Pyxis: The Discovery (Pyxis Series) (2 page)

They both looked ready to pee on the floor with excitement.

“That would be so cool.” Genevieve’s voice actually squeaked a little.

I stared back and forth between the two of them. Either they were really, really good at this fake-nice shtick, or … or … I wasn’t even sure what an alternate explanation might be.

“Well, um, I’ll text you,” I said, hoping they’d drop it and just order their stupid coffees.

They both ordered skinny mocha with sugar-free hazelnut—Sophie’s drink, of course; I guess some things hadn’t changed—and moved down to the drink pickup area.

I caught Angeline’s eye. She was trying not to laugh. I so wanted to get her reaction to what just happened, but the bell jangled, and Andy Jones swaggered up to the counter with a couple of other guys.

“Uh oh,” I said under my breath.

“Hey,” Andy said, making the word about three syllables long. His eyes looked too bright.

“Um, hi.”

“It’s really good to see you again. We should hang out sometime,” he said.

I couldn’t answer because I felt a stupid, girlish giggle bubbling in my throat. Before today, he’d never even spoken directly to me. I was surprised he even knew my name. He was one of those guys I think of as a GRAH—Generally Regarded as Hot—not that I was interested in him that way. But here he was, a senior and a star shooter, draping himself all over my register and hitting on me. In front of his friends.

One of the guys behind Andy snorted and punched his arm. “C’mon, dude, let’s go.”

He didn’t take his eyes off me. “I’ll text you later.”

“Okay, yeah.” I knew Ang was just about to bust up laughing, and I could feel blood rushing to my face.

“See? I told you! He totally likes you!” Ang hissed as a few more customers—older people my parents—came in the café and lined up.

I heard my phone chime under the counter. A text, but I didn’t have a chance to see who it was. After the last customer paid for his drink, I dug around in my bag.

I glanced up to check for approaching customers—using phones at work was frowned upon—and saw Jordan Gumbreath through the front window of the café, reaching for the door. Without thinking, I ducked down behind the counter.

“What are you doing?” Ang stood over me, her hands on her hips.

“Sh! Just tell him I’ve gone home or something.”

She snorted a laugh. “Why are you being weird?”

“Please?” I gave her my most pathetic, furrowed-brow expression, and she heaved a huge sigh. I listened from my crouch as Jordan asked for me and Ang told him I was running an errand for my dad. She hated lies, even tiny ones, so I just hoped she’d be convincing enough.

“Okay, he’s gone,” Ang said.

“Thank you, Angeline.” I wanted her to know I really, really meant it. I knew it was stupid to hide like this, but I just couldn’t deal with Jordan. Not after Hannah, and Genevieve, and then Andy. Nobody was acting like themselves, and it was starting to freak me out a little.

Even though the coast was clear, I stayed where I was a minute longer, just to make sure Jordan wouldn’t walk by the window and see me. I remembered my phone, and opened a text from Andy. I blinked and read it a second time, then a third.

I shook my head and held my phone out so Ang could see. “You’re not going to believe this.”

|| 3 ||

COVE 2NITE WANT 2 go?

Andy Jones wanted to take
me
to the cove?

I read the message a couple more times to make sure I wasn’t imagining it. Ang talked about nothing else the rest of our shift, and I let her excited chatter fill the time. Part of me was eager to take Andy’s invitation, but another part of me couldn’t quite accept it at face value. I compromised by telling him I’d meet him at the cove.

When I got home from work, I locked myself in my room and stood in front of my closet. I pulled out my favorite dark jeans, which I liked to wear tucked into the cute brown leather boots I’d bought on clearance after Christmas. Chilly evenings were normal this time of year, so I picked a faux, wraparound, pale purple sweater that complimented my dark hair and light olive skin. I grabbed my tan military-cut jacket and hoped it would be enough to keep me warm at the cove. There’d be a fire to huddle around, I reasoned, so I should be okay.

My phone chimed with a text from Ang:
r u sure u want to ride w me?

I wrote back:
yes! we always go together

I knew what she was getting at, though. Andy had offered to come and get me. But that just felt too … datey. Besides, I didn’t want to ditch Ang.

She texted me later that she was waiting outside, and I grabbed my bag and ran upstairs to the front door.

“Bye, Mom!” I hollered in the direction of the kitchen, my hand on the knob.

“Back by midnight!” she yelled back before I could close the door behind me.

I rolled my eyes and jogged over to the idling Volvo. As if I really needed a curfew reminder. A couple months ago, I’d discovered the hard way that coming home even a few minutes late would get me in trouble. My brother, Bradley, on the other hand, could get away with almost anything, even though we’re in the same grade. Lame double standards.

“Hey! You look cute!” I said as I slid into the passenger seat. Ang wore a cherry red, fitted, wool hoodie that brought out the rosiness in her cheeks. With her blonde hair curled in loose ringlets, she looked downright adorable.

We blasted a dance mix from her iPod and turned onto the two-lane highway that wound around the lake to the cove.

The cove was actually a little beach on Tapestry Lake, about a fifteen-minute drive from town. High school kids had partied there since forever.

When we were little, Ang’s mom used to take us to the cove to play on the beach in the summer when my parents were working. The beach was a strip of gritty, white sand that melded into a meadow that looked like something out of a Disney movie. There were different mixes of wildflowers blooming practically every month of the year between April and October, and it always smelled earthy and sweet. The whole area was edged by giant, old Ponderosa pines that gave off a heavenly scent of pine wood and vanilla.

Ang parked on the side of the dirt road leading to the cove. It wasn’t quite dark yet, but I could smell the bonfire smoke and hear the crackle of burning logs. We each grabbed a couple of pieces of firewood from the trunk—bonfire etiquette called for everyone to kick in some fuel for the fire—and crunched down the gravel road to the beach.

“I think that’s Andy’s car.” Ang nodded at a non-descript Toyota pickup.

“Yeah, he texted me he was already here.”

“Maybe he’ll try to take you back to the meadow. Want me to, like, follow you and take a picture of you making out with him? I’ll post it, and then Mason will be jealous!”

“Oh my God, no paparazzi, please! And anyway, I’m sure Mason wouldn’t even care.”

I had no idea if Mason would be interested in the news that I’d moved on. Even though Ang had seen him making out with Sophie barely a day after he kissed me, she still insisted that Mason was in love with me and the two of us were meant to be.

Whatever. He blew that chance.

We dumped our firewood on the pile near one of the picnic tables and joined Kaitlin and some other sophomores sitting on sun-bleached logs that were set up in a crescent shape around the fire. My eyes darted from one knot of kids to the next until I found Andy with some juniors and seniors near the water’s edge.

“Did you see your brother?” Kaitlin said, and laughed.

I winced. “Oh God, what did he do now?”

I spotted Bradley standing in his boxers, trying to wring out his soaked jeans. He hooted about how cold the water was. Some junior girls were watching him and giggling. I suddenly wished the beach was quicksand, so it would suck me down and away from my idiot brother.

“He’s so funny!” Kaitlin said. I ground my teeth, and Ang gave me a sympathetic look.

I felt someone sit down next to me and turned to see Andy’s grinning face. Kaitlin giggled.

“Um, hi,” I said.

I could feel Ang and Kaitlin watching us. I couldn’t believe Andy was sitting next to me and a bunch of other sophomore girls at the cove. I felt my cheeks heating up. Where was that damn quicksand? I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered a little, more out of nerves than chill.

“Hey. Are you cold?” He scooted closer so we were touching from thigh to hip.

My heart took off at a gallop. Part of me was waiting for the cameras, for the cheesy reality-show host to pop out of the trees and let me in on the big joke. But Andy just sat there waiting for my response. He didn’t look nearly as glassy-eyed as before, and the goofy grin was nowhere in sight. He actually seemed concerned about my well-being.

“No, I’m okay.”

“Oh.” Andy rubbed his forearm a bunch of times and cleared his throat. “I just wanted to come over and see you. We should go for a walk later.”

“Okay, yeah.” My face burned clear to the tips of my ears. A walk? That could only mean one thing: the meadow. And he actually seemed a little … nervous? Shy?

He sat a second longer, gazing the fire and rubbing his arm, and then finally stood up. “Okay, later then,” he said softly.

“You are so lucky, Corinne,” Kaitlin crooned as soon as Andy was out of earshot. “You know he’s just waiting until it gets dark, and then…”

I buried my face in my hands. It was all just so awkward. I wasn’t even that interested in Andy.

“Let’s get sticks for marshmallows,” Ang said. She stuck her hand in her bag and pulled out a package of jumbo marshmallows with a flourish. I telegraphed a
thank you
to her as I dropped my bag next to hers on a nearby picnic table.

We fanned out to hunt for suitable marshmallow sticks, and I was glad to have a moment away from the fire and the rest of the cove crowd. I inhaled the smell of the forest, a mixture of pine, dirt, mildew, and crisp air that made me feel more at ease. I stuck a small pinecone in my jacket pocket to toss in the fire later. I liked to watch the pitch in pinecones ignite in little blue and orange flashes.

I found my marshmallow stick and picked bark off the end while I walked back to join Ang and Kaitlin. Without warning, Sophie appeared in my path. Startled, I dropped my stick.

Her hands were on her hips, and her lips pursed together in a pout.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m taking my stick back to the fire so I can toast a marshmallow,” I said slowly, as if she had mental issues.

Sophie leaned forward and jabbed her polished forefinger at me. “I saw you at the bake sale today. And I’ve seen how all the other guys are acting. None of them ever looked at you twice until, like, a few hours ago.”

“So what?” I said. My hand closed around the pinecone in my pocket, and I felt the sharp ends dig into my palm. “It’s really none of your business, so get out of my way.”

I picked up my stick and brushed past her, but she followed me.

“Well I don’t think they’re just suddenly interested in
you
, Corinne.” She said my name like it was poison on her tongue. She eyed me for a moment, turned, and strutted back to the bonfire like she owned the place.

I joined the girls near the fire, and Ang handed me a marshmallow.

“What was that all about?” she whispered.

“I’ll tell you later,” I muttered, aware that Kaitlin a couple other girls were trying to pretend they weren’t eavesdropping.

I decided to try to forget about Sophie for the moment. It was an amazing night, and I just wanted to chill. Andy and a couple other guys joined us after a while, and I toasted him a perfect, golden marshmallow. The guys made short work of the rest of the bag, daring each other to eat marshmallows singed to the point of ashen lumps.

Andy lay back on the sand and groaned. “I feel like I’m gonna puke.”

“Please go over there in the bushes if you have to do that. This is a no-hurl zone.” I swung my arm around, indicating a large area around me, and laughed.

He chuckled and jumped to his feet, grabbed my hand, and pulled me up. “C’mon,” he said, his eyes mischievous.

My pulse jumped and I could feel the flush returning to my cheeks. I turned just in time to see Ang covering her mouth with her hand, holding in a giggle explosion, no doubt.

Andy led me down the path that curved back toward the meadow, and we stopped under a huge Ponderosa pine. I inhaled the vanilla-resin aroma of the tree and tilted my head back to look at the stars. A pink stripe of light streaked overhead and disappeared beyond the tree line. People in Tapestry always said it was good luck to see these lights. Sometimes in late June, colored lights would play across the sky all night. No one had ever been able to explain why the lights were visible only from the cove or the meadow.

A yellow-green blob shimmered above the tree line and then winked out of sight.

“Look!” I pointed skyward. “Twilight rainbow. Did you see it?”

That probably made me sound like I was about eight years old. But I suspected that Andy was about to kiss me, and I was maybe more than a little nervous about it.

My thoughts skittered back to the Winter Solstice Festival and standing on the corner of Main and Wild Rose with Mason. I tried to push the memory of that kiss out of my mind.

Andy looked up and searched the sky. “Damn, must have missed it.”

He inhaled deeply, looked down at me with a happy half-smile, and circled his arms around my waist. I could feel my heart thudding away in my chest, and I wondered if he could feel it, too.

“How come we never talked before?” he asked.

“It’s a big school.” I shrugged one shoulder. Even though Tapestry was a smaller town, Tapestry High was the only high school in the county, and it had nearly two thousand students. But really, Andy and I had never spoken to each other because we traveled in completely different social circles.

“Well, it’s not that big,” he said. He got quiet for a moment and sucked in his lower lip. “And … I always thought you were kind of hot. I mean—sorry, that sounded stupid. You just seemed different. And well, yeah—
hot
. I’ll stick with hot.”