The Reaping of Norah Bentley (24 page)

“Where’d you tell him to meet you?” Rachel asked, coming up beside me. She was using the corner of her shirt to wipe the smudges from the gigantic lenses of her sunglasses.

I’d just started to answer, to tell her I wasn’t sure where he’d be, when I finally saw him.

“Over there.” I nodded towards the gym steps, where he was sitting with a book in his hands and a contemplative look on his face. The sunlight poured over him, its warm rays like a brilliant, natural extension of his own body. I was already walking towards the steps, fighting the urge to run only because I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, when Rachel asked,

“Where?”

Fear gripped me and almost slowed me to a stop; I hadn’t thought about whether or not she’d be able to see him. He wasn’t expecting to meet her. So maybe he was saving his strength; maybe he was only here for me. I knew he was tired when we got home last night, even though he’d denied it. I knew that’s why he wasn’t there when I woke up this morning— and maybe he still wasn’t there as far as Rachel could see.

“Are you talking about him?” Rachel asked, pointing suddenly. She
looked
like she was pointing toward Eli, so I ventured,

“…The guy sitting on the steps, with the dark hair.”

She caught up to me, her hand over her eyes like a visor, blocking out the sunlight that wasn’t stopped by her glasses.

“Seriously?” she asked.

“…Yes?”

“Damn.”

“What?”

“Um, you sort of forgot to mention he was gorgeous,” she said. Her pace quickened, and I had to practically sprint to catch up with her long-legged strides. “No wonder you’ve been keeping him a secret.”

I felt the blush rising in my cheeks, and a different kind of nervousness swept over me; my stomach unclenched, released into butterflies instead. It was silly, because the fact that Eli was gorgeous was hardly news to me—I could hardly forget it— but somehow, hearing Rachel say it made me feel like I was looking at him for the first time, too.

He must have felt our eyes on him, because he looked up. His smile made the butterflies in my stomach flutter even harder, and I passed Rachel and ran up the steps so fast that he barely had time to get to his feet before I was there, flinging myself against his chest and burying my face in it.

“Hey,” he said. I pulled back only because I wanted to see the smile I could hear in his voice.

“Hey,” I whispered. He leaned in to kiss me, and I stood up on tiptoes to meet him. For the few seconds our lips touched, it was like this whole terrible day hadn’t even happened, and all that mattered was making that moment last for as long as it possibly could. I put all the strength I had left into that kiss, into holding my arms around his neck and pulling him against me.

But I wasn’t strong enough to hold him there when he gently but firmly reached up and took my arms out from around him. He took a step back, cleared his throat purposefully and nodded to my right. To Rachel.

Woops.

“Sorry,” I said, straightening up and reluctantly taking another step away from Eli.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” Rachel said, grinning.

“Um, Eli— this is my friend Rachel.”

“
Best
friend,” she corrected.

“Right. And Rachel, this is—”

“Eli, of course,” she said, taking the hand he was offering her. “Nice to finally meet you.”

I watched their hands meet, and saw the cold chill that shivered up Rachel’s arm. For a second my nerves came back, but once the shiver subsided Rachel didn’t seem uncomfortable anymore, didn’t seem to notice anything strange about Eli. So apparently, I wasn’t the only one he managed to fool.

I leaned against the stair rail while the two of them made small talk, was content for the moment, at least, to just watch him. I guess it wasn’t really a big deal for him to pull off being human; it’s not like he’d always been a reaper. Still, there was something about the way he talked, the way he laughed, that made him seem more alive than the blur of people shoving by us with their shoulders slumped, eyes glued to their cell phone screens or staring ahead at nothing. They were all zombies compared to Eli.

And suddenly it was hard to be so close to him, to that life force, without being able to have it all to myself. I’d been waiting all day to see him, and for those few beautiful seconds before Rachel interrupted, he’d been mine. But I needed more than that. I just wanted to be alone with him, to be able to forget about everything but his touch, the feel of his lips against mine. The need was overpowering, making me physically weak, and I folded my arms across my chest and rested all my weight against the stair rail, tried to brace myself against it. I tried to focus on what they were saying, but with Eli that was impossible; his words were all running together, lost in the smooth melody of his voice.

But in the next second, I heard Rachel’s clearly: her excited voice shouting the last name I wanted to hear right now.

She was just waving at him. Rachel waved at everybody—she went out of her way when we were walking down the hall sometimes just to say hello to people she barely ever talked to otherwise. But a wave was all it took to get his attention, and now Luke was waving too—waving good-bye to the group of guys he was standing with, and then making his way over to where we stood.

My heart sank to the pit of my stomach, and I shot Rachel an angry look. She looked confused for a second, her gaze jumping from me to Eli, and then following my nod toward Luke, who was already halfway down the stairs. She got it then, and with a guilty smile, she whispered a quick apology. But the damage had already been done.

Luke had just come from the gym, was still wearing the t-shirt from his P.E. uniform with his jeans. It was a little small on him after his growth spurt of the past year, and the grey cotton clung to his skin, outlining every firm muscle in his chest and stomach. Beads of sweat glistened on his forehead, and Rachel was eyeing them, wrinkling her nose.

“You’re all sweaty,” she said. “And you kind of smell.”

He barely even spared her a glance. “Lifting weights will do that to you,” he said.

“Does that mean you actually did something in that class today?” Rachel asked. Luke claimed the only reason he took weight lifting was because the instructor, Mr. Benfield, spent most of the class in his office, and didn’t care what his students did as long as they stayed in the gym. So Luke spent most classes sleeping in the bleachers, waking up every now and then just to send me a text telling me how bored he was.

“We had a substitute today,” Luke said. “He made us do stuff.” His tone was perfectly level—this might have been the first time I’d ever heard him not even try to tease Rachel back.

Rachel must have picked up on his indifference toward her, because she quickly redirected the conversation. “Have you guys met?” she asked, motioning toward Eli.

I tensed when Luke extended an arm, relaxed a little when all they did was shake hands, and allowed myself to breathe when Luke calmly—almost politely—said,

“Yeah. Norah introduced us the other day.” His arm stiffened. “Eli, right?”

“And Luke?” Eli said, just as coolly.

Luke nodded and dropped the handshake, took a step back and ran a hand through his curly hair. Rachel started flicking the rubber band around her wrist, looking more uncomfortable than I’d ever seen her. I knew she couldn’t take silence for very long; so I just waited, and wasn’t surprised when she spoke again a few seconds later:

“Well, that’s good,” she said. “…That we all know each other, I mean. Because I was just asking Eli…just inviting him to go with us tomorrow night.”

I must not have been able to completely hide my horror at the thought, because Eli quickly said,

“I don’t have to, if you already had plans; I don’t want to impose—”

“It’s not imposing,” Rachel said. Some of her usual confidence had returned, probably because neither me nor Luke had managed to shoot her down. I don’t know what Luke’s deal was, but I was too stunned to talk, too terrified at the thought of Luke and Eli spending an entire evening together with me stuck in the middle to even try and utter a protest.

“It would be better, actually,” she went on, “make things even—we could make it like a double date.” Her eyes lit up at the idea, and I knew what was going on behind them; she wanted us to just all go out and get along, was picturing an idealistic scene of us all laughing and talking, forgetting all about the tension that was hovering over us now.

Meanwhile, I was picturing the double date from Hell. I wanted to say no, wanted to shout it, to tell her just how
terrible
an idea this was. How this was probably the worst idea in her long, colorful history of bad ideas. But that would require me explaining to her the conversation I’d had with Luke in the auditorium. I’d have to tell her all the things I didn’t really want to believe myself; that I was afraid of my best friend, the way he’d threatened Eli— without having any idea just who he was threatening.

That was what scared me the most, I think; I wasn’t worried about what Luke might do to Eli. I was more worried about what Eli could do to Luke, if he got angry enough. I didn’t even want to think about the possibilities. I just wanted to make sure they spent the least amount of time possible together, so I swallowed hard, finally managed to find my voice,

“I don’t know, Rach,” I said. “I was actually going to tell you, I’ve been thinking about tomorrow night, and I don’t know if I’m going to be able to hang out anyway.”

“What?” Her voice was about two dramatic octaves higher than the situation called for. “Why?”

“I just…I had some other plans I forgot about. Some school stuff.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What school stuff?”

“…Schulz’s project.”

“That’s not due until after fall break.”

“So I want to get an early start?” Sometimes I really wished I were a better liar. Or a better student.

“You’ll have plenty of time to do that,” Rachel insisted. “This is for your
birthday.
”

“I don’t know,” I said again.

“Rachel’s plan sounds good to me,” Luke said suddenly.

I stared at him, my mouth hanging open a little. But he wouldn’t look at me, and his dark eyes were guarded, his lips drawn into an expressionless line.

Rachel’s smile turned triumphant. “That’s two votes,” she said. “Close enough to a majority.”

What the hell kind of math was that? I shook my head at her, but she just kept going:

“So what time are we leaving?”

I had a feeling this conversation could go on indefinitely, and I’d reached my breaking point a long time ago. Rachel’s smile faded a little bit when I sighed and pushed off the rail, grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder without answering her. I felt Luke’s eyes on me then, for the first time since he’d walked up. He was watching with the same intensity as he had this morning before I’d left the classroom, his eyes leveled almost as if in a dare—like he was silently asking what I would do now, what sort of excuse I was going to use to get away this time.

But I wasn’t going to make up excuses this time. I knew what I wanted, and it was simple: Me. Eli. Anywhere but here. And I wasn’t apologizing for it.

“You guys figure it out,” I said. “It doesn’t matter to me—just let me know. We’ve got to get going.” I reached for Eli’s hand, and though I could see the surprise in his eyes, he didn’t hesitate to take mine. His touch gave me the confidence I needed to take a few steps down the stairs, while he glanced back over his shoulder to say goodbye for both of us. I kept my eyes fixed on the path in front of me.

At the bottom of the stairs, Eli took the book bag from my shoulder and threw it over his instead. Without its bulkiness in between us he stepped closer, wrapped his arm around my waist as we walked, and in a low voice he said,

“You’ve had a bad day.”

“...That’s a bit of an understatement.”

He waited until we’d left most of the crowd behind, until we’d passed the senior parking lot and almost reached the sidewalks of downtown before he spoke again.

“I’m sorry if my being there made it worse.”

“Are you kidding?” I laughed, shaking my head in disbelief. “You’re the best thing that’s happened to me today.”

“...The best thing?”

I nodded, and the corner of his lips turned up just a little.

“You really
have
had a bad day, haven’t you?” he said.

I smiled back, and after a few more steps I shyly said, “Even if I hadn’t, you
still
would’ve been the best thing about it.”

He squeezed me a little closer to him, but didn’t say anything else. We turned onto Main Street, walking in time to the sound of birds flitting from tree to tree and calling to each other, to the hiss of brakes from a school bus making its way down the street and hitting every red light along the way. The weight I’d been carrying with me all day was slowly lifting now, melting underneath the warm sunshine and the heat that spread from Eli’s touch. Some of it, though, he seemed to be absorbing himself; for every block we walked, his eyes looked a little more tired, and his grip on my waist slipped a little more, until I finally asked,