Arianna's Tale: The Beginning (9 page)

“So we can go to the bonfire?” I asked
almost immediately after we got out of the driveway and Austin
sighed deeply.

“Does the fact that I love you really not
mean anything to you?” he uttered and I felt a twinge of guilt, but
stared down at my hands in my lap. Jason, did not take it so
lightly, he was suddenly leaning up between the front seats.

“Don’t be a jerk, Austin,” Jason declared,
“Anna knows how you feel, but she’s still legally our sister.”

“Legally or not… you’re my brothers,” I
whispered, winding my fingers into knots, “Maybe… maybe if you
hadn’t been so distant these last years… things might be different…
but even then… I think I’d still see you as my brother….”

“There has to be a way I can change that…”
Austin sighed, his shoulders slumping as his last bit of anger
faded away, “I really do love you, Arianna….”

The car was silent as Austin drove through
the winding tree-lined streets and Jason fell back into the
backseat.

I was thinking, about a lot of things…
staring out at the passing forests and realizing for the first time
just how many trees were in this town. It was just outside of the
big city, but driving through it, you’d think you were out in the
middle of nowhere. And there really wasn’t a lot of traffic… I
expected to see a lot more cars on the road than I did.

“This is a weird town…” I mumbled just as
the tree line suddenly stopped and opened up on a gigantic parking
lot with a humongous building in the middle; a building that
reminded me of an old museum.

“It is a little weird,” Austin agreed,
shrugging his shoulders and finding a parking space close to the
building which I was scrutinizing before my eyes widened in shock
at the name I finally found on it.

“This is a mall?” I gawked and Austin
laughed and nodded, “This looks like a museum! It’s a mall?”

Austin reached over and grabbed my hand,
pulling it closer to him while I nearly jerked it away from him
before I looked to see his cell phone in his other hand. He quickly
dialed the number written on my palm and then lightly let my hand
fall back to my lap.

“
Hello?”
I could hear Jack’s curious
voice over the phone and smiled faintly, but I didn’t know what in
the world Austin was doing.

“Jack, it’s Austin Gray,” Austin stated, my
shoulders tensing with worry.

“
Oh! Hey, Austin! Did you talk to your
little brother about the bonfire?”

“Yeah… we’ll be there. Can you text more
information to my cell?”

“
Great! And sure! All three of
you?”

“All three of us,” Austin answered and I
squealed as I jumped across the seat to hug him.

“
Well great! I’m at the mall right
now…”
Jack was saying and Austin nearly dropped his phone he
was so surprised.

“So are we…” he muttered beneath his
breath.

“
Alex and I are at the bookstore; could
we meet up somewhere? It’d be cool to meet the youngest Gray before
tomorrow,”
Jack requested and Austin stared into my pleading
eyes for a long moment, his hand sliding up and into my hair.

“Yeah… we’ll be at the bookstore in five…”
Austin conceded before saying goodbye and hanging up. His hand slid
to the back of my head and he pulled me closer, kissing my
forehead. “Dad thinks really highly of this guy… that’s the only
reason I’m okay with you being anywhere near him….”

I hugged him again before grabbing my purse
and jumping out of the car with Jason on my heels.

“So we’re going?” Jason asked with bright
eyes as Austin laughed, leading us into and through the overly
crowded mall.

“Yes, we’re going,” Austin replied, shaking
his head in amusement, “I think you two will end up liking it here…
I just hope you don’t like it
too
much.”

My eyes were darting around, trying to take
in all of the shops to see which ones I wanted to come back to and
also, unfortunately, catching all of the gazes that kept shifting
to us with whispers. My back stiffened when I caught pieces of the
whispers, and Jason’s hand was suddenly in mine.

“One of these days, we’ll teach you how to
ignore people,” Jason chuckled and I smiled faintly, still looking
around until I felt eyes watching me and looked up to spot Jack in
front of a store, staring at me.

It took me a minute to realize his lips were
moving, and I pulled my gaze away long enough to spot the other guy
beside him. Another, tall, slender, model-type guy with messy short
deep black hair and when his eyes darted to me, I blinked back the
surprise of finding them to be a strangely beautiful aqua blue.

“Austin, Arianna, this is Alex Moore,” Jack
introduced when we reached them and Alex nodded his head, his eyes
lingering on me, “Alex, this is Austin, Arianna, and I’m guessing
you must be Jason…?”

“And you must be Jack,” Jason responded
without letting go of my hand, a fact that both Jack and Alex had
spotted; I’d seen their eyes linger with a twinge of wide-eyed
surprise.

“Yup,” Jack laughed, “Did you guys want to
go anywhere? We were just about to stop by the jewelry store.”

I tilted my head curiously and Alex
repressed a laugh, but his lips curled into a smile.

“It’s my sister’s birthday Sunday,” Alex
answered my unasked question, “Actually, a girl’s opinion would be
very much appreciated; if you’re willing to give it, that is…?”

I smiled and nodded, “I’d be happy to look.
Though we girls aren’t all alike, you know.” We started walking,
and Alex fell into step on my other side while Austin and Jack
talked about bonfire plans and Jason continued holding onto my
hand.

“You’re right,” Alex agreed with a grin,
“She’s a sophomore at Berringfield… majoring in music education;
she wants to teach chorus. She wears a lot of skirts, longer, flowy
skirts. But she is very much into the moon and butterflies.”

“So what are you thinking of getting her?” I
questioned just as we veered into a really fancy jewelry store and
the employee that spotted him darted into the backroom.

“Well, see… I had it custom-made… but a
second opinion, and a first from a girl, would be really nice,” he
revealed with a soft smile as the employee rushed back out of the
backroom with one of those black velvet neck displays in her
hands.

“Here you are, Mr. Moore,” she announced,
setting the display on the counter as my eyes widened in shock.

There was a delicate silver chain holding
that three-moon design, the one with two crescents on either side
of a full moon, and the moons were filled with a white-blue stone,
but partially covering the connections between the moons, were
dainty butterflies with their wings filled with a Rainbow-hued
stone.

“It’s… a very special symbol to her, the
moons,” Alex started and I nearly jumped out of my shoes, I’d
forgotten anyone else was there, “And they’re filled with
moonstone, and the butterflies are made with fire topaz. So what do
you think, Arianna?”

“It’s gorgeous,” I whispered in awe and Alex
chuckled softly.

“I’m ready to take it home, then,” Alex told
the employee and she was gone in the blink of an eye, busying
herself to getting it properly packaged and ready to go.

Jason squeezed my hand and my eyes darted
back to him curiously. “You don’t know what that is, do you?” Jason
quietly asked and I shook my head as he laughed, “God, Austin’s
sheltered you….”

“Hey, so have you guys had dinner yet?” Jack
interjected while Alex slipped off to pay for the necklace.

“No, we haven’t; I was showing them around
town,” Austin answered and Jack lifted a single perfect
eyebrow.

“So you wouldn’t be interested in going to
the food court? Or meeting up much of anywhere really?” Jack
persisted and Austin glanced at me before sighing.

“Not the food court… I was going to take
them out somewhere nice, like Meril’s,” Austin reasoned and Jack
sucked a breath in through his teeth.

“I don’t know if I can afford Meril’s this
month…” Jack mumbled, but Alex’s hand landed on his shoulder.

“I’ve got it tonight; don’t worry about it,”
Alex assured, glancing at me before looking at Austin, “Do you mind
if we join you?”

“That’s fine,” Austin conceded, “I don’t
even know if we can get in….” Alex laughed and flipped out his
phone before starting out of the store.

“All right… I have to ask,” Jack started as
we all followed after Alex, “Why is your
more-than-old-enough-for-it-to-be-weird brother holding your
hand?”

I giggled and Jason lightly squeezed my
hand. “Because it’s reassuring,” I admitted with a shrug, “And he’s
not exactly my brother… you know that.”

“I made us reservations,” Alex announced
when we all caught up to him, “We’ve got about thirty minutes to
get across town.”

That, apparently, wasn’t very long, because
I was suddenly being dragged, running, through the mall and back to
the car. Alex and Jack had parked on the other side, so we parted
ways in the middle.

“What do you know about Alex?” I asked once
we were in the car started out of the parking lot, the way the car
jerked, Austin obviously didn’t like my question.

“I don’t know much of anything about Alex. I
know a little about his sister, Amy, and a little about their
family. They’re pretty rich, like the Claybornes, so I guess Alex
and Jack grew up together. All the really rich families live over
on Romulus Trail….”

“Where’s Remus Road?” I giggled, but my
giggles were silenced by the look Austin shot me.

“It’s Remus Way… and it’s over near Romulus
Trail,” he answered, shaking his head, “There are some weird road
names around here… I won’t lie. There are some weird people around
here… I won’t lie about that either… but I like it here. I think
you two will like it, too.”

As we drove, I watched the trees again,
noticing that only here and there were there any breaks in the vast
tree line, and only breaks big enough for some building with a
parking lot.

“There’s an awful lot of forest around
here,” I remarked thoughtfully, my heart skipping when I spotted
something moving through the trees, racing fast enough to keep up
with our speeding car, but before I could really see it, it darted
away.

“Yeah… they say to stay out of the woods
after dark… wild animals and everything, so be careful,” Austin
recited distractedly, “Actually, they say not to travel alone after
dark….”

He wasn’t saying something, and I looked
closely at him, inspecting his face. “What is it?” I finally
queried, watching his lips briefly quirk into a faint smile.

“Dad’s big case… there have been a lot of
people disappearing all over the state lately… even back at Mom’s…
there were a lot of disappearances… so make sure you don’t go off
by yourself after dark,” Austin muttered distantly, staring at the
road.

He made a left onto Ainu Parkway, and I
scrunched my eyes in confusion; something about all of the road
names was bothering me, but I couldn’t figure out what. I didn’t
have long to think about it, because we pulled into a very full
parking lot outside of a beautiful old plantation-style house. Alex
and Jack were standing on the front porch when we caught back up to
them and a glance at the menu in the glass beside the door told me
that this was way too expensive. Austin caught me gawking at the
menu and laughed, grabbing hold of my wrist and pulling me after
them. Despite the large crowds and the people waiting in the
entryway, Alex led us to the podium and we were immediately led
back to a secluded round table where I wound up in the middle,
between Austin and Alex.

“What just happened?” I queried when we were
sitting for a moment.

“Alex called and made reservations and we
got seated,” Jack reasoned with a shrug, but I was staring at the
crowded restaurant in disbelief.

“I used my family name to get us seated
quicker,” Alex admitted simply, “It’s not something I do
frequently.”

“It’s really not,” Jack added seriously,
“He’s only done that a handful of times the entire time I’ve known
him, and I’ve known him since we were toddlers.”

“Anna, you’d better order whatever you
want,” Austin insisted and Alex and Jack both looked over at him
and then me.

“Anna?” Alex reiterated curiously and I only
nodded.

“Everybody calls me Anna.”

“But I like your full name, Arianna,” Alex
continued and I shrugged.

“That’s fine, too,” I mumbled, glancing over
at him, “Either is fine, really.”

I’d be lying if I said dinner wasn’t a bit
awkward. I quickly got the distinct impression that Austin and
Jason weren’t ridiculously fond of Alex and Jack, and after
contemplating that a while, realized that Alex and Jack must like
me. I hadn’t noticed, honestly, until that train of thought wound
its way through my mind, then I started to notice the little
flirtatious things. Jack would give me little playful looks, almost
cautiously, but Alex kept turning the full power of those aqua eyes
on me in an overly calm, serious way that sent a shiver down my
spine more than once.

“How many people are going to be at the
bonfire?” I wondered aloud out of the blue and Jack laughed.

“Pretty much all of the high schoolers,
recently graduated and future underclassmen included,” he stated
with a smirk, “You’re going to get to meet everyone, practically;
everybody was really excited when I passed along word that the
Grays would be coming after all.”

“That sounds like a lot of people,” I
blurted, shocked, and a teensy bit worried.

“It is,” Alex stated at the same time as
Jack said “Only about three-hundred.”

“
Only
about
three-hundred
?” I
stared at him in absolute shock and he laughed and shrugged his
shoulders, “I think I’ve lost interest in going.”