The Immortal Design Read online

  Normally it never worked, but tonight it seemed to actually be working. Honestly I think that Kelly had been using Pete as a stepping stone slash whipping boy for so long, that she was used to being his center of attention and the fact that he was talking up someone who she deemed beneath her was getting to her, because she had that murderous jealous look on her face.

  Then the unexpected happened. Kelly got up walked over to Pete threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into her and planted a deep wet kiss square on his mouth. The whole party seemed to stop and watch the crazy spectacle.

  “Damn! Do you see that Stokes? Your girl is hooking up with your best friend!” someone hollered from across the fire pit. There were numerous whoops and hollers at the scene that was taking place. Kelly turned so that while her tongue was unceremoniously rammed down my best friends’ throat making his wildest dreams come true, she was staring right me. What a bitch, I thought to myself. She wasn’t jealous of him talking to another girl! She was trying to make me jealous by making out with my best friend. The levels of low had just gotten lower. I really didn’t have much respect for the girl before this and now, I had lost any hope of ever having respect for her ever. This was bad. This was real bad. That bitch was going to break my best friends’ heart and not even bat one single fake eyelash while she did it. I had had enough of her and her crap.

  This was my senior year, and tonight I was going to make it publicly known that I have never nor will I ever have anything to do with that hot mess Kelly VonHolten.

  I started to make my way over to the two when something else had caught my attention. People had begun whispering. I naturally assumed it was about the horrid spectacle that was currently on display, but I could not have been more wrong. I turned in the direction of where a few people had been pointing and there standing in the beautiful glow of the firelight and the full light of the moon stood my mystery girl.

  I stopped dead in my tracks. My heart stopped and then skipped a few beats before it began to feel as though I had just sprinted a marathon. Her beauty was like nothing I had ever seen before. She was roughly five feet five inches tall. Slender but well defined in all the right places without being overly defined. That long dark cascading hair was longer than I first had thought. It reached just below the middle of her back and flowed freely over her shoulders in a natural wave. Her skin was almost as white as the purest snow that falls on the highest mountains. She had a faint pink glow to her cheeks, and those perfect pale pink lips so full made me think of only one thing. I longed for one sweet kiss from those pale rose colored lips. I felt that if I could accomplish just that one thing, I would die the happiest person on earth.

  She caught me staring at her again. I turned away quickly not wanting to seem like some weird pervert checking her out like the rest of the crowd had been, and damned if I didn’t run right into Pete and Kelly who had continued their make session even as the entire party had stopped to watch the new girl make her entrance.

  Kelly quickly broke away from Pete’s embrace and rushed into my arms. She had been a little over enthusiastic and knocked me and her over and we began to fall. “I knew it would work!” she squealed. We landed roughly in the rocks. The music had started back up and I made the attempt to remove Kelly from me. I looked up to see Pete’s face. The hatred, disgust and broken heart was etched in his dimly lit features. Before I could get to my feet Pete had stormed off.

  “Shit.” This was not how I had planned this night to play out; not only did Kelly manage to break my best friends’ heart, but she may have ruined our friendship as well. Not only that but she just ruined my chances with my mystery girl who had witnessed the whole scene. Things could not possibly get any worse. Well I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

  3.

  I managed to get free from octopus Kelly and stood up. Kelly quickly stood up next to me and grabbed my hand. Kelly stood proudly next to me holding my hand acting as if we had just had some sort of revelation that we were supposed to be together as one.

  I yanked my hand free and turned to her. “Get this through that thick skull of yours Kelly. I have no interest in dating you! Not now, not ever. Did everyone here hear me? I do not like, or love Kelly VonHolten. I never have and I never will.” The music had abruptly stopped again. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and watched me give this girl a piece of my mind. “You know Kelly you really screwed things up, not only have you once again made a fool of yourself by causing a ridiculous scene, but you just showed everyone here your true colors. You don’t care about anything or anyone. The one person who actually really liked you and for the love of God I have no idea why just took off. In case you missed the writing on the wall Kelly, his name is Pete, you know the guy you just had your tongue down his throat, in that pathetic attempt at making me jealous. Which by the way did not work. The only reason I came over here was to stop you from breaking my best friend’s heart, which you did anyway by unceremoniously tossing him to the side the minute you saw me walking over here.” Everyone was watching the scene that played out before them, I was hoping that Willa was listening to every word I was saying. “For the record, I have never slept with, kissed, made out, or touched Kelly in the past 12 years” I announced as I looked around the fire at all the students who had gathered there. I started to walk away to go find Pete but Kelly had other plans.

  “Johnathan Stokes I don’t know who you think you are, but no one walks away from me, no one!” Kelly screamed. I kept walking.

  “Funny Kelly I’m pretty sure I just did.” I walked off into the night. I had half expected to see my best friend sitting in my car. He wasn’t there. “Damn it Pete where are you” I asked to no one in particular.

  “He walked past the cars down the road towards the town.” It was the most beautiful voice I had ever heard. The accent was beyond perfect. I turned to see Willa walking up behind me. I hadn’t heard anyone walking behind me in the loose rocks. She startled me. Mostly because I wasn’t prepared to meet her like this and secondly because I really hadn’t heard her walking behind me.

  “Oh…Um thank you.” That was all I could manage to say. She stopped right in front of me. She was even more beautiful up close. She smiled up at me. I couldn’t breathe.

  “You are most welcome Johnathan.”

  “How do you know my name?” I asked.

  She laughed at me. Great she thinks I’m stupid or something. “That crazy girl back there shouted it pretty loudly, I doubt that even the wild creatures in the mountain tops did not hear her. Is she always so crazy or is it just you that makes her so” she asked.

  I looked at her for a moment before I could form a single coherent sentence. “Oh, Kelly? No. I mean yes, yes she is always crazy, and mean. Most of all yes, for some odd reason I am her kryptonite and I apparently make her go out of her mind crazy.”

  “I do not think it odd” she replied.

  “Huh?”

  “I can see why you would make her crazy.” Willa laughed softly then walked past me into the night. I stood there dumbfounded that she had basically just said she thought I was good looking. My heart was beating so fast, I could barely believe it.

  I got into my car and left the party. Half way back to town it dawned on me I had forgot Pete, “Shit”. I hadn’t seen him while I was driving. I seriously doubted that he could have gotten much farther on foot, not unless he was hiking down the mountain. Oh damn. He was seriously pissed enough he would pull a crazy stunt like that. Living in the mountains you learn to hike early on in life, but the one golden rule about living up here was you never hike at night. It was a sure fire way to get yourself hurt or worse killed.

  I slowed the car to a snail’s pace searching the dark for my friend. When I had made it all the way back in to town without finding him I was in a serious panic. I pulled into the gas station parking lot and tried calling his cell phone. It went straight to voice mail. I sent him a text asking him if he was ok. I got no reply. Damn it where the hell was he? I dro
ve home slowly still searching the streets in case he had made it further than I had thought, but I found no sign of him.

  Pulling into my driveway I tried to brush it off as he was just not answering my calls because he was seriously pissed at me over Kelly. My temper flared, “Screw you too buddy, if you think for one minute after 12 years I wanted that bitch.” I wasn’t talking to anyone in particular, besides no one was around to listen. I went on in to the house and had started up the stairs when my father had called me into his study.

  “John could you come in here please? I have a few things I’d like to discuss with you.”

  “Shit.” I whispered. I turned around and walked back down the steps and into my dad’s study. Out of all the rooms in our house this was my least favorite. My dad spent most of his time in this room so I avoided it as much as I possibly could, but that wasn’t the only reason I didn’t like the room. My dad’s choice of decorations was weird and creepy in my opinion. The walls were covered in medieval torture devices, like maces, silver spikes, along with wooden ones, whips, spiked chains, and of course our family crest a Dragon. It looked more like a dungeon than a study. Mix all of those ancient decorations with a massive collection of books, all that were mostly about vampires and werewolves or some other made up monster from the past, the room had a dark vibe.

  I stopped in the doorway. “Well, come in and have a seat son.”

  He was sitting at his desk with just the small desk lamp on. He had a fire going in the fireplace tonight, which made the room seem even more ominous. A book was open, I assumed he had been reading again. As I took the seat across from him at his desk he quickly closed the book and put it in his desk drawer. “You wanted to see me dad?”

  “Yes. I hear there is a new foreign exchange student in your school this year.”

  “Yeah, Pete told me about her.”

  My father raised his eyebrows and studied me for a moment before he continued. “I don’t want you making friends with her. Stay clear of her. Is that clear?”

  I was not expecting this from my father. He never cared about who I hung out with before, so why he was demanding I did not speak to this girl, this perfect beautiful girl who had done nothing to him, was beyond me. “Why?”

  “Because I said so is why. She’s not from around here, and I don’t want her messing things up for your future. Look I know what it’s like to be a young man and have a new girl in school. Everyone wants to know her, and all the boys want to get to be the one to date her. You my son are better than that. I will not have you stooping to everyone else’s levels of stupidity by chasing after a girl who won’t be around for long. Is that clear?”

  “No. I mean, you are being a bit harsh dad. You don’t even know her and you are demanding that I don’t be friends with her. That’s bullshit.”

  “Watch your mouth Johnathan Stokes.” He literally growled the phrase. I was in for it now. My father’s temper was legendary. No one spoke to him the way I just had.

  “Fine.” I got up and stormed out of his study and up the stairs, when I got to my room I made a point of slamming the door so that he would hear it. This night had turned out to be one of the worst nights of my entire life. First Kelly making a scene in front of everyone at that bonfire and breaking my best friends heart, then sufficiently getting him pissed off at me to the point he had gone and done something crazy by hiking down the mountain in the dark, and now my father telling me I was forbidden to speak to a girl who had me head over heels for her from the minute I had seen her. It was official, my senior year at J. Harker High was going to suck.

  4.

  My alarm sounded off right at 7:00 a.m. I flicked the switch off and lay there staring up at the ceiling. Last night had been a complete disaster. I checked my cell phone to see if I had missed a call or text from Pete. He hadn’t called. I wasn’t about to let this go. He was being an ass. He knew I had no interest in Kelly and I had thought he knew me better than that. I would never go after a girl he had any interest in. It was our Bro-Code. We made our intentions clear when it came to girls, if he liked someone then I wouldn’t get in the way and vice versa.

  My mood wasn’t improving the more I thought about it. This was not the way I had planned to start my first day of school. I decided to say screw it, and just let him come to me. He just needed time to cool off and come to his senses and if he didn’t I would make him, like I did the last time.

  I got ready for school and went down to the kitchen to grab something to eat before I headed off to the start of my last year of school. My mom was busy making scrambled eggs and toast. I was thankful she had chosen this instead of one of her failed attempts at some weird concoction she had seen on one of her cooking shows. “Looks good mom, thanks” I leaned in and kissed her cheek and ate quickly.

  “You’re welcome sweetie. You looking forward to this year?” She was overly excited this morning.

  “No not really.” I replied as I bit into the last bit of toast.

  She looked at me puzzled “Why not?’

  I finished my breakfast before I answered. “It’s nothing. Pete’s mad at me over Kelly again. He’ll get over it.”

  “I see. Well you can’t help who you fall in love with. He’ll come around and see that you would not do that to him. Things will get better. I bet you two are talking by the end of the day.” She seemed positive about this. I decided she was right.

  “Ok, well I better go before I end up being late.”

  “Ok. Have a good first day!”

  That was one of the things I really loved about my mom. She had a way of making me feel better no matter what was going on. I grabbed my school bag and left for school. Most days I would pick Pete up but I decided he was too mad to take my offer of driving him to school, so I drove past his house without a second look.

  My only thoughts on my drive to school were of her. Willa, the girl who I desperately wanted to get to know. The girl my father has forbidden me from talking to let a lone dating her.

  I arrived at school right on time and I went to my locker to put my school bag and books in. I only took the necessities with me. Normally I would be hanging out with Pete before class but I hadn’t seen him in the hallway. I could only imagine he was still mad about last night and wasn’t ready to talk to me yet. He was really getting under my skin with his childish crap.

  The bell rang and I headed to my first class of the day, English Literature. I took my usual seat in the back of the class. Pete was in this class with me, so I would be seeing him soon. I wished last night hadn’t gone the way it did. I wanted to get to know Willa. I wanted know what her class schedule would be: I was curious if we had any classes together.

  The last bell rang and class was about to start, and Pete hadn’t come in yet. The teacher began the morning with the typical introduction, you know, the whole Hi I’m Mrs. or Mr. such and such… then followed by what we would be covering in the class for the year. Turns out we were going to be reading a book I knew very well. It was my Great, Great, Great, Grandfather’s book Dracula. “I picked this book in particular for a few reasons. One, it is known to be one of the classics and the plot of the story is a beautiful story of love, and death of course. Second I thought it would be a fun read for you all, I know what it is like to be in your last year of school and you are not looking forward to reading something like Catcher in the Rye, or a tale of Two Cities, which don’t get me wrong both are wonderful stories, but they can be a bit dull. The third reason is that we are graciously presented in the class with an ancestor of Bram Stoker himself, and I hoped he could possibly give us some insight as to what the author was thinking while he wrote this particular story.” Mrs. Hammond looked directly at me and smiled sheepishly. I wasn’t sure if she was waiting for me to respond to her speech or was just having a moment. I decided to duck down in my seat and hope it passed quickly.

  I loved the book and I had read it many times, so this class was going to be a breeze. First period ended quickly, and I was
set to head to my next class as the bell rang, when it hit me, Pete was a no show. Now, I started to get worried. I headed to my locker to get my cell phone. The kids in the hall were busy laughing and chatting between classes, unlucky for me I wasn’t listening to what they were talking about. I learned later I should have been paying more attention.

  I got to my locker and took out my phone, checked my messages, and the missed calls, still nothing from Pete. I decided to make a run to his locker to see if I could catch him there before last bell rang.

  Pete and I shared lockers every year. It just made it easier for us, since some of the classes we had were up stairs and others were down stairs. My locker was on the main floor while Pete’s locker was on the second floor. He wasn’t at his locker. I took the chance and opened it to see if he had even bothered to show up for school. There was nothing in it. Pete never made it to school. My heart started to race. I was panicking, where the hell was Pete? He couldn’t be pissed at me enough to skip the first day of school. It was unlike him to do this. Typically if we were fighting, he would at least send a snide reply text to let me know he was pissed at me. The warning bell rang, and I was out of time. I had to race to make it to my next class. My father wouldn’t appreciate it if I turned up at home after the first day of school with a detention for tardiness.

  I ran down the hall to my next class, and ran right into Stephanie Eckles. We collided and she fell to the ground. “Oh crap! I am so sorry Stephanie. Are you alright?”

  “No, you asshole, that hurt!” Stephanie was busy gathering her books, I felt terrible for knocking her down. I quickly helped pick up her books and got her to her feet. She yanked her arm away from and glared at me. If looks could kill I would have died in a heartbeat. “I really am sorry Stephanie. But I gotta run I don’t want to be late” I said as took off in a sprint down the hall, I just barely made the last bell.