Disclaimer: I do not own the concept or characters from the movie, "The Covenant." Any other characters not related to the movie, are mine and are NOT to be used in any other fan fictions.
Author Note: Please rate and review! I appreciate constructive criticism, but please no flames. This is my first fan fiction. Thank you for reading! -IB
Secrets. I was used to keeping them by now; my own and anyone else's that came along. I had learned to keep my mouth shut, especially after five long years of practice.
It was quite the drive back to my hometown in Ipswitch all the way from Chicago and I found myself several times daydreaming as I drove through patches of scenery. The turning of the autumn leaves had me traveling back in time to when I was young and used to go out and play in the leaf piles without a care in the world. Thinking about the past, sent all of the vivid memories of home flooding into my brain at once. From the happy to the sad, I was taken through a large range of emotions just as I pulled into the driveway of my home away from home: a dark looking mansion that my cousin and aunt inhibited.
It had been one hell of a long year and I couldn't wait to be inside its safe, familiar walls. As I turned the growling engine off of my beautiful car, a speedy, deep red and black racing-striped 1989 Mustang LX in mint condition, I took a look around the massive front yard. My heart lurched anxiously at the thought of the year I was going to have being back here with my friends.
Damn, it felt good to be back.
I left my things in my lovely car. I could always come back out and get them. Walking up the small amount of steps, I took a deep, excited breath and rang the bell. I wasn't sure how one year could change us or rather how it could change me. I wasn't sure if I looked all that much different than I had looked twelve months ago, but I guessed it was a possibility that everyone else looked different.
I was snapped from my thoughts when the door suddenly opened to reveal my absolutely most favorite cousin in the world standing in my most adored house of my childhood. A joyful smile graced that handsome Danvers' face of his as he instantly pulled me into a hug. A bone crushing hug might I add. "Roxi! How are you? God, it's been a long time."
"Caleb, I love you too, but I can't really breathe," I said laughing lightly. He loosened his grip after I gave him a tight squeeze back. I grinned happily. "It's so good to see you again. Remind me never to stay away for this long again."
If anything, Caleb seemed and felt more built than he had been before. Probably from swimming, I assumed. Swimming always was their thing. His smile and compassionate, brotherly ways were still the same. "I will don't worry."
I peered slightly past him. "Where's the rest of my welcome party?" I asked. I was hoping to see everyone when I arrived.
"I haven't told them yet," he said patting my shoulder before walking past me towards the car.
I popped the trunk with my remote starter as I followed him. "Why not?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
He began taking bags of luggage out of the trunk and muttering things like "how much stuff do you have?" and "what the hell are you keeping in this bag?"
"I'd like an answer, Sir Whines-a-Lot," I said smirking slightly as I picked up a few of my bags.
Caleb smiled. "We're all meeting at Nicky's tonight so I thought I'd bring you as a surprise guest."
"So what you're pretty much saying is that they have no idea that I'm staying here now?" I asked, giving him a commending look.
"Not the slightest," he replied as I followed him into the house.
"Sweet. I hate surprises, but I guess it's cool if I'm surprising somebody else." I grinned. "Nice thinking. And here I thought you didn't have a sneaky bone in your body."
"Ha. Ha. Ha," Caleb said dryly before grinning himself. "Mother, Roxi's here," Caleb called into the house as we headed for the stairs.
"Roxanne! It's so good to see you, my dear," my aunt said appearing from the kitchen with a glass of what I assumed was whiskey or some other amber colored liquor in her hand.
Caleb glanced at me almost apologetically. I shrugged lightly. He really didn't have to though. I remembered pretty damn well that she was still an alcoholic since the whole situation with Uncle William. How could I forget? Of course, she was sober for the most part as of the present moment, but who knew how long that would last for.
"Hi, Auntie Evelyn!" I said as she approached me for a distanced hug. It wasn't the type of hug that I had received from Caleb, but it was as I had expected. My aunt wasn't the touchiest woman in the world, but she let you know that she liked you. "Thank you so much for letting me stay here. I really appreciate it."
She waved it off. "Oh, don't be ridiculous. It was no trouble at all. Besides, you practically lived here all of your life up until last year anyway. You just make yourself at home as always, Roxanne." She smiled before asking, "How are your parents? Enjoying Chicago?"
My parents and I had moved there once we got back for the summer from Italy. It was a bit of a change and I wasn't one to welcome it. I hated my school there. It wasn't that the kids were mean or the teachers were pricks, I just missed the things and the friends that I had back here. That was why I had pleaded with my parents to let me get transferred back into Spenser. We had stayed in Italy for almost three months for the summer before returning to the U.S. and moving into our new house in Chicago. I couldn't stand it there. Everything was just so different. So, once the opportunity came up I decided that I would move back to Ipswitch with my other family.
"Oh, they're great. They're going to miss me being around to bug them, but I think they'll live. The city's really cool. I'm sure it'll keep them entertained for a while," I replied with a smile. Yep, it was a definite change moving back here from Chicago.
"You should call them to let them know you got here in one piece."
"Already taken care of," I answered. "I called them before I got into town."
She beamed. "So responsible." Then she looked over at Caleb. "Caleb, dear, take her up to the guest room and help her get set up."
"That's where we were headed," he said before tugging on my arm. "Come on." My aunt gave me another small smile before we ascended the stairs. I glanced around the place as we walked down the hallway.
"It hasn't changed much," I commented.
Caleb shook his head. "No, not really."
He stopped at a door and turned to me with a wide grin before he twisted the knob and opened it. "Here's your room. It's a little more updated than before. Obviously you need more things now if you're going to actually being living in this house." He flipped on the light switch and two lamps on each side of the queen sized bed lit up brightly.
I gasped lightly as my eyes searched the room curiously. The room was still white like I remembered, but the things around it were entirely different. A beautiful plasma TV was on the wall facing the rest of the room above a black, leather Lazy Boy. A gray bean bag lay contently on the floor in the corner next to a book shelf. A gorgeous mahogany dresser with a mirror atop it shared the wall with the doorway. It looked great and I could really see myself living in this room. "It's fucking amazing, Caleb!" I said excitedly as he walked in and set my bags down on the floor. I followed in suit, jumping onto him in a tight hug. "Thank you!" The moment that he set me back down on the ground while laughing, I launched myself onto the big bed. "It's bouncy," I said sitting up and running my hand over the soft, black and silver comforter.
He chuckled again. "I'm glad you like it."
"Like it? Are you nuts? I adore this bed! I may never leave my room, that's just how much I love it. These are my favorite colors. You actually remembered that?" I asked surprised, a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.
"Yep. Do I get the World's Best Cousin award or what?" He struck a smug pose. I threw a pillow at him, hitting him square in the face. I laughed only to receive the pillow back in my face.
"Hey!" I said faking annoyance. "You're not even close to being the World's Best Cousin. You just hit me the face. That's going to cost you brownie points." I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Yeah, Yeah. Get ready we're supposed to meet everyone there at 7:00."
I glanced at the clock that was on one of the bedside tables. 6:00. It would take me at least a good hour to get ready. "Everyone?" I raised an eyebrow. "You act like we're meeting a mob of people."
"Well, you haven't met a few people that are going to be there," Caleb said turning around to leave.
"Like who?" I asked him quickly.
He turned back around. "Well, there's Kate-"
"Kate?" I raised both eyebrows suggestively.
"No, she's Pogue's girlfriend, not mine," he said shaking his head. "They've been dating for almost a year, I think. Right after you left. Kate Tunney. You remember her don't you?"
"Sure. She's not bad. Still not getting any though, huh? Poor Caleb," I joked to obtain a scowl in return. It was only a matter of time before Pogue finally got a girlfriend. The girls practically eyed the guy like a piece of meat. I was just surprised that no one had told me yet. "So who're the others then, Mr. Virginity?" I was only teasing him of course.
Caleb rolled his eyes, but otherwise didn't acknowledge my comment in any other way. "There's Chase Collins. He's the new guy; he just transferred to Spenser, just like Sarah and now you. We met them last night. Sarah's-"
"Ah, so it's Sarah," I smirked; a trait that I picked up long ago from Reid.
He averted his eyes for a split second, a light blush colored his cheeks which wasn't easy to see unless you knew what it looked like when Caleb was embarrassed. I watched him fight back a grin unsuccessfully. "Mr. Danvers is finally taking a risk and putting his heart on the line, huh? I'm impressed. For a while I wasn't sure if you were really part of the male species. I mean, where were the raging teenage hormones?"
"Reid has them all." Caleb shook his head and laughed quietly before meeting my gaze. "I guess there's a possibility she might be interested. But I don't know."
"I'm sure she likes you," I assured him with a smile as I got off of the bed to go through my bags on the floor.
"She could always change her mind and take the bait on the crappy 'grandma' lines that Reid's been trying to feed her. He fixed her car last night," he said ending his sentence quietly.
"He's still using those? God, I thought he would have figured out by now that those don't ever work. Wait, he used?" I asked suddenly outraged.
Reid couldn't fix a car to save his life, so it was obvious that he went for the power. "That's what we pay mechanics for," he would say, rolling his eyes at me. I wasn't sure if it was the fact that Reid was wearing his life down by using so much or the mentioning of another girl catching his eye. Had he forgotten about me that quickly?
"He does it too much. I tell him all the time to knock it off, but he doesn't seem to get it through his thick skull. You know how he is. He knows what the powers do to him. He's seen it with my father, but it doesn't appear to be enough of a wake up call for him," Caleb said irritated. The subject clearly still pissed him off. I couldn't blame him.
"Unbelievable!" I hissed, tearing open the zipper on my bag and digging through it to find my favorite pair of jeans.
Silence hung in the air momentarily. "I thought you'd be a little more upset about that fact that he was trying to pick up another girl," he noted gently afraid he might hit a nerve. Relationships weren't something that Caleb and I often discussed, but it came up occasionally. Especially when it was about Reid.
I paused from my rummaging before shaking my head slowly. Resuming my search for my tight, dark blue skinny jeans, I sighed quietly. "I don't know why you would think that." It was an obvious lie.
Caleb wasn't blind or stupid enough to believe it anyway. I cared deeply for Reid. We used to fight like hell when we were younger. Tyler was both mine and Reid's best friend back then, but when we got older our relationship got better and stronger. After that we seemed to have a connection and the feelings were there, but… ever since that small kiss before I left for Italy, we never really talked about it. Hell, we hadn't really spoken much since I had left. It could have been a simple good-bye kiss, but something deep down inside told me otherwise. There was something there. There always had; something small that blossomed into something much greater. Or at least, that's what I wanted to believe. I wondered what it would be like when we saw each other again. I could only imagine… Of course I wouldn't have to imagine for very long.
I was thrown back into reality and out of my reminiscing by a loud sigh emitting from my cousin. My head shot up to meet knowing eyes. "Alright, Rox, if you say so. You might as well start getting ready; you don't have a whole lot of time."
I nodded, pulling my pants out as he said quietly, "He missed you a lot, you know. They both did." I heard the door shut softly with a click signaling me that he had exited the room. I stayed silent.
Both. Tyler and Reid.
I knew what "both" meant in Caleb terms. No matter what, Caleb always had wanted me to fall for Tyler. Tyler was more my best friend than anything else and although he had a hell of a lot more pros than Reid had, I just couldn't like him in that way. I mean, I loved Tyler to pieces, but I wasn't in love with him. Not to say that I was in love with Reid, but who knew? Maybe I was.
Caleb kind of always tried to push the fact that Tyler was a much more suitable candidate to fall for. I knew that the real reason was because he wanted to make sure that I wasn't doing anything "reckless" or "crazy". It was a protective, brotherly instinct I guess. To protect me from Reid would, in Caleb's eyes, protect me from getting hurt.
I guess that he was still hoping that would happen. He was like the overprotective, older brother that I never had and sometimes wished would just leave me alone, but it was nice to be looked after every now and then, and I knew he meant well.
He always said that Tyler didn't have the balls to lie to him, which I found to be highly offending on Tyler's behalf. He was just a shy, honest guy. There was no reason to take a cheap shot at his balls. The poor guy. Obviously, that was why he was such a great candidate in Caleb's eyes. He'd be too afraid to even think about having sex with in a 10 mile radius from Caleb and that was just the way that Caleb wanted it.
Reid was practically the exact opposite. I knew that for a fact. Reid and I used to seriously flirt with each other all the time, which Caleb wasn't really too fond of. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. That was just the way that Reid was. I loved it; there weren't a lot of times that I could actually joke around with someone the way that Reid and I did. There was no reason to scold us for it. He could be such a killjoy sometimes.
I sighed from memories and pulled my black, low-cut, halter vest designed to look like a corset out of the bag next to my leg. Stripping off my clothes, I headed into the bathroom that happened to be conveniently joined to my room. I put the jeans and halter on before checking my reflection. I didn't know why I was being so rash with my clothing. It quite possibly could have been because Reid's eye was on another girl. I guessed it was my only thought at the time for catching his attention again. Shallow, I know.
My jet black hair with silvery blue streaks was very nicely straightened due to earlier preparation since I left from my hotel room this morning. It was a lengthy drive from Chicago; I needed to rest somewhere. What little make-up I applied previously had remained untouched and looked fine. I brushed a hair through my hair anyway. I'd probably get grief from one of them for my dye job.
While poking my head out of the doorway, I spotted the time. 6:33. I was making damn good timing. Perfect. That would give me just enough time to change my outfit three or four more times. I had to admit that I was nervous. I would have to be insane not to be. After all, I hadn't seen or really heard much from them in a very long year, save for a few emails here and there. Now we would see each other everyday and in school.
Senior year was distinctly looking better than junior year. It could possibly turn out to be better than any other year that we had all been together. Last year had been terrible because of the move. As much as I loathed the school uniforms at Spenser, I loved my boys and I really wanted to get into Harvard with them. It was hell being away for so long.
After staring at my clothes for a few more minutes, I found I was as satisfied as I was going to get. I grabbed my very light, black, leather jacket, it was pretty chilly at night this time of year.
Retouching my lip gloss, I checked the time again. 6:46. I sighed as nerves ran through me. Part of me was excited and part of me was somewhat dreading the whole surprise idea. My stomach knotted. What if they didn't even recognize me? No, I didn't look that different. They would have to see that it was me. But, what if unlike Caleb had told me, they had enjoyed the time away from me?
I groaned and fell back onto my bed. Giving myself a moment to collect my thoughts, I took a deep breath. Then I grabbed some money from my purse and slid the folded bills into my front pocket. Trying to push my nerves aside, I headed for the mirror on my dresser and examined my appearance once more.
I frowned. Nope, not yet. I dug through the bags once more.
"Ha!" I said triumphantly to no one as I pulled out a pair of black, high-heeled boots. I adored those boots. They fit snuggly against my leg and just reached a few inches below the knee. I had bought them while in Italy. I put them on over my socks and jeans, stood on my stunning bed, and studied my reflection long and hard. Finally my lips twitched down and I glanced at the clock. 6:54.
When I really looked at myself, I realized that I did in fact look different to what they remembered looking like. It was all I could do to not faint from panic. I knew that I was being ridiculously nervous over what would probably turn out to be nothing, but I had to feel a few butterflies at least. A few hundred having a rowdy party. Shit, I was irrationally nervous. I just wanted things to be the way they were before I had left.
I was sure that this was how the guys felt when they turned thirteen and their change was far different than mine. Especially Caleb. He was the first to develop the powers since he was the first to turn thirteen. I had never heard of anything like this and when I discovered that my beloved cousin was some sort of black-eyed monster, I completely freaked and locked myself in my room. I wouldn't see him and I wouldn't talk to him. I couldn't. It was such a shock to me that something like that existed and I was actually afraid of him. What hurt the most was that nobody bothered to tell me that this ran in his father's bloodline as well as Pogue, Reid, and Tyler's blood.
Eventually, after a few months, I decided that I couldn't just shut Caleb and the guys out. How could I do that? It was hard for them to deal with that change, too. I wouldn't forget that look of hurt on Caleb's face when I screamed and ran out on his birthday.
From then on, I chose to accept them for who they were and what they were forever. No exceptions. Fate was fate, bonds were bonds. Our bonds, I believed, were stronger than any fate that ever came our way. I hoped deep inside that they felt the same way.
Thinking back was going to make us late. Making sure that I had my phone and money in my pockets, I got off the bed. My eye caught the red numbers, 6:59. Ah, shit. I grabbed my jacket off of the bed and sped out of the room, hitting the light switch as I went. Great. What a way to start the night off.
Caleb was already at the bottom of the stairs waiting patiently. We were late of course, but I knew that he wouldn't give me too hard of a time. He looked up and smiled lightly, shaking his head.
"Yeah, I know I made us late," I told him as I descended the stairs.
He just continued to shake his head and smile.
"What?" I asked frowning.
"Are you going to a concert or something?" he teased.
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, you're just so funny, aren't you? Nicky's is a bar, so I guess it's close enough," I said sighing.
"Come on. Let's go," he said. Then he paused from his journey to the door and smirked lightly. "You're lucky I told them to meet us at 7:15."
My face fell in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? That's low, Caleb Danvers! That's just low!"
He laughed. "I wanted to get there on time and I know you too well."
"Jerk," I muttered as he opened the door and I walked out. I headed to for his car, opened the door, and hopped in. After he joined me, he started up the silver 2006 Mustang and we pulled out of the open gate and onto the road.