Page 13 of The Heir

“Oh, don't be a jerk, Tim,” Karen smiled.

“It's just a stupid question,” Tim glared at Karen.

Shad watched them talk and laughed silently under his breath; then, he looked at me again.

There it is! There is just this something about him that calls to me, something so familiar.I felt my face grow warm, thinking about the dried out lavender rose on top of my dresser. I wanted to know who he was and why he had given me that rose. Did he feel the same things I felt when he looked at me? I really just wanted to reach out and touch him—

“You don’t have to wear a uniform to our school, although I love the look. It’s so academic, like one of those urban fantasy academy books,” she said with a dreamy smile that made me angry. It was true, he did look really hot in his button-down, khaki pants, and dark blue blazer. Is that what girls mean when they say they love a man in uniform? Cause if so, I understood.

Shad did not answer.

Karen cleared her throat and continued, “So anyways, that is Tim, this is Emma, and I am Karen. Welcome to our school,” Karen continued warmly.

“Thank you, but we've met before,” Shad nodded in my direction, his gaze still on me. “I am Shad,” he smiled at me—his eyes holding my attention, yet again. I broke my gaze and looked away, just in time to see a look of confusion flush across Karen’s face.

“You've metEmma?” The shock was apparent in her voice.

Shad nodded, still lookingonlyat me.

“Yes, Emma is myneighbor.” The way he said “neighbor” made my heart soar. He said it like it was the highest praise. Praise for randomly living across the street from him?

I'll take it. I made an ever conscious effort to avert my eyes and was proud of myself for doing so. My heart raced, its melody still humming. Why did it seem like I could feel his eyeson me—seeing me? I couldn’t help but want to reach out and touch his hand. When he had helped me up off the ground two weeks earlier and we touched, it was as if magic existed, and the world was brighter because of it. That time seemed so long ago, and I ached for more of him. I wanted to feel the electric pulse of his touch, wanted to make sure it was real and not just my imagination.Is he really the one who made me come alive?Even my memories of the past seemed less hazy after our meeting.Is that because of him?I’d been walking around in a fuzzy, black and white world, but Shad turned on the color and focused the image. The need I had to simply touch him multiplied, and it felt to me as if I needed his touch more than I needed to breathe.

Maybe this is proof that he is a vampire–I mean, are there not things like mind control? I mean, could he have imprinted on me or something? No–that is werewolves right? Gah, Emma this is the real world, not a fairytale, not a fantasy book, no matter how hot those vampires were–draining blood is not attractive. There is no way that Shad sucks out peoples’ blood.I hated my thoughts.Oh, my flippin’ goodness,I thought, and I was embarrassed of myself and of my wild train of thought.Get over it–he is not anything else. He is just a boy. Stop reading books.

Never.

I wanted to slap myself but refrained because I was in math class.

I locked my eyes upon Shad, and he seemed to be holding back a large grin by how he curled his lips inward, and his eyes almost seemed to shine.

What is so amusing to him? Me? Am I doing something?I looked away from him and glanced down at my hands.

The teacher began to talk, and we opened our books. We were assigned problems to do in “pairs or groups,” and I was hopefulthat Shad and I would end up working together, and that I would have an excuse to touch him.

Really? Emma? That is creepy. I couldn’t explain the urge,and yes, I am no doubt turning into a creeper,but I was going to touch him. I would. Karen turned to Shad and then to me, interrupting my plans.

“You want to be mypartner, Shad?” Karen asked, her voice sultry as if she were asking another question entirely.

Ew—I wanted to gag right there, or perhaps, I just wanted to strangle Karen. She really was unbelievable. I was starting to understand even more why we were no longer friends.That’s it—I am turning into a murderer, aren’t I? Wait. Am I the vampire in this story?Or maybe I am just a very possessive stalker? That sounded better,possessivewas better.Let’s stick with that one.

Shad turned the book toward me and pointed to the questions we had to answer before responding to her—the queen of the school, and I felt a sadness wash through me in anticipation, knowing that would be the moment when Shad, along with any small interest he might have had in me, would be swallowed up and overtaken by Karen. Her spell seemed overpowering to the boys at Oak High.

Goodbye Shad; it was fun while it lasted, I said in my mind as I looked down at my hands, waiting for his response.

“Oh, I was planning on being Emma’s partner.”

I wanted to shout for joy, and even sing! He wanted to bemypartner? I tried not to smile, but it was hard because how could Inotsmile when all that was wrong in my world—okay, so like for thirty seconds I imagined he was a Karen-goner, but for that amount of time I thought he would choose her, I was thinking the worst—but suddenly, because Shad was kryptonite to Karen and her superpower abilities to get whatever shewanted whenever she wanted it, it seemed like everything in the entire world could be made right.

That is the stupidest thing you've ever thought–actually, not true–You have had way more embarrassing and stupid thoughts. I told my inner voice tojust be quiet, and then I turned and looked at Karen, and she gave me the dirtiest look possible. I then realized that Shad wasn't a normal football-playing-wanting-to-be-popular-jock type of guy as I had previously assumed.

We wrote out a word problem. I was horrible at math, so then if you add in a boy, who was like quite possibly the most attractive man in the universe as my math partner,we have now stumbled upon my worst nightmare.How had I not thought about that before? I blamed that on being caught up in that Shad daze. I wished that I wasonly justjumping off the high dive; that would have seemed less tragic. I had a knack for always getting math problems wrong. He started working on the problem, and I watched him and the way he held his pencil in his hand, and I wondered for thethousandthtime what it would feel like to hold his hand again, and along with that thought, I felt another surge of warmth rush through my cheeks as soon as I remembered the electric warmth from our first meeting. I shook my head and told myself that I needed to stop thinking about Shad or else I would never get anything done and end up looking even more stupid. I picked up my pencil and started my descent toward mathematical death. Yes, it is a thing. He looked up at me as I finished.

“Are you done?” Shad took my paper from my hands without touching me, to my great dismay. He looked at it for a while, and I watched him. “How did you get that?” he asked.

I wondered if I could just hide under the table for the rest of class. I wanted to cryagain,but I was so mad at myself for even having that emotion, that I didn’t. Thank the heavens.I decidedit was better to just spit out the truth, so I went with honesty and wanted to scream at my stupid heart for continuing to beat so fast.

“I am not going to lie; I am terrible at math. I think I was just put in a random math class. I am sorry you have me for a partner.”

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