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It opened up and I clicked on Damien's name. I didn't think he'd ever texted me before, at least not that I could remember.
My head came up when a car door slammed shut in front of the house. Then another. Footsteps crunching on the gravel echoed and I stopped walking. Tyson was already halfway across the backyard, and I was paused mid-step by an orange Adirondack chair. I didn't want to go up front until I knew who was out there. There were certain people like, say, the entire Council, that I had no desire to see any time soon.
Tyson stopped when he realized I wasn't following him. He rushed back to my side.
"What the hell are you doing?" He whispered frantically. I didn't blame him, I would have been questioning me too. "I thought you wouldn't want to be left back here all by yourself."
He had that right, but...
"What if it's not Dash or the guys?" I whispered back just as frantically. "I don't want to walk around the corner and walk up to someone like Chucky."
As soon as the name left my mouth I knew I shouldn't have said it. Tyson flinched as if I had struck him, and his eyes took on the bug-eyed look again. It didn't last long. His mouth flattened into an angry line, and his eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Why would you be worried about Chucky being here?" He growled.
Oh boy.
It would seem Tyson had been so wrapped up in his own drama that he had missed what had been going on with the rest of us and he didn't know about Chuck's visit to the big house. I wondered why Quint hadn't told him about it. I mean, they lived together, and I would have thought with the way Quint had reacted to it that it had been a big enough deal that he would have wanted to tell everyone about it so they could be ready just in case Adrian or some other A-hole showed up with Chuck in tow.
"Uhh," I mumbled, not wanting to be the one who broke it to him. "Maybe you should go and see who's out there so we can get back to what's important, looking for the cat."
He shook his head as he reached out and grabbed me from behind the neck. He gave a gentle tug, and I suddenly found myself leaning forward, toward him. He leaned in and kissed me on the forehead.
"You're going to tell me all about it when I get back from checking to see who's out front," he whispered, and his lips brushed softly against my skin with every word.
With that, he stepped away from me, leaving me alone in the dark backyard and sprinted away from me.
I watched his retreating back as he got further and further away from me until he rounded the house and was suddenly out of sight.
I looked down at the now dark screen on my cell phone, and couldn't help but wonder just what in the hell was the matter with me. Why hadn't I gone with him? Why was I now standing out here by myself alone in Dash's dark backyard? That was exactly what I had been looking to avoid, and here I was.
Could things get any weirder?
The answer was yes, most likely, they could.
Chapter Nine
The arm of the orange chair I had parked my butt down on was cold, and it easily seeped in through my leggings and had me shivering. It was colder out than I had thought, my anxiety over being out here in the dark and looking for Binx had made it possible for me to ignore the cold.
I huddled into my hoodie as I reread the text message on my phone.
Damien: Do you have plans for tomorrow night?
I read it one more time just to be sure I had read it correctly the first three times I'd read it. Damien wanted to know if I had plans for tomorrow night? Since when? He'd never cared about what I was doing or if I had plans before, why was he asking now? And why in the hell was I so suspicious about everything?
I sighed heavily and sent back a quick message.
Ariel: None that I am aware of. Why?
It wasn't until after I hit send that I thought about just how rude that would have sounded to him. It was too late now, I'd apologize if he brought it up, and make sure I tried to be a little nicer in the next one.
He didn't make me apologize for being rude. I should have known, this was Damien. If it were Quinton, then I would have had to apologize or been prepared to argue with him. Damien didn't know me well enough yet to feel comfortable giving me a hard time and, besides, he was still trying to make up for his own rude comments I'd once overheard him say, and because of it I didn't think he'd want to call me out for being rude.
Damien: I wanted to know if you'd go somewhere and do something with me tomorrow night. But only if you're not busy.
I was never busy lately, unless I was attending my meetings with Adrian, and I had a feeling those wouldn't be picking back up any time soon. This left me with all the free time in the world. Something that some people might have enjoyed, because it was an incredible amount of freedom. I had even once enjoyed it, not having to get up in the morning to go to school and being able to do as I pleased. I no longer enjoyed it. I missed having a schedule and things to do to fill up my days. Just last week Quinton and I had gone to the school and filled out the necessary paperwork for me to be able to take the GED, and I was now signed up to take it in two weeks. They wouldn't let me take it right then because they were convinced everyone had to take a stupid study packet home with them to actually study or we would all fail. Perhaps they had been right, but I hadn't bothered to look at the damn thing once since I'd brought it home with me.
I texted Damien back, but I made sure to leave out the fact I had nothing going for me during the day or the night so I was free for business any time. I didn't think that would have painted me in a positive light, and I wanted Damien to think well of me. I hadn't realized until that moment just how much I wanted Damien to like me. If you had asked me a month ago I would have told you I could have cared less whether he liked me or not. But something had softened him in my eyes and changed the entire way I had looked at him. Once, I might have called him a dick, but now I wouldn't say it even if hewascapable of being and acting like one. Laying on my bed, side by side with him, and listening to him as he opened up to me for the first time while he talked about watching his mother cook had shown me a vulnerable almost fragility to him that I didn't think most people got to see.
