Entice. Part 4

"So, he lives in California?"

The sanctuary was almost completely empty now. An older gentleman walked around, picking up stray bulletins off the pews.

I nodded.

"That's cool. I only wanted to hang out as a friend anyway."

Of course he did. I felt silly for thinking otherwise.

"Friendship sounds good." I smiled.

After saying goodbye, I drove home. Orange, yellow and rust colored leaves blew across my windshield, scuttling like insects. I loved fall. I loved how the colors changed, how the air shifted. When I pulled into our house, I noticed that Mom's car was gone. Seriously, she couldn't wait for me for one hour? I raced home to be with her and she was gone? Now I would have to spend a long and boring afternoon alone. Anger rising in me, I stormed to the front door. After unlocking it, I stepped inside. The first thing I noticed was the smell. Something was definitely burning.

I raced into the kitchen. What had happened in there? Flour covered the already messy counters, dirty pans filled the sink.

The front door flew open. "Oh, I was hoping to make it back before you got home." Mom rushed in, out of breath. In her hand she held several bags. She hoisted them up onto the counter. "I tried to make pancakes for you but as you can see it didn't go so well. So, I went and bought more stuff. I thought we could make breakfast together." She pushed her bangs out of her eyes. "What d'ya say?"

I smiled, my heart bursting. I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do. But I couldn't say that. So instead I shrugged and said, "That's fine."

"Great. Well, change out of that dress. This is going to get messy." With a cheesy smile on her face, she held up a giant bag of pancake mix.

I giggled and headed back to my room to change. Suddenly this day didn't look so bleak after all.

Outside my bedroom window, the sun sunk below the clouds. The sky was painted in streaks of pink and purple, morphing together and resembling an abstract painting. I stepped over a mountain of dirty clothes and plopped down on the edge of my bed. Mom's laughter drifted down the hall, causing irritation and jealousy to thread around my heart.

"We were having such a great time," I whined into the phone. "And then Drake just showed up unexpectedly."

"I'm sorry," Isaac replied.

"Now they're out there watching some horror movie he brought over. Mom doesn't even usually watch horror movies." I rested my head against the headboard of my bed, and let out a frustrated groan. It was one of the best days Mom and I had spent together in a long time. She even said we might go get ice cream or something later. But then he had to show up. "It's almost like he planned to interrupt our day."

"I'm sure he didn't mean to do that." Isaac was always so reasonable. I was just being oversensitive.

"You're probably right. I think he did want to hang out with both of us. I just had no interest in watching a scary movie. I've already lived one."

"Isn't that the truth?" Isaac's voice was serious."Hey, how was church this morning?"

"Good."

"You make any new friends?"

Tanner's face flashed through my mind. "Sort of."

"What do you mean sort of?"

"I did make a friend. I'm just not sure it's someone I should hang out with."

"Of course you should. You made a friend at church. That's great news."

"Yeah, I guess." My stomach dropped at how happy he sounded. Would he be as happy if he knew the friend was a guy?

After hanging up with Isaac, I logged onto Facebook. It had been awhile since I'd checked on my cyber-friends. I scrolled down the screen with my mouse. I read the normal statuses about people's Sundays spent at the mall or at the movies. Then Haley's face appeared and I stopped, clicked on the picture. My chest tightened, my pulse sped up. The picture was of Haley and Ian, plastic beer cups in hand. I clicked on the next picture which was of Haley, Ian and Caleb chugging their drinks. Haley's eyes were heavy lidded, her face flushed. I'd never seen her like this. Even when I dragged Haley to parties in the past she never drank. Haley had always been the good one, the rule follower. Staring at the screen, sadness descended on me.

I was losing my best friend.

Chapter Seven.

Mustering up all my courage, I took a couple steps forward. It was the last thing I wanted to do. It would have been so much easier to just turn around and walk away, but it was necessary. This was ridiculous. I thought for sure after a weekend apart, Haley would come to her senses and things would go back to normal. We'd been friends since seventh grade, after all. And she'd been with this guy for less than two months. Certainly, she wouldn't choose him over me.

I just needed to talk with her. Initially, my plan was to find her in the morning before cla.s.s but she was nowhere to be found. So, I tried to locate her between cla.s.ses but she wasn't in her usual places. I was starting to think maybe she wasn't at school today but then I spotted her at lunch. That's how I found myself walking toward the jock's table, ready to face Caleb and Ian.

Taking a deep breath, I walked right up to Haley. She looked up from her sandwich. Caleb's roving eyes traveled up and down my body. I repressed the urge to shudder. Ian glared. So, clearly he didn't like me now that he knew what I thought about him. That was fine by me. Honesty was the best policy, right?

"Haley, can I talk to you for a minute?"

My friend's eyes shifted to Ian. Was she seriously looking to him for approval?

"Haley?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Fine." She stood and followed me outside. The sun was warm. The air smelled like flowers and gra.s.s.

I turned to my friend. She frowned at me, and crossed her arms over her chest. My heart ached. I missed her and wished we could go back in time. I couldn't believe she was still angry with me. It was so not like her.

"Haley, this is silly. You can't still be mad at me for that dumb comment about Ian, can you?"

"What do you expect? You don't like the guy I love."

I almost burst into laughter. The guy she loved? Instead, I cleared my throat, and tried to keep my face neutral. "I never said I didn't like him."

"You said he was a loser. Same diff."

"No, I didn't say he was a loser."

A ball sailed past our heads, almost knocking us over. A boy caught it a few feet away.

I smiled at Haley. "We better move. We're in the line of fire."

Haley moved with me until we stood under the awning outside the cafeteria, but she didn't crack a smile. This was going to be harder than I thought.

"Haley, all I said was that I didn't think Ian was good enough for you."

Anger pa.s.sed over her features and I rushed to speak before she ran off again.

"It's only because I think you're so amazing. I'll probably never think any guy is good enough for you."

Her face softened. "Then why can't you just support me in this? I really like him, Kenzie."

I bit my lip. I wanted to just say okay and move on. We could go back to hanging out all the time. It had been so awful to go the whole weekend without talking to her or seeing her. Even if being with Haley meant I had to include Ian, I could learn to deal with it as long as I would have my best friend back.

Then I remembered the pictures on Facebook. Haley was headed down a dangerous path. I knew because I'd traveled the same road. If I really loved her I couldn't allow her to make the same mistakes as I had.

"I want to. I really do." I paused. "Remember when you found out I was cutting?"

She had found out a couple of months before I left for Grandma's. Haley was at my house and she accidentally walked in on me changing. I had a fresh cut and there was no way to hide it from her.

Haley nodded. "I was really upset."

"And you tried to get me to stop." Two girls, wearing short skirts and wedge sandals, whisked past us and I almost choked on their fruit smelling perfume.

"Of course I tried to stop you. I didn't want you to keep hurting yourself."

"Exactly. Because you loved me."

"But you didn't stop cutting when I asked you to," Haley reminded me.

"I know. I'm sorry. The point is that I love you too Haley, and I want to stop you from hurting yourself."

"You're comparing me going out with Ian to you cutting yourself?" She narrowed her eyes. The softness from before disappeared. Why couldn't I have just kept my mouth shut?

"It has nothing to do with Ian." I sighed. "Look, I saw the pictures on Facebook."

"So? You knew I was going to Caleb's party."

"But drinking, Hales? That's not like you."

"No, you're right. That's like you."

The comment stung. "Not anymore."

"Don't remind me."

"What's that supposed mean?"

"You've totally changed, Kenzie. You're not the same person you were before summer. Last year you would've been happy to go out partying with me. In fact, you partied every weekend. Now, all of the sudden, you're Miss-Goodie-Two-Shoes and you want everyone else to be too."

Anger rose in me. "You've changed too, Haley. The only difference is that at least I've changed for the better!"

Haley's eyes widened. I wished I could bite my tongue in two. Why did I say that?

Haley raised her eyebrows. "Oh, I see, you're one of those judgmental Christians now. Is your boyfriend the same way? I'll bet he tells you to stay away from me; that I'm a bad influence."

She hit a little too close to home. "How dare you? You don't even know Isaac."

"Just like you don't even know Ian but you judge him."

"Oh, believe me I know him. I've known enough guys like him to know what a loser he is."

Before I could take back the cruel words, Ian was at Haley's side. Where did he come from?

"That's enough," he snapped at me. "C'mon Hales, you don't need to take this." She leaned into him with relief on her face as if she'd just been waiting to be rescued. It was crazy. Since when did she need to be rescued from me? He took her by the hand and led her into the cafeteria.

Fighting back tears, I glanced around. It seemed like the entire quad was staring at me. My face flamed. Had we really just made that big of a scene? I didn't think we'd been that loud.

"Hey, you okay?" Tanner rushed over to me.

The sincerity in his voice cut to my heart and my lips quivered. I bit down on them to keep myself from crying. Blinking, I nodded.

"It's gonna be okay," he said.

I looked into his eyes to see if he was mocking me. The look he gave me was kind and genuine.

He smiled. "C'mon, let's go sit down somewhere."

I glanced at the cafeteria, not wanting to humiliate myself any further by going inside. As if reading my mind, he said, "We can go over there under that tree." He pointed to a shady area on the gra.s.s.

"That sounds good." I followed him, grateful he'd shown up when he did.

Chapter Eight.

I ran the eye shadow brush over my lids, leaving a coat of icy purple shimmer. Staring at my reflection, I blinked a couple of times to make sure it was even. My cell phone vibrated on the bathroom counter. Setting down my makeup, I answered.

"Hey Isaac." My voice echoed in the tiny room. I pressed open the door and stepped into the hallway.

"I haven't heard from you all afternoon. What's up?"