Teagan
By the time school finished on Friday I was looking forward to locking myself away from the world for two whole days.
Unfortunately Hope seemed to have other plans.
"Sorry for barging in, Uncle Max," Hope called out as she sauntered into my kitchen. "But I kinda need to borrow your niece for the evening."
"In case you've forgotten, I'm kind of grounded," I muttered, casting Max an evil look from where I was perched on the countertop, dressed in my ratty old sweats, waiting for the kettle to boil.
Max had extended my grounded sentence when Ellie – the rat – went straight to him, sobbing her little heart of stone out over the whole flour bombing incident at Thanksgiving.
Hope frowned and worried her lip anxiously. Her blue eyes were round as saucers as she swung around to stare at Max. "Please?" she asked softly.
Uncle Max sighed heavily from where he was sitting, watching us. "You can go," he grumbled as he closed the lid of his laptop and leaned back in his chair. "You've suffered enough."
Hope clapped her hands and grinned. "You're the best," she squealed. "I promise we won't be out too late."
"Keep her as long as you like," I heard Max chuckle and I shook my head in mock disgust as I hopped down from the counter and followed Hope to the kitchen door.
"Keep the tomfoolery to a minimum though, Teegs," Max said in a stern tone. He stood up and unplugged his laptop from its charger before sliding it into a brown leather case. "And no fighting with the neighbors."
****
"So what's up?" I asked, prying my arm out of Hope's grasp when we stepped outside.
It was dusk on the hill and the sky looked illusory darker than normal. I was hoping this was a sign of snow. I couldn’t freaking wait for the snow…
"I need you to come with me somewhere," she mumbled as we crossed the street towards her house.
Hope pushed the door inwards and I froze when it creaked spookily.
There's no such thing as ghosts…
There's no such thing as ghosts…
Hope, noticing my reaction, rolled her eyes and pulled me inside. "Who told you?" she asked as she pushed me up the staircase.
"Layton," I whispered, clutching her sleeve.
Hope huffed. "He's such a gossip."
"Is it true?"
"All of it and more probably," she mused as she pushed me down the hallway, stopping outside the last door on the right. "Relax," she added as she pushed the door inwards.
"There are no ghosts in this house, Teagan. They wouldn't get a minute's peace with my brothers," she added dryly, gesturing me into a yellow painted bedroom.
"Besides," she grumbled as she walked over to closet and pulled the door open. "We've got bigger problems."
"Like what?" I tentatively took a step into her bedroom, and when nothing bad happened I took another step.
I was halfway between the door and the bed when Hope turned around and glared at me. "No one died in here, Teagan."
"Right," I chuckled nervously and forced myself to walk over and sit on her bed. "Sorry."
"Don't sweat it." She smirked. "They died in the kitchen."
I jumped off the bed and Hope burst out laughing.
"That's not funny," I snapped. Grabbing a pillow from her bed, I chucked it at her. "I'm a little superstitious, okay?"
Hope cackled for a few more seconds before sobering. "On a serious note," she said as she forced herself to stop smiling. "I need you to come to the Ring of Fire with me."
Now I was the one laughing.
"I'm serious," she added before holding three fingers up. "Scouts honor."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm not Katniss Everdeen," I told her, pointing at her three fingered gesture. "And I'm more of a Walk the Line kinda girl."
"I love that book," Hope said with a grin. "And I'm not joking. Ash texted me saying she heard Cameron talking about going to the freaking Ring of Fire with Noah tonight. And low and behold the douche is now M.I.A, therefore I need to go and bring him home before he lands himself in the middle of Noah's crap – again."
"How is it I'm not one bit surprised to hear Noah Messina's involved in something called The Ring of Fire?"
Folding my arms over my chest, I let out a calming breath before asking, "I'm probably going to regret asking this, but is this Ring of Fire an actual place and what happens there?"
"It's a real place all right," Hope replied, her tone laced with disgust. "And from what the boys have told me it's like…" She paused and twirled her finger around as if trying to remember a word. "A playground for the shady and reckless."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning some bad illegal shit happens there, shit I don't want my brother involved in," she snapped. "And my parents are due home tomorrow night."
Lovely. Sounds very enticing…
Rummaging in the bottom of her closet Hope starting tossing item after item of clothing behind her. "And I can't risk driving my car up there," she grumbled as she eyed a red boobtube dress skeptically before throwing it in a separate pile than the others. "Because dad more than likely has someone watching my movements." She sighed in disgust. "He's a serious control-freak, I don't know how my mother puts up with him….Ah, that's it." Hope grinned at what looked like a piece of cloth.
"Put this on," she told me, flinging it in my direction. "We need to blend it. Don't want anyone thinking we're cops."
"You can't be serious," I muttered, picking up the tiny white piece of stretchy fabric.
"Oh, I'm deadly serious." She tossed a beautiful pair of black leather boots in my direction. I caught them with ease before tossing them down on her bed.
"An illegal ring of fire?" I shook my head and gaped at her. "Let me get this straight. You want me to go with you into the middle of no-man's land so you can spy on your idiot brother – who's most likely in the company of my arch-enemy – and make sure he doesn't get arrested?"
"Yeah," Hope replied as she blew a curl off her face. "Sounds about right."
"There's no way in hell I'm going anywhere Noah Messina will be – unless it's someplace mandatory like school or the footpath outside my house."
I forced myself to believe that Noah hadn’t hurt my feelings in the slightest when he tossed my concern for his wellbeing back in my face the other day. I'd have to care about what Noah thought in order for it to hurt me. I'd have to care about him. And I didn’t. I refused to…
"Are you hiding?" She laughed loudly, pointing her skinny finger in my face. "Oh my god." She leaned back in her heels and studied me with an astonished look on her face. "You're hiding from Noah Messina." She shook her head and mused, "You're letting him beat you."
"I am not hiding from him," I spat, my tone of voice defensive – way too defensive. "And I am not letting him beat me, I just…we were…and he just…" I wasn't sure what I was trying to tell my friend.
Hope's perfectly shaped eyebrows rose in surprise and I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks.
"He disturbs me, all right," I snapped. "He makes me nervous. Happy now?"
"Ecstatic," she shot back, clapping her hands. "Put that skirt on and make him nervous."
I shook my head. "I'm not going. No way, no how, it's never gonna happen. I promised Max I wouldn’t fight with the neighbors." I stared meaningfully at my friend's face. "A promise I'm sure to break the second I lay eyes on Noah Messina." Ugh.
"Please, Teagan," Hope begged. "I really need your help."
I felt my will buckling under her persuasive kneading. I knew that I was going to cave in and she knew it too.
And then Hope used an evil-bastard of a trick.
She used the puppy eyes.
****