My Wish for You (2 page)

“What?! Why?!” I
exclaimed.

“Because it’s
been five years since you’ve gone.”

“And you know
exactly
why that is,” I bit off.

“Well, we’re
going as a family this summer. It’s about time you suck it up.”

“And if I don’t
want to?”

“You’re going
to. End of discussion.”

“This isn’t
fair,” I declared, close to tears.

“Life isn’t fair
Samantha. Grow up.”

I groaned in
frustration and left the living room, storming up the stairs as tears starting
to form in my angry eyes. Barging into my room, I slammed the door shut as loud
as I could and twisted the lock. How could he do this? He knew that I
absolutely hated the lake and the stupid cabin where we stayed. I wanted
nothing to do with it, or the woods, or anything involving our trips to Lake
Tahoe! I plopped onto my bed. I didn’t think that there was going to be any way
out of it.

I was lying on
my bed pouting when I heard a soft knock on my door.

“Go away,” I
snapped.

“It’s me,” said
a voice that I rather wished I didn’t recognize.

“Come in,” I
grumbled.

“It’s locked,”
Sean said from behind the door.

“Oh!” I jumped
up and headed toward the door.

As I bumped into
something, my heart skipped a beat. I had the curtains—that my mother’s
interior designer had picked out—drawn, so the room was dark and I couldn’t
see. I stumbled into my desk and swore, but I finally got to my door and
unlocked it.

“Hey,” Sean
whispered.

“Hi,” I replied.
Flicking on the light in my room, I noticed that he was holding my duffel bags.

“They sent me to
come help you get your stuffed packed,” he quickly told me before I could get
angry. He had always been good at calming me down without really doing
anything. “I’m really sorry they’re making you go. It’s not fair to you. Look
at the upside; you get to hang out with me for like, almost a month.” His grin
was cocky.

“Yeah, I guess.”
I paused and under my breath added, “I’ve missed you Sean.”

“What do you
mean?”

I had had
feelings for Sean since we were kids; he knew that. Everyone knew that.

I’d known
Natasha since elementary school. She was a spoiled rotten brat. Whatever she
wanted she got, and that was how she landed Sean. She started chasing him when
he was a freshman. At first, he didn’t want anything to do with her. Then, as
time progressed, he started liking the attention. Rumor had it that one night
they were at a party, and she took him upstairs…well, the rest was history. A
few days later, they were the hottest couple in school, and I was left in the
dust.

“We never hang
out anymore. Ever since you started going out with—”

“Don’t you dare
start on her, Samantha! You don’t know
anything
about her,” he cut me
off.

Rarely did
anyone ever called me by my full name unless I was in big trouble. I had never
seen him so angry in his life. He was usually an easygoing person. His face
went pale and he tightened his grip on the bags. It was the first time he had
ever yelled at me. My face flushed and I looked down.

“You don’t have
to help me,” I whispered. “Just leave my bags. I’ll do it myself.”

“Sammy....”

He had started
calling me Sammy in elementary school. That seemed so long ago.

“I’m sorry,
Sammy,” he whispered, breaking my concentration. “It’s just that it’s been a
very long day. My parents were yelling at me about her earlier, and then Tasha
and I got into an argument.”

“Whatever; just
forget about it,” I replied. My heart was beating faster now. Did he just say
that they got into a fight?

“No, I shouldn’t
have taken it out on you. You’ve always been there for me. I’m sorry,” he
apologized.

“It’s okay. I’m
serious. Let’s just get my crap packed before we both get yelled at,” I said,
laughing uneasily.

I knew it shouldn’t
have, but knowing that he and Tasha had gotten into a fight put me in a better
mood. So, we started packing up my stuff. I hadn’t realized how many things I
would need; I hadn’t gone in forever. Halfway through packing my stuff, we
decided that we needed to keep our energy up and go eat something.

“You have a lot
of stuff, Sam,” Sean tried to say through a mouthful of pizza.

“I know. I’m not
sure how it’s all going to fit in there.”

“Neither am I.
We might as well try to get it to work,” he proposed.

“Alright, I
guess,” I reluctantly agreed, getting up from my chair.

It took us
another half hour to track down the rest of my things and finish packing. By
the time we were done, I had to squish the bags to get the zippers closed. I
glanced down at my phone and the time display read 7:45.

“Hey, what are
you doing tonight?” Sean asked me.

“Nothing. Why?”

“I don’t know.
Want to go to the movies or something?” he said.

I was stunned.
Sean Williams, the boy I had been in love with forever, just asked me to the movies!

“I don’t mean
like a date or anything. It’s just I don’t want to go home, and I’m not going
to call Tasha.”

“Why not?” I
blurted out. Weren’t boyfriends supposed to want to be with their girlfriends?
Maybe
they’re worse off than I thought
. My heart started to pump faster at that
thought. I
really
needed to calm down.

“She always says
that I want to go out too much, which isn’t true; she just wants to do what
she
wants.” he explained. “So, I probably won’t see her for a while. That’s usually
how it goes. It’s probably what she wants anyway.”

He sounded
bitter.

“Okay then. So,
what do you want to do?” I asked him.

“Movies?” he
grinned.

Chapter Three

He just asked
me to the movies! Oh my God
! I couldn’t believe it! I had waited for this
day all my life. I never thought it would happen…if I could only keep my cool.

“Sure,” I
managed to stammer out—so much for my cool. “Just let me get ready.”

“Okay, I’ll just
check the movie times,” he told me as he walked into Brian’s room.

I stumbled into
the garage and started looking through the clean clothes. I knew they had to be
there somewhere. Finally, I found my black skinny jeans and my pink cotton tank
top at the back of my second rack of clothes, then ran up the stairs…living in
a mansion could be a big hassle sometimes. Taking the marble stairs two at a
time, I rushed into my bathroom to change.

I was trying to
keep my emotions under control as I did my make-up. Slowly and carefully, I
applied the smooth eye shadow and eyeliner. My hands were shaking as I put on
my mascara. I took a deep breath.

As I put the
finishing touches on my eyes, I started to calm down. I took one last look at
myself before I walked out of the bathroom. Everything seemed to look right.
Every long black hair on my head seemed to be in place, which was unusual since
it was really curly. My eye shadow made my eyes look my favorite shade of gray.
I shook my head and took a deep breath, walked down the hall, and opened the
door to Brian’s room.

“Ready?” I asked
Sean.

“Yeah, the movie
starts at nine,” he replied with an awed look on his face.

We almost got
out of the door before my parents called us.

“Samantha, we
need to talk to you,” my dad said.

I looked at
Sean. “This will only take a second, hopefully. Yeah, what’s up?” I said as I walked
into the dining room.

“Where are you
going?”

“Sean and I are
going to the movies,” I sighed at him, rolling my eyes.

“He has a
girlfriend, Samantha,” my mom said.

“I know. We’re
just going to the movies,” I started to raise my voice, getting defensive. Was
I not allowed to go out with a friend?

“Okay, okay,
just don’t wake up anyone when you come in,” she warned me.

I turned and
walked up to Sean. My expression must have said, “Let’s get out of here before
I explode!” because he just turned and headed out of the house. We walked out
to his lifted navy blue Tacoma. For my five-foot-three body, getting into it
was a lot harder than he made it look. My uneasy balance didn’t help a whole
lot either. So, when I tried to get into the truck, I ended up falling on my
butt. Before I even realized what had happened, Sean was right in front of me,
laughing like a hyena.

“I guess I
should have warned you about how high up it is,” he snickered.

“Yeah, you
should have,” I mumbled, dusting myself off.

“Let me help you
up,” he offered, stretching his hand out to help me up. Grudgingly, I took it.

Before I could
protest, he picked me up and put me in the truck. I just sat there in silence
as he walked around to his side and opened his door. I stared at him
incredulously as he hopped up with no trouble at all. He started the truck and
turned to me.

“You need to put
your seatbelt on, Sam.”

I put my
seatbelt on without a word. The radio was off and an awkward silence washed
over us. We were almost to the theater when I realized I didn’t even know what
we were going to go see.

“The
Gravedigger,” Sean said in response to my question.

I looked at him
without a sound. I hated scary movies and he knew that. I figured he was doing
this to get back at me for having to help me for the last hour and a half.

“Um...you know,
I heard about this one movie that’s supposed to be really good. It’s about….” I
rambled on.

“Don’t worry
Sam. I won’t let the zombies get you.”

Hopelessly, I
stared at him. He wasn’t going to let up. I liked the way he said he’d protect
me though. I liked it more than I should…
way
more than I should.

“What?” Sean
interrupted me.

“Oh, I was—well,
umm—”

“Never mind…I
can tell it’s too complicated. Don’t hurt yourself trying to explain,” he
laughed, pulling into the parking lot.

“It’s crowded
for a Wednesday,” I commented.

“Sammy, it’s
summer. It doesn’t matter what day it is anymore.” His lips were in a tight
line as he tried to hold back his laugh.

“Just do it. You
look stupid when you don’t,” I told him. With that, he burst out laughing. I
wondered whether he was laughing more at my comment or at my giving him
permission to laugh at it.

He parked the
truck and got out. I unbuckled my seatbelt and tried to calm my embarrassment.
By the time I reached for my door handle, the door was already open and Sean
had his hand outstretched to me. My heart gave a wild thump.

“So you don’t
fall this time,” he told me, smiling brilliantly. I grabbed his hand and jumped
down. Somehow, I still managed to almost fall. He grabbed my arms to steady me
and we looked into each other’s eyes. After a few seconds, we both looked away,
embarrassed. This was going to be a long, awkward night.

“We’re gonna be
late if we don’t hurry up,” he said as he tried to hide his guarded face.

As we approached
the box office, I pulled my wallet out of my purse to pay, when I was abruptly
stopped.

“You don’t think
you’re going to pay for yourself, do you?” he asked me.

“Well, as a
matter of fact, I do. You have no need to pay for me.”

“Think of it as
an early birthday present.”

“Fine, but I’m
getting popcorn so I can throw it at you,” I murmured. He didn’t hear the last
part, but laughed anyway. I wasn’t looking forward to my birthday. Everyone
thought I was absolutely crazy, but rarely did anything go well on my birthday.

“Come on. If we
don’t hurry, we’re gonna miss the previews.” He pulled my arm and we walked
through the doors.

Thankfully, the
concession stand line was short and we got our popcorn and drinks quickly. We
were very lucky. When we got inside the theater, there were only about ten
seats left, and two were directly in the middle. As we slid into our seats, the
previews came on and I prepared myself for what I was about to face.

I wouldn’t sleep
for weeks. It was undoubtedly the scariest movie I had ever seen. Never,
ever
would I go to a graveyard again! A cult of gravediggers had to feed on human
flesh…but dead people weren’t enough for them. No, they just
had
to
start feeding on live humans. I gave an involuntary shudder and Sean looked down
at me. Having already shrieked twice, I was almost positive that it would
happen a few more times. My face must certainly have showed the utmost horror.

***

“Adrian, quit
it! I’m already freaked out enough. This is creepy. We shouldn’t be here,
especially tonight. Why did you have to pick the thirteenth?”

“Relax Rachel!
We’re going to be fine. The whole story is just a myth anyway.”

“Really? So that’s
why this town is starting to disappear?”

“Rachel! Just
drop that. You’re going crazy over nothing.”

There was a
crackle behind the grave and their flashlights flickered out.

“Adrian...what
was that? Where are you? I can’t see anything.”

“I’m right here.
Grab my hand.”

“Let’s get out
of here!”

“Okay, come on.”

They started to
walk, but tripped on a tree root. The Gravedigger jumped out from behind the
tree and started to pursue Adrian.

“Rachel! Run!
Save yourself!”

“No! I’m not
leaving you!”

“Go now!”

The Gravedigger
attacked Adrian. Rachel started to scream.

***

“Oh my God.” I
turned into Sean’s shoulder. He put his hand on my head and told me it was
almost over.

***

Rachel turned
and started to sprint, screaming for help as she did. The Gravedigger was
faster though. He soon caught up to her and attacked her as well. The scene cut
to the townspeople coming across their dead carcasses. Then, the screen faded
to black and the credits started to roll.