A Banshee's Wail (The Banshee Curse #1)

Chapter Five

     I shook my head, starting to pack up my bag. “Nope, wasn't planning on it,” I told him, lifting the strap of my bag over my shoulder.

     He frowned. “I think you should come,” he said, leaning back slightly. “It's going to be loads of fun.”

     I was sure it was going to be plenty of fun—for him, and Lyle, and Vince, and whoever else went. But because I knew Lyle and Vince were going, I wouldn't have fun. I shook my head again. “Nah, I think I'm good.” I stood up and stretched slightly. “Besides, you know I'm not a party person.”

     His frown deepened and stood as well. “C'mon, at least say you'll think about it,” he insisted, setting his palms on the table and leaning towards me.

     I sighed and pushed my seat in, biting the inside of my cheek. Eventually, I nodded. “Okay, fine,” I said, smiling slightly when he punched the air in triumph. “I'll think about going, Marc.”

     “Good enough for me!” he exclaimed, coming around to give me a one-armed hug.

     I laughed and pulled away, sighing and telling him goodbye. Then I headed for the cafeteria doors, stopping when a prickling sensation made the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I paused in the middle of pushing one of the doors open and glanced behind me, searching for the source of the prickling. My eyes landed on Lyle and I sucked in a sharp breath when I saw him staring at me. He frowned at me and went back to talking to Sam, and my heart wrenched.

     I hated this.

     I sighed and pushed the door the rest of the way open and left the cafeteria, relishing in the silence that the hallway kept. My footsteps echoed in the hall, and I left the building to go to the library. As crazy as Dr. Sterling was, she'd had a point when she'd suggested that I get a tutor. I walked into the silent library and up to the desk, speaking in a hushed tone to the librarian. She handed me a clipboard and I signed my name where I needed to.

     “Be back here at this time,” she whispered, handing me a slip of paper. “There'll be a tutor here waiting for you.”

     “Thank you,” I murmured, smiling and turning to leave.

     The bell rang and I sighed. Time to return to classes. Great, now I had to deal with more droning on and on from teachers that didn't really seem to care if we learned what they were teaching or not. It was a wonder why I was failing most of my classes.

After school, I was back in the library with my textbooks open and papers spread out all over the table I was occupying. My ear buds were back in my ears and my eyebrows were pulled down as I tried to puzzle out a math problem. The teacher had explained how to do it in class, but I'd only been half paying attention, and the half that wasn't was trying not to focus on the fact that Sam and Lyle were in that class with me. In fact, I was concentrating so hard, my tongue had started to slip out of my mouth slightly.

     “Are you seriously having trouble with this?” someone asked, causing me to jump and let out a squeak of surprise. I looked up to see Lyle sitting across the table from me, a smirk on his face. He apparently found my squeak amusing.

     I huffed and yanked an ear bud from one ear. “What do you want?” I snapped, trying to ignore the way my heart sped up at the sight of him. The way his hair fell into his eyes as he lounged back in the chair, seemingly at ease.

     His smirk widened. “A little birdie told me that you needed a tutor,” he explained, his eyes twinkling in the sunlight that spilled in from one of the windows.

     “You need to stop talking to birds,” I muttered darkly, glancing back down at my paper. “Are you sure you shouldn't be seeing Dr. Sterling once a week?” I added, biting the inside of my cheek as I continued to try and puzzle out the math question.