Chapter 1
Melissa Martin paced about her room nervously until a trio of beeps startled her. She froze and looked in the direction of the sound. It had come from the cell phone in her purse, and had seemed far louder than usual. She rushed to her bed where her bag sat, hoping another set would not ring out, and quickly retrieved her phone. She pressed a single button and her display screen brightened. A small envelope icon in the lower left corner indicated that a message awaited her. She was fairly certain of who the message was from, but checked, nevertheless.
Kevin Anderson had sent two simple words to her via text message. I’m here was all it said. And with those two words, her plan had been set in motion.
She inhaled deeply and put her phone back in her bag before crossing her room and placing a hand on her doorknob. She turned it slowly, all the while willing it to twist silently. When it had rotated as far as it would go, she pulled it toward her and opened the door. She scanned the hallway beyond her room and found it dark and still, and saw that her father’s bedroom door was shut. Satisfied that he was sleeping, she closed her door, tiptoed to her bed and grabbed her purse. Her heart thundered in her ears and her hands shook as she moved to her window. She knew she ought to hurry, that Kevin was waiting for her, but paused briefly to consider what she was doing. She looked out, beyond the pane of glass she stood before, beyond her own reflection, into the blackened sky. The sky seemed darker than normal, foreboding, as if it wished to warn her to stop, to stay inside. She knew that was exactly what she should do, stay inside, and forget about Kevin. Her stomach ached and quivered. She knew what she was about to do was wrong, that the consequences could be devastating. She had a good sense of judgment, after all. But she ignored it, as well as the worry that teemed inside her.
Pushing the worry to the back of her mind, she swallowed hard, placed both hands on the sill of her window and raised the pane first, then the screen. A gust of cold air rushed in. She hadn’t seen the treetops stir, didn’t know it would be a windy night, yet a strong blast of air had sent her lavender curtains fluttering and billowing so wildly, they had covered her face and temporarily obscured her vision with their flimsy fabric. The unexpected squall ended as mysteriously as it had begun, however, and left her wondering whether it, like the unusually dark sky, sought to convey some cosmic message.
She shook her head and rolled her eyes at the thought of cosmic messages, and guessed that nerves, and nerves alone, were responsible for such thoughts. After all, neither the elements nor the cosmos cared whether she went or not. Her father would, though. She was sure he would not appreciate her skulking off in the middle of the night to meet Kevin. And if she were caught doing so, he would not trust her again anytime soon.
The thought of losing her father’s trust halted her, but not for long. Her phone beeped again as if impatiently urging her on. Without further thought and despite her reservations, she climbed out of her second-story window out onto the frost-coated roof of the garage. She slid down its length on her backside until she reached the edge. After carefully avoiding contact with debris in the gutter, she grabbed hold of an outstretched tree limb. The limb belonged to an old oak that grew alongside her house. She climbed onto it and began carefully navigating the network of branches deep within the tree until she reached the lowest branch and dropped to the frozen grass below
She took a few timid steps and looked over her shoulder at her house. Save for the faint glow her nightlight radiated in her window, the house, and the tree, were enveloped in darkness. Cold crept up her body from the icy lawn. She turned from her house, wrapped her arms around her shoulders and wished she’d worn a heavier jacket, or perhaps had forgone the meeting entirely. Either way, she was out already and she did not turn back. Instead, she stole across her lawn and rushed down her street. She moved so quickly, she hardly noticed the humble, uniform houses on Blackstone Drive. Her own home, small and modest like the ones it neighbored, grew smaller and smaller in the distance until it disappeared. She neared the edge of her neighborhood in the unassuming community of Harbingers Falls, New York and immediately saw Kevin’s car.
His sleek, black Infiniti G37 Sport Coupe was unmistakable. Undoubtedly freshly washed and waxed, she reached out for the passenger side lever, careful not to mar the flawless finish, and the internal lights illuminated the interior. For most, the overhead lighting would have been unflattering, but not Kevin. Kevin was arguably the most popular boy at Harbingers High School, and for good reason. He captained both the basketball and football teams, maintained a solid B plus average in his academic studies and was charming beyond his years. Women of all ages swooned and fawned over him. He was beautiful. He towered at six-foot-four-inches tall and weighed a substantial two hundred and twenty-five pounds. But despite his powerful physique, he was wide-eyed and fine-featured with looks that flirted with feminine prettiness. His eyes were a deep, chocolate brown and fringed with long lashes. He wore his sandy-blond hair styled expertly into a spiky faux-hawk. His face rivaled any movie star she had ever seen. And if his face and body were not enough to frenzy the women around him, his unique smile put them over the edge. When he spread his full lips and showed his blindingly white teeth, his smile revealed a single dimple in the center of his right cheek. This anomaly provided genuine character to his near-perfect appearance.
He flashed his signature smile at her as she seated herself in the passenger side of his car. But something about the way that he smiled seemed forced, phony even. For reasons that were unclear, she found it cocky.
Her guess was that his womanizing career had entitled him to that cocky smile. His reputation was no secret to her, or anyone else for that matter. But she had long since considered herself invulnerable to his lures, to his charm. Yet, she was sitting with him in his car on a school night when she should have been home sleeping. And she had defied her father. Her temples began to pound and she replayed his courtship of her, how he’d been so polite and sincere. He’d said all the right things, had expressed interest in her interests. He had sought her out, selected her over the multitudes jockeying for his attention. He had made her feel special. But she did not feel special any more. In fact, as he smiled at her, he seemed smug, and she felt certain she had manufactured most, if not all, of his sincerity.
“Hey,” he said cheerfully. “I’m so glad you decided to come.”
A moment of pure panic seized her. She suddenly wanted nothing more than to slip out of the car and teleport back to her house. Of course, neither was an option. Instead she muttered, “Yep. Me, too,” and stared at the clock mounted on the dashboard. It read 12:08 p.m. Her stomach sank to her feet.
“You look hot. And you smell phenomenal,” he said and raised his eyebrows mischievously. He then surprised her by leaning across the center console and brushing his nose against the nape of her neck. He inhaled the sweet blend of vanilla, caramel and coconut, her signature fragrance, that she had applied perhaps a bit too generously. She supposed his gesture was meant to be some kind of seductive move to entice her. But she did not feel roused in the least. Rather, the fluid, flagrant way he flirted annoyed her. He was smooth, too smooth.
“Thanks,” she replied halfheartedly. “So, where are we going,” she asked hoping to change the subject to a platonic topic.
“I was thinking we would go over to the Rec Center and hang out, you know, and get to know each other better.”
She shuttered at the thought of going there. By day, the East Fallkill Recreation Center was a designated area for activities. At night, however, it was a popular haunt for local teenagers. Beer and various other alcoholic drinks were brought and consumed in abundance, and sexual intercourse, in all its forms, invariably occurred. Melissa guessed that talking was the last thing that he wanted to do. She immediately tried to rebuff his invitation.
“Why don’t we go to the diner in town? We can talk there, and eat. I’m starved,” she
suggested.
Kevin tipped his head imploringly in Melissa’s direction and pushed out his lower lip in exaggerated disappointment.
“I was really hoping we could talk privately. You know, just the two of us. I want to be with just you.”
He reached his right hand over the center console and gently squeezed her knee. Instead of promptly removing it though, he let his hand linger a moment too long. She felt her stomach churn nervously. She wanted to tell him to forget about it, that it was the diner or home for her, but felt powerless to reject him outright. Doing so would instigate social repercussions she did not want to endure. His reputation for womanizing went hand in hand with one that was less familiar, and not discussed as often. His penchant for revenge was eclipsed only slightly by his flirtatious ways. She felt compelled to agree with him.
“Fine, I mean, whatever,” she heard herself say. “The Rec Center it is. But I can’t stay long. If my dad gets up and sees that I’m gone, he’ll ground me until graduation.”
“Wow. He sounds tough.”
“You have no idea. Since my mom died, he takes the whole parenting thing way too seriously,” she chattered nervously. “I mean, it’s like extreme parenting or something. He has to know where I am every minute of the day. He worries so much.”
She felt like she had to exaggerate her father’s protectiveness to set some kind of time constraint on their time together at the Rec Center. Her father was a perfect excuse.
“I’m surprised you came out tonight. All the other times I asked, you said no,” he said ignoring the comments about her father.
“You can thank Daniella for that. She talked me into it.”
Daniella, one of Melissa’s best friends, was largely responsible for her agreeing to meet Kevin. Daniella, ever the romantic, had helped convince her that Kevin was something he was not. She would not blame her friend in the morning, but intended to dispute her every fanciful idealization of him.
Thoughts of the next morning, and yearning for the evening to end already, swirled in her head. She did not dare speak of them. Instead, she sat quietly as he drove, and became increasingly uneasy as they approached their destination. When he finally pulled his car into the driveway of the East Fallkill Recreation Center, her stomach roiled anxiously. He tested the engine of his sports car and sped down the long pathway past tennis courts, baseball fields, a stout concession building and a football field, before reaching a play area. Just beyond the playground, the pavement extended into an expansive lot. Both the lot and the playground were poorly lit and provided little exposure during the infrequent police patrol spotlight searches.
He slowed then stopped and shifted the car into park before switching off the headlamps. She felt nauseated and dizzy, and contemplated calling it a night when he leaned toward her without warning. She did not know if he was moving in for a kiss, but was relieved when he rested his elbow on her arm rest. He touched his index finger to her chin and smiled his blindingly white, single-dimpled smile, then said, “Hey, I’m sorry about your mom. How old were you when she died?”
She stiffened at his touch, at his mention of her mother. Her mother was not a subject she was comfortable discussing in general, much less with someone unfamiliar. She reluctantly answered, “I was seven.”
“Huh. That must have been rough. I bet she was as beautiful as you are.”
Melissa felt her cheeks flush and was grateful for the extraordinarily dark night sky. She did not like shameless flattery together with mention of her mother. She contemplated a curt response, but came up empty. Try as she may, the words she longed for, ones that would put him in his place, would not come. As she tried to formulate a retort, Kevin surprised her. Without warning, he closed the distance between them and pressed his lips to hers.
At first his kiss was confident and gentle. Quickly, however, it transformed from being unexpected to offensive. His lips began crushing hers. His tongue probed for hers as his hands seemed to multiply, and explore intimate parts of her.
Her body went rigid. He was advancing on her too quickly, and without permission.
“Hey! Quit it, Kevin!” she exclaimed and pulled away from him.
He backed off, but only slightly. He leaned in to kiss her again and cupped her breast in his hand.
“I’m serious! Get off!” she continued more forcefully.
“I just find you so beautiful. I have a hard time behaving myself,” Kevin argued impishly and made no effort to remove his hand.
“I want to go home! Now!” she yelled and shoved his hand off her.
“Are you kidding me? What are you some kind of tease? You come here in the middle of the night with me, looking the way you do and smelling the way you do and expect me to act like a saint?” he accused.
Her mind reeled. She couldn’t believe he was actually accusing her, as if she were wrong for not wanting to be groped. “Hey, don’t blame me. I thought we came here to get to know each other better, like you said.”
“Ha! That’s cute. I love the naive act,” he said bitingly.
“Naïve,” she started but was interrupted.
“Yeah, I think you need to go home now. I’ll take you home, gladly.”
She didn’t understand why he was being so mean all of a sudden. He had wanted to be with her. He had made the effort to get her with him in the weeks leading up to the present. None of it made sense. She did not know what to do and wondered whether she should get out of his car and walk home. He seemed abnormally angry given the circumstances. Her hand grazed the lever on the passenger side door. She was about to pull it when he switched on the headlights and slammed the gearshift into drive. He stepped on the accelerator and his well-equipped sports car responded immediately. The car lurched forward and sped down the driveway and out on to the main road. Once on the main road, he obeyed the speed limits, but they traveled silently.
The silence was so laden with tension, Melissa felt like screaming. By the time they’d reached Blackstone Drive, the frustration she’d been feeling had risen to a point where she did not trust herself to speak without crying. Kevin stopped the car several houses away from hers and turned off the headlights.
He did not say a word. And he did not flash his trademark smile. Instead, he stared straight ahead. She looked at him searchingly, but he refused to meet her gaze, so she climbed out of the car. She had just shut the passenger side door when he abruptly pulled away. She watched him go, watched him reach the stop sign at the bottom of her hill and turn his headlights back on. She heard the sound of spinning tires kicking up gravel as he sped off into the night. She stood for a moment, after his car had vanished, and felt the tears she had held back for the entire car ride well. She tried to blink them back, but it was no use. She cried silently as she turned and began walking up her hill. Her night had been disastrous. In her heart, she had known it would be; she just hadn’t wanted to admit it. As she approached her house, she realized her disastrous night was about to get much worse.
Nearly every window was lit. Only her bedroom window was dimmed by her father’s silhouette, which disappeared as soon as he saw her. Her heart sank as she walked up her driveway to the front door. It opened before her key was in the lock.
“I would ask you where the hell you’ve been, but I already know,” her father began. “Do you know how worried I was? What were you thinking? I thought you were smarter than this. Boy was I wrong!”
Her father was not a temperamental man. He was not prone to outbursts. The fact that he was shouting at her meant he was monumentally angry with her, and disappointed. Tears threatened anew.
“Dad, I’m so sorry. I know how angry you are,” she attempted.
“Angry?” he interrupted. “You think I’m just angry? I’m beyond angry! Angry was an hour ago! I was worried sick about you! I woke up coughing and went to the kitchen for a drink of water. When I passed your room and you weren’t there
, I assumed you were still up. Imagine my surprise and horror when I realized you were gone! I didn’t know what the hell had happened. I was about to call the police but tried Alexandra instead. She said she didn’t know where you were so I called Daniella. She answered the phone by asking how things went with you and Kevin tonight.”
He knew everything, or almost everything. He stood before her with his hands on his hips glowering at her. She had never realized how intimidating her dad looked before, how his thick muscles and barrel chest strained against his T-shirt and how a large vein protruded like a lightning bolt down his smoothly shaven head when he was angry. Perhaps she only saw him as the gentle man he was because he had not been angry with her in as long as she could recall. She began to cry.
“I made a mistake, a horrible mistake. I’m so sorry.”
Seeing her tears, her father softened. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m disappointed, Missy. I’m not going to lie. I love you, but I really don’t like what you did.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“You’re only seventeen. What were you thinking? What kind of guy wants to meet you in the middle of the night? You could have gotten yourself hurt, or killed.”
“Or mauled,” she said under her breath louder than she’d wanted.
“Mauled,” he asked and she saw the anger flash in his eyes. “What do you mean mauled?”
“Nothing, I meant nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me again,” he warned. “Did he hurt you, this Kevin guy? Which Kevin was it, Kevin McNally or Kevin Hartwig? Was it that jackass jock Anderson? Whichever it was, I can take a drive over there right now and let him try to maul me!”
“No, no Dad. Everything’s fine,” she lied and felt warmth spread across her cheeks. She was unaccustomed to lying to her father. “I was just, uh, supporting your argument.”
He did not seem convinced. “Melissa, you broke my trust once today. Do not try for a second time. When you lie to me I can’t trust you or protect you.”
The last thing she had wanted was to lose his trust, though she’d known it was a consequence from the start. She hated herself for being so stupid earlier, for choosing to do something that threatened the trust between them. She had been wrong, plain and simple. And earning her father’s trust back would not be easy. She cried quietly.
“Get some sleep, Missy. We’ll talk in the morning,” he father offered with a pained look.
“Aren’t you going to ground me ‘til I’m thirty?” she asked through sobs.
“Nope. I doubt it. I don’t think you’ll be sneaking out to meet that jerk, or any other, anytime soon. But in the meantime, I’m calling Ronnie and Frank tomorrow to see about chopping down that old oak by your window,” he said and winked. “Love you. And please don’t pull any crap like this again, okay?”
“Okay,” she breathed and watched as her father disappeared upstairs. She waited a moment before going up to her room. Once she heard his door shut, she ascended the staircase and went straight to her room. She sat on her bed and a fresh wave of tears washed over her. She felt shame for her bad behavior, and agonized over the days to come, days that included Kevin. He sat at the desk behind her in third period English class. The thought of him looming a desk away after the evening they spent together made her cringe. In a few short hours, she’d be forced to face him. She desperately wished she could rewind the night to the moment she’d received his text. She would have made an excuse, or told him her father was awake, anything to have avoided the whole ordeal. But she knew that time continued, that there was no rewind button in life. If there were, she’d go back even farther, to when her mother had been alive. She slumped down on her bed and allowed her body to fall back against her pillows. She closed her eyes and willed the night away. And the night vanished. Within seconds, deep, velvety oblivion enveloped her and she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Arianna Rose: The Gathering
(Part 3)
A novel
By Jennifer and Christopher Martucci
ARIANNA ROSE: THE GATHERING (Part 3)
Published by Jennifer and Christopher Martucci
Copyright © 2013
All rights reserved.
First edition: March 2013
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.