The Hidden - Jessica Verday [35]
Vincent sat down between us, and I was too scared to move.
“I like your hair,” he said to Cyn. “Red is definitely your color. Mine, too.”
“Don’t care. Move the fuck on,” she replied.
My senses were starting to flood with awareness, and I knew I couldn’t sit there—right next to him—for much longer.
Cyn turned to stare at him, and I flattened my palms on the ground, readying myself. I had hit him once before. I could do it again if I had to.
“Did we invite you to sit here?” she said. “Who the hell are you?”
“Oooh, spicy! Abbey knows how much I like the spicy ones.” He leaned into my ear and whispered, “Delicious. Just like Kristen.”
I pulled away, horrified.
Before I could stop him, Vincent reached over and laced his hand through mine. “As to who I am? I’m Abbey’s boyfriend. Didn’t she tell you? My name is … Caspian.”
I jerked my hand out of his so hard and so fast that I fell forward off the curb and landed against the street. “No—no you’re not,” I managed to say.
Cyn gasped, and Vincent laughed. Then he stood up.
“Don’t smoke too much, girls,” he called, sauntering away. “Naughty, naughty, naughty!”
A minute later a black Mustang roared away from us, turning around a corner and racing past a stop sign. I rocked back and watched him go.
And then I leaned forward again, and puked.
Cyn helped me get cleaned up in the school locker room, and I kept apologizing to her. She kept telling me to stop, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know if I was apologizing for making such an idiot out of myself, or apologizing for feeling so helpless. Either way, it sucked.
“I can’t believe that happened,” I said, bent over the sink. “Talk about humiliating.”
“It was probably just the cigarette,” Cyn replied. “Or the fact that that guy was a major douche bag. I thought he looked like trouble.”
I rinsed and spit. “Major douche bag” was only the half of it.
“Is he an ex?” she asked hesitantly.
“No.”
I didn’t say any more, and she didn’t prod. I gargled and spit again, then turned off the water. We went back outside, and an old white Honda was sitting there.
“Come on,” she said. “You’re getting a ride.”
“I can walk. It’s not that far.”
She pointed to the car, and her eyes went wide. “Get. In.”
Her tone told me not to argue, so I followed orders. Cyn’s mom didn’t say anything as I got into the backseat, and Cyn was the one to ask for directions when she got into the front.
They dropped me off, and the house was silent when I walked in. That made me nervous.
“Caspian?” I called. “Are you here?”
There was no answer.
I headed to my bedroom as fast as I could, trying to quell the rising panic in my stomach. Where is he? Why isn’t he answering me? Did something happen?
Pushing open the bedroom door, my heart sank straight to my feet when I saw someone lying on the bed.
Vincent’s here again.
I thought I was going to have a heart attack. My knees threatened to give out, and little black spots sprung up at the edges of my vision. Breathe … I was forgetting to breathe. I took a huge gasp of air and put one hand on the wall to steady myself so I wouldn’t fall right over. And then the person on the bed sat up.
It almost felt like my heart was going to seize up again, only this time out of relief when I saw that it was Caspian.
“Abbey?” he said. “What are you …? Are you okay?”
I clutched my chest. Caspian rubbed his eyes, and then he got up and came over to me. I put up a finger in response. “Just a minute. Just give me a minute. I think I’m having a heart attack. Twice.”
He looked around. “What time is it? I was supposed to meet you at school. What happened?”
“I waited for you, but you never came. And then …” I glanced back at the bed, putting two and two together. “Were you sleeping?”
Caspian ran a hand through his hair, messing the back up a bit, and he glanced at the bed too. “I don’t know. I don’t remember what