Avalon High Part 11

But before I could admit that I knew where he was coming from, Will sagged a little against the railing of the widow's walk, and shook his head.

"Listen to me. Maybe Lance and Jen are right," he said, in a self-mocking voice, "and I really am going nuts."

Just hearing that Lance and Jennifer had said something like that made me jump to take the opposite stance. Maybe Lance cared about what happened to Will-despite the fact that he was carrying on an illicit love affair with his girlfriend behind his back. I mean, he'd kind of proven that he cared by concussing that guy who'd tackled Will. That showed that he at least felt a little bad about what was going on.

But I had seen no such signs of remorse from Jennifer. In fact, just the opposite, given the way she'd grilled me at my locker about Will's dinner at my house. It was clear that she'd just been pumping me to see if Will suspected anything about her and Lance.

"You're not going nuts," I said emphatically. "Things...things have been weird for me, too, lately. But I just thought-I mean, I just figured it's a normal part of being a teenager, or whatever."

"I don't know." Will looked dubious. "I thought teenagers are supposed to think they know everything. And I've never been more sure in my life that I don't know anything at all."

"Oh," I said. "Well, that's probably just a symptom of the ma.s.sive brain tumor you've got growing inside your head, the one no one's told you about yet."

Then I wanted to kick myself. What is wrong with me? Why do I have to go and make jokes whenever things look like they're about to get serious? Nancy is right. I'm never going to get a boyfriend at this rate.

But Will, instead of going-as he probably should have-" Whatever you say, weirdo," just looked at me for a minute. Then he threw back his head and laughed.

And laughed some more.

And really, what choice did I have but to laugh along with him? At least until a sudden breeze sent a strand of my moussed-up hair flying across my eyes. Then, to my surprise, before I had a chance to push it aside, Will reached up and brushed it back for me with his fingers.

And I froze. Because he was touching me. He was touching me. He was touching me.

"You're all right, Ellie Harrison," he said softly, his gaze on mine, his voice unsteady. "And, you know, I think I'd like you even if I wasn't sure I'd already met you in a past life, and liked you then."

There's really no telling what might have happened next. Not that I imagined he might have suddenly wrapped his arms around me and kissed me, the way I'd seen Lance kissing Jennifer in the spare room below us.

But you never know. He might have.

If it hadn't been for two things....

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

But in her web she still delights

To weave the mirror's magic sights,

For often thro' the silent nights

A funeral, with plumes and lights

And music, went to Camelot:

The first thing that happened was that a cloud went skittering across the moon, blocking out the only light we'd had to see by.

The second was that the door to the widow's walk suddenly burst open, and then Cavalier came rus.h.i.+ng up toward us, closely followed by someone else of the human variety. I wouldn't have known who it was if it wasn't for the light from the stairs spilling out behind him from the open doorway.

"There you are," Marco said, when he saw Will. He could not have missed the way Will jerked his hand from my hair and moved it to pat his panting dog, instead. "I've been looking for you everywhere. I wouldn't have found you, if it hadn't been for that d.a.m.ned dog. Didn't you hear her barking?"

Will gave Cavalier a final pat, then straightened up. "No," he said. His voice, which had been unsteady with emotion just seconds before, now sounded totally normal. It was impossible to tell if he, like me, resented his stepbrother's intrusion. "Why? What's up?"

"I need to find Jen," Marco said. "Her car is blocking one of the neighbors' driveways."

Will shook his head the way someone who's just come up from a dive into very deep water does when he breaks the surface. I tried not to think what that meant vis-a-vis...well, me.

"What?" Will blinked a few times. "Jen?"

"Yeah." Marco looked at me. Not accusingly. Just speculatively, like he was wondering who I was and what I'd done to make his stepbrother act so dopey all of a sudden.

I could have told him in three words. No one and nothing.

Or is that four words?

"I thought Jen'd be with you," Marco said. Now he was starting to sound accusing.

"I haven't seen Jen since she went to go put lipstick on half an hour ago," Will said. But not like it bothered him.

"Well, she's got to move her car," Marco said. "Mrs. Hewlitt's blocked in and is threatening to call the cops."

Will said something under his breath that sounded like a swear word. Then, to me, he said, "Sorry, Elle. I have to go find her."

"That's fine," I said hurriedly, hoping my disappointment over the interruption didn't show. He'd called me Elle again, after all. "I should go, anyway. Liz and Stacy are probably wondering where I went."

Will looked for a second like he didn't know what I was talking about. Then he nodded and said, "Oh, right. Well, come on. I'll walk you out."

He started for the door to the stairs, Cavalier close at his heels. I followed, with Marco tagging along behind me. As we headed back down to the second floor, Marco asked, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" in a voice I didn't really like all that much...though I couldn't say why.

"Oh, sorry," Will said. "Elaine Harrison, my stepbrother, Marco Campbell. Marco, this is Ellie."

"Hi," I said to Marco, over my shoulder, as we entered the hallway.

Marco grinned-one of those grins I've sometimes seen described as wolfish in books.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Elaine," he said. Then, to Will, he said, "I think someone said they saw Jen go through there." He nodded toward the door behind which I'd found Jennifer and Lance making out.

"Oh, great," Will said.

And he started to place his hand on the doork.n.o.b- "No, wait!" I cried, before I knew what I was saying.

Will looked at me questioningly. So, for that matter, did the dog. Marco's look was the only one that wasn't questioning. His was surprised.

Which was when I knew.

Suddenly I felt like throwing up all over again. Except that I didn't have time to be sick.

"W-wasn't that just her?" I stammered.

Will's hand continued to hover above the doork.n.o.b.

"Where?" he asked.

"Wasn't that her just now, calling you?" Practically falling over my own feet, I hurried to the top of the stairs to the first floor. "He'll be right there," I called down. Some people standing at the bottom of the staircase looked up at me like I was insane.

But it didn't matter, because Will couldn't see them.

"She's downstairs," I heard myself say to Will.

And his hand, to my immense relief, fell away from the doork.n.o.b.

"Oh," he said. "Great. Well. See you around."

And he started toward the stairs.

That's when it happened. The thing that afterwards, I was never quite sure how to describe, even to myself.

All I know is, Will started toward the staircase, and I glanced at his stepbrother Marco, to see if he'd follow....

Only to find Marco studying me with an amused expression on his face, as if I were a cat that had suddenly started reading the want ads. Out loud.

"Will," he said, not taking his eyes-as dark as his stepbrother's were light-from me. "Why don't you invite Elaine to come sailing with us tomorrow?"

"Oh, hey," Will said, pausing at the top of the stairs, and looking back at me, "that's a great idea. Do you like sailing, Elle?"

Elle. I couldn't help swallowing.

"Uh," I said. What was going on here? I wondered. Thrilled as I was to be included in any plan of Will's, I couldn't help wondering why Marco wanted me to come along. He didn't even know me.

And from the way he was looking at me, I wasn't all that sure he even liked me. Especially after what we both-Marco and I-knew I'd just done.

"I don't know," I said uncertainly. "I've never been. We don't sail much, back in Minnesota."

"Oh, you'll love it," Marco said. "Won't she, Will?"

"Yeah, you will," Will said enthusiastically. "Meet us by the Alex Haley statue at the city dock tomorrow at noon. You know where that is?" When I nodded, he said, "Great. See you then."

And then he hurried down the stairs to look for Jennifer. Leaving me alone with Marco...

...with whom I wasn't about to stick around and make small talk.

"Well, see you tomorrow," I said, and started toward the stairs myself. Get out, my heart seemed to be saying with every beat.

But I didn't move quickly enough, since Marco's voice snaked out across the landing like an arm, almost physically drawing me back toward him when he asked, in an insinuating tone, "You didn't really hear Jen just then, did you, Elaine of Minnesota?"

I froze, one foot on the stairs, and one still on the second floor. For some reason, my blood had run...well, cold.

"Sorry," I said. "I...I don't know what you mean."

"Oh, I think you do," Marco said, with a wink. Then, as I stood there watching him, he went up to the door Will had come so close to opening, and thumped on it, once, with the side of his fist.

"Jen," he shouted through it. "You in there?"

There was a pause. Then a thin voice called through the door, "Um, yeah, just a sec! I'll be right out."

Marco looked back at me and shook his head.

"Nice try," he said. "But he's gonna find out about them sometime."

So I'd been right. He'd known. He'd known all along. He'd wanted Will to open that door and find the two of them in there.

What kind of sick person does something like that?

Will's stepbrother, evidently.

"Um," I said, trying to play dumb. He'd known. But that wasn't the weirdest part. I'd known he'd known. "I have to go-"

Marco wasn't falling for it, though. Not only did he keep talking, but he crossed the s.p.a.ce between us in two long strides and s.n.a.t.c.hed up my arm in fingers that were so cold, they burned. He held me in a grip of iron, so that I couldn't even dart down the stairs the way I'd planned.

"What were you trying to do, anyway?" Marco asked, with a sneer. "Protect him?"

"Let go of my arm," I said in a voice that shook a little. Something about his touch was really creeping me out.