Wingless Book Series (book 1) Read online

  “Do you ever stop?”

  “Not really, no. I like picking on people bigger than me,” I said, snatching a carrot of my own, instead of eating mine I threw it at his head. It bounced off, hitting the floor. I had a big smile on my face, and he was appalled. My mother ignored us and started on the lettuce.

  “What time is dinner going to be Mom?”

  “Six. Why, you do plan on being here don’t you?” she asked me, annoyed.

  “I was going to go hang out with Ness, I didn’t know we had any plans.”

  “All that hanging out entails for you is sitting at some old nasty place talking,” Gray said, chuckling to himself.

  “It’s called nature. It’s rather nice to be outside sometimes, you should try it,” I poked.

  “No I’ll pass,” he said. “Besides I’m sure you and your friend are trying to scope out the newbie’s that just moved into town. Probably hoping they are as disturbed as the two of you.” He walked out. I think he thought he had done his job at irritating me, but I was more interested in who was new in this town. I wondered what they were like.

  I sat pondering this for some time as my mother went on her merry way chopping veggies, tapping the counter with a pen and counting down the minutes before Vanessa would come and save me from the monotony.

  “Eve, that’s enough noise,” my mother said, wiping her forehead with her forearm.

  I never understood why the big deal about dinners- we all knew each other. Who were they trying to impress? I was here because they were family. Honestly, if I had a choice, I would have picked a more dysfunctional family. I was thinking maybe a drunken mother and a gambling thief of a father. The excitement was probably wonderful.

  Instead, the most excitement they saw was when the crease in their shirts didn’t flow just right. They were so dry; it was hard to even believe I was one of them. Gray was the worst. He wallowed in the fact that his parents were known for being the best in town. I didn’t know what that did for him, but he wasn’t all that exciting himself. I mean, him and his friends played poker with food instead of money.

  My sister, Hannah, was a little more understanding of how I felt. She understood but wasn’t willing to even dip a toe in my world. She was a robotic housewife; she had stair step children, and all the shiny new things she could want. She did parties and social events all the time- anything to make her look good on the outside.

  Her husband Mark was a CEO of a company. I never cared to ask exactly what his company did; I just knew that it was impressive to all of her friends and the people around town. Mark was a good looking guy, but to me he was just normal. He looked like another jock: dark hair, blue eyes, brilliant smile, and a tone body. I thought he was the one who understood me, only because I believed he was sleeping with the nanny behind my sisters back. I told my mother this once and she almost smacked me.

  I didn’t know a whole lot about relationships. I’d had a couple throughout my older teen years but I knew when someone was flirty, and that was definitely Mark with everyone. I didn’t think that even if Hannah knew she would leave him. She liked her shiny new things too much; she liked them more than her self-respect. And then there was the thought that if my sister had that little self-esteem or morals maybe he did too. I mean, those two things usually go hand in hand.

  Vanessa knocked on the kitchen door before opening it and came right in. She was used to our house so for her to come in was no biggie- she was like an adopted daughter. My parents always pitied her from afar, they never said anything to her face about how terrible they thought her dad treated her, or how her mom and her hobbies got in the way of their relationship. They just told me or talked amongst themselves.

  I didn’t care though, because Vanessa didn’t- she just wanted to live in the moment. If her parents weren’t up to par, then she accepted it. She took what she got from them and what she didn’t get, well, she didn’t seem to say much about that either.

  Vanessa was light- hearted; she never cared to speak of her emotions. I mean, once in a while she would get vulnerable, but she just pushed it all aside. And that was something I liked about her that was why we were such good friends.

  Vanessa was on the taller side with blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. She wasn’t all that girly but it didn’t matter because she didn’t need to be, she was just genuinely pretty. Slightly tomboyish, yet she knew how to pull off a dress if she had to. She also had the habit of blowing her long bangs out of her eyes constantly. I always poked fun at her and told her to cut them but she said she would rather keep them because it covered a scar she had gotten when she was younger. Vanessa told me she was quite the daredevil when she was a kid, but the whole town knew it was because her mom was drinking so much she didn’t look after her and she fell down her porch steps on the neighbor’s skateboard.

  “Hey there Vanessa!” my mother exclaimed, as if she hadn’t seen her walk in. She wiped her hands on a towel and hugged Vanessa weakly, like a forced I am doing this to be polite sort of thing. Vanessa patted her back and looked over at me.

  “Yeah hey Ness,” I said, smirking.

  She came and sat on a bar stool next to me. “I didn’t know you were having dinner, I’m sorry.”

  “No, I didn’t either, but my mom is fine with it,” I said, getting up and grabbing a jacket from the hook on the wall. We headed out the door, without saying goodbye. I didn’t know if she cared- I believed that she did, but I just didn’t care, it was dinner, simply that.

  We headed down to the creek in the woods behind my house- they were huge and went on for miles in all directions. There were all sorts of fallen trees and big stones to sit on. This was my place; this was my escape. We came here all the time since we were little to talk, to discuss whatever we wanted without an over stuffy audience. I sat down on a boulder, pulling my feet up. I poked at my toes- I always loved pretty toenails, so I always made sure to paint mine some wild color.

  “I hope the summer is amazing, I really need some form of entertainment other than just the typical stuff that goes on around here,” Nessa said, sitting as well. She pulled a flask out of her pocket taking a swig and passing it to me. I never asked her what it was. She always said she stole it from her dad’s stash. It was nice to drink, it made things so much mellower, your body just let loose and was calm and limp like a noodle. I never got crazy drunk, I was always just super chatty. Nessa would get into her thinking moments and sometimes she would just leave and say she had places to get too.

  The sun started to set as we got a little more relaxed by the boulders, the water gurgled and rushed ahead of us, birds chirped and the only visible source of light came from a couple of the houses just beyond the woods. Nessa sat up, her hair strewn with leaves; she blew lazily at her bangs.

  “I got to head out.” She got up, waved, and walked out of the woods, stumbling over a log or two, then vanished.

  I leaned my head back against a big tree and stared at the sky through the trees. Well, what I could see of it. I liked the silence- I wasn’t in that much of a rush to get home. Jumping up, I went farther down to the creek, stepping carefully from one rock to another, the water splashing my feet and flip flops. My hair whipped around me. I moved quicker from one rock to another and then another, keeping up pace, my jacket sliding off of my shoulders.

  Suddenly, the rocks shifted beneath me and I fell into the creek. My breath came quickly as the cold water hit me- it wasn’t deep and I wasn’t drowning, I was just losing my footing from the current.

  “Ugh!” I yelled out, trying to grab at the roots of trees to catch myself.

  All of a sudden a hand grabbed my arm, yanking me roughly out of the water. I had barely gotten my footing before being dragged onto solid ground. I figured it was probably Gray being nosy as usual and was going to boast about how he saved me from stupidity or something.

  I grabbed my flip flop, flipping my hair back on my head as I stood up on wobbly legs. But it wasn’t Gray; it was a guy that I had never
seen before- his eyes dark, his hair a mess. Now that I was taking all this in, I realized I had seen him before, at school. I had run into him.

  “What are you doing taking a swim in a creek at this hour?” he asked me, his brow down with a stern look on his face. I couldn’t tell if he was mad or freaked out.

  “I wasn’t swimming; no one swims….I lost my footing,” I said, shoving my flip flop back on my foot. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and just stared at me, probably trying to figure out this whole situation. I was starting to feel very stupid.

  “Why would you be out here in the woods alone?”

  “I always come out here,” I said, staring off into the trees to make sure that if I needed to make a mad dash when he attacked me, I had a logical way out. But at the same time, he was the size of Gray and probably could outrun me in seconds, so I was starting to feel rather doomed if this guy was about to murder me and leave me scattered.

  Odds were against me. And it seemed like a crazy way to go: drunk in the woods not too far from your home. I backed up slowly, feeling him stare at me.

  “What are you doing?” he asked me with a puzzled look on his face.

  I tensed up shrugging my shoulders. “I am just hoping you aren’t going to kill me,” I blurted out.

  His face looked alarmed. His eyebrows rose as he scratched his head, coming over to me. I winced, hoping he wasn’t about to end everything. Instead, like normal people, he extended his hand out to me. I shook it, the tense feeling draining out of me.

  “I’m Ace, I just moved in, not sure if you remember me from campus earlier today.” He kept shaking my hand as he talked- I couldn’t tell if he was nervous or hoping I wasn’t going to fall again.

  I let go, walking back to my boulder and sitting down with a thud. He stayed close by but didn’t sit down. I looked at his clothes- all name brand. His jeans looked brand new, very GQ, I thought. His shirt sort of tight, or maybe it was just his body- he seemed to be severely muscular. I wasn’t sure what his age was but he was buff. I chuckled in my head; this was the kind of buff Vanessa drooled over.

  You could see his pecks through his shirt. His neck was thick and muscular, too. I wondered if he was on steroids. He clearly took pride in himself, that was very apparent, and that made me wonder why he’d wandered out into the woods. God forbid he mess up his bright white sneakers.

  “Eve,” I muttered, introducing myself.

  “Not trying to sound like a jerk but are you drunk?” he asked bluntly.

  “I don’t think I’m drunk, I think I’m clumsy. I really don’t fall down in creeks all the time.” I laughed out loud, feeling like such an idiot at having this guy out in the woods seeing me flailing like a half dead fish in the creek. He probably thought I’d lost my mind.

  “I would like to think not. Just glad you didn’t drown or anything.” He shrugged.

  “Yeah, I’m glad too,” I said, trying to think of something else to say. I wasn’t the best at awkward. I usually never got like this.

  “Well I’m sorry to have almost, uh died, it won’t happen again, thank you.” I got up to go. Pulling my jacket up, I headed out to the clearing to go home. I must of missed the log that I usually stepped over, however, because the next thing I knew, I was face down in the leaves and twigs covered in more dirt.

  Maybe I was drunk; I was starting to wish Vanessa had clued me in on what she was stealing from her dad, because I wasn’t feeling too good. I felt like I’d laid there forever before he lifted me off the ground.

  “Do you need help getting home?” he asked, holding on to my shoulder.

  “I don’t know, I’m a mess. My parents are going to go through the roof.” I swatted at the leaves stuck to my legs and wiped some of the dirt off my jacket.

  “There’s no cleaning any of that off of you,” he laughed, shaking his head.

  I tried to fix my hair some and unzipped my jacket--at least the undershirt wasn’t so bad.

  “I think I’m good.” I started out of the woods, he followed along beside me. “So Ace, is that really your name?”

  “Yeah, that’s my name.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-two.”

  “Oh wow,” I said, blushing. He was actually a year older then Gray.

  “Wow? How old are you?” he asked, looking me up and down as if my age was written somewhere on my body.

  “I’m eighteen,” I said, heading up to my house. The lights were all off so I figured I probably would be alright to make it to my room without my family knowing what was going on.

  “Okay, I was hoping you weren’t, like, fifteen drinking alone in the woods, then I might have to tell your parents,” he laughed, looking up at my house and surveying it. “Nice, I guess your parents are doing well.”

  “I’m glad I look so young to you. And yeah, they do well enough. Thanks for the help, goodnight.” I ran up the stairs careful not to trip for a third time in his presence. He nodded walking off.

  Chapter 3

  Headaches

  The light was blinding when I opened my eyes the next morning. I threw off my covers finding myself dressed in only my underwear and bra. I probably passed out before I found pajamas, I thought idly. The smell of food downstairs, the sound of cheerful talking, my dad’s booming voice echoing the hall every few seconds carried up to me- this was my typical morning.

  As I gathered my clothes, my door flew open. I screamed seeing Mark, my sister’s husband. He stared long and hard before backing out the door.

  “I’m sorry Eve; your mother told me to get you. Breakfast is done,” he yelled from behind the door, as if I couldn’t hear him. I threw on my robe before opening the door.

  “Thank you Mark, and thanks for about killing me from embarrassment.” I pushed past him.

  “You don’t have anything to be embarrassed about,” he winked, following down the stairs.

  “Gross,” I said out loud, slamming the bathroom door.

  Everyone was in the kitchen gathered at the breakfast table. Hannah looked up from cutting Mj, my nephew’s, food.

  “Hey Eve,” she said, smiling.

  “Hannah,” I said raising an eyebrow as she smirked at Mark. Clearly he had told her what had gone down. My face grew hot with anger.

  “What about the fact that your husband saw me almost nude is funny?” I asked quietly so my Mother wouldn’t hear otherwise she surely would have slapped me by now.

  “I’m sorry Eve; we didn’t think you would be in the nude. Most people sleep in pajamas,” she laughed softly.

  “Yeah flannel ones right? Like all seventy-five you have at home?” I said, pleased with my insult. She wiped MJ’s face; he looked at me with no knowledge about what I had done. I was more than pleased.

  My dad cleared his throat setting his paper down. “Eat up Eve,” he prodded, looking at me over the rim of his glasses.

  My head was throbbing as I took a big bite of a melon and grabbed some bacon. I tossed it on my plate giving my dad thumbs up with a dry expression.

  None of this was amusing to me, they liked all this crap, I just wanted to eat in peace so my head would stop throbbing. My Mother cooed at my niece, Delilah. Of course, since she was a baby, she giggled. Right now she thought she was funny; give it a few years I thought.

  Gray shoveled his food without a breath; he was in a hurry to go play basketball with his friends or whatever he did. Some sort of sports. I think it made him feel like a man. I stared at my entire family they all seemed almost robotic and on a track heading all in the same directions. My mother caught my gaze.

  “What are you thinking about, Eve?”

  “Nothing.” I finished my juice heading to the sink and tossing my plate in with a clang.

  Outside the world was my oyster. The breeze soothed my headache as I sat on our porch swing. Leaning back closing my eyes, I swayed rhythmically, listening to the children giggle or scream every once in awhile.

  “Feeling better?” a voice that
was becoming more familiar asked from in front of me.

  It was Ace. He was in yet another well put together casual jean T-shirt combo.

  “No not really,” I sighed, sitting up. I slyly smoothed my hair down without him noticing.

  “Did you take some aspirin?” he asked as if he cared.

  “Yes I did, Doctor.”

  “Good.” He sat down on my porch steps. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing much just swinging,” I said as I swung.

  Gray came out the door stopping in his tracks. He stared at Ace then turned around and looked at me with an irritated look. I shot him a glare.

  “Can I help you with something?” he asked, coming down to stand in front of Ace.