Dee apologized profusely before gym class started, and then hugged me for what I did. She tried to talk to me while we lined up for volleyball, but I was...numb. There was no mistaking the fact that Ash hated me. Why? It couldn't be because of Daemon. It was more than that. I didn't know what.
After school I drove home, trying to figure out everything that had happened since I moved here. The first day I'd felt something on the porch and in the house. The day at the lake, Daemon had sprouted gills. The flash of light with the bear and at the library had to be the same. And all that junk Lesa had been saying.
Once I got home, though, and saw several packages on my front porch, all the crap from the day disappeared. A few had smiley faces on them. Squealing, I grabbed the boxes. Books were inside - new release books I'd preordered weeks ago.
I hurried upstairs and powered up my laptop.
I checked on the review I'd posted last night. No comments. People sucked. But I did gain five new followers. People rocked. I closed out the page before I started redesigning everything.
Then I Googled "people of light" and after initial results gave me a bunch of Bible-study groups, I typed in "Mothman." Oh. Dear. Lord.
West Virginians were crazy. Down in Florida, every once in a while someone claimed to see Big Foot out in the Glades or the chupacabra, but not a giant flying whatever he was. He looked like a huge satanic butterfly.
Why in the hell was I looking at this?
It was insane. I stopped myself before I started searching for aliens in West Virginia. As soon as I went downstairs, there was a knock on my door. It was Dee.
"Hey," she said, "can we talk?"
"Sure?" I shut the door behind me and walked outside. "My mom's still asleep."
She nodded as I sat on the swing. "Katy, I am so, so sorry about today. Ash is a complete bitch sometimes."
"It's not your fault she acted like that," I said, meaning it. "But what I don't get is why she and Daemon acted like that." I stopped, feeling that stupid burn in my throat. "I shouldn't have dumped my food on them, but I've never been more embarrassed in my life." Dee sat beside me, crossing her ankles. "I think it was actually kind of funny, what you did and not what they did. If I'd known they were going to be so terrible about everything I would've made sure they didn't." Water under the bridge, I guessed.
She drew in a deep breath. "Ash isn't Daemon's girlfriend. She wants to be, but she's not."
"It didn't look that way to me."
"Well, they do...hang out."
"He's using her?" Disgusted, I shook my head. "What a douche."
"I think it's mutual on both sides. Honestly, they did date last year for a little bit, but then it cooled off. Today was the most I'd seen him pay attention to her in months."
"She hates me," I said after a few minutes, sighing. "I don't care about that right now. I wanted to ask you something."
"Okay."
I bit my lip. "We're friends, right?"
"Of course!" She looked at me with wide eyes. "Honestly, Daemon scares everyone off and you've lasted the longest, and, well, I think you're like my best friend."
I was relieved to hear that. Not the part about me lasting the longest, because that sounded weird. Like they broke their friends or something. "Same here."
She smiled broadly. "Good, because I would've felt stupid for say-ing that if you decided you didn't want to be friends anymore with me."
The sincerity in her voice struck a chord in me. Suddenly, I wasn't sure that I wanted to question her. Maybe it was something she didn't want to talk about because it was too painful. In the short time I'd known we'd grown close, and I didn't want to upset her.
"Why did you ask?" she prodded.
I tucked my hair back, staring down at the floor. "Why didn't you ever tell me about Dawson?"
Dee froze. I don't even think she breathed, to be honest. Then she ran a hand up and down her arm, swallowing. "I guess someone told you about him at school?"
"Yeah, they told me he disappeared with a girl."
Pressing her lips together, she nodded. "I know you probably think it's weird that I'd never mentioned him, but I don't like talking about him. I try not to even think