The Watcher

He stood abruptly. “Excuse me,” he said.

“Where are you going?” Jesse asked. “We’ve got another half hour.”

“I have to be somewhere,” he said. He picked up his tray and left.

Once he was gone, Fiona leaned across the table. “That’s the new guy, isn’t it?” she asked. “He’s really hot!”

“Hey,” Dean said. “Should I be jealous?”

Fiona giggled, stroking his arm. “Of course not.”

“How do you know him, Jess?” Heather asked.

“I used to go to Sealth too, remember?”

Heather fed Jesse a french fry. “So, dish. What’s he like?”

“Decent. He parties a lot, doesn’t take himself too seriously, used to ride a Triumph Daytona.”

That last point made Jesse’s face light up but left us girls unimpressed.

“It’s a motorcycle,” he explained.

“I heard something about an accident,” I said. In spite of myself, I was curious, remembering what Elaine had been gossiping about.

“Yeah, last year.” Jesse leaned across the table and checked to make sure we were listening before he continued. “Really bad, too. Totaled his bike.”

“I heard that his heart stopped beating, but they revived him,” Fiona added, twisting a lock of her hair and smiling at Dean. “He spent almost three weeks in a coma.”

“Who told you that?” I asked her.

“Overheard Jen in the bathroom,” she said. “Her cousin goes to Sealth. It’s big news there.”

“He’s lucky to be alive,” Heather said. She directed her next comment at Jesse. “I don’t know how you can ride that bike of yours.”

“Do you want to hear this or not?” he asked her, frowning.

“I know, I know,” Heather muttered, scrunching her napkin into a ball. The fact that Jesse rode a motorcycle was a constant worry for her. It was the only thing they argued about.

“He got in that accident on the night of Brad Morelli’s party,” Jesse continued. “Remember that night? Huge storm—roads were terrible. Apparently, a tree fell over right in front of him.” He reached for Heather’s hand, and she let him hold it. “I’d never ride on a night like that, not after a party.”

“A tree fell over? Doesn’t that sound—I don’t know,” I said, not sure why the details of Michael’s accident bothered me so much. “I mean, don’t you think there’s something odd about him? Why is he here? Why didn’t he stay at Sealth?”

I wanted to tell Heather that he was the guy from the mall but something held me back. I didn’t want to have to explain it with everyone there, especially when it was probably a coincidence. The mall and the park weren’t that far apart. He has the right to go shopping like everyone else.

Heather’s eyes widened, and a deep voice behind me said, “We moved.”

I practically jumped as I spun around. There was no doubt Michael had heard me. It was as if the gods had all conspired for me to say or do the wrong thing around this guy. I wasn’t even the gossiping type. What had come over me?

“Oh, hey, Mike,” Jesse said, his face opening into an easy smile. If he was nervous about being caught, he covered well. “Speak of the devil.”

Michael gave him a nod and motioned to where he’d been sitting. “Forgot my keys.”

“Oh.” Jesse grabbed them off the seat and tossed them at Michael. “Here.”

Michael caught them in mid-air. “Thanks,” he said to Jesse, then turned to me. The muscles of his jaw pulsed beneath his skin. “You don’t know anything about me.”

My face heated like I’d been ru

“What was that all about?” Heather asked after he left.

Jesse shrugged. “Never seen him act that way before.”

She turned to me. “Just forget about him, Mia.”

Forget about him? If only I could

Chapter Four

The trailhead didn’t seem like much at first—nothing to be frightened of, anyway. Its wooden sign had long since become overgrown by blackberry bushes, obscuring the name, and two giant cedars shrouded a wooden staircase that snaked its way up the hill. At the top of the stairs, the trail opened onto a wide dirt path shaded from the morning sun by a canopy of trees. Their roots, gnarled and knobby, gripped the earth like talons.

As my eyes adjusted to the dim light of the forest, I followed my friends, winding and zig-zagging along a trail that narrowed as the forest thickened. While my friends moved with ease, loose rocks nestled between the roots easily threw me off balance. I had to concentrate on my footing, using their steps as a guide.

Shade loomed everywhere and the threat of shadows lurked behind every tree, but Heather and Fiona didn’t seem to notice.

“Did you manage to change your appointment, Fi?” Heather asked. “So we can run the booth at the team and club fair?”

“No,” Fiona said. “There’s no getting out of it.”

“What’s that?” I said, checking the bushes around us for movement, for sounds.

“It’s new,” Heather said. “All the clubs and sports teams have booths.” She pulled her hair back into an elastic band. “It’s to let everyone know what’s available, kind of a job fair. Fiona and I were going to work it together, but she can’t make it.”

“Wish I could,” Fiona said. “I hate going to the dentist.”

The air cooled and a strange tickle ran down my spine.

“Did it just get colder?” I asked.

“The sea air’s damp. It can seem cold,” Heather said. “Or did you forget that in Denver?”

A shudder crawled along my skin. Droplets of sweat chilled on my brow. What was going on?

“Can you help out with the booth, Mia?” Heather said. “Hand out flyers?”

Looking around, I checked for moving branches in case a wind had brought the cold air, but the trees were perfectly still.

“Mia?”

“Uhh…yeah,” I said. I hadn’t answered her question. “Sure. I’ll help.”

Fiona’s long legs carried her steps ahead of us. She slowed down to let Heather pass, so she could talk to me. “Did you meet any interesting guys in Denver?”

“What?”

“Guys. In Denver,” she repeated slowly, as though I were dense. Her fair skin, also unaffected by the chill, glowed pink with exertion. Was I imagining things?

I stifled a shiver. “Nope. No guys.” Maybe it was nothing.

“That’s too bad.”

Fiona made it sound tragic. Did she think I was pathetic or something? I tried to shrug it off, digging my hands in my pockets to warm them. “I was with Bill a lot,” I said. Bill, my brother, was in his third year at Berkeley. He had come back to work for Dad over the summer, and if it weren’t for him my summer would have completely sucked.

“How ’bout his friends?” Fiona gri

“Eww. No. Not computer geeks.” I grimaced.

“You’re never go

I wanted to retaliate and say Does being open mean I have to throw myself at guys the way you do? But I held my tongue. It wasn’t worth fighting over. Besides, after my encounter with Michael in the cafeteria last week, he wouldn’t even look at me. So much for being “open.” It was pointless.

As we continued along the path, the chill subsided. Fiona steered the conversation to the topic of Dean. I resigned myself to listen, all the while staying alert to any more strange sensations. There were none. I must have been freaking out over nothing.

***

The Peak, as they called it, had an unobstructed view of Puget Sound that was worth the climb. Below us, the mid-day sun glinted off the water surrounded by giant evergreens lining the cove. Dozens of boats cruised the harbor and a cool breeze blew in from the ocean, but it was nowhere near the same chill as before.

The hike back was mostly downhill, and the steep declines challenged my balance and coordination. The less experienced one of the group—half-sliding, half-hiking—I soon lagged behind my friends, who chatted happily, not noticing I’d slowed down.