Chapter 8

Having rock music blasting into my eardrums is the only way I can make it through my Physics homework; it is truly the most boring of all the science classes I have ever taken, dealing as it does with physical laws and absolutes. If anyone can disprove theories of physical absolutes, it would be me.

“I’m coming!” I shout when’s there’s a lull in the music and I hear pounding on my dorm room door. “God, give it a rest, would you—”

I open the door on a face whose smile is the center of the universe.

“Hi,” the face says.

“Uh…”

He is good-looking in the way that an athlete who has finished a tough workout and is freshly showered and groomed is good-looking. He is attractive in the same manner a firefighter who has just rescued both a small child and a puppy from the top floor of a burning apartment building is attractive. He is, in a word, hot.

“I’m Mackenzie Dodd,” he says again. He sticks out his hand and I stare at it.

“Uh…”

“I won’t bite.”

“No, no, I—”

“Unless you want me to.”

Whoa. Mackenzie. The Mackenzie. Of Julia-n-Mackenzie fame.

I shove my hands in the pockets of my jeans so I won’t be tempted to touch him – for oh, so many reasons. Ooh, how I’d love to touch my roommate’s boyfriend.

Mackenzie has eyes of dark blue, like almond-shaped inkblots. His smile is shy and dimpled and a little lopsided as if he’s trying to be serious but his mouth won’t let him. I can just imagine his broad shoulders and wide back cutting through the water when he swims, cleanly, like a warm knife through a stick of butter…okay, okay. Cool your jets, Callie. This is Julia’s beau, her honey, her love nugget, her whatever-you-want-to-call-the-person-who-is-utterly-and-unfathomably-off-limits.

“Nice to meet you,” I manage to say somehow. “How did you get up here?”

“Well, there are these things called stairs…”

“No, no. I mean, past Mrs. Duncan.” The no boys rule is one of the most strictly enforced rules around here, according to my dorm mates – and stern house mother. “You can’t come up past the first floor without an escort.”

“Really?” He mock-frowns. “I’m gonna have to have a talk with Mrs. Duncan.”

But that isn’t an answer. Is he special? Exempt from the prep school laws?

“I have a delivery,” he says, changing the subject with a laugh. “And no, that’s not a euphemism for anything.”

I feel my cheeks grow warm and I’m certain I must be blushing. No one has ever told me I look good when I blush.

Mackenzie holds up a textbook called 'Deconstructing the Bard.' I recognize it from my aunt’s library. “So long as I had an actual purpose in coming up here, Mrs. Duncan let me go on my own. Plus it’s still daylight hours.”

“Does she think students won’t fool around while the sun is out?”

Mackenzie winks. “That’s the best time to do it.” If my face was flushed pink before, now it must be red as a fire engine. Julia’s boyfriend sure knows how to charm the ladies. I would just about do anything this guy asked me right about now.

I wonder if Julia knows that.

There’s a long uncomfortable moment of silence; down the corridor, I hear the clamor of students as they get ready to go down to the dining hall. A certain type of girl always remains punctual about meals and classes, no matter what’s going on. That isn’t me. Ever. Sometimes I can get so engrossed in a book or a movie – or a good-looking guy posed in my doorway - I completely forget about eating.

Mackenzie steps closer to me, closing the gap between us by a foot. Only the space of a Shakespeare textbook separates us. “Are you getting settled here at Darby Prep?”

“Um…yes.”

“And have you been welcomed?”

The way he pronounces the word gives it considerably more weight, more depth, more meaning than its dictionary definition. What exactly does he want from me?

Julia’s boyfriend, Julia’s boyfriend, I remind myself sharply.

But I can’t look away from those blue eyes; so dark and piercing, they nail me in place at the doorframe. “Um, yeah.”

Mackenzie smiles at me but this time…oooh, sexy. His smile shoots all the way through me to the back of my spine; I can feel every bone quiver and shake.

“What’s your name?” he asks.

“Um, Calliope.”

“Calliope,” he rolls the name around on his tongue. “I’ve heard about you.”

“You did? What did you hear?”

Mackenzie answers me with another provocative smile.

My mind races. What could he have heard? And from whom? Does he know someone at Sisters of Mercy?

Must not lose control…

The air between us is unbearably tense, humid and sticky, thickened by the warmth of our combined breath. It feels like a late summer storm is about to hit.

“Mack? Oh my god, you’re back!”

Over Mackenzie’s shoulder, I see my roommate break into a jog down the hallway, the lovely and lively Julia Poole who has been missing her handsome boyfriend.

“Jules!”

They embrace as if the sun and the moon were about to tumble out of the sky, lips meeting and forming the meld that will keep them together for all eternity. I feel almost guilty watching them but can’t tear myself from the scene.

I also feel guilty for coveting Julia’s boyfriend while she wasn’t around but I suspect I’m not the first to do so.

Finally, the couple breaks for air, without actually physically separating and Julia turns to me with a lazy grin. “Hey,” she says. “Have you met my Mack?”

“Yes,” he answers for me. “I was bringing your book from Fiona.”

Julia’s smile turns into a question as she looks at her boyfriend. “You saw Fiona first?”

Mackenzie barely hesitates. “Ran into her in the quad.” He holds up the book.

“Thank you, sweetie.” Julia kisses him as she takes it from his hand. “I knew I left it somewhere.” She taps the side of her temple with her forefinger. “Just couldn’t remember where.”

Then she looks up into Mackenzie’s face, searching his eyes, his lips, his chin. “Where were you?”

“The Cape. At my dad’s.”

Julia’s lips form a pout. “I was worried about you all weekend.”

“I’m sorry,” Mackenzie replies easily. “It was my dad’s idea. He hadn’t seen me all summer so he wanted me to come to his place for a couple days.”

“You should have called me!”

There is something off about this conversation, something that feels notright. I sense deception on Mackenzie’s part; this feels like a lie, but not a big one, just a little one that will get him out of hot water with his girl.

They both turn to me then, realizing I’m still in the hallway.

“I’ll be in in a sec,” Julia says pointedly. “Then we can go down to dinner together.”

“Oh yeah, sure. I’ve gotta finish my physics anyway,” I say, nodding to the books on my bed. I close the door behind me, despite a perverse desire to leave it open a crack. But why? To hear the flirtation in their voices? Or the lies in Mackenzie’s?

To imagine that Mackenzie is here to see me instead of my roommate? That would probably crush me.

And yet…there had been a connection, hadn’t there? Mackenzie and I both felt it.

About five minutes later, Julia walks in.

Correction: Julia floats in.

“Isn’t he hot?” she asks me before collapsing onto her bed.

“Mack? Hot?” Although it’s the exact word I used myself. “I guess so, if you like that kind of guy.”

My roommate kicks her legs up on my bed and rests her feet at my head. I pretend to be insulted and swat at them in my peripheral vision.

“I more than like,” she says, wrapping a long tendril of blonde hair around her forefinger. “I have even…loved.”

“Oh yeah?”

“You know what I mean, yes?”

I peek over at Julia who meets my gaze with a winking smile. “Um, yeah.”

She exhales in relief. “Oh good. Now you’ll understand when we, uh, need the room, you know?”

I glance away and back down at my textbook. She wants me to leave so they can have sex, I get it – but that doesn’t mean I want to acknowledge it.

“Somehow it’s easier to sneak him into Chalmers than it is to sneak me into MacAllister. Weird, huh?”

Not weird when you consider how much charisma Mackenzie has and how he can pretty much bend the opposite sex to his will. I think I’ll keep that insight to myself. What is weird is how Julia suddenly becomes nervous and weak when her boyfriend’s around; where’s the Popular Girl I met a week ago?

“He is hot, right?” she asks.

“Sure is.”

“He knows lots of guys here.”

“Okay.”

“Swim team guys, football team guys…if you want to meet anyone.”

“Maybe.”

We sit in silence for a few moments longer as the sky darkens outside our window. Damn these shorter days.

“Hey?” I hear Julia say across the room.

“Hmmm?”

“There’s something you need to do for Bell Book and Candle.”

It’s been days since I was officially “tapped” by Fiona at the mixer and this is the first time Julia has mentioned the group. I had been wondering if it was all a joke – the secret society or me being asked to join.

I fold my pen inside the Physics book and regard my roommate. “What’s that?”

“You have to meet with Mrs. Gibson and do a genealogy thing with her,” Julia says, rolling her eyes. “It’s kind of stupid but it won’t take long.”

“Who’s Mrs. Gibson? What sort of genealogy thing?”

“The school librarian. She’s a legacy. She was president of the Alpha chapter when she went to school here. She’s also into family trees and she has all these books and charts about members…” Julia waves her hands in front of her face as if pushing aside those books and charts. “Anyway, before anyone can be initiated, she has to meet them and do their tree.”

“Ah, I get it. See if we have any skeletons in our closets?”

“Exactly. Like I said, it’s not a big deal and everyone passes.” Julia cocks her head to one side as she looks at me. I can feel her gaze on my body, searching me as she did Mackenzie. “You don’t have any, do you?”

“Any…”

“Skeletons? Any weirdo relatives we should know about?” The question, although posed lightly, is at odds with Julia’s suddenly serious expression.

I twist my lips in thought. “Nope. Not that I know of.”

My roommate’s face relaxes. “Great. That’s just what I want to hear.” She hops off her bed and begins to change out of her uniform. “I’m gonna jump into the shower real quick and then we can go to dinner, okay?”

I nod and watch Julia wrap herself in a plush pink robe and tie her hair on top of her head. Then she grabs her shower caddy and card key and waves the latter at me. “Just in case,” she says.

“In case what?”

“You might lock me out of the room.”

“Oh, ha ha.” I wave back as the door closes behind her and then let out my breath.

I lied to Julia.

Not that I would lock her out of the room; that would be a very unroommate-like thing to do.

But the thing about the skeletons?

Yeah, I might have one of those.