Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels Page 36

  And whatever Scales and Fangs was, he obviously considered attending its functions more important than getting laid.

  I squeezed Nell’s hand, glad of her comfort because the woods were kind of creepy, but also because I was realizing how narrowly I’d escaped making a bad mistake tonight. What would it have meant if I’d slept with Professor Alexander?

  It wouldn’t have been good. I was sure of that. All in all, I was glad he’d stopped it.

  “What are you doing here?” whispered another voice.

  I turned and found myself face to face with Reba, the girl from the first day at the dorm.

  “You were tapped?” she demanded. “But you’re a freshman.”

  “You have to be twenty-one,” said Nell. “Don’t flip out.”

  Reba narrowed her eyes. “There’s something weird going on with you—”

  “Initiates of the Scale and the Fang, gather close!” rang out a voice.

  It was coming from the circle of robed people. I watched as several other people emerged from the woods. There were seven of us total. Nell, Reba, and I were the only girls. The other four were guys that I didn’t recognize.

  “Come within our circle.”

  We stepped between the dark robes, squeezing into the middle. The circle of robes pressed close. The skeletal branches of the tree loomed above us, crisscrossing the sky.

  My heart sped up. There was something about this—

  “Gods of the sky protect us.” They whispered together in dry voices like crumbling leaves. We couldn’t see their faces. Their hoods hung too low, and so they were featureless, simply empty shadows under their cowls. “Coil around us, great serpent. We are the storytellers of the new world. Wrap us tightly and accept your new acolytes into your folds.”

  Something about that chant... What was familiar?

  “Welcome in the secret hour, share with us the misty power. May fortune’s favor fall upon the serpent’s servants all,” they urged. “Welcome in the secret hour, share with us the misty power. May fortune’s favor fall upon the serpent’s servants all.”

  Their voices grew louder, more urgent. “Welcome in the secret hour, share with us the misty power. May fortune’s favor fall upon the serpent’s servants all!”

  And the limbs of the tree came to life above us, moving, slithering like a thousand snakes twisting out of the tree trunk. They dove down for us as if they were striking their prey.

  I threw up my arm to protect myself.

  I heard Nell scream.

  Other shrieks of terror came from our fellow initiates. We all cowered, hiding our faces.

  And when I looked again, the tree hadn’t move. The limbs still reached for the sky. As if they’d never moved.

  * * *

  “It was a really good illusion, that’s all,” said Nell. We were in the dining hall the next morning, eating breakfast. “You know it’s a rumor that the guy who made the really realistic ghosts for Shimmer on Broadway was a member of Scales and Fangs?”

  “I don’t think it was a set piece, Nell,” I said.

  “What? You think the tree really came to life?”

  “I think...” I didn’t know how to explain it. “Something happened. They did something to us.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think we should be talking about this here.”

  “But what if—”

  “Everything’s fine,” she said. “But people could hear us, and we aren’t supposed to talk about Scales and Fangs in public.” She picked up her empty glass. “I’m going to get some more orange juice.”

  I sighed, watching her go. I’d hardly touched my tray. I had some French toast with powdered sugar, but I hadn’t done much other than cut it up. I picked up my fork and stabbed a piece of it.

  “Hey, Teagan. You sitting alone?”

  I almost dropped my fork. “Harper. You scared me.”

  “Sorry.”

  I gestured at Nell’s tray. “My roommate’s sitting there. But you can sit down too if you want.”

  “Cool.” He settled in. He had about four pieces of French toast. I didn’t know they’d even give you that much. He picked up a plastic syrup container and ripped open the foil. “So,” he said as he dumped syrup all over his breakfast, “I figured out why you ran out on me last night.”

  “You did?” I said. I took a bite of my own food.

  Nell came back with her orange juice. “Hey Harper.”

  He grinned at her. “Hey. So, I think your roommate got tapped for Scales and Fangs.”

  I choked.

  Nell’s eyes widened. “What? Why do you think that?”

  “Why else would she leave a date with yours truly?”

  I managed to swallow. “I told you I had homework—” “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Look, I know you can’t tell me if it’s true, but just know that I understand. I really hoped I’d get tapped, but I’m a senior. It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.”

  “Wait a second,” said Nell. “You didn’t tell me you had a date with Harper.”

  “We were actually just hanging out,” said Harper. “I’m only teasing about the date part. ‘Cause, you know, if I was going to take you on a date, there would definitely be white tablecloths involved.”

  I felt embarrassed. I didn’t know what to do about Harper. He seemed nice. But it seemed wrong to lead him on when there was something weird happening between Professor Alexander and me. If he hadn’t realized the Scales and Fangs thing was supposed to happen last night, I would have gone all the way with him.

  But that hadn’t happened. And Professor Alexander didn’t own me or anything. I could date Harper if I wanted. So I winked at him. “Really? White tablecloths, huh?”

  “How do you guys even know each other?” asked Nell.

  “Oh, I cast her in my play for senior seminar,” said Harper.

  I looked at the two of them. “How do you guys know each other?”

  “We did How I Learned to Drive together when I was a freshman,” said Nell.

  “Yeah, but I met you when you were doing props for Betty’s Summer Vacation the semester before that,” said Harper.

  “Oh, yeah.” She grinned. “Teagan, I told you the theater department was a big dysfunctional family.”

  “Right,” I said.

  “Don’t worry, I never slept with him,” she said. “He’s all yours.”

  “You slept with my roommate, though,” said Harper. “Last year?”

  She hid her face. “Oh god, can we forget about that? That was so embarrassing.”

  Harper laughed. “Sorry.”

  “See?” she said. “I told you it was incestuous too.”

  “Yeah,” I said. I could see what she meant. They all had history with each other. They didn’t have history with me. But I wanted it. I wanted to belong, the way they seemed to.

  “So this date idea is not totally off the table?” said Harper.

  I grinned. “I don’t know. You think he’s safe, Nell?”

  She laughed. “Oh, he’s a big teddy bear. Go for it.”

  “We’ll see,” I said, giving Harper my best coy smile. Maybe I was leading him on. Maybe I shouldn’t be flirting with him while I kept kissing someone else. Everything seemed way too complicated. College was hard.

  * * *

  “I’m not sure about this scene,” said Harper. He was sprawled on his bed in his dorm room.

  I sat opposite from him, on the other bed. Harper’s room was nearly identical to mine, except it faced the opposite direction, meaning that the bathroom was on the other side. He’d turned the other bed into a couch of sorts, with mismatched pillows lined up against the wall. I was leaning against one of them, staring at the script to Moon and Moon. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I don’t know what to do with it. I thought it fell flat in the read-through last night.”

  I had to admit that it was cool to have this much access to a guy’s room. Most of my hookups had been hidden away considering
the guys I was with either lived with their parents or were, um, married. I wasn’t proud of that. But I hadn’t known that he was, not until I asked why we couldn’t go back to his place, and he told me. And by then, things were already... Well, anyway. Not proud.

  This thing with Harper, though, was completely legitimate. It didn’t have to be hidden. Not like the thing with Professor Alexander, which was just a hornet’s nest of badness.

  Clearly, I should be with Harper. He was the intelligent choice. But if that was the case, why did I always think about Professor Alexander when I was with Harper?

  I wouldn’t anymore. I would focus completely on Harper. “Flat?”

  “Yeah, I’m thinking that there needs to be some way to illustrate the relationship that Ella and Joe have to the audience. I mean, they’re very much in love.”

  I hadn’t seen Professor Alexander since Wednesday night. One of the robed people had brushed up against me in the woods, and I had been almost entirely sure that was him. But he hadn’t been to our read-through. And our class didn’t meet anymore considering that we were doing the plays. Maybe I’d never see him again.

  Augh. I was still thinking about Professor Alexander. I forced myself to focus on Harper. “Are they in love, though? If they were, she wouldn’t be attracted to Kurt.”

  “Someone can be attracted to two people at once,” said Harper. “Don’t you think so?”

  Boy, did I ever. Like I was attracted to the professor at the same time I was attracted to Harper. But... “Maybe. I don’t think the attractions are equal. There’s always someone that you’re more attracted to.”

  “And you think she’s more attracted to Kurt?”

  “I...” I bit my lip. “Well, Joe is obviously the one who it makes sense for her to be attracted to. Kurt is a dog during the day. He’s only a man at night when the moon comes out. What kind of relationship could she even have with him?”

  Harper nodded slowly. “So, you think in that scene with Joe, she’s trying to force herself to be attracted to him?”

  “Um...” I wasn’t trying to force my attraction to Harper. Was I? Why did everything have to be so confusing?

  He stroked his chin. “So, how do I convey that to the audience? It’s this big inner conflict, but I don’t know how to show it.” He paged through the script. “But it makes this scene later when Joe wants her to prove how much she loves him make more sense, I think.”

  “Which scene?” I said.

  He told me the page number, and I flipped over to it. I started reading it silently.

  “He can tell that her attraction to him is wavering.”

  I looked up at Harper, chewing on my lip.

  He was still staring at the script.

  Get a grip, Teagan, I told myself. He’s not trying to send you coded messages from the play. He doesn’t even know you have something going with the professor.

  But did I have something? It didn’t seem like I did. It seemed like we only had a few stolen moments of intimacy. Still, I couldn’t get him out of my head. And I wanted to see him again. I didn’t know what I’d do when it happened, but I wanted him.

  “You want to run this one?” he asked.

  “The scene?”

  “Yeah. I’ll read Joe’s lines.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “You seem a little distracted, Teagan. You been up late with Scales and Fangs?” He grinned at me.

  “I’m not in Scales and Fangs,” I said.

  “Liar.”

  I glared at him.

  “Better be careful. You wouldn’t want your secret society activities to get in the way of your other responsibilities.”

  Could that happen? “Is that common? With people who are in Scales and Fangs? I mean, do people have to drop out of it?”

  “Calm down, Teagan, I was joking,” he said. “No, no one drops out of Scales and Fangs. No one wants to. You get in, it’s really good for your career.” He set down his script. “Man, I wish I would’ve got tapped.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  He shrugged. “Look, on the off chance that Scales and Fangs interfered with the play, I’d want you to drop out of the play, not leave the society. You should never leave the society.”

  I shrugged. “I’m not even in it.”

  “Sure you’re not,” he said.

  * * *

  Carter

  I’d considered never going to sit in on Harper’s play. He was the director. He could handle it without me. I could stay clear of all the rehearsals. I’d never have to see Teagan Moss again. Problem solved.

  But I couldn’t do it.

  For one thing, I was obligated to be there to teach Harper. He was a novice director, and he needed my input. He was paying for my services. I needed to be there.

  The other thing was that I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I’d been drunk on Wednesday. Overly forward. I’d pushed the situation into places it never should have gone. I was embarrassed and ashamed and appalled at my behavior.

  And yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

  I wanted to see her.

  So, I was pacing in front of the door in one of the black box theaters where Harper’s play was rehearsing. She was on stage, holding her script, and she and the other actor were going through the scene.

  I struggled not to think about the way she looked and to focus on her acting.

  She’d pulled her hair up into a messy ponytail on top of her head, and it left her neck bare. She was wearing a t-shirt that hung off of one shoulder. I couldn’t take my eyes off that bare shoulder. The way her white skin curved upwards to her long, graceful neck. I remembered how it had felt to touch her there. I remembered how soft her skin was.

  I gritted my teeth. This was torture.

  Focus, Carter, I thought to myself. She’s just a pretty girl.

  The thing was, I’d never been this affected by a pretty girl. I’d never acted so irresponsibly, jeopardizing everything I thought was important to get at her. I felt like something was wrong with me, like I was losing control of myself. I was frightened.

  “Okay,” called Harper from his director’s table, high up in the risers. “Let’s take five.”

  He jumped down off the risers, and he saw me. “Oh, hi there, Professor. Didn’t know you were here.”

  “Hello, Mr. Cannon.”

  “I bet you got notes for me,” he said. “I’ll be back after my cigarette, and you can rip me a new one.”

  Right. He was expecting my characteristic caustic assessment of the show, but I hadn’t been paying a bit of attention to anything except Miss Moss and her bare shoulder. What the hell was I supposed to say?

  The theater had emptied quickly. Nearly everyone in the theater department smoked. I’d tried to pick up the habit in early college, but it had never really stuck. Looking around, I realized that there was only one other person in the theater besides myself. Teagan. She didn’t smoke either.

  She was sitting down on the first row of seats in the audience, looking through her script.

  Ignoring me?

  Probably.

  I swallowed. Should I say something?

  What would I say? Sorry for trying to have sex with you the last time I saw you? Oh, by the way, you have the most divine tits I’ve ever touched?

  That would probably go over really well.

  My gaze strayed to her chest. The shirt she wore was baggy, so it fell in folds over her breasts, making them look even larger than they were. I couldn’t help but think of the soft, springy weight of them in my hands.

  Don’t, I told myself. I was supposed to be thinking about what I was going to say to Harper when he came back. And I had no idea what that might be.

  But I guessed it didn’t matter. As long as I insulted him and everything he was doing, he wouldn’t notice anything was wrong.

  Teagan looked up from her script. She saw me. She opened her mouth, like she was going to say something.

  But she didn’t.
r />   I stuffed my hands into my pockets and looked at the floor.

  When I looked up again, her face was buried in the script again.

  The door opened, and Harper came back in, smelling of tobacco. “So, how am I fucking up?”

  “Your blocking is completely uninspired, Mr. Cannon,” I said. Teagan hadn’t moved much. That must mean the blocking was boring, right? I wished I’d paid more attention.

  He shook his head. “I knew you were going to say that.”

  “So, why did you block that way?”

  “I thought that what they were saying was so important that I wanted the audience to hear it, not be distracted—”

  “Well, that’s where you’re wrong. The audience will get bored if people are just standing around talking,” I said. “They’ll tune out.”

  “What would you suggest?”

  “Uh...” Why did he have to do that to me? I could easily tear him apart without knowing what he’d actually done. But give advice?

  “Would you show me how you’d block it, or would that be cheating?” he asked.

  “Not cheating at all.” I was relieved. “I’d be happy to.”

  I thought I’d dodged a bullet there. But once the actors were back and Harper had told them what was going on, I found myself staring at Teagan while she spoke, fixating on the shape of her lips, the way they moved. For all intents and purposes, I wasn’t paying attention to the scene again.

  It made me angry. Why was this girl doing this to me? She was destroying me.

  “Stop!” I thundered.

  Teagan and the other actor looked at me, both cringing like puppies waiting to be hit. I wished their expressions made me feel sympathy. Instead, they made me angrier.

  I stalked over to both of them.

  “What do you want?”

  “What?” said Teagan.

  “Your character. Ella. What do you want?”

  “I...” She looked at her co-star for help.

  I whirled to face Harper. “Haven’t you talked about motivation?”

  “I figured it was obvious,” he said.

  I turned back to Teagan. “Oh, it is. Obvious. Perhaps Miss Moss here is just a little bit dim. What do you want?”

  “My character?” she said.

  “Yes, your character.”