Page 8 of Bad Moon Rising

He holds out his hands, and I dump my books. And yes, today I’m grateful for the twins’ dedication to carrying my stuff for me because my backpack is full of books. I have a history paper and a biology paper due this week, and I’ve got out a ton of guides on writing college essays from the library. My mom wants us to start working on applications to the colleges she’s chosen, and it’s going to be torture if I’m not prepared.

We walk outside of school and turn left onto Main Street, which is bustling with the last tourists of the season. Orion stops at the “Duck Stop,” which is a duck-themed ice cream shop. and buys me a banana-flavored ice cream with a flake “beak”. It’s too cold for ice cream, but Orion knows my taste for junk food knows no limits.

“Want some?” I hold out the ice cream for him. “It’s delicious.”

“No thanks. If I get ice cream all over your books, you’ll never forgive me.” He nudges my side with his elbow as a sheepish smile tugs up his lips.

“I will too. It’s Mrs. Cringles you have to watch out for.” She’s the school librarian, who I got the essay-writing guides from. She reminds me of the witch from Rapenzuel—a bitter old woman who smells like cabbage. “Can you guess what I’m doing tonight?”

“College applications.” Orion stares at his shoes. The movement causes his dark hair to fall forward and obscure his features from view. I hate not being able to read him, to understand every thought flitting across his face. “I’m guessing Mrs. Dean has your colleges all picked out.”

“She sure does.” I make a face. “Ten top-tier biology programs, specifically chosen because of their prestige and distance from Haddenwood.”

Orion and Jackson are both going to college in Sardinia, the larger town twelve miles from here. They’d be able to live at home and drive to campus each day. I had to delay my college applications because of my dad, so I don’t know where I’m going yet. I want so badly to go with them, but my parents aren’t having it. I’ve cried and yelled and shown them graphs about how much money they’d save, but they’re determined that I go somewhere with a pedigree.

“College is all about making connections,” Mom keeps telling me. “You want to be where all the real science is happening, not a tiny community college.”

She doesn’t mean to be controlling. She just wants the best for me. My parents both attended Harvard. Mom was top of her class with an offer for an exciting job at NASA when she found out she was pregnant with me. It’s not that she regrets me, exactly, but I know her life didn’t turn out quite the way she imagined it, and she doesn’t want that to happen to me. That’s why she wants me to get away from Haddenwood and the guys. I can see her face every time we hang out. She thinks I’ll let one of them get me pregnant and then I’ll be stuck.

I keep telling her that we’re only friends, but if she knew how much I wished it could be more than that, she’d never let me see them again…

“You know, Lily, you’ll be eighteen soon,” Orion says. He’s still staring at his shoes. “You’ll be an adult. You can go wherever you like, and they can’t stop you.”

“I know, but…”

I don’t have to finish my sentence. Orion already knows what I’m going to say. We both grew up with parents who were hardly ever around, and we’ve clung to every moment we got with them. Mom and Dad are so proud of me for deciding to follow in their footsteps and become a biologist. They’ve worked hard to build a life for themselves after getting pregnant so young, and now they both work long hours in a research lab, finding cures for diseases and traveling all over the world delivering lectures to sold-out halls. They don’t ask much from me apart from that I do well at school, and I’ve never ever disobeyed them before.

I don’t want to disappoint them. I especially don’t want to hear my mother’s lecture about how I can’t let those Bellua boys drag me down to their level. I get the feeling my parents sort of hoped that as we got older, the Belluas and I would grow apart and I’d hang out with the richer, smarter kids at school. Yet another way that I’m not the perfect daughter they imagined.

I want them to say my favorite words, “We’re proud of you, Lily.”

I’m just not sure if I’m ready to let go of my best friends just yet.

I sigh. “It’s fine. It’s cool. College is months away. We’ve got heaps of time to worry about it later. We’ve got so much fun stuff happening in the next few weeks. The senior overnighter. Honors society dinner. Prom—”

“Prom’s not fun,” Orion snaps. We turn onto Elm Tree Lane, and he shuffles his feet as we near our houses. He doesn’t want to go in. “Standing around in a ballroom with all the dicks from our class, wearing a scratchy suit, listening to shit music, and getting food poisoning from undercooked chicken? No thanks.”

His words sound so harsh and bitter that they bring tears to my eyes.

So much for asking him to be my date…

I blink them back as I say with as much fake brightness as I can muster, “I know, it’s a total drag, but I bet if you went with the right person, it would be fun. You might even enjoy dressing up and dancing...”

I trail off as Orion scoffs.

“Keep dreaming, Lily. No one wants to go to prom with the school weirdo.” His voice drips with self-derision and something else, something I can’t name.

“I can think of someone.” I clear my throat as his head snaps up and his eyes find mine like two heat-seeking missiles. We turn up the overgrown path to Orion’s door. It’s now or never. “Orion, I was wondering if—”

My words flutter away as a dark, shadowed figure steps onto the path, a wrench in his hand.

“Lily Dean, as I live and breathe,” he growls.

4

LILY

“Brooks?” I squeak. I literally squeak like a tiny mouse who’s accidentally scurried into the path of a playful tomcat. I am such a mess.

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