Shades of Atlantis

Caleb

The traffic in front of us moved painfully slowly in the mass exodus from Camden Hills High School. I groaned, turning the key in the ignition for a second time. It was only the end of October; in Maine that meant it was already colder than was healthy for my purple Morris Marina. I held my breath and scrunched my eyes shut, willing the engine to turn over. With a quiet click it purred to life. When it did start it always sounded good.

“You need a new car,” Amanda stated flatly, not bothering to raise her eyes from the paint charts she was sorting into color schemes.

“I know, but I can’t bear to part with Bessie,” I sighed, stroking my fingers lovingly over the dash before tapping the new CD player, a present for my eighteenth birthday two days earlier from my aunt and uncle, also my adoptive parents. It sprang to life much faster than the engine, and a strumming electric guitar and crash of cymbals announced one of my favorite CDs.

A gentle snoring was coming from the back seat. Amanda’s lips turned up at one side in a crooked smile as she tore off a blank sheet of paper and crumpled it into a tight ball. She shifted in her seat before firing it over the back. My seventeen-year-old brother Ben jumped, startled from his sleep.

“Hey!” He retrieved the makeshift ball and threw it at my head, hitting me right behind my ear. My shoulders rose and my head ducked in a delayed reflex action.

“It wasn’t me!” I exclaimed, scowling back at him.

Amanda giggled, and a sheepish expression spread over her face. Ben returned my look with his dark green eyes flashing incorrigibly, then winked before he crossed his arms and shut his eyes. His dark red bangs fell over his eyes when he leaned his head against the window.

A dark blue sedan stopped to let me out, and I waved out the window in acknowledgment. The driver waved back, grinning, while his passenger, my friend Jen, held her hand up frantically pointing at her watch. I rolled my eyes and nodded before moving out to join a line of cars consisting of a few so-called classics like mine and lots of shiny new models.

“What was that about?” Amanda asked, her perfectly shaped eyebrows arching.

“Oh, she’s overly excited about work tonight. Caleb Wallace is coming in for the first time, and she’s dying to get a good look at him.”

“Ah, the mysterious and elusive Caleb Wallace,” she sighed, a big smile spreading across her delicate features. “I don’t think it’s just Jen. Half the women in Camden have been in heat since his business partners arrived.”

I shot her a dubious glance. “Come on, Amanda.”

She closed her folder, shifted in her seat again and raised her hand to her head in a mocking swoon; the girl had problems sitting still. “Okay then—more like three quarters, or at least all the women that have seen the partner that’s his brother. He’s set the bar high—yummy!”

I scoffed and shook my head. In the back, Ben grumbled something under his breath.

“Aren’t you curious?” Amanda challenged, tilting her head to one side so that her chin-length, blond hair looked asymmetrical. “I mean, working there and all?”

“I can’t see what the big deal is, that’s all,” I responded nonchalantly. “Besides, so what if he stayed behind in New York for a few months? According to what I heard Seth Jameson tell the
Knoxes
when they were in last month, he was just tying up loose ends in their last restaurant. I don’t think it exactly qualifies as hard time.”

Amanda threw her head back and laughed heartily, shifting in her seat to face front again. “Trust Ellen Knox to ask. Three ways to spread news: telephone, telegram, and tell Ellen Knox.”

Ben snorted, stifling a laugh. I couldn’t help smiling too; Amanda was the worst person in the world when it came to secrets and gossip.

I jumped at a loud rap on the glass beside my head, and my hand instinctively flew to my chest as if to stop my heart escaping. When I saw who it was I reluctantly lowered the window. “Hi, Chris,” I groaned.

“Hey,
Triona
, still waiting for an answer,” Chris prompted, keeping his head level with the window and trying to make his voice persuasive. He raised one eyebrow over his chocolate brown eyes and held onto the window frame as I inched forward in the line.

Chris was on the soccer team with Ben and Jonathan, Jen’s boyfriend, and he was a total jock, for lack of a better word. Tall, handsome, and from a well-respected family in town, he was the kind of guy who drove one of the shiny cars in the parking lot. He also had a reputation as a serial dater, and it seemed I was his intended victim for the winter formal. He had been pestering me to distraction for the last two weeks, trying to get an answer. The only reason I didn’t say no immediately was because I had promised Amanda I would be there, since she’d gotten stuck going with Ben as the result of a stupid bet on a soccer game.

Unfortunately for me, no one else asked—but then, no one ever asked me out. Amanda said it was because I intimidated most of the guys in school, although I couldn’t imagine anyone less intimidating than me. I wasn’t particularly good looking, and I got average grades. I wasn’t on any of the many school teams. I didn’t make it into any of the school productions—in fact, I tended to blend into the background, and that was just the way I liked it. I couldn’t understand why Chris would want to go with me in the first place.

“I know, I’m still waiting to hear from my cousin if she needs me to visit that weekend,” I lied. “I promise to let you know by the end of next week. It’s still weeks away, so there’s plenty of time to find a replacement.”

“I don’t want a replacement. I want you,” he protested suggestively, running his fingers through ruffled hair that was almost the exact same shade of brown as his eyes.

I had to purse my lips to muffle a giggle at his comical attempts to charm me. Chris was the type of guy who usually got his own way with females, but I couldn’t see how.

“Okay,” I promised. “By next Friday at the latest.” I smiled innocently at him and revved the engine, continuing to inch forward, hoping he would take the hint to back away from the window.

“Friday,” he insisted, nodding a greeting to Amanda and then pulling back.