Cursed (Book 1, The Watchers; Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (9 page)

“Well hey Mister
Wonderful, what’s up?”  Tara looked up at me and mouthed the word ‘Brand’, like
I didn’t know that already.  Who else would she address as Mister Wonderful?

Whatever he said
made her laugh and she handed me the phone.

“Hey, missed you
at lunch today,” I told him.

“Yeah, really
sorry about that.  I had to take care of something important.  In fact, I
probably won’t be at school tomorrow either.  So, I was hoping I might be able
to come see you tonight for a little while.  If that’s all right?”

The hopeful
uncertainty in his voice made me feel like I was someone important, at least to
him.

“I’d really like
that,” I told him letting him hear the longing in my heart so he would
understand I wasn’t just saying it out of politeness.

“Ok, I’ll be there
in a few minutes.  Can’t wait to see you, Lilly.”

“See you soon.”  I
hung up the phone.

I stood motionless
trying to come to terms with the fact Brand really did like me.  It took me a
few seconds to realize Tara was staring at me.

“What?” I asked
wiping at my face.  “Do I have something on me?”

“Uh- uh,” she said
crossing her arms with a self satisfied grin on her face.  “I think it might be
looove.”

“Oh please,” I
said feeling my cheeks grow hot.  “We haven’t known each other long enough for
it to be love.”

“Ain’t you heard
of love at first sight?”

“Tara,” I was
becoming completely embarrassed.  “Stop.  It can’t be love.”

“And why not?”

“Because we barely
know each other!  Yes, I’m extremely attracted to him and he seems to like me,
but you can’t say you love someone based on that.”

“Well, I think
it’s time you fell in love with someone else, girl.  Somebody who really
deserves it this time.”

I couldn’t argue
with her.  I knew Will didn’t deserve my affections anymore but how do you stop
loving someone you’ve loved almost your whole life?

Brand arrived at
the apartment within a few minutes.  He brought over the latest action movie to
come out on DVD for us to watch.  We sat together on the futon with his arm
around my shoulders and me leaning against his side marveling at how well we
fit together.  Tara made us all some popcorn and sat in the rocking chair
across from us.

If someone had asked
me, I couldn’t have told them what was going on in the movie.  All I could
think about was Brand.  How he smelled, how he felt, how his little laughs
during the movie made me feel happy inside.  He was like every girl’s dream man
all rolled up into one person.  Why shouldn’t I fall in love with someone like
Brand?  What could be more natural?

Sometime during
the movie, Tara got up.  I thought she went to the bathroom but before I knew
it, there was a loud banging noise like a hammer on concrete coming from the
kitchen table.  Both Brand and I looked over and saw Tara banging her bag of
dirt against the table top.

“What are you
doing?” I asked her, completely mortified Brand had to witness Tara’s craziness up close.

“Breakin’ up the
clumps,” she answered, continuing to swing the zip-lock bag on the table like a
mad woman.  Once she finally broke the larger pieces up into the sizes she
wanted she went back to the rocking chair and sat down like her behavior had
been completely normal.

She noticed Brand
and I still looking at her as she ate a piece of her dirt.

“Ya’ll want some?”
she asked us, holding the bag out.

“What is it?”
Brand looked more intrigued than astonished by Tara’s odd behavior.

“It’s dirt.  You
want to try it?”

“I don’t think you
want any of that,” I warned Brand.

He leaned forward
and held out his hand toward Tara.  She picked out a small piece of her dirt
and placed it on his outstretched palm.  I’m not sure if she picked a smaller
piece because she didn’t want Brand to gag too badly or because she was a miser
with her new found addiction.

Brand popped it in
his mouth and chewed.

“Not bad,” he said
swallowing what she had given him.  “But I’ve had better.”

“You have?”  Tara
and I asked in unison.

I’m not sure which
one of us was more surprised.

“I’ll buy you
some.  You can get it online.  There’s this place in Georgia that sells it by
the pound.”

“So you actually
like it?” I asked, completely confused why anyone would want to eat the stuff.

“It’s not
something I buy personally,” Brand explained.  “But I’ve known people who eat
it on a daily basis.  Geophagia isn’t as uncommon as you might think,
especially here in the South.”

“Geophagia,” Tara rolled the word around on her tongue.  “Well, that sounds better than dirt eattin’.”

Tara smiled at me
with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Girl, if you
don’t fall in love with him, I just might,” she stated, while popping another
piece of dirt in her mouth.

I thought I was
going to die from embarrassment on the spot.  I looked at Brand and saw he was
actually blushing too.  He sat back on the futon and we resumed our previous
position.

 By the time the
movie ended, it was almost 9pm.  Brand said he should be going and I walked him
out to his car.

 “Thanks for
coming by and bringing the movie,” I told him standing in front of him as he
leaned back against the driver side door of his Porsche.

 “I was
wondering,” he said with his head tilted to the side looking at me with that
uncertain expression he sometimes got when talking to me.  “Is it too soon to
invite you over to my house?”

 “When?”

 “How about
tomorrow after you get out of school?  I’ll pick you up.”

 “No, just tell me
the address and I’ll Google Map it.”

 “Are you sure?  I
don’t mind coming to get you.”

 “No, I’m not sure
when I’ll be through doing what Dr. Barry wants tomorrow, and I’d rather just
leave straight from there.”

 “My house is at 1921 Walking Horse Lane.  You’ll see the mail box by the turn off on the highway.  It’s
pretty easy to find.  It’s about a two mile drive down the driveway just so you
don’t think you took a wrong turn or something.” 

 He leaned into me
and kissed my cheek.  “Call me before you leave Dr. Barry’s so I’ll know when
to expect you.”

 Brand pulled out
a piece of paper from his back pocket which already had his house and cell
phone numbers written on it.

 “Do you have a
cell phone number?” he asked.

 “No, too
expensive for me right now.”

 He hesitated for
a moment like he wanted to say something else but thought better of it. 

 “Ok, well, I’ll
see you tomorrow,” he said getting into his car.

 I watched him
drive away.   I didn’t want him to go.   It took everything in me not to call
him to come back.

Chapter 5

 The next day felt
like it would never end.  Biology and physics just weren’t the same without
Brand’s presence.  English composition was almost intolerable with Nora asking
all sorts of questions about him, making me think about him even more than I
already was.

 “Why you want to
know so much about
her
boyfriend?” Tara asked Nora.  “It’s not like he’s
ever gonna ask
you
out.”

 I seriously
thought Nora’s head was going to explode her face got so red with indignation. 
“I don’t see what business it is of yours
Tara Jenkins
.”

 “Girl, you better
watch it!  Don’t make me take my earrings off!”

 “What is that
even supposed to mean?” Nora asked completely at a loss.

 Little did Nora
know Tara was getting riled enough to threaten her with the ‘earrings off’
warning.  I learned early on you never want to hear those words come from a
black woman because it literally meant she was going to take her earrings off
and not hold anything back in the brawl to come.

 Luckily for Nora,
Mrs. Connor came into the room before Tara could show her what her statement
truly meant.

 The end of the
day finally came.  It was about 4:30pm when I called Brand to tell him I was on
my way. 

 “Drive safely and
watch out for people,” he told me.

 The drive to
Brand’s house took about 30 minutes, which was about 20 minutes longer than it
should have.  Traffic was extra heavy since it was a Friday afternoon.  A lot
of students were heading home for the weekend and others were starting they
weekend revelry early.  On the way there, I passed the spot where the plane had
crashed onto the highway.  Seeing the scorch marks on the pavement, brought
tears to my eyes.  Had I in some way caused the death of two more people? 

 I had avoided the
news as much as possible the last two days but the topic of the plane crash was
all anyone wanted to talk about at school.  And why not?  How often did planes
crash in populated areas?  I learned through the chatter of my school mates the
couple who died in the plane crash were just leaving for their honeymoon.  The
FAA said there was a mechanical failure soon after take off which caused the
plane to lose altitude.  I guess I should have felt relieved there was a
physical reason, but I still couldn’t help feeling like the universe was out to
get me.  

 I followed the
map I downloaded off the internet giving me exact directions to Brand’s home. 
The road wasn’t hard to find even though it was in a thickly forested area.  I
remembered looking at the satellite image of Brand’s house online and noticing
there was only one house close to him on the lake.  I wondered how much land
Brand had bought.  It had to have been at least 100 acres. 

 A mile and a half
down the road I saw what I assumed to be Brand’s cousin’s house.  It had
obviously been a barn at one time, but the transformation was impressive.  It
was made of cedar with a grey-green shingled roof and two dormer windows
overlooking a front porch.  It really did look a lot more like a house than a
regular barn.

 Brand’s house was
another half mile down the road.  It was a large grey cypress house with a dark
green tin roof and matching shutters on the windows.  There was a wrap around
porch with rocking chairs and hanging potted plant hangers filled with a
variety of greenery and fall flowers of all colors.  The yard was immaculately
maintained with tall crepe myrtles and hawthorn bushes and a blacktop circle
driveway in front.  I saw Brand’s car and a yellow-gold
McLaren
Mercedes
Benz parked in front of the
house.

 As soon as I
turned off the engine, the front door opened and Brand stepped out to welcome
me.

 “I thought you’d
never get here,” he said flashing me a smile and kissing me chastely on the
cheek.  “Was traffic bad?”

 “There were a lot
of people on the road leaving school for the weekend.”

 “I hope you’re
hungry.”  He took my hand and escorted me into his home.

 The inside of the
house was cozy.  The first floor had an open floor plan with lightly stained
cypress walls and exposed beam ceiling.  As you entered from the front door,
there was a staircase to the right leading to a second floor and loft area
visible from the first floor.  To the left was the living room with a wall of
glass looking out onto the lake with a beautiful river rock fireplace in the
center.  Three light brown leather couches were situated across from each other
in front of the fireplace.  There was a large chandelier made of deer antlers
hanging from the cathedral ceiling. From what I could see, there were several
stuffed deer heads mounted around the living room walls.  There was an
unmistakable hunting lodge feel to the place that I hadn’t expected from Brand.

 “I bought the
place fully furnished,” he told me, seeing my eyes wander around the first
floor.  “Apparently they were big into hunting.”

 “It’s cozy.  I
actually kind of like it,” I admitted.

 “Come on.  I want
to introduce you to Abby.”

 We walked past
the dining room area and large kitchen to the French doors which led out onto a
deck with two white, comfy looking outdoor sofas on either side of a lit fire
pit.

 Abby was sitting
Indian style on one of the sofas quietly strumming the strings of a guitar. 
She was petite and immediately reminded me of an elf with her slightly pointed
ears and short black hair. She looked up at us with vibrant green eyes and
smiled.  Laying the guitar down on the sofa she hopped up and gave me an unexpected
hug in welcome.

 “I’m so glad to
finally meet you!”  Her voice even sounded like what I imagined an elf to sound
like, all perky and musical with a British accent like Brand’s.

 “All Brand’s been
talking about this week is you,” she said.

 “I’m sorry,” I
replied.  “I hope he didn’t bore you to death.”

 She laughed.  How
was it possible to laugh and have it sound like wind chimes?  I liked Abby
immediately. 

 Brand escorted us
back into the house and insisted Abby and I sit down at the table while he served
us dinner.  If there was one thing I could appreciate, it was a man who could
cook.  I was terrible at it.  That’s why Tara had been put in charge of all the
cooking around the apartment.

 For dinner, he
prepared beef tenderloin tips sautéed with mushrooms, onion, sweet peppers
& topped with a champagne sauce.  There was a side salad and freshly baked
bread too.  Since I was under age, I drank sweet tea but Abby and Brand had a
glass of white wine with their meal. 

 During dinner
Abby asked me all types of questions.  She acted like she wanted to know
everything there was to know about me, which wasn’t that much or that
interesting, but to her I was like undiscovered territory.  By the end of the
meal both she and Brand knew as much about me as I did.   Though, she came to
one question which made me squirm.