Slipping - Book 1.5 in the Swans Landing series

Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

“Hey, Josh! Wait up!”

I kept walking, keeping my head down as I made my way through the hall. The problem with going to a small school was that there weren’t enough people around to let you disappear into a crowd. Elizabeth caught up with me easily.

“Hey,” she said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “Didn’t you hear me calling you?”

“Um, no, sorry,” I said. “I’m in a hurry.”

“Where are you going?” Elizabeth asked. It was lunch time, and I was trying to avoid the usual crowd in the cafeteria. My thoughts still revolved around the feel of Mara’s lips on mine and the warmth of her body under my hands. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with Elizabeth and the others today.

“The library,” I lied. I wasn’t really headed in any particular direction, but it was the first thing that came to mind. “I have a paper I need to work on.”

“I’ll keep you company,” Elizabeth said, slipping her arm into mine.

I stifled the groan that rose in my throat. “It’s pretty boring. You should go eat.”

“I’m not that hungry,” Elizabeth said.

Thankfully, she fell silent as we walked through the double doors into the library of Swans Landing School. A few students sat at the computers while Ms. Perez watched over them. I turned and headed toward one of the far corners of the room.

“So where were you last night?” Elizabeth asked.

“Nowhere.”

“I called you like six times,” Elizabeth said, a note of annoyance in her voice.

Wasn’t there someone else she could follow around for the day? “I didn’t feel like talking,” I told her.

Elizabeth made a face like she’d just bitten a lemon. “Tell me you weren’t on the beach again hunting for ghosts,” she said.

Elizabeth had made it clear that her thoughts on the situation with my dead dad was that I should forget him and move on. It was old news, in her opinion, and it shouldn’t matter anymore.

But it did. It always mattered.

“He’s not coming back,” Elizabeth said. “You know that.”

I shoved my hands deeper into the pocket of my hoodie, squeezing my fists tight. “I know.”

“He died,” Elizabeth went on. “He can’t come back. Whatever you see out there, it’s not real. It’s only what they want you to see—”

“I know!” I shouted.

“Shh!” Ms. Perez hissed, sending me a glare across the room.

I sighed. “I wasn’t at the beach. I was tired. I went to bed early.”

“Good,” Elizabeth said. “Because it’s not safe out there, with them running around.”

I smirked. “I know.”

We stepped around the last row of books and I looked up from the gray carpet to find someone seated in the chair in the corner where I had intended to hide out.

Mara.

She stared back at me, the tattered copy of Fae and Other Creatures clenched in her hands. Her eyes were wide, her mouth parted slightly. I wanted to go toward her and kiss her, right there in front of Elizabeth.

But I held myself back. I was a coward.

Elizabeth noticed Mara too and she scowled. “Well, well, well,” she said slowly. “The new girl is all by herself today. None of her little friends around to keep her company.”

Mara glared back at Elizabeth, not saying anything.

“Where’s your bodyguard?” Elizabeth teased her. “Is he a little preoccupied today? Not available to help keep little old me away from you?”

Mara’s gaze flickered toward me, but I couldn’t trust myself around her. I turned away slightly, staring at my feet. I bit my tongue hard to keep from telling Elizabeth to shut up.

“I don’t get why this school tries to protect your kind,” Elizabeth said, her voice lowering into a menacing growl. “We all know what you did. You freaks shouldn’t be allowed to walk around this island.”

I should walk away, let Mara and Elizabeth settle this on their own. I couldn’t get involved. I couldn’t upset my mom.

“Don’t have anything to say in your own defense then?” Elizabeth asked as she stepped closer to Mara. “You usually have a lot to say. Or are you only brave when you’re with your little friends?”

“I don’t need anyone else to defend me,” Mara finally spoke. “I don’t know what your problem is, but you can back off and leave me alone.”

Elizabeth laughed and looked back at me. “Did you hear that? She doesn’t know what our problem is.” She stepped forward again, closing the distance between herself and Mara. “I know you’re not as naive as you want everyone to think. You know exactly what the problem is and eventually, one of you will pay for it.”

My muscles tensed, trembling slightly as I fought to keep myself in place. Don’t get involved. Don’t say anything.

“Your mama should have listened to her gut and ran away long before she got mixed up with Lake Westray,” Elizabeth said. “The only thing people like him do for you is get you killed.” She smirked. “Guess your mama learned that lesson in the end, huh?”

I didn’t see Mara move. She reacted so fast, she was a blur in the corner of my eye. But I heard the loud smack that echoed through the room as her fist met Elizabeth’s face. A moment later, Elizabeth lay on the floor at my feet, blinking up at me as her lip swelled, a thin trickle of blood oozing down her chin.

* * *

I waited at Pirate’s Cove, walking the narrow stretch of beach back and forth. The water called to me and I wanted to swim. But I wanted to wait on shore in case Mara came here.

After Mara hit her, Elizabeth immediately ran to Ms. Perez, shrieking about what had just happened. Elizabeth’s lip was bleeding good, so it didn’t take much to convince Ms. Perez that something big had just happened in her library.

Mr. Richter was called and he took Mara to his office along to call her dad. The last I saw of her, she was being led out of the library, Mr. Richter holding tight to her arm.

But Mara never came. After a while, I went home to the quiet of my house.