The skate park was easy to find. I met up with Harry and Sebastian before dark. Skaters whizzed by on the ramps; the sound of wheels hitting the concrete was louder than the music. Only a handful of skaters were outnumbered by those like me who came only to watch.
"Over here!" Harry shouted over the noise.
He jumped down from his board, stepping on the end in a fancy, strategic sort of way so that it popped up into his waiting hand.
"Told you I would've swung by and picked you up," Harry said.
"Yeah, I know, but I wanted to put the bike my aunt and uncle bought to good use."
"Fair enough," he said.
A familiar face walked over, and I was surprised to see Julia Morrow, disgruntled hall guide, in a place like a skate park—I was surprised to see myself in a skate park—because she seemed more the pop concert type.
"Want to meet anybody?" she asked with a mischievous raised brow; she eyed the guys in close vicinity.
"Um, thanks, but no thanks."
"You sure?" she said. "Evan is hot. And so is Layne—the tall one over there in the Fight Club shirt. But, well..."
'But well', that one she had dibs on, I guessed.
"Whoohoo!" she yelled with her hands cupped into a cylinder around her mouth. "Let's see what you've got, Layne!"
Layne's eyes barely veered in her direction, though it was obvious he'd heard her. Everyone heard her. I shrank inside myself, a little embarrassed—I was the type who got red-faced and sweaty when someone embarrassed themselves on TV. Layne rested his board on the edge of the concrete, waited a few seconds, and then took off. As he zipped back and forth every which way, the only spot he didn't cover was anywhere near our current position.
Julia sauntered off to the other side of the bowl, and I let out the breath I had been holding in.
"That girl annoys the piss out of me," Sebastian said in a low voice.
Harry didn't verbally agree, but I guessed, judging the look on his face, he wasn't fond of her, either.
Our attention moved to a muddy black Jeep with oversized tires that drove slowly into the skate park. I only looked because everybody else did. I watched across the long stretch of grass that separated us as they pulled into a parking space. The driver killed the engine, and he and a petite, spiky-haired blonde girl got out. Bracing her palms against the hood, the girl jumped up and sat atop it, letting her legs dangle over the tire. The driver walked to the passenger's side, leaned against the back door, talking to someone else in the backseat. I got the strangest feeling they were watching us.
"Never seen them around here before," Harry said, and the way everybody gawked, I gathered no one else had, either.
Maybe Hallowell wasn't so unlike Watkinsville: in small towns, everybody knows everybody, and strangers stand out like fluorescent colors at a goth party.
Sebastian braced his hands on the concrete, sprang into a stand, and walked away quietly toward Harry's car.
"He's been acting odd lately," Harry spoke up, watching him go.
We lost interest in the strangers quickly.
"How so?" I asked. "I mean, I don't know him well enough to know if he's acting odd, but I guess he does seem odd." I put up my hand. "N-Not that I mean that in a bad way."
Harry smiled, and it made me feel better.
"Nah, it's cool—Sebastian's always been kinda odd, I guess. He's been my best friend since, well, forever. He's always been good at raising eyebrows."
YOU ARE READING
THE MAYFAIR MOON - The Darkmoon Saga I
WerewolfAfter a nightmarish encounter with a werewolf in the Georgia woods, seventeen-year-old Adria Dawson loses her sister but gains the attention of a mysterious young man and his legendary family. Soon after the tragic event, she is forced to move to Ha...
