Fire Stones - By Kailin Gow Page 0,44

to eat lunch with Chance, but a quick scan of the cafeteria proved that he was nowhere to be found. “Sure,” I said. “Why not?”

“Listen – I looked for Brandon, but he’s mysteriously out of town. His mom said he went down island to visit his grandmother.” He furrowed his brow. “Not exactly good timing…I’m getting more suspicious. His mother said he was taking his grandma to some of the old shrines – it’s a thing they do; his family is descended from the original islanders that lived here, and a lot of the old families do shrine trips this time of year. But it’s not good news.”

I patted Varun’s hand. “I know it’s hard, Varun,” I stared.

He waved away my concern. “I’ll do what I have to do to find out the truth,” said Varun. He gave me a weak smile. “Well, if Brandon bails on us, maybe we’ll get Chance to help out at the party?” I could tell the joke hurt him, but I appreciated his attempts at humor. Unfortunately, the thought of being with Varun and Chance together at the same party made my stomach plummet. How could I deal with being so close to both of them at the same time? How could I hide my feelings for Varun with Chance right there? But the idea of seeing Chance was too powerful to resist.

“Well, you can always take Haven for your date.” I tried to be cheerful. “Although she promises she’s over her crush on you – I’m sure you could win her back.”

Varun rolled his eyes. “Too late.” He handed me an exquisitely calligraphied invitation from his bag. It was a note from Haven. “She’s already asked me to be her date. I told her I had to work – she said it didn’t matter. She wanted it to be a date anyway. Even if I was slopping cake at her birthday instead of classing it up with the other guys.”

“She still has feelings for you? I didn’t realize…”

“Me neither,” said Varun. “I guess after Jana died, she tried to move on out of respect for her friend – but I can’t imagine you coming into town made it any easier for her. Maybe she realized I was ready – and now that you and I are just friends…” He sighed, but said nothing. I wanted to reach out to him, to touch him, to kiss the pain from his face.

But I said nothing.

Varun rose to his feet sadly. “I’ll see you tonight, I guess,” he said as he walked away.

Chapter 18

I found Chance in the locker rooms after school. He was wearing a tight black T-shirt that clearly showed off his muscles and loose cotton black pants.

“Missed you at lunch today,” I said, kissing him.

“I was practicing my fighting skills in the woods,” he replied. “With everything that’s been going on lately, school hasn’t seemed quite so important, you know? I need to keep my strength up if I’m going to keep you safe!”

I lightly kissed his nose. “How about keeping me company instead?”

“When?”

“After school…”

“Of course. Anytime.”

“So you’ll be my date to Haven’s party?”

Chance looked up at me, taken aback.

“Brandon’s mysteriously out of town – no surprise there – and it looks like we need an extra helper to host. I’m working that shift.”

Chance laughed weakly. “You tricked me, woman! I thought we were going on a date.”

“We are going on a date. The kind that involves aprons and nametags.”

Chance groaned.

“Come on – it’ll be fun. Besides, we’ll be able to spy on the others – if Brandon wasn’t the one who attacked me, we might be able to find out who did.”

“I can’t say I’m overly thrilled at the idea of spending time with Haven’s crowd,” Chance admitted.

“She’s not so bad,” I said. “Ever since we started out on swim team together. In fact, she’s been rather nice.”

“You’re too trusting,” said Chance. “She’s a Water deity. You can’t trust her.”

“Besides, she’s got a crush on Varun. I’m – uh – trying to set them up.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but the look of relief flooding over Chance’s face was worth it. If he thought Varun was interested in someone else, I reasoned, he wouldn’t be quite so worried about our friendship. “Come on, Chance – help us out. It’d be a big help to my mom and me – and besides, I’m sure you’d be making your dad really proud.”

Chance scoffed. “I can’t remember a time my dad’s ever been proud