Crushing on the Geek(22)
“Hahaha!” Tamara rolled her eyes, “What about the bird? That bird was real?”
“It could have been a computer project or something.”
“No, it was real. It carried off the book.”
“Well, maybe the book was a projection too!”
“I held the book. It was solid.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.”
“Maybe it was a robot.”
“Then why didn't everyone else see it too?”
“Because Amber paid them not to?”
“I don't think she has that kind of cash.”
“Well, maybe someone else did it then.”
Tamara put her head in her hands and sighed, “What's it going to take to make you believe me?”
“Proof!”
“What am I supposed to do?” Tamara asked, “Catch a faerie? Maybe cut of its little wings and bring them to you?”
A bird screeched outside and Tamara jumped, nearly hitting her head on the roof of the car.
“Calm down, it's just a bird!” Hayden said.
“You didn't have a bird chase you around the library and then steal a book! Don't you tell me it's just a bird!”
“I don't know, Tamara,” Hayden said, “I don't think you can prove it.”
“Can you just take me home, please?” Tamara asked.
“Sure,” Hayden frowned, “We could stop and get something to eat if you want.”
“No, I just want to go home.”
“Sorry,” Hayden said, “it's just, you have to agree, it's hard to believe.”
“What about your shoe strings?” Tamara asked.
“I doubt my kid brother is a faerie. Unless you're saying he's a changeling, that I could totally believe.”
“You know what I meant!” Tamara laughed, “Are you going to help me or not?”
“Help you with what?”
“Appease the faeries or however you want to say it.”
“Sorry, but no. There's no such thing as faeries.”
“Take me home, now!”
Chapter Seven
Tamara yawned and opened her eyes. The alarm hadn't went off yet, but she knew it would soon. She turned to her side and snuggled down into her pillows, sheets, and blankets.
“Ouch!” she cried out when her hand brushed against something sharp. Tamara held her hand protectively against her body, sat up, and turned on the bedside lamp. A smudge of black marked her skin where the injury had occured. Her pink pillowcases were covered with same black smudges. One by one she threw off the pillows, sheets, and blankets until she sat alone with her fitted sheet. Tamara shifted her weight to stand and something rolled of the bed and landed on the floor with two small clanks.
Looking over the edge of the bed Tamara saw her newest eyeliner pencil snapped in two pieces.
“Damn it!” she cursed under her breath, “How the hell did that get into bed with me?”
“Tamara!” her mom called from the other side of her bedroom door, “How many times do I have to tell you not to leave your makeup where Tina and Tally can get it? You come and clean my bathroom mirror right now!”
Sighing Tamara scooped up the broken eyeliner and headed to her mom's bathroom. Her brain was still fuzzy with morning fog, but the damage was hard to miss. Three lip gloss tubes lay empty on the floor with their lids discarded. The mirror was covered in a thick layer of lip gloss and someone with tiny fingers had drawn hearts and butterflies.
“Damn it!” she cursed under her breath for the second time this morning, “What do the faeries have against makeup?”
“Those little brats sure love playing with your makeup, don't they?” her Dad chuckled as he walked by.
“I guess so.”
After she finished cleaning the mirror and the smudges of lip gloss off the bathroom floor Tamara returned to her room. Maybe the little brats did enjoy playing with her makeup. Tamara rummaged through her desk drawers, being poked by pencils, lidless pens, hair clips, and various other items with sharp corners until her fingers finally wrapped around what she wanted. For her birthday Tina had gotten her a tube of sour grape lip gloss that she had never used, because who wants to be tasting sour grape all day? The faces that resulted from puckering her lips each time she tasted the stuff would surely cause wrinkles.
Sneaking past Amber wasn't as easy as Tamara thought it would be. Not wanting her dad to think she was arguing with Amber, meant she couldn't ask him to drop her off anywhere else. His big case was finally closed and he had won.
“Tonight we're all going for dinner! You can even invite Amber if you want.”
“I'll see if she can come.”
“Are you okay, Tam?” he asked, as the car pulled up to the curb. Tamara glanced around and not seeing Amber made a dash for it without answering her father's question.