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  “He’s fine by the way.”

  “What?”

  “You were worried about him, weren’t you?”

  “Um…” My throat clogged. I swallowed. “How do you know he’s fine?”

  She nodded her head toward where all the cars were parked. Viktor climbed out of his SUV and my stomach swirled.

  “See, he’s fine.” She smiled knowingly at me.

  Suddenly my hands were hot, as was the rest of me. “Did you talk to him?”

  “Nope.” She shook her head.“Uh-oh.” She widened her eyes toward the SUV.

  My eyes boggled and my heart sped up. Vincent climbed out of the passenger side of his SUV. “What is he doing with Viktor?” I voiced before I could stop myself.

  She gave me a curious look. “You don’t know?”

  “Know what?”

  “They are brothers.”

  My mouth dropped open.

  Glinda laughed and shoved me. “Amber, close your mouth before something flies into it.”

  I glared at her and clamped my mouth firmly shut.

  “Why do you look so surprised?”

  “I just…” I shook my head, unable to find words. I watched them through the crowd. Vincent ran through a group of people and I thought for sure he had seen me. But he kept going and ran right past me. I turned to see where he was going and my stomach clenched. He scooped Viola off her feet and spun her around. Her black hair floated in the air and she was laughing, hugging him. An intense surge of jealously shot through me and I fisted my hands. I turned away and concentrated on the dirty bus. I knew I was being stupid. It shouldn’t matter; it shouldn’t even bother me, but it did—really bad.

  “Heads up tiger, you got company coming,” Glinda stepped to the side.

  I looked up and my breath caught.

  “Long time no see,” Viktor said, and his lips lifted into a slow grin.

  My stomach swirled. “Hey.” I tried to take a breath but it was caught in my throat.

  “Breathe,” Glinda said, nudging me with her foot.

  I took a breath.

  “Sorry bout last night.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels.

  I recovered somewhat. “No biggie,” I croaked like a frog and then coughed to cover it up. I sounded so stupid.

  Glinda patted my back. Her little hand slammed harder than necessary. I glared at her and she widened her eyes at me.

  “So, you going on the tour?” He nodded his head toward the bus.

  “Yeah,” I said, suddenly not able to look him in the eyes. I felt like my cheeks were on fire.

  “Cool.” He looked around at the people. A girl with curly brown hair was chasing a blonde boy through the crowd. Each of them were wearing Vampire teeth, acting out the parts. I recognized the little girl from yesterday—Suzie. I glanced around wondering if her pervo dad was here too. The hair on my neck lifted and somehow knew I was being watched. I turned slowly, expecting her dad to be gawking at me again but it wasn’t him. It was Vincent. He smiled at me, and it warmed me so thoroughly. It was like the sun had just appeared.

  “Shoot.”

  “What’s the matter?” Glinda pressed up on her toes and whispered, “Speak to him.”

  “Who?” I muttered under my breath, my eyes glued to Vincent.

  She exhaled. “The one you want to talk to, obviously.”

  I suddenly wished I stayed home.

  “Anyway, I just wanted to say sorry….” Viktor was saying, his voice …intense.

  I tore my gaze from Vincent and looked up into Viktor’s stormy gray eyes and my breath fled once again. It was the strangest thing, I felt a pull to him so strong suddenly, and without meaning to, I took a step closer.

  “Care if I join you two?” Viktor asked his voice deep and low.

  “Sure,” I said lowering my voice, trying to make it sound sexier somehow.

  His brow lifted, and his lips curled into a knowing smile. I had no idea why but I felt he looked like he had just won a battle, a silent one that was waging.

  “You’re going to be in sooo much trouble,” Glinda singsonged under her breath when Viktor turned to talk to someone.

  I turned my head and looked for Vincent. When I saw the expression on his face, I realized how true my assumption had been. Pain swelled in my chest. I stepped forward but then the crowd jostled me toward the bus. When we stopped moving, I looked for him again…but he was gone.

  nine

  The Swan house was cute. There really was no other word to describe it, at least for me. People posed in front of the mailbox and house from the street. A few were even bolder and stepped up to the door. I was a little shocked. I mean, didn’t real people live here?

  Now I could see why they were thinking of moving. I wouldn’t want strangers traipsing all over my lawn and in front of my house day in and out. Still I was glad I got to see it.

  Glinda dragged me over to the front of the house and snapped some pictures with Viktor and me. After that, Viktor didn’t really stay with us much; instead tourists, who wanted their picture taken with him, monopolized his time. He seemed only too happy to oblige. I guess, in a way, he looked the part to them with his pallid complexion, inky black hair, and towering height. The only thing he was missing was the sharp teeth and well, the messy, unkempt hair.

  Glinda hooked her arm through mine. “This is fun,” she said, and snapped another picture of us.

  She showed me and I cringed. “God, delete that.” I made a grab for her phone and she twirled away from me, laughing. My hair was growing in size from the dampness in the air. I wished I had a hat too. Glinda looked great in every picture. She had one of those pretty photogenic faces. I looked like a beast next to her. Self-conscious, I tucked my hair behind my ears, trying to smash it down, which only made it worse.

  The tour guide announced we were moving to the next stop and everyone scrambled to take a few more photos. Some even picked up rocks from the driveway and shoved them into their bags or pockets. Once back on the bus, I sat down and Glinda climbed into the seat behind me, her back pressed against the window.

  “Why aren’t you sitting next to me?” I asked, but before she answered, I felt a body press next to mine. I turned back around. Viktor was sitting beside me. His long legs stretched out in front of him.

  “Having fun?” His brow lifted; a glimmer of something in his eyes that I couldn’t read.

  My heart thumped. “Yeah, it’s been enlightening.”

  He laughed. The sound warmed me.

  “Where are we off to now?” I asked just for something to say. I felt so stupid suddenly. It wasn’t like the easy banter I had with Vincent. Thinking about him only made me feel strangely unsettled.

  “The Cullen’s house,” he said and leaned forward to brush some dirt off his leg.

  “Oh.” I chewed on my lip.

  Glinda leaned forward, sticking her head between us. “So Viktor, where’s Vincent?” she asked as though she had been reading my thoughts.

  “I don’t know.” He glared at her over his shoulder. “It’s not my day to watch him.”

  Glinda’s face reddened and she sat back in the seat.

  I gave her a questioning look and she rolled her eyes, shrugging.

  “So,” I cleared my throat. “What happened last night?”

  “Nothing,” he said and stared toward the front of the bus.

  I gaped at him.

  Glinda kicked the back of my seat and when I turned, she shook her head and mouthed, “Don’t ask.”

  I widened my eyes and turned back around. “So, when do you want to talk about the paper?”

  His lips twitched. He angled his body toward mine and placed his arm over the seat. His hand was almost touching my shoulder. “When do you want to hook-up?” He gave me that heavy lidded stare of his. I shifted in my seat and my eyes drifted to his lips. “Ah…” I took a breath. “Anytime is good.”

  “How about tomorrow?” he said. His warm breath fann
ed across my face. I felt myself leaning forward. His lips slid into a slow grin and his beautiful face momentarily mesmerized me. I had an overwhelming urge to kiss him. Actually, my mind envisioned it a bit too clearly.

  “It’s a date then.” He stood up.

  I fell forward.

  “You coming?” he asked, looking down at me.

  I blinked and pushed off the seat.

  Somehow I completely missed the bus stopping. Feeling disoriented, I looked around. Everyone was gone, including Glinda. “Yeah,” I mumbled, standing up, and followed him out.

  Once I was off the bus, I lost Viktor somehow. I stood there feeling out of sorts. The wind blew against me, the sharp chill making me shiver.

  “What were you two talking about?” Glinda asked bouncing up to me.

  “Nothing really,” I said and pulled my jacket closer.

  “It didn’t look like nothing to me.” She smirked.

  I did a double take. “What did it look like to you?”

  “You looked hungry.” She laughed. “I thought you were going to go Zombie on his face.”

  “What?” I gaped at her. “I did not.”

  “I know.” She laughed harder. “You were thinking about it though.”

  “I was not.” I lied, my face flaming.

  “Yeah,” she said, cutting me a look filled with disbelief. “You keep telling yourself that.”

  We walked into the Cullen House, which was really a bed & breakfast but dubbed the Cullen house by the town. It had a large portrait on the wall filled with graduation caps, just like the movie, Glinda explained to me. I guessed it would have had a larger impact on me if I watched the movie. I was really going to have to do that.

  The owners had a cardboard cutout of Edward-i.e. Rob Pattinson propped up in the main room. I heard someone say they took him on trips with them and they just got back from taking him to some convention in New Orleans. Lucky cardboard Edward.

  After the short tour of the Cullen House, we all loaded back on the bus and headed back to the visitors center. This time Viktor didn’t sit with me and Glinda, instead he sat off with some girls visiting from Ohio—at least that is what their sweatshirts said. I felt another surge of unwarranted jealousy every time I heard one of the girls giggle and almost gagged when the big-busted blonde swung her hair around and leaned her boobs against his arm.

  “You really need to make up your mind.”

  I turned to Glinda. “What do you mean?”

  “You know.” She widened her eyes and nudged her head toward the back of the bus.

  I inhaled deeply and sighed. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  She made a face. “Sure you don’t.” She lifted her phone in the air and snapped off a picture. I only realized after, that she was taking pictures of Viktor and the girls.

  “Why are you taking pictures of him?”

  “Calm down, tiger,” she said. “I will send you a copy of them.”

  “Eww, I don’t want pictures of him with some other girls.”

  “Ah-ha!” she shouted with glee. “I knew it!”

  I frowned down at her. “What did you know?”

  “You are sooo jelly…” she singsonged, seemingly proud of her deductive abilities.

  “Jelly?”

  “Amber,” she exhaled. “You really need to get with the program.”

  “Get with what?”

  “The lingo,” she said as though this explained everything.

  “Whatever,” I muttered. The rest of the way back I stared out the window at the gray and too green blurring landscape while Glinda acted like a mad-texter on her phone, giggling off and on at something she typed.

  The bus rolled to a stop.

  Glinda jumped up.

  I stood behind her and tried hard not to look back at Viktor. I did it anyway and immediately wished I didn’t. He was writing something down on a book one of the girls held. Probably his number. Great.

  “So what do you want to do now?” Glinda asked tugging the little tassel’s on her hat.

  A car horn blew. I looked up and saw the girls from back of the bus jumping in their car. It was a red convertible. The top was down. Seriously?

  Viktor leaned inside the car, handed something to them, and then jumped inside his SUV. The brake lights came on and he pulled out of the parking lot. The red convertible followed him out—the sound of bass thumping, disappearing as they drove away. He didn’t even say goodbye. I didn’t know why that bothered me so much but it did.

  Exhaling, I deflated my cheeks. “Is there anything else to see?” I asked, even though at the moment I didn’t really care. At this point, I felt like calling it a day.

  Glinda rubbed her belly. “I’m hungry.”

  “Do you want to grab something to eat?”

  “I know,” she said, jumping up and down. “We can go to Port Angeles and have lunch at Bella Italia.”

  That was about an hour’s ride from here. “Why don’t we just get something here?”

  “Don’t you want the entire Twilight experience?”

  “Um…” I shrugged, not sure what she was getting at.

  “Don’t you know anything about the movie or the book?”

  “Not really,” I confided.

  Giving me a look of disbelief, she shook her head. “Amber that’s where Edward took Bella to dinner.”

  “Well, do they have good food?” I asked not really caring either way.

  “You are ridiculous.” She gave me a disparaging look. “Yes, the food is good.”

  “Well, if you want, sure.”

  Pulling out her phone, she looked at the time. “Well it’s 1:00 now, so if we go, we won’t be back until after 4:00 or later, which won’t give us much time to get ready for the other festivities.”

  “Other festivities,” I asked, frowning.

  “Yeah,” she said and pulled out a flyer from her pocket. “There is a tour of La Push, by a Quileute member.” She smoothed the wrinkles from the paper. “Oooh and we have to go to the Twilight prom.” She beamed. “I have the coolest dress.”

  “Wait. What?”

  “Yeah, we should totally go,” she said. “It’ll be fun.”

  “I don’t have a dress.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m sure I can find something for you to wear of mine.”

  Lifting my brow, I gave her a doubtful look. She was a lot smaller and shorter than I was.” I don’t think I will fit into any of your clothes.”

  Chewing on her lip, she crossed her arms and gave me the once over. “You’re right,” she agreed. “We’ll have to stop and get you something while we’re in Port Angeles. They have a thrift shop with some cool vintage dresses. I am sure we can find you something there.”

  “Oh—kay,” I said slowly, not quite as convinced as she was.

  Wrapping her arms around me, she pressed her head to my shoulder. I had an urge to pat her head. “Don’t worry, it’ll be great,” she said. “I pinky swear.”

  My lips twitched. “Well, if you pinky swear, I am sure it will be epic.”

  She laughed and bounced away. “Yes! It will be epic…just you wait and see.”

  We didn’t get back from Port Angeles until almost six but the food was really good and we did find me a dress for twenty dollars, which was remarkable. Glinda even dragged me into “the bookstore” and bought me a copy of Twilight. At some point, I guessed I would read it, but it was a surprisingly big book, so, I may have to cheat and watch the movie instead. Glinda said she would discuss the imperative parts with me once I finished reading it. I wasn’t sure what that meant.

  Standing in front of my mirror, I looked at my reflection and smoothed my hand down the full crinoline skirt. She wanted us to wear sneakers for the tour and change into our dress shoes once the tour was over. I asked her if we could change into our dresses after the tour but she wouldn’t hear of it. She said it would be more fun if we were dressed up. She even made a point of saying the boys in the Quileute tribe were “to d
ie for.”

  Needless to say, I had some major butterflies in my stomach, but I was really looking forward to going. This was the most fun I had had in a really long time and could only imagine what the night would hold in store. Giving myself the once over in the mirror one last time, I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs.

  “Amber,” Mom gushed appreciatively as I descended the stairs. “Look at you.” She lifted the hem of my skirt and felt the material. “Oh, I love it.” Then her eyes settled on my high-top black converse and she made a face. “What are you wearing those for?”

  “We are going on a walking tour of La Push and Glinda said it would be better to wear sneakers until after.”

  “Well…” she exhaled. “ I guess that is all right.”

  She didn’t look convinced. “Wait…” She did a double take. “Who is Glinda?”

  “Oh, she is a girl from school who is in a couple of my classes,” I said while I dug my wallet out of my messenger bag and put it into an old clutch purse I pulled from my closet. It was my Grandmothers and not surprisingly, looked like it was from the same era as my dress, which translated into “old as dirt.”

  “Are you meeting any boys?” she asked, her brows inching up her forehead.

  “I don’t know, Mom.” I hoped some would be there or Glinda and I would be dancing with each other.

  “What about that nice boy that was here last night?”

  “Oh, I don’t know.”

  “Did you find out what happened to him?”

  “Not really.”

  A worried look crossed her face. “He’s fine though,” I assured her. “I saw him today.”

  “Really,” she said, and crossed her arms. “What did he have to say for himself?”

  “Not much,” I said. “He’s supposed to meet with me tomorrow so we can do our English paper, though.”

  “Really,” she brightened. “Is he coming here?”

  I tensed. “I’m not sure.”

  “Oh well,” she sighed and stepped in front of the mirror and fluffed her hair. “What time do you think you will be home?”

  “Around One-ish…I think.”

  “Now Amber…” she began, like she was about to object.