Page 7 of Introductions (The Ghost Bird 1)

I shook my head, although a little too quickly. I wanted to say something convincing but the truth was he did kind of scare me. I didn’t want to admit it but being in a dark alley with him and not knowing who he was would have probably been enough to make me pee my pants.

He only looked partially relieved and I wasn’t quite sure if he believed me.

Back at the car, Kota opened the passenger door for me again, looking intently at me.

“Silas should take the front seat,” I said. “He’s got longer legs.”

“I don’t mind,” Silas said.

“Neither do I.” I didn’t mean to be so persistent but if I was going to get them to like me, I had to do nice things. I didn’t need to be coddled because I was the girl. Also, I had no idea how far away this mall was. What if he was bottled up for an hour?

He tilted his head from side to side, as if weighing out the situation. Something softened in his face and he relented.

“Someone get in,” Victor called. He was already behind the wheel.

Kota moved away from the door and Silas got into the front seat. I was actually relieved. I would have felt terrible to see Silas have to get behind me and he had to scrunch his knees.

I sat next to Kota, this time remembering to plug in my seat belt. Kota did the same and we were off.

Silas immediately reached for the radio to fiddle with it but Victor slapped at his hand. “Hey, when you drive, you get to pick.”

“Sang wouldn’t like this stuff,” he said.

“She already said she did.”

Silas raised an eyebrow and turned to me. “Is he shitting me?”

I raised my fingers to my mouth, the tips playing with my lower lip. “I, uh...”

“She likes it,” Kota said for me.

“But I like rock, too,” I said quickly. “And some other stuff. I like a lot of different types of music.”

Silas shot Victor a cocky smile. “You’re out numbered. Kota likes rock.”

“Kota likes anything.”

I gave a side glance to Kota. He slipped a conspiratorial grin and I smiled back, silently amused at the conversation.

The two continued to argue about the radio, switching between stations at every other song. Victor groaned about squeaky guitars and Silas complained about being put to sleep by a piano. They were all so different. How in the world did they become friends?

I was watching out the window at the trees and cars that we passed, trying to remember the direction Victor was taking. The palm trees were the most striking to me. Having lived up north for so long, it was strange to me. Everything was green and the sky appeared to be a slightly different shade of blue, lighter, crisp and full of promise.

Soon the interstate had signs promising of a mall and the car was pulling into the lot to a mall that looked bigger in the handful I’d ever seen.

As soon as the car was parked, Silas jumped out and opened my door for me. I blushed, thanked him and stepped away so he could shut it.

We walked in through the closest department store together. Kota held open the first set of doors for all of us, Silas held open the second set. I smiled to myself about it. I wondered if it was normal or if they were trying to be nice since I was new.

The mall wasn’t too crowded that morning. The boys took only a moment to get oriented and then set off in a direction, walking past stores. They started talking and I fell behind them, unsure what to say, unsure where to stand. I hadn’t even noticed I had done it. It just seemed like the natural thing to do. My head was swiveling on my neck to peek in at the stores as we passed them by. Bits of the conversation drifted to me but they were moving quickly, I was just trying to make sure I was keeping up.

I was peeking in at stores, checking out what was open when Victor stopped short in front of me and I crashed into him. My chest hit his back, my hands met his hips, and my lips brushed at the back of his neck at the base, a little too hard as my lip tingled after. My breath caught and I backed off of him quickly, embarrassed.

Victor’s face tinged red as he looked back at me. “Christ, you scared me. I was just wondering where you’d gone.” His hand went to the back of his neck and then his head tilted, his mouth opening in surprise. I supposed he realized what must have happened. I practically accidentally kissed his neck.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be following you so closely.”

“You shouldn’t be walking behind us,” Kota said.

“Yeah. Come on. Walk up here with us,” Silas offered. He reached out, taking my hurt wrist, only I winced. He noticed and he pulled me close, turning my hand over and checking out the bandages. “Who did this to you?” His eyes widened at me, intent and almost harsh. He fully expected an answer.

“It was Max,” Kota said. “He jumped on her and she didn’t expect it.”

How many times would we have to tell this story?

Silas seemed satisfied. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

I shook my head. “I’m fine.” My voice was softer than I meant for it to be but his show of concern had my heart pounding too fast for me. I wanted to press a palm to my chest at the whirl of emotions I was feeling around them. Meeting one nice person like Kota was fine. Three in twenty four hours? It amazed me again at how wrong my parents were about the outside world.

Silas took my arm again, gentler this time, and guided me until I was walking next to him. Victor and Kota stood at his other side. Again we started to walk, and this time they moved slower so I could keep up.

; “Where are we going?” I asked. They seemed to pass by a lot of interesting shops without looking at any of them.

“We’re going to get fitted for some new suits,” Victor said.

I glanced at Silas and Kota. “All of you?”

They nodded, looking as if this was as expected.

“Are these school clothes?” I scratched absentmindedly at my wrist. It hadn’t occurred to me that the new school, even if it was a public one, might require uniforms or something. Would I need to wear something specific?

The three exchanged glances. Silas slipped his hands into his pockets. Victor cleared his throat but said nothing. Kota spoke up. “Sort of. Just for the nicer events. We thought it’d be easier to get it done now instead of when all those formal dances start happening.”

Was that normal? How strange. I would have never thought of that.

We came up to a men’s clothing store and at the entryway, the three guys were greeted by a male attendant. Kota approached him quickly, leaning his head into him to talk.

Silas stepped up to me, cutting off my view of Kota. His hands were in his pockets and he looked down at me. “Did you want to go look around somewhere else?”

Was he trying to get rid of me? I wasn’t sure but before I could answer, Victor piped in.

“Have her stay,” he said. Silas turned to him but Victor looked at me. “There’s usually a couch or something around here.”

“I don’t want her to get bored,” Silas said.

“She won’t be bored.” Victor came closer to me, a gleam amid the fire in his eyes. “Do you have a phone on you?”

I shook my head, blushing at revealing how out of touch I was. Who our age didn’t have a cell phone?

He reached into his back pocket. “See, Silas? If she walked off, we would have had to hunt her down. I don’t want to lose her.” Victor passed me what looked like the latest iPhone. “Play some Angry Birds. Download whatever app you want. We won’t be long.”