I narrow my eyes as I keep searching the darkness for the intruder but come up with nothing.
“Yeah, that’s very mature and scary. Not talking.” I shake my head and take another step closer to the door. “But the thing is, you made a mistake. You picked the wrong girl to mess with. I don’t scare easily. Oh, and I know how to punch.” I nod as I keep looking around and moving closer to the door. “Yeah, I can do some real damage if I want to, buddy. And maybe right now you’re thinking, hey, this girl is tiny. She can’t hurt me. But know this, I have four brothers. Four. And they’re all tall and burly and muscular. They’re all athletes, actually. Ever heard of the Thorne brothers? Yeah? I’m their sister.”
I’m super-duper close to the door now as I continue, “So if you think you can overpower me, remember that my brothers will come after you. I will make sure that they come after you. I will make sure that they hunt you down and make you pay, you got that? So either show yourself or leave. Right now!”
I sort of flinch at the end but whatever.
That should get the message across that I’m not to be messed with.
Also, I’m one step away from the door and getting inside so if there ever was a time to dare him, this is it. So I wait for like three seconds before I jump inside and close the door with a bang.
And then I’m packing up.
I’m getting out of here.
The next bus should be here any minute so I change into my dress and close up. I run out through the front door and as soon as I cross the street to get to the bus stop, the bus is pulling in.
When we take off, I look out the window.
I look at the studio, the dark road that still stands empty.
I look at it and look at it, even as it grows smaller and smaller, and my breaths somehow both quicken and slow down. And my body is filled with both relief and a strange disappointment.
But then I see something.
A flash of white.
Bright as the moon.
Sparkling as a neon sign.
White. His color.
My mouth falls open and I press my nose to the window.
But whatever I saw, a flash, a burst, is so far away and getting further by the second.
Before I can confirm anything, we take a turn and the road disappears.
***
It’s Friday.
Which means we’re sneaking out, my friends and I.
That’s the only thing I’m focusing on.
The only thing.
The other things — thing — is totally out of my mind. Because there’s just no point thinking about it, you know? Because what happened last night — what I thought happened last night — never really happened.
It never did.
I only thought that it happened. I only thought that I saw something. A flash of white.
When in reality, I saw nothing.
In reality, I snuck out to dance, and in the process saved the Blue Madonna from an intruder.
I mean, if there was an intruder.
Maybe that was my imagination too, but who knows?
So yeah, I’m not going to think about what I felt last night or what I thought I saw. I’m only going to focus on tonight, on the fact that I’m sneaking out with my friends to go dancing and it’s going to be amazing.
Every Friday — like Thursday, Miss Alvarez is on duty — we get low-key dressed up and sneak out to this bar called Ballad of the Bards to go dancing.
It’s in Bardstown and one of the bartenders, Will, is Conrad’s friend.
He lets us in as long as we don’t drink any actual liquor since we’re all underage. He’s also nice enough to keep our weekly sojourns a secret.
Apart from Blue Madonna, it’s one of my favorite places in Bardstown.
Even though it’s located in kind of a shady part of town and the neon sign over the door flickers and goes on and off, I always get a cozy feeling from this place.
Not to mention, I love their music.
So Ballad of the Bards, like any other dance bar, is famous for its music. But their choices are unconventional. Instead of playing dance beats, they play sad music.
They put on songs about lost lovers and broken hearts, with deep violins and heavy, thick bass.
Maybe it’s the fact that I’m one of them now, one of the brokenhearted, but I love it.
I love the melancholy. I love the misery. I love the fact that I can slow dance to this music and if I spill a few tears, no one questions it.
Because that’s what you do when you hear a sad love song. You cry.
It’s like crying in the rain.
And I cannot wait to get inside and lose myself in them.
I cannot wait to remember.
But as it turns out I’m not gonna need music to remember the mistake I made two years ago.
Because the reason that I made those mistakes… is here.
The reason why I did what I did and why I ended up at St. Mary’s is right here.
He is here.
And I see him as soon as I enter the bar.
Actually, he’s all I see. He’s the only thing I see and the sight of him forces me to halt.
The sight of Reed Roman Jackson.
After two years.
After two long, long years, it forces me to stop. It forces the earth to stop too.
At least for me.
For me, the earth has stopped spinning and all the people on it have stopped existing. For me, the music is no more and the stars have gone out.
Because he’s here.
Somehow.
How is he here?
Standing in the middle of the bar, he’s taller than everyone.
He’s broader than everyone too. And he has a spotlight on him.
Or maybe that’s just his marble-like, vampire skin. That glows.
That still glows.
That still absorbs all the light in the space, leaving nothing for the rest of us.
Not even the choice of looking somewhere else.
He is like gravity, see.
If he’s in the room, you can’t help but stare at him. You can’t help but revolve around him.
Even now, people are doing that.
People are revolving around him, giving him all their attention.
He’s surrounded by a bunch of guys, and a couple of girls who are hanging onto his arms, and God, it feels like two years ago.
It feels like I’m standing in the corridor of my old school, Bardstown High, and I’m watching him work his dark magic on a girl.
I’m watching him appear both aloof and interested.
As he drives her crazy with desire. So much so that she raises her hand to brush her fingers along the ends of his hair.
I’m watching him and watching him and my lips part as I exhale a breath.
What is he doing here? Where did he come from?
Why is he still so beautiful?
The heartbreaker of Bardstown High. The Wild Mustang.
The gorgeous villain.
The guy who broke my heart. And whose car I stole and drowned in the lake for revenge.
Who a second later looks away from the girl, his gaze landing on me.
Just like that.