Chapter 1
I hardly ever dreamed. But when I did I always woke up feeling as though I hadn’t even gone to sleep, but to make it that much more unfair, I had no recollection of what the dream was. Wasn’t that quite frustrating? Sunlight flooded my bedroom from the single window as the curtain blew in with the cool November breeze.
Wanting nothing more than an hour more of rest, I stood and stretched my arms wide to relieve the cramp in my muscles. On my way to the bathroom in my room, I glanced at the sight of my reflection in the full-length mirror on the door of my closet. My eyes, the color of a stormy morning sky, still contrasted with the light honey glow of my skin. My long, wavy dark brown hair still fell to my waist, though slightly tangled at the moment, and the small frame of my body still looked no different than the day, or even year before. What was the big deal about turning 18 anyway?
I could remember the nights of my past birthdays spent with my twin sister. When we were fourteen, we’d made a list, and each year since we’d stayed up adding suggestions to things we could do once we were ‘legal’; thinking back to it now, it all seemed pretty childish. I shuffled about my room, dragging pieces of clothing together until finally something suitable presented itself. The only look I’d managed to find that I sort of liked was a grey fitted V-neck T with my dark blue jeans and black high-top sneakers. Knowing I didn’t have enough time to tame the mangled beast on my head, I quickly tied it up into a bun. The final touch was a sparkling charm bracelet given to me by my mother a year ago today.
On my way downstairs I thought about my sister Macey, wondering how she would be spending our day. I was still a little disappointed about her not answering my 7 calls at midnight. I hadn’t seen Macey since the day she left for her music school trip 2 weeks ago. I could still remember vividly the scene we’d both made when she left. On the entire ride to the airport, we’d been passing smug remarks about being glad to finally be our own, but the second her flight was called, we’d both broken down and filled the airport with the sounds of our cries. I was sure our behavior had people thinking we were experiencing a death in the family.
I’d been excited when she’d first told me she would be visiting Belize, our home, the place with so many cultures and backgrounds, you could never be quite sure what your heritage really was. We were Belizeans by birth, but after our sixth birthday, my mother packed us up and moved us here. Washington was my true home, but I never forgot where I came from.
My mother waited in the kitchen with a radiant smile. She was the only person I knew that was so beautiful, she almost had a physical glow about her. Her presence in the room could never go unnoticed. As if she herself were a ray of sunshine. Perhaps some would believe me to be biased, but my mother was one of the most beautiful people I’d ever come across in my lifetime. Her beauty radiated from the inside to the out, and I wondered often why our father hadn’t stuck around. If not for us, at least for her. I also wondered why she never found love elsewhere. But I supposed my mother liked being alone more than she liked the idea of letting other people in. From what she had told us—I surely didn’t remember—we were only three years old when my father left. Since then, my mother had always been alone. Both her parents had passed away, and she was an only child. She didn’t even have any friends to speak of. Well, that was of course, in exclusion to Miles, the only other human being my mother associated with by choice. I decided ‘friend’ was too casual a term for what he was to her. Though there were never any pictures of my father with or without us, there were plenty with Miles. Even at the hospital on the day we were born.
I was grateful for the resemblance I bore to my mother. We had similar honey-brown skin, though hers was a fraction of a shade darker, and her hair was just the same in its long wavy texture, but the color was more like black than brown. Even our faces shared similar bone structures. The one stark difference in our physical appearance was the color of our eyes. My mother’s eyes were brown.
As I wrapped my arms around her petite frame, I found another similarity in the shape of our bodies. “Good morning, baby. Happy birthday. I can’t believe my little girl is 18 already.” Her voice broke on the last word, and I was shocked. My mother almost never cried.
“Thanks, mom. Have you heard from Macey today? I tried calling her, but she must have been asleep.” I tried not to let my annoyance slip into my tone. As she wiped her eyes and smiled, the brightest smile, my heart skipped a beat.
“You really think I would miss our 18th?” Her voice was spoken from behind me, but before she even finished, I’d turned around. I almost burst with excitement as I ran to hug her.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were coming! How did you even do that?!” I could never keep a secret that big.
“That’s the point of a surprise. Happy birthday, Kace!” She was clearly smug, and I didn’t blame her. It wasn’t the easiest thing to pull off a surprise like this between the two of us.
“Happy birthday, Macey.” I laughed finally as I hugged her again. I was practically bouncing with excitement. I doubted anything could dampen my mood. “If I don’t leave now, I’ll be late for school. Will you come in today or do you want to rest?”
“Oh, I’m coming. We’re not leaving each other’s side today when we aren’t in class. We have too much catching up to do.” She said with a bright smile. I liked the sound of that.
We both kissed my mother goodbye before rushing out the door. “I should have woken up earlier.” I said as I realized we wouldn’t have time to get breakfast at school. I pulled open the door of our black Mercedes and dumped our book bags in. The car was a gift from Miles.
“Why?” Macey asked as she climbed into the passenger seat.
“Chace has probably been waiting for a while. We can’t get breakfast now.” I answered. Chace had been my best friend since the latter part of my childhood. He was far more than just a friend to either of us. He was family. I cared about him almost as much as I cared about Macey. Chace usually waited for us to arrive at school every morning, completely unapologetic about giving the world a front row view of his cutely obsessive behavior. He was a bit of a worrier, and the only times he wasn’t waiting at school for us was when he gave us a ride, which of course had its own ulterior motive.
“Is he still in love with you, but refuses to admit it, or has something changed in the past two weeks?” She teased. My skin warmed, but I laughed, knowing she was only teasing. Macey liked to tease Chace and me, but we didn’t normally encourage her.
I had noticed the weather drop that morning from the moment I’d stepped outside, but I hadn’t expected it to be so cold. I reached into the back seat for the hoodie I’d taken from Chace the previous Friday.
“Macey, Chace is not in love with me. Our friendship is just different.” I never did a very good job of explaining this to people, which was why I didn’t try too often. My friendship with Chace was different than his with her, though we were all very close. Somehow, though, there were unspoken gestures or behaviors that he and I shared. None of it meant we were in love with each other; it was just… different. Within fifteen minutes of leaving my house, I arrived at school, parking in my usual spot next to Chace’s car.
I hardly had time to shut down the car and grab my things before Chace was yanking my door open and pulling me into him, letting in the cold air from outside but warming me with his own body heat. There were two things I loved about hugging Chace. He always smelled amazing, and he was always so warm. His face came down to my hair, and I could feel his ragged breath blow onto my skin. He sounded like he’d been running. My arms squeezed him tightly, though his were tighter, and when he pulled away, his fingers came to my neck to raise my eyes to his. His blue eyes searched my face desperately for any subtle sign of change that could have occurred over the weekend. As I’d mentioned earlier, he was a worrier. I knew what he was going to ask before he even did, so when he asked, a smile grew on my lips.
“Are you okay? How was your weekend?” The concern in his voice was unnecessary, but I found it endearing.
“It was fine.” The second I gave this response, a thought passed my mind, and I realized that perhaps my weekend wasn’t that fine.
“How was the party?” He asked, and I stiffened. I hadn’t told anyone about what happened Saturday night because I had yet to really make sense of it. Not wanting him to actually have a reason for concern, I turned my eyes away from him, knowing they would give me away. I needed a distraction. From the corner of my eye, I noticed the purple and blue of the fitted sweater Macey wore. As I looked over to her, I found her staring with a brow raised high; the smug expression on her face again.
Maybe that was the only reason I noticed the slight pressure of Chace’s hand on the small of my back and how close his face had come to mine. I guess I could see how this might look from an outside perspective. I cleared my throat nervously as I pulled away, letting his arm fall limply to his side. He frowned before turning to see who was the cause of the disturbance, but the minute he spotted Macey, he froze in shock for just a second. Then he was rushing forward to pick her up, spinning her around. “How could you not say you’d be coming home today?” He asked as he squeezed her. “Missed you, tiny.” I smiled as Macey smacked his arm at the nickname. It was a nickname he’d given to her when we first met when he was, even then, a foot taller than the both of us. She had always challenged him to fights, at which point he would have to remind her of the size difference as well as the difference in strength, but of course, she’d never backed down.
“Have you guys started gazing at each other like that since I’ve been away, or have I just been that oblivious?” Macey’s comment made my skin warm again as blood rushed to my face.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I replied, my eyes telling her to drop it.
“Oh, you know…” Before she could finish her mocking retort, Chace interrupted.
“We should probably get to class.”
“Ok…” She agreed reluctantly, not quite done with her teasing.
The parking lot was emptying quickly as people headed to their first class. I didn’t realize how much I’d dreaded coming to school without Macey until she was actually back. Before we could get to our locker, we were interrupted by a group of girls we used to be friends with who wished us both ‘happy birthday’.
“Macey, I missed you.” Tanya gushed in fake sadness. There was a time when we were extremely close to Tanya, but we met a rough patch sometime last year. Looking back, I couldn’t really be sure what had been the downfall of our friendship. We just somehow became passing acquaintances instead. She hugged Macey and then me, but as we didn’t have time to start up a conversation, we said our farewells. Chace had disappeared then, and as Macey and I continued to our lockers alone, a realization came to mind.
“Mace, why do you think Chace hasn’t mentioned our birthday yet?” There was no way he could have forgotten. He’d remembered for the past 8 years.
“Maybe he didn’t remember,” Macey said as she realized it too. “Or maybe he wants us to think he forgot.” When we arrived at our lockers, Chace was leaning against them nonchalantly. He didn’t look up from his phone until we were standing right in front of him. “Are you gonna move or…” Macey asked as she prepared to push him out of the way playfully. He smiled the brightest smile before putting his hand up in surrender and stepping out of the way. I stared at him, trying to figure out what he had done. His behavior was extremely fishy. Macey didn’t seem to feel that way though as she stepped to her locker without concern. As we pulled open the door of our lockers, I could almost feel Chace’s anticipation. The second I saw it I froze, realizing why he was nervous. A small elegant black box sat on top of our books, waiting to be opened. Behind it was a single helium balloon with the words happy birthday on it. Macey snatched the box out of her locker with excitement, but as she opened it, I wasn’t able to see what was inside. I would need to open mine to find out. My jaw dropped at the sight of the beautiful white gold necklace with a little heart locket. It was so beautiful I was almost afraid to touch it. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the inscription of the letters ‘K.C’. Macey’s had an ‘M’.
“Happy birthday,” Chace said as he hugged us both tightly. I squeezed him back just as tightly, not sure how to put into words how much I loved the beautiful necklace. Eventually, we both thanked him simultaneously, and he laughed.
“I love when you guys do that.” He said sarcastically as he pulled away. He wore a beautiful necklace himself, and I had always admired it. Suddenly I was curious of where he’d gotten it from. It was a gold chain with a circular gold pendant that had a smaller circle in its center. As I admired his own jewelry, he took the necklace from me to help me with it. It was practically weightless as it fell onto my chest. But the minute it settled there, the strangest sensation radiated through me from the very spot. I shuddered at the odd feeling before turning back to face him.
“Chace this is absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much.” I reached up and kissed him on the cheek, and when I pulled away, we both blushed.
“Yea. Thanks again, Chace, but… how come you were prepared to give it to me today?” Macey asked as she continued fidgeting with her pendant. She was so focused on that; she didn’t notice Chace’s smile fall and his face pale slightly.
“I just had it in my locker just in case. Um, you guys should probably go. Mrs. Redman will start class a little early today, and you don’t want to be late. I’ll see you guys later, okay?” Before we could answer he was turning to walk away, but our curiosity was peaked.
“How’d you know that?” I called after him, knowing he wouldn’t answer.
“And how’d you get into my locker!” Macey shouted too, though I wondered if she actually did want a response from him.
