Page 282 of Ominous: Part 1
I glance in the rear-view mirror.
No one is coming. Jasper, Janelle, Luna and Dom are long gone, because I stalled getting ready. Because the last thing I wanted was to share Eden’s attention with Dominic again. I needed her to myself, just these few minutes.
It’s October on Grove Beach Island. Or Grove Beach, rather, since we just crossed over the bridge. This is a tourist town. There’s a college not too from here, but far enough away that affording even a studio apartment in the city limits is too much for the average college student. A few pumpkins line a few houses, but otherwise, this place is dead.
We run this shit tonight because there’s no one else here to do it.
“I’m just looking at you.”
A long, dark lock of hair falls from behind her pierced ear, to the front of her face. She has her hair down tonight. A long black skirt that clings to her, ripped up at the ends in a way that’s borderline trashy, the boots she always wears, and a white crop top with thin straps, the purity of the color contrasts with the darkness of her hair and the silver of her three necklaces. In my back seat is a ripped-up jean jacket she likes, an inverted cross on the back of it painted in black. I kind of wonder if she made it herself. It’s cool, though.
A blush blooms over her face, along her nose. “Stop looking and start driving.”
My fingers flex over the shifter. Then, for no reason, I see it in my head. Someone touching her, someone who had fucking hurt her. I can’t tell if I’m more jealous or angry, and I don’t really care either way. It just doesn’t feel good, no matter the emotion.
“Yes ma’am.” Then I shift gears, the engine humming as I tighten my grip on the wheel and run through the red light at the intersection.
“Eli!” She squeals out my name in equal parts admonishment and pleasure, and something about it warms my chest.
I don’t love that it makes me so happy when she’s happy. It means my happiness is tied to hers. And not just happiness, either. Last night, when she was upset, I could feel her pain mirrored in my heart.
I’ve done this dance before.
It’s like running toward a cliff you’ve already dropped off from once, barely made it out alive after the fall. But I can’t stop. She’s bewitched me, and even if there was a potion to take it all away, make it all stop, I’d shatter the bottle and let it seep onto the floor before I’d ever drink it.
I am fucking gone for her.
Two hours later,and we’re leaving the bar. Skeletons, the same place Dad told me he used to score coke at. I don’t know how he became a lawyer, but I’m sure if anyone ever looked intothatplace, he might not be one anymore.
Everyone, save for me and Jasper—who’s driving Janelle’s car with her and Luna—had shots. But even Jasper, alongside Eden, took the Adderall Dominic passed around after we paid the bill (“Chill, it’s literally just Adderall.”)I didn’t think it was a good idea, knowing Eden’s condition, and everything with last night. But who am I to control her?
I hate control, personally.
It’s hard for me to breathe beneath it. I know on one level society may believe my dad is abusive, but I don’t see it that way, because what would feel real to me, what would feelmorelike abuse, would be stifling. Being grounded. Not allowed to wrestle. To come here, alone. He checks in with me, because if I wind up in prison, it doesn’t look too good for his law firm. It’s not as if he’s completely neglectful. But he gives me a long, long leash, and for that, I’d take our fights any day.
So I let Eden do whatever, and when she went to the bathroom with Janelle and Luna, and came back out clutching cigarettes between her fingers, smiling like she won the lottery, I didn’t say anything about that either.
Just like I didn’t say anything about this allegedly haunted hotel we’re driving to now, in the middle of the night. It’s in Virginia, just past the border, several hours away, but everyone was down. And Eden was excited.
In the backseat, Dom is, too.
I shift gears over Eden’s hand, my fingers splayed between hers as I attempt to pass a neon orange SRT-4 from the right lane.
But as I do, my engine whining, the Dodge revs their own, trying to thwart me.
Eden laughs from the passenger seat and Dom says, “You gonna let them disrespect you like that, man?”
Before I can decide, the Dodge blows their horn once, long and loud.
I glance over at them, my window cracked, and I see their headlights flashing on the empty highway ahead.
We’re not quite in Virginia yet, where speeding is a very bad idea, no matter who you are. They catch that shit with planes.
My adrenaline surges, and Eden does a little dance in her seat. The Adderall is obviously kicking in. At least she’s not panicking.
She reaches into the pocket of her denim jacket that she shrugged on during the drive, and I see one of the cigarettes between her fingers. She puts it between her teeth as she grins at me, not lighting it yet.
“You’re going to race them, aren’t you?” she asks, excitement making her words a pitch higher than her usual tone.
