The Midnight Whispers : Hybrid

Chapter 1

CHARLOTTE’S POV

, Valentine’s, the day of love, hugs, kisses, gifts and total bull shit. For most of the people in Crayswood, it was going to be one of the best days ever in the small township. Unfortunately, not everybody loved the day.

I was never a fan of the day of “hell”. For me, Valentine’s was just as bad as I imagined the flames of hell would be, just another curse from the gods as punishment for my existence.

Skylar, on the other hand, my best friend was ecstatic. She woke up around the “witches’ hour” to get ready. She was one of the school’s most popular girls in school and had a reputation to uphold. Every Valentine’s was her show and so was every other day, in all honesty. Everybody knew that she was THE diva and she didn’t need to prove it.
This year’s Valentine’s was the ultimate ‘no screw up’ for Sky. It was our last one at Crayswood High School. The night was going to be magical for Skylar and her top jock boyfriend of three years, Andre Wes. A dance would be held later that evening. Obviously, I wasn’t planning on going.

It had been over half an hour since Skylar finished up and “helped” me get dressed. She succeeded on convincing me to dress up after hours of torture and emotional blackmail. “Charlotte McCoy,” Skylar called out “if you don’t get down this instant, I swear to god…” “WHAT?” Charlotte cuts in “You got me in a lace dress and toe murderers. Try getting me down” As soon as I said those words, Skylar barged into my room, clearly not having any of it, dragging me by my arm while scolding the crap out of me, something about her best friend being an ‘overdramatic idiot’. I just rolled my eyes and let myself get dragged like a rag doll to my car. It’s not like I had much of a choice. I needed to keep up with my perfect record.

Skylar waited for me to drive off first. What can I say? She knew me so well. The temptation to run back inside and change into my sweats was high. As soon as we were on the road, the anxiety hit quicker than lightning. ‘What if they mock me?’ ‘I look like a freakin clown’ the thoughts kept coming in ‘maybe I should just turn back and change’ but one look in the rear-view mirror set me back to the reality that I was doomed. For a second there, I almost forgot that crazy was on my tail.

Of all the years I had spent at Crayswood, I was never seen in a dress. The anxiety got worse as soon as I parked at my usual spot. I couldn’t get out. Thoughts of falling face first, invaded my mind. “Great” I whispered “Just freakin great. Could this day get any worse?” tap “OK GODS, JUST KILL ME NOW” tap. I kept hitting the steering wheel like a mad woman, still oblivious to the tapping sound on my window. Slumming down my seat, a double tap finally knocked me out of my phase. ‘Shit’

Slowly stepping out, I awkwardly brushed my hair back with my finger, cheeks turning pink from embarrassment. Zane’s face scrunched up in confusion, “What crawled up your butt and died Char?” I had known Zane the ass much longer than Skylar, since diaper days. He had always been the brother I never had.
Finally finding my words she asked “How long have you been standing there? How much of that did you see?” I pointed back to the car. Zane irrupted in a round of laughter making my cheeks turn a shade of pink again. “Don’t I at least get a hello before your laughter drags me to my grave Zane? It’s bad enough that Sky turned me into a prostitute for the day” with that said, Zane seemed to have finally taken a good look at me, almost choking on his own saliva as his laughing came to an abrupt stop “Holy cow” he managed to choke out “Woah. I mean, you look amazing. Clearly handling the breakup well.” He sent me a knowing wink, but he wasn’t hiding his shock and if he was trying to, it didn’t work. The last time he saw me in a dress was in pre-school. I was always dressed up in cute little ‘princess dresses that matched the bows on my pigtail. The years had changed me. I wasn’t that cute little girl anymore.
Zane was wandering and I decided to use my voice to bring him to reality “This isn’t me handling things. It was just crazy Sky.” “Oh really?” Zane challenged but before I could respond, he puts his hand on my shoulder and looked straight into my eyes “Look, you don’t have to defend yourself. I’m just saying that you look beautiful and that’s going to make the jerk think about what he’s missing out.”
I couldn’t look at him as I spoke in a tiny voice “I have no regrets, you know. It was about time I stopped living in Matt’s shadows. I just…” I gazed up with so much pride in my eyes “it’s time to do me. Find me. Be me, you know. I want to be as awesome as my Zanie Boo.” I laughed out making Zane scowl at the mention of his old nickname.

The thickness finally moved from the atmosphere and I could finally breathe. Zane was right. Matt’s not going to see what hit him this time.

As bad as it may sound, I had broken up with Matt the day before, after two years of misery. Matt was your hopes and dreams but at the same time, he was every girl’s nightmare. We had so many temporal break ups earlier, but I was too scared. Breaking hearts wasn’t my thing, but it was different this time around. I needed to grow a pair and move on.
The bell broke our conversation. On our way to class, I kept threatening to kill him if he ever complimented me ever again. I could never handle compliments for the life of me. Every compliment shot my way was like an insult from Hitler himself. Usually, I would slap or send my signature death glare to whoever decided to ‘insult’ me.

‘” Good morning students” greeted the ever giddy, Mrs. Johnson “a new student transferring from Lyncastle joins us today. Would you like to say something young man?” everybody turned towards the boy standing next to her. He didn’t seem to be bothered by the stares “Hi guys, I’m Drew Smith” his voice rumbled through the air, yet his face held a sugar sweet smile. His voice, his stance, his face, they all showed some sort of authority. Some girls were already swooning over him while the jocks just puffed up their chest like Drew was some sort of threat. ‘Poor souls’ I thought to myself.
The high school act never fazed me. I was never involved, and I never gave into it. Everybody just knew me as Skylar’s best friend. I never thought of myself as someone ‘special’… just some average female. Average looks with basic straight brown hair and hazel eyes, average height at 5 foot 5 inches, average scholar, neither thin nor fat, just normal, nothing special…

Skylar on the other hand was way beyond normal. All the girls were jealous of her curvy slim-thick frame, long gold locks and her blue eyes were hypnotizing. She was always dressed to kill and to go with the beauty, she had the brains too. I still couldn’t put my finger to what exactly made me connect with my goddess like best friend, but I was grateful for every single moment with Sky.

The shuffling of the chair next to me snapped me out of my wonderland. It was odd, I always sat alone up until that deep voice rang through my ears, finally confirming that my solo days were over. “Hey” the owner of the voice simply said ‘No! No hey, of all free spots in the room you decided to invade my personal space’ I thought to myself, but simply replied with a ‘Hi’ not even looking to find the source of the voice.
Drew chuckled and awkwardly tried to bend down on while seated to meet my gaze “I kind of need to know my seat partner and roommate’s name, don’t I? So, let’s start over with this little introduction. Hey there, I’m Drew and you are?” hearing the word ‘roommate’ made me snap my head up so fast I thought it would pop right off. With my eyes still wide open I whisper shouted “What??” again, Drew just chuckles but still looked at me with hopeful eyes, waiting to get a name.

I slummed down in my seat again but finally gave my name, “See, and was that so hard? The Mrs. told me to seat here by the way. Something about getting to know my roommate and you showing me around…” My grunt cut him off, but it didn’t seem to faze him. He just continued smiling at me. ‘Probably another curse from the gods… you guys just love torturing me…’ I thought and continued to send deathly glares to the poor table.
‘WHY DO THE STUPID PERIODS FEEL SO LONG’ still holding a scowl on my face, during the last class of the day, I couldn’t wait to leave.

Drew was kind of intimidating and she couldn’t take being around him any longer. ‘Now or never’ I kept having a mental debate. As soon as the bell rang, I was the first one out, taking in a long and deep breath. Just as I was about to walk off, Drew called out to me hoping I would slow down.
Still having a mental debate, I decided to wait up for him. His footsteps came closer and I turned to meet the gaze of Drew. He had to jog towards me since I was going so fast. I waited for him to catch his breath “You were supposed to show me to the dorm, remember?” My face turned pink from embarrassment for the millionth time today and I mentally face palms myself “Oh, yeah. I’m sorry…” I start walking off but stop again when I realized that Drew was still in the last spot he was in “well aren’t you going to follow me?” I asked  with a raised eyebrow “Oh” he seems to be thinking for a second and “oh yeah right, I thought you were just going to like, leave, I guess. Ok. Uhm, right behind ya.” He rambles a little while jogging to where Charlotte stood.

When I got to my car, I expected Drew to follow but he was going another way “Aren’t you coming?” I asked, staring at him like a mad man, a mad man who apparently needs to tag along but decided to walk off to another direction. I gave up as soon as Drew disappeared in the crowd of students flooding the parking lot, just trying to rush to their cars and out of this hell hole. ‘Fine, I’ll just leave him here to die by the hands of wolves and coyotes’ .

I dropped my stuff on the passenger seat and just as I was about to close the door, a honk startled me, making me jump up a little. ‘Ok. That’s it.’ I punched the steering wheel, making it honk in the process and scared myself. Again. A rumble of laughter brought me out of my shocked state, searching for the culprit that started the mess. My eyes settle on a Mercedes that is the exact model as mine, but it was blood red, while mine was midnight blue. Nobody else in the school had the same car as mine, yet there it was. Obviously more pimped out but it was the same.

Still staring at the devil of a car in front of me, I searched for the face of the idiot that scared me half to death, but I couldn’t see through the tinted glass. I scowled once again until the driver of the devil car finally rolled the window down, revealing Drew with a cheesy grin on his face. “We got the same ride huh?” he asks with a smirk “you seem to know your beasts?” he added, not giving much to the death glare I was sending his way. I shrugged and motioned for him to follow me. ‘I’m about to kill this human creature’.

The drive back to the dorms was nothing new for me, but I bet Drew couldn’t stop staring at the creepy view, tall trees that cave in and merge at the top, blocking all sources of light. Despite the forest like vegetation, there were no animals in site, not even a squirrel. The only sources of light were the light bugs messing around in the bushes and in the shadows of the dark. It’s pretty odd, but this was just another day, another drive, nothing more, nothing less.

When the forest seemed to be clearing up ahead and the light was seeping through the darkness once more, we finally reached our destination. The trees were still lined up along the road, but they weren’t too close. The light shone through from above.

“What the actual fuck” he whispers to himself right as I tapped at the window to get his attention. He had been sitting in his car for ten minutes and I got tired of waiting. Getting out of his car, he gives me a suspicious stare “Aren’t you supposed to take me to the dorms?” he asked, putting emphasis on ‘dorms’ “yes and we are at the dorms” I responded adding ‘idiot’ under my breath.

Drew’s face was confusing to look at and I just stood there scrunching up my face, trying to figure out if he was happy, angry, shocked, confused, or if he were calculating the chances of it being some sort of hallucination “is this some sort of twisted joke to mess with new students.” He whispers shouted, excitement and confusion lacing in his voice “I’m sorry, but this isn’t a freaking dorm, it’s a freaking mansion. JESUS CHRIST don’t let them punk me like this?” he pulled at his hair in frustration, still trying to understand the situation.

I never stopped staring at him in his crazy man act. After his rant, I just shrugged and walked to the door, bending down to pick up the hidden spare key. As soon as I opened the door, I asked “you coming in or what?” Drew was busy looking over to the beautiful flower beds aligned at the entrance of the house. When he finally registered what I said, he followed me inside.

“Holy shitballs” he exclaimed, quickly mouthing a sorry and putting one hand over his mouth and another over his heart. As much as he wanted to admire every little piece of the place, he looked like he was too scared to even lay a single finger on anything. He just kept leaning forward awkwardly, hoping to get a closer look, almost tripping in the process. “The inside is even better than the outside.” He squealed like a little girl. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes ‘really dude’ but despite my ‘whole heartless bitch act’ I couldn’t hold the smile starting to form as a result of the crazy doofus in front of me.

Setting my stuff on the on the kitchen counter, I walked over to the fridge looking for something to devour. Drew was basically running up and down the stairs, trying to cover every area in the house “Ey! Slow down, no running in the house” I shouted over to Drew, bringing him to an abrupt stop. “Yes ma’am” he jokes, making his way to one of the chairs placed along the kitchen counter “any other rules I should know of?” I sighed, placing a plate of chicken nuggets on the counter “ok, no eating in the lounge area or the pool…” “Woah, there’s a pool?” he interrupted, quickly muttering a sorry under his breath when he looked up to my unimpressed face and holding my hands on the hips, like a mother about to scold a child. Clearing my throat, I continued “no messing around in the garden, because Mr. Gonzales will have your head for dinner and no messing around in the theatre, gallery or the dining room. Anything that breaks is going to be replaced by us. Sky and I lived here for the past four years and we had no trouble. There are four bedrooms upstairs and two downstairs, so you have four rooms to pick from. Every bedroom has an ensuite washroom, some have showers, and some have bathtubs. Soooo…” I dragged on, but he got the drill so he just nods. I covered all the basics.