Chapter 3
SUNNY
“Has he gone?” Kai asked.
“Yeah,” DJ confirmed, looking through the tiny crack in the door. “He’s just gone downstairs. Doubt he’ll be back.”
Kai got to his feet and walked over to the closet. “D’ya think the story he told us was about Bear and the Sinners?” he asked, pulling open the door and rummaging inside.
“Yeah,” DJ scoffed. “We all know the story. Granddad and the boys took Mayor Henderson out, and Cash, Diablo, and Breaker got Bear.”
“Wonder if we’ll contact any evil spirits?” Kai mused, pulling out a large box and rattling it at us.
DJ rolled his eyes. “Doubtful. Ouija boards are lame.”
“I don’t think we should screw with that thing,” Kady stated. “It gives me the creeps.”
“It does me too,” I agreed. “I touched it earlier and it gave me the heebie-jeebies.”
Kady jerked her thumb at me. “See? Sunny feels it too.”
“Me three,” Gabby interjected. “It’s weird. What if we do summon something bad?”
“Thought that was the point?” Kai grumbled. “You girls can pussy out if you want, but me and Deej are gonna do it.”
“Can’t we just watch a movie like Granddad said?” I pleaded. “I read something about some kids that played with one of those boards and bad stuff started happening,”
Kai let out a snort, looking me up and down as if I was an idiot.
My heart sank.
He kept doing mean things to me lately, which really hurt because not only had we been best friends for years, along with Kady, Gabby, and DJ, but I’d also loved him for all that time too.
I pretended not to care about the way he looked at me, like just being in the same room as me grossed him out, so I lowered my gaze and examined my perfectly manicured fingernails, acting like I didn’t have a care in the world, and his attitude didn’t wound me.
Except I was fighting back tears because I didn’t know what I’d done to make him hate me so much.
It was the opposite of last Halloween. I used to love nights like these when I was locked in with my best friends, shut up so tightly from the outside world that it felt like we were the only people who existed.
Now, all I felt was cold inside, and not just because Kai was acting like a douchebag, but also because my stomach hurt at the thought of playing with that Ouija board.
DJ and Kai began joking around as they set up the battered old board on the floor and repositioned our cushions and bean bags all around it.
It was even creepier close up. The letters and numbers were faded with age, and the varnish painted over the yellowing wood was slightly peeling.
Kai took out the planchette and laid it down in the middle of the board between the arc of the letters of the alphabet and the numbers one to ten.
“Everyone, put your fingers on the planchette,” DJ ordered. “I googled it, and we need as much energy as possible for it to work.”
Kai and Deej’s fingers went straight for it. Gabby laughed nervously but did as DJ said, placing her pointer finger on the resin. Kady hesitated for an instant before shrugging and doing the same.
My hand hovered mid-air, my nails shimmering pearlescent in the dim light.
“Why are you here again?” Kai muttered. “Should’ve known you’d punk out.”
My eyes turned to slits. “Screw you, Kai.”
His mouth curved, and he put on a whiny voice, parroting, “Screw you, Kai.”
My heart jolted painfully.
Kady’s stare cut to mine before sliding to her twin and staring as if she didn’t know him. “What’s got into you?” she demanded. “You’re not this person.”
His face twisted. “I’m sick of her hangin’ around me. She tries to do it at school, and it’s annoyin’ AF. We’re not little kids anymore. She needs to go her own way and stop dependin’ on me to make her popular. It’s lame.”
Pain slashed through my chest, and my eyes welled up as I stared at him, my mouth hanging open. He’d never spoken to me like that before; in fact, he’d fought boys in the past who were mean to me. Why did he hate me so much?
He stared at me, and I swore I saw a look of regret flash behind his eyes, but I must’ve been mistaken because Kai sighed as if he was bored out of his brain, and his face hardened as his stare flicked over me dismissively.
“Jesus, why are you cryin’? Grow up, Sunshine.
This is why I date girls my own age. You’re so immature it’s embarrassin’. ”
My heart clenched so hard that I couldn’t breathe.
“Kai!” Gabby snapped.
“Oh my God,” Kady cried. “What’s the matter with you?”
He shrugged. “I just wanna do the board for fuck’s sake, and instead of joinin’ in, Sunny sits there cryin’. How are we supposed to summon dumbass Bear Rawlins when she’s havin’ a meltdown?”
The room fell deathly silent.
DJ stared at Kai, his blue eyes shooting fire, as if he was trying to laser Kai Stone to dust. Gabby’s mouth set into a thin line. Even Kady’s mouth twisted angrily, and she never got mad with her twin. “Take that back,” she ordered quietly.
Kai rolled his eyes.
She scrambled to her feet and repeated, “Take it back!” louder that time.
“Sit down, Kady,” he mumbled, unable to meet her shocked gaze.
“I never thought I’d hear you speak to any girl that way, especially Sunny. Wait until Dad finds out.”
He clamped his mouth shut, and I noticed how uncomfortable he looked, not that I cared; he’d brought it on himself.
Thing was, I may have loved Kai, but I’d learned by watching my mom, Auntie Cara, and all the other ol’ ladies that real love couldn’t be one-sided.
It was okay if Kai didn’t love me like a girlfriend, but he should still respect me as a friend.
Having feelings for him didn’t mean I’d take his crap.
That wasn’t me, and it never would be.
Mine and Kai’s friendship was separate from the way I felt about him.
I didn’t need him to love me back to be his friend; I just wanted him to be happy.
I’d always seen something special in Kai, but lately, all I’d seen was him being a douche, and it was like my dad always said, someone will always show how they feel about you, and you should always believe them.
And right now, Kai hated me.
Slowly, I got to my feet, blinking away my tears. I refused to give him the satisfaction of letting him see he’d gotten to me. I swallowed and, in a steady voice, forced out, “You’re such an asshole, you know that?”
Kai didn’t answer; he just stared me down like he didn’t even recognize me, like I was a stranger.
“I’m going to bed,” I bit out, returning Kai’s stare with one of my own. “This game is stupid anyway. Everybody knows you shouldn’t mess with the spirit world; only douchebags and lame idiots do that crap.”
“Agreed,” Kady announced, rising from the floor. “I’m coming with you. We’ll go to the other room and watch a movie.”
“I’m coming too,” Gabby said, also getting to her feet. “I’m tired and I want to read my Kindle for a while before I go to sleep.” Her gaze rested on DJ, and she jerked her head toward the Ouija board. “Don’t do this, Deej. I have a bad feeling about it.”
“Me too,” Kady added.
“It’s just a bit of fun,” he assured her. “We’ll be okay.”
“DJ—” Gabby protested, but he cut her off.
“We’ll be fine, Gabs. Just go to bed.”
Kady hooked her hand through my arm, while Gabby rested her hand on my shoulder from behind, and between them, they swept me out of the room. The anger I felt inside at Kai faded away, suddenly replaced by a gnawing sense that something in him really had changed, and not for the better.
Disturbingly, I recognized that blank, void look; I’d seen it in Uncle Breaker’s eyes, and although it had never been directed at me before, it still scared me.
There was talk that Uncle Breaker had a monster inside him that sometimes came out when he had to do bad things, and for the first time, I wondered something.
What if Kai had a monster too?
—————
Kai
The memory of Sunny’s hurt expression flashed behind my eyes, and my gut began to ache.
Shit!
DJ shook his head at me. “You’re doin’ a good job of pushin’ her way, bro.
She’ll stop speakin’ to you soon if you carry on like that.
Tonight was supposed to be about fun, and now Kady, Gabs, and Sunny have left early before we can do the Ouija board.
Shit, bro, they don’t even wanna be in the same room as you. ”
“If I’m nice to her, she thinks it’s okay to hang around us,” I explained sullenly.
“What’s wrong with that?” he asked.
“Nothin’. It’s just a pain in my ass when I wanna relax with my babes, and Sunny’s starin’ at me like I kicked her dog or somethin’.
She’s better hangin’ with kids her own age.
We’re juniors, we can’t hang out with sophomores, it’s weird.
Plus, she’s my cousin, so think of the shit I’d get if the kids thought we were together?
Jeez, what would that do to my rep? I’d never get laid again. ”
DJ rolled his eyes. “Is that all you ever think about?”
“Yeah,” I shot back. “Don’t you?”
He chuckled, shaking his head ruefully, but it wasn’t funny.
Doing it was all I thought about, but the only girl I wanted to be with—if we were older, of course—was Sunny.
It made me feel icky because Sunny was my cousin, and that would be weird.
I’d never go there, but that didn’t stop me thinking about her all the time.
Chelsea Lawrence told everyone we had sex, but we just made out in the back seat of my car. God knows why she said it, maybe it was to score points with the other girls, ‘cause I was popular, but we only got to second base. Honestly, I was still a virgin.
“You’d do well to give Maverick Meadows the go-ahead then,” DJ suggested. “I know you say he’s a douche, but he really seems to like her, and out of all the boys in our class, he’s the most mature. You should get to know him better. I think you two would be buds.”