Hurricane (The Charmed) (7 page)

Chase had enough. “Why won’t you tell me what this is all about?.”

“You’re on a need to know basis, sorry. I have to stop the Bleu’s from leaving town and then maybe, just maybe if I’m feeling generous I’ll tell you. You almost screwed up, Chase.” Mr. M left the room and stormed out to his truck.

Chase followed him out and climbed into the passenger side.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going with you.”

“Chase, they’re going to take one look at you, pack their bags and leave town. There is no way I’m taking someone like you to their house.”

“What do you mean
someone like me
?”

“Surely you must know what I’m talking about. Every single girl in the school drools over you Chase. If I had a penny for every time a girl was rendered speechless by you merely walking by her I’d be a millionaire by now. Lyla is no different. Her parents are going to see a tall good looking boy with straight white teeth who sparkles every time their daughter walks into the room and they’ll bolt.”

“I’m going with you.”

He glared at Chase, shifted the car into drive and moved the car out of the driveway. He knew Chase by now and when he said he was going, there was no swaying him. They drove in silence the whole five minutes it took to get there. Lyla lived in a small two story house overlooking Lake Morton. Mr. M parked the car on the street and turned to look at Chase.

“Chase, I’m going to tell you this because I love you like a son. Don’t go storming in. Let me talk them down. I’ll send Lyla out while I talk.”

Chase looked up. “But…”

Mr. M was already shaking his head. “No. You have to say goodbye. This doesn’t get negotiated. I’ll tell you someday but for right now, you dodged a bullet.”

Chase spoke through gritted teeth, “Why won’t you tell me then?”

Mr. M got out of the car, walked around the front, pointed a finger at Chase and walked up the steps to the house and rang the doorbell.

Lyla’s father opened the door. He was holding an empty bag. So, Mr. M thought, they were running tonight.

“Sam.”

“Frank.”

“I’d invite you in but we’re a little busy.”

“I can see that. You don’t have to run you know. Not this time. He’s clean.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, Sam.” Frank walked back into the house leaving the door open for Mr. M to come in. He followed him to the back of the house to the kitchen. Lyla was at the island table glaring at her mother.

Mr. M walked over to Lyla and whispered in her ear, “Lyla, Chase is in the car, why don’t you go talk to him.”

Lyla ran past the grown-ups and outside before her parents could ask.

Lyla’s mother watched her daughter run out of the room. “We should have left sooner. We’ve never been in one place so long. We let our guard down.” She was pacing the kitchen in an agitated frantic manner.

“You did nothing but try and make Lyla happy.” Mr. M tried to soothe her.

Lyla’s father came over to Mr. M. “Did you check him, Sam?”

“Yes, that’s why I said he was clean.”

Lyla’s parents visibly relaxed.

“We’ll make you a deal. We will stay but Lyla is not to go to school anymore. We’ll home school her and she and Chase will break up.”

Mr. M crossed his arms and stared at the two. “If we can get through the next six months, I don’t see why they couldn’t resume seeing each other.”

Lyla’s mother rolled her eyes. “You know how kids are in school, one week on, one week off. It won’t last the six months, Sam.”

“If you say so. It’s a deal then.”

Lyla walked up to the truck parked out of sight from the house. Chase was leaning against the driver’s door. Lyla thought he looked upset staring down at his shoes. Had this all been too much for him?

Chase looked up as she approached. He noticed how hesitant she was being. Chase hooked a finger into her jean belt loop and pulled her in.

“Chase, I’m sorry. I…”

Chase cut her off with his kiss. He wanted to erase the worry lines on her forehead he wanted to tell her it was all going to be okay. But he wasn’t sure it would be. He was in love with her and he knew McCown could see it. Chase pulled back and looked at her. Her eyes had the beginning glossiness of tears which turned the color of them a light blue. It was beautiful and sad all at the same time.

“I don’t think we have much time. They don’t want us to see each other. I don’t want to use up our time talking about how evil everyone is for not telling us why. I wrote something down for you.” He pulled out a folded piece of paper from his shirt pocket. “It’s a spell. Jaden and I used to talk back and forth when we were supposed to be sleeping. It’s pretty simple. Speak the spell over any piece of paper or like a book, write a note with your finger or the back of a pen. It takes a bit to get used to. The person on the other end just says ‘reveal my words’. The words will appear on the paper’s surface. When you want to erase it just wipe your hand over the page.”

Lyla looked up at Chase a smile curved up the corners of her mouth and continued to her eyes. “That’s amazing.”

“Yeah, we came upon it by accident. Burn the paper with the spell the minute you think you have it memorized though.”

“Thank you Chase.” Lyla wiped a tear away from the corner of her eye.

“For what?” Chase’s face was a mask of concern.

Lyla looked down trying to compose herself. “For not leaving me alone.”

Chase wrapped his arms around Lyla and whispered in her ear, “We’ve both been alone for too long.”

Lyla buried her head in his chest.

“Besides, I could hardly leave you alone now.”

She pulled back and looked up at him. “Why?”

“Because I’m in love with you.” Chase gave her a shy smile.

Lyla gasped. She put a hand to her mouth. Tears swam in her eyes.

Chase searched her face for an answer, his heart beating out of his chest.

“I’m in love with you, too.” Lyla wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.

That is the scene Mr. M walked around the corner to. Crap, he thought to himself. He suspected Chase had fallen for the stunningly beautiful Lyla but he had been holding out hope that it was a flash like all the other girls in his life. The scene he was witnessing was no flash it was a deep burn, full of fire. He averted his eyes and coughed loudly.

Lyla and Chase pulled apart quickly. Mr. M was sad for the two. The next few months were going to be hell. He only hoped Chase hadn’t fallen for her before she had turned eighteen a few weeks ago.

“They want a word with Lyla. I’d like you to stay here Chase they don’t know you came over with me.” He turned and walked back to the house.

Lyla followed Mr. M into the house while Chase waited by the car.

Lyla’s parents were sitting in the front room. A fireplace was straight ahead, and to the left and right were two love seats and some stand-alone comfy chairs.

Lyla’s parents stood when they walked into the room.

Mr. M and Lyla sat down across Mr. and Mrs. Bleu.

“We’ve come to an agreement. Lyla, you’re homeschooled as of now. That wasn’t my idea, it was your parents. You will stop seeing each other immediately. By June, if you still want to date, you can. But I mean this, you can’t have any and I mean any contact with each other. No phone calls, no drive-by waving hello out of a car, no meeting at the library. Got it?”

Lyla spoke up, “This would all be so much easier if you would just tell me why.”

Lyla’s father spoke up, “Your job right now is to cultivate your powers. If you learned the reason it would be traumatizing. All of our caution is for your own good. In June if everything goes well, we’ll tell you and it most likely won’t even be an issue. We’re trying to escape the trauma Lyla.”

Mr. M stood to leave. “Lyla, will you walk me out?”

“Of course.” They stood to leave and walked quickly to the car. Once there Mr. M rounded on them, glancing back toward the house to make sure no eyes were staring at them through the windows.

“When did you first notice each other?”

“When did we meet?” Chase held Lyla’s hand and glanced down at her.

“No. Notice.” Mr. M’s brow creased in concern.

Chase looked at the ground and back up at Lyla.

“Chase, you have to come clean with me, I have to know. It’s the only way I can prepare.”

“First day of school.”

Mr. M looked at Lyla who nodded in agreement.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how bad that is. But the good thing is we have a little time to prepare. It’s possible nothing has taken effect, but most likely I’ll have to plan for the worst.” He rubbed his face with his hands. “If we have time, just stay away from each other, okay? Promise me you’ll stay away from each other until June.”

Chase looked at Lyla. His stomach clenched. He had never felt this way before. He looked at the ground and kicked a pebble, looked out at the lake and back at Mr. M. “If you need us to.”

Mr. M let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Thank you. Now I’m going to get into the car, say your goodbyes.”

A few minutes later Chase climbed into the car and slammed the door. He stared out the window, he finally broke the silence, “She told me she was being homeschooled. Why?”

Mr. M sighed. “You know why.”

“There’s no reason why she can’t still go.”

“There’s no talking her parents out of it Chase. It’s homeschooled or leaving. After six months if all goes well, you two can start seeing each other again.” Mr. M parked the car in the driveway and looked over at Chase. “It’ll go fast.”

Chase got out of the car and slammed the door.

Chase tried to sleep but grew restless, it was midnight and he was still awake. He lay on the bed staring at the ceiling thinking about how much his life had changed. He had all but ignored his other friends. It wasn’t unusual for each of them to do that. Being in a circle can make you feel claustrophobic sometimes. All of them were working on taking the SATs and applying to colleges. Brendan most likely would play football in college and Harley would follow him. He originally thought Jaden would go where he did but now that Lyla was in the picture Jaden might feel like a third wheel. His thoughts came back to Lyla and he became restless again. He could never get enough of her. Most of his thoughts centered on her bottom lip and how much he wanted to kiss her. Always, it seemed.

Maybe this is what falling in love was like, he thought. Always needing and never getting enough. A thought bloomed in the back of his mind. Not really a thought but a spell to alter, the writing spell. Chase didn’t know where it came from but he didn’t care. If it worked, he could see her and nobody would know.

Chase focused his mind on his dresser mirror. It was a large piece of furniture that was impossible to move. The mirror took up almost the whole wall. Chase found it annoying until now. Chase spoke the charm but focused on the mirror. He placed a hand on it, then said Lyla’s name.

A picture formed. It was a dark room, a person lying on a bed. Chase hoped he got the spell correct. It would be really embarrassing to appear in someone’s room he didn’t know. Chase looked closer. He could see a purse and coat that looked like hers. The person on the bed was all bare legs. Chase could see the outline of a birthmark in the shape of a heart behind the knee. It was Lyla. But it didn’t look like she was wearing much. Chase started to feel like a peeping Tom, a creeper. He remembered a few days ago when he was in a position to kiss that birthmark. His heart began to race, he felt warm all of a sudden. He realized it was a mistake to peep into her room unannounced when she began to stir. He should have wiped his image away but he couldn’t, the part of his world that made his pulse race wouldn’t allow it. Lyla sat up. She was wearing a thin tank top and matching panties. That’s it. Chase was sure he should have left. Lyla would find out he was peeking in on her and tell him off. Maybe.

Lyla walked toward the mirror rubbing her eyes. Her hair was a mess and part of her tank had ridden up exposing a healthy amount of flesh.

Chase swallowed, he couldn’t move.

“Chase?” Lyla whispered.

Chase moved closer to the mirror. He held up a piece of paper and wrote on it.

Lyla spoke the words and read the paper.

I’m sorry I didn’t mean to wake you. I just wanted to see if my spell worked.

A smile spread across Lyla’s face.

Relief flooded through Chase. Maybe she didn’t think he was a creeper after all.

Lyla wrote back:
Creeper

Chase’s heart dropped, he looked up. Lyla was smiling.

Chase wrote:
I’m sorry I’ll leave

Lyla:
If I wanted you to leave I would have wiped you away by now how did you think of this?

Chase:
I don’t know it just came to me you look beautiful by the way I love what you’ve done to your hair.

Lyla read the note and smiled.
Thank you I’ve been working on this all night.

Chase:
I’m having a hard time concentrating with you in almost nothing.

Lyla:
I can put something on
. She reached over and held a sweater up.

Chase shook his head:
No No Please don’t!
Chase smiled.

Lyla’s face lit up and she giggled.

They spoke until four in the morning. Chase was up at six for school. Part of him was happy to have figured out a way to see her still but upset because she wouldn’t be at school. He knew that he was going against Mr. M’s orders to stay away with no contact but there was nothing he could do about it. He had to see her.

Most of their days went much the same way, they would talk late so no-one suspected anything after dinner and homework. The weeks stretched by until it was almost Christmas and there was a cool breeze in the air.

This particular night a storm was brewing outside. Lyla watched from the window. The swans that lived around the lake had all taken shelter. She could see the wind whipping the water onto the banks. She held up a finger for Chase to hold on as a shiver ran down her back. Lyla turned and walked to the bed to get a sweater.

Chase noticed a large patch of markings on her right shoulder.