Seventh Mark (Part 1 +2) by W.J. May

just say?”
    My courage flew
out the window. I dropped my gaze. His eyes were red, nostrils
flared, lips curled in a nasty smile. I locked on his neck where a
birthmark, which also looked angry, peeked out from the edge of his
polo shirt near the buttons.
    Simon pulled
Damon back. “Leave her alone. You’re scaring the poor girl.”
    I gasped for
air, not realizing I’d held it. With a shaky hand, I covered my
mouth, not sure what else to do.
    Damon blinked
and jerked his arm out of Simon’s grip. “Whatever. Sorry, Red.”
    “You’re such a
jerk, Damon.” Grace grabbed my arm and led me inside by the elbow.
“You okay?”
    Leaning against
the cool, cement bricked wall, I tried to calm my nerves. “Bit
insecure, isn’t he?”
    Grace laughed.
“I usually just try to ignore him.”
    “How do you
ignore someone so big?”
    “And ugly?”
    I grinned,
feeling better. “You so missed your chance when you turned him
down.”
    “I guess he
never got over it.” She pretended to clutch her heart. “It started
the first week I was here, but he was just so big—”
    “An’ ugly.”
    “An’ smelly. It
turned me off.”
    “I don’t blame
you.”
    The bell rang.
I had chemistry and she had art on the other side of school.
    “See you after
classes. Try not to pick anymore fights.” She laughed and
disappeared down the hall.
    Afternoon
classes flew by. At the end of the day, I made my way out to the
parking lot to Grace’s car. My heart skipped a beat when a dark
blue Mustang sat parked beside the Smartcar.
    Michael stood
waiting between the two cars, leaning against his door.
    “Hi.” I hadn’t
seen him for two weeks and he looked awesome. I made tight fists,
warning my fingers not to reach up to his blond hair begging to be
tamed. His blue eyes piercing with their intensity, his lips and
slight stubble – all of it made my blood rush.
    He nodded a
hello, but his face remained serious. “Grace told me what happened.
I thought I might have a word with this Damon boy.”
    Boy? Damon was
like a year younger than him. I waved my hand. “It’s nothing. Damon
probably took too many steroids and had some reaction.” Bummer. I
had been hoping for: I missed you.
    Michael’s head
shot up and his body tensed. I turned around to where he
looked.
    Damon pushed
through the school front doors, strutting across the grass with
Simon in tow. They headed to the other side of the parking lot. He
kept glancing our way with an irritating, cocky smile, but he
continued to his car. He gassed the engine and sped out of the
parking lot.
    “Michael!”
Grace’s singsong voice made both of us turn. “What a surprise.” Her
cheeks and most of her face burned slightly red.
    “Really? You
contacted –” Michael stopped mid-sentence.
    Something
passed between the two of them, but I couldn’t figure out what. It
might take a bit of patience, but I intended to find out. Why would
Grace call Michael and tell him about lunch? It was no big deal.
Then it dawned on me. “It seems your old flame’s still holding a
bit of a nasty grudge.”
    Grace shrugged.
“You win some and, in his case, you lose again. The guy’s a
meat-head.”
    “Maybe it was
good I wasn’t here.” Michael turned and smiled at me. “Well, if my
knight-in-shiny-armor services aren’t needed; is there anything
else I can help you with?”
    “Well…” I said.
“There is this Halloween Masquerade. We are actually required to go
for drama class. I could really use a date.”
     

Chapter
7
    Of all the
Halloween themes, we got stuck with famous couples. Grace convinced
Simon to go with her and she took charge of all our outfits. She
bought a Spartacus costume for Michael and a Roman slave one for
me. I’d come to trust her and she made me laugh with her charity
shop and eBay shopping.
    The night of
the dance I sat in her bathroom on a stool, letting her curl my
hair and pin it up. “Doesn’t Spartacus’s wife get murdered?”
    She dropped the
curling