Prom Nights from Hell(40)

 

«Holy crap!» I exclaimed as the world spread out beneath us, silver and black in the moonlight. «You have wings?»

 

Barnabas laughed, and with my stomach dropping in a tingling surge, we went higher.

 

Maybe… maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

 

 

 

Kiss and Tell

 

Michele Jaffe

 

 

 

 

Chapter One

 

 

 

«Sorry this wasn't more of a storybook ending,» the man with his hands around her throat said, smiling, holding her eyes with his own as he choked her.

 

«If you're going to kill me, can't you just get on with it? This is kind of uncomfortable.»

 

«What, my hands? Or the feeling that you're a failure-«

 

«I'm not a failure.»

 

«-again.»

 

She spit in his face.

 

«Still got some fire. I really admire that about you. I think you and I could have gotten along nicely. Unfortunately, there just isn't time.»

 

She gave one last fight, clawing at his hands around her throat, his forearms, anything, but he didn't even flinch. Her fists fell hopelessly to her sides.

 

He leaned in so close to her face that she could feel him exhale. «Any last words?»

 

«Three: Listerine breath strips. You really need them.»

 

He laughed and tightened the hands around her neck until they overlapped. «Good-bye.»

 

For a second, his eyes burned into hers. Then she heard a sharp crack and felt herself fall to the floor as everything went black.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Two

 

 

 

EIGHT HOURS EARLIER…

 

«Foxy girls know that silence may be golden-but only for four seconds. Anything longer and you re heading for Awkward Avenue,» Miranda read, then frowned at the book. «If you feel the countdown creeping, make him an offer! A simple 'Would you like some nuts?' said with a smile can break the silence stagnation in a snap. Remember, foxy is as foxy does.»

 

Miranda was starting to deeply distrust How to Get-And Kiss!-Your Guy.

 

Leaning against the side of the black Town Car parked in the loading zone at the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport that June evening, she thought of how totally thrilled she'd been when she'd found it at the bookstore. It looked like an and-they-all-lived-happily-ever-after dream come true in book form-who wouldn't want to learn «The Five Facial Expressions That Will Change Your Life» or «The Secrets of the Tongue Tantra Only Da Pros Know»?-but having done all the exercises, she wasn't convinced of the transformative powers of the Winsome Smile or spending half an hour a day sucking on a grape. It wasn't the first time a self-help book had let her down-Procrastinate No More and Make Friends with YOU had both been total disasters-but it was depressing because she'd had such high hopes this time. And because, as her best friend, Kenzi, recently pointed out, any senior in high school who acted like Miranda did around her crush really, really needed help.

 

She tried another passage. «Rephrase one of his questions back to him, adding that hint of suggestion with a raised eyebrow. Or pick up the conversation with a pickup line! You: Are we in the china section? Him: No, why? You: Because you are fine. If china isn't your thing, this one never fails to launch-You: Are you wearing space pants? Him: No, why? You: Because your butt is-«

 

«Hello, Miss Kiss.»

 

Miranda looked up and found herself staring up at the cleft chin and tanned face of Deputy Sergeant Caleb Reynolds.

 

She must have been really distracted to not even have heard his heartbeat when he approached. It was distinctive, with a little echo at the end, kind of like a one-two-three cha-cha beat (she'd learned about the cha-cha beat from You Can Dance!, another massively unfortunate self-help experience). He'd probably have trouble with that when he got old, but at twenty-two it didn't seem to be stopping him from going to the gym, at least from the looks of his pecs, biceps, shoulders, forearms, wrists-

 

Stop staring.

 

Since she had an attack of Crazy Mouth whenever she tried to talk to a cute guy-let alone Santa Barbara's youngest sheriff's deputy, who was only four years older than she and who surfed every morning before work and who was cool enough to get away with wearing sunglasses even though it was almost 8:00 p.m.-she said, «Hi, deputy. Come here often?»

 

Causing him to frown. «No.»

 

«No, you wouldn't, why would you? Me either. Well, not that often. Maybe once a week. Not often enough to know where the bathrooms are. Ha-ha!» Thinking, not for the first time, that life should come with a trapdoor. Just a little exit hatch you could disappear through when you'd utterly and completely mortified yourself. Or when you had spontaneous zit eruptions.