Life Lines

18: Just Doesn't Feel Right

Chapter Eighteen

I was completely startled and had no idea whatsoever on what to do. Yes, I've kissed guys. Obviously. Otherwise two of them wouldn't see fit to try and shove their hand up my shirt.

This was just a little different.

I was expecting spark. I guess I'd fallen for that whole romantic fireworks lighting up the sky, wedding bells, doves flying off to nowhere thing. There was none of that. There was a complete lack of that.

There was something, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't the 'thing' I was looking for.

So there I sat, staring my failed attempt at moving on in the face, and I had no idea what to do. Should I kiss him back? Should I just...move away and end it?

How was it we had spark earlier but there was none now?

In my last ditched effort to make this work, I kissed him back.

It probably wasn't the best idea, not one of my brightest, because then I did feel a shock. A literal one, like the light-a-fire-under-your-ass kind. But instead of following through with that path, I instantly disengaged my lips from his. My eyes opened and stared at him.

Without coughing, I could see the sharp angles and plains of his face, as well as the colors.

"What—" I really wanted to ask him what he was but I changed my mind at the last second "—was that?"

The smile that stretched across his face was a little on the creepy wicked side.

"A kiss."

"Yes. I got that but..."

What he did next was a little startling and part of me turned a little cold. He brushed his fingers down the inside of my forearm before depositing something in my hand.

"For you. To remember our first...date."

"You know you're creeping me out right now."

He leaned back over so he was resting comfortably in his seat. His face was thrown into shadow and I couldn't see much of him chest up. Suddenly I felt like I was playing games with some sort of shadow creature. He knew things I didn't and it was unsettling. Come to think of it, when I met up with Union back at his Hummer, his whole demeanor was different somehow.

Like how he'd figured out I just wanted to go home instead of out to get ice cream. I knew I was good at hiding things, cool and calm. But he'd figured it out somehow. There was no way he'd picked up on things like that when it came to me after one night of talking. My father still had a hard time figuring me out on occasion.

This whole thing was creepy. And what he said next was creepier.

"I apologize, Natalie. I just wanted to get to know you better."

I bit my bottom lip and leaned against the somehow closed door, resting my hand on the door handle.

"It was fun."

I sensed a smile. "That it was. Maybe we could do it again sometime."

"Sure. So I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

"Count on it."

As quickly as possible without casting suspicion, I got out of the Hummer. Right as my door closed, he started the engine, the rumble and growl of it vibrating through the concrete below my feet and up my legs. I headed towards my back door, not brave enough to look back since I could literally feel his eyes boring into a spot right between the shoulder blades. The feeling didn't go away until I was out of sight. Even then, his headlights came on, lighting up the backyard. The trees cast long, looming shadows and for a brief second it looked like they were alive. The branches shaking and becoming arms, reaching out to me to snatch me away.