Illusions

Chapter Twenty-Three

THEY REALLY HAD STAYED TOO LONG — IT WOULD BE nearly dark when they got back — but they’d kept finding reasons to stay. To linger in the empty cabin, holding hands, or laughing at memories of Laurel’s childhood, or stealing just one more kiss — one kiss that turned into two, then ten, then twenty. She knew that once they left the cabin, everything would get complicated again. But for those few hours, in the empty house with no electricity, phone, internet, or television, the world was theirs alone.

But they couldn’t keep night from falling. She had considered just staying — she was safe at the cabin, maybe even safer than at home. But though it was Tamani’s job to keep her safe, it was her job to keep her family safe. And she couldn’t do that from fifty miles away. Besides, her parents were probably worried. By the time she had collected herself enough to remember that Tamani had a cell phone, they were in separate cars, headed back to Crescent City.

The drive went much too quickly and soon she was within a few blocks of her house. She looked in her rearview mirror and waved at Tamani as he peeled off and headed to his apartment, watching his taillights until they disappeared. It was only when someone honked behind her that she realized she’d been sitting at a green light.

Stars were peeking out behind the clouds by the time Laurel pulled into her driveway. She was going to be in so much trouble. Her mom’s car was in the garage, though it didn’t look like her dad was home yet. Pocketing her keys, Laurel attempted to sneak into the house and was immediately foiled by her mother sitting in the front room sipping a cup of tea and reading a gardening magazine.

Laurel shut the door behind her. “Um, hi,” Laurel finally said.

Her mom studied her for a minute. “I got an interesting call from the school’s attendance office today.”

Laurel cringed on the inside. She busied herself with loosening her petals from their silken bonds.

“You were absent from all your afternoon classes.”

The speech she’d planned all the way home evaporated. So she remained silent. A single petal came free with her scarf, and Laurel wondered if she would lose them all tonight, or if this one had been jarred loose by the day’s activities.

“And then you walk in after seven o’clock on a school night — with no word whatsoever — and your eyes are sparkling like I haven’t seen them in weeks,” she finished, her voice soft.

“I’m sorry I worried you,” Laurel said, trying to sound sincere while suppressing a smile. Her apology was sincere, but a guilty smile would undermine that.

“I wasn’t worried for long,” her mom said, swinging her legs over the side of the couch. “I’m a quick learner. I went out to the backyard and talked to your sentry friend, Aaron.”

Laurel’s eyes widened. “You talked to Aaron?”

“He told me Tamani checked in at about noon and told them you were safe with him. So I stopped worrying.”

“That was enough to make you stop worrying?”

“Well, I stopped worrying about your safety, anyway. I saw the look in that boy’s eyes the other night. There’s no way he would let anything happen to you.”

That grin she just couldn’t stop curled back onto her face.

“Don’t think that gets you off the hook though; you’re still in trouble. We’ll talk punishment when your father gets home.” She sobered now. “Seriously, Laurel. What were you thinking? Does David know where you are?”

Laurel’s face fell and she shook her head.

“Is he at home worried sick?”

“Probably.” She felt awful.

“Did you want to call him?”

She shook her head in a stiff, jerky way.

“Oh.” Then a long pause. “Come in the kitchen,” she said finally, pulling gently on Laurel’s arm. “I’ll make you a cup of tea.”

As far as her mom was concerned, tea fixed everything. Have a cold? Have some tea. Broken bones? There’s tea for that too. Somewhere in her mother’s pantry, Laurel suspected, was a box of tea that said, In case of Armageddon, steep three to five minutes.

Laurel sat on a barstool and watched as her mom fixed her a cup of tea, then stirred in ice cubes until it was cool.

“I noticed you losing a petal there,” her mom said conversationally. “Would you mind if I preserved a few? They really smell fantastic. I bet I could make a killer potpourri.”

“Um, sure,” Laurel said, trying not to feel too weird about her mom making something out of her petals.

“You get rained on much today?”

“A bit.”

“Well,” Laurel’s mom said after spooning some sugar into the tea, just the way Laurel liked it, “that’s all the small talk I’ve got. Are you going to tell me what happened?”

Laurel put it off just a few more seconds as she sipped her tea. “David and Tamani got in a fight at lunch. A fistfight. Over me,” she finally said.

“David? Really?”

“I know, right? But they’ve been angry and mopey lately. And there have been little confrontations the last couple weeks. I guess they just blew up today.”

Her mom was smiling now. “I never had two boys fight over me.”

“You say that like it’s fun. It’s not fun!” Laurel protested. “It was awful. I broke up the fight, but it was just too much. So I left.”

“And… Tamani followed you?”

Laurel nodded.

“Where did you go?”

“To the cabin in Orick.”

“And Tamani joined you?”

“I didn’t ask him to,” Laurel said defensively.

“But he did.”

Laurel nodded.

“And you let him.”

Another nod.

“And then…” Her mom let the question hang in the air.

“And then we went to the cabin. And hung out,” she tacked on, feeling like a moron.

“Hung out,” her mom said wryly. “Is that what the cool kids are calling it these days?”

Laurel rested her face against her palms. “It wasn’t… like that,” she muttered through her fingers.

“Oh, really?”

“Okay, fine. It was kind of like that,” Laurel said.

“Laurel.” Her mom walked around the counter and put her arms around Laurel, leaning her cheek against the top of her head. “It’s all right. You don’t have to defend yourself to me. I’d be lying if I told you I was surprised.”

“Am I really so predictable?”

“Only to a mother,” her mom said, kissing the top of her head. “I have an idea. Why don’t you call Chelsea and tell her everything’s okay, and she can pass the word on to David. He’s called here twice already.”

“Good idea.” Laurel smiled up at her mom, if a little weakly. In truth Chelsea wasn’t a lot easier to face than David, but after today she’d take what she could get.

“Homigosh,” Chelsea said breathlessly before Laurel even said hello. Thank you, caller ID. “You broke up with David!”

Laurel winced. “Yeah, I guess I kind of did,” she admitted.

“In front of the whole school!”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen in front of the whole school.”

“So you meant for it to happen?”

Laurel sighed, glad she’d decided to call Chelsea from the privacy of her room instead of downstairs in front of her mom. “No, I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“So are you taking it back?”

“No,” Laurel said, strangely sure of her answer, “I’m not taking it back.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. At least… for now.”

“So what does that mean? Are you with Tamani now?”

After this afternoon? “I–I don’t know,” she admitted.

“But maybe?”

“Maybe.”

“Whoa.”

“I know.” Laurel toyed with a sugar-glass vial on her desk. She had no idea what to say. “I, um, I called to tell you I’m okay since I disappeared kinda fast today. And in case you were worried…” Her voice trailed off as she heard a soft tap and spun around to catch a hint of movement outside her bedroom window. Tamani raised his head and smiled. Laurel smiled back and almost let go of the phone. “Hey, Chelsea, I gotta go,” she said breathlessly. “Dinner.”

“At eight o’clock?”

“Yeah,” Laurel said, remembering the whole reason for calling in the first place. “Could you… would you mind calling him and telling him I’m safe?”

“Him? Like, David?”

“Yeah. Please?”

She heard Chelsea sigh and mutter something about shooting the messenger. “You want me to tell him anything else?”

“No. Just that I’m safe. I gotta go. Thanks, Chelsea, bye,” she said in a rush before hitting END and tossing the cordless onto her bed. She hurried over to the window seat and unlatched her window.

“May I come in?” Tamani asked, his smile gentle, eyes warm.

“Sure,” Laurel said, returning his smile. “But you’ll have to be quiet; my mom’s downstairs and my dad should be home any minute.”

“I’m good at quiet,” Tamani said, stepping silently over the windowsill in bare feet.

Laurel left the window open, enjoying the lingering scent of rain. She stared down at her carpet. Then Tamani reached over and curled his fingers around hers. He pulled her gently toward him and twined his arms around her waist. “I missed you,” he whispered in her ear.

She pulled her head back and looked up at him. “I didn’t think I’d see you till tomorrow.”

He reached up and covered her hand with his, then lifted it to his lips and slowly kissed each fingertip. “Did you really think I could stay away?”

He let go of her hand and lifted her chin. He kissed her eyelids first, one then the other, and Laurel stood very still, her breath shallow, as he kissed each cheek, then her chin, then her nose. She wanted to grab him, to pull him in and reignite the sparks that had blazed between them this afternoon, but she forced herself to hold still as he lowered his lips to hers, the sweetness of his mouth enveloping hers. So slowly, so gently.

She lifted her hands to the sides of his face when he started to pull away. She couldn’t bear for this sweet kiss to end. His arms tightened around her in response and Laurel pressed her body against him, wishing — for a moment — that she could be part of him.

She turned when a knock sounded on her door. “Yeah?” she asked, hoping she didn’t sound as breathless as she felt. The knob turned and before Laurel could say anything, the door opened.

“Your dad’s home,” her mom said. “Come on down and face the music.”

Laurel turned very slightly and looked out from the corner of her eye.

No Tamani.

She nodded and followed her mom out the door, hardly daring to look back.

“So what’s the damage?” Tamani was sprawled on Laurel’s bed, startling her as she closed her bedroom door.

“Where were you?” Laurel asked in a whisper.

“When in doubt, head under the bed,” Tamani said with a grin.

“But there wasn’t time,” Laurel protested.

“Time enough for me.”

Laurel shook her head. “I thought we were busted.”

“Are you busted?” Tamani asked. Laurel wondered if he’d ever said busted before in his life.

“I’m grounded for a week,” she said, shrugging as she sat beside Tamani. It still felt strange, having him here. It was one thing to lose herself in a kiss, but having a mundane conversation with Tamani felt awkward. It wasn’t like talking to David, who was a fixture in her life — comfortably familiar, like a favorite pair of slippers. Could Tamani replace that, now that he lived close by? Now that she saw him every day?

“Does that mean I should leave you alone this week, so you can feel the full weight of your punishment?” Tamani said, his face serious.

Laurel’s eyes widened, but Tamani’s mouth twitched into a grin and she whacked his arm.

He caught her hand and held it for a moment before tucking his fingers between hers and pulling her down against his chest. “Does that mean it’s okay if I come keep you company?” he asked quietly, before turning to look at her with his pale, intense eyes.

Laurel hesitated. She’d been with David for almost two years, had loved him every day. And even though she’d broken up with him, just having Tamani here felt a little like cheating. She was tired of David’s jealousy, of his mood swings, but did that mean she wasn’t in love with him anymore? Besides, David wasn’t the only one she’d told off today. She had little doubt that Tamani had picked that fight, but here she was, rewarding his efforts. His virtues shined too brightly for her to focus on his flaws. Did that mean she was in love with Tamani?

Was it possible to be in love with two people at the same time?

“You going to sleep?” Tamani whispered.

“Mmm?” Laurel replied, her eyes fluttering open.

Tamani bent his head a little closer to her ear. “Can I stay?” he whispered.

Laurel opened her eyes all the way now. “Here?”

He nodded.

“Like, all night?”

His arms pushed a little farther around her. “Please? Just to sleep.”

She tilted her head up, kissing him quickly to soften her answer. “No.”

“Why not?”

“It’s just weird.” She shrugged. “Plus, my parents would hate it.”

“They don’t have to know,” Tamani said with a grin.

“I know,” Laurel said seriously, putting a hand on Tamani’s chest. “But I would know. I don’t like lying to them. Things have been way better since I started telling them the truth. Waaaay better.”

“You didn’t tell them I was up here before, or that I’m planning on being around this week.”

“No, but those are small things. This feels like a big thing.”

“Okay,” Tamani responded, leaning forward to kiss her one more time. He smiled as their foreheads and the tips of their noses touched. “I don’t want to go, but I will if you say so.”

Laurel smiled. “I say so,” she answered, yawning.

The next morning, Laurel couldn’t remember how he’d left, or when. But he was gone, and a single wildflower lay beside her pillow.