“Ugh. Tell me, do your hormones have an off-switch?”
“Not that I’ve found.”
I turned and began walking toward the coffee shop down the street. “And now we come to the actual point,” I laughed.
“Come on!” Liv whined. “I don’t have a boyfriend. I probably never will, unless your brother finally asks me out. Until then I need to live vicariously through you.”
“Then you’ll have to live vicariously through a boring single person, because no way am I asking that guy out. If you’re so hot for him, why don’t you make a move?”
“Because he’s perfect for you! What kind of wingman would I be if I snatched up your Mr. Right?”
“Wingwoman.”
“What?”
“You’d be my wingwoman, not my wingman.”
“Either way, I promise to be by your side and protecting your flank when you spread your wings and swoop in for the kill.”
“I’m not sure what’s more Liv-esque. Your tireless persistence or your unbelievably mixed metaphors.”
“We can figure that out when I go to make my Maid of Honor toast at your wedding.”
“Slow down, Wingwoman. I have a strict rule about not marrying anybody on my seventeenth birthday.”
Liv let out a hearty laugh accompanied by an equally powerful hug right in the middle of the sidewalk, which ended with me laughing along with her until we were both teary-eyed and choking for air.
I might have considered her attempted set-up if not for the fact that Callum was intimidatingly handsome. I could barely look him in the eye. But it wasn’t just that, either. There was something else—the disconcerting feeling he could see right through me. I wasn’t sure if it was his confidence or the way he carried himself. Or the weird feeling I got that he had somehow packed a century’s worth of living into his seventeen years.
“If you don’t ask him out, that evil wench Miranda will,” Liv said as we headed down the street toward the coffee shop. I cringed at the name of the notorious ringleader of a clique of Plymouth High girls Liv and I referred to as the Charmers. They were mean-spirited, perfectly-manicured Pit bulls who loved nothing more than taking other girls down a notch, and Liv and I were among their favorite targets. I stood up to them when I was up for it. Most of the time, it was just too exhausting to deal with them, so I tended to let them have their bullying fun and play their immature little mind games while I went on about my business, got better grades, and went to bed at night secure in the knowledge that one day I’d be happy and successful and they’d be miserably struggling to justify their wealthy husbands’ infidelities.
“Let Miranda do what she wants,” I told Liv. “Besides, if Callum wants to date a girl like her, he’d never be interested in someone like me. Now, how about if we get on to the more pressing project of getting some caffeine into you?”
“Deal.”
As we made our way toward the end of the block, Liv leaned in close and whispered, “Great. Charlie’s out front of Perks.” She gestured toward the homeless man in a tattered grey coat who was sitting on the sidewalk out front of the café, a large German Shepherd by his side. “I suppose you’ll want to say ‘Hi’ to him.”
I nodded. “Sure. Why not? I don’t base my civility on how much money someone has in their bank account.”
“I never understand why he stays in Fairhaven,” she said. “No one except for you ever gives him money. He’d make a lot more in a big city.” The moment she’d spoken, she shot me a remorseful sideways glance and added, “Not that I mind him being here.”
“Maybe he likes this town because it’s pretty,” I replied. “Who knows? He must do okay. It’s not like he and Rufus are starving.”
“That’s because you’re always giving them food, Saint Vega.”
She was right. I’d always made a point of greeting Charlie and Rufus as I passed by, and on days when I could, I’d always given them a little something to eat or drink. I supposed I felt like I could relate to both of them. Like me, they didn’t entirely fit into society, at least not on society’s terms. They were outcasts who lived on the periphery, watching the world pass them by as if they were invisible. It was a position I could relate to all too well.
As we approached, I could hear Charlie humming some unidentifiable tune. His voice was low and gravelly, and the sound wasn’t exactly pretty, but for some reason it still made me smile.
“Hey, Charlie,” I said as Liv and I stepped up to front doors of the café. “Want a coffee?”
“You’ve gotta buy it,” he said curtly, turning one of his empty pants pockets inside out. “I got no money.”
“Fair enough. I’ll buy this time,” I said with a wink. “But the next one’s on you.”
He smiled his broken, yellow-toothed smile and said, “Deal.”
I considered mentioning it was my birthday and I’d do it as a gift to myself, but I didn’t want to attract any extra attention. The truth was, though I was way too embarrassed to ever admit it to Liv, I was still trembling from my encounter with Callum. “Wait here.”
“Where else do ya think I’d go?” Charlie asked with a shrug.
When I ducked into the coffee shop, I ordered a large with cream and sugar and a chocolate donut, while Liv asked for some sort of fancy, frothy, whipped cream, cinnamon mocha concoction that was sounded more complicated than any equation I’d learned in algebra class. As I sidled up next to her, a long line of customers began to gather behind us.
“Must be the late-morning crowd,” I said as I grabbed my order. “I’m going to bring this to Charlie. I’ll meet you outside.”
“You don’t want something?” Liv asked. “I’ll buy! It’s the least I can do, considering I didn’t get you a real gift, other than the hottie in the bookstore.”
“I’m good,” I said. “But thanks.”
When I’d squeezed through the growing group of customers and out the front door, I handed the coffee and donut to Charlie, who took them with a nod and a grunt, before turning away as if to let me know he was in no mood for further conversation. I stepped away, giving him space, only to see Liv skip back outside, an enormous whipped-cream-topped beverage in hand.
“What do you want to do now?” she asked with a grin. “We could hang out in the park. You can check out your new book while I watch the cute boys passing by.”
“Actually, that sounds like an excellent plan.”
Without a second’s hesitation, we turned to head over to the nearby crosswalk.
But we’d only gone about five feet down the sidewalk when a deep, echoing voice from behind us stopped me in my tracks.
“Vega Sloane,” the eerie voice rumbled. “I have a gift for you.”
The Gift
The way the words vibrated through the air sent a shiver down my spine.
The voice wasn’t Charlie’s. It couldn’t be.
And yet it had to be. I could feel in the marrow of my bones that the words had somehow emerged from his mouth.