Bittersweet (Book #1 Evening Wings Trilogy)

Chapter 4

4

Heidi waited impatiently in her older model Mercedes, one of the few luxury cars in the lot, never mind its age.

Her tiny hands were behind her head of porcelain tendrils and her foot tapped edgily on the accelerator. We were waiting for Zaria who was running late due to her cheerleading tryout. Heidi rolled her eyes and turned up the song that was already bursting from her iPod.

The catchy prep boy music infiltrated my eardrums, making me uncomfortable. Anya apparently didn’t mind. The lyrics rolled off her tongue like waves in the ocean. It seemed to me that she was a die-hard fan.

I closed my eyes and tried to drown out the wailing sopranos and computer generated instruments of the prep band, with no such luck. It would’ve been better if my ears were bleeding.

I opened my eyes, and looked out of the open window, looking to see if I could find Zaria before I died of a silly boy band overdose.

But instead of Zaria, I saw Xander. He stood at the driver’s side of his car and he was smiling at me, his leather jacket hanging loosely on his shoulders.

“Horrible music,” I mouthed to him, covering my ears.

He grinned widely and mouthed, “Poor you.”

He winked at me and got into his car.

Zaria rounded the corner and began sprinting toward Heidi’s car, her dark hair streaming behind her and for once, I could see both her eyes.

Zaria got into the backseat of Heidi’s car and breathed heavily.

“Hi guys,” she panted. “Sorry I’m late.”

Heidi glared at her in the rearview mirror, adjusted it so it wouldn’t detect Zaria’s clammy face, then she reversed, set the car in drive, and with her foot on the accelerator, her car squealed out of the lot.

Sadly, the loud boy band music didn’t recede.

After a full hour of listening to that garbage, before I turned to Heidi and pointed to her iPod.

“Do you mind?”

“Sure, it’s driving me bananas too.” She replied, smiling widely.

Anya whined in the backseat as I stopped the song and slid my fingers across the touch screen, searching for anything that wasn’t on the edge of insane to listen to.

The investigation was in vain though, because it seemed that Heidi had never heard of Led Zeppelin or The Beatles. Well, at least she’d heard of Avril Lavigne.

Apparently, so had the other girls, because they all began to sing along, yowling out of tune, and I realized I would’ve been better off with the wailing boy band.

Before I knew it, the car swerved onto a road blocked by a throng of mutant trees. She narrowly missed one tree and a garden gnome as she swung onto the road that was actually a rough path.

Heidi scowled and swore under her breath. “The council really needs to clear those trees from there. One of these days someone’s going to get hurt.”

She frowned and her eyes focused on the long, snaky road of gravel and dust. 

As we got closer, we passed a few isolated houses, each one rising in height as we continued along the road. This seemed to one of the upscale neighborhoods of Pembroke. Heidi swerved onto another road, clearly marked this time.

A wooden sign with the words “Fairy Crossing” inscribed in elegant script, marked the wide lane, and at least this road was paved.

“Why is it called the ‘Fairy Crossing’?” I asked curiously.