Touch Her… #2
“It was her,” I added. “She was trying to bind some guy against his will, but I stopped her. And now we’re becoming friends, I think?” I smiled at Fiona’s melodic laugh. I hadn’t noticed before, but it was unusually pleasant.
“I think.” She smirked and held out a hand. “You’re Emy?”
“Emery, but I go by Emy.”
“Emery,” she caressed my hand in place of shaking it, “I love it. It’s beautiful. Like you.” She finally dropped my hand.
“Thanks?” I normally loved getting compliments, but this one was confusing. She’d started off so hostile, then became friendly. Now it seemed like she was flirting?
“Can I call you Emery? You know, if we run into each other again.”
“Sure.” I usually hated going by my full name, but for some reason I didn’t mind when she said it.
“And you are?” She turned to Ari.
“You were trying to force a bind on someone?” Ari’s voice was filled with disapproval.
Fiona shrugged. “Why not? A few months ago I would’ve done the same thing as Emery,” she shot me a fleeting smile, “but things have changed. I wanna get mine before everyone else takes them.”
“Before everyone takes what?” I was already confused.
“The good humans,” Ari answered for her. “I’m assuming?”
“Yup.” Fiona leaned against the tree she’d been using to restrain the man. “Are you guys from here?”
“I moved here last month, but I grew up spending summers and holidays here. She’s from here.” I gestured toward Ari. “Why haven’t we seen you around before?”
“I’m usually at home. I mostly hang around with my sister and parents. We’re new in town, so I don’t have a job or shit to do yet. No friends.” She seemed indifferent. “I’m still not used to this small town thing. I hate it.”
“Tell me about it. I love it here ‘cause Ari’s here, but the town itself is awful.”
“Yeah…” Fiona trailed off before asking, “Who are your binds? I can tell you have one too.” She nodded at Ari. “I wonder if I’ve met them yet.”
“That’s not really your business,” Ari said.
“Fair enough.”
An awkward silence followed, so I took the moment to take her in.
I’d been so preoccupied trying to save the man that I’d barely looked at her.
She seemed around the same age as us. Light brown hair that fell to mid-chest. She had vibrant brown eyes that almost sparkled, long lashes, pink tinted lips, and an adorable pink and white dress with shoes to match.
Even her nails matched the dress. It was safe to assume her favorite color was pink.
My thoughts strayed back to her eyes. They seemed familiar. I gave them another glance, only to realize they were looking right at me.
“Are you checking me out?”
“Huh?” I snapped out of it. I didn’t know how to answer. Normally I would’ve been shameless about it, but for some reason Dennis was sticking in my head. “No,” I stammered.
“Sure you weren’t.” Her voice was teasing as Ari stifled a laugh. “I need to go drink. But maybe I’ll see you guys around?”
“Maybe. It was nice meeting you. Even if it started off violent.”
“Yeah.” She laughed and looked me over. “Nice meeting you, too.” And then she was gone, leaving a faint scent of gourmand perfume.
“That was interesting,” Ari said.
“You think?”
“Definitely,” she said. We started walking back toward the park.
“Weren’t you paying attention to her whole ‘I wanna get my human before the good ones are gone’ thing?
It’s basically what the man who almost kidnapped me was ranting about.
And what the guys warned us about.” She waited a few seconds for me to respond. “Do you not remember?”
“Of course I remember. That entire conversation was alarming as shit.” I shuddered as we emerged near the playground. “Do you think we should mention this to them? Do you think they’d even care?” I sidestepped the sandbox’s curb, avoiding an array of noisy children, and continued toward the car.
“Probably. We trust them now, right?”
“I think so.” I actually hadn’t thought about it in a while. I was so used to them by now that it was kind of a non-issue at this point, which might be an issue in itself. “Yeah, I guess I trust them. Dennis, at least. You know Sean better than I do. Do you trust him?”
“He hasn’t given me reason not to. And Dennis has actively given us reason to trust him. Or you, at least.” She glanced at me as we got in the car. “Pretty sure he hates me still.”
“He doesn’t hate you. He literally said so yesterday.” I kicked my feet up on the dash, then lowered them at her aggressive side eye.
“Do you want me to drop you off at work before I take my stuff home and change? I’m sure I’ll be fine on my own for a few minutes.”
“Yes, please.” I peered out the window at the dreary sky, which was filled with dark clouds.
“Don’t think this means I’m not still pissed you almost made us crash.” She made a left and headed for the bar.
“Yeah, yeah.” I waved a hand at her lingering annoyance. We drove for a couple of minutes before she pulled into the parking lot. “Thanks, best cousin ever.” I blew her a kiss and got out. “See you in a few minutes?”
“Yeah, whatever.”
I waved as she drove away. I spotted Benji across the parking lot and was about to go say hi when someone pulled my hair. I yelped and whirled around, ready to fight, but saw it was only Dennis. “Dennis!” I jumped on him.
“Did you miss me?” He easily caught me.
“I actually kinda did.” I let go to take him in.
“Is that why you called me and hung up?”
“You’re wearing a hoodie today,” I blurted, desperate to not talk about my spastic call. It was a dark grey hoodie with an open leather jacket over it. I pushed his hood down. “I like it.”
“It’s gonna rain.” He pulled the hood back up. “And you’re in no clothes.” He eyed my outfit.
“It’s not raining and I’m wearing clothes,” I told him.
And then a raindrop fell. And another. I looked at the sky, only to get a drop right in my eye.
“Okay, so maybe it’s starting to rain a little—” I cut off as it started pouring.
Dennis laughed as I threw both arms over my head.
I touched my eyeliner with one hand while trying to save my hair with the other.
“I forgot your hair is curly.” Dennis lifted a dripping curl.
“It’s already waving?” I held up another lock to see my natural waves were setting in.
“It’s pretty.”
“Thanks. Stop touching it. It’ll poof up.
” I gently took the lock back to protect my hair as much as possible.
“Dennis,” I stepped back at his mischievous grin, “you better not.” I managed to go a foot before he was ruffling my hair.
I fought to freedom and kicked a huge puddle at his feet, then took off running and laughing, ignoring the downpour that was soaking through my clothes.
I spun around to see he was nowhere in sight.
“Ha! Loser. Who’s faster now?” I turned back and shrieked; he was an inch from me.
He caught my waist as I twisted and squealed, tousling my hair despite my attempts to break free.
“You’re killing my hair!” I wailed. I turned in his arms, trying to get my poor hair away from him, but he turned me back and caught my lips with a kiss. I deepened the kiss and reached up to grip his wet hair.
“There goes any chance you had with her,” a man’s voice floated toward us.
I broke the kiss to see some guy talking to Benji. “We’re not together,” I started, hoping they could hear me.
“Leave it.” Dennis took my cheek and kissed me again. I smiled into the kiss, content beyond all reason.
“Hey new girl, you start in five minutes,” Alan’s voice was super close to us. Way too close. It was weird.
I reluctantly broke the kiss again. “Okay, just a second.” I kissed Dennis one last time. “I gotta go. Are you coming inside?”
“I’ll be back later. I have stuff to do,” he said. I tilted my head. “What? I haven’t seen you all day. I wanted to say hi.”
“Oh. Okay.” I smiled, relieved that he wasn’t mad at me after all. “Look at you, being all sweet and shit.” I ruffled his hair as payback.
“Don’t, it’s gonna frizz!” he mocked, knocking my hand away.
“You’re so annoying.” I hit his arm as he laughed.
“I’m going to work.” I turned to walk inside, then remembered something halfway there.
“Wait, Dennis!” I ran after him. “I almost forgot. I got you something,” I started, pulling out the lighter.
“I dunno if you’ll want it ‘cause you seem so attached to the one you already have, but this made me think of you and I wanted to get it.” I held it out.
“You got this for me?” He flipped it over, taking in the coffin shape, the grey and black stake, and the illusion of bloody fluid.
“Do you like it? I really hope you like it. I wanted to—”
He cut me off with a sweet kiss and pulled away, his lips turning up in a faint smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I said timidly, hoping he wouldn’t notice the sudden shyness.
“You’re so cute when you do that.”
“Shut up!”
“Go to work before you get in trouble.”
“Kay. See you later?”
He nodded and we went our separate ways. I pushed the drenched hair from my face and tried to blink away my running makeup. I’d completely forgotten about the rain, which was weird, because we’d been in it the entire time. I reached the door and turned to see if Dennis was gone yet.
He was at the edge of the parking lot near a large trashcan.
He pulled the old lighter from his pocket, looked it over, and dropped it in the trash.
Then he flicked on the new one and walked away.
I bit my lip, trying to control a giddy smile before going inside.
Sean and Alan both stared as I entered the bar.
“Is it that bad?” I asked, running a hand through my soaked curls.
“Opposite. You have that sexy girl in the rain thing going on,” Alan said.
I sighed and went in back, flipping my phone to selfie mode. I carefully adjusted my curls, rubbed the minor makeup smudges away, and realized the look was actually good. I decided to leave it and spun to go out front, only to bump right into someone.