"Hel o?" she answered hesitantly, and her chest immediately fil ed with a familiar kind of missing-Trey achiness that until she saw him at the party had almost disappeared. Almost.
"Kylie?" The deep sound of his voice did another pul on her emotions.
She swal owed a knot down her throat and visualized him in her mind-his green eyes staring at her like he did when they made out. "Yes?"
"It's Trey."
"I know," she answered, and closed her eyes. "Why are you cal ing me?"
"Do I need a reason?"
Since you're sleeping with some other girl, you do. "We're not together anymore, Trey."
"And maybe that's a mistake," he said. "I can't stop thinking about you since I saw you at the party."
She'd bet he stopped thinking about her when he got his new bang toy alone that night. Lucky for them, they'd left about fifteen minutes before the cops had arrived. So while Kylie had been sitting at the police station, Trey had probably been expanding on his luck by getting lucky with his new girlfriend.
"Sara told me that you were at some camp in Fal en," he said when she didn't say anything. "She said your mom sent you there because of the party."
"Yeah," she answered, even though she realized it wasn't the whole truth. But she couldn't tel Trey the truth. Not even part of the truth. That's when it hit her, how many lies she'd have to tel everyone she knew. That's when she realized something else. Her mom hadn't been lying when she'd said Dr. Day had convinced her that Kylie needed to come here. Maybe her mom hadn't wanted to get rid of Kylie as badly as she thought. That should have made her feel better, but the achiness in her chest grew.
She missed her mom. She missed her dad. She wanted to go home. The gonna-cry knot formed in her throat and she swal owed it.
"Are you al owed to get phone cal s?" Trey asked, his voice bringing her back to the moment and away from her thoughts. Allowed? Kylie hadn't considered that. "I think so. No one's told me I couldn't." But she hadn't read the rules that were supposed to be posted in her cabin, either. Not that it was her fault; she hadn't been al owed to go to her cabin yet. She looked up to see if anyone else was on a phone. She spotted two people talking and two more texting. One of the texting kids was Jonathon, aka Piercing Guy, who stood with two other guys. Beside them stood Goth Girl, who hung with a crowd of other goths. Kylie also spotted Lucas Parker. Not on the phone but talking to a group of girls that looked like his personal fan club. He was smiling at something someone said. And she could see the girls holding on to his every word, practical y swooning al over him. Let them laugh and swoon, Kylie thought. He hadn't kil ed their cat.
"I'm going to a soccer camp in Fal en next week," Trey said, bringing her back to the conversation. "I thought maybe we could ... maybe we could find a way to get together. To talk. I miss you, Kylie."
"I thought you were with that girl, Shannon."
"We weren't ever real y going out. But we're not seeing each other anymore. I could never talk to her."
But I'll bet you did other things. It hurt to remember how the girl had hung al over him at the party.
"Say you'l at least meet me," he said. "Please. I real y miss you."
Her chest grew heavier. "I don't know if I can ... I mean, I don't know how things are run here yet."
"I think our camps are just a mile or so apart. It wouldn't be hard for us to meet."
She closed her eyes and thought how good it would be to see Trey. To see anyone she knew wasn't a freak, but especial y Trey. He had always been her go-to person when things bothered her. Which was why his breaking up with her had broken her heart.
"I can't make any promises, not until I figure things out here." Kylie looked up.
Holiday and Sky were moving to the front of the room. "Lunch is ready," Sky said. "Let's let the new people start first. And then we'l jump into introductions."
Introductions? The thought of having to talk to the group had butterflies nosediving in her stomach. Kylie saw Derek turn and look at her as if wondering if she wanted to get in line together. She kind of liked the idea of standing beside him, instead of standing alone.
"I have to go, Trey," she said.
"But Kylie-"
She hung up. She hadn't done it to be mean, but the idea that he might feel a bit rejected didn't bother her too much. Payback could be hel . Derek stood up and waved her over. Yup, Derek was tal er than Trey. Moving Derek's way, Kylie tried not to flinch when Del a joined them, and the three of them walked to the line together.
Del a ended up behind Goth Girl from their bus and they started talking.
Derek turned and focused on Kylie.
"Boyfriend?" he asked.
"Huh?"
"The phone cal ?"
"Oh." She shook her head. "Ex." Instantly she remembered how several of the other kids had looked at her when Del a had asked what she was. She leaned closer to Derek. "Could you hear me on the phone?" She lowered her voice. "Could everyone hear me?"
"I couldn't. It was just ... your body language." He seemed to note how she looked out in the crowd. "But yes, some of the others have super hearing."
"But not you?" She hoped he would tel her what she wanted to know. That he'd tel her what he was.
"Not me," he said, and they moved a few steps forward. His arm brushed up against hers and for a second, she didn't know if she wanted to back away or lean closer. The fact that he wasn't cold seemed to make closer an option. When her arm met his again, something so comforting spread through her.
"So what are you?" she asked, and then bit her tongue. It wasn't fair for her to be asking questions that she herself didn't want to answer. "That's okay, you don't have to answer that."
She looked away, embarrassed, and listened to the chatter of the crowd. Unlike earlier, when silence had reigned, now if she tried real y hard, she might convince herself that she was in a room fil ed with regular teens.
And that's when Kylie knew that she'd stopped trying to deny it.
Laughter along with a few of the more feminine squeals fil ed her ears. She should have found the "regular" thought comforting, but she couldn't push away the truth. The truth was none of these people were regular or normal.
Not even her.
That thought shot a wave of panic into her stomach and she wondered how in the hel she would manage to eat anything now.
"I'm half Fae." Derek's voice came close to her ear. The tickle of his breath sent flutters to her stomach. Not the kind that stemmed from fear, but something different. Pushing that aside, she tried to concentrate on what he said.
Fae? The synonym search in her brain started spinning through files until she recal ed reading once that Fae was French for fairy. Her mind started spitting out data. Holiday was fairy. Holiday had said Kylie might be fairy. She turned and met his green eyes. In a voice so low it barely came out a whisper she asked, "Do you ... do you see ghosts?"
"Ghosts?" His eyes widened as if the question were unbelievable. But duh, how could that seem crazy when ... when ...
Her train of thought came to an abrupt halt when Kylie felt someone behind her. Her heart raced to a fast song and she feared it would be Soldier Dude. But the cold, the one she'd suddenly realized always came when he was near, didn't seem to be present. She watched Derek's gaze rise over her shoulder. He nodded.
She turned her head and her breath caught when she found herself staring into the light blue eyes of Lucas Parker.
"I think you lost this." His voice reminded her of a radio announcer-deep with a rumbling quality that made it unique-memorable. A quality that made him sound older than he appeared.
Aware that she stared, she jerked her gaze to his hands where he held out her Coach bil fold that her grandmother had splurged to get her last Christmas.
Immediately, Kylie looked back at the table where she'd left her purse. It sat on top just as she'd left it. How had he gotten her bil fold?
She took her wal et from his hands and fought the temptation to make sure her mom's credit card was stil tucked safely inside. Her mom would be so pissed if she lost it.
Torn between doing the social y acceptable thing of saying thank you or questioning him on how he'd gotten his feline-murdering hands on her possession, her mind spun. Then because she mostly always did the social y acceptable thing, the two simple words, "thank you," formed on her tongue, but she couldn't spit them out.
She couldn't help wondering if he remembered her. She couldn't help noticing how his blue eyes seemed to look inside her, just as they had al those years ago. They hadn't been friends, but neighbors for a very short time. He hadn't even been in her grade. But they had to walk the same three blocks home from school every day, and she could remember that walk being the best part of her day. From the first time she'd seen him riding his bike on her street, he had fascinated her in a mysterious kind of way.
And just like that, she remembered with clarity the last time she'd seen him. The sense of fascination shattered, leaving in its place a cold wind of fear.
She'd been sitting on a swing with her new kitten in her hands-the kitten her parents had given her because Socks had come up missing. Lucas's head had popped over the fence, and his blue eyes met hers. The kitten had hissed and scratched her, trying to run for cover. The boy stared and then said, Be sure to take the kitten in the house at night. Or what happened to your other cat will happen to it. She'd run to her mother crying. That night her dad and mom had gone to talk to Lucas's parents. Her parents hadn't told her what happened, but she recal ed her daddy looking angry when they'd returned from the visit. Not that it mattered, because the next day Lucas Parker and his parents were gone.
"You're welcome," Lucas said, his deep rumble now slightly laced with sarcasm. Then he turned and walked away. Oh, great. Al she needed was to start making enemies of one of the humans-are-on-the food-chain gang-especial y one she knew was capable of doing despicable things. But face it, being nice to Lucas Parker was going to be hard. After al , he had kil ed her cat and threatened to do the same to her kitten.
