortal Design (2 page)

   “So you haven’t asked me yet” Pete smiled as he spoke. He never bothered to take his eyes off the road.

   “Asked you what” I replied. He was being annoyingly quiet tonight. On any other day he never shut up. Pete was a talker, I was usually in general the silent one.

   “I believe you asked me for some Intel on our new resident” was his reply as he pulled a small piece of paper out from his jacket pocket. I immediately reached for it. The car swerved as I moved toward Pete and the paper with the information I desperately wanted. Pete held it out of reach laughing at my over eagerness.

   “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Johnathan Stokes my goodness I believe you may be in over your head brother. If a girl who you have never official met, or have properly seen has you this wound up, I may have to get rid of this information I have here in my hot little hand for your own good. I can’t have my best friend acting like an idiot over a girl.” Pete laughed harder as I reached desperately for the paper. The car swerved again this time we came very close to clipping the railing going around a curve. “Ok! Damn calm down man! You’re going to kill us! Watch where you’re going!”

   “Give me the damn paper Pete, and besides you haven’t seen this girl yet. She makes Kelly look like a used rag doll!” I said. Pete laughed rolled the window down and threw the paper out of the window.

   I slammed on the brakes. Pete’s head snapped forward then back. He was still laughing. “What the hell Pete?”

   “One, Kelly is no rag doll. Two there was nothing on the paper John. I was teasing. I wanted to see how bad you had it for this girl before I told you what I know about her.” I reached over and punched him in the arm. “Owe!” He managed to say between laughs.

   “It’s seriously not funny Pete. Really it’s not.”  As soon as my temper subsided I joined Pete in laughing. I really was acting like an idiot. I got myself under control and headed back toward our destination. “Ok seriously, what’d you find out?”

   Pete chuckled again then finally started filling me in on the Intel he had gathered from his mom who was good friends with Stephanie Eckles mother. Hell they practically ran the PTA at J. Harker High. There wasn’t a rumor in town that those two women didn’t have a hand in. Mrs. Eckles was practically throwing it everyone’s faces that she personally had been hand selected by the new girl’s family for her to stay with them. Well, that was her story anyway. I wasn’t surprised that my parents knew nothing about a foreign exchange student visiting this year. Such things would be below them and their social standing. “Her name is Willa Alucard. Apparently she is from some old royal family in Romania. She is 17 years old and she will be here for the year. There, that’s all I know, because she just got into town this afternoon.” Pete had finished filling me in on what he found out about Willa from his mom.

   As we arrived at the bonfire, the party was already in full swing. Matt Dixon had already set up his DJ stand and was playing some pretty good beats that were blaring from the overly large speakers. Matt’s dad was the top real estate agent in the county, so he had the money to drop on the best of the best stereo equipment for his son’s hobby. Matt played all of our parties basically because he was the only person in town that had a professional set up and mainly played for free. It was his sure fire way of getting invited to every party in town. His family had plenty of money, but his social skills were seriously lacking. He was a grade “A” douche. He thought of himself as a Jersey Shore wannabe and most people just barely tolerated him.

   I pulled up and parked the Audi next to a row of cars of other soon to be seniors. “How do I look?” I asked Pete before I got out of the car. He looked at me as if I had gone off the deep end of the nut pool.

   “Oh my God John you seriously just sounded like a freaking girl just now. Could you just please not ever ask me that again” he got one more laugh in at my expense then rushed out of the car.  He took off walking quickly toward the fire. He looked back over his shoulder and hollered “You coming Stokes or are you staying in the car all night?”

   That’s when I noticed why Pete was in such a hurry. Kelly had been sitting next to the fire enjoying the music and had just heard Pete call out my name. Shoot, I really didn’t need her of all people messing tonight up for me if this new girl happened to make an appearance. I walked slowly over to the opposite side of where Kelly and her minions had been seated and took a seat next to a few of the guys who played on the football team with me. Pete was busy making small talk with one of Kelly’s minions. It was a pathetic attempt at making Kelly jealous.  

    Normally it never worked, but tonight it seemed to actually be working. Honestly I think that Kelly had been using Pete as a stepping stone slash whipping boy for so long, that she was used to being his center of attention and the fact that he was talking up someone who she deemed beneath her was getting to her, because she had that murderous jealous look on her face.

   Then the unexpected happened. Kelly got up walked over to Pete threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into her and planted a deep wet kiss square on his mouth. The whole party seemed to stop and watch the crazy spectacle.

   “Damn! Do you see that Stokes? Your girl is hooking up with your best friend!” someone hollered from across the fire pit. There were numerous whoops and hollers at the scene that was taking place. Kelly turned so that while her tongue was unceremoniously rammed down my best friends’ throat making his wildest dreams come true, she was staring right me. What a bitch, I thought to myself. She wasn’t jealous of him talking to another girl! She was trying to make me jealous by making out with my best friend. The levels of low had just gotten lower. I really didn’t have much respect for the girl before this and now, I had lost any hope of ever having respect for her ever. This was bad. This was real bad. That bitch was going to break my best friends’ heart and not even bat one single fake eyelash while she did it. I had had enough of her and her crap.

   This was my senior year, and tonight I was going to make it publicly known that I have never nor will I ever have anything to do with that hot mess Kelly VonHolten.

   I started to make my way over to the two when something else had caught my attention. People had begun whispering. I naturally assumed it was about the horrid spectacle that was currently on display, but I could not have been more wrong. I turned in the direction of where a few people had been pointing and there standing in the beautiful glow of the firelight and the full light of the moon stood my mystery girl.

   I stopped dead in my tracks. My heart stopped and then skipped a few beats before it began to feel as though I had just sprinted a marathon. Her beauty was like nothing I had ever seen before. She was roughly five feet five inches tall. Slender but well defined in all the right places without being overly defined. That long dark cascading hair was longer than I first had thought. It reached just below the middle of her back and flowed freely over her shoulders in a natural wave. Her skin was almost as white as the purest snow that falls on the highest mountains. She had a faint pink glow to her cheeks, and those perfect pale pink lips so full made me think of only one thing. I longed for one sweet kiss from those pale rose colored lips. I felt that if I could accomplish just that one thing, I would die the happiest person on earth.

   She caught me staring at her again. I turned away quickly not wanting to seem like some weird pervert checking her out like the rest of the crowd had been, and damned if I didn’t run right into Pete and Kelly who had continued their make session even as the entire party had stopped to watch the new girl make her entrance.

   Kelly quickly broke away from Pete’s embrace and rushed into my arms. She had been a little over enthusiastic and knocked me and her over and we began to fall. “I knew it would work!” she squealed.  We landed roughly in the rocks. The music had started back up and I made the attempt to remove Kelly from me. I looked up to see Pete’s face. The hatred, disgust and broken heart was etched in his dimly lit features. Before I could get to my feet Pete had stormed off.

   “Shit.” This was not how I had planned this night to play out; not only did Kelly manage to break my best friends’ heart, but she may have ruined our friendship as well. Not only that but she just ruined my chances with my mystery girl who had witnessed the whole scene. Things could not possibly get any worse. Well I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

3.

    I managed to get free from octopus Kelly and stood up. Kelly quickly stood up next to me and grabbed my hand. Kelly stood proudly next to me holding my hand acting as if we had just had some sort of revelation that we were supposed to be together as one.

   I yanked my hand free and turned to her. “Get this through that thick skull of yours Kelly. I have no interest in dating you! Not now, not ever. Did everyone here hear me? I do not like, or love Kelly VonHolten. I never have and I never will.” The music had abruptly stopped again. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and watched me give this girl a piece of my mind. “You know Kelly you really screwed things up, not only have you once again made a fool of yourself by causing a ridiculous scene, but you just showed everyone here your true colors. You don’t care about anything or anyone. The one person who actually really liked you and for the love of God I have no idea why just took off. In case you missed the writing on the wall Kelly, his name is Pete, you know the guy you just had your tongue down his throat, in that pathetic attempt at making me jealous. Which by the way did not work. The only reason I came over here was to stop you from breaking my best friend’s heart, which you did anyway by unceremoniously tossing him to the side the minute you saw me walking over here.” Everyone was watching the scene that played out before them, I was hoping that Willa was listening to every word I was saying. “For the record, I have never slept with, kissed, made out, or touched Kelly in the past 12 years” I announced as I looked around the fire at all the students who had gathered there. I started to walk away to go find Pete but Kelly had other plans.

  “Johnathan Stokes I don’t know who you think you are, but no one walks away from me, no one!” Kelly screamed. I kept walking.

   “Funny Kelly I’m pretty sure I just did.” I walked off into the night.  I had half expected to see my best friend sitting in my car. He wasn’t there. “Damn it Pete where are you” I asked to no one in particular.

   “He walked past the cars down the road towards the town.” It was the most beautiful voice I had ever heard. The accent was beyond perfect. I turned to see Willa walking up behind me. I hadn’t heard anyone walking behind me in the loose rocks. She startled me. Mostly because I wasn’t prepared to meet her like this and secondly because I really hadn’t heard her walking behind me.

   “Oh…Um thank you.” That was all I could manage to say. She stopped right in front of me. She was even more beautiful up close. She smiled up at me. I couldn’t breathe.

   “You are most welcome Johnathan.”

   “How do you know my name?” I asked.

She laughed at me. Great she thinks I’m stupid or something. “That crazy girl back there shouted it pretty loudly, I doubt that even the wild creatures in the mountain tops did not hear her. Is she always so crazy or is it just you that makes her so” she asked.

   I looked at her for a moment before I could form a single coherent sentence. “Oh, Kelly? No. I mean yes, yes she is always crazy, and mean. Most of all yes, for some odd reason I am her kryptonite and I apparently make her go out of her mind crazy.”

   “I do not think it odd” she replied.

  “Huh?”

   “I can see why you would make her crazy.” Willa laughed softly then walked past me into the night. I stood there dumbfounded that she had basically just said she thought I was good looking. My heart was beating so fast, I could barely believe it.

   I got into my car and left the party. Half way back to town it dawned on me I had forgot Pete, “Shit”.  I hadn’t seen him while I was driving. I seriously doubted that he could have gotten much farther on foot, not unless he was hiking down the mountain. Oh damn. He was seriously pissed enough he would pull a crazy stunt like that. Living in the mountains you learn to hike early on in life, but the one golden rule about living up here was you never hike at night. It was a sure fire way to get yourself hurt or worse killed.

   I slowed the car to a snail’s pace searching the dark for my friend. When I had made it all the way back in to town without finding him I was in a serious panic. I pulled into the gas station parking lot and tried calling his cell phone. It went straight to voice mail. I sent him a text asking him if he was ok. I got no reply. Damn it where the hell was he? I drove home slowly still searching the streets in case he had made it further than I had thought, but I found no sign of him.

   Pulling into my driveway I tried to brush it off as he was just not answering my calls because he was seriously pissed at me over Kelly. My temper flared, “Screw you too buddy, if you think for one minute after 12 years I wanted that bitch.” I wasn’t talking to anyone in particular, besides no one was around to listen. I went on in to the house and had started up the stairs when my father had called me into his study.