5: Have I Gotten Into That Gorgeous Little Head Of Yours

(Song: Wild Child by The Black Keys)

Heart pounding, I watch helplessly. Her voice is cheerful as she greets him. The one sided conversation has my head spinning and my stomach tossing. Thankfully, she repeats everything he says. “Is Nova with me?” I shake my head no. “Of course,” she replies. Silence. “Can you talk to her?” I shake my head again. “Well we’re having dinner right now and she left like a minute or two ago to go to the bathroom. That’s probably why she didn’t answer the phone when you called.” More silence, but Lyra cringes from whatever it is that he’s saying. “How do I know you called her?” Great. She’s already gotten caught in a string of lies. “She…didn’t take her phone with her.” How many details does she need to give him?

The silence doesn’t come this time, because he screams so loudly that I can hear it blare out of the speaker. “Nova.” Lyra holds the phone into the air far away from her ear. Every surrounding table can probably hear him, “I know you’re there. Nova.”

Lyra has no other choice but to force me to take the phone. “Thanks,” I snip at her before I speak into the phone, “what is it, Wes?”

“What is it? Why haven’t you called me? Texted me?” Question after question spew from his mouth. He doesn’t give me a chance to answer any of them. “You’ve been gone for two days,” he sounds pissed, but this has nothing to do with getting his feelings hurt. It’s because he knows the history of this place and this is the worry that’s become too suffocating. “And I haven’t even heard an inkling from you. I had to go to your father to make sure you made it there okay.”

I place the phone to my chest and tell Lyra and Eden that I have to handle this. Skimming past their curious stares, I hop up from the booth in search of an empty secluded hallway or a corner. It’s easy to put my anger on Wes, “would you keep your voice down,” I hiss weaving around tables.

“That’s right,” He argues, “they don’t know.” He snaps at me as if I’m a terrible person for not telling my friends my baggage. Technically, he’s not even supposed to know what he knows.

Finally finding a spot, away from spying eyes and eavesdropping ears, I turn on him,“and if you weren’t buddy buddy with dad, which is weird Wes, you wouldn’t know either.” I’m still clueless as to how that conversation even arose. No one cares to inform me why Wes was told about my mother being mauled by wolves.

“Why aren’t my calls or texts going through?” There’s pause. “Did you block me?” Yes. “Nova, it’s not safe-”

“It’s safe enough that my father sent me here alone,” I snap at him. “So if he thinks it’s fine, it’s fine.” Which is a complete lie. It’s not fine. “I have to go. Our food was just brought to the table.” Another lie, but right about now, I’d say anything to get out of this conversation.

He senses my abrupt hang up and he blurts out, “Nova.” It doesn’t stop me from pulling the phone away. I can hear him continue, “we’ll talk about this lat-” The click of a button cuts off the rest of his words.

Muttering under my breath, I reply back, “no, we won’t.” Turning around ready to get our food ordered so we can get back to the hotel, I slam to a halt as I nearly run into a body that blocks my path. “Holy shit,” the words regrettably slip from my mouth. ‘Creeper much?”

His smile does terrible things to me. “Wes…is that short for Wesley?” Nox questions in a mocking tone.

I don’t answer him. Instead I ignore the question altogether and go to walk past him, but he matches my steps and blocks my path. “Who is Wesley, exactly? Your boyfriend?”

Getting under my skin, I give him everything he wants. “His name is Weston and what if he is?” I’ll admit anything to make him go away. I go to step around him once more, “now if you excuse me.” Once again my path is blocked.

“I’m curious as to what you and Wes have to talk about? It sounds like he’s not okay with you being here? All alone with your girlfriends. Does he not trust you? I can’t say that he should trust me.” Those blue eyes peer down at me. I feel like I’ve seen them before, glaring at me, squinting in a fit of laughter. The images are right there, but they’re trapped behind a foggy glass that refuses to clear.

Stepping in close, closer than I should, I finally give him a piece of my mind. “Listen, I’ve tried to be nice for the sake of my friends, but I’m not interested…in anything from you. Especially from someone with a band of floozies trailing after him.” The minute the words exit my mouth I regret them. Every single one. My rambling turned incriminating. To him on the other hand, it’s music to his ears. I’ve just admitted something I shouldn’t have. Interest. Jealousy. Shit. “Move.”

He doesn’t and when I make an attempt to get past him, I push against his chest. He traps my hand under his so firmly that I can feel his heartbeat beneath my palm. “Have I gotten into that gorgeous little head of yours?”

Yanking my hand away, “you wish,” I spit out before barging past him. I’ve just opened Pandora's box and it’s going to be impossible to get it closed.

Dropping back into my spot, Lyra’s eyes are on me. “Well, that didn’t go well,” she mutters, completely clueless as to anything that just went down. What part went bad? Wes or Nox. Or both. Definitely both.

Eden is clueless that Nox confronted me, so she speaks strictly about Wes. “he’ll be fine. We have what? Four days? Three, if you want to leave early. Plenty of time for him to calm down.” She goes quiet as the waitress comes to take our order.

Suddenly, I’m not hungry and just thinking about eating has me feeling the burn of vomit in my throat. They each order something, but I stick with water. It gets me stern, drawn out criticizing glares from them, but I ignore it.

“So, when do you plan on visiting grandma Drake?" Eden asks, pushing the conversation past the fact that I’m not eating.

"Grandma Maddox,” I correct her. “She’s my mother's mother." There's a silence that washes over the table. The words are like bricks. Each one has my tongue heavy and they chip at my teeth as I say them. "Yeah, exactly. I haven't seen her since we left after my mom’s death.”

“We can come with you.” Lyra offers. “If it’ll make you feel better. I know you said you would take an Uber or something but we're here for you.”

I’m speechless thinking about the tough, heartfelt and accusatory discussion topics that will be had. I’m not worried so much about what my grandma is going to say. It’s my sister. “Sure, but it’s a terrible idea.”

“All the better,” Lyra chimes. Eden quickly offers a more reasonable approach, “or we could help. Maybe Twyla wouldn’t be so…vicious with us there. Reputation and all.”

Maybe she’s right. Maybe with both of them there all conversational topics involving wolves and murder will remain unsaid. “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Time passes quickly and it feels like minutes later the waitress approaches our table, food in hand. With Lyra and Eden looking at their plates, I’m left to stare…anywhere and everywhere besides at Nox. Making sure I keep my eyes from wandering, I text my dad.

'You need to speak to Wes. You better make sure he doesn’t show up here. That’s the last thing I need. I’m visiting grandma tomorrow with Lyra and Eden, so if you talk to her, please tell her to hush up about the whole murdered mother details.’

Knuckles knocking against the wooden table snap my head up from my phone. Silas’s knuckles are pressed against the tabletop, Stryker and Nox right behind him. Without thinking I lock eyes with Nox. The girl he’s with has her arm looped around his, her head resting against his shoulder.

Stryker looks right at Lyra from over his brother’s shoulder, “have a great night ladies.”

Each of us watch them disappear within the restaurant. Lyra is in lalaland with a smirk pasted on her face, Eden is clearly amused, and I’m horrified. What the hell is happening? How did I get caught up in this? I want out. Now.

With the boys’ departure, I could stay at the restaurant forever, but once the food is gone and the bill is paid, there’s no reason to stay.

The whole walk back Lyra gushes about Stryker. I'm not even sure I know for sure which one is Stryker. Half the time I’m guessing.

Upon entering the lobby, I tell them goodnight, but Lyra stops me. “I thought we would have a movie night. It’s still so early.” We eyeball each other. I know she can see my rejection before I say it, so she results in begging. “Plllllleeeeeaaaasssseee,” she whines.

“One movie as we’re going to my grandma’s tomorrow.” And we all need as much rest as we can get, because there’s going to be some very deep, no doubt dark truths possibly coming out.