Winter Wakes

“I can’t believe you bet on me,” I laughed into Darren’s warm neck.

He chuckled slightly, his arms surrounding me, “Yeah well it’s usually an easy way to get twenty bucks from Chassie.”

“But you lost,” I pointed out. I pushed away from him slightly, sitting Indian style on the couch. He shook his shaggy chestnut hair out of his dark brown eyes with a sigh.

“The force was not on my side, young padawan,” He smiled, flicking the tip of my nose. I playfully stuck my tongue out.

I blamed myself for his Star Wars reference. He’d never even so much as thought about watching them until he dated me. Then I kind of force fed it to him; but he seemed to like it so it was alright in my book.

“Star Wars, wow, you sure know how to pick a winner, don’t you?”

For Darren’s sake, part of my mind was screaming to ignore the sarcastic voice that came from behind me; my irritation on the other hand wanted me to do otherwise. I couldn’t escape him.

“Aww how cute, you know what a padawan is!” I smirked up at Darren, and the figure that was now standing beside him. For all Darren knew, I was talking to HIM. But the boy standing behind him who was only visible to me knew otherwise.

“Of course—“

“Yeah, and I also know what a wookie is but you don’t see me throwing ‘the Force’ around in everyday conversations do you?”

“Charming,” I smiled. The only reason I believed Simon had thrown out the Star Wars insult was because he was having a difficult time finding anything else to pick at about Darren. Despite his brief lapse into geekdom, Darren was by no standards a nerd, loser, or any such term. He was a Hollister boy, his shirt, ripped jeans, and belt reflected that. My skin next to his appeared deathly white, but not blotchy; more like ivory. That’s not saying mid-winter the boy was tan, but he naturally had a bit darker skin tone than I. Let’s not forget his family clearly had some kind of money, otherwise the three story house and Jaguar would not exist. My father made a fairly good bit of money, but that seemed like nothing compared to what his parent’s brought in. And some how I’d suckered him into dating me. Thank you
funeral home, thank you very much.

“Donde esta tu parentals?” It was by no means meant to be Spanish; just with Darren I often spoke the language half-assed from our semester of hell together suffering through it.

He stretched his neck a little, looking out the basement window that was just above our heads. He looked back down, “Not here.”

“Clearly,” I laughed.

“If you two start kissing or some shit like that I will make sure you don’t enjoy it,” Simon’s voice cut though the previously pleasant air. What the fuck? No one told him he had to come. In fact he had forced me to take him along. Dead or not, no one told me I couldn’t kiss my own boyfriend. I shot him a smirk before circling my arms around Darren’s neck and pulling his lips to meet mine. Behind Darren’s head I was flicking Simon off. Bastard.

Darren was not a bad kisser; in fact he was far from it. And because of that, things always seemed to escalate… well, quickly with us. I was no longer the one leaning into him; instead my back was now on the couch as he balanced himself carefully over me. Even faster than that my shirt was on the floor. His mouth pulled away from mine, kissing his way down my neck while his hands ran up my arms before pinning me to the couch.

“Ouch!” My entire body jerked as his hands had tightened around my wrists. The motion caused him to let go and cease all action. I could only cringe at the pressure he had put on them.

“Thank god. I really didn’t want to see this much but going any further would have been scarring.”

“Maggie? What’s wrong?” Concern colored Darren’s voice as he looked down at me. His gaze slowly shifted up to my wrists; I couldn’t exactly say what I saw in his eyes then aside from confusion. I didn’t even know what I was going to say about that. Closing my eyes I felt his finger tips gently running over the bruised skin.

“Maggie, what’s this?”

“A bruise?”

“No shit, Sherlock. Just how are you going to explain that anyways?” Simon’s voice cut from across the room.

“But how did you get them?” I hoped I was just imagining the anger behind the gentle tone. “And this one too.”

I winced again as his fingers gently brushed my cheek. Wait, I had a bruise on my cheek?

How had I not noticed that one?

“Oh, that. My mother slapped me yesterday while I was in your body when I first started talking to her.”

I was surprised Simon’s voice could actually sound slightly like the angels singing hallelujah. That was it.

“It—It was a client yesterday. The mother of the deceased went a little hysterical when I tried to pull her away from the coffin,” The lie flowed easily off my tongue compared to when I usually tried to avoid the truth.

“Are you serious?” Darren eyed me with slight suspicion. “That’s really extreme.”

I sighed, nodding, “Her son is—well was, around our age.”

“You’re going to hell for lying, you know.” I desperately wanted to hurt Simon. This was his entire fault and he still had the nerve to say that?

For some reason that seemed to satisfy Darren. Then again he was a mama’s boy so it probably made some odd kind of sense to him. Concern surpassed passion then, the moment was ruined. I thanked Simon. Everything was his fault.

“Be careful, okay?”

I gave Darren a small smile and nod. I couldn’t tell him the half of it. I wished I could, but there was no way anyone would understand what I was going through. I would be dubbed insane or something similar and locked in an asylum. That was not included anywhere in my plans.

“I’ll go with you next time if you want me to,” He offered. I still didn’t understand exactly how I had gotten him. No other guy would do this for me.

“Wow, he’s got to be the bitch in the relationship.”

And I also still didn’t understand just how I had ended up with a dead boy in my life.
Especially this one, who was determined to ruin every aspect of my life just because it was within his power.

I shook my head. Thoughts of Simon’s reaction to letting Darren come with me to events like that were shudder-worthy.

“I’ll be fine, really I-“ Mad World cut through the conversation. I sighed, looking down to check the caller ID. Darren and I had a rule about phones when we were spending time together, unless it was a call from our parents, we didn’t answer. I flipped my phone open; this was one of those times. “Hello?”

“Maggie, what’re you doing right now?”

I glanced up at my boyfriend, “I’m with Darren, why?”

“You need to come home,” My dad paused on the other end of the phone. “There’s someone here to see you.”

“Um, okay… Who?” I scrunched my eyebrows together as I tried to figure out just what was going on. No one ever came to my house without a call or anything. That included Chassie and Darren. I didn’t know anyone else who would show though, unless it was my
Grandfather with a belated birthday present, he was usually at least three months late though, not actually only a few weeks behind.

When my father cleared his throat and dropped the name, I tried to keep a steady hold on my phone as I felt my face morph into an expression of shock. Shit. “I’ll be home soon.”
I snapped my phone shut as I looked blankly at Darren. He simply looked confused.

“What was that about? Maggie, you okay?”

I tried to fake a smile, “Yeah, I’m fine. Grandpa showed up early this year with my birthday present.”

That was the best lie I could offer up for the time being. I didn’t know what else to say. I shift my focus at that point from Darren, to the blonde haired boy behind me who was watching me with a curious expression.

“Wasn’t your birthday a few weeks ago?” Darren appeared thoroughly perplexed at this point. I nodded.

“He’s always late though. Remember? I thought I told you.”

I stood up as he shrugged it off; I really was in no rush to get home, aside from the desire to satisfying the curiosity that was now bubbling up inside of me. I didn’t know what kind of explanation to expect.

“My, my, Maggie. What’s going on?” Simon watched me carefully a few feet back as I gave

Darren a hug. I shot him a glare over my boyfriend’s shoulder. Him. I wanted to kill him. I gave him a quick peck on the lips before reaching for the doorknob.

“I’ll call you later, alright?”

He nodded with a befuddled smile. I didn’t want to know what was running through his mind then. I had no plausible explanation to offer, it was simply best if he stayed confused.

Shutting the door to my small black car, I turned on the engine and quickly pulled out of his driveway.

“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I could sense the hint of danger behind

Simon’s question. I was almost too angry to care, but I wanted to survive the car ride to find out just exactly was going on.

“You should know more about it than I do,” I scoffed. I kept my eyes on the road as my grip on the steering wheel tightened. “Caroline Dreyton is at my house and wants to see me. Or is it you she really wants to see, Simon?”

The tension in the air was almost tangible as I continued to drive in silence. I didn’t understand why the mother of the dead boy was at my house, or how she had learned the location of where I lived, but I had a feeling Simon did. I wanted to know. But more than anything I wanted to know just what had happened to my happy, normal life?

The answer to both of those continued to hold his silence in the seat beside me. Simon Dreyton was far more than I had bargained for.