Her Legacy

XV. Bonfire

"Oh, but you must travel through those woods again and again... said a shadow at the window... and you must be lucky to avoid the wolf every time...

But the wolf... the wolf only needs enough luck to find you once." Emily Carroll, Through the Woods

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Chapter XV – Bonfire

Mom called after me as I left the house but I ignored her. I kept my word. I would not be speaking to her until she decided to come clean.

Josh had been right. I couldn't miss the bonfire. As soon as I stepped down onto the beach, I could see it not two hundred yards from my house. The bonfire was built high, and the smoke was billowing up into the night sky. I could see dozens of teenagers dancing and drinking around the blaze, and I could hear the club music being pumped from someone's speakers.

I wondered how long it would be until an annoyed neighbour called the cops. I set off towards the bonfire, trudging through the sand. As I got closer, I heard my name being called from one of the grassy dunes.

I immediately turned my head towards the voice and squinted at the dark figure. I saw him stand, and come closer to me, eventually revealing himself in the light being thrown off of the burning bonfire.

You didn't really forget a face like Lex's. I honestly didn't know what to do. I had heard of the fight of flight response at school, but was there such a thing as freeze? My legs didn't move as I stared at Lex, trying desperately to ascertain as to whether or not he was a threat.

"You look terrible," he commented as he reached me, standing about three feet from where I was standing. "Bad day?"

Something about his casualness calmed me a little. Maybe I was overreacting. I mean, Shea's family drama with Lex didn't really concern me, right? I knew nothing about it, obviously.

"Gee, thanks," I said sarcastically.

Lex chuckled. "I mean that in the nicest possible way," he assured me. "No Shea tonight? I wouldn't have thought he'd leave a girl as pretty as you to fend off the rowdy teenagers." He nodded towards the bonfire.

Little did Lex know that he'd just hit a sore spot for me. "Why are you here?" I countered. "Have a preference for teenage parties?" I mean, it was now two that he had shown up to.

"No," he said, laughing, "not really my scene. If I want to party, I throw one of my own. I just make a little extra cash on the side buying booze for kid parties," he said, shrugging. "The economy, you know," he added, I'm sure in response to my expression.

I then realised that Lex was Josh's connection for beer.

I stilled in shock as Lex reached his tattooed arm out to me, brushing a damp piece of my hair out of my face and tucking it behind my ear. What the hell? Just as I was about to ask him to keep his hands to himself, mainly because he was like, thirty, and he did not have my consent, Lex sighed, and said, "He really did leave you alone. I didn't think he would do that. I would've thought he would treat his Luna with more care and respect than that."

I was bewildered and confused by Lex, and I was feeling thoroughly uncomfortable and out of my element. The way he was talking didn't make any sense. It was as if ... I don't know, like he knew things about me. But then, he had gotten my name wrong. "Luna?" I repeated. "My name is Sara."

Lex laughed again, this time, it was at me. "You've really got no idea who you are, do you?"

What the hell was he on about? Why did it seem like Lex, of all people, knew something about me? What was there to possibly know? I was a junior with an excellent GPA and rotten luck with boys. I was exceptionally ordinary.