Entanglement (YA Dystopian Romance) - By Dan Rix Page 0,2
back at the boy and girl seated on the driftwood only to find that once again, the hooded figure had vanished. The girl sat alone.
Aaron scanned the beach, now frantic. Something weird had happened when Clive bumped him, and he needed to figure out what. Aaron couldn’t find him in the crowd, though, and his eyes darted back to the girl. Maybe she could explain.
“I’m going to go talk to her,” said Aaron, making up his mind before she, too, could disappear. He barged through what was now a Corona Blanca team huddle and slogged toward the girl.
A player muttered behind him, “Where do these Pueblo guys get their nerve?”
“It’s because he doesn’t have to live with the embarrassment of seeing her at school. I’d talk to her if she was a Pueblo chick.”
“Nah, it’s because he was running behind-the-back quick sets all night—”
Aaron ignored the rest. As he trudged through the sand, he was more concerned with what in God’s name he was going to say to this girl once he got to her.
***
Amber Lilian was way more than just pretty, he realized, when she finally glanced up at the sound of his approach, the gleaming whites of her eyes warning him not to take another step. Caught in the girl’s predatory stare, Aaron felt his pulse quicken as he covered the last few feet.
“I need to talk to you about your boyfriend,” he said, sitting next to her.
She eyed the narrow gap he’d left between them and, without a word, edged away from him.
He tried again. “You know, that guy in the hoodie—”
“Why are you even here?” she said, interrupting him. “You guys lost.”
“I’m aware of that.” Aaron undid his laces and kicked off his shoes. “So, about that guy—” He glanced up, but the sight of her up close caught him off guard, and he trailed off. She brushed her hair behind her ear, still watching him. So it was a staring contest. Fine. Except staring into Amber’s strikingly green eyes gave Aaron the same bad feeling he got at zoos when he accidentally locked eyes with the caged panthers—the ones that could rip his throat out.
Aaron felt his gaze slipping and broke their stare, noticing with relief that she broke at the same time.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she said.
Heart still racing, Aaron nodded to the group of green jerseys he had come from. “Your school’s volleyball team says he is.”
“I think I would know,” she said, flashing him another warning look.
“Then who is he?”
“Do you actually care or is this just an excuse to talk to me?” she said.
On any other day, Aaron would have juggled coals as an excuse to talk to this girl, but tonight, he worried more about the throbbing pain at the back of his skull and what Clive Selavio had done to cause it. He tried another angle. “What was that red thing he showed you earlier?”
“Nothing,” she said, a threatening tone in her voice as she edged away from him again.
“So you guys are the real deal,” he said, “same birthdays and all?”
“So what?” she said. “Why is everyone so obsessed with birthdays? I’m going to belong to my half for the rest of my life. Can’t I just be a normal seventeen-year-old right now?”
Aaron blinked. She had just put into words exactly what he felt about his own birthday. Before he could respond, though, he sensed the tension in her body as she fought a shiver.
“Are you okay?” he said. “You look cold.”
“Don’t even think about putting your arm around me.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
Amber glared at him, then laughed to herself. “As if you would understand. You probably downloaded that dumb birthday countdown app on your cell phone and check it every five minutes just like everyone else.”
“Actually, I do understand,” said Aaron. “I’m dreading my birthday too. I have scar tissue in my brain blocking my clairvoyant channel, so when everyone else gets to meet their soul mate, I get to see what’s missing. And I didn’t download that app.”
His answer must have surprised her. She stared at him, mouth open, and forgot to brush away the curtain of hair that fell in front of her eyes.
Just then, a commotion near the bonfire drew their attention. A group of juniors was talking excitedly, and as others joined in and cheered them on, they took off their shirts.
Two guys ran over to Aaron and Amber’s log. “Hey, like twenty of us are going skinny dipping, you guys want to