Havoc:Mayhem Series #4(20)

Before we get to the pond, I take Mike's hat off and wordlessly hand it  back to him, and he removes his arm from Rowan's shoulder to take it.  His brow furrows, and I look away from it.

Yes, I understand that he is the type of guy to lend his hats to his  female friends and wrap his arm around their shoulders, but his  girlfriend is my cousin, and while I've worn the hats of other male  friends, wearing Mike's hat doesn't feel as harmless as all that.

Maybe it's the look Danica would give me if she saw me in it . . .

Then again, maybe it's something else.

Turns out, it doesn't even matter. Three sets of boots clang onto the  dock and then out onto the platform, but Danica is too busy talking on  her phone to even notice.

"Did you two have fun in the woods?" Dee suggests, and I school my expression.

"Maybe if your idea of fun is running for your life through mud and lightning."

"I had fun," Mike says from behind me. His hat gets pushed down onto my  head a third time, and I squint at him over my shoulder. "Did you know  Hailey is a vegetarian?"

"You don't eat meat?" Joel asks, zipping up his fly after he finishes  pissing off the end of the dock. He joins our conversation, and I'm  wading through the usual shock and awe over me being a vegetarian, when  Danica suddenly bounds up and wraps her arms around Mike. She nearly  drags him to his knees.

"Did they tell you the news?!"

"What news?"

"She's going to be in the music video," Dee says with a suspicious amount of approval, and Danica beams.

"Shawn likes my idea! I'm going to be the star!"

"The star ghost," Dee corrects, and Danica smiles wide.

"Right. Right. The star ghost. It's going to be amazing! I-" Her phone  starts ringing, and she checks the screen. Without excusing herself, she  answers it. "Katie, you whore! I've been trying to call you all day!  Guess who's going to be in the music video. Yes!" My cousin wanders to  the edge of the platform, and Mike sighs.                       
       
           



       

"We ought to get going," Rowan suggests, and as if on cue, warning  thunder growls in the distance. "It's supposed to rain again." She calls  to Adam and Shawn, who are sitting at the other side of the platform,  and asks them to start packing up.

"Did they finish everything they wanted to get done today?" I ask,  remembering that Adam and Shawn spent a lot of time scouting the woods  before Danica asked me to take that walk with her earlier this  afternoon. I'm not sure if they accomplished everything they came up  here to do today, but I hope so, because the video is shooting in just  two weeks.

Rowan answers me as I help her roll up the picnic blanket. "Yeah, they  found places for good shots, and they got a rough idea of how many  extras and lights they'll need. I think everything is good to go." She  glances up at Danica and sighs. "Can you get her? I don't think she  heard me."

Sure enough, Danica is walking all along the edge of the dock as she  chatters on her phone, her hands animating her words and proving just  how oblivious she is to everything going on around her. I reluctantly  walk over and invade her blast zone.

"Hey, Dani-Danica."

With the phone to her ear, she flashes me her irritated face, the one  I've grown exceedingly familiar with, and goes back to ignoring me.

"We're leaving soon. Rowan wanted-"

"What do you want?" she snaps at me. "I'm trying to talk to Katie about  the video." Her voice lowers to a whisper, and she covers the mouthpiece  of the phone. "The concept you were supposed to help me sell, but never  did."

"I-"

"You better not think I still owe you a favor."

Danica sneers at me and puts the phone back to her ear, and I stand  there dazed as she backs away from me. "Are you still there?" she asks  Katie. "Yeah, I just-"

Her voice fades out as I watch the disaster about to happen. The clump  of wet leaves clinging to the steel dock, Danica's useless  fashion-forward boot about to back into them. I reach out to grab her at  the same time her foot slips out from under her. She stops falling  backward, backward, and I get pulled forward, forward.

"DANI!" I shriek as she yanks on my arm to save herself. And then I'm catapulting-

Off the dock-

Through the air-

Down into the pitch-black water.





Chapter 14




I never knew that sparks could be quiet-like a silent firework that no  one even knows is exploding until they gaze up at the moon and see the  whole night sky consumed by burning color. A person can just be drowning  in a pond, minding their own business, when the whole world catches  fire.

Forests ignite. Houses burn down. One minute, you're breathing fresh air. And the next, you can't breathe at all.

Sometimes, you burn alive.

I don't know the moment I sparked, but I do know the moment I realized I  couldn't breathe. And it wasn't when Danica yanked me into that pond.  It wasn't when my calf got ripped open on the side of the dock. It  wasn't when Mike reached down and pulled me out of the water. And it  wasn't when he insisted I let him carry me on his back all the way back  to the cars so I wouldn't make a bad injury worse.

I think it happened sometime during that long trek back through the  woods, with my hands braced on his shoulders and his fingers curled  tight beneath my thighs. I was wearing his mostly dry hoodie and a pair  of extra leggings that Rowan had brought along, and all around me was  his scent and his touch and his feel. The rough calluses on his palms.  The strong muscles in his back. The lifts and dips of his stride.

I knew if I relaxed, if I lowered my chin to his shoulder and allowed my  cheek to brush against his, I'd feel the scruff on his jaw. I'd feel  his hair against my temple. I'd feel the soft curve of his neck.

But then he'd also be able to feel the frantic drumming of my heart. The  way it pounded furiously inside my chest at the thought of that scruff,  his hair, his neck, those eyes, his voice, his laugh, that smile . . .

That was the moment I stopped breathing. Something had sparked inside  me, and that spark stole all of the oxygen in the world. Something about  being with him today . . . about seeing his smile and hearing his laugh  and feeling him carrying me through the woods . . . it did something to  me. My realization happened near a tree that looked like another tree  that looked like another tree-with Danica walking right beside me.                       
       
           



       

You have a crush on Miiiike, came Dee's text, and I glanced over my  shoulder to see her wink at me. The whole group was walking with us,  navigating the dripping forest to get to the cars before the next storm  rolled in, and I hoped the flames flickering inside me weren't as  obvious to everyone as they were to my very annoying, very nosy, very  stubborn friend.

But she was right.

I had a crush on Mike.

I have a crush on Mike.

I tucked my phone into the sleeve of his hoodie and tried to remember  how to breathe evenly. But all I could focus on was his hands on my  legs, his hands on my legs.

Danica hadn't objected to him carrying me, which was surprising. And she  had also apologized half a dozen times for knocking me into the water,  which was even more surprising. She said it was an accident, and I  believed her.

Which was why I felt like the biggest bitch on the planet for crushing  on her boyfriend. While my arms and legs were wrapped around him.

He was being a gentleman. Danica was being nice. And I was being the  lowest kind of low. I wasn't the kind of girl who deserved piggyback  rides or apologies or favors. I was the kind of girl who developed  incinerating crushes on her own cousin's boyfriend. I was the kind of  girl who couldn't be just his friend. Who texted him at night. Who kept  it a secret. Who ran with him through the woods when he should have been  with his girlfriend.

His girlfriend. His girlfriend.

Danica.

My cousin.

I vowed then and there to keep my distance from Mike Madden. No more  gaming. No more texting. No more late-night phone calls. No more phone  calls ever.



"Come on," Luke whines over the phone four days after the pond, and I  brush my teeth in front of my bathroom sink as I listen to him.

"I can't," I tell him with a mouth full of toothpaste, and he whines some more.

"Come ooon."

"I'm not playing games tonight," I argue after spitting into the sink. I  feel guilty about disappointing my little brother, but he's obsessed  with Deadzone Five, and I'm obsessed with avoiding Mike.

I can do it. I can get over him. I have to.

Even if it hurts more than I thought it would-more than it should. It  hurts more than losing a friend, and that's exactly why I need to stay  away from Deadzone. At least until this aching in my chest goes away. At  least until I can sleep at night.