Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy Read online

  “No. I don’t want to take a chance of hurting you.”

  “I’ll be fine. I don’t have a pacemaker.” She beamed playfully at Brian. “Now come on. Do it.”

  I looked at Brian. He shrugged. “Worth a shot,” he said. “You apparently didn’t hurt Kareena too much, anyway.”

  “Okay. Okay.” I stretched out a hand toward hers and she grabbed me.

  I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath though my teeth.

  “Hah! Nothing!” Sam shook my arm wildly, shaking my whole body with it. I almost toppled off the bench. “I’m fine!”

  “Yeah. I guess. But what does that mean?” I slouched and wrapped my arms around myself. Then I glanced at Brian. “I wonder why I’ve only shocked you and Kareena?” Sam pried my arm loose so she could snake her own around it.

  “Shit!” Brian pulled back. He swallowed hard, widened eyes staring off at nothing.

  “What! What is it?” I grabbed his knee.

  “You. Me. Kareena…” he said quietly, his voice breaking. “What if…”

  “What if what?” I looked into his eyes. “What if what, Brian?”

  “What if she’s the third one?”

  I gasped.

  No. No.

  Not… Kareena.

  . . .

  “I think it’s something we need to consider,” said Brian. “You heard them. They said there was one more. Maybe… as horrible as it may be… she’s it.”

  I flopped onto the couch in the living room and put my phone on speaker. “With an attitude like that, I hope to God she’s not.”

  “Me, too. But think about that dream we had. The one where we were trapped in the abandoned building. Whoever that was we found, they had dark skin. And it sounded like a girl from what I remember.”

  “I don’t remember that much. All I know is we were in trouble and I was hurt. And there was someone else you were trying to save. I didn’t want anything to do with whoever it was.”

  “Alice. You heard the… Wait. Am I on speaker?”

  “Yeah, but Mom’s not here. She went to grab groceries.” I kicked my shoes off and propped my feet up on the arm rest.

  “Oh. Anyway, you heard what the Saviors said. Something about finding the third one and how you were needed for that. Don’t you think it’s just a little weird how Kareena is so interested in you? In us? Maybe she’s more than just jealous. Maybe she senses something different about us?”

  “I think that’s crazy. I think she’s just being a brat. That’s what I think. Besides, you said she’s been after you for a while now.”

  “Can I come over?”

  “I don’t know. I’m sort of embarrassed to ask my Mom.”

  “You can come see me, you know.”

  I laughed out loud by accident. “Yeah, right. I’m sort of at the mercy of my mom and her car.”

  “Yeah, well, you won’t have to worry about that for too much longer. I’m totally getting my license next summer.”

  “That doesn’t mean we can go out driving wherever we want.” I heard a car pull into the driveway.

  “No, but we can see each other more often than this. I can’t stand being stuck on the other side of town every night and not being able to come see you.”

  The garage door opened. I didn’t have much more time to speak uncensored.

  “So… if this Kareena girl is one of us? Then what? How do we know for sure?”

  “I’ll think of something…”

  I heard Mom jiggling the key in the front door so I sat up and took Brian off speaker phone. “Mom’s home. I need to go. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  “Was that Brian?” Mom asked, setting an armload of stuffed brown paper grocery bags on the kitchen countertop.

  “Yeah.”

  “When was the last time you talked to Sam?” She took a carton of eggs out and tucked them into the fridge door.

  “Uh, today. At lunch. Why?”

  “Okay. Just wondering.” Mom shrugged.

  I knew that shrug. It was the “Okay, whatever you say but I hope you’re telling me the truth” shrug.

  Chapter 15

  The doorbell rang.

  We weren’t expecting anyone.

  I crept down the stairs and listened as Mom opened the door.

  “Brian?” she exclaimed.

  I tiptoed down to the first floor and into the living room so I could hear the conversation.

  “I need to see Alice,” he said.

  Hearing those words made me sigh.

  Yeah. I had it bad.

  “You weren’t invited. Nor have I given you permission to come over. How did you get here anyway? Where’s your mother?”

  “I walked. My mom’s at work… and… really…” I couldn’t hear everything. “I have to see Alice. Please.”

  “You walked all the way here from Jefferson?”

  “I hopped a bus for a few blocks, but yeah.”

  “To see Alice?”

  I couldn’t hear his reply.

  Mom said something else, but I couldn’t make that out either.

  Brian went quiet.

  She shut the door.

  I would have told him not to come, if he’d asked before trying.

  I flipped on the TV, hoping Mom wouldn’t suspect I had been eavesdropping.

  “Alice!” she yelled.

  “On the couch!”

  Mom came into the living room a moment later. “Someone’s here for you,” she said flatly, and then walked past me and into the kitchen, shaking her head.

  I leapt off the couch so fast, I stumbled over the throw rug in front of it. Then I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. I couldn’t act too excited. I wasn’t supposed to know it was him and… he wasn’t supposed to be here at all.

  I cracked open the front door.

  “Brian?”

  He greeted me with a subtle smile.

  “Hi, Alice.”

  My heart beat a little faster. I looked up at him through my lashes.

  “Hi…”

  . . .

  He hadn’t been to our house since the Christmas party and now I was bristling with emotions.

  Excited. Happy. Worried. Scared.

  It excited me to finally be alone with him again. Well, as alone as we could be with my mom around, of course. And scared because of all of the crazy feelings swirling around inside. Maybe part of me honestly knew we needed to study for the next history test or do something productive. But some stupid part of me just wanted to spend the evening cuddling.

  As if that could happen with Mom around.

  I’d convinced him we needed to do something important with our time, so my mom wouldn’t get upset about the unwelcome visit. If I wanted to spend more time with him, I needed Mom to trust him. Trust began with us being responsible.

  We sat on the couch in the living room with our history books open. Studying.

  Trying to study.

  “What did Mom say to you earlier?” I toned my voice down to a whisper.

  Brian leaned over and picked up a notebook from the coffee table. “She said I had to be good to you. Or that I wouldn’t be welcome here ever again.”

  “Ah.” I nodded. That sounded like something she’d say. “What did you say back?”

  “You really want to know?” he smirked.

  “Yeeeah.”

  Brian scooted closer to me and our hips touched. “I told her… I would never do anything to hurt you.” His lips came close to my ear and he lowered his voice. “And that I had it bad for her gorgeous daughter.” He snuck a peck on my cheek before I could push him away.

  “Gah! You’re crazy!”

  He shrugged. “Okay, so maybe I didn’t tell her the second part. But I did tell her the first.”

  “You’re a piece of work. You know that?”

  He liked to make me laugh. I liked it, too.

  As w
e sat there studying, my shoulder pressed against his, our books in our laps and two cups of hot tea steaming on the coffee table, I caught him glancing at me and my heart skipped a beat.

  He’d been trying harder than ever now to do well in school. He’d started slacking years ago when his father died because he felt like no one cared. Ever since we’d met, he’d been trying really hard to do better. It showed. He wasn’t even late for class anymore.

  “So, about Kareena,” Brian started, setting his book down onto the coffee table.

  “What about her?”

  “I have an idea.” He folded his hands together in his lap, twiddling his thumbs nervously.

  “Okay…”

  “Well, I thought about what you told me about getting her off your back and I went to talk to her about it.” He paused again.

  “And?”

  “Then she… sort of invited me over.”

  “What? You told her to get lost, right?”

  “Yeeeah… no, I didn’t.” He ran a hand through his hair and wouldn’t keep eye contact with me.

  My jaw dropped. “No way! Why? Why would you do that? She’s a creep! And what about me? I thought I was…”

  “You are. This has nothing to do with that. I didn’t agree to see her because I like her. I swear. Only the three of us know what’s going on, and Kareena’s not exactly willing to talk to you. I need to see if I can get close enough to her to find out if she’s the one we’re looking for. Maybe if I can get her alone she’ll…”

  “Alone?” I crossed my arms and leaned back against the couch cushion. “Hmph. This is a bad idea, Brian.”

  “Maybe if we’re away from other distractions, I can convince her to open up to me. What? You don’t trust me?”

  “Whatever. All I’m trying to say is I’ve only known you for a few months. I’m supposed to trust you completely?”

  “I want you to, yes.”

  “Don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

  “I know. I know.”

  Beautiful Kareena. Long sleek hair. Brilliant green eyes. The body of a tall, shapely lingerie model.

  Did I mention shapely?

  And me, a scrawny 5’2” fourteen-year-old.

  It scared me to imagine him alone with her.

  If I were a boy his age… A hormonally driven teenage boy…

  I didn’t feel like studying anymore.

  . . .

  “Seems like you’ve been spending an awful lot of time with Brian,” Mom said, hanging her coat up in the closet by the front door. She’d felt bad about letting Brian walk home alone in the dark, so she’d driven him back herself. “On the phone. On your computer. In class. At lunch, too, I’m assuming. Right? Maybe you should hang out with more girls your age, like Sam and some of her friends.”

  “Mom, he’s my friend, too.”

  “You mean your boyfriend? Friends don’t act the way you two do.”

  I shrugged. “Either way, don’t I have the right to spend time with him?”

  “Yes. You do. But as your mother, I have the right to decide which people I think are good influences and which aren’t.”

  “And you think Brian is a bad influence?” I slid my feet off the coffee table. “He’s never done anything to hurt me.”

  “It’s not about him hurting you.” She came into the living room, peeled off her black gloves, and tossed them onto the couch. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He really likes you, Alice. No doubt he more than just likes you.”

  “Ew, Mom. I know he likes me, but you don’t have to go all birds and bees. I’m not stupid.”

  “I’m not calling you stupid, sweetheart.” She sat down, her weight sinking into the cushion beside me. “I’m concerned. Stuff can go wrong even when you believe you’re doing the right thing. I’m asking you to think about how much time you’ve been spending with him. That’s all. You’re not even halfway through high school. There are so many more people out there to meet.”

  “Are you trying to tell me he’s not good enough for me? What has he done to make you feel that way?” I put my hands on my hips and tilted my head. “Mom?”

  She took a deep breath. “It’s not that I don’t like him, Alice. He seems like a nice boy. If you say he treats you well, then I’ll believe you. It’s important we trust each other. Now more than ever. But you two seem to be moving so quickly. Kids your age don’t act like kids nowadays. You’re my little girl, but, when you’re with him…”

  “We’re not sleeping together if that’s what you’re worried about.” I leaned back and pulled my knees up to my chest. “I’ll make that crystal clear to him if I need to. I’m not ready to handle the consequences of that.” I shook off the icky feeling crawling all over me. Sex? No. I really liked him, but…

  “When do you think you will be ready?” She crossed her arms and stared at me. The look on her face was not so much one of skepticism as it was of honest curiosity.

  I shrugged, uncomfortable. “Geeze. I don’t know. When I’m eighteen. Once I graduate. Maybe. I don’t know, Mom. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

  She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Until you were married would have been better, but at least this gives me a few years before I really need to start worrying. Things are different for you guys than it was for my generation. You’re growing up so quickly. I just want you to know you can talk to me about anything at all. Okay?”

  “I wouldn’t hide things from you, Mom.”

  Things that didn’t involve aliens.

  She smiled as though the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. “I love you, Alice. I only want what’s best for you.” She squeezed my hand.

  “I have that now.” I wrapped my arms around her and hugged tightly. “I have loyal friends and the greatest mom in the world.”

  Chapter 16

  Brian and Kareena…

  I couldn’t stop thinking about them. Horrible images of her hanging off him, talking with him, making out with him, or whatever she wanted to do, kept flashing through my head. It made my stomach turn. I trusted Brian. I did, but…

  I grabbed my phone and called Sam.

  “Hi.”

  “What’s up?”

  “Would you mind if I came over for a bit? I’m really bored.”

  “Sure. I’ll ask my mom to come get you. It’s getting dark already. Stupid winter. Let me ask. One sec.”

  She went quiet for a moment but left her phone un-muted. I heard her in the background talking to her parents.

  “Okay. We’ll come get you in a bit.”

  “Thanks, Sam. Bye!”

  “Hey, Mom.” I’d come downstairs to find her sitting on the couch watching the evening news. “I’m going to Sam’s for a bit, okay? Her mom’s going to pick me up.”

  “That’s fine. Be back by 9:30. Got that? It’s a school night.”

  “Yes, Mom. I’ll make sure.”

  Mom never had a problem with me going to see Sam. She lived a few blocks away, unlike Brian, who lived near the end of the bus route. It would have been nice to live closer to my boyfriend.

  It had taken a lot of guts on his part, but Brian had made me proud when he’d worked up the nerve to talk to my mom. Knowing he had smoothed things over with her made me happy. He was a nice guy—responsible and determined—and I knew she’d like him if she gave him a chance. Just like I had. Still, the whole Kareena business had me ruffled and uncomfortable. She was just so pretty. It wasn’t fair.

  Sam and her mom showed up shortly after I called and they took me back to their house. We spent the next few hours channel surfing and streaming random internet videos to kill our boredom. No homework and nothing else to keep me busy with Brian being gone at Kareena’s.

  “You seem distracted.” Sam waved a hand in front of my eyes. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine. Why?”

  “You look like you’re somewhere in space right now. It’s Brian, isn�
�t it? I just can’t catch a break with the boy taking up every second of your brain. Can you spare a minute, Alice? Please?”

  “Sorry, Sam. I’m just preoccupied.”

  “Ya think?” She cocked her head to the side and shrugged at me. “You can’t even focus on the TV right now. You’ve got it real bad.”

  “Brian’s hanging out with Kareena tonight.”

  “WTF! You’re kidding me! But I thought you two were…”

  “We are. Apparently she invited him over and he humored her so he could ‘get to know her better’ or something.” I stuck out my tongue and made gagging sounds.

  “Ew! I wouldn’t want my boyfriend getting to know that skank at all.”

  “He’ll be fine. Whatever. I trust him.” I didn’t want to tell her the real reason why Brian was hanging out with Kareena in case we were wrong.

  “If you say so. You do know she lives, like, down the block, right? At the end of the cul-de-sac?”

  “No way! Why have you never told me this before?”

  “Uh… Because she’s a jerk and we hate her.”

  “Why don’t we ever see her on the bus?”

  “She drives to school.”

  I threw my hands up. “Seriously?” What did she NOT have?

  “Daddy and Mommy bought her a car when she turned sixteen last year. She’s been driving it to school ever since. She’s too good for the bus, apparently.”

  I huffed. “Brat.”

  “Yup.” Sam nodded, popping the ‘p.’

  “And now she wants my Brian.” I grumbled beneath my breath. “Tramp.”

  “Well, we could do some reconnaissance and check in on them.” Sam smiled a deviously toothy grin. “No one has to know.” She pulled a nearby blanket up over her head, wrapped it around her face and peered at me through a gap between the wrinkles. “Sneaky. Sneaky!”

  “Won’t your parents freak?”

  Sam shook her head, still covered in the green mink blanket. “They won’t care. We’ll just step out for a minute.”

  A minute? That could work. A little peek here. Some spying there.

  I took out my cell phone and swiped it on. I silenced the ringtone. If we were going to stake out Kareena’s house, we had to be quiet about it.