Serial Hottie, Page 3

  I just shook my head incredulously. No guy had ever done anything like that for me before. I mean, the J’s would have come to keep me company and all if they could have, but they would still have made me do paper-rock-scissors to see who had to go downstairs to get the sodas.

  “What’s the matter with you?” Seth asked, laughing at the expression on my face.

  I shook my head and said the first thing I could think of. “You killed Bruno.” Random, I know. But no way was I going to admit what was really wrong—that it freaked me out to be treated like a girl.

  Seth bit back a smile and plopped back down into my beanbag chair. “He tried to kill you first,” he argued lightly.

  I couldn’t believe his response. It was so heartless. How could he be so nonchalant about taking the life of a big, dumb, but really sweet, and totally innocent dog?

  “He was just excited to see me!” I yelled, forgetting that doing so would only cause me pain. I had to lower my voice again, but that was probably a good thing, because I was suddenly a little choked up. “It was my own fault—always take the skates off before the helmet. Bruno wasn’t trying to hurt me. He wouldn’t hurt anybody!”

  “How was I supposed to know that?” Seth retorted. “I’m up in my room, hear you screaming ‘No!’ and look out the window just in time to see a big pit-bull knock you to the ground. You were bleeding all over, and he was attacking your face.”

  “He was licking my face. And he’s not a pit-bull.”

  “Whatever.” Seth rolled his eyes at me. “The dog’s fine anyways. I just stunned him is all. He was tearing up my back yard before I even got back from the hospital.”

  “Bruno’s not dead?” This made me feel so much better.

  “Of course not. What kind of guy do you think I am?”

  “I don’t know what kind of guy you are. I don’t know you. Which reminds me. What are you doing in my room?”

  He thought about not answering my question again, but then shrugged. “Your sister ditched you. I didn’t think you should be alone in your condition.”

  “My condition? I have a headache. I’m not an invalid. I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “Ellie.” His voice made it sound as if what I said was absurd. “You left me no choice. I have been dying for you to come introduce yourself to me since the day I moved in. It wasn’t nice of you to tease me like that this morning. You got my hopes all up and then turned around and went back home.”

  “What?” I gasped.

  “I don’t know how it works here, but out in California it’s customary for people to welcome their new neighbors.”

  “My mom brought you cookies the first day you got here,” I said confused.

  “Yeah, your mom. I don’t care about your mom.”

  “Angela went over there to invite you to her beach party the other day.”

  “Beach party?” he asked, distracted. Now he was the confused one.

  “Michigan is surrounded by water on three sides,” I said. “We may not have waves, but we have lots of beaches.”

  Seth frowned. “Beaches are useless without waves.”

  “Not my point.” Even though I happened to agree. I’m not much of a water fan. Unless it’s frozen, of course. “I happen to know you were home when she went over, and you didn’t answer the door.”

  His eyes flashed up in surprise and it took him a minute before he could respond. I realized that I’d just admitted to spying on him, but, thankfully, he seemed to be more concerned with being busted.

  “Maybe I was washing my hair,” he finally said, fighting a smile.

  “You blew off Angela?”

  He couldn’t hold back his grin anymore. “Maybe.”

  “Are you gay or something?”

  I was glad to see that my comment mildly annoyed him. “Not everyone from California is gay,” he informed me.

  “You blew off Angela,” I repeated. “Nobody blows off Angela.”

  “She wasn’t the sister I hoped would come see me.”

  What!

  “Me?” I laughed to cover up my sudden nerves. “Please.”

  “Your sister’s hot,” Seth admitted, not with any real enthusiasm. “But she knows it.”

  “Oh, so you mean she’s just like you?”

  It was the wrong thing to say. Seth got really quiet all the sudden. Then, after a minute, he said, “Would you like me to go?”

  Something about the kid unsettled me, but the thought of him leaving surprisingly made my stomach churn. “I don’t know,” I said honestly. I hoped I sounded casual. I didn’t want him to know that he both excited and scared me.

  He smiled at me again, but it was less confident somehow, I think he was afraid I might actually kick him out. I relaxed a tiny bit, but I didn’t know what to say, so I waited for him to talk.

  He got up off my beanbag chair and sat instead on my dresser, pulling the only framed photo I kept in my room into his hands. It was a picture of Jesse, Jack, me, and Josh all in our hockey gear. Jack’s nose was bleeding, Jesse was missing a tooth, and Josh, whose eye was purple and swollen, was carrying me in his arms. But we were all smiling as if it had been the best day of our lives.

  I loved that picture. Seth seemed to enjoy it too. He studied it for a few minutes with a grin on his face, and eventually turned it towards me. He pointed to the kid holding me and said, “This is Josh, right?”

  “Um, yeah.” I was startled. “How’d you know that?”

  “Just a guess. Of all these guys, he seems like the one who would have all nine of the top scores behind yours on Skateboard Pro 2000.”

  I couldn’t help smiling at that. “He’s been obsessed with beating my score for almost a year now. He’ll never do it though. If he ever does, I’ll just have to beat it ten more times and wipe his name completely off the list.”

  Seth looked down at the picture some more and then lifted just his eyes as he asked, “He’s your boyfriend?”

  “No!” I gasped, too appalled by the thought to blush at the question. I pointed to the picture and said, “He was just the only one strong enough to carry me home that day. I’d taken a cheap shot from a kid on the opposing team. Actually tore a ligament in my ankle.” I smiled again as I remembered the fight it caused. “As you can see, the guys didn’t take too kindly to that. I went down, and they didn’t even know I was hurt before they started punching anyone and everyone they could. It was one of the finest moments in street hockey history.”

  Seth smiled at the story and pointed to the picture again. “So what about these guys?”

  “Jesse, and Jack,” I clarified as he pointed them out. “What about them?”

  “Are either of them your boyfriend?”

  Hearing him say the word boyfriend was just as startling the second time, and this time I did blush. Not because I was in any way interested in Jack or Jesse. Dating any of the J’s would have been like dating, not my brother necessarily, but definitely a stepbrother, or a cousin. I blushed because I was embarrassed that this stranger was asking about my love life—which, of course, I didn’t have one.

  “None of them are my boyfriend.”

  I tried to sound annoyed by the subject instead of freaked out like I was, but it obviously didn’t work because Seth put the picture down and came back to my bedside. His smile went back to amused and slightly cocky. “Does that mean you don’t have a boyfriend?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him but he still figured out the truth. He gazed at me for a moment then asked, “Have you ever had a boyfriend?”

  I blushed again. Even deeper than before. My lack of response answered the question for me. I think this was the reaction Seth was hoping for since he leaned in really close. I instinctively tried to back away from him but seeing as how I was lying in bed, and he was blocking my escape, the only thing I could do was sink down into my pillow.

  “I wonder…” he said when I could sink no lower. I was flat on my back again, ignoring the discomfort the pressure was causing my
stitches. He leaned completely over me, trapping me between his hands and hovering at arms length directly above me. His eyes were still quizzical, and yet they burned, almost wild, as he stared down at me.

  When he spoke again, it was a whisper. A velvety-smooth, dangerous whisper. “Have you ever been kissed, Ellie?”

  I sucked in a deep breath and then held it while the blood drained from my face. I was frozen, completely terrified by this beautiful boy and what it looked like he was about to do.

  When Seth leaned in and brought one of his hands to my face, I flinched so violently it startled him. Instead of kissing me—which I’m pretty sure he wanted to do—he sat back up and whispered, “Okay. Relax.” He brushed the hair away from my eyes, and then ran the backs of his fingers down the length of my cheek. “When you’re ready.” It sounded like a promise.

  “I think I’d like you to leave now,” I whispered when I could finally catch my breath.

  Seth pulled his hand away from me, his eyes studying mine, but the smile stayed on his face. “Don’t be a stranger,” he said and then disappeared out my window.

  I listened for his retreat, but he never made a sound. When I was sure he was gone, I ran to my window and locked it. Then, after that, I went through the house and did the same to every window and all the doors too.

  For the next couple of days I avoided the house across the street. I still took the occasional peek out the window during the workouts, but my days of obsessive spying were over. Then Saturday night Heather Monroe was murdered and things slowly began to change.

  My dad and I were watching the eleven o’clock news, waiting for the sports re-cap when the girl’s tragic story came up. I didn’t know Heather Monroe from Novi, and, sadly, I wasn’t shocked to hear a story about a girl who’d been found beaten and stabbed 37 times—I do live in the greater Detroit area. But when her picture flashed up on the screen I found myself staring at a fifteen-year-old, tall, skinny, red-haired, hazel-eyed girl.

  Something about the image was haunting, and not just because I’m a fifteen-year-old, tall, skinny, red-haired, hazel-eyed girl. It was more than that. Heather Monroe could have been my twin sister. I know I wasn’t the only one thinking that either, because my dad immediately turned off the TV, kissed the top of my head, told me how much he loved me, and then left the room.

  That same night I dreamed of Seth for the first time. I was standing in his garage and the entire wall behind me was painted like a giant bull’s-eye. I felt afraid. I needed to escape, but my legs wouldn’t move.

  Seth was there, and when he looked at me with those blue, blue eyes, I got lost in them. “Ellie,” he called to me, whispered my name almost reverently.

  Then he began throwing knives at me. I couldn’t move. The only thing I could do was pinch my eyes shut and wait for the pain, but the pain didn’t come. I opened my eyes again and the knives had landed in my clothing, pinning my arms and legs to the bull’s-eye behind me. I was trapped.

  He walked up to me, admiring his aim. My breath got shallower with every step he took my direction. “Ellie,” he whispered again as he brought the tip of a knife to the side of my face. “Relax.”

  He dragged the blade down my cheek and then down the side of my neck so lightly that it could have been his fingers caressing me. Then he dropped the knife to the ground. I flinched at the sound and that’s when he kissed me. He kissed me, and kissed me, and kissed me until I thought my body would melt from the wall into a small puddle on the floor.

  Someone began pounding on the garage door, yelling my name. I knew I should call out for help, but I couldn’t make myself do it. Not when his kisses were making me feel so good. The knocking got louder and louder until eventually my mom walked into my room and shook me. I woke with a gasp and my mom was immediately concerned.

  “It was just a dream, Mom,” I told her, trying not to flush because I could still almost feel Seth’s lips on mine. “A nightmare. I think.”

  She smiled understandingly and then pushed my hair back to look at my stitches. “How’s your head this morning?”

  I thought about it for a second. “A lot better. The headache’s gone.”

  “I felt bad having to leave you every day,” Mom said with a sigh. “I should have taken a few days off work, but with the cruise coming up I didn’t really have any time.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said quickly, not wanting her to feel guilty.

  She and Dad are going on a cruise later this summer for their twentieth anniversary. They’ve never been on a real vacation before and I don’t think I’ve ever seen either of them more excited about anything in their lives. They’ve been the easiest parents ever since they booked the trip. They didn’t even ground me when I got suspended the last month of school for wailing on Gabby Reese after she called me a lesbian. No need to kill their moods over one dumb accident.

  “I just slept most of the time anyway,” I assured her. “And I really am feeling a lot better today. I could probably even go for a skate later. I’m dying to get out of the house for a while.”

  Mom frowned at that but then sighed. “Just be careful and remember—”

  “Always take the skates off before the helmet,” I finished for her, nodding my understanding.

  Mom’s concern melted into a smile. “I’ve got to go to the supermarket now, do you want anything?”

  “Rocky Road and Mint Chip?”

  Mom laughed. “I guess you really are feeling better.” She stood up from my bed and stopped at my door. “Take it easy today, Gretzky.”

  “I did take it easy!” I yelled before my mom could say anything when I rolled into the house later that evening covered in blood. I leaned over the kitchen sink and began to wash the blood off my hands and face. “It was just a small pickup game in the park and I didn’t even hit back!”

  “What happened?” Dad asked from somewhere in the family room.

  “I took an elbow in the nose. Don’t worry I’m sure it’s not broken. Can somebody hand me a freaking towel?”

  I suddenly got what I asked for. More than I asked for. I was pulled against a body and my head gently tilted back until it was resting on someone’s shoulder. Then the dishtowel I’d requested was pressed lightly to my throbbing nose. I instinctively screamed and tried to escape my surprise captor, but the arm around my waist was a vice.

  “There are easier ways of getting my attention than continually bloodying yourself, Ellie,” the object of my nightmare cooed. His lips brushed my ear, breath as warm as it had been in my dream.

  For a single instant I thought I’d been knocked out during the game and was having another nightmare. I wrestled free of the embrace to find Seth looking wickedly amused.

  “What is the matter with you?” I gasped.

  Seth held up the bloody towel with the perfect mask of innocence. “Just trying to help.”

  I snatched the towel from his hands angrily, and took a safe step away from him as I attempted to stop the nosebleed on my own. “What are you doing here?”

  Angela came into the kitchen and pulled something from the fridge. “Ellie, is that any way to greet a guest? This is Seth,” she informed me. “Aren’t you excited to finally meet your knight in shining armor?”

  “It is nice to finally meet you,” Seth agreed. The knowing smile he flashed me sent two different kinds of chills through me.

  “Yeah,” I said sarcastically. “Finally.”

  I was glad when Angela broke the awkward silence, and even more glad when she weaved her arm around Seth’s. “Dinner’s all ready,” she said, pulling him the direction of the dining room. “You can sit next to me.” It was a relief to have that killer smile of his pointed at someone besides me this time.

  I retreated to the safety of my room and took a deep breath when the door was shut securely behind me. As I changed out of my blood-soaked shirt, I thought about the person downstairs waiting to have dinner with my family. So he liked to throw knives at mannequins and had no sense o
f personal space, that wasn’t really reason to fear him. I mean Vince Kowalski had no problem invading my personal space as he was bashing my face in this afternoon, and I didn’t fear him. In fact, the next time I was in the game with Vince, he was going to be really sorry.

  But still, there was something very unsettling about Seth and it really irked me. I went downstairs determined not to let this guy intimidate me. After all, no guy ever had before.

  “Here she is!” my dad exclaimed proudly when I entered the dining room. “This is our youngest daughter, Ellie.”

  My dad gestured to me and then swept his hand toward the woman I’d seen driving the BMW. She was even more striking up close and seemed oddly out of place at our dingy old dinner table. “Ellie, this is our new neighbor Janice Wainwright, and, of course, you’ve already met her nephew, Seth Bishop.”

  I tried to brace myself as I looked the direction my father was now pointing, but it didn’t do me any good. I met Seth’s eyes and instantly all my resolve flew out the window. My heart sped up, my adrenaline spiked, and judging by the way Seth was watching me—a predator stalking his prey—I was beginning to think he could smell my fear.

  “Hey,” I mumbled, taking the seat they’d saved me, which was unfortunately directly across the table from Seth. I glued my eyes to my plate.

  “Ellie, where are your manners?” Mom chided. Something she did a lot with me.

  I looked up then, but at least now I was annoyed instead of intimidated. Seth grinned at me and I tried to keep the edge out of my voice as I said, “Thanks for helping me.”

  “Helping you?” Angela repeated incredulously. “Ellie, he rescued you.” She turned to Seth then, glowing with admiration. “You saved her life.”

  Seth flashed me another smile. “It was my pleasure.”

  Angela quickly tried to regain his attention. “I don’t know how you stayed so calm,” she said. “There was so much blood. You must be really brave.”

  “Or maybe he just likes blood,” I grumbled under my breath.

  “Actually,” Seth’s aunt spoke up, startling me. For a moment I wondered if she’d heard me, but she was smiling. “Seth is great in emergency situations. He’s certified in both CPR and First Aid and has had self-defense training.”