Amaretto Flame (9 page)

“I can’t believe you’ve never been to a fair,
Olivia. Or tried alcohol. Sheesh. Did you grow up in an orphanage?”
Jenny laughed, joking.

It was a knee-jerk reaction. My head whirled
toward her and my face burned crimson. Quickly, I looked down at my
hands, already trying to think of some witty comment to shrug it
off. A few awkward minutes passed, and Jenny stopped laughing.

“Oh shit, Olivia. I was just kidding. I
didn’t mean…” Jenny’s sentence trailed off, and she stood there,
her face shamed. The conversation with Jackson in the car the other
night came into my head, and I glanced at him, seeing the question
in his eyes. Stupidly, I felt like they could all read my minds;
that they all knew I was a liar. Then suddenly, he came to my
rescue.

“Are you kidding me?” He asked Jenny. “She
has a rich old aunt who has never heard of fun, and I think it’s
our duty to introduce her to it.”

Another beat passed before I lifted my head
and smiled gratefully at him. Jenny chuckled unsurely, but said,
“Me too. Come on!”

As we made our way to a tiny structure that
they told me was the ticket booth, I filled my eyes with the sights
of the carnival. It was beautiful. Tiny kids ran around with hands
full of cotton candy and candied apples. Loud music of many
different kinds came from all directions, creating a surreal noise
that filled the area. The rides swooped and swirled, buckets and
swings holding people were everywhere—flinging out from the rides
holding them and thrilling guys and girls to the point of
screaming.

“Olivia,” Jackson said, and I looked up. We
were in front of the ticket booth, where a tired-looking lady was
staring at me expectantly.

“Oh,” I said, embarrassed that I hadn’t been
paying attention. “How much?”

Jackson laughed. “I already got it. Just put
your arm up there,” he pointed to the little counter, which sat
under the window. I did as directed, and the woman snapped a
fluorescent orange bracelet around my wrist while Jenny and Erika
tried to decide which way to go first.

“How much was it?” I said, digging into my
pocket after the lady let my arm go. I pulled out the wad of cash
that I’d stuffed in there earlier and then looked at him,
waiting.
He shook his head, laughing. I didn’t miss the way his eyes laughed
too, dancing.

“I said I got it. Come on,” he said, walking
away from the booth. I followed Jackson and the girls, delightedly
overwhelmed with all the things there were to look at. Jenny
insisted on the Ferris wheel first, and as the three of them moved
through the small gate to get on the ride, I marveled at how large
it was. I was sheltered, but even I had access to television in
Eagleton. I’d seen Ferris Wheels before, but being directly next to
one was an entirely different experience.

“What’s the matter, Slayer? Are you scared?”
My eyes moved to Jackson, who was already sitting in one of the
seats, patting the spot next to him. Jenny and Erika were in the
seat behind him, giving me both questioning glances and mischievous
smiles at the same time. I apparently didn’t have the necessary
social skills to interpret their expressions, so I smiled and
climbed into the seat next to Jackson, letting him pull the bar up
to secure us. A few moments later, the machine lurched to life and
moved slowly as a line of other humans boarded.

While I was waiting to reach the top, I
thought again about Jackson saving me in the parking lot, and then
about the bottle of whiskey. Erika and Jenny were babbling
animatedly about something behind us, and I took the opportunity to
speak quietly to Jackson.

“I got your gift,” I said. “It was really
funny. Thank you.” When he only grinned at me, I took a deep breath
and added. “Also, thanks for rescuing me back there.” I motioned to
the parking lot. “I appreciate it.”

Jackson let his eyes take me in for a few
seconds. It seemed like a really long time. “So, why were you in an
orphanage?”

I looked out over the fairgrounds, wondering
what was safe to divulge. Finally, I looked back at him and
replied, “I’m sorry I lied to you. The truth is, I went to an
orphanage when I was six years old. When I was eight, a woman
adopted me and took me to a different kind of home. She’s not
really my aunt, but I do consider her family.”

The words sounded foreign coming out of my
mouth, as if my voice were on a loudspeaker and the entire world
could hear me. Jackson’s brows drew together over his warm eyes,
and he nodded.

“Don’t be sorry. We all have secrets. I’m
rudely curious, though…why wasn’t your mother able to take care of
you and your brother?”

I couldn’t turn my face away from his this
time. I didn’t even speak about these things to my coven brothers
and sisters. Sure, they all knew my story, but it was avoided…as
were all of our pasts. Everett and I discussed it, but rarely.

“I actually didn’t meet my brother until I
was taken to the second home,” I said, aware of how strange this
must sound to him. “My mother couldn’t take care of me.”

“Why?” His face didn’t betray any emotion,
but his eyes were full of compassion. I took a deep breath. We were
nearly at the top of the ride. The people below looked like
rodents, and I found myself wanting to stretch out my senses, just
a little bit, to make the experience better. Instead, I licked my
lips and turned my head again toward Jackson. This time, I knew
that my face was cooler, more guarded, and more distant.

“Because she didn’t want to,” I replied,
shrugging.

He didn’t ask any more questions, and while I
tried to enjoy the experience of the Ferris Wheel, I couldn’t. I
kept wondering what he was thinking about me, wishing I had some
other talent that would allow me to peek inside of his mind. I
shouldn’t have cared what he thought. After all, who was Jackson
Vance? He was a musician in a bar that I would never see again
after a few months of living through my punishment. He was nothing
to me. His opinion shouldn’t matter.

But I could lie to myself all I wanted. It
did matter. He represented much more than himself. He was a human,
and I’d spent my life being shunned by them. Maybe I just wanted to
be accepted. Still, I knew that if I opened completely up and told
him my entire sordid story right now, he would shun me too. He
would call me a witch, make fun of me, and pretend as if I were a
leper. Suddenly the sun was too bright, and as the ride came
screeching to a halt and the bar in front of us was released, I
avoided Jackson’s eye.

“That was so much fun!” Jenny said, hopping a
little, as if she could barely contain her excitement.

“Olivia and I are going to ride The Drop.
Want to watch?” Jackson asked, his questions pointed at the girls.
I glanced at him, still wondering what he was thinking. I saw Erika
nudge Jenny in the ribs with her elbow, trying to be inconspicuous
about it.

“No,” Jenny said suddenly. “I’m going to get
a funnel cake.”

“I think you should come,” I said quickly,
not sure about being alone with Jackson.

“Sorry, I’m starving,” Jenny said, and then
pulled Erika along with her toward a row of concession stands. I
watched them go, pale blond head and dark brown one, wishing they
wouldn’t have abandoned me.

“Come on,” Jackson said. “You wanted to ride
it, didn’t you?”
I turned fully toward him, and was stuck between going ahead with
the ride, and making some lame excuse about feeling sick. That’s
when he took my hand. He’d looked as if he were about to say
something, but whatever it was never made it out of his mouth. The
second his skin touched mine, a jolt shot into my arm, sending
shocks streaming down my fingers and up into my chest.

His hand jerked immediately away from mine
and I froze. I had no idea what had just occurred, but we stood
there for a moment, staring at each other. That’s when I realized
Jackson looked guilty.

“I’m sorry,” I started to say, but Jackson
said the exact same thing so that it came out of our mouths in
unison. A moment later, he chuckled uneasily.

“You shocked me,” he said. “We must have
picked up some static from the ride.”

“Yeah,” I breathed, chuckling, but I noticed
he kept his hand close to his side.

We walked quietly, and by the time we’d
reached The Drop, Jackson was smiling again. There was a small line
in front of us, and I wanted to fill the awkward spaces with
conversation, but I wasn’t sure what to say. Soon enough, we were
getting onto the machine, strapped into a seat. I stayed as far on
my own side as I could, as the bar was over our laps to secure us.
When the seat began to rise, I was excited, but when it reached the
full height, I let out a little yelp of excitement that I couldn’t
hold in.

Jackson laughed, and the next moment he
reached over and grabbed my hand. The shock was there again, but
Jackson either didn’t notice or pretended not to. After a few tense
seconds, it subsided to what felt like a steady, slow vibration. I
knew my eyes were betraying my surprise, but Jackson held on.

“Here we go,” he said. There was a split
second when I wasn’t sure what he meant, and then we were dropping
out of the sky.

It was incredible. It was like that nervous
flip-flop feeling in the pit of your stomach magnified by a
hundred. Ribbons of my hair flew straight up with the force, and
the ground rushed at up at us swiftly. We did seem to be going too
fast for the machine to stop in time. I found myself squeezing
Jackson’s hand slightly, and then with a grinding of metallic
gears, the seat stopped flying toward the ground. We were still,
and I could see Jenny and Erika standing off to one side of the
ride, watching. I didn’t see any funnel cake in either of their
hands.

Then I was laughing. “Wow! Let’s do it
again,” I looked over at him, my eyes wide.

Jackson and I rode twice more, each as
incredible as the first, and then we had to get off because a line
was forming. Forgotten in the rush of adrenaline and speed was the
awkward conversation Jackson and I had had, and we got off
laughing, my face flushed with excitement.

“You guys are crazy,” Jenny said.

“It was all Olivia,” Jackson teased. “I
thought she’d never get off.” Erika and Jenny giggled, glancing at
each other, before Erika suggested we get lunch.

“I thought you just had a funnel cake,”
Jackson laughed.

“We’re hungry people, alright?” Jenny said,
defensively. I sensed something from the girls, and wished we were
alone so I could ask them what was going on. They didn’t quite seem
to be mocking me, but I’d noticed more than one shared glance
between them that I was sure had something to do with me today. I
didn’t have a chance, though, and we polished off hot dogs,
French-fries and cokes.

We spent the next hour or so walking around
the fairgrounds, and trying a few different rides. After The Drop,
none of the smaller rides appealed to me. I did laugh as I watched
Erika and Jenny run through a house of mirrors, their hands out in
front of them to prevent slamming into a wall of glass. Finally,
with the promise that Stallott’s would be a madhouse later, we left
the fair.

I had quite a bit to occupy my mind as we
drove, Erika and Jenny in the background flitting from one topic to
the next like butterflies seeking nectar in a hundred different
flowers. This had been a prison sentence…the humans near me my
unknowing cell mates. Suddenly, something had shifted. Instead of
being players in the background, these humans had turned into
something real for me. It felt like I’d been here for more than
just a week. My mind kept going back to the weird shocking
sensation Jackson’s touch had brought.

When we reached the house, I pulled myself
out of my own thoughts and smiled as brilliantly as I could.

“That was a lot of fun. I guess I’m free to
die now,” I joked, opening the door.

“Sure,” Jackson said. “Just…don’t.” He winked
at me and Jenny and Erika said they’d see me at work. Closing the
door with another smile pointed at them, I turned just as they
drove off. My steps up the walk felt strange. I felt strange.
Shaking my head, I entered the house, relieved that it was quiet
and I could think.

I was thinking of how comfortable Erika and
Jenny seemed to be; how they spoke and laughed easily. I wondered
if they ever felt like they didn’t belong anywhere. I found myself
in front of the bathroom mirror again, but this time, I studied my
face. I made an attempt to smile like Jenny; to let go of the
guarded look I seemed to project.

“I’m normal,” I said into the mirror, beaming
at myself. “I feel very comfortable. I belong.” I smiled for a few
more seconds before realizing how stupid I looked. There was no one
in the house to see my cheeks turning red, but I was still
embarrassed. My phone rang a second later, as if to save me from
myself.

To my surprise, it was Sylvia.

“Hey, Sylvia,” I said. “Is something
wrong?”

“No,” she said. “Nothing’s wrong. I just
wanted to…talk.”

“Okay,” I said, wandering slowly and
aimlessly around the first floor of the house. “What do you want to
talk about?” There was a hesitation on her end, making me wonder if
everything
really was
alright.

“Well, everyone here is still acting like the
end of the world is coming. No one will answer any of my questions
and I feel completely ignored,” she said with her signature pouty
voice.

“What kind of questions?” I came to a stop in
the kitchen, and reached my hand out to touch the cool whiskey
bottle absent-mindedly.

“It’s about…them.” She said.

“The Venator? Okay. What is it?”

She sighed. “Okay, I understand that they
hate us, but what I don’t get is why. I mean, none of them even
know any of us. What are the chances that we all just apologize and
become friends?” She said the last part sarcastically. She knew
that would never happen, of course, but I understood her question.
Even in my rebellious state, I decided to try to make a lesson for
Sylvia.