Incipient A Dark Paranormal Romance - Bianca Scardoni Page 0,71
and then reached into my pocket for my cash. Okay, so nutritious was a stretch, but at least I was eating.
“I got it,” he said as he rose from the table and walked off with Ben trailing behind him.
I was going to have to clear the air with him, and sooner rather than later. If there was anything I couldn’t stomach, it was Trace giving me the cold shoulder, and lying to his face was a surefire way to get back into that frosty place with him.
Turning back to the trio in front of me, I fixed my gaze on Morgan. “Nikki still sick?”
Her eyes darted up from her phone. “Yeah,” she answered as Carly and Caleb started talking quietly amongst themselves. “Not that I’ve been allowed to see her.” She grumbled out that last part and my eyes narrowed.
“What do you mean, you’re not allowed to see her?”
“She has some family in town,” she said, as lips pursing with annoyance. “They’re taking care of her while she’s, you know, sick, but they’re total assholes. I tried to go see her yesterday and they straight up wouldn’t let me in the house.”
My brows scrunched together at this strange development.
“Who picks a bunch of strangers over their best friend?” she asked as though she couldn’t even fathom it. “I’ve never even heard her mention these people once.”
“So, you’ve never seen them before yesterday?”
She shook her head. “Apparently they’re from out of town.” She shrugged her shoulder. “Some cousins and an aunt—I think that’s what they said. Honestly, I just wanted to get out of there. They gave me the heebie jeebies.”
Something about this wasn’t sitting well with me, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Why would Nikki’s family not allow her to see her own best-friend? And since when did Nikki allow anyone to tell her what to do?
I was going to need to pay Nikki another visit. And soon. “I take it she’s not going to the meeting tonight?”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” she said and pushed a lock of curls behind her ear. “But you never know with Nikki.”
“What about Nikki?” asked Trace as he and Ben returned to our lunch table with trays in hand. He placed mine in front of me and then sat down, his eyes still on me.
“I was just asking if she was going to the meeting tonight,” I said as I skimmed a French-fry off the top of the pile.
“Why?” he asked, looking wholly confused as to why I suddenly gave a crap about where Nikki was going to be.
I really needed to learn to think before I spoke. It would free up so much of the time I spent trying to come up with plausible stories to make up for the dumb crap that came out of my mouth. “We have a project together for English,” I lied, avoiding his probing eyes. “It’s not a big deal. I’ll catch her some other time.”
I wasn’t sure if he bought the excuse or not, nor did I venture a look in his direction out of fear that he would see the lie in my eyes.
“Well, now that all the boring homework shit is out of the way, let’s talk about something actually important,” declared Ben as he dug into his own cheeseburger. “The Blood Ball,” he mumbled with a full mouth.
I nearly choked on my food. “The what now?”
“The Halloween dance,” chirped Carly, her face completely lit up at the mere mention of it. “I’m on the decorating committee this year, and not to brag, but I’m going to knock it out of the field.”
“Park,” corrected Caleb absentmindedly.
“Huh?” She turned to her brother, confused.
“The saying is ‘knock it out of the park.’”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Whatever. Anyways, it’s going to be the highlight of the entire Fall Festival. You’re going, right?” Her question was directed at me.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I mean—”
“No. You have to come,” she cut in before I could finish my sentence. “It’s tradition. Everyone goes.”
“Oh, okay. Yeah, I mean. I guess I’ll go.” At that point, I honestly didn’t feel like I had a choice in the matter. She was beyond intense, and frankly, she was scaring me a little. I’d come up with an excuse some other time.
“So, who are you going to ask to the dance?” asked Ben, his mouth stuffed with food again. He really needed to learn to speak in between bites. “Since it’s lady’s choice and all.”