Birthdays. A day of cosmic proportions. The day your life began. After all, you only get one day to be born. Why not celebrate?
"Happy birthday Tristan!" Everyone in the room cried out as the cake floated out on a cloud of hands. Amidst the fireworks of sparklers, two gold candles stood erect: '1-8'.
I closed my eyes, taking myself to this event as much as I could. Faintly, I could smell the charred smoke as the short and stylish man that went by the name of Tristan blew out the flames. Everyone clapped, and he carefully dabbed at the corner of his right eye.
You wished for another beer? The thought bubbled up from the back of my mind. It was from Derek.
Shut up! Tristan shot back.
He had to have made a better wish. Please tell me my baking all day wasn't spent on a wasted wish. Jack's mild annoyance bled through with the thought. He had retreated back into the kitchen to pour himself another glass of sparkling champagne.
I did. Did you really think I would have made a wish without blocking everyone out?
I watched them as Tristan found Jack in the kitchen and playfully bumped him out of the way, Jack laughing as he stumbled sideways. I smiled, turning up my music on my Ipod as I sat on my bed. I glanced back on what the other half of my connections were doing. Blake was still swaying with that one girl. He whispered something I could only imagine as being inappropriate in her ear as she laughed and started to turn crimson. Finn was sitting on the couch, talking to someone. He noticed my connection and smiled, winking. I laughed, my face growing hot. I had too much to drink tonight, considering I had been bouncing back and forth from both parties. I tried to get into connection with the one person I had been wondering about all night, but he was still unavailable. He was the only one that mattered, and he had been avoiding me all night.
Well, he kind of mattered. Sort of...
You're probably confused right now. Sorry, I have a habit of getting ahead of myself. No, it's okay if you don't follow what I'm talking about yet. Sure, I can rewind. Let's go back to another birthday. One that had a little less cake and had left us permanently asking questions as to what this all means. Back to a time when I was a lot more naive, and a little less numb.
16 Months Earlier
Will
I heard my brothers alarm go off on the first ring. Agily, I rolled to my left and flicked the alarm clock off before it could make anymore noise. I laid in a ball, the goose down coverlet pulled around my head. I would have been completely covered, save for the small peephole I left for my eyes and nose. From across the room I watched the rise and fall of my brothers chest, his mouth opened in a silent snore. I closed my eyes, drifting back...
Blake's phone started vibrating somewhere in the bed next to him. I ignored it, huddling back further into my blanket cocoon. Then his standing alarm went off from across the room. You know the ones I'm talking about. Little brass alarms that your grandfather probably had gifted to him back when he served in WWII. It rang out shrilly, demanding for someone to wake up and turn it off. Blake sighed and threw a pillow towards the alarm as I got up. Damn that alarm, I hated it. I would've thrown it away by now or 'lost' it in a drawer back in Dublin, if it weren't for Blake tearing the room apart whenever he noticed it was missing. The pillow hit the wall and landed to the floor with a slight thud. I shut off the alarm before turning back around and pouncing back onto my bed, crawling underneath the blankets as fast as possible.
"Thanks." Blake yawned, stretching his arms out towards the ceiling. I didn't respond back; I knew better than to talk to him before his shower. His phone started to vibrate again and he cut it off midway through a vibration. I sat up again, rubbing my face and checking the time. 6:47. I walked over to the single serve coffee pot, picking out a mild roast for myself. Coffee. One of the greatest legal drugs in the world. That and cigarettes. I felt alongside my coat that had been slung over the chair, patting out my box of cigarettes. I lit one and sat down at the edge of my bed, exhaling as I waited for the coffee.
"We made it to number one again." Blake noted. I leaned over and opened the blinds, shielding my eyes.
"Number one for two weeks." I said.
"Three." Blake corrected. A drawer scraped against wood as he pulled out clothes. I didn't turn around from the coffee pot as I heard him unintentionally slam the bathroom door. I poured my coffee and booted up my laptop, checking my email. After reading about half a dozen or so I threw on a T-shirt and some loose fitting jeans. I had to dig around for a cap that matched my red shirt, finally finding the one I was looking for at the bottom of my suitcase. I sprayed on cologne and put on deodorant, ready to start the day before my brother was even out of the shower. The door cracked open and Blake came walking out, dressed in tight black pants, suspenders, and a Green Day shirt. He stepped toward me and I gagged.
"Too much?" He asked.
"Yeah," I said, walking around him to get into the bathroom. "I don't know why you put on so much makeup. You know Heidi is just going to take it all off." I squirted toothpaste on my brush, running it underwater before brushing my teeth.
"People don't need to know what I look like in the daylight." He said. I spit my toothpaste out.
"Yeah, we don't need them to know you look like a bat." I gestured to my body. "All naked with no fur, no skin—"
"Ew, Will, just shut up. Please." Blake said. I wiped my mouth with my arm. He was standing in the middle of the bedroom impatiently, two black suitcases on either side of him. He clicked away on his phone's keyboard with his index finger, searching and finding every key.
"Texting home?" I asked. Blake grinned without looking up.
"Unless Mum has adopted a hot Austrian by the name of Cami..."
"I wouldn't mind having a hot step-sister. Isn't Cami the blonde with the large, um, "assets" from a month ago?" I asked, making a hand gesture outwards on my chest.
"Could you please pick these bags up for me please? Thank you. Yeah. I told her I might be in town in a couple of weeks, but I asked for a picture before I could say anymore." He undid the bolt on the hotel room door for me.
"Sly." I said, lifting up his heavier bag onto my shoulder. He walked out into the hallway, not stopping to miss a single key punch on his phone. Guido walked into the room, gathering up the other bags for us as Blake pushed in the button on the elevator. Blake showed me his phone screen as we stepped into the elevator.
"One of her boobs is smaller than the other."
"Whatever." Blake said offended, taking his phone back. I smirked, launching at the opportunity to further pick on him. After all, what are older brothers for? Mom had two boys for a reason, even if she hadn't planned on the both of us. God must've known it takes two.
"Are those really nipples? I've seen slices of salami smaller than that."
"I still think she's cute." He said, fixing the twisted shoulder strap on his handbag. "You're not the one that's going to be seeing her."
"I know because I can do better." I gloated.
"Whatever." He repeated, drawing out the "r" this time. The elevator dinged and we stepped out into a Persian decorated lobby. Through the glass windows of the front I could already see the black SUV parked on the curb. As soon as they saw us coming the back door popped open. Blake climbed into the front seat as I threw bags in the back, calling up greetings to Chad and Finn as I did so.
"We were wondering what happened." Chad said as I climbed in. "We were about to leave without you."
"It was Blake's fault. You know he always takes so much time."
"That's so mature! Blame me!" Blake called from the front seat, making the two of us chuckle.
"Good morning!" Finn brightly chirped from the other side of Chad, unzipping his backpack on the floor in front of him. "I brought some bagels from the continental breakfast."
"Thanks, Finn." Blake said as he was handed one.
"Thanks. I knew we kept you around for a reason." I took one with sesame seeds on it. "Did you score any cream cheese to go with these?" He passed me a small packet of strawberry jam and a knife instead. I took a bite out of it, humming when I tasted the strawberry.
"Food might help settle Will's stomach." Blake informed everyone. I hadn't noticed my stomach was doing somersaults until he said someone. We made eye contact.
"Your brother knows everything." He said mysteriously before turning back around the face the front. I stayed animated as everyone talked, but my stomach was now starting to churn. Usually my nerves would be settled by food, he was right, but today it was as if I hadn't eaten anything still. I watched out the window as Big Ben started to draw nearer from the distance.
At a traffic circle I brushed all the crumbs off my lap, trying my best to look presentable. Almost a block away and I began to saw the very end of a very long line, and from there the crowd just grew. A few of the people in the crowd noticed the black SUV for what it was and began screaming. Signs and banners went up from the sound of the screams and the crowd turned the noise into a deafening roar that could be heard from the inside of the van. The signs had our faces on them, or a song lyric on it, or some girls dirty fantasy of what she'd do to us. The majority of the signs were handmade, with a few merchandised posters mixed within.
Our van came to a complete stop at the front of the doors where the group was the most compact. I made eye contact with a short brunette girl who had to have been around my age, holding up a sign with my face on it and wearing the band shirt that had sold out the first week of our last tour. I wasn't sure if she could see me looking at her through the tinted glass. At the very moment I was wondering about the glass, she began to scream my name in a frenzied state. Blake let out a nervous laugh from the front seat at seeing all of the fans. I had to admit, seeing that many adoring fans would make anyone get butterflies.
"This is it." I announced as our body guards, publicist, and manager came around to my side of the van and flew open my door and Blake's. The screams of the fans became almost deafening outside of the car.
"WILL! I LOVE YOU!" The girl who I was just staring at screamed. I smiled and waved, staring behind my brother as we started walking behind our manager Jeff. Body guards were on each side of us, but gave us a little bit of room in case we wanted to interact with some of the fans. Blake took an album from a girl on the right and grinned at me, being my cue. I went over to a girl with curly hair and braces who was waving her pink camera in the air.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Diane."
"Do you want to take a picture with me?" I shouted over the screams. She nodded vigorously. I leaned as close to the barrier as Guido would allow and smiled at the camera lens as it clicked.
Violet
I woke up slowly, trying to hold onto the fragments of a dream already halfway forgotten. I had been having a dream about the ocean, but that's all I could remember.
"I'm a teenager today." I mumbled to myself as the realization began to come creeping in. I was more alert now that it had just dawned on me. Today was my birthday, and I hated it. I hated birthdays, but mostly I just hated growing older. In another sixty years I might be in a nursing home, unable to remember my own name. It didn't sound like something I should be worrying about the day I turned thirteen, I know, but the next sixty years would be gone before I knew what was happening.
"Stop." I told myself before getting out of bed and walking downstairs. We lived in a small cottage, and as soon as I made the last step I was in the living room. When I turned the corner I was automatically in the kitchen, Dad cooking breakfast.
"Hey, good morning birthday girl." He said. Surprisingly he was in a good mood than on most days. He must've been trying hard to play nice for me on my birthday.
"Morning Dad."
"Happy birthday, sweetie." Mom called as she made her way from the bedroom, small pink hair curlers aligning her face. A cigarette was already in hand, as she hugged me before going into the living room.
"Thanks." I said, following her.
"Do you know what time Alice and Amber are going to be coming over today?"
"I think around two."
"Are you excited?" She asked. Not in the least, at the moment.
"Yeah." I lied. I sat on the couch watching TV with Mom for a bit, chatting every now and again about the news. Dad came through the front door, fresh mail in hand.
"Mail for the birthday girl. Letter from Laura." He said, handing me an evelope. I took it, feeling slightly better now as I ran into the dinette off the side of the kitchen. I tore away at the envelope gently, taking care not to damage it too badly. All summer I had kept the original letters in their envelopes. I had hopes that I could keep them in a keepsake drawer and then read back on them one day. All summer we had been writing back and forth as a way to keep in contact. Usually we'd talk about how boring our summers have been thus far, and about any new music she has been interested in. Her favorites have become Requiem and Circus, two bands from somewhere in Europe.
I wrote out another letter to her before breakfast, asking if I could get their albums on my Ipod the next time she downloaded music on it for me. I didn't have internet, so Laura was the only way I could get new, updated music onto my Ipod.
Amber's parents dropped her off around noon, and Alice showed up around two. After sitting around watching TV for a little while we ran up to my bedroom to talk.
"I brought over Requiem's new album." Alice announced, reaching into her bookbag.
"I just asked Laura in a letter if she would download their new album for me." I said. "Did she get you guys into it too?"
"Yeah, she came over to my house the other day. Then when I went over to Casey's house last month and Amber was there, we all claimed band members." I took the album cover from her and popped open the casing. I quickly turned the music down so I wouldn't disturb my parents, looking at the four band members on the front of the album. A grunge sounding garage song started blasting out of the speakers the second the first track started playing, so I was happy I turned it down.
"How does that even work? Who's who?" I asked, handing the CD back and flopping down onto the floor. She pulled out a turquoise binder instead, pointing to a picture on the front cover.
"The one all the way to the left, that's Chad." She pointed to a guy with long hair. "He's the bassist. The one next to him, that's the singer. The one with the spiky hair and the eyeliner. Yeah, that's the singer, Blake. Next to him is his brother and my personal favorite, Will. He's the guitarist. Next to him is Finn, the drummer."
"They look really...young." I said.
"Yeah, they're all our age." Amber said. "I think the oldest is like 17 or 18. Imagine being on tour right now."
"Yes please." Alice said. I looked at the guitarist, the one she called Will, wrinkling my nose at his dreadlocks.
"We already called dibs on them though." Alice said.
"Dibs?" I echoed.
"Yeah. Dibs," Amber pointed again to the single pictures at the top of her binder. "She's got Finn, Laura claimed Blake, Casey called Chad, and I got Will."
"Ew, do you like dreadlocks? Really?" I said.
"Hey, leave him alone. I think he's cute." She defended.
"Dreadlocks are knots that grow on their own."
"He's supposedly the bad boy out of the group too." Alice said. "In the interviews, he's always talking about parties and about one night stands. He's such a perv." I snickered.
"You guys are obsessive. You're sitting around watching interviews?" I said. "And he's probably lying about the one-night stands. That's what guys do at our age, right? They lie about stuff like that."
"Yeah, but he's famous. So I can see it happening." I looked at a picture on the back of the binder, of the two brothers standing together. I had to admit, their faces looked about as flawless as you were going to get. My eyes lingered on the guitarist, and his pouty facial expression. He's probably not nearly as bad or as tough as everyone thinks, I thought without an explaination. I handed the binder back.
"Yup, he's still ugly up close." I said. "Is that your school binder?"
"No, I keep it for my CDs." Alice said, opening the binder. "There's Circus's debut album as well. They're a good band, really pop-ish. Kind of hot too."
"How was the other day when you were all hanging out?" I asked, trying not to feel slighted. There was probably a reason behind why I wasn't invited, after all. They looked at each other.
"It was fun."
"Yeah."
"What's up?" I asked as they laughed.
"Nothing."
"Nope."
"Okay." So maybe I was becoming more discluded from the group than I would like to admit up to. "Did you guys want to watch a movie?"
"Sure." Alice said. I got up and turned the music off, glancing at the CD case again.
After dinner we ate cake outside on my screened porch. It was a cool summer night, despite it being the beginning of July.
"Do you guys ever have dreams that you think might be real?" I asked.
"What do you mean? Like déjà vu?" Alie asked.
"Sort of." I said, and then struggled to find the words. "I've had a dream before where I'm standing in someone's kitchen. I'm just standing there, watching them. It's a family of four, and they're going about their business, eating cereal or watching the TV in the living room from the kitchen. They weren't speaking English either, so I had no idea what they were saying. But I was just watching them. None of them seemed to notice me, and I just had a strange feeling when I woke up that I was watching something that actually happened. Just an everyday sort of thing of a family that really exists somewhere, going about their normal day. Have you ever had that happen?"
"So you were like their guardian angel." Alice suggested.
"No, probably not. That can't happen." I said, mumbling into my cake, feeling dumb for even bringing it up.
"I don't know. There's still so much we don't know about the way the world works. Maybe something like that can happen." Alice said, probably trying to make me feel better more than actually believing me. The screen door creaked open and Mom stepped outside onto the porch.
"Hey Mom, what's up?" I said.
"Nothing. Just came outside to chit chat and check on you girls. Is the cake good?" She asked, sitting down in a rocking chair.
"Yeah." Amber said, all of us thanking her. Everything got quiet as the crickets chirped outside the screen. My mother was staring at Amber intently, and a panic started to rise within my chest. I didn't want mom to bring up anything. I didn't want my friends to think I was a freak. I wanted to scream at her from the top of my lungs to stop. The atmosphere had already started to change, I could feel it. Mom was pushing, pulling, digging.
"Were you close to your Grandmother?" Mom asked Amber.
"Do you mean Gram?" Mom waited, asking whoever if she went by Gram, I'm guessing.
"Is that the one that's living?" Mom asked. "Mom-mom. Your mom-mom." I looked at both of my friends, trying to guage their expressions. They didn't know what to say. They were both looking at me for some sort of explaination as to what she was talking about.
"She's kind of a medium. Sometimes." I said, adding in the sometimes so my friends wouldn't think my mother was some sort of fortune teller as a day job. I was yelling in my head again for my mom to stop this. She turned to me.
"Alright, I'll go in the house now. I can see I'm making Violet uncomfortable. I'm probably making all of you girls uncomfortable, and I'm sorry for that." She said, getting back up onto her feet. She went back in, the screen door slapping shut behind her. Everything was quiet again.
"I'm sorry about that." I apologized. Alice laughed.
"Why are you sorry? Your mom might be a medium. That's kind of cool." Alice said. "I know. I'm weird."
"She doesn't do that a lot. She's never done it with any of my friends." I said. "Was your grandmother actually called mom-mom?"
"Mom-mom was my great-grandmother. She died when I was like eight." Alice said. "I'm not kidding."
"Well, no harm no foul I guess." I said. "Let's go inside, I'm starting to get ate up my mosquitos." We started to go inside, my friends heading straight up to my bedroom. I lingered a minute on the porch, looking up at the night sky. Even before Mom came out onto the porch, I had been having a strange gut feeling I was working up to telling my friends about. Something like excitement was rising, like something was about to happen. Whatever it was, it would take a year, I think. Something big was coming my way.
15 Months Earlier
Will
"The bus is slowing down." Blake said. I felt myself wondering why we could be stopping out here in the middle of nowhere. Finn was sitting behind me with his headphones in, but he took them off. I looked outside and saw Chad walking on the outside of the bus.
"Here comes Chad." Chad opened the door from the front of the bus, coming in through our front compartment door.
"It broke down. Leonard's going to ask the people a few houses up the road if they can tow it." He said.
Tow it? I laughed at the silliness of someone trying to tow the bus with a pickup truck. Blake and Finn stood up, so I followed them out onto the side of the road. Just a few houses up there was a dump truck parked in front of a small yellow house with blue shutters and a screened in porch.
"Are we going there?" I asked Greg our manager as he signaled for us to follow him. Ignoring me, he just started walking. I felt the gravel crackle under our feet as we entered the driveway. Leonard came walking around the side of the house with a woman and a man.
"They said they might be able to help me fix the bus." Leonard explained.
"You're welcome to stay for a bit." The woman with blond hair said, touching Blake's arm.
"Thank you, ma'am." Blake said. "We'll stay outside if you don't mind, since I see you have a tent set up."
"Are you sure? There's A/C in the house." She said.
"We have coolers, we'll be okay." Chad and Finn went back towards the direction of the bus as I followed my brother to the lawn furniture underneath the tent and sat down.
"I hope the bus doesn't stay down for long." He checked his phone. "We have a show in 19 hours."
"You worry too much." I said. Greg came back carrying a cooler on his own. Finn came back instead with a birdie and badminton nets. He threw the birdie at me, expecting me to catch it. I let it drop to the ground.
"You serve." He said to Greg, handing him a net. Blake got up and went back to the driveway, phone in hand. Greg and Finn walked to the back of the lawn, playing badminton without a net. I heard what sounded like the back door of the house slam. Expecting my brother, I turned to look at who made the noise. It was a girl in floral print shorts and a blue tank top. She was walking out towards us, looking at the boys in the back of the lawn. She looked at me, then at the boys, and for a second I was petrified she might scream.
"Where's my parents?" She asked. Not what I was expecting, I pointed my thumb at the driveway.
"The bus." I said. She nodded like she knew what I meant and walked away, dark brown waist length hair swaying behind her. I looked at the table and realized we had drank so much soda, that I needed to clean up before the couple gets back and thinks we're trashing their place. I dug into the cooler, pulling out a trash back from inside the ice and clearing the table fast. I walked up the steps with the back, and into the house. The kitchen was small, but I didn't see a trashcan anywhere. I opened all the cabinets, looking for a trash can or a garbage disposal. I wondered where the girl had gone. I walked through the house, to the right was the porch and to the left was steps. I began walking up. There was a large window at the top of the steps, overlooking the backyard.
"Hey." I turned around to the voice. The girl was standing behind me.
"Hey." I responded. I smiled, and she reciprocated at the same time.
"Our bus broke down."
"I know."
"I was looking for a trash can. Do you have one?" I said, not speaking English. She frowned.
"I don't know what you said." A strange look came over her face.
"I think I'm dreaming." She said. That's okay, I thought. Then everything began to fade out. I woke up in my own bed, staring at the ceiling.
"I think I'm dreaming."
I never had a dream tell me that before.
Violet
We were having a sleepover. It was me, Alice, Laura H. Laura O., and Casey. Mom had just come upstairs to tell us to keep it down. My room was just above her bedroom and she had trouble falling asleep anyways. Right after she went back downstairs we heard a knock coming from the back door. All my friends got up, but I stayed where I was on the floor.
"I think it's Requiem." Laura O. said.
"That looks like Blake." Amber said, jumping a little in place. They came back to my bedroom.
"What if it is?" Laura O. asked.
"Someone should go downstairs." Casey suggested.
"I nominate you and Violet." Alice said.
"Let's do it." I said. Casey walked down first, nearly tripping over a body at the foot of the steps.
"I think this one is Blake." She said, trying to strain and see in the light, "He's cute."
"Let's go back upstairs." I said, suddenly nervous. We ran back upstairs, and all of us decided on going to bed early. I laid down on my bed and closed my eyes, and when I opened them again it was morning and Laura O. was the only one still asleep besides me. I got up and everyone was crowded around my kitchen window, staring outside.
"Hey everybody." I said. Amber came over to me and pulled my arm.
"It really is them." She said.
"Okay. Are they outside? Why is everyone in here if they're outside?" I asked.
"I dare you to go talk to them." Laura H. challenged.
"Okay, I will." I huffed and walked into the washroom, pulling at the back door and walking outside without even thinking about changing out of my pajamas. The drummer and the bassist were playing a game in the back of the yard. As soon as they caught sight of me the one with the longer hair waved. I walked to the gazebo where Will sat, watching me.
"Where's my parents?" I asked. He had on a white hoodie and dark baggy blue jeans.
"The bus." He said, his accent heavy and his voice less deep than what I was expecting. I walked down the driveway, passing the singer who was on his phone, a hand on one hip. He didn't look at me as I passed. My parents had the nose off the tour bus and was inspecting the engine.
"Hey guys." I said.
"Hey." Mom said, Dad ignoring me. They were too wrapped up in what they were doing. I glanced at the third person next to the tool kid, the bus driver I presumed, before walking back to the house. I opened the screen door and through the front upstairs to my bedroom. At the top of the stairs Will stood, his back to me. When I got to the top he turned around, smiling as he saw me. His smile was contagious, I couldn't help but smile back.
"Hey."
"Hey." He looked awkward for a second, as if he was trying to find the right words.
"Our bus broke down."
"I know." He was smiling again, as if my answer had somehow pleased him. He started talking very clearly in another language.
"I don't know what you said." Requiem's tour bus breaks down in front of my house and Will doesn't even speak to me in English. Just like my other dreams.
Dreams...wait a minute.
"I think I'm dreaming." I said. This was just a dream. I could feel myself beginning to wake up, realization kicking in. Next moment I was lying in bed on my back, which I rarely slept. I just had a dream about Requiem, and Will talked to me in it. In another language, which was strange. Could you have dreams where the people in them speak in another language? It was just a dream though. Had to be.
I couldn't wait to write to Laura.
4 Months Earlier
"I'm not exactly sure what they were up to. It's like I was there, but I wasn't again. Will was kind of just lying there, fuming about something." I said into the phone to Amber.
"And you were asleep?" She asked.
"Yeah, and I think he was too because when he noticed me, he said hey and that saying after it." I said.
"Aww, it sounds like he has a pet name for you. That's so sweet." She gushed. I rolled my eyes.
"Don't start. Not my type and I'm probably 110% not his type." I said.
"What do you think his type is?"
"I don't know. Blonde? IQ below the number seven?" I suggested.
"Well Alice is in luck then." She said and laughed.
"Yeah. Hey, are you going to Alice's birthday party tomorrow?"
"No, I can't. I have to baby-sit." She said.
"Your brother is 12. Shouldn't he know by now not to leave the stove on or stick things into the electrical sockets?" I asked.
"You'd think so."
"Well, I got to go. It was nice talking to you." I said as if we didn't call each other almost every other day.
"Yeah, see you later girlie."
"See you." I hung up, sighing. I sat down on a box that started to cave in as soon as I put pressure on it. I stood up. We were moving. We moved a lot anyways, but since we had spent over a year in this house I was hoping this would last for at least another year.
That wasn't the case. Since I lived out of school district the school had sent my parents' a letter. Either I move back into the school district or I go to the high school we had in this county, which Mom didn't like. Plus, my parents sucked at paying rent.
The house we were moving into was an old, renovated bear with all the charms of a leaky basement. I hated the house and begged my parents for us to move someplace else. But the rent was cheap, electric was paid for by our landlords, and it had well water. It was a "bargain".
High school started four days ago, and I was less than impressed. I had only one of my friends from middle school in any of my classes, and that was Alice in my last class of the day. The classes had a blend of all the grades in them and I had no idea where to eat at lunch. One of my less close friends Rachel had the same lunch as me, so I sat with her and her sophomore friend she met in youth group, Kelley. To say it was a silent lunch would be an understatement.
But tomorrow Alice was throwing a sleepover, so I would be reunited with my old friends for a night. I smiled to myself as I packed my overnight bag.
Will
We were going to be home almost two weeks after our birthday. I moved my neck around and squeezed my shoulder muscles.
"It's going to be fun though." Blake said next to me. "We have the fan bash on the 13th and then I scheduled a small party on the 14th."
"Which I'm going to as well." Finn said, holding up a camera to Blake and me from across the aisle. "Tell me, does sixteen feel as awesome as seventeen?"
"Seventeen is not nearly as important as sixteen, idiot." Blake said.
"Well someone got piss in their Wheaties for breakfast." Finn said, zooming into Blake's face. Blake smirked at the camera before he reached across me to smack it away.
"Sit down." I said, trying to push my brother by his stomach back into his seat. It didn't take much, considering how small he was.
"This is going to be great on YouTube." Finn said, him and Chat making a face at the camera.
"It can't be uploaded. As a moderator I override you." Blake said, hitting his fist down on the armrest like a judge's hammer. "Sorry."
"You know what's better than 16 or 17 combined?" Chad asked the camera, completely ignoring Blake. "18. All the liquor and the women are mine."
"No matter what he says, that will always be untrue. Everybody here knows that I have always been the one getting the hotter, older, more experienced women for a long time." I said as Finn focused the camera back onto me. Finn turned the camera back on them, and they both were looking like they would burst out laughing at any moment. Blake reached into a bag of skittles between us and threw a handful at them.
"If you're going to record again, make it something I can at least use." Blake reprimanded.
"Yes ma'am. I mean sir." Finn said and silhouetted the camera before turning it off for the time being.
"You'll see. I bet I can get more girls to kiss me this weekend than you." I said, leaning across the aisle for a handshake. Chad reached across Finn and shook my hand.
"You're on." He said.
Violet
My parents fought the entire ride to Alice's house. That wasn't unusual, considering the last five years have pretty much been one fight after another. I had brought along my journal to keep myself occupied on the way over. I was feeling strange again ever since I had woken up, and when we pulled over for gas I almost asked if we could just turn around and head home. But I rarely had the opportunity to see my friends anymore. I had to seize the opportunity whenever it presented itself.
As soon as I knocked on the door, everyone came running. In attendance was Alice, Casey, Laura H., Laura O., and our friend from the county where I was moving from Nicole.
We spent the first half of the sleepover in the living room watching TV and taking quizzes on the internet before deciding to go outside and jump on the trampoline. By the time it was getting dark, we were all just sitting on the trampoline with a pizza and a liter of Pepsi, just talking.
"I'm feeling a bit weird." Casey said in the middle of a conversation.
"What is it?" Laura H. asked. "Is it a ghost?"
"No?" Casey said. "I've been trying to block all that stuff out ever since Carius tried contacting me."
"Have you read through the book I lent you?" Alice asked. "It might not be much help, but it talked about chakras and stuff."
"Yeah, it's actually helped me a lot with being grounded. Thank you." Casey said. Now I was confused.
"What? Who's Carius? What's wrong?" I asked, taking a sip of Pepsi.
"Carius is the demon Casey had channeling into her." Laura H said. "Casey's kind of a psychic. She can talk to dead people and stuff."
"Huh. Really." I could feel arrogance boiling somewhere inside me. Casey was not a psychic, I'm calling bullshit. I had been raised all my life with my mother who could talk to spirits, and that's what they were, spirits. Not demons. It wasn't with everyone she could pick up on either, I would know.
I wouldn't consider myself psychic, or a medium or anything else for that matter. It was just that sometimes I had feelings on certain things. Not too long ago I had experienced feeling spirits on my own. There was one who would stand in my bedroom all the time, who I thought was a woman. Another, who would stand closer to my bed as if watching me. The one who would stand nearby was my spirit guardian, I always assumed without really knowing why. One-night Mom mentioned these spirits to me without me never bringing them up.
"Your great-grandmother watches over you Do you ever feel her presence upstairs?" She asked, making the hair on my arms stand up.
"Sometimes. Is there anyone else?" I asked. She stared off into outer space, repeating my question.
"There is. He stands by your bed. You dream of him sometimes. You associate him with a wolf. He's the young buck." She said. "Remember, he is here to guide you. Not to protect you."
If Casey thought she could see spirits, let's see her try and channel in mine.
"Sometimes I can pick up on people too." Laura H. was saying. Alive people."
Now I knew she was just playing it up. Maybe this was just another game to my friends. I shouldn't be reading too much into this.
"It's not everyone. I can't do it always." Casey said. She looked at Nicole, trying to concentrate. "You're thinking about a lot right now. You're upset because you have to leave early."
"Yeah." Nicole said. She turned to Laura O. and stared.
"I'm not getting anything from you." She said.
"Yup. My mind is a blank slate." She said.
"Did you forget something? Something you were supposed to do before coming here?" Casey asked. Laura thought about it and started shaking her head.
"No, not that I can remember— "
"A chore. You were supposed to do a chore. You're either worried that your grandmother will be upset at you or I'm pulling it through you from her that she's upset." Casey said. Laura covered her mouth.
"I forgot to let the dog out. She probably made a mess on the floor." She said.
"What about me?" Alice asked. Casey rubbed her forehead, concentrating.
"I can't ever pull anything from you, no matter how hard I'm trying." She said.
"What am I thinking?" I asked. So far, all of her "connections" could have just been easy guesses. Nicole could have mentioned leaving early tomorrow. Laura O.'s grandmother wasn't here so that could be totally made up. Still, I concentrated on blue to see if she could pick that out.
"I'm not picking up anything from you." She said. "Wait, why am I suddenly picking up on Will again?"
"Violet thinks she can share dreams with him." Laura H. said, as if that was the craziest thing going on.
"Ooh, what kind of dreams?" Nicole asked. The girls got a kick out of this.
"Oh my god. No. I don't even like him like that. Or think he's that cute." I said.
"Will and Violet sitting in a tree. K=I-S-S-I-N-G." Nicole sang.
"Keep it up and I'll push you off the trampoline." I threatened.
"What's Will think?" Laura O. asked.
"They're at a party. The band, I mean." Casey said. "Is it all of them? Yeah, it's all of them. He's thinking about a bet. A bet about...really? Really Will? About who can kiss the most girls in one night." More giggles.
"Chat thinks he's going to win. But Will has already kissed three." Casey said. "Wow. Just wow."
"Is there any way you can ask about Violet?" Alice suggested.
"I can try to give him that thought." Casey said. She was staring down at the trampoline. "She's cute. He's trying to figure out where he's seen her." She shrieked. "No Will. You didn't sleep with her." They were almost dying in laughter this time.
"Blake's worried about an upcoming event." Casey said. Wind passed by and we all shivered. It was almost completely dark now.
"Can we go inside?" Laura O. asked.
"Aww, but this is fun." Nicole said. Suddenly a coyote, wolf, or a wild dog howled, making everyone jump. My heart was racing.
"We can continue this in the basement. I have a chalkboard." Alice suggested. We all started to the porch. As I made it to the driveway I heard the wild animal howl again.
We kept on with Requiem for a while, Casey writing down whatever they brought up before switching to the band Circus Menagerie. They were around the same age, from the same country as Requiem. The only reason why I think my friends fangirled about them less is because they were incredibly flamboyant and incredibly gay.
"They're at a party too." Casey said.
"What is it with Europeans and parties? Isn't it close to 2 in the morning there?" Laura H. asked.
"Hey. I want to be European." Alice said. Casey began writing.
Why can't we play Madonna?
"That's Jack."
We can't all be as gay as you are.
"That's Tristian."
Shut up. You know you love me.
"Jack again. Okay, Tristian just gave him a weird smile.
"Mmph. I guess he loves him long time." Alice said. Everyone laughed.
"Jack is spitting out his drink. Oh god, it's the end of the world. Tristian ruined his cocktail with cranberry juice."
"Dereck is talking to Liam and Julian. Julian is already so tired and all he wants to do is lay down and go to sleep, but he's worried about his boyfriend Jeff still being upset with him."
"Aww, poor Julian."
The entire time they were talking I was feeling lightheaded. Everything in my body was feeling light.
"Is Will still drinking?" I asked.
"Yeah. He's drinking strawberry vodka. I can almost make out the bottle."
"He's drinking by the bottle?" I asked. Casey was sitting down, holding her head.
"Sorry, my head starts hurting after doing this for a while. No, he's— "She abruptly started up and went back to the chalkboard. "he's thinking about you.
Remember the girl I told you about?
You need to be more specific. "Blake."
The one from the dreams.
You mean the dream girl? "He's picking on him."
Yeah. I thought about her tonight. I think she's American.
What? So, you think she's real?
I don't know. But it's like I can feel her tonight or something.
You're drunk.
No, it's not her. It's someone. She's there. In the room.
Stop being weird.
You've felt something tonight too.
"This is about to not be them, but someone else just came through."
Happy birthday Boo-boo. That's when Alice lost it.
"I love you too, Poppa. I miss you." She said.
"I'm going to stop for the night." Casey said.
"No, no. You're fine. This is entertaining." Alice said, wiping her eyes.
"Did your grandfather really call you that?" Laura O. asked. Alice nodded.
"I think Will noticed me. Oops." Casey said. "When I tried to reconnect..." She wrote on the board.
I think I noticed too.
I went to bed early, before anyone else. I still felt like I was floating, like my head wasn't connected to my body. Casey said Will and I went to bed around the same time and in my head, I could almost see him going to bed. I woke up around six in the morning before anyone else, and began to wander around the basement, finding change. Once again it was like my mind's eye was perfectly tuned into seeing him. He was eating eggs and hash browns, I could almost taste.
There was still not enough evidence for me to believe Casey 100%. She could have been making a lot of it up.
"Morning." Nicole said quietly. She was up now, and so being Alice.
"Do you smell food?" Alice asked.
"Eggs and hash browns?" I asked, handing her the change I just found.
"Yeah, it could be that." She said, sniffing the air. She laughed at the change. "I go to sleep for a moment and you're robbing me blind. Damn woman, that's a lot of change." We were all up again soon, and eating cereal. Casey tried listening to people again, but this time it was much tamer.
I was the second one to leave, around two in the afternoon. Dad picked me up, his car a mess like it usually was. I picked up a small advertisement for a local fair and shoved it into my backpack. I'll keep it just for a memento of last night and today.
I felt different. I had been just too caught up, but something was strange. It was just about to get stranger.
Will
"Will. Are you listening to me? Did you just hear anything I said?" Blake was in a mood. I looked up from staring at the table. He was across from me on his laptop, hand raised in a 'WTF' motion, the fluorescent screen glow turning his face a translucent blue.
"What?" I said.
"You haven't been yourself since the party." I furrowed my brows and pretended not to know what he meant. He sighed, shutting the laptop and scratching the bridge of his nose with a black manicured fingernail.
"Are you...are you spacing out again?" He asked.
"No." I lied.
"Yes, you are. It's about that girl again." Crap. One thing about being a sibling I couldn't get around was that telepathy. No matter what, it's like my brother knew everything.
"I blame it on loneliness. It's making you delusional. You know you can't get close to women because fans will tear them to shreds, so now you've created an imaginary friend."
"You're probably right." I said, but I was already "watching" my imaginary friend again. She was in school, I think in a math class. She had her right arm on her desk, hand on the side of her head as she listened to the teacher drone on. What was she thinking about? Was she thinking about me?
--date with Alayna tonight." Blake finished. I looked up at him, having no idea what he just said.
"And it'll be wonderful." I said. He looked at me strangely.
"She'll be waiting for you at five. Two blocks away. Don't bring your American Dream along with you." He said. I looked up at the clock, it was three-forty. I had a paper to finish for my online school. I picked up my laptop from my bag and set it up, wrinkling my nose. Why was I tasting fruits? I checked back into my friend. She was eating a pastry of some kind, trying to stay awake. So...weird flavors and smells had been popping up for a week now. I guess they were coming from her.
Violet
I threw my raspberry Pop-Tart foil into the trash can on my way out the door. Laura O. was waiting by the steps for me.
"That was boring." I said.
"I would take Algebra over English any day." She said. Amber found us in the hallway.
"Anymore news from Will?" She asked. I focused back in on him. It was weird. I almost felt like I was having a daydream whenever I focused on him, as if daydreams had a mind of their own. If I was making it up, then I was doing a good job of fooling myself.
"He was talking to Blake. No idea on what about. Now he's in front of a mirror." What is he doing? He had just gotten changed into new clothes and just sprayed cologne on. No, Axe. Eww. A millionaire and he still wore the scent of every hormone driven male teenager. "I think he's going somewhere."
"Okay, keep me posted." She said, turning off and disappearing into a ceramics classroom.
Will
Alayna was a pretty, long-legged blonde with blue eyes and straight hair. Blake said she was 22, a rising model, and had liked me since she saw us at an MTV award last year. I never asked why she was at the event to Blake. I was hoping she was a musician and we would have something in common.
She was waiting on the street like Blake said she would be, and jumped in the car like she had been used to running from the paparazzi.
"Hey, sorry about picking you up like this." I said. We were in the back of the SUV, Guido and our chauffer Darren up front.
"Oh, it's no problem. I live nearby."
"Where do you live?"
"Cypress street."
"I don't know where that is."
"It's in New Haddenborough."
"Isn't New Hadenborough across the city?"
"Yeah, I was visiting my friend Heidi who's in college."
"Well we live in the same city, so we're practically neighbors. Where do you want to go?" I asked, noticing what she was wearing for the first time since we picked her up. Her dress shimmied with gold sequins with every passing streetlight. And her heels. She probably didn't have a quiet dinner and a movie date in mind.
"Wherever you want to go."
"I don't get out much in the city. You know, traveling and stuff." I found myself saying. I pulled my hair from underneath my hoodie. "Where's your favorite place in the city?"
"I enjoy dancing and going to parties."
"We can't really go to a club. I can't uh, be seen out in public." I hated explaining it like this. I felt like a total leper.
"Is it because of your popularity?"
"Yeah, sort of. I mean, I can get you into a party next time when I hear someone is throwing one."
"You mean like Jay-Z?"
"I was thinking more like my friend AJ." I could almost see the wheels spinning, wondering who AJ was and what sort of industry he was in.
"We can go to my friends' place," She suggested. "She's up the hill, about 20 minutes away."
"Sure." I said. "You're going to need to tell Darren. You know, so he can plug it into the GPS."
"I heard from Blake you had seen us in London last year at the MTV Eurovision awards. Do you play for a band?" I asked. She laughed like I had made a joke.
"No, I went with my friend Andy." By "friend" I'm sure she meant "date."
"Okay. Do you know how to play any instruments?"
"Well, I used to play flute when I was ten."
"Oh, so you must be good at blowing things." I kicked myself. "Air. You must be good at blowing air. I tried playing the saxophone at one point. I wasn't good at it, I didn't have the lung power or something." It was a slip-up, and I could feel my face getting red. She was giving me a look.
"Sounds like you had a Freudian slip there." She said. Her hand was on my knee. I felt my stomach, heart, and everything else coming up to my throat. Play it cool, calm down.
"Yeah, I guess. Sorry." I choked. She was leaning in closer to me, expecting a kiss. When I didn't respond because I couldn't move, she swooped in for the kiss.
Violet
I was in the middle of art class when I felt pressure on my face. I wiped my mouth, but the pressure was still there. Then it was in my mouth, almost in the back of my throat. I started gagging.
"What's up?" Alice asked, on the stool next to me. I focused on Will, noticing something was really close to his face. Something with blonde hair.
"Come on now." I groaned. Why are you kissing someone? Gross. I can feel it. Hello? She had his tongue practically down his throat. I needed him to stop. For the love of God, please get her to stop before she smothers us both.
"Knock it off, Will. Stop. Stop. Stop it. Stop it." I kept chanting in my head, every which way, focusing all my mind on him, on his energy, on what I was seeing and feeling.
Will
STOP IT.
The voice was clear, shrill. It sounded like it was in the car with me, but someone would have to be present to make that shrill voice echo in my head like that. Right now, the only person with a voice that could possibly reach that vocal pitch had her mouth on mine. I moved my head away, and she continued kissing my cheek and my ear. She continued until her phone started lighting up and vibrating next to her, the song "Crazy Bitch" playing.
"Hey Mom." She said, picking up the phone.
I focused on the girl from the dreams again, but I couldn't see what she was doing. Everything was all black, and for a second I thought maybe I scared her away.
Was that you? I asked, but got no answer. I pulled out my phone, dialing Blake.
"Hello?" He asked.
"Wait, wait. Slow down. What's wrong?" I said the line we had rehearsed multiple times, trying to sound urgent.
"Really? Is your date going that bad?" I could almost hear the eye roll.
"No, it's definitely bad, I believe you. Just calm down."
"You're never getting laid again."
"I'll be home soon, okay?"
"And I'll be upstairs, masturbating." He said sarcastically.
"No don't worry. Alayna will understand."
"My underwear is lacy black." I will punch you in the face, Blake.
"Yeah, I'll call you back once I get closer to the house."
"Mmm talk dirty to me." You don't even know what's coming to you.
"Bye." I clicked the phone off, and looked over. Alayna was looking surprised and concerned.
"So...bad news. Blake thinks our cat got into something. He said she's vomiting all over the place. I would tell him to take her to the vet himself, but she's like his baby and I know he needs me."
"No, you're right. I understand."
"We can drop you off. I don't know how long this is going to take."
"Sure, Heidi's house is right up there." She said, pointing. Darren pulled to the curb and unlocked the doors. She hugged me, giving me another kiss...and another. Once again, I felt a protest brewing in the back of my mind. I pulled her away by her neck, trying my best to make it look passionate.
"Go be with your brother. You can call me next time there's a party, okay?" She asked.
"Sure. No problem." Once again, I apologize." I said as she got down, readjusting her dress.
"Goodnight, Will. Send my regards to your brother." She said, waving.
"Will do, Alayna. Goodnight." I said, shutting the SUV door with a swing. We pulled away from the curb.
"So...a cat?" Darren asked, meeting my eyes in the rearview mirror. I grinned, rubbing my eye.
"I don't have a damn cat." I said. I focused back on my friend and nearly caught my breath. She was right there, listening in on my conversation. For a moment, I saw her again, completely in focus. She had blue eyes, and was looking down at her schoolwork. My breath got caught in my throat as she noticed me in her mind's eye staring at her, and looked up.
"Hey."
"Hey."