Divine (38 page)

Man, he just goes
right for it.

I nodded nervously and
dropped my head, slowly tracing the head of the broom around a square
tile. “Yeah, Fox, I did. And I want to thank you so much for
the offer.”

“
Well, what do
you say to a date out on the town with me? I'll take you to the
fanciest restaurant that San Francisco has to offer.”

I squeezed my eyes shut
and sighed lightly while trying to muster up the courage to just
woman up and let him down. “Fox,” I choked out while
gazing up at him with a serious face, “like I said, thank you
for the offer. But, I'm going to have to decline.”

He breathed in slowly
while he digested my denying words. “I wish you would
reconsider.”

“
Fox, I'm with
Jonah. You know that.”

His
tongue twisted around his teeth in his closed mouth; I obviously hit
a nerve.
“Jonah,”
he snarled with disgust, “that's why you won't go out with me?”

I nodded softly at his
irritated face. “Yeah, he's my boyfriend.”

He searched my face
with his lively green eyes and held an expression that I couldn't
decipher. In a flash he stepped into me, pushing me up against the
wall and placing his fist above me on the smooth, painted surface.
His face moved in close to mine and he gazed softly at me, his lips
close enough for me to feel the warmth of his breath. “So, tell
me something Summer,” he growled, “what exactly does
Jonah have that I don't have?”

I clutched the broom
tightly in my hands and pushed my head harder against the wall out of
fear of having our lips graze each others. “Fox, this is really
inappropriate . . .” I whispered, unsure of what to say or do
to help myself in the situation.

“
I'm the boss
here, and I'm asking you a question. What does your boyfriend have to
offer you that I can't? He's a Divine, I'm a Divine; you obviously
are intrigued by us men with abilities.” His eyes narrowed as
he spat out his ending argument, “I can control electricity.
All your little boyfriend can do is look at me with his sparkly
little red eyes.”

Coming on to me, that
was one thing; but insulting the man that I loved crossed the line. I
pushed the broom against his chest and glared angrily into his eyes.
“You want to know why I like Jonah? Because he's real and he's
a kind person who genuinely cares for me. And you, you're just a
cocky jerk who struts around this place like he rules the world.”

The closeness of my
face to his and my intense anger lit him up and he smiled devilishly,
not even flinching at what I had just relayed to him. “Ooh, you
sure are feisty; I like that in a woman.” Without warning he
brought his other hand up and grabbed behind my neck, pulling me into
him and pressing our lips harshly together.

My mouth tightened to
avoid his kiss and I let out a muffled scream, bashing my body
against his, trying hard to get away from him. I jerked the broom
handle up from against his chest and slammed it under his chin,
making him howl and break away from me.

“
What did you do
that for?” he yelled while grabbing onto his neck in agony.

“
Fox, I quit.”

His eyes shot up to
meet mine with an intense glare. “No, you're not quitting.”

I slowly backed away
from him with the broom still clutched tightly in my hands: my only
weapon. “Yes, Fox,” I corrected him firmly, “I am.”
As the words left my mouth the lights above us began to flicker
wildly.

He took his hand away
from his neck and slammed it violently down on the table next to him.
“You're not quitting!” The harsh blow of his fist sent
the light bulbs above us simultaneously exploding in their sockets,
muting the room in a half-darkness.

I screamed at the
sudden burst and wrapped my arms around my face to cover my eyes from
the falling shards of thin glass.

Seconds later Steve and
Kevin burst through the kitchen door. “What the hell was that?”
Steve yelled across the room.

Fox calmed himself and
shot his eyes over to the two of them. “I don't know what
happened,” he said in a breathless lie. “All the lights
just exploded around us. There must have been a shortage, or, I don't
know, an overload of electricity in the wires for some reason.”

Kevin crunched across
the pieces of broken bulbs that were scattered on the floor, his eyes
filled with excitement at the scene around him. “Yeah, it was
crazy! We were in the back cooking and all of a sudden, boom! All the
lights exploded!”

Steve stood with his
hands on his hips and watched me from across the dark room. “Are
you okay, Summer?” he called out to me.

“
She's fine,”
Fox answered him while his eyes pierced through me. “She's just
a little shaken up from the explosion.” He stayed calm as he
spoke, with his arms crossed in front of his chest as he added,
“Summer, since you have the broom in your hands, go ahead and
sweep all this up.”

I
stared at him in disbelief.
He
did
that to the restaurant.
He
broke
the lights out with the pounding of his angry fist.

I
dropped the broom on the floor and scurried away, flinging past the
front door and spilling into the sunny air outside. I hurried over to
my car but hesitated as I got closer.
Oh crap, I left my
purse inside.
I didn't have my
keys
or
my phone.
Screw it.

In my adrenaline rush I
resolved to take off sprinting down the street toward Jonah's house;
it took me half an hour to run all the way there. A great relief
washed over me as I saw his driveway approaching closer with each of
my hurried steps.

I ran up his stairs and
banged heavily on his door. Seconds later he opened it, wearing
nothing but a pair of red and black checkered pajama pants. “Ashy,”
he said with surprise, “what's wrong? Were you running? I
thought you were at work?” His questions poured out at me while
he stepped back and allowed me inside.

“
Jonah,” I
panted, “it's Fox. I had to run here because my keys are in the
restaurant . . .”

He put his arm around
me and led me over to his comfortable couch. “Hey, calm down.
Tell me what happened.”

I tried hard to compose
myself beneath my sweat-soaked clothes and hair, working to breath
normally so I could explain. “He came onto me . . .”

Jonah shook his head
softly while his jaw slowly started to clench beneath his
stubble-covered skin.

I didn't want to tell
him the rest, but I knew I had to. “He pushed himself against
me, trapped me against the wall. I tried to push past him but he
kissed me.”

“
Are you kidding
me?”

I grabbed at his body
in a panicked frenzy. “Please believe me, Jonah,” I
begged him with pleading eyes. “I didn't kiss him back. I
didn't. I tried to get out of it; my lips were tight the whole time.”

The beginnings of a red
sparkle danced next to his pupils as he watched me in silence while
placing his hand gently on my back. I dropped my head into the palms
of my hands, sending small fragments of white light bulb glass onto
the clean, carpeted floor.

“
Why is there
glass in your hair?” he asked gently while rubbing his hand
back and forth over my wet shirt.

“
Because,”
I sobbed, replaying the moment in my mind, “he broke all the
lights out in the building.”

“
What do you
mean? How did that happen?”

I raised back up and
wiped the tears away from my face. “This is what happened. I
told him that I didn't want to go out with him because I was with
you. Then he got mad and pushed me against the wall, asking what was
so great about you because all you could do was look at him with your
red eyes.”

Jonah nodded with the
same eyes that Fox spoke of, which continued to get more red with
each passing second of my story.

I cleared my throat and
went on, “I told him that you were, like, really kind and you
genuinely cared about me, and that he was just a cocky jerk who
thought he ran the world.”

Jonah's small laugh
surprised me. “You said that, huh?”

“
Yeah.
But that's when he tried to kiss me. I was holding my broom and I
jammed it underneath his chin to get away. And then I told him I was
quitting and he just wouldn't have it. The lights flickered and he
slammed his hand against a table and the light bulbs exploded in the
whole building. I ran out and left my purse inside, so I don't have
my keys, my phone,
or
my wallet.”

He waited for me to
finish my story and pulled me against him with a tight hug. I felt
the heat of his bare skin against mine; it felt like it was on fire,
just like the night of the concert when he had confronted the
stranger.

He let go and leaned
back against the couch, bringing a foot up and pushing it against the
coffee table in front of us. “Okay,” he finally sighed,
“I'll go down there and get your stuff.”

“
No, Jonah. I
don't want you to do that. He'll call the cops.”

“
It's okay, I'm
not afraid of having the cops called on me.”

I shook my head with
worry. “Well, I
am
afraid of that. Why don't I just call
Steve and ask him to get it for me. I'll ask him to bring it to me
when he gets off of work. Then you and I can go down there later when
everyone's gone and get my car.”

“
Yeah,” he
nodded in agreement, “that sounds good. But I still need to go
talk to Fox.”

“
What do you
mean?” I panicked, afraid of what Jonah would do to him. “You
can't do that.”

He crossed his powerful
arms and shot his head over to me. “And why can't I?”

“
Because, you're
too angry right now. You'll do something you'll regret.”

“
Oh, I won't
regret it,” he puffed. His eyes cut over to me and he sighed,
looking at me with a down-turned smile. “You look exhausted.”

“
I am,” I
nodded. My hair was still soaked with sweat from my long run; I must
have looked horrible.

He stood up and walked
over to the fridge to grab a bottle of water from inside. By the time
he walked it back over to me the outside of the thin plastic was
already warm from the touch of his boiling skin. “Make sure you
drink the whole thing; that was a long way to run.”

The water felt
refreshing pouring down my throat. I finished the whole bottle in
under a minute and sat it on the neatly organized coffee table.
“Jonah, it's really important to me that you don't get in
trouble with Fox.” I looked over at him sitting next to me on
the couch, leaning against the side with his fist in a tight ball
against his temple, propping his head up while he drifted away in
deep thought. His eyes never stopped glowing the fiery red, alerting
me that his mind was still focusing on the events at hand.

“
Okay,” he
spoke slowly, taking his fist away from his head and resting his arm
on the couch. “How about I call him?”

I anxiously mulled it
over in my mind. “What are you going to say to him?”

“
Don't worry
about it.”

“
Ugh,” I
sighed, “you're so stubborn.”

“
I get it from
you.”

I shook my head,
smiling on the inside but still too shaken up to show it on my lips.
“Well, I guess that would be okay. I don't have my phone so
I'll have to look up the restaurant's number.”

“
You don't know
it offhand?”

“
Yeah, usually I
do. I just can't think straight right now to remember what it is. I'm
sorry.”

“
Hold on, I'll do
it,” he said, jumping up from the couch and walking into his
room to retrieve his cell phone. He came back out, looking down at
its screen, trying to find the number online. “Okay, here it
is; I'll put in on speakerphone so you can hear.” Emitting an
odd amount of calmness, he stood next to the couch and crossed an arm
across his chest while his other held the phone out in front of him
for us to listen.

My heart began to race
at the sound of Fox's line ringing on the other end.
What is
Jonah going to say to him? How is he going to handle what Fox did?