“No—you have it all wrong.” I faced him hard. This was one time I’d rather have been in class than out in the hallway. “I have to go….”
“Well, someone is going to know about you sneaking around—and it might be Alexander.” Trevor thumped me on the head and disappeared into the crowd of students.
I wasn’t dating Sebastian. There was nothing to hide from Alexander—but by the way everyone was treating me, the whole school must have believed I was cheating on him. My boyfriend, like any other, would not have been happy about that.
After school, I was at Becky’s waiting for sundown. The time had slipped by as Becky typed away at her computer doing research for an English paper and I ignored my own homework by lying on her bed, rereading
The Vampire Lestat.
“I think I’m almost finished,” she said gleefully.
“Well, I should be going,” I said. The sun was slowly sinking; only a few rays still poked out behind the field. “I need to tell Alexander that the whole town thinks I’m dating Sebastian before it gets back to him.”
“I’m sorry things have gotten so far out of hand. If you hadn’t stuck up for me…”
“That’s my job,” I said. “I’m your best friend.” I hopped off her bed and grabbed my jacket. “I better get my bike.”
When we arrived at her house, Becky and I picked apples from one of her trees for a snack, and I’d parked my bike in the barn.
Becky peered out her window. “Why don’t I drive you home instead?” she asked with concern. “It’s totally dark out there.”
“That’s okay. I can find my way.”
“But there aren’t lights,” she said. “Even in the barn.”
I’d always protected Becky—at school, in town, in life—but this was her property and she wasn’t normally afraid on her own land.
“Don’t worry,” I reassured her as I walked down her creaky stairs. “I can go by myself. It will just take a minute.”
“The light switch hasn’t been working, and quite frankly it’s kind of spooky without it,” she confessed.
“I’m all about spooky!”
“I’ll drive you home,” she insisted.
“You don’t have to do that. Besides, I love wandering around fields in the dark. Maybe we’ll find a dead body.”
“Don’t say that!”
Once outside, Becky picked up a flashlight from on her back-porch railing. “I never get used to coming out here in the dark,” she said.
It was pitch-black except for the tiny light beaming from her flashlight. We had at least fifty yards to walk just to reach the barn. The cool night air made the journey even more chilling.
Becky dug her nails into my arm but was doing her best to be brave.
I thought I’d take her mind off her fears as we traipsed down her gravel road and through the darkness. “So are you sure Sebastian hasn’t tried to contact you again?”
“No.”
“No texts? Or flowers?” I hinted.
“Nothing,” Becky vowed.
“You’d tell me—”
“Of course I would. You know I can’t keep secrets.”
“Good.” Perhaps Alexander’s and my talk was getting through to him. “If you weren’t going out with Matt—
would you like him?”
“But I am going out with Matt.”
“If you weren’t,” I prodded.
“But I am, Raven.”
“You haven’t even thought about it?”
“No—why would I?”
As we grew close, a neighbor’s horse whinnied in the distance.
The old barn smelled like hay and old wood.
For a moment, Becky struggled, but she opened the barn door. “It sticks,” she said.
The barn was dark as a cave. Becky shined the light inside. Tools hung from the walls like dripping wax.
“What happened to the switch?” I asked.
“It shorted out the other day. My dad didn’t have a chance to fix it.”
We were blind except for the thin beam from her flashlight. Something felt strange—like we were being watched. I knew that there weren’t any farm animals kept in the barn. I wasn’t sure what else it could be.
“Hurry and get your bike,” she said.
Becky was still hiding behind me, pointing past the tractor. She clung to me so hard, I couldn’t move.
Just then we heard a rustling in the rafters.
Becky jumped. “Ooh! It’s a bat. My dad said he saw one the other night. I figured you’d want us to catch it for you, but it was too high.”
“It’s more than a bat,” I surmised.
After a few moments, the bat disappeared. I sensed someone lurking in the shadows. I took the flashlight and shined it on a bale of hay. Nothing. I shined it again on a workbench. Becky hid behind me, grasping my shirt so tight I could barely breathe.
“I’m scared, Raven. Let’s go back.”
I shined it on the tractor. The light caught the tail edge of blond dreadlocks.
“Sebastian?” Becky said, shocked.
I turned the light away from the vampire. He approached us in the moonlight, pushing my bike.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “You’re supposed to be with Alexander!”
“He was painting and I wanted to get some air.”
“In Becky’s barn?” I charged.
“I was walking around and I heard some girls talking. I had to investigate.” He smiled broadly.
Becky seemed to buy his excuse, but I knew better.
“You scared us to death—well, at least me,” she said. “I’m so glad it’s just you.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Truly. I’d never want to make your heart race. Unless it was for a good reason.”
Flirting time was over. “You’re lucky Becky’s father didn’t find you. He has a shotgun,” I warned.
“He rarely uses it,” Becky said. “You must be tired if you walked all the way from the Mansion. Can we get you a drink?”
“No—” I answered for him.
“Sure!” he said over me.
I took my bike from Sebastian and the three of us headed back to Becky’s house. In Sebastian’s presence, she was no longer afraid and didn’t cling to me in any way.
Becky offered us fresh lemonade. Becky had the best lemonade I’d ever tasted; her mother made it from scratch. Both Sebastian and I gulped it down and asked for seconds.
“It’s time we go,” I said.
Sebastian wasn’t ready to go. He wandered around her kitchen, examining every picture and decoration.
Where was Alexander when I needed him? If he had a cell phone, I could text him immediately. Instead, I tried to ring the Mansion’s line. If Alexander was painting, his music was probably blaring. It was true. The phone rang endlessly.
Even Jameson didn’t pick up.
“No voice mail—really frustrating,” Sebastian said.
“Aren’t you in town to visit Alexander?” I asked.
“Well, yes.”
“Then why aren’t you two hanging out?”
“We don’t spend every minute together. We’re guys.”
When Becky and I got together, we spent every minute in each other’s company. But guys? Sometimes when
Henry was over with Billy, one would be on the computer while the other was playing video games. I often wondered why they got together in the first place.
Still, I wasn’t crazy about Sebastian’s behavior. It didn’t seem to be bothering Alexander, however, if he was creative enough to paint. And for all I knew, Alexander might have needed the space.
“We better be going,” I finally said to Sebastian.
“I can drive you both back if you’d like,” Becky offered.
“You can drop Raven off first, then me,” he said.
“Becky will drop us both off at the Mansion,” I instructed. “Then we can tell Alexander where we’ve been.”
After Becky drove us to the Mansion and I placed my bike against the gate, I grasped Sebastian by his sleeve and pulled him toward the front door like a scolded child.