Or was that just vampires?
I shook my head as I struggled to make a decision.
“I need to talk to you about yesterday,” he said when I didn’t comply right away. Then he paused. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I answered through the door. Closing my eyes, I forced myself to say what I knew I had to. “You should go home, Asher.”
Please stay.
He didn’t even consider my request. “That’s not going to happen,” he said firmly. “If you don’t let me in, I’m just going to stand out here until you do. I need to see for myself that you’re okay.”
I was annoyed by how stubborn he was being, but also touched by how sweet the gesture was. But he was creating a problem for me now. Either I could let him in and put him or myself at risk or I could let him stay outside and possibly draw even more attention to the house. At least inside with me, he’d be a little safer than he would be alone.
And he might just be the thing I needed to jump-start the new phase in my life.
I disarmed the alarm spell and unlocked the door before letting him inside.
“You have got to stop stalking me,” I said, ushering him in, and locked the door up tight behind us.
He chuckled. “There you go again, assuming everything’s about you.”
It was almost exactly what Fallon had accused me of back at the cabin, but when Asher said it, it sounded sweet. So I went with it.
“Well, isn’t it?” I asked coyly.
“I guess that’s the question of the day,” he answered, glancing around our living room. It looked like it always did. Mom had kept our house beyond clean and everything was meticulously organized. “I’ve always wondered what the inside of this house looked like.”
“Well, mystery solved, I guess,” I said, walking around the couch and sitting down. He did the same. “Is it everything you expected?”
He flashed me a smile that showed off his adorable dimples. There was a sparkle in his eyes. “Nothing about you is what I expected.”
A wave of dizziness swept over me as I realized that I actually wanted him there. With me. Alone. And that’s when it hit me: I liked him. This had never happened before, at least not to me.
Oh, for witch’s sake.
He leaned forward and looked into my eyes like he was trying to guess what I was thinking. “What? No comeback?”
The TV provided us with noise to fill the silence. As I tried to think of something cool to say, I discreetly wiped my hands on the seat cushions next to my legs. They were so sweaty all of a sudden. But I wasn’t the only one who seemed nervous. A glance down at Asher’s leg showed that it was bouncing about a mile a minute, which actually made me feel calmer about the whole situation. It was so bizarre, but when other people got stressed out, that always seemed to be when I became most focused. Maybe it was because someone had to take charge and I always felt better when that someone was me. It made me feel more in control.
So I did the only thing I could think of that would help me regain control over this situation.
I was honest with Asher.
“You’re not what I expected either,” I said.
And then I leaned over and kissed him.
Chapter Eighteen
His lips felt good on mine and we kissed feverishly at first, quickly melting into each other. I didn’t even stop to think if it was a good idea; I just did it. Our lips parted as we got more comfortable with each other; he tasted faintly of black licorice, a candy I’d never really liked until now. I toyed with the idea of leading him upstairs to my room, but then thought better of it. First off, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be alone with him in a room with a bed on account of the fact that we barely knew each other. For all I knew, he could be a normal high school student by day and a psycho serial killer at night. A cute serial killer of course, but still.
Besides, there was no reason to head upstairs, anyway—we didn’t exactly need more privacy in a house that was already empty. I was its only occupant, and it wasn’t like anyone was going to come home and catch me making out with a boy I hardly knew.
Other kids my age would die for the opportunity to have their house to themselves so they could be alone with a cute guy, and here I was wishing my parents were around to catch me. Life could be really messed up sometimes.
I couldn’t keep my mind on what Asher and I were doing while I was thinking about my parents and what had most likely happened to them. Talk about a mood killer. So with the hand that had just been running up Asher’s chest I gently pushed him away until we were on opposite sides of the couch, staring at each other.
“What’s wrong? Are we going too fast?” he asked, out of breath. I seemed to be having the same problem.
“No. No, that’s not it,” I said, shaking my head.
“What is it, then?”
I couldn’t exactly say that I’d suddenly lost my appetite for him because he made me think of my dead parents. Not only would that make him as depressed as I was now, but if he asked what happened to them, I’d either have to lie and make something up, or tell him the truth and then attempt to explain what had been going on in my life lately. Neither of these options seemed viable to me. Not if I wanted to try to get back on track with Asher.
“I’ve sort of got a headache and I’m not sure when my parents are getting home,” I said finally. Technically this wasn’t a lie; I wasn’t sure when my parents would be home—if my dad was coming home at all. I knew I wasn’t telling him the entire truth, and I didn’t want to start a potential relationship based on lies. Technicalities… now, those were a different thing entirely.
“Do you want me to go?” he asked. I could tell by the sound of his voice that he didn’t want to. I smiled. He’d asked me this question once before and I didn’t have an answer for him then. Now I did. It might not have been smart, but…
“Not at all,” I said reassuringly. Then I stood to leave. I needed to take a minute to collect myself and try to put aside the thoughts of my parents, which had blocked me in the first place. “Hang out. Get comfortable. I’m just going to get some Tylenol and I’ll be back. Can I get you something to drink?”
Asher looked happy to hear that he wasn’t being kicked out of the house just yet and did as I suggested, snuggling back into the middle of the soft cushions. “Sure. I’ll take whatever you’re having.”
“Okay. The remote’s there if you want to look for something else.”
I gave him a smile I hoped would make up for the fact that I’d put us on ice for the time being and then retreated into the kitchen. The Tylenol was up in the corner cabinet and after shaking two out into my palm, I tossed them into my mouth and chased them with a swig of root beer. Truth be told, my head was throbbing—well, my whole body hurt, really. After everything that had happened yesterday, I knew that what the doctor ordered was probably just a good night’s sleep. But with any luck, I wouldn’t be going to bed anytime soon, thus the need for Tylenol. Snagging another can of soda from the fridge, I went to leave when something outside the window stopped me in my tracks.
But upon closer inspection, nothing was there. Nothing I could see, anyway.
The nights were so much brighter here than they were in the darkness of the woods. The weird thing was that I’d felt safer back in the isolation of the woods than I did in our suburban neighborhood. I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that I was constantly surrounded by a dozen other kids back at the cabin, and here it was just me and Asher. Not that I was complaining. It was just that I’d grown comfortable with having lots of people around me.
Strength in numbers and all that.
I looked around the backyard. Things were already starting to look bad now that no one was tending to it. The grass was an inch too long and a brownish color I’d never seen before. There was a pile of decomposing blackberries on the ground near the fence from where the neighbor’s bush had grown over the side. I turned to get a better view of the rest of the yard and as I did so, there was another flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. I leaned toward the window until my forehead hit the glass, and struggled to identify what it could have been.