Page 131 of Ominous: Part 1
His fingers are circled so tight around my wrist, it starts to ache. I don’t try to yank away again though, and I’m not even sure why. We just glare at each other in silence.
Then, after a moment, Eli smiles. It’s chilling, the abrupt shift in his facial expressions. “Nothing,” he lies to me. “I just don’t want you to get cut.” He releases me all at once, so fast I don’t immediately pull my arm away, and it just hangs there between us.
“You’re lying.” I know it’s true. I tuck my arms by my sides, but don’t look away from him. I don’t like the way he grew so irritated with the frame, I don’t like the things he’s hiding from me. I know I do the same, so I’m trying to tolerate it, but these mood swings throw me off.
He studies me a long moment, glancing once at the glass on the floor, behind me. I have the urge to snatch up the frame and examine its contents, but I don’t move, in case I miss something in his face.
“You were up for hours last night.” He says the words softly.
I feel thrown off. For a second, I don’t respond. Then… “You saw me?”
“I always see you.”
I shake my head, my skin tingling. This is what he does. He changes the subject. He drops these quiet bombs, trying to turn the tables. I gesture toward the glass. “Stop deflecting. What the hell happened this morning?” I’m still thinking of his words, about watching me, but I don’t want him to always get away with shit so easily.
Sighing, he lifts his gaze to mine. “I’m sorry,” he says. “It’s not you. It’s Dad. We…” He trails off, and it feels practiced. I’m beginning to pick up on these things, better even than the first night. The way he forces pauses, has half-formed thoughts he lets drift, to make them seem real. Shaking his head once, slipping his hands into his pockets, he lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “We don’t get along well.” He swallows, then smiles, and the entire sequence of events feels rehearsed. “Let’s go eat?”
I tip my chin, my eyes searching his.You don’t have to lie to me.
His smile is still there, fixed to his face. Nothing wavers in his gaze, but it’s like I hear his thoughts inside my head.It’s better if I do.
I think of my own secrets, how fiercely I want to guard them while I steal all of his. Human nature isn’t drenched in fairness. But I also know when to push, and when to let things go. Eli wasn’t the only one born with an uncanny ability toreadpeople. He’s just far better at manipulation.
But I can try.
I smile, too. We’re both full of shit. “Let’s go eat,” I agree.
* * *
“How long haveyou two known each other?” It sounds like a polite question meant only to take up space.
I look up from my drink, the melted ice and rum sloshing with Diet Coke, and into the dark eyes of Eli’s cousin, Jasper. The guy I saw in the yearbook and thought looked familiar. I must’ve seen him at the tournament.
It seemed odd to me Eli and I would enjoy a drive with the windows down in his G35 all the way into Cary, the next city over, to grab doughnuts at a specialty shop—vegan included—and return to find half a dozen people here at barely eleven in the morning. The cars were parked in the circular driveway, and Dominic, Luna, Janelle, another girl, and Baca, the wrestler, were sitting on the back of their luxury vehicles when we pulled up. Jasper was still behind the wheel of his older model Jeep.
But then I realized what had happened as Eli’s carefree mood of sharing sugar breakfast and knowing glances shifted as he aggressively backed into his garage.
He’d ripped off his seatbelt, yanked his phone from the center console, and called his dad.
I couldn’t hear Eric’s end of the conversation when Eli demanded to know what the hell he did, but the gist I got was Eric thought it would be “great” if he invited some of Eli’s friends and his cousin over to hang out while Eric is away for work.
And here I thought I might like Eric.
Now, I take another drink, then one more, finishing the whole thing, only melting ice left as I set my plastic cup down at one of the tables surrounding the pool. There’s a portable speaker on the table to our left, some song I don’t know playing loud enough to drown out the sound of Luna laughing at something Eli says, the two of them in the shallow end of the pool with drinks in hand. The same place he almost drowned me. It feels like they’re desecrating holy fucking ground there.
I squeeze the cup in my hand, noting Luna’s white bikini at the same time I think of Eli’s taste for white clothes.
He’s wearing bright green swimming trunks, low on his hips, his skull and crossbones tattoo visible, and he’s got his elbows propped behind him on the ledge of the pool, his gaze fixed on Luna, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand, giant sunglasses pushed back on her head, holding her auburn hair in place.
There’s not enough space between them.
I am irrationally annoyed.
Dominic disappeared inside a few minutes ago. He looked hungover or something, his eyes bloodshot, grunting a few words in greeting to all of us.
“Not long,” I finally answer Jasper, dragging my gaze back to him. He’s not as tall as Eli, but still far taller than me, especially now with the way he’s standing under the umbrella spread over us, instead of sitting in a chair around the table like I am.
Jasper is the only guy outside with his shirt on, and it says Jackal’s in pastel purple, a tire wheel meant to be spinning, kicking up dust after the “L”. In white print beneath it are the words “Raleigh, NC,” and I assume Jackal’s is the garage Eli works at with his uncle sometimes.
