Introductions, Page 5

I dreamed I was lost in a house I didn’t know. There was a ghost behind me, rattling the windows and screeching so loud that I cowered in the corners to avoid it as it flew by my head.

  I woke up in my bed, my heart pounding. When I calmed myself, I fell back into the pillow.

  Ever since I was nine years old, I’ve had nightmares about monsters coming at me in the night. They take on different forms all the time. Sometimes it’s hairy, brown tarantulas so big they could knock down trees as they chased me through a forest. Sometimes men in dark clothes with guns hunted for me in underground mazes. In every dream I had, I was running from something that didn’t want me to exist, running toward a place I couldn’t see. I taught myself not to cry out, so I wouldn’t wake anyone else in the house.

  Screaming was pointless; no one would come.

  ♥♥♥

  The next morning, I was out the door at dawn. It was a risk after the previous day, but I needed to escape. I needed fresh air. My throat no longer burned, but it was sore. I tested my voice a few times, but what I managed to say was raspy. It worried me that perhaps my voice was permanently damaged. I couldn’t stand to think that was the case. I would be Sang, the girl with nothing to say, and no voice to say it.

  I wore a pair of jeans and a simple pink blouse, ready to walk through the woods a million times to pass the hours. I wasn’t sure if I should try to visit Kota. I’d been up half the night going over Silas’s words. Kota had warned everyone to stand by to give me room to relax. Or had he meant to keep everyone away from me because they wanted to distance themselves from me? Which did he mean?

  With no voice, I wanted to avoid him a little, too. How could I explain it? I wasn’t sick. Or maybe I should pretend to be sick. It would be a good excuse. Only it wasn’t possible. What if he tried to call? What if Silas tried to call again?

  The morning air was already warm, and I breathed in the humidity. It felt heavy and thick as if I was walking through a lake I could breathe in. I wondered where that chill evening with the rain had gone. I almost regretted wearing jeans, but I didn’t like to walk through the woods in shorts if I wasn’t sure about the paths. I never knew when I would want to explore something off the trail, and would end up knee deep in underbrush.

  The wood behind my parents’ house was a couple of acres in size. There was another ravine behind Kota’s house on the other side of the street, and I tried to find a way into that forest, but the empty lot was the only place to cross into it without walking through someone’s yard. The lot had a cluster of trees so thick, though, I couldn’t see a path into it.

  I cut through the back yard and crossed a small wooden plank that served as a small bridge over a drainage ditch, separating the yard from the tree line. I disappeared behind the wall of trees, seeking out the footpath I had discovered the first afternoon my family had moved in.

  There were a handful of trails in this forest and I had taken a few of them. I found one I hadn’t tried yet and followed it. It wound around close to where I could see other homes along the street through the trees. The sunlight filtered through the leaves. The shadows from above cast an eerie green shade. I felt enclosed and separated from everything, which was wonderful in the moment. I didn’t want to be seen. Fresh moss and pine scents filled my nose. A few mockingbirds were awake; one seemed to be following above me, calling out a tune that resembled a car alarm.

  Along the path, a maple tree had fallen across the dirt trail. The broken limbs, many taller than me, blocked the way.

  I considered going back, but the tree didn’t look too dangerous. There was space between branches where I could climb through. I thought if I reached the center, I could probably get to the other side.

  I started to pick my way through the branches. The leaves were still green, so it hadn’t been down long. I wondered if it fell after the rain on the night I met Kota. My sneakers sunk into piles of soggy leaves and crunched the smaller branches.

  When I was near the trunk, I gripped one of the thicker branches to step on top of the center and climb over it. I hesitated, trying to figure out my next move. The branch snapped, I lost my balance and grabbed it to steady myself. There was a loud crack, the sound echoing through the woods. I slipped, crashing into a mess. I reached instinctively, my hands flailing, trying to protect myself, feeling scratches from the branches. It spooked me so bad, that I cried out, which came out more of a raspy yelp.

  I landed under some of the branches. I wasn’t hurt, just surprised, but my heart was racing. I was shaking some leaves away from my head when a shout echoed to me.

  “Someone over there?” It was a male voice, deep. Not as deep as Silas’s and one I didn’t recognize.

  My heart started to pound and my eyes went wide. I couldn’t let someone see me like this. Still, there wasn’t an easy way out of the middle of this tree. If I tried to move, it wouldn’t be quiet and he’d for sure hear me anyway.

  “Yeah,” I called out, but it was a stage whisper. I stood up, hunching over to avoid an overhanging branch.

  I heard footsteps coming nearby. I scrambled to get out of the branches. One of them struck my face and stung my cheek.

  The footsteps stopped short of the fallen tree. “Where?”

  “In the tree,” I screeched out. I coughed. Trying to yell to him irritated my throat.

  “Didn’t you see it was down? Why didn’t you take the other path?” The footsteps came closer.

  I found a thicker branch to stand on. I climbed for a short distance until I could see over most of the leaves. A guy with a stern face and serious blue eyes looked back at me. He wore a red and white Nike shirt, the sleeves cut off, and sport shorts in a matching red color. Earbud headphones hung around his shoulders. His hair was cut short, a mix between red and brown, leaning more on the red side. His chin was angled and his jaw was set as he looked at me. The expression was so solemn. This guy could mean business just by his look. He was about the same height as Kota but it was the bulk of his muscles that had my spine tingling. He had broad tapered shoulders and there was a power in his stature that was undefinable.

  “Can you get out?” he asked. He dropped a hand onto his hip, with his head tilted toward me, and a baffled look on his face.

  “I think so,” I whispered, not trying to get too cocky with my predicament. I was already this far. I picked my way over branches and pushed away leaves from my face.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you whispering?”

  I took a deep breath in and then patted my throat where he could see.

  “Your voice broke?”

  I partially smiled at the way he said it and nodded.

  “Move left,” he said.

  I turned left, squinting my eyes to try to figure out what he was talking about because the branches were thick on that end.

  “Shit, sorry. I meant my left. Your right.”

  I turned around and then pointed to the trunk, raising my eyebrows.

  “Follow it down the tree until you get beyond the branches,” he motioned toward where the trunk had split, where the branches stopped. He maneuvered himself to walk around the edge of the tree, picking his way beyond the path to find where the tree limbs thinned out.

  I followed his instructions, hanging on to tree branches, carefully this time. Using the trunk as a bridge, I shuffled my way over the limbs. It was a slow process, but I managed to get to the point where the tree trunk started to slant up . When I got there, I wasn’t sure what to do.

  “Can you climb up to the top?” he asked when he saw me starting to turn around. He was standing by the roots, a hand covering the top of his eyes as he looked at me against the sun.

  I coughed and whispered as loud as I could, “What do you mean?”

  “Just climb up here and then jump down.”

  I tried to judge the distance from where he was pointing. My heart started to thump again. Did he mean for me to jump from that high?

  “You’ll be fine. Come on.”

  My heart was
thudding, but he seemed confident in his suggestion. I crouched a little on the trunk. Using my hands to help, I pulled myself up until I was out of the way of branches and I had a clear shot at the ground. I got up to a point where he was standing under me. He lifted his arms up, urging with his hands.

  “Jump from there,” he said.

  I blinked at him. “Back up so I’ve got room,” I whispered. I was already wary of the distance, but I’d had some training as a kid in elementary school on how to fall, so I thought I could tumble roll when I hit the ground.

  “No, it’s fine. I’ll get you.”

  My mouth dropped open. He couldn’t mean he was going to try to catch me when I jumped down. Wouldn’t it hurt?

  He smirked. “Will you just listen to me? Jump.”

  I hesitated again, swallowing and considering trying behind me where he wasn’t able to reach.

  “Fuck thinking. Thinking hurts the team. Jump.”

  My heart was thudding, but I lined myself up and leapt down to him. If he wanted to get hurt trying to soften my landing, I’d let him.

  With his arms out, he seized me around the waist as I fell, and spun me a little to ease the momentum. My head was pressed up against his chest, and I breathed deeply from the adrenaline rushing through me. I inhaled a leather and Cyprus scent from him. My body shook against him.

  He didn’t let go. A hand came up at my back, holding me to him and he rubbed at my shoulders. His chin moved against my forehead so I felt the gruffness of coarse hair against his face. “It’s okay. You’re fine. You made it.” He repeated himself a couple of times, softly and reassuring.

  When I felt I could stand without falling over, I backed away. My face felt flushed and while my hands still shook, it became too awkward to hold on to him anymore. The moment was so intimate; I was embarrassed at having put myself in such a predicament. I didn’t even know his name. “Thank you,” I whispered. “You’re okay, right?” I asked, swallowing after. I was worried I had hit something on him on my way down.

  He nodded. His cheeks were tinted red but his face was back to that serious expression. “I’m okay. What made you think you could climb over it like that?”

  “It didn’t look too bad from the other side,” I said, casting my eyes away. “I guess I just wanted to see if I could.”

  A small smile formed at the side of his mouth. “You’re not really dressed for climbing like that.”

  At his mention of it, I checked myself over. I had a few scratches on my arm, but nothing was bleeding. My clothes were a little dirty, but everything seemed fine.

  “What happened to your wrist?” he said, pointing to the bandage on my arm. The wound was scabbed over and I didn’t really need the bandage. It just looked ugly, so I opted to cover it up.

  “I fell a couple days ago,” I whispered. How many times would I need to explain my injuries? It made me hyper sensitive to dare to put another bandage on myself. I’d have to repeat myself so much.

  “You’re accident prone. Come on,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  He took my hand and led the way around the tree until we were on the other side where the path started again. When we were safe, he let go of me. I was grateful that he let go because I was nervous, but I was also sad. His hand felt comforting.

  “How long has the tree been down?” I asked in a whisper.

  He looked at me, raising his eyebrows. He leaned over me, bringing his ear close to my face. “What?”

  His reddish hair looked soft, like rabbit fur. My fingers itched to touch, but I knew I never would. I swallowed to try to gain some of my voice back and repeated myself.

  “A week, I think,” he said. “I keep meaning to come back out here to clear it out from the path, but I’ve been putting it off. There was a bad storm before you moved in.”

  I blinked at him, my hand on my upper stomach, rubbing at where a branch had scratched me. “You know who I am?”

  “I’ve seen you around.” He ran his fingers through the longer bits of hair on the top of his head. “I’m Nathan.”

  “Sang.”

  He blinked at me and then leaned in closer.

  “My name is Sang,” I rattled off.

  “Sang?”

  I nodded.

  He smiled, the blue of his eyes softening. “I’m two houses down from you. Same side.” He waved at the direction our houses were. “Want me to walk you back?”

  The question surprised me. He was being nice. Another person that could be a friend. My head swirled with the suddenness of it. At the same time, I was resistant. It felt like I was pressing my luck. The more people I tried to be friends with, the bigger the chance my parents would find out. I’d get myself into trouble. “I don’t mean to ruin your jog.” It was the politest thing I could say to decline.

  He shrugged. “It’s nothing.” He motioned to the path. “Comin’?”

  I pushed a finger to my lower lip but I started after him. I couldn’t say no without sounding mean. Part of me didn’t want to. He was handsome and sweet and he had helped me. How could I refuse?

  The path left enough room that we were walking side by side. “You’re going to the public school, right?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “About time we had someone new around here. There’s only a handful of kids on this street.”

  “I haven’t seen them around.”

  “You will,” he said, swaying his arms a little as he strolled along beside me.

  I raised an eyebrow at him, curious as to what he meant.

  He grinned, understanding my expression. “You’ve got the good basketball goal.”

  I tried to remember where the basketball goal was. “The one hanging from the garage,” I whispered. It had been there when we moved in.

  “Yeah. Full height and that wide driveway that’s at least half court, I think,” he smirked. “Don’t laugh, but I came over one night to jump on it, just to see if I could hang from it.”

  I did smile but stopped myself from giggling. “It’s still there, so you must have made it.”

  He nodded. “It’s pretty strong.”

  I admired the muscles in his arms, and what I could see of his chest. He looked pretty sturdy. It must have been true about the basketball goal, if he was able to hang off of it.

  “So what happened to your voice?”

  I opened my mouth to respond to him but I wasn’t sure how.

  “You’re not sick, are you?” he asked, his eyebrow going up. “I’m not going to catch something, am I?”

  I didn’t want to worry him, so I shook my head.

  He smirked. “You’ve been talking too much, huh?” he asked. “Girls always talk too much.”

  I tried to shoot him a friendly smirk back. It was a better solution than the truth.

  We turned a bend and I started to recognize we were coming up along where the path split. He had taken me back around to where I had started.

  “You go for walks this early in the morning a lot?” he asked.

  I twisted my mouth a little, unsure how to answer. “I couldn’t sleep and I hadn’t followed this path yet, so I came to check it out.”

  He looked at me. “Did you try the woods on the other side of the street yet?”

  “No. How do you get over there?”

  He smiled. “I’ll show you. It’s a little easier to get lost over there though and there’s some things you should see. Like there’s a big ditch you may not see walking up to. I think that’s how they drained the land around here, so they could develop it.”

  I grinned, nodding to him. I understood. I swallowed. “I’ll check it out.”

  He gave me a side glance and smirked again. “On second thought, I ought to go with you over there. Don’t go without me.”

  I angled my head toward him. “I’d be fine.”

  “Uh huh,” he said. He stopped walking and turned toward me. He reached over my head and pulled a maple leaf from my hair. “You’ll be fine, unless there�€
™s a fallen tree.”

  My face heated up. I started to shake my head, my mouth moving trying to figure out the best way to say I would have gotten out eventually.

  “Think you could do it alone? As you wish. Next time I’ll leave you,” he said, letting the leaf fly from his hand to the ground and starting off down the path again.

  I stepped quickly up next to him, matching his stride. Something about him made me want to stick around. He seemed so cool. I wanted him to like me. “How do you get over there?” I whispered.

  “Nope. I’m not telling you now.”

  I frowned, my lip pouting.

  He made a face and then pulled his fingers over his lips, zipping.

  “Ugh,” I grumbled. “I’ll figure it out.”

  “Sure.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  He stopped short along the path at a place where the trees started to thin out, giving us a view of the back of some homes. He pointed to an opening in the trees. Another slab of wood was nestled into the ground over a ditch, and on the other side was a wide wood fence. I had missed it the first time, but there was a latch and handle sticking out of one of the wood planks. It took me a moment to see the frame of the door. “This is my stop,” he said.

  I caught the scent of chlorine and a hint of sparkling aqua blue between the gaps in the fence. “You have a pool?”

  He hesitated and then nodded.

  I grinned and felt my heart lifting. “Is it big?”

  My enthusiasm seemed to catch him off guard. “Come and look at it. You tell me.” He headed toward the plank.

  I followed him. When he got to the wood piece, he crossed it halfway and then reached out for my hand. “Or do you want to do it yourself?”

  I made a face but reached for his hand. He took mine in his grasp, holding on to me as he moved forward. I followed on his heels. My heart fluttered as his hand was big, wrapping easily around mine. He let go when we were both on the ledge on the other side and he moved to open the gate.

  What yard there might have been in the back of his house was taken up by a large shed close to the fence. Beyond that was a rectangular pool, at least twenty-five feet long. The edges were curved and the water rippled, sparkling in the sunlight. A large beige concrete patio surrounded it, looking almost like sand.

  I stepped up to the edge of the pool, looking down into the water. If I was a cat, I would have been purring. Before my mother got sick, she took Marie and me to the pool to learn how to swim. When I was in seventh grade, the school had a pool, and during gym for a whole month, I got to swim in it. I had missed the scent of chlorine and the feel of the water flowing around me as I swam.

  “How deep is it?” I asked, forgetting that I was probably whispering and wasn’t sure if he could hear me. My eyes locked on the sparkle of the water from the sun, dazzling me.

  I heard him step up behind me and I felt the hand on my back, but even then I wouldn’t have imagined he would have pushed. I found myself flying and I hit the water.

  At first the water had a crispness to it but my skin quickly adjusted to the temperature, so that it was actually very comfortable. The sharp taste of chlorine swept into my mouth. I touched bottom after about six feet and then slowly rose to the top. A splash hit the water nearby. Nathan smoothly touched the bottom with a palm. His shirt and shoes were off. When his head and chest rose out of the water, I was in awe of the muscles that were defined in his body. Unlike Silas, whose bulk of muscle was smooth, Nathan was a precision machine. The ripples of muscles along his abdomen fit together like a living puzzle.

  A smile broke on his lips as those penetrating blue eyes fixed on my face. “Did you find out?”

  I was grinning like a crazy girl. I didn’t care that he pushed me in at all. I pushed a hand against the surface of the water to splash him.

  He ducked his head away, lifting an arm in a half effort to protect himself. “Hey there, little mermaid. You don’t want to start that game with me. I win every time.”

  I pulled a face and did another splash, smaller, but still defiant.

  “As you wish.” He was gone under the water again.

  With the bulk of my jeans and being weighed down by my sneakers, I couldn’t move fast enough on the surface to break away from him. His arms enveloped my waist. My heart was furiously beating in my chest as I felt this touch. He lifted me out of the water onto his shoulder. He waited just a moment, and then tossed me back into the water like I was nothing but a doll.

  I landed with another splash not far from where he was. When I broke the surface again, I was giggling, flicking water away from my eyes. He laughed too, swimming closer to me.

  I shook my head, holding up my hands in defeat. “Not fair.” I pointed to the jeans and shoes I had on that were weighing me down.

  “Take them off.”

  My mouth dropped open. “What? No!” I screeched.

  “Then lose.” He inched toward me, deliberately teasing with his grin and wiggling his fingers at me.

  I took one shoe off, flinging it toward the side of the pool. It landed with a thick thud against the concrete. The other one joined it a moment later.

  “I’m not taking my pants off,” I whispered.

  He stood there laughing, his hands on his hips. “You’ll wear a bikini that has less material than you’re wearing now with that shirt and you won’t take your pants off. You are wearing underwear, right?”

  I hated to tell him that I’d never worn a bikini. I inched back a little where I could stand on my toes. With my jeans on, it took a lot more energy just to stay afloat. “Yeah...”

  “You could run back to your house and grab your bathing suit, I guess.”

  There was a problem with that. Sneaking back in, soaking wet, would definitely draw attention, and there was no way I could get back out again. Besides that, I couldn't remember if I had a bathing suit; I hadn't been swimming for years. If I ran away and never came back, he wouldn’t understand. It really wasn’t an option, if I wanted him to like me, and I did.

  I felt for my pants button and started to undo them.

  “No!” he called out, holding up a hand to me and laughing. “Stop it.” He swam to the edge of the pool and got out. He came around to where I was close to the edge and motioned to me. “Come on. I’ve got an old pair of shorts that might fit you. If you tie them, they’ll probably be okay.”

  I moved to the edge of the pool, intending to get out on my own, but he grabbed me under my shoulders, pulling me up out of the water. He plopped me down next to him, holding me steady again to make sure I was on my feet before letting go.

  I was breathless. He stepped away from me toward the house. I wanted to fall over. My heart was about to explode. He was strong, nice, and funny. I couldn’t think straight. Another friend. What was I getting myself into? The more people I met, the more disappointed I was going to be when they found out who I really was and rejected me. Weird. No sense of how to behave around people. All I had to rely on was what I’d read in books, and so far it wasn’t helping much.

  Nathan disappeared into the house. I moved under the overhang of the back porch and toward the sliding glass door he had gone in. The house was one story, with brown and beige brickwork and I half remembered what it looked like from the street. What it lacked in height, it made up in sprawl. From the doorway, I could see into a living room with a high, white ceiling and exposed beams. The floor was a gray stone tile. The walls were white. The furniture was dark brown and leather. It reminded me of a cabin that I’d seen once on television. There was a musky smell, like a mix of the leather and the lacquer in the wood fixtures.

  Nathan returned from a hallway beyond the living room. He held a pair of green shorts in his hands. He moved to the door, bending his head to look down at me. “Want to come in?”

  I made a face, pointing to my wet clothes. “I’m dripping,” I whispered.

  “So am I.” He pulled the sliding door open further and beckoned to me. “There’s a
bathroom right there. You can put the shorts on if you want.”

  I nodded.

  “Do you want a t-shirt?” he asked. “It’ll probably be big on you.”

  I tugged at my blouse. “It’ll give time for this to dry.”

  He smiled. “I’ll toss them in the dryer after you’re done.”

  He pointed me toward the bathroom again and I stepped inside of it. There didn’t appear to be anyone else around. My parents would have killed me if they’d known I was alone with a boy in an empty house. As it was, my own mind was coming up with all the things my parents warned me about. Would he have me follow him to his bedroom? Would he pressure me for sex? Would I be interested? And why did I feel like I was betraying Kota, Silas and Victor by being here? Were they worried about me right now and wondering what was going on? Did they even care? Maybe I needed Nathan after all. If I messed up too badly with Kota and the others, maybe Nathan and I could be friends instead. Were we friends now?

  The bathroom was big. There was a wide tub with a glass sliding door. Black stone tile covered the floor, and the counter was carved dark stone. The walls were white. Photos of helicopters lined the walls.

  I was just putting on the shorts when there was a knock at the door. “I’ve got a shirt.”

  I opened the door and he handed me a dark blue t-shirt with some writing in a language I didn’t recognize.

  “Does your dad fly helicopters?” I asked. My voice was weaker. What little ability I had gained to talk was becoming lost.

  “Yeah,” he said. I closed the door again. It sounded like he leaned against the door. “He makes trips between here and New York. Sometimes to Florida. He’s gone a lot.”

  I picked up my wet clothes from the floor, holding them away from my body as they were dripping. I opened the door.

  Nathan was against the door frame, leaning his head against it. He stood up straight as I took a half step out “It fits?” he asked.

  The shorts were tied tight around my waist but the lower hem was down at my knees. The t-shirt was a couple of sizes too big and covered my butt. “I look weird.”

  He laughed. “You’re actually kind of cute. You should totally wear that your first day of school.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, but betrayed myself by giggling.

  He took the wet clothes from my hand. “Go jump in. I’ll put these in the dryer.”

  I crossed the living room, went outside and stepped up to the edge of the pool again. The smell of the chlorine was intoxicating. I wondered for a moment if he felt I was intruding on him for his pool. I had already interrupted his run. What other plans could I have been interrupting?

  I did a shallow dive from one corner and took off across the water. Despite my worries, I wasn’t going to waste a moment of swim time if I had his permission. Holding my breath, I wriggled my body to make my way to the opposite corner on the far end. I wanted to check to see how long I could hold my breath before getting up on the other side.

  I almost made it. I blamed jumping in first and being so excited as to why I couldn’t do it. I surfaced a couple of feet away, sucking in a breath of air and starting a slow breaststroke. When I reached the corner, I stopped for a moment and relaxed to slow down my breathing. I knew being calm under the water was important to being able to hold my breath longer. I pushed off with my feet against the edge of the pool.

  I used my hands this time under the water to give me a little extra push, but most of the power came from the movements I made, almost mermaid-like. I cut through the water quickly, reaching the other side. I touched the far wall and popped up at the surface, taking in a breath.

  “You could get faster,” Nathan said. He was standing on the edge of the pool in front of the house. I almost smiled at him, ready with a joke that I knew he wouldn’t be able to hear. I wanted to break the tension because he’d startled me. His face was serious. “Pull your hands to your chest.” He did the motion with his own hands. “Shoot them out above your head as you do that thing where you bring your head up. Then as you’re moving your feet, spread out your hands and pull like you’re crawling through the water.”

  I watched his arm motions and then nodded. It didn’t look difficult. I sucked in a breath and kicked off.

  While I wasn’t trying to go at my fastest speed before, knowing he was watching now, I threw my body into the motions. My body curved against the water and I tried the hand movement he’d shown me. It was more work forcing my arm muscles into sweeping motions, but he was right; the stroke was much more powerful and the effort was twice as effective.

  I broke the surface at the far corner, hearing him hooting.

  “You’re good,” he said.

  I was breathless, but I smiled at him. I moved a hand to my arm, rubbing the bicep. It was going to be sore tomorrow if I kept up that pace.

  “You should do some weight training.” He walked over to where I was against the edge of the pool and slid in to stand next to me. He tilted his head at me. “Are you going to join the swim team?”

  I blushed, shaking my head. “I’m not much of a competitor.”

  “You’re shitting me.”

  I half laughed. “I don’t mind a short race.”

  He blinked at me, smiling. “Should we race?” he asked.

  Race him? He had to be kidding. “I’ll try,” I whispered.

  “Should we bet on the outcome?”

  My eyes narrowed at him. “You’ll win.”

  “You don’t know that. You’re pretty quick. You’re smaller than me, too. You could probably move through the water faster than I could.”

  “What do you want?”

  He shrugged. “If you win, what would you want?”

  I raised an eyebrow at him, unsure of his motives. Was this a trick to get me to do something else crazy? “I want to know the secret to getting into the back woods.”

  His mouth broke into a wide grin. “I was going to show you that anyway.”

  I made a face. I didn’t know what else to ask for. Then I pointed to the t-shirt I was wearing. “This?” When I said it, it seemed to be too much. Was he being serious at all about it though? Or was this just for fun?

  He nodded. “If I win...” he paused, looking at my face like he was trying to read something from me. I got the feeling he was weighing out what he could get away with asking me. “If I win, you promise that if we end up with a class together, you’ll sit next to me.”

  It was an odd request. I felt my brows lifting. I wasn’t sure if he was serious. “That’s it?” I croaked out.

  “Hey, if I’m going to cheat off of someone, I’d like a willing participant.”

  My mouth popped open and my fingers flutter to the base of my throat. “Nathan?”

  He shook his head, laughing. “I’m kidding. I don’t cheat.”

  I grinned. “I do.” There was no way I could win this race. I knew he wouldn’t let me. I positioned my feet up against the edge of the pool.

  The smile remained on his face and he tilted his head toward me. “Really?”

  Before he reacted, I shot away from the wall under the water, pushing myself against the resistance with what strength I had inside me. I managed to get past him and tried to widen the distance to be out of his reach. I used the arm movement he showed me, throwing my whole body into the stroke. If I was going to have a chance, I needed to get clear of him.

  I was halfway through the pool when I felt a hand on my ankle. In one pull, I was sailing backward through the water faster than I’d ever moved at my own doing. Nathan flew ahead of me. His reddish hair broke the surface and in a few easy breaststrokes, he was on the other side.

  I made it over halfway again before I surfaced. I bobbed in the water, my chest heaving as I was laughing too hard. “Cheat!” I gasped out.

  “You can’t cheat if you didn’t set rules.” He stood up, drips of water sliding over the muscles in his chest and stomach. I tried not to gape but it was hard not to be in awe of the power he had
.

  I made a face at him, sticking my tongue in his direction.

  “Don’t go pulling that face on me. You owe me now.”

  I laughed, splashing him. I didn’t think I would have minded sitting next to him in class, anyway. Although when I thought about it, I wondered how I would concentrate if I had someone like him nearby.

  He smirked, sizing me up and positioning his legs against the wall. “I warned you about splashing.”

  He caught me before I had a chance to move.

  It was another hour before I crawled my way out of the pool, falling on my stomach on the concrete, gulping in air.

  “Give up?” Nathan asked, coming up beside me and sitting on the edge of the pool with his legs in the water.

  “You play rough,” I wheezed out. Between all the races and him tossing me around the pool, I was dizzy.

  He laughed and shook his head, rubbing a palm at his temple. “And here I thought I had my own little mermaid who could keep up,” he challenged.

  I blushed. Was he claiming me? “You know she dies at the end of the original story.”

  His eyes darkened and his lips twisted. “What? Why?”

  “She sacrifices herself for the prince’s happiness.”

  “That’s fucked up. Wasn’t he happy with her?”

  “He was in love with another girl.”

  “What an ass.”

  I rolled my eyes and then flopped over until I was on my back, letting the sun warm me. There was a gentle breeze that flitted around us. I remained jealous of the pool he owned. Whenever I could own my own house, I decided I wanted one just like it.

  His eyes focused on my body. I thought that he was being perverted for a moment as the shirt was sticking to my chest but I felt the breeze on my skin and then realized my side must have been exposed. The bruise near my butt was prominent.

  “Where’d you get that?” His eyes focused in on it. He reached out as if to touch it but he only lifted the shirt a little to get a better look. He sucked in a breath and then reached for his other hand to pull down the fabric of the shorts, leaning in to get a closer look. “Jesus. What’d you do that for?”

  “I fell,” I said softly.

  “On to someone’s foot?”

  “On to the concrete.”

  “How the hell did it get that bad on your hip?”

  “It was the angle, I think.” I moved a hand to pull away the shirt and stuff it down to hide the bruise. “It’s fine,” I recited. “Looks worse than it feels.”

  “Probably not,” he said. “I’ve had my share of bruises. That’s a nasty one.”

  I shrugged and swallowed to try to get some voice back. “I can’t do anything for it.”

  He pushed himself up until he was standing and then reached a hand down to me. “I’ve got something.”

  I wasn’t sure if this was another trick, but I’d gotten sort of used to his face. When he wore that serious look, he meant it. Then I hesitated, because he was asking me to touch him again. I reached up, feeling his hand wrap around mine and he pulled me up until I was standing.

  He held on to my hand, walking around the pool and heading toward the large shed that was in the back. It made me blush that he was holding my hand. We’d just met. He was touching me. Was this normal to happen right away? I mean, friends hold hands sometimes. I was sure I’d read about it in books. It also happened when a guy liked you a lot and wanted to be your boyfriend. So which was it? Why did these things have to be so confusing?

  “Wait here,” he said. “The floor is wood. I don’t want you to slip.”

  “What about you?”

  He ignored the question, or didn’t hear me that time, and opened the latch, pulling open the wide barn-like door. The inside of the shed did have a pine floor. The polish gleamed. There was black padding along the edges about a foot high against the wall and karate posters above them. There were a few belts in cases in different colors, dates etched into gold plates in the frames. A skylight at the top let in some natural light but he flicked a switch and two rows of fluorescent lights turned on.

  I knew he said not to, but I couldn’t resist wanting to get a closer look at the belts and posters on the wall. There was his name, Nathan Griffin, etched into those gold plates with the various degrees of rank that I didn’t quite understand. There was a framed newspaper clipping with his name on it, too, and a picture of a much younger Nathan holding up a trophy. I sensed him stepping up behind me, looking at what I was looking at. “You do karate?” I asked.

  “Kind of.”

  I turned to face him, blinking, not understanding.

  “It’s Jujitsu. And Taekwondo. And some other martial arts. Karate is just a different style.”

  “Oh,” I said. “That’s really cool.”

  His face softened and he smiled at me. “I know.” He crossed the room to a small closet that protruded from the rear wall. He searched the shelves until he found what he was looking for and turned around. “Let me see that bruise again,” he said, coming back across the floor.

  I stepped back out onto the pavement and he turned off the light, closing the door. He turned to me and I lifted the shirt to reveal the bruise. He held a crumpled white tube in his hand. He opened the top and squirted out a white cream onto his palm. He pressed his fingers to the bruise to lather it into my skin.

  “What is this?” An acidic medicine smell made me crinkle my nose. The cream was greasy and while he was delicate as he rubbed, it did hurt as he touched me. Part of me wondered if it was because I was super sensitive that he was a boy I still didn’t know well, and he was touching a part of me that made me shiver.

  “Arnica cream. It’s supposed to help with bruising and sore muscles.” He dipped his fingers down into my shorts to cover a little more of the area, then wiped his hand off on his trunks and closed the medicine. He handed the tube to me. “Put this on twice a day until it starts to turn green.”

  I took the medicine and held it to my chest. “Thank you.”

  He was standing close to me. His blue eyes fixed on mine. “You’re pretty nice for a girl.”

  I half choked. “What?”

  “You know,” he said, waving his hand around his head, being dismissive. “Girls are all ‘give me that’ and usually want to get all cute on the couch and not get their hair wet and... yeah, indoor types.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Girls don’t like wet hair?”

  He laughed. “You’re totally missing the point.”

  “Probably because I’m a girl.” I don’t know why but I felt defensive about being separated from other girls. Normal girls don’t like to swim?

  He rolled his eyes, waving his hand again in the air, but laughed. An alarm noise sounded nearby and he raced over to where he had dropped his shirt near the pool. He pulled out a cell phone and answered it. I was trying not to overhear the conversation, but it was difficult not to. “Yeah? No, I was just swimming with Sang. She’s the... oh. You know her?” He turned, looking at me with his eyebrow raised as he listened. “Yeah, okay. We’ll come over.” He hung up.

  I swallowed. Uh oh. That had to be Kota or one of the other guys. So they knew each other?

  He checked the sports watch at his wrist. “Have to be somewhere?”

  I considered what I should say. Should I lie and go home? No, I still had to ensure they didn’t try calling. I still wasn’t sure how to explain what happened to my voice or why they couldn’t do something as normal as call me. I shook my head.

  Nathan’s head tilted toward the house. “Let’s get dressed. How’d you meet Kota?”

  “Long story.”

  He smiled. “Tell me on the way to his house.”

  ♥♥♥

  I stood with Nathan on Kota’s front porch. My hair was still wet and my jeans were kind of dirty. I was grateful they were fully dry. I pulled my hair out of the mess on top of my head, untangling the clip. I held the clip with my teeth and twisted my hair again, clipping it back up in a quick
movement. Drips fell on my neck as the tips of my hair spilled out from the top of the clip.

  Nathan watched me as I did it. “Looks like shit,” he said with a teasing grin.

  I made a face at him just as Jessica opened the door. She looked cute in a little pink flower dress. She peered out at us, took one look at Nathan, turned bright red and rushed away from the door, leaving it hanging open.

  I lifted an eyebrow and turned toward him.

  He looked perplexed at me and shrugged his shoulders. “She caught me sparring with a friend one day. It probably looked like I beat him up pretty bad. I heard Victor tell her one day if she didn’t get straight A’s like her brother, I’d come over and do the same thing to her.”

  I was still laughing when Kota came to the door.

  “There you are,” he said. He wore Calvin Klein jeans and a short sleeve, white dress shirt, buttoned to his neck. His slid his glasses up further on his nose, looking relieved. “What happened to you?”

  I blinked at him. “You were looking for me?” I whispered.

  His eyes focused on me. “What?”

  “Her voice is gone,” Nathan said. “She can’t talk.”

  Kota’s expression changed, his eyebrow raised. “It was fine yesterday. What happened?” His eyes were intense on me.

  My heart was throbbing so hard that I wasn’t sure how to react. My lips moved, but I couldn’t figure out what to say.

  He frowned. “I almost went over to your house. I wasn’t sure how to reach you. I tried walking by just in case you happened to look out. I wondered if you were in trouble.”

  I pushed a finger toward my lower lip. “Sorry,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure what else to say.

  “What’s the problem?” Nathan asked, shifting on his feet and looking between me and Kota. “What’s going on?”

  Kota fumbled with the button at the collar of his shirt. “Well, it’s something we’ve got to figure out. Come on in. I’ll look at your throat.”

  My hand fluttered to my throat, touching delicately the dip at the base. “It’s not a problem,” I whispered, forcing a smile. The last thing I wanted was this sort of complication. It was my responsibility to act as a barrier between my parents and anyone I met. If I was going to keep any friends at all, I had to stop them from discovering my problems at home.

  How was I going to keep this peace, this separation of my friends and my family?

  Gabriel