Chapter 14: Chapter Fourteen--Darkness Brims From Within
Lola snored.
A lot.
The earth-shattering noise tore me from a disturbing dream. The screams still echoed in my mind. The glowing golden eyes in a face, shrouded by shadow, tracking me through the night. The sense of familiarity unsettled me, but a nightmare is a nightmare. Every second that passed, the fear I’d experienced crumbled, replaced by the memory of kissing Kalvyn.
A new day. New possibilities. When was the last night I’d woken up so secure with myself? As if a missing puzzle piece had finally fallen into place?
“Humph for um snort,” Lola mumbled.
I slapped a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. Yeah, she talked in her sleep. Sometimes, there was even intelligent banter with herself. Probably solving the world’s problems in her subconscious.
I maneuvered past Lola’s stray arm that hung out of the tent’s zippered door. Her head hung rested against the foot her air mattress she insisted on using. I crawled out of the tent, and stretched.
The first thing I noticed, Kalvyn’s truck was gone.
Second item of the day, Bianca sat primly at my picnic table.
A shred of the nightmare flickered. “I figured I’d be seeing you sooner rather than later.”
“Kalvyn left an hour ago,” she said flatly. “You must have bored him already. Not that I’m surprised. What could you possibly have to keep a male like him interested? He already had you. Fixation with simplicity over.”
“Obviously,” I replied, and walked to the cooler—the one without ice in it. Every night, I made sure all the food was in airtight containers, to keep the bears away. I’d tried to tie the food up in trees once. Which was an utter failure, judging by all the spilled food on the ground. Leaving it in the truck hadn’t worked either. Lola had gotten a drink earlier, then locked my keys in the cab. And couldn’t find hers.
“Coffee,” I mumbled to myself “Needed coffee. Even instant.”
“I don’t get what he sees in you,” Bianca snapped.
I didn’t either, but I wasn’t about to be forthcoming with that information. Not with her. “To be fair, I don’t understand what he saw in your either.”
“Have you actually looked at me?” Her hands fluttered around her like broken butterflies. “Every male wants me.” She snickered. “Bet you can’t say the same.”
No, I couldn’t. “What do you want Bianca?”
She leapt to her feet. The fragrance of peach body spray choked me. Moderation much? “To make sure you know who Kalvyn Colbane belongs to, and it certainly is not and never will be you. Stop wasting both of our time. He will tire of you, and guess where he’s going go?”
“China to get away from you?” I mumbled as I sorted through the nonperishables, coming up with coffee. “And you are quite mistaken. You don’t own him. Or hasn’t he made that clear enough? He is a human being, his own man, and adult. No one is owned by anyone.”
She doubled over in laughter. “Oh, little, young, insignificant human, how little you know.”
“I don’t need to know, to understand a couple of things.”
“Like what?”
“Like, it seems the only person who might even like you, is whoever this Sadie is. That includes Kalvyn, who does everything he can to avoid you, and forget you exist. Or haven’t you noticed?”
“You don’t know anything.”
“Really? Carmen made it quite obvious she’d rather break your face than look at you. No one tried to settle her down. That tells me more than any words can. In fact, I think Syber and Quinn would pay for front row tickets to that main event. You don’t have many friends here, yet they seem to like me just fine. So, take your pissing contest, and get the fuck off my campsite.”
In a blink, Bianca was in my face. She snarled. Her brown eyes glowed. Damn, were those fangs peeking out from her lips? No, couldn’t be. In her spiked heels—what woman in their right mind wore heels camping—she towered over me. I really needed caffeine. “Or what, little girl?”
Oh, hell no to little girl comments. I may look like I’ll cower all the time, but I had a bipolar temper. Too many rich high school girls I’d taken shit from for years. I smiled bitterly. Bianca was just an overgrown schoolgirl, too used to berating everyone so she left above them.
“Get your crammed-into-a-push-up-bra tits out of my face. Obviously, they are padded. You’re what? A B cup pretending to be a D? Did the camp showers have thick enough paper towel to make them stand up like that?” I fisted my hands as she laughed nervously. “Trust me, I’m not the only one here who’d never motorboat you, even if you paid us.”
Syber burst out laughing, bending over and holding his stomach.
Her mouth opened, closed. Good. However, she did not step back.
Bianca tossed her expensive extensions that didn’t quite match her hair texture. “You talk big, but you got anything to back it up, bitch?”
“Yeah, me.” Lola stepped out of the tent, with a baseball bat in her tiny hands. She may be small, but I’d seen her take on girls three times her size. “I’d take you both down without breaking a sweat, or a nail.”
“Jesus.” I tied up my hair in a top knot—clear girl language. “Why bitch? Yes, I am a bitch. But, you’re like a glossy beauty magazine.”
Bianca smiled, as if I’d complimented her.
“Your pages are just 2d, empty paper dolls. Unimaginative, ignorant, and toxic. And plastic, just like…”
“If you say Barbie…” Bianca started.
“Hell no. I wouldn’t insult Mattel that way. She is iconic. You are just ironic.” I turned my head to the side and waited. “Well? I have better things to do today than waste time even attempting to have a half intelligent conversation who can’t come up with something better than calling me a bitch.”
I whirled on her, even as Lola grew closer. Bianca grabbed my shoulder. I let her turn me. I snagged her wrist, then kept turning, and rotating her shoulder faster than she could move. Her body half flipped and hit the ground hard. One of her expensive heels broke, and she shuddered.