Gena Showalter: Through the Zombie Glass

As the second quarter kicked off, Kat said, “So, get this. I’m, like, way more mad at Frosty than ever before. I may not ever forgive him.”

“Why?” I asked. She was paler than she’d been at school, and despite her excitement over the game, her eyes were a little glassy. “What’d he do?”

“Last night he kissed some skank—right in my front yard.”

“Oh, Kat. I’m so sorry.”

“That snake!” Reeve exclaimed. “He deserves to die a thousand painful deaths.”

Kat nodded, saying, “And that’s not even the worst part. He put her on the back of his unicorn and rode off into the rainbow. He’s never taken me to a rainbow.”

Wait. “What are you talking about?”

“My dream last night,” she said easily, then sipped her hot chocolate.

“Your dream.” Reeve shook her head. “You’re more mad at him than ever because of a dream?”

“Hey! I always behave myself in dreams,” she said. “He should, too. And if he can’t, he needs to apologize with more than my favorite flowers.”

“He actually brought you flowers?” Stunned, I blinked at her. “For what he did in a dream?”

“Well, yeah. Wouldn’t you?”

At the moment, I couldn’t get Cole to say more than seven words to me. In real life.

Gavin suddenly plopped into the seat in front of me and though he grinned at me, he didn’t look me in the eye.

Was this a nightmare?

A pretty brunette eased beside him, and she wasn’t one of the girls from the club. She wrapped a possessive arm around his shoulders. A clear warning to me and my friends.

He had a girlfriend.

He frowned at the girl, removed her arm. O-kay. Maybe not a girlfriend.

“Ali Bell,” he said with a nod of greeting. “It’s good to see you again.”

He hadn’t shaved since the last time I’d seen him, and golden stubble now covered his jaw. Heart pounding unsteadily, I jerked my gaze to just over his shoulder, just in case he accidentally glanced up. “Uh, hi,” I replied. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you.”

“Hey, I remember you,” Kat interjected. “From—” she caught herself before she admitted something she shouldn’t and finished with a limp “—somewhere.”

Reeve stiffened, as if she knew Kat was hiding something.

“You should,” Gavin said. “I’m unforgettable.”

“What a strange coincidence,” Kat replied, fluffing her hair. “I am, too. So, are you a new member of the Asher High student body?”

The maybe/maybe-not-girlfriend snorted. “Does he look like he’s in high school, kid?”

Her disdain irked.

Gavin, I’d discovered, had graduated last year. He was nineteen, not that much older than me, but he looked about thirty. The finest of lines branched from his eyes—either laugh lines, scowl lines or both. With slayers, you couldn’t be sure. Most of the guys were as mean as rattlesnakes, but they were also quite warped in the humor department.

“Hillary,” Gavin admonished.

“It’s Belinda,” the girl corrected tightly.

“Whatever. I wanted one night, you wanted two. I agreed to give you the second night if you promised to behave. You’re not behaving.”

She pressed her lips together and remained silent.

Are you kidding me?

He was casually discussing sex with a woman he’d called by the wrong name. I had no words.

“Since no one is willing to make introductions,” Reeve said to break up the tenser-by-the-second silence, “I’ll do it. I’m Reeve Ankh.”

Gavin looked her over with unabashed interest. “You the one dating Bronx?”

“Not dating, no. We’re not even on friendly terms anymore.”

I caught the bitterness in her tone. She had no idea her father had threatened to pull his support from the slayers if one of the boys made a play for her. Every day Bronx had to choose between the girl he wanted and the friends he was determined to protect.

“I’m actually seeing someone else,” Reeve admitted quietly.

“What!” Kat gasped. “And you didn’t tell me? Who is it? How long has this been going on?”

“I’ll share if you will.”

Kat’s excitement deflated. “I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.”

From the corner of my eye, I spotted Wren Kyler and Poppy Verdeck making their way toward the concession stand. They made a striking pair, the beautiful black girl and the delicate redhead. A few weeks ago, Kat, Reeve and I would have been with them.

The moment I’d started dating Cole and she’d gotten back together with Frosty, they’d dropped us. We were now considered troublemakers, a bad bet, and they’d thought their futures would be brighter without us.

They were probably right.

Justin was dating Wren, and he walked behind the pair. He looked up, his gaze landing on me as if he’d known where I was all along. Just like before, his eyes pleaded at me.

I broke the connection.

“Hey, can I talk to you?” Gavin asked me. “Alone?”

Hillary/Belinda opened her mouth to protest, quickly closed it.

My palms began to sweat. Gavin wanted to find out if we’d have another vision, didn’t he?

I nodded, trying to sound normal as I said, “Sure. Why not?”

We stood in unison. He led me up the bleachers, his hand on my lower back, making me uncomfortable.

“Here’s good.” He stopped at a secluded spot overlooking the parking lot, then motioned to the section we’d just abandoned. “I need to be able to see the girls.”

Agreed. Emma hadn’t formed a rabbit cloud, so I wasn’t worried about an attack, but I’d learned to err on the side of caution.

“Before you ask,” I said, still not meeting his gaze. “I don’t know what causes the visions—or, apparently, what stops them. I thought building emotional walls was the key, but I’d built what I considered an impenetrable fortress against you before Hearts and yet we had another one.”

He pushed out a heavy breath. “Note to self. Take Prozac before talking to Ali.”

That probably wasn’t a bad idea. “I don’t think we should look at each other. Not here. Just in case.”

“All right. Where? When?”

How about...never? I ignored the questions, saying, “Have you experienced a vision with anyone else?”

“No. But you have.”

“Yes.” And I was clearly the only unchanging variable. Somehow, this was all my fault. “What did you see in the barn?” Maybe he’d seen something different. Maybe—

“I saw you tasting my neck.”

I gulped. No maybe. We’d seen the same thing. “That’s never going to happen.”

“That’s not what Cole said.”

Fury rose inside me, even though I’d already suspected Gavin had spilled the worst of the details. “You told him?”

“Of course. I had to. He’s my friend. You’re his girl.”

Was I? I licked my lips. “When did you do it? What’d he say?”

“The day after the incident at the club. And nothing. He stormed off.”

Why hadn’t he called me?

I had to talk to him. I had to explain...what? What could I say to make this better?

“I feel the need to reiterate—I’m never going to lick you or throw you on my bed,” I said.

Gavin fingered a lock of my hair. “Honey, I have to agree with you on that one. You’re not even close to being my type.”

“What type is that? Easy?”

“Among other things,” he said unabashedly.

I stepped away from him and gripped the railing in front of me. In the parking lot, darkness was chased away by the occasional streetlamp, revealing car after car.

“I just want to figure out what’s going on,” he said.

“Me, too. And by the way, you’re not my type, either.”