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Chapter Four

Rosalie

Noelle backedher green Chevy coupe out of the driveway as I pulled my make-up out of my bag. It didn’t matter how early I got up in the morning, I could never seem to be on time for when Noelle picked me up for school.

“I should be angry at you for not calling me back yesterday,” Noelle said.

“You could never be angry with me, you love me, remember?” I grinned at her as I brushed some color on my cheeks. “Is my blush even?”

“No, a little too much on the left. Seriously, Rosalie, I’ve been dying to know what happened. If my cousins didn’t come over yesterday, I would’ve kept bugging you until you gave in.”

“I know, I know,” I said. “I’m sorry. I think I was just a little weirded out by what happened. So you know I went out to dinner with my dad and Joanna on Friday. Well, Joanna and her ex’s son met us there and, well, it’s Shane.”

“Get out! No freaking way. Shane, like our Shane, like the guy you stalk Shane?”

“The one and only.”

“Fuck. Wait, you said they got married? So that means Shane is your brother? Holy shit!”

“No, he’s not my brother. He’s not even my stepbrother. Don’t be gross. He’s nothing to me, but we might be living in the same house. Now you get why I was so weirded out. Even if I had a sliver of a chance of dating him, there’s no way my dad would allow that now. Of all the dumb luck, right?”

“So that means I can date him, right? I mean, you can’t, so there’s nothing that says I can’t now. You know, like friend code or something.”

“You bitch,” I said, laughing. “No, the friend code still applies even if he’s off limits. I still like him so you can’t date him.”

“Whatever, you’re gross.” She laughed as she pulled into the school parking lot and drove slowly as she looked for Shane’s wreck of a car. It was something we got into the habit of doing every morning. “I think you like him even more now that he’s forbidden to you.”

Forbidden.Like I need Shane to be forbidden for me to think he’s hot.

Noelle and I went our own ways to drop our things off in our lockers. As I shoved my backpack away, Seth DeMarco opened his locker next to mine.

Seth and I had been in the same homeroom for years because our last names started the same. Some of the kids used to make fun of him because he was overweight and wore thick glasses, but I always thought he was a nice guy and someone I considered a friend.

“Hey, Rosalie,” Seth said. “Can you do me a favor?”

Seth looked at the floor, then down the hall towards the doorway. I turned around to see if he was looking at anyone, but no one else was around.

“Sure, what is it?” I asked.

“It’s nothing really. I’m not going to be in homeroom and I can’t get back to my locker later so I was wondering if you could do me a favor. Can you hold onto my eyeglass case for me?”

Seth reached up to the top shelf of his locker and pulled out a large, hard eyeglass case. As he held it in his hands, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a coffin in a Star Trek movie I watched with my dad on television years ago.

“Yeah, no problem,” I said. “Do you want to meet somewhere so I can get it back to you?”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll find you when I need it.” Seth pushed his gold wire-rimmed glasses up his nose, then looked back down the hall towards the doorway to the cafeteria. “Thanks for doing this for me. Oh, and one more thing,” he said as he walked away, “don’t open it.”

I held the eyeglass case as he hurried away. I looked at it again, curious why I shouldn’t open it. It felt a little heavy for an empty case, but I convinced myself that was all in my head. I shoved it onto the top shelf in my locker, hoping I would forget about it in no time. The warning bell rang, and I slammed my locker door shut and rushed to get to homeroom before the final bell.

* * *

Two periods had passedand I couldn’t stop thinking about Seth’s eyeglass case in my locker. Why shouldn’t I open it? If he hadn’t said to not open it, I wouldn’t have given it any thought. I would have left it alone.

I had study hall third period and went back to my locker to drop off my books. The eyeglass case was sitting there, staring at me, mocking me, begging for me to open it. I couldn’t take it anymore. Maybe Seth was just testing me, but I had to open it.

I waited until the bell rang and then made sure I was the only one in the hall. As I pulled the case down, it felt even heavier than before. There has to be something in here, but what? Another pair of glasses?

The black case creaked as I slowly opened it. The stench of tobacco hit my nostrils, making me scrunch my face. In a baggie was enough tobacco to fill the entire case. I thought about my grandfather who smoked a pipe, but it didn’t make any sense. Why would Seth have tobacco?

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