There's something weird about having Damien in my house. Nathan was in here plenty of times, yet this seemed different. We walked into the kitchen where my parents sat across from each other, plates set with chicken and potatoes in front of them. They froze when I walked into the kitchen, Damien right on my heels. My mother composed herself first, giving a little cough as she lowered her fork back to her plate.
I could feel my face heat, and I searched my mind for some explanation. He was obviously older, obviously very good looking, obviously very polite. I realize this last thing when he moves around me and walk towards my parents, to my father first, his hand held out for a shake. "Hello sir, my name's Damien, it's so nice to finally meet you." My father appraised him for a minute, looking at the hand he held out. For a minute I thought he wouldn't touch him, and readied myself to apologize for my dad's rudeness, but at the last minute, he does reach out and grip Damien's hand, giving him a hard shake.
I want to tell them it's not what they think, that he's not even a friend, let alone someone like THAT. But instead my mother stands and gives him a bright smile. "Well," She says, giving me a pointed look that either said 'who is this boy, why is he here, and why haven't I heard of him?' or 'good job, he's cute.' I tried not to think about her hidden meanings. "Have a seat Dominic, I'll set another plate." She walks to the cabinet and pulls out another one, setting it down across from where I would be sitting. I think about protesting, telling them I had homework or something, but before I can Damien takes a seat and starts loading his plate with chicken. Frowning I do the same.
"Damien." I say to my mother when she sits down again, thinking of just a few seconds ago when she had called him Dominic. I cringe after the words slip out. Now I was defending his honor? There was no chance I'd be able to deny I had something with him after this.
"Right." She smiles at him, but he didn't seem to mind. "So, Damien," She says, flipping hair out of her face and sizing him up. "How old are you?"
Way to be subtle mom. I blush when he looks at me, but doesn't seem to be phased by the question. Who was this polite guy sitting across from me? He sat up straight, he cut his chicken calmly, he pretended not to see my dad's glare.
"Twenty one, ma'am." He smiles at her, as if to say 'age is just a number.' "Can you pass the potatoes?" He grins at her. She seems flustered from his question, or maybe it was his bright smile that flustered her, like it did the girls at school. To her credit, she quickly recovered and handed over the bowl of mashed potatoes.
"He's Nathan's brother. He was just driving me home." I explain, finding my voice for the first time. I watch my mother's shoulders relax a bit, but I can't tell if she buys it or not.
"One of the triplets?" Her brows shoot up, giving way to any composure she had. Everyone had at least heard about them. They had that kind of look about them, and it wasn't like it was one unforgettably good face, it was three of them. They were hard to forget. Or to get rid of apparently.
"Unfortunately." Damien says, and groans comically, before bursting into a story about a time when Tyler was in high school and decided to prank one of the teachers, and he got stuck with the blame for it. My parents were in stitches by the end, my father was relaxed and interested, my mother was practically falling over herself to smile and bat her lashes at him.
He glances at me when my mother stands to carry out our dinner plates, and sends me a wink. He jumps right up to help her, taking the cake she made last night from her hands and carrying it to the table for her. After multiple compliments and comments about how good dinner was, and how delicious desert looked, we all settled in the table again and I watched as each of them ate their deserts. I was way too full to even consider it.
"I should really go." He says, standing from the table full of my laughing parents, and gesturing for me to walk him to the door. "Thanks for having me." He nods to my parents, and follows me to the front door.
"What the hell was that?" I ask, my brow cocked. He shrugged and laughed.
"I can be nice!" He defends, a grin on his face. "Besides, I can't pass up food." His words seem to sink deep into my skin. I remember his empty cabinets, the fridge filled only with orange juice, the way Tyler reacted when he saw I held cupcakes. Were things really that bad at his house that they couldn't even afford food to fill their bellies? I think about rushing into the kitchen and packing up all the leftovers for him, but before I can offer, he'd opened the door and stepped out into the cold weather. "Lock the door after me." He says, turning around, and smiling at me. I roll my eyes as if to say no duh. He grins at me, flipping up his collar and bracing himself against the winds.
"Who was that girl?" I ask, leaning against the door frame and crossing my arms over myself for warmth.
"What girl?" He asks, his brows pulled together. I stared at him, trying to figure out if he was bluffing or not. He knew what girl, he had to.
"Thanks for coming." I say, before he walks away, and he glances back at me, sending me a wink before jogging off towards his bike. I close the door behind him, and lock it like he asks.
I should have pressed him about the little girl. I couldn't have imagined her, I just couldn't have. She was so real, so frightening. When I finally laid in bed that night, freshly showered, and dressed in a ridiculous banana covered pajama set, I put a face to the eyes I always felt watching me in the dark. I was afraid to close my eyes, afraid to let myself fall asleep. I could see her in the dark corners of my room, I could see her red lips, and her pale skin, and her red eyes. I couldn't have imagined her.
I sat in the back of the history class, waiting for Tyler to come in and scold me for being dressed inappropriately for school. It was too hot in here though, with the heat finally kicking in, the sweater I wore was too much, and the tank top underneath was the only thing keeping me from stripping completely, so he would just have to deal with it.
It was odd though, when he strolled in looking happier than usual, and when he finally met my eyes, he sent me a wink. Jumping slightly, I narrowed my eyes at him. He looked just like Tyler. He dressed just like him. But he didn't smile like him. "Free period." His voice rang out through the class, and the students immediately rearranged their desks to face each other.
"I want to invite myself over for dinner tonight." He grins, sitting himself on the edge of my desk.
"Damien?" I whisper, though it's more of a statement than a question. He doesn't answer though, and I realize what he's said. "I don't think my parents would like that." I frown at the thought of him coming over tonight. In truth, my parents weren't going to be home in general, but I wasn't going to tell him that.
He shrugs, not seeming to be phased. "Nice shirt." He grins, and leaves me to go sit at Tyler's desk, his feet resting on top of the desk, he closed his eyes.
For a minute I wanted to go up to him and whack the back of his head. To ask why he was pretending to be Tyler, or press him about that little girl in his house. I felt anger bolt through me, like I should defend her, fight for her independence. I'd never seen her before, Nathan had never mentioned her, just how often did they keep her trapped in that room? Then again, there wasn't exactly a lock on her door.
"Trying to picture me naked?" Damien asks, noticing the concentrated look on my face. He was leaning on my desk and I hadn't even noticed.
"I thought you were taking a nap?" I quirk a brow at him, but honestly, I don't care about his sleeping habits.
"I got bored." He shrugs, and reaches out his hand to brush his thumb along my cheek bone. I spring from my seat so fast that he jumps. I stare at him for a second, and he stares back. For some reason that small gesture seemed way to personal, way too provocative.
"I gotta pee." I announce, and some girls sitting in the desks next to mine start to giggle. I leave the class though without his permission or the restroom pass.
"Fancy seeing you here." Paul's voice calls from down the hall. I turn to look at him, and offer a tiny smile of my own. "Figured I'd see you roaming the halls." He says when he falls into step beside me.
"Why?" I blabber out, a little surprised. I wasn't one to skip classes.
"Cause of Kim and Jared being all…together. If he wasn't trying hard to ignore me already, he was really going out of his way now. I'm going home anyway." He shrugs like he doesn't care, but I know he does, because I do. I pretend this isn't the first time I've heard of this. That my best friend hadn't kept something like who she was dating from me.
"Yeah me too." I say, deciding I might as well do the same. "Wanna walk with me?" I offer. I was planning go taking a short cut through the woods that let out next to my house, but I really didn't feel like making the track alone.
He jumps at the offer, but doesn't say anything until we're past the outskirts of the trees and surrounded by the plush green. "I didn't know about Kim." I admit, and sound more upset about it than I wanted to.
"I wouldn't worry these things usually don't last with him." Paul reassures, but instead it makes me feel worse. Did that mean he was just using Kim? Frowning, I focused on the sound of my feet crunching snow.
"Not so great without your friends, huh?" A voice assaults us. I snap my head to see the man staring at Paul. The man was tall and pale, and reminded me of someone. Those red lips, those red eyes, that paper white skin. Everything thing inside me screamed run, but I couldn't think to do that much. It was only a man standing before me but my gut, my instincts, were telling me to run. "Don't play dumb, I can smell you a mile away." He says to Paul, and I look up at him, but his face is scrunched and confused like mine usually was. Was he making a personal hygiene insult? What was he in second grade?
I'm about to say something, to tell him we don't know him, or that he was blocking the way, but before I could the man's head snapped to the right, listening.
Three bears burst through the trees, surrounding the man, growling snapping, furious. I look up at Paul but he looks just as shocked as I did. I should help this man trapped in the middle, right? I couldn't just stand here watching him being attacked by wild animals, could I? Even if he was a jerk. Even if he planned on robbing them or worse.
But he ran, ran so fast I couldn't even see him go, and the animals, wolves, I could see that now, chased after him. I looked to Paul for answers, but he only stared back at me, his eyes weird, pleading, odd. And I can read every word in them. Suddenly I can picture the tribe's legends in my head. Suddenly I can picture the man, I can picture the little girl horded up in a bedroom in the triplet's house. Tyler's voice strong and clear, 'You can't have her.' She could see the little girl's face, her red lips, her red eyes.
She knew.